Click image to enlarge. Situated on a high bluff overlooking Lake Eufaula, sheltered by the moss-draped limbs of tall oak trees, the Shorter Cemetery sits on a five-acre plot near downtown Eufaula. The Shorter Cemetery is the burial place of Barbour County’s prominent Shorter family, whose descendants guided Alabama during its most challenging periods. John Gill Shorter, Alabama’s first Civil War governor, rose to political prominence during the 1850s, when he emerged as a fierce defender of slavery and advocate of economic development and diversification in support of southern nationalism. In the 1890s, Reuben F. Kolb, nephew of Governor Shorter and grandson of Reuben C. Shorter, patriarch of the Shorter family, rose to political power as an agrarian reformer. Denied the Democratic nomination for governor in 1890, Kolb ran again in 1892 and as a Populist candidate in 1894 on a platform to expand the political power of blacks and poor whites.
This site is threatened by vandals, who have twice damaged the historic cemetery. Additionally, there is an urgent need to repair tombstones, statuary, brick walls, and wrought-iron fencing. The AHC is currently reviewing a nomination for the cemetery to be listed on the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register.
RSS Feed