Beneath the Oaks

Oak Hill’s stories hold more than a century of Birmingham’s history — bankers and civil rights leaders, epidemic victims and everyday families, all resting side by side on the same hillside. Here you’ll find a growing collection of stories drawn from those lives: the notable and the ordinary, the well-documented and the newly uncovered. If you know a story that belongs here, we’d love to hear it.

Featured Story

  • Louise C. Wooster

    Louise C. Wooster 1842-1913 Louise "Lou" Catharine Wooster (Block 0605) was born June 12, 1842. In Tuscaloosa and died May 16, 1913, in Birmingham. She was an infamous madam who famously assisted [...]

Past Stories

  • September 28, 2026

    Dr. Grace Hughes Guin

    Dr. Grace Hughes Guin 1912 — 2002 By graduating in an otherwise all-male class at Vanderbilt University [...]

  • September 28, 2026

    The Hawes Riots

    The Hawes Riots - 1888 A Troubled Family Richard Hawes married 18-year-old Emma in Atlanta. Their marriage [...]

  • August 26, 2026

    John T. Milner

    John T. Milner 1826—1898 John Turner Milner was born September 9, 1826, in Pike County, Georgia and [...]

  • August 26, 2026

    Charles Linn

    Charles Linn 1814 – 1882 Charles Linn — born Carl Eric Engelbrekt Sjödahl on June 13, 1814, [...]

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Oak Hill Cemetery's latest research and the occasional event notice.