Greenwich Cemetery is the most recent of Savannah’s municipal burial grounds, established in 1937 from the former Greenwich Plantation.
Greenwich Cemetery was created as an extension of the existing Bonaventure Cemetery, the Greenwich Addition, as it was at first known, occupying 65 acres of land to the northeast of Bonaventure on the banks of the Bull River, both north of the town of Thunderbolt.
The cemetery is still in active use, lots available and memorial services ongoing. It occupies a pleasant spot beside the river. A small park in its northern section, Greenwich Park, is devoted to quiet reflection.
The history of the old estate finds continued expression in the names of the avenues through Greenwich Cemetery.
Its streets commemorate officers of the Revolutionary War who fought in the 1779 Siege of Savannah: Count Casimir Pulaski, Charles Hector, the comte d’Estaing, Lachlan McIntosh, and Louis-Marie, vicomte de Noailles. D’Estaing and his men used the grounds of the plantation as a camping ground.
History of Greenwich Plantation
Agricultural Innovation
Another interesting aspect of the history of the plantation is its role in the development of soybean agriculture in the United States.
Greenwich Plantation was purchased in 1765 by the Englishman Samuel Bowen, who had traveled in China and been much impressed by a legume the Chinese grew extensively.
Bowen brought seeds with him to America with the idea that it might be used as a guard against scurvy amongst seamen, as it kept remarkably well on long voyages. It also made excellent animal fodder, easy to cultivate on land that would not produce sufficient grass. The soybean multiplies prodigiously, bearing as many as four or five crops per year.
Samuel Bowen’s experiments with soybean production, first on an acquaintance’s estate and later on his own Greenwich Plantation, are the first documented plantings of the crop in the United States.
From his estate, Bowen manufactured and exported soy sauce and soybean noodles, both much desired products in his native England.
Pulaski's Burial Place?
The dying Pulaski is believed to have been taken to Greenwich House, where he died and was buried in the gardens.
Pulaski’s alleged remains – some have argued that Pulaski was taken to Charleston after his fateful battle, but died and was buried at sea before arriving – were disinterred in the early 1850s and removed to their current spot beneath his memorial in Savannah’s Monterey Square.
The Greenwich Mansion
After Bowen’s death, Greenwich passed into the ownership of Dr. Samuel Beecroft, who had married Bowen’s daughter Elizabeth Ann. The estate was subsequently owned by a Mr. S.P. Shotter, a portion of which was later purchased by the city for the current cemetery.
References
T. Hymowitz and J.R. Harlan, ‘Introduction of soybean to North America by Samuel Bowen in 1765,’ Economic botany vol. 37, no. 4 (1983), pp371-379
Savannah Unit, Georgia Writers' Project, ‘The Hermitage Plantation,’ Georgia Historical Quarterly vol. 27, no. 1 (1943), pp56-87
Commissioners of the Monument Fund, An address delivered on laying the corner stone of a monument to Pulaski, in the City of Savannah, October 11, 1853, by Henry Williams, Esq., with an account of the ceremonies upon that occasion, and at the completion of the monument, January 8th, 1855, to which is added a summary of the evidence designating the burial place of Pulaski, prepared by Col. William P. Bowen (Savannah: W. Thorne Williams, 1855)