Historic cemetery in Davidson County, Tennessee
United States historic place
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.
History
Antebellum era
The Mount Olivet Cemetery was established by
Adrian Van Sinderen Lindsley and John Buddeke in 1856.
[1] It was modelled after the
Mount Auburn Cemetery .
[1] In the 1870s, a chapel designed in the
Gothic Revival architectural style by
Hugh Cathcart Thompson was built as an office.
[2]
The Southern aristocracy was buried in a separate section from common folks.
[1] These included
planters as well as former
governors of Tennessee ,
U.S. Senators , and
U.S. Congressional Representatives . In the
antebellum era ,
slaves were often buried near their owners.
[1]
Sign of Confederate Circle.
Visitors to Nashville were buried alongside paupers.
[1]
Confederate circle
After the
American Civil War , "the Ladies Memorial Society of Nashville with surviving Confederate veterans such as William B. Bate, Daniel Carter, General Benjamin Cheatham, and Thomas Harding purchased 26,588 square feet in the center of Mount Olivet and established Confederate Circle" for the interment of
Confederate dead.
[1] It was used for the interment of Confederate soldiers who had died on nearby battlegrounds and as a memorial to their sacrifice.
[1] Women organized such memorial associations and raised money for interment of Confederate soldiers in major cities across the South and areas where there were concentrations of bodies.
[3] The memorial association arranged for burials of about 1,500 soldiers at Confederate Circle.
[1] They also built an obelisk.
[1]
Stone Obelisk Marking Confederate Graves at Mt. Olivet Cemetery Confederate Circle, Nashville
World War I and beyond
A plaque in memory of Nashvillians who died in
World War I was dedicated by General
Hugh Mott in 1924.
[1]
The cemetery was purchased by Stewart Enterprises in 1994.
[1]
On January 25, 2015, the chapel, by then listed on the
National Register of Historic Places , burned.
[2]
Fireflies at Mt. Olivet as seen on a late June night.
Notable burials
Adelicia Acklen , plantation and slave owner.
[4]
Emma Louise Ashford , American
organist ,
composer , and music editor
Oswald Avery , acclaimed scientist whose experiments proved that DNA is the substance that carried genes.
John Meredith Bass , Mayor of Nashville from 1833–34, and in 1869.
[5]
William B. Bate ,
Governor of Tennessee (1883–87),
American Civil War general.
[1]
Fannie Battle , Confederate spy and social reformer
[6]
John Bell , United States
Senator and
presidential candidate
Aaron V. Brown ,
Governor of Tennessee (1845–47),
United States Postmaster General from 1857–59
James Stephens Brown , Mayor of Nashville from 1908–09
[5]
Lytle Brown , major general in the U.S. Army
[1]
George P. Buell ,
Union Army general
Joseph Wellington Byrns , United States
Congressman and
Speaker of the House
John Catron ,
U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
[1]
Benjamin F. ("Frank") Cheatham ,
Confederate general during the American Civil War.
[1]
Mark R. Cockrill (1788–1872), cattleman, planter, and "Wool King of the World".
Clarence Kelley Colley (1869–1956), architect.
Washington Bogart Cooper (1802–1888), painter.
[7]
Elizabeth Litchfield Cunnyngham (1831–1911), missionary and church worker
[8]
George A. Dickel (1818–1894), liquor dealer and wholesaler
Anne Dallas Dudley (1876–1955), women's suffrage activist.
[1]
Guilford Dudley , U.S. ambassador to Denmark under the Nixon and Ford presidential administrations.
[1]
George Dury (18171894), portrait painter
Edward H. East (1830–1904),
Tennessee Secretary of State , briefly served as the state's "acting governor" in 1865
Joseph Thorpe Elliston (1779–1856), silversmith, owner of the
Burlington plantation , fourth mayor of Nashville, 1814–17
[9]
Cornelia Keeble Ewing (1898–1973), American clubwoman
Sarah Polk Fall (1847–1924) Nashville socialite and unofficially adopted daughter of former first Lady
Sarah Polk
Jesse Babcock Ferguson , onetime minister of the Nashville
Church of Christ , later associated with
Spiritualism and
Universalism
Thomas Frist , co-founder of
Hospital Corporation of America and father of the former
majority leader of the
U.S. Senate ,
Bill Frist
Francis Furman (1816–1899), Nashville businessman during the
Reconstruction era . His tomb, designed by sculptor
Johannes Gelert (1852–1923), is the largest one in Mount Olivet Cemetery.
[1]
Sidney Clarence Garrison (1885–1945), second President of
Peabody College (now part of
Vanderbilt University ), 1938–45
[10]
Meredith Poindexter Gentry , United States
Congressman
Carl Giers , early photographer
Alvan Cullem Gillem , Civil War Union general and post-bellum Indian fighter
Caroline Meriwether Goodlett , co-founder of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Vern Gosdin 1934–2009 country music legend
William Crane Gray , (1835–1919), First Episcopal Bishop of the Missionary Jurisdiction of Southern Florida
Felix Grundy (1775–1840),
U.S. Senator from Tennessee and 13th
Attorney General of the United States .
[1]
George Blackmore Guild (1834–1917), Mayor of Nashville 1891–95.
[5]
Robert Kennon Hargrove (1829–1905), a
bishop of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Henry C. Hibbs (1882–1949), architect.
E. Bronson Ingram , founder of Ingram Industries Inc., parent company of
Ingram Barge Company ; Ingram Book Company, the nation's largest book distributor; Ingram Micro; and other major companies
[11]
Howell Edmunds Jackson , United States
Senator and
Supreme Court Justice
William Hicks Jackson , Confederate general during the American Civil War
Thomas A. Kercheval ,
Tennessee State Senator and
Mayor of Nashville
Eugene C. Lewis , engineer, chairman of the
Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis , civic leader.
[1]
David Lipscomb , founder of
Nashville Bible School (now
Lipscomb University ).
[1]
William Litterer (1834–1917), Mayor of Nashville, 1890–91.
[5]
George Maney , Confederate Civil War general and U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay
Jack C. Massey , co-founder of
Hospital Corporation of America and owner of
Kentucky Fried Chicken .
[12]
Hill McAlister ,
Governor of Tennessee from 1933–37
Randal William McGavock (1826–1863), Mayor of Nashville, 1858–59 and Confederate Lt. Colonel who was killed in the
Battle of Raymond .
[5]
Eliza Jane McKissack (1828–1900), founding head of music in 1890 to the forerunner of the
University of North Texas College of Music
Benton McMillin ,
Governor of Tennessee (1899–1903)
Kindred Jenkins Morris (1819–1884), Mayor of Nashville, 1869–71.
Thomas Owen Morris (1845–1924), Mayor of Nashville, 1906–08.
[5]
John W. Morton , Confederate veteran, founder of the Nashville chapter of the
Ku Klux Klan ,
Tennessee Secretary of State , 1901–09.
[13]
William Nichol (1800–1878), Mayor of Nashville, 1835–37.
[5]
John Overton , friend of
Andrew Jackson and one of the founders of
Memphis, Tennessee .
[1]
Andrew Price (politician) (1854–1909), Louisiana Congressman
Bruce Ryburn Payne (1874–1937), founding president of
Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University), 1911–37.
[14]
Colonel
Buckner H. Payne (1799–1889), clergyman, publisher, merchant and racist pamphleteer.
[15]
Fountain E. Pitts (1808–1874), Methodist minister, Confederate chaplain and colonel, first pastor of the West End United Methodist Church in Nashville.
[16]
James E. Rains , American Civil War general killed in the 1862 Battle of Murfreesboro
Oliver P. Rood , American Civil War soldier, Medal of Honor recipient
Fred Rose , music publishing executive
[1]
Thomas "Tom" Ryman (1841–1904) Nashville riverboat captain and founder of the
Ryman Auditorium
William Percy Sharpe (1871–1942), Mayor of Nashville, 1922–24
[5]
John Hugh Smith (1819–1870), Mayor of Nashville three times during the 19th century
[5]
Donald W. Southgate (1887–1953), architect
[17]
Edward Bushrod Stahlman (1843–1930), German-born railroad executive, publisher of the
Nashville Banner and builder of
The Stahlman .
[18]
Ernest Stoneman , country music performer
Wilbur Fisk Tillett (1854–1936), Methodist clergyman and educator; dean of Vanderbilt's theology school
Anthony Wayne Van Leer (1783–1864), ironmaster
George D. Waller (1883–1969), architect.
[19]
David K. Wilson (1919–2007), businessman and philanthropist; major donor to
Vanderbilt University and the
Republican Party
Del Wood (1920–1989), country musician, member of the
Grand Ole Opry
See also
References
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"National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Mount Olivet Cemetery" . National Park Service . United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
^
a
b Meyer, Holly (January 26, 2015).
"Fire burns historic Mt. Olivet chapel" . The Tennessean . Retrieved September 5, 2017 .
^ Drew Gilpin Faust, The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War , New York: Vintage Civil War Library, 2009, pp. 241–244
^ Phillips, Betsy (October 11, 2011).
"The Confederate Cemetery Tour at Mt. Olivet" . Nashville Scene . Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
^
a
b
c
d
e
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g
h
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"Friends of Metropolitan Archives of Nashville and Davidson County, TN" . Archived from
the original on 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2013-03-19 .
^
"Fannie Battle Day Home Records, ca. 1905 – ca. 1998 (bulk 1905 – 19 72 )" (PDF) . Finding Aids . Nashville Public Library. Retrieved 5 October 2018 .
^ Estill Curtis Pennington, Lessons in Likeness: Portrait Painters in Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, 1802–1920 : Featuring Works from Filson Historical Society , Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2011, p. 122
[1]
^
"Elizabeth King H. Litchfield 23 February 1831 – 28 June 1911 • LT2D-951" . www.familysearch.org . Retrieved 5 December 2022 .
^
"Elliston, Joseph Thorp (1779–1856)" . Tennessee Portrait Project . National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Tennessee. Retrieved April 5, 2018 .
^ Copeland, J. Isaac (January 1, 1986).
"Garrison, Sidney Clarence" . NCPedia.org .
State Library of North Carolina . Retrieved September 28, 2015 .
^ Logsdon, David R. (December 25, 2009).
"Erskine Bronson Ingram" . The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture . Tennessee Historical Society and the University of Tennessee Press. Retrieved September 5, 2017 .
^
"Entrepreneur Jack Massey dead at 75" . The Tennessean . February 16, 1990. pp. 1, 8. Retrieved December 17, 2017 – via
Newspapers.com .
^
"John W. Morton Funeral Here" . The Tennessean . November 22, 1914. p. 2. Retrieved September 25, 2016 – via
Newspapers.com .
^ Copeland, J. Isaac (June 12, 2010).
"Payne, Bruce Ryburn" . NCPedia.org .
State Library of North Carolina . Retrieved September 24, 2015 .
^
"Death of Col. Buckner H. Payne" . The New York Times . June 8, 1883. Retrieved November 27, 2015 .
^
"Elder Foundation E. Pitts. The Last Sad Rites over the Honored Dead" . Nashville Union and American . May 26, 1874. p. 4. Retrieved December 11, 2017 – via
Newspapers.com .
^
"D. W. Southgate, 65," . The Jackson Sun . February 9, 1953. p. 9 – via
Newspapers.com .
^
"E. B. STahlman, Publisher's Dean, Dies" . The Leaf-Chronicle . Clarksville, Tennessee. August 12, 1930. pp. 1–2 – via
Newspapers.com .
^
"George Waller Rites Tomorrow" . The Tennessean . December 20, 1969. p. 21. Retrieved December 29, 2017 – via
Newspapers.com .
Further reading
Willis, Ridley II (1993). A Walking Tour of Mt. Olivet Cemetery . Nashville, Tennessee: The Cemetery.
OCLC
29231889 .
External links