City-operated since 1856, this NRHP-listed cemetery holds a murder victim who was also the city's first sheriff and 129 Confederate soldiers relocated from Andersonville
309 Rees Street, Americus, GA 31709
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free and open to the public
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat cemetery grounds with paved and unpaved paths
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Est. 1856 · National Register of Historic Places (1979) · 129 Confederate soldiers relocated from Andersonville (1880) · Grave of John Kimmey, Sumter County's first sheriff, killed in 1839 election dispute · Contributing property within the Americus Historic District
Oak Grove Cemetery was established in 1856 when the city of Americus acquired and formally laid out burial land along Rees Street. By the time of the Civil War, it had become the principal cemetery for Sumter County's dead. In 1880, the Americus chapter of the Ladies Memorial Association arranged for the transfer of 129 Confederate soldiers from Andersonville National Cemetery to Oak Grove, marking a deliberate act of memorialization distinct from the federal Andersonville site nine miles north.
The cemetery's most historically unusual occupant is John Kimmey, who served as Sumter County's first sheriff. Kimmey was killed on election day in 1839 during a violent dispute with a political opponent; both men drew Bowie knives and fatally wounded each other in the altercation. Kimmey's grave is among the oldest in the cemetery, predating its formal establishment by more than fifteen years — suggesting the site may have served informally as a burial ground before the 1856 incorporation.
The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as a contributing property within the Americus Historic District. It remains city-operated and is maintained as a functioning burial ground and public green space. The grounds include a historic cemetery office building that appears in Wikipedia Commons documentation of the site.
Local accounts collected by WRBL News and the Americus Times-Recorder describe visitor reports of apparitions moving among the Confederate grave section and residual activity attributed to violent deaths on the grounds, with the Kimmey murder cited as a specific focus of reported phenomena.
Sources
The cemetery's haunted reputation centers on two clusters of reported activity. The Confederate soldiers' grave section — established with the 1880 transfer from Andersonville — draws the most reports, with visitors describing the sounds of movement at night and shadowy figures observed between the older headstones. Andersonville's weight as a site of mass death, disease, and suffering is widely understood in paranormal circles to generate concentrated residual energy, and some investigators attribute Oak Grove's activity to that proximity and the presence of soldiers who died there.
The second focal point is the older section of the grounds near the Kimmey grave. The 1839 double killing — two men fatally stabbing each other in a political dispute — is the kind of sudden, violent death that recurs in accounts of haunted cemeteries throughout the South. WRBL News covered Oak Grove as part of their investigation into haunted sites in the Americus-Sumter County area, noting both the Kimmey murder story and the cemetery's overall reputation among local paranormal enthusiasts.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk the grounds of this NRHP-listed cemetery, visiting Confederate soldiers' graves relocated from Andersonville Prison in 1880, the grave of John Kimmey, the city's first sheriff killed in an 1839 election dispute, and the historic chapel. The cemetery operates as both a working burial ground and a city green space.
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