Nashville City Cemetery | |
Location | 1001 4th Ave. S. Nashville, Tennessee |
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Coordinates | 36°8′50″N86°46′11″W / 36.14722°N 86.76972°W |
Built | 1822 |
Architect | William Strickland |
NRHP reference No. | 72001235 |
Added to NRHP | October 18, 1972 |
Nashville City Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. Many of Nashville's prominent historical figures are buried there. It includes the tombs of 22,000 people, 6,000 of whom were African Americans.
Nashville City Cemetery was opened on January 1, 1822. By 1850, over 11,000 people were buried there. In 1958, Nashville Mayor Ben West led an effort to restore and preserve the cemetery. In 1972, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places due to its historical and architectural significance.
Among those interred in the cemetery are two of Nashville's founders, four Confederate generals, one Tennessee Governor, and twenty-two mayors of Nashville. Also buried there are numerous soldiers, schoolteachers, former slaves, early civic leaders, and other interesting citizens of Nashville. Sea Captain William Driver, who coined the name "Old Glory" for his ship's U.S. Flag and hid that famous flag during the Civil War, is buried here. By 2017, the cemetery included the tombs of approximately 22,000 people, 6,000 of which were African Americans. [1] On March 4, 2017, Elias Polk and Matilda Polk, who were enslaved by President James K. Polk, had their tombstones replaced as part of an effort to recognize more African-Americans buried at the cemetery. [1]
Nashville City Cemetery is located near downtown Nashville at 1001 4th Avenue South.
Clarksville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Tennessee, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state, after Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. The city had a population of 166,722 as of the 2020 census.
Allegheny Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest burial grounds in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a historic rural cemetery.
Felix Grundy was an American attorney and politician who served as the 13th United States Attorney General. He also had served several terms as a congressman and as a U.S. senator from Tennessee. He was known for his success as a criminal lawyer who attracted crowds when he served on the defense.
Aaron Venable Brown was an American politician. He served as the 11th Governor of Tennessee from 1845 to 1847, and as United States Postmaster General from 1857 until his death in 1859. He also served three terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1839 to 1845. During the Mexican–American War, Brown's statewide call for 2,800 volunteers was answered by over 30,000, helping solidify the state's reputation as the "Volunteer State."
James Hervey Otey, Christian educator, author, and the first Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, having established the Anglican church in the state, including its first parish churches and what became the University of the South.
Mount Olivet Cemetery is a 206-acre (83 ha) cemetery located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is located approximately two miles East of downtown Nashville, and adjacent to the Catholic Calvary Cemetery. It is open to the public during daylight hours.
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. He served in the Army of Tennessee, inflicting many casualties on Gen. Sherman at Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, but took the blame for General Schofield's escape at Spring Hill – a major factor in the Confederate defeat at Franklin, Tennessee in 1864. Later in life, he became a gold miner in California and a plantation owner in his home state of Tennessee.
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.
William Hawkins Polk was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 6th congressional district from 1851 to 1853. He was the younger brother of President James K. Polk. Prior to his election to Congress, he had been a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives (1841–1845), served as U.S. Minister to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1845–1847), and fought as a major in the Mexican–American War.
Conway-Johnson family was a prominent American political family from Arkansas of British origin. It was founded by Henry Wharton Conway of Greene County, Tennessee, who had come to the state of Arkansas in 1820 with his younger brother James and his cousins Elias and Wharton Rector, all of whom were deputy-surveyors under the patronage of their uncle, William Rector, Surveyor General of Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas.
Loudon Park Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. It was incorporated on January 27, 1853, on 100 acres (40 ha) of the site of the "Loudon" estate, previously owned by James Carey, a local merchant and politician. The entrance to the cemetery is located at 3620 Wilkens Avenue.
William Giles Harding was a Southern planter, attorney, and horse breeder who was made a Brigadier General in the Tennessee militia before the American Civil War. He took over operations of Belle Meade Plantation near Nashville from his father in 1839. During the course of his management, he acquired more property, expanding it from 1300 acres to 5,400 acres (22 km2) in 1860. He specialized in breeding and raising Thoroughbred horses, as well as other purebred livestock. In 1862 after Union forces took over Nashville, Harding was arrested as a leader and imprisoned at Fort Mackinac in northern Michigan on Mackinac Island for six months. He was released on a $20,000 bond. After being imprisoned at Fort Mackinac, he took the oath of allegiance to the Union and did not take an active part in the conflict from 1862 onwards.
Wilkins F. Tannehill (1787–1858) was an American Whig politician and author. He served as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1825 to 1827.
Felix Robertson (1781–1865) was an American pioneer, physician and Jeffersonian Republican politician. He served twice as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1818 to 1819 as well as from 1827 to 1829.
John Patton Erwin (1795–1857) was an American Whig politician. He served as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1821 to 1822, and from 1834 to 1835.
Randal McGavock (1766–1843) was an American politician and Southern planter in Nashville, Tennessee. Identifying as a Jeffersonian Republican, he served as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1824 to 1825.
Randal William McGavock (1826–1863) was an American lawyer, Democratic politician, Southern planter, and colonel in the Confederate States Army. He served as the mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, from 1858 to 1859.
Elias Polk was an African American enslaved by President James K. Polk and his family from birth until his emancipation in 1865.
Samuel Polk was an American surveyor and the father of U.S. President James Knox Polk. His slaves included Elias Polk.
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