Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In this episode of Adventures Into History, I'm in Chambers County, Alabama with historian Mr. Don, following a mystery that has turned up in old cemeteries across east Alabama and west Georgia. We set out to answer a question that has lingered behind some of the region's most unusual and recognizable grave markers: who made them?
The answer leads us to William Rufus "Rock" Jackson, a 19th century stone carver whose work left a lasting mark on this part of the South. Jackson was born in Virginia, later moved into Georgia, then settled in Chambers County, Alabama after purchasing land there in the 1830s. He became known for making tombstones from local green schist or steatite taken from his quarry near Milltown, and many of his stones appear to carry distinctive folk art and possible Masonic imagery. He joined Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church in 1847, was later excluded for joining the Masonic fraternity, and lore says he finished even his own obelisk before his death in 1892 - although, that is not believed to be true.
This is one of those stories where local history, cemetery art, and human memory all come together. That is what this work is about. Not just finding old graves, but documenting the people, places, and makers behind them before those stories disappear.
In this episode of Adventures Into History, I'm in Chambers County, Alabama with historian Mr. Don, following a mystery that has turned up in old cemeteries across east Alabama and west Georgia. We set out to answer a question that has lingered behind some of the region's most unusual and recognizable grave markers: who made them?
The answer leads us to William Rufus "Rock" Jackson, a 19th century stone carver whose work left a lasting mark on this part of the South. Jackson was born in Virginia, later moved into Georgia, then settled in Chambers County, Alabama after purchasing land there in the 1830s. He became known for making tombstones from local green schist or steatite taken from his quarry near Milltown, and many of his stones appear to carry distinctive folk art and possible Masonic imagery. He joined Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church in 1847, was later excluded for joining the Masonic fraternity, and lore says he finished even his own obelisk before his death in 1892 - although, that is not believed to be true.
This is one of those stories where local history, cemetery art, and human memory all come together. That is what this work is about. Not just finding old graves, but documenting the people, places, and makers behind them before those stories disappear.
