Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainThe historically African American burial ground that Grandison Harris raided for decades to supply Medical College of Georgia cadavers — and where 1,000 of those stolen remains were finally reinterred in 1998.
120 Watkins St, Augusta, GA 30901
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public access
Access
Limited Access
Grass and gravel paths through cemetery grounds; uneven terrain in older sections
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1800 · One of Augusta's oldest African American cemeteries, established early 19th century · Primary target of Grandison Harris's body-snatching operations for Medical College of Georgia, c.1852–1889 · 1998 reinterment of approximately 1,000 bone fragments from Medical College basement; marker reads 'Known But to God' · 1929 flood destroyed all burial records; burial locations largely unknown
Cedar Grove Cemetery was established in the early 19th century as a segregated burial ground for Augusta's African American residents — both enslaved people and free persons of color. Over the following 150 years it became the primary burial ground for the city's Black community, with thousands of interments spanning the antebellum era through the 20th century.
Beginning around 1852, an enslaved man named Grandison Harris was tasked by the Medical College of Georgia with supplying cadavers for the school's anatomy program. Cedar Grove was his primary target. Harris worked at night, exhuming recently buried bodies and transporting them to the college's anatomy lab on Telfair Street. The practice was not unique to Augusta — body snatching supplied most American medical schools during this period — but it fell disproportionately on African American communities whose cemeteries were less protected.
By 1889, when the extent of Harris's activities became widely known in Augusta's Black community, the response was described in contemporary accounts as a near-riot. Harris continued as a paid employee of the college until the institution moved in 1913; he died in 1911 and was himself buried at Cedar Grove.
The 1929 flood that struck Augusta destroyed all burial records for the cemetery, leaving the precise locations of thousands of graves — including Harris's — unknown. In 1989, a renovation of the Old Medical College uncovered approximately 10,000 human bone fragments beneath the basement floor — the physical remnant of decades of dissection. In 1998, after consultation with the community, several hundred of those remains were reinterred at Cedar Grove under a marker reading 'Known But to God.'
Sources
The paranormal lore of Cedar Grove is inseparable from the documented history of Grandison Harris. Ghost tour accounts and online visitor reports describe a dark figure seen near the older sections of the cemetery in the evening — crouching low, moving between grave markers in a manner consistent with the exhumation work Harris carried out for over three decades.
US Ghost Adventures lists Cedar Grove as one of Augusta's most active paranormal locations, citing Harris sightings on both the cemetery grounds and at the Old Medical College building approximately two blocks away. Some visitors report a sensation of being watched or followed in the cemetery's older rows.
Whether or not any apparition appears, Cedar Grove holds enough documented history of violation and grief to make it unsettling in the plainest daylight. The 'Known But to God' marker at the 1998 reinterment site is the focal point for most visitors who come with that history in mind.
Notable Entities
Cedar Grove is a publicly accessible cemetery spanning approximately 40 acres, established in the early 19th century as one of Augusta's primary African American burial grounds. The 1998 reinterment marker for Grandison Harris's victims is a focal point for visitors.
US Ghost Adventures' Augusta walking tour covers Cedar Grove Cemetery as a stop tied to the Grandison Harris body-snatching history and reported apparition sightings on the grounds.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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