What cemeteries tell us

Several of us at Otter are taking a course this spring in the Lipscomb series called Life Long Learning. We are taking Nashville History as Seen through It's Cemeteries.

While this might seem a morbid subject to some, I am learning quite a lot about Nashvillians and their history. We have visited the City Cemetery in the heart of the city where several Tennessee governors are buried. Marilyn Switzer (also of Otter) who is the teacher, showed us one woman's tomb which was large and very expensive, but which had no inscription. It seems that the second wife, weary of her husband's mentioning the first wife's name, had all inscriptions on her monument removed. We also learned that although people of color were allowed burial in the cemetery, they were often buried just over the fence or outside the family plot. And placement in the cemetery depended on the family's prestige--those who were important got the best spots with the best views (as if they could see).

Speaking of fences, many of the plots are fenced or curbed, unlike the "modern" burial places today. And of course, the monuments are creative, symbolic, often very large and ostentatious (depending on the wealth of the family). So unlike today's flat plot with a vase holding a dying flower. (I do not like those!), I realize it is easier to mow, but we trade beauty for cut grass.

I was surprised how many monuments do not have the full name of the deceased.
That makes it awfully hard to do genealogy. After years of research, I still do not know the full names of my grandmother's siblings --most of them had nicknames and their monuments read T. F. Herndon or the stone has the nickname as the first name.
Oh well, mine is already in place beside Sam and reads Judith Ann Brandon Thomas.
It does give me a start when I visit the Groesbeck Cemetery and see it. By the way, that old cemetery is full of beautiful above-the-ground monuments and fences. Yes!!!!

More about this later. We visit Mt. Olivet the ritzy cemetery of Nashville tomorrow.