Hot Springs is notorious as a bastion of famous (and infamous) people throughout its long and storied past. And these characters need somewhere to “rest in peace” once they pass away. Thankfully, the Spa City is not only home to historic bathhouses and great restaurants, but to many cemeteries as well.
My wife and I stumbled across one such cemetery a couple of Saturdays ago. We were looking for the Hot Springs Bark Park to take our Boston terrier, Dixie, to play and interact with other canines. We noticed the cemetery across from the park, so after Dixie had had all the dog park fun she could stand, we paid a visit.
It turns out that Hollywood Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Hot Springs, with its oldest marked grave dating to 1856. The cemetery is located in the southeast portion of downtown Hot Springs near Hot Springs Creek. It is bounded by Hollywood Avenue, Mote Street and Shady Grove Road. According to the website, FindaGrave.com, there are 2,038 graves in Hollywood Cemetery.
The cemetery’s notable burials include Medal of Honor recipient Private Christian Steiner and U.S. Congressman Lewis E. Sawyer.
Steiner was a German-born soldier in the U.S. Army who served with the 8th U.S. Cavalry during the Apache Wars in the Arizona Territory. He was one of 32 men awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry for successfully fighting the Apache and Cochise Indians in a battle that took place in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona on Oct. 20, 1869. Steiner died on Aug. 5, 1880, at the young age of 37.
An Alabama native, Lewis E. Sawyer moved to Hot Springs in 1908 to practice law. He served two terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1913 and 1915, and was its speaker in the latter year. Sawyer, a Democrat, was later elected to the U.S. Congress in 1922. His time in Washington was brief, as he only served from March 4, 1923, to May 5, 1923.
Of particular note to Civil War buffs is the Confederate section of Hollywood Cemetery. This section is a 60-ft. by 54-ft. plot surrounded by a low concrete wall with ornamental concrete posts at all four corners and an opening on the western side inscribed “Confederate Veterans.”
The plot contains 34 marked burials, a large stone memorial monument honoring the dead and four concrete benches.
In 1900, David Stone Ryan, a former lieutenant in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, purchased what would become known as the Confederate Section in Hollywood Cemetery. Ryan bought the land on behalf of the local camp of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) to ensure a final resting place for his fellow former Confederate soldiers.
The Albert Pike UCV Camp was dissolved in 1906, and the members voted to transfer ownership of the plot to the Hot Springs chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to maintain.
After taking control of the Confederate section of the historic cemetery, the ladies of the UDC raised money to buy a Confederate monument for the plot. The project was finally completed in 1919, with the placement of a large granite monument inscribed “Our Confederate Dead.” The monument stands in the southern end of the plot and is impossible to miss. In 1974, four concrete benches were placed in the plot by the UDC.
The Hollywood Cemetery, filled with the graves of so many historic figures, made history itself when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The cemetery is one of 94 listings in Garland County on the National Register.
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