Evergreen Cemetery is a cemetery located in
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 152,769 according to the 2020 census, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010. Murfreesboro is located in the Nashville metropo ...
.
The cemetery began as a slave cemetery until its owner Dr. James Maney (the owner of
Oaklands Plantation), deeded a portion of his land to the city of Murfreesboro in 1872 to replace the "Old City Cemetery" which is located near downtown Murfreesboro.
The cemetery is the final burial place for many notable people from Tennessee and the grounds are home to centuries old maple, oak and magnolia trees. Some of the trees pre-date the cemetery and a number of the headstones are more than 140 years old.
Evergreen Cemetery is governed by a 34-member board of directors and its current chair is John Rucker Jr. who has served on the board for over 24 years.
It is located at 519 Greenland Drive. Tours of the cemetery, presented by Oaklands Mansion, are also held each year.
Confederate Circle
The ''Confederate Circle'', a
mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of executi ...
site, was established in 1890. In 1891, remains of
Confederate soldiers were gathered from burial locations across the area, including the "Old Confederate Cemetery" located about south of Murfreesboro,
and reinterred here. Some 2,000 – about 90% unnamed – soldiers, are buried in the Circle.
The perimeter of the Circle is marked by stone posts bearing the names of each of the Confederate States. Individual burial markers for some of the known dead are located near the corresponding state posts.
The Circle is the site of several observances and memorials throughout the year for local
Sons of Confederate Veterans
The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers that commemorates these ancestors, funds and dedicates monuments to them, and promotes the pseudohistor ...
Camps, including Camps #33 and #1355.
Notable burials
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John P. Buchanan (1847–1930),
Governor of Tennessee 1891–93
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David W. Dickinson
David W. Dickinson (June 10, 1808 – April 27, 1845) was an American politician who represented Tennessee's eighth district in the United States House of Representatives.
Biography
Dickinson, the son of David Dickinson and Fanny Noailles Mu ...
(1808–1845), U.S. Representative
*
Harold Earthman (1900–1987), U.S. Representative
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Marvin Leroy Maple (1936–2016), kidnapper of his grandchildren
*
Mary Noailles Murfree
Mary Noailles Murfree (January 24, 1850 – July 31, 1922) was an American author of novels and short stories who wrote under the pen name Charles Egbert Craddock. She is considered by many to be Appalachia's first significant female writer an ...
(1850–1922), author
*
Joseph B. Palmer (1825–1890), Confederate General
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Charles Ready
Charles Ready (December 22, 1802 – June 4, 1878) was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 5th congressional district.
Biography
Ready was born in Readyville in Rutherford County, n ...
(1802–1878), U.S. Representative
*
James D. Richardson (1843–1914), U.S. Representative
*
Ken Shipp
Kenneth Allen Shipp (February 3, 1929 – March 5, 2012) was an American college and professional football coach. He served as an offensive coordinator and receivers coach in the National Football League (NFL) and briefly as the interim head coa ...
(1928–2021), College and
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...
coach
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Cemeteries in Tennessee
Confederate States of America cemeteries
1872 establishments in Tennessee
Cemeteries established in the 1870s
Burial grounds of the African diaspora in the Western hemisphere