The figure standing atop the Confederate monument in the Screven County Memorial Cemetery at Sylvania resembles another Confederate statue in McDonough. Both were mass-produced by McNeel Marble Company in Marietta. This McNeel monument was dedicated in 1909. 
Photo: Courtesy of Gould Hagler
Photo: Courtesy of Gould Hagler

Marietta company made 140 of the South’s Confederate statues

Cobb
By

Over the past week, the country-wide clash regarding Confederate monuments has reached new heights.

But amid all the back-and-forth is a nugget of history connecting Cobb County to the national argument.

Decades ago the McNeel Marble Co. in Marietta grew into one of the nation’s most prolific Confederate monument makers. They built more than 140 Confederate monuments, including dozens in Georgia.

PHOTOS: The legacy of Marietta’s McNeel Marble Company

That 140 includes the statue that was pulled down by protesters in Durham, North Carolina last week; eight individuals have been arrested in connection with that incident.

Experts agree that demand for Confederate monuments spiked twice: at the turn of the 20th century and about the time of the civil rights movement.

Read more about the history of the McNeel company and the reaction to the national uproar from a descendent of the company’s founders on myAJC.com.

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