Red Hill Prison Cemetery

Old State Prison Farm

Milledgeville Georgia

History

The Georgia State Prison farm was established in 1899. The site consisted of a men's farm, a prison building, barns, kennels, a hog pen, a chicken ranch, a hospital, and a cemetery. Prisoners kept horses, mules, pigs, chickens, and track dogs. Inmates farmed beef, dairy, and poultry products and raised vegetables to feed the prison population.

This was the site of Georgia’s first electric chair built in 1924. Prior to 1924 death sentences were by hanging. All state-ordered executions were held here. According to Georgia Department of Corrections history, 162 prisoners died by electrocution at the prison.

Prisoners also died from malnutrition, heart disease, cancer, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. Burials occurred at Red Hill Prison Cemetery throughout the 1920s and 1930s. A few burials were not prisoners. In 1936 the prison moved to a new location in Reidsville. The last recorded burial was in July of 1939.

A survey by the power company in 1977 made no mention of graves in this area. Power lines were erected on a clearing through the cemetery. Many metal posts and plates were bent or broken during the installation of the overhead power cables.

More recent history includes:

1990s publicity by Larry Findlay resulting in a State Properties survey.

2016 archaeologist Tom Gresham mapped over 400 possible burial sites.

2018 the prison building on Highway 22 was demolished.

In 2022, Edwin Atkins and Mary Esther Smith continue the search to find posts and tags that mark over 600 graves. The goal is to match these artifacts with the written records and identify each grassy depression as the final resting place of a named person.

This record of burials includes dates, crimes, cause of death, gender and race.

Newsletters

June-July newsletter Newest News!

Location

Open Street Map shows the location of the cemetery in Baldwin County on Meeks Road.

Awards

Red Hill Cemetery was named on the 2022 Places in Peril list by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

Media

Baldwin2K posted an article and interview video with Edwin Atkins in July 2022.

Georgia Backroads magazine published an article by Jay Jarvis on the prison farm and Red Hill cemetery in their Autumn 2022 issue. pdf

Atlanta Journal-Constitution published this view of Georgia's forgotten graveyard.

Donations

If you can assist financially, please make a check payable to: Friends of Red Hill Prison Cemetery
and mail it to:

Magnolia State Bank
P.O. Box 1989
Gray, Georgia 31032
Attention - Terry Ramsey

Contact us:

Please address written correspondence to:

Friends of Red Hill Prison Cemetery LLC
939 Walnut Street, Macon, GA, 31201, USA

redhillprisoncemetery@gmail.com

Please join our facebook group.

updated: August 2022