Bishop Nicolas Hamner Cobbs - Montgomery, Alabama - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

This monument is located in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama. It is a large cross with a Latin inscription.

The original part of Oakwood Cemetery goes back to the beginning of the city of Montgomery. It is a city-owned cemetery with many historical graves. Many people who travel to visit the grave of Hank Williams, Sr. actually visit Oakwood Annex Cemetery. They fail to spot the separate entrance to the Old Oakwood Cemetery down Lower Wetumpka Road. It was the original city cemetery and one can find the final resting places of the people who made up the population of Montgomery. There are also over seven hundred graves of Confederate soldiers who died in Montgomery hospitals.

Description: Bishop Cobbs was born in Bedford County, Virginia, on February 5, 1795. He died in Montgomery on Friday, January 11, 1861, the same day Alabama voted to secede from the Union. He had been elected the first Bishop of Alabama for the Protestant Episcopal Church (now known as the Episcopal Church), in May, 1844, and was consecrated on October 20, 1844, in Philadelphia. He originally resided in Tuscaloosa since it was still the state capital and the location of the oldest Episcopal Church in Alabama. He later moved to Montgomery after it became the state capital, also serving as rector of St. John's Episcopal Church for a few years (1854-1858). To give some perspective, when he came to Alabama, the only railroad line ran between Montgomery and the Georgia border. He had to travel through the state by steamboat, stagecoach, or horse. One source indicated there were 450 Episcopalians in fifteen parishes when he arrived, and nearly 2000 when he died. The following biographical information comes from the Diocese of Alabama archives in the Birmingham Public Library: "Nicholas Hamner Cobbs served as the first Episcopal Bishop of Alabama. Consecrated in 1844 at Christ Church, Philadelphia, Cobbs served until his death in 1861. Born in 1795 in Virginia, Cobbs worked as a teacher and was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church at age 29. He served as chaplain at the University of Virginia and as rector of the Episcopal parish in Charlottesville, Virginia. From 1839 until 1843 Cobbs was rector of St. Paul’s church in Petersburg, Virginia, and rector of St. Paul’s in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1843 until his election as Bishop of Alabama. During his tenure as bishop Cobbs oversaw modest but steady growth in the Alabama Episcopal Church and served as rector of Christ Church, Tuscaloosa and St. John’s, Montgomery. An opponent of secession in the months leading up to the Civil War, Cobbs died in Montgomery on the same day that Alabama withdrew from the union." source (accessed July 12, 2012) http://www.birminghamarchives.org/AlabamasEpiscopal1.htm. Date of birth: 02/05/1795 Date of death: 01/11/1861 Area of notoriety: Religion Marker Type: Monument Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Dawn to Dusk Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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