Theodore Markwalter was born in 1820 in Konigswinter, Prussia, now Germany. After initial

schooling, Markwater joined in his family’s quarry business as a stonecutter. At age 34, he and

his brother immigrated to New York where they worked on the Erie Canal. From there he

moved to Charleston, SC, and then, in the 1850s, to Augusta, GA, where he lived the rest

of his life.

 

Markwalter was a pioneer in marble statuary portraits in the South,

his first being of Dr. James D. Mackie (1818-1854) in Augusta’s

Magnolia Cemetery. He also was the creator of the marble likeness

of Alexander H. Stephens which stands in front of Stephen’s home in

Crawfordville, GA.

 

His work was lauded by an 1886 advertising pamphlet as “of the high artistic quality of his talent, as well as of beauty of workmanship and design nowhere surpassed.” His business “is one of the largest and oldest in the State, and the specimens of his work can be found in almost every cemetery in the South. He

does an extensive business in all sorts and grades of

marble and granite work, having steam power and the

most perfect facilities procurable, as well as employing

numerous skillful and competent workmen.”

 

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Markwalter died in 1896 and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta with his wife Fredricka who died in 1872 at 33, their four-year-old son John Henry who died a year later, and their daughter Anna who died a few weeks after her first birthday in 1862.

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Resources:

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Candler, Allen Daniel, Clement Anselm Evans. Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties… State Historical Association, Atlanta. 1906.

 

Industrial Publishing Company, A. The industries of Augusta, Georgia: her resources, advantages… Augusta, Ga.: Industrial Pub. Co. 1886. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011441111/Home last viewed April 22, 2018.

 

Myers, Barton, Dr. “The Art of Command during the American Civil War.” Website for Spring Term history class at Washington and Lee University: www.facebook.com/artofcommand last viewed April 22, 2018.

 

Rylands, Traci. “Road Trip: A Ramble Through Augusta’s Magnolia Cemetery,” Part II. Blog: adventursesincemeteryhopping.com last viewed April 22, 2018.

 

Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Archives, Morrow, Georgia. http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/vanga.cgi?query=id:ric175