Elmwood Cemetery is the oldest active cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. It was established in 1852 as one of the first rural cemeteries in the South.
Origins On 28 August 1852, fifty prominent Memphis citizens each contributed $500 for stock certificates in order to purchase of land for the cemetery; they envisioned that this land would be a park for the living as well as the dead, where family outings, picnics, and social gatherings could occur. It was meant to be a place where beautiful gardens were tended and individual monuments celebrated both life and death. The name for the place was chosen in a drawing: several proposed names were put into a hat and Elmwood was drawn, with the stockholders stating they were "well pleased" with the selection. Ironically, they had to hurriedly order some elms trees from New York to place among the native oaks of Memphis, since there were no elms in the area. After the American Civil War, the property was expanded to for another $40,000. In the 1870s, the original corporation controlling the cemetery was dissolved and it became one of the oldest nonprofits in Tennessee.In The Shadows of the Elms by Perre MagnessElmwood Cemetery, About us: History
Civil War burials About 1,000 Confederate soldiers and veterans are buried in Confederate Soldiers Rest, located in the cemetery's Fowler Section. Many other Confederates are buried elsewhere in the cemetery. The first burial in Confederate Soldiers Rest was William (Thomas) Gallagher on June 17, 1861, and the last interment was John Frank Gunter on April 1, 1940. Among the Confederate generals buried there are James Patton Anderson, a former U.S. Congressman who commanded the Army of Tennessee in 1862, Colton Greene, Preston Smith and William Henry Carroll.Cothern, John W. Confederates of Elmwood. Publisher: Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Md. 2001. Other burials include Isham G. Harris, Tennessee's Confederate-era governor,Leonard Schlup, "Isham Green Harris," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved: 5 October 2012. Thomas Battle Turley, CSA private and U.S. Senator from Tennessee,Biographical Guide to the U.S. Congress: Turley, Thomas Battle, (1845–1910). and William Graham Swan, a Confederate congressman and mayor of Knoxville.East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), p. 495.
Union soldiers also were buried at Elmwood in the 1860s, but almost all were removed in 1868 and reinterred in Memphis National Cemetery. Union general, William Jay Smith is interred at Elmwood.Biographical Guide to the U.S. Congress: Smith, William Jay, (1823–1913).
Also interred at Elmwood is renowned Civil War author Shelby Foote, famous for his comprehensive three volume, 3000-page history of the war The Civil War: A Narrative. He is buried beside the family plot of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.Boston Globe obituary, "," Retrieved: 12 September 2013. Forrest himself was also originally buried at Elmwood,Foote, Shelby, The Civil War: A Narrative – III: Red River to Appomattox, p. 1052, Random House, 1974, but in 1904 the remains of Forrest and his wife Mary were disinterred and moved to a Memphis city park originally named Forrest Park in his honor, that has since been renamed Health Sciences Park.The park was renamed Health Sciences Park on February 5, 2013, by the Memphis City Council, despite attempts by a state mandate to prevent the renaming of the park.
Yellow Fever burials There were several outbreaks of yellow fever in Memphis during the 1870s, the worst outbreak occurring in 1878, with over 5,000 fatalities in the city itself and 20,000 along the whole of the Mississippi River Valley.Crosby, MC. 2006. The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History. Berkley Books. Some 2,500 of the Memphis victims are buried in four public lots at Elmwood; among them are doctors, ministers, nuns, travelers, and even sex workers who died while tending to the sick.
Notable burials Charles W. Adams (1817–1878), military officer Stephen Adams (1807–1857), politician James Patton Anderson (1822–1872), politician Finis L. Bates (1848–1933), lawyer Thea Bowman (1937–1970), religious leader and civil rights activist Mary Forrest Bradley (1869–1965), historian William Henry Carroll (1810–1868), military officer James Ronald Chalmers (1831–1898), politician and military officer Robert Reed Church (1839–1912), businessman Jeremiah Watkins Clapp (1814–1898), politician Annie Cook (–1878), madam E. H. Crump (1874–1954), politician Kit Dalton (1843–1920), military officer Andrew Jackson Donelson (1799–1871), politician and diplomat Henry T. Ellett (1812–1887), politician and judge Francis Fentress (1873–1900), lawyer and judge John Calvin Fiser (1838–1876), military officer Shelby Foote (1916–2005), novelist and historian Jeffrey E. Forrest (–1864), slave trader and military officer Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877), farmer, military officer, and Klansman Nathan Bedford Forrest II (1871–1931), businessman and Klansman Mae Glover (1906–1985), country blues singer James Robinson Graves (1820–1893), preacher and writer Colton Greene (1833–1900), military officer Elkanah Greer (1825–1877), military officer George Gordon (1836–1911), military officer and politician George W. Guess (–1868), politician Landon Carter Haynes (1816–1875), politician Joseph Brown Heiskell (1823–1913), politician Napoleon Hill (1830–1909), businessman Asa Hodges (1822–1900), politician Benjamin Hooks (1925–2010), civil rights activist and minister Wayne Jackson (1941–2016), musician Spencer Jarnagin (1792–1851), politician James C. Jones (1809–1859), politician Thomas J. Latham (1831–1911), politician John W. Leftwich (1823–1870), politician Robert F. Looney (1824–1899), military officer Robert B. Macon (1859–1925), politician Estes Mann (1894–1958), architect John Donelson Martin (1830–1862), military officer Kenneth McKellar (1869–1957), politician Robert J. Morgan (1826–1899), military officer Bill Ramsey (1920–2008), baseball player Robert V. Richardson (1820–1870), military officer Clara Robertson (1857–1883), clairvoyant Bolton Smith (1861–1935), lawyer Maxine Smith (1929–2013), academic and civil rights activist William Jay Smith (1823–1915), politician William Graham Swan (–1869), politician Georgia Tann (1891–1950), child trafficker Jacob Thompson (1810–1885), politician Thomas B. Turley (1845–1910), politician Isham G. Harris (1818–1897), politician Alice Mitchell (1872–1898), murderer John Rowlett Paine (1879–?), politician Gideon Johnson Pillow (1806–1878), military officer Alfred Jefferson Vaughan Jr. (1830–1899), military officer Lucius M. Walker (1829–1863), military officer H. Casey Young (1828–1899), politician
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