Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)

Elmwood Cemetery
Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee) is located in Tennessee
Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)
Location within Tennessee
LocationMemphis, Tennessee, US
Coordinates35°07′19″N 90°01′45″W / 35.1220347°N 90.0292576°W / 35.1220347; -90.0292576
NRHP reference No.78002632; 0200023
Added to NRHPMay 22, 1978; March 20, 2002

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 40 acres (160,000 m2) 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 80 acres (320,000 m2) 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.[1][2]

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.[3] Other burials include Isham G. Harris, Tennessee's Confederate-era governor,[4] Thomas Battle Turley, CSA private and U.S. Senator from Tennessee,[5] and William Graham Swan, a Confederate congressman and mayor of Knoxville.[6]

Union soldiers also were buried at Elmwood in the 1860s, but almost all were removed in 1868 and reinterred in Memphis National Cemetery.[3] Union general, William Jay Smith is interred at Elmwood.[7]

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.[8] Forrest himself was also originally buried at Elmwood,[9] 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.[10]

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.[11] 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.[2][12]

Notable burials

References

  1. ↑ In The Shadows of the Elms by Perre Magness
  2. 1 2 Elmwood Cemetery, About us: History
  3. 1 2 Cothern, John W. Confederates of Elmwood. Publisher: Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Md. 2001.
  4. ↑ Leonard Schlup, "Isham Green Harris," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved: 5 October 2012.
  5. ↑ Biographical Guide to the U.S. Congress: Turley, Thomas Battle, (1845–1910).
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ Biographical Guide to the U.S. Congress: Smith, William Jay, (1823–1913).
  8. ↑ Boston Globe obituary, "," Retrieved: 12 September 2013.
  9. ↑ Foote, Shelby, The Civil War: A Narrative – III: Red River to Appomattox, p. 1052, Random House, 1974, ISBN 0394746228
  10. ↑ 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. Sainz, Adrian. "Memphis renames 3 parks that honored Confederacy". Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  11. ↑ Crosby, MC. 2006. The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History. Berkley Books. ISBN 0-425-21202-5
  12. ↑ Kemp, Bill (June 28, 2015). "Towanda's Mattie Stephenson celebrated yellow fever martyr". The Pantagraph. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Bury Grandson of Forrest Here Today". The Commercial Appeal. March 15, 1931. p. 9. Retrieved June 29, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
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