“I’m old-fashioned, but I don’t mind it. 

That’s how I want to be. 

As long as you agree, 

To stay old-fashioned with me.” 

 —Johnny Mercer (I’m Old Fashioned, 1942) 

Bonaventure Cemetery: Little Gracie Watson 

That Bonaventure Cemetery located just outside Savannah became a major tourist destination after the Civil War did not happen totally by chance. Although, serendipity did play an important role. 

In 1846, Peter Wiltberger, owner of the Pulaski Hotel in downtown Savannah, purchased a portion of the 600-acre plantation from Josiah Tattnall Jr. to develop a public cemetery on 70-acres that included the existing burial grounds of the Tattnall family.  

The original Bonaventure Plantation was established in 1762 by Colonel John Mulryne and his wife, Claudia. They called their estate, Bonaventure: meaning Good Fortune. The site of the plantation abuts the Wilmington River (called St. Augustine Creek in their day). Bonaventure was not a working plantation; it primarily served as the residence and headquarters to the Mulryne ‘empire of plantations’ — encompassing well over 9,000 acres scattered throughout the coastal low-country. 

The farsighted Mulryne couple established the live oak tree design, positioned every fifteen feet lining each side of the plantation roadways. It’s become accepted romantic Savannahian legend that Mulryne’s daughter Mary and her husband Josiah Tattnall planted several hundred more live oaks throughout the plantation in the pattern of the family initials: M for Mulryne and T for Tattnall. 

After the American Revolutionary War, the government confiscated Bonaventure. Mulryne and his son-in-law Josiah Tattnall had remained staunch loyalists to the Crown of England during the Revolution and fled Savannah in 1776. After the war, the Bonaventure plantation sold at auction to well-known Savannahian John Habersham, who rather quickly sold it back to Tattnall’s son, Josiah, because he had served bravely in the Colonial Army. Josiah Tattnall, Jr. later became Governor of Georgia. 

Peter Wiltberger dominated the hotel business in the port city of Savannah. His initial investment in Bonaventure was an attempt to serve and profit from the city’s desperate need for burial grounds. He also marketed the cemetery as a private tourist site to his hotel guests. The marketing worked. 

Public health concerns were a priority in cities like Savannah, often ripe with various diseases. Moving burial sites to the country were considered healthier and more hygienic for city residents. 

This en Plein air painting is of the beautiful grave sculpture of a six-year-old girl, Little Gracie Watson, who died tragically in 1889. Take one of the many ‘Ghost Tours’ while visiting Savannah, and you’ll learn that Gracie’s apparition has been ‘seen’ around Johnson Square, which was the site on which situated Wiltberger’s Pulaski Hotel. Gracie’s parents managed that hotel.  

After they lost their daughter, they left Savannah brokenhearted. Later, the Watson’s commissioned this sculpture from local Savannah artist John Waltz. Yes, it is true: Gracie rests alone in the Watson family plot in Bonaventure Cemetery. The thought breaks my heart. 

Famous singer, song-writer, lyricist, and Capital Records founder Johnny Mercer rests in Bonaventure Cemetery. Mercer won four Academy Awards for his musical works. Johnny was born in Savannah.