John E. Simmons

In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Elizabeth Jones Reed Napier was 90-years old when she passed away in 1945.  Despite all she must have accomplished during her long life, she's famous because of a guitar player who was not quite two years old when she died.

The Allman Brothers Band formed in Jacksonville in 1969.  The group included guitarist Dickey Betts, who was born in 1943.

Elizabeth rests in Macon, Georgia's historic Rose Hill Cemetery.  The quiet, rolling hills and terraced grave sites gave the budding songwriter Betts the solitude he needed.  He said he found the Napier area a nice place to sit and write music.

Drummer Jai Johanny Johanson (Jaimoe) introduced Betts and the other members of The Allman Brothers Band to Miles Davis and his historic "Kind of Blue" album with its modal experimentations.  Betts says he had Davis in mind when he wrote "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed."  Tom Dowd, who produced the band's first album, said he thought the Brothers were unknowingly influenced by Stephane Grapelli, the French violinist who played with gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.  Dowd says both Betts and guitarist Duane Allman unconsciously heard Grapelli while studying Reinhardt.

Betts used the name of Elizabeth Reed in the title but says the instrumental work was actually about a former girlfriend.

Elizabeth's grave lies at the foot of Rose Hill, on the lowest road near the Ocmulgee River.  Ironically, the gravesites of bandmembers Duane Allman and Berry Oakley lie only 144-steps to the south. The folks at the cemetery welcome your visit, but ask that you please be courteous, respect the departed and don't litter.

(Originally written for The North Florida Music Hall of Fame)

"Little Martha" Ellis - remembered in stone and song

Martha Ellis was only 12-years old when she died in 1896.  Her parents obviously loved and sorely missed her as they erected this marker at her grave.  Little Martha is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia.

The cemetery was laid out in the 1880s with the idea that it would be a resting place for the dead, and also  a gathering place for the living people of Macon.  But by the late 1960s, Rose Hill was no longer an active cemetery and was ignored by the adults of the community.  The solitude there, however, made it a gathering place for young people.

Among those young folks were the members of the newly formed Allman Brothers Band.  Dickey Betts has mentioned numerous times that he found quiet spots in the cemetery to write songs. 

The Martha Ellis memorial must have made an impression on Duane Allman.  The only Allman Brothers track written solely by him is named "Little Martha" and the name, at least, was inspired by her. The track is included on the "Eat A Peach" album recorded only a few weeks before Duane died in 1971.

The title was inspired by Martha Ellis, but Duane said he wrote the song about his then girlfriend, Dixie Lee Meadows.  He says the melody came to him in a dream in which Jimi Hendrix showed him the melody in a motel room bathroom. Hendrix demonstrated using the sink faucet as a guitar fretboard.

Allman remembered the melody during the Eat A Peach session, and he played it accompanied only by Dickey Betts on guitar and Berry Oakley on bass.  When the song was originally mixed, Oakley's part was removed, leaving only a guitar duet.

The song has been covered numerous times by various artists including Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Leo Kottke, Tim Farrell and Jerry Douglas.  The band released the original recorded mix, including Oakley's bass, on the 1989 boxed set Dreams.

Sleeping in Heavenly Peace

Bishop John Freeman Young sleeps in Jacksonville's Old City Cemetery.  While there's nothing on his tombstone to indicate it, he's known internationally for his English translation of the world's favorite Christmas carol - "Silent Night, Holy Night."

Young was born in Pittston, Maine on October 30, 1820.  He graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in April, 1845 and a month later was assigned to St. Johns Episcopal Church in Jacksonville.  He was ordained in Tallahassee the next year, and he served as one of only two priests in the state until 1847.

From Florida he moved to various posts in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana.  In 1855, he became assistant pastor at Trinity Church in New York City.

The hymn "Stille Nacht! Heillge Nacht!" was written in Austria by Rev. Josef Mohr in 1816.  It was originally a six verse poem.  Two years later, the Reverend was assigned to a parish in Oberndorf, where he met Franz Xaver Gruber.  Mohr asked Gruber to set the poem to music.  The parish's organ had fallen in to such disrepair, Gruber wrote the music for choir accompanied by guitar.  Rumors say that the song was set to be performed on Christmas Eve when Mohn and Gruber found that the church's organ had been damaged by mice.  They quickly wrote the arrangement for guitar to save the performance.

However, Gruber's son wrote in a letter, “During the time when my father was the organist of the church of St Nikola, there was a very poor almost unusable organ there. This may well explain why the Reverend Mohr preferred to accompany the carol on a well-tuned guitar than on an off-pitch organ.”

In New York, Young continued his interest in hymnology.  He collected and translated Christian hymns from churches all over the world.  It's not known how Young came to know the song, but in 1859 he published "Carols for Christmas Tide", a 16-page pamphlet, containing "Silent Night, Holy Night."

In July, 1867, the Rev. Young was consecrated as the second Bishop of Florida and returned to Jacksonville.  During his nearly two decades as bishop, he increased parishes from 20 to 48, established both a boy's school and a girl's school in Jacksonville, and helped revive The University of the South at Suwannee, Tennessee. In Key West, he established St. Pauls, the first Episcopal church for African-Americans, and St. Johns, a Spanish-language parish for Cubans.

During a trip to New York, Bishop Young caught pneumonia and died on November 15, 1885.  His body was returned to Jacksonville.  Two years later,  St. Andrews Church was dedicated to him.  St. Andrews still stands as headquarters of the Jacksonville Historical Society.

The gravesite, like many in Old City Cemetery, fell into disrepair.  In July, 2008, the headstones of both Bishop Young and his wife were restored through the efforts of Flagler's Bill Egan and the Episcopal Diocese of Florida.  Bishop Young's gravesite is decorated every year by the Austrian Silent Night Society.