The First Presbyterian Church Graveyard is the oldest

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

, United States. Established in the 1790s, the graveyard contains the graves of some of Knoxville's most prominent early residents, including territorial governor and Constitutional Convention delegate

William Blount William Blount (March 26, 1749March 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, statesman, farmer and land speculator who signed the United States Constitution. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention o ...

and Knoxville founder James White.Jack Neely, ''The Marble City: A Photographic Tour of Knoxville's Graveyards'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1999), pp. xvi-xix. In 1996, the graveyard was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. While

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ting Knoxville with his son-in-law, Charles McClung, in 1791, White ordered at least one lot to be set aside for a church and cemetery. The cemetery spot may have been used as early as the 1780s for burials, and the cemetery contained several graves by 1799, but the earliest marker is Blount's, dated 1800. While the First Presbyterian congregation was active in the 1790s, the first church was not built on the site until 1816. The graveyard was used for burials for nearly sixty years, its most active period being during the Epidemic of 1838, in which hundreds of Knoxvillians died from an unidentified illness.

History

In 1790, after his fort was chosen as the capital for the newly created

Southwest Territory The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...

, James White asked his son-in-law, surveyor Charles McClung, to lay out a new town, named "Knoxville" after Secretary of War

Henry Knox Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following the ...

. McClung initially divided the town into 64 half-acre (0.2-ha) lots, and added additional lots in 1795, with the cemetery lot being included in the later additions. While the cemetery was not officially platted until 1795, historians speculate that burials likely occurred before that date. When

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The m ...

n missionary Frederick de Schweinitz passed through Knoxville in 1799, he reported that the cemetery already had numerous burials. The First Presbyterian congregation was organized by the Reverend Samuel Carrick in the 1790s, and the first church was erected adjacent to the cemetery in 1816. Shortly after the church's completion, disputes arose over several matters, including the renting of pews, and a doctrinal dispute between "Old Calvinists" and "Hopkinsians". A portion of the congregation split from First Presbyterian, and founded Second Presbyterian Church circa 1818. In 1838, hundreds Knoxvillians died when an unknown illness (possibly

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

) swept through the town. Approximately one-tenth of the marked graves in the graveyard are dated "1838"— more than any other single year— and one tombstone mentions "the fever." The graveyard was open to new burials until 1857, but the last burial took place in 1879.First Presbyterian Church Knoxville — Graveyard
Retrieved: 11 January 2013. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldiers (who occupied the town 1861–1863) kept horses in the cemetery, and

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

soldiers (who occupied the town 1863–1865) used the church as a hospital and barracks. Humorist George Washington Harris (1814–1869), an ardent Presbyterian, served as an elder of the First Presbyterian Church during his years in Knoxville. Two of his children, Harriet (1838–1846) and George (1841–1842), are buried in the graveyard. In the 1870s, the graveyard had an indirect effect on the career of future newspaper publisher, Adolph Ochs. Ochs, then a young teenager working after hours as a "printer's devil" for the ''Knoxville Chronicle'', feared walking past the graveyard at night, as many locals believed it to be haunted. Rather than leave work after his shift (which ended close to midnight), Ochs stayed until daylight, spending the extra time learning the typesetting and printing trades. The present First Presbyterian Church, constructed in 1903, is a Neoclassical building, with a Tiffany-style stained glass window.

Layout and marker styles

The First Presbyterian Church Graveyard resembles a traditional early Anglo-American cemetery, with graves crowded together and marked by relatively simple headstones. Most of the headstones are polished, upright stones, although a few (such as the Blounts') are flat stones. Most are adorned with simple inscriptions noting the deceased's name, date of death, and number of years lived. A low iron fence surrounds the graveyard's perimeter, and crude stone walkways allow access.

Notable interments

*Abner Baker (1843–1865), a Confederate veteran

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

for killing a Union veteran at the Knox County Courthouse in September 1865. *

(1749–1800), Governor of the Southwest Territory (1790–1796), U.S. senator from Tennessee (1796–1797), signer of the U.S. Constitution. His wife, Mary Grainger Blount (c. 1761–1802), is buried next to him. *

Samuel Carrick Samuel Czar Carrick (July 17, 1760 – August 17, 1809) was an American Presbyterian minister who was the first president of Blount College, the educational institution to which the University of Tennessee traces its origin. Milton M. KleinUT's ...

(1760–1809), the church's founder; first president of Blount College (now the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

), 1794–1809. *John Craighead (1783–1826), church elder and early Knoxville alderman, builder of the Craighead-Jackson House. *Thomas Humes (1767–1816), church elder and early Knoxville businessman, builder of the Lamar House Hotel building (now houses the Bijou Theatre).Dean Novelli, "On a Corner of Gay Street: A History of the Lamar House—Bijou Theater, Knoxville, Tennessee, 1817–1985." East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', Vol. 56 (1984), pp. 3-45. *

Hugh Lawson White Hugh Lawson White (October 30, 1773April 10, 1840) was a prominent American politician during the first third of the 19th century. After filling in several posts particularly in Tennessee's judiciary and state legislature since 1801, thereunder ...

(1773–1840), U.S. senator (1825–1840), presidential candidate in 1836 ( Whig Party). Buried adjacent to his father, James White. * James White (1747–1821), Knoxville's founder. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque on his headstone in 1932. * John Williams (1778–1837), U.S. senator (1815–1823).

References

External links

First Presbyterian Church Cemetery — official site
— contains the inscriptions of all the cemetery's headstones

contains information about the politicians buried in the cemetery {{Authority control Cemeteries in Tennessee Protestant Reformed cemeteries Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Geography of Knoxville, Tennessee Tourist attractions in Knoxville, Tennessee 1792 establishments in the Southwest Territory National Register of Historic Places in Knoxville, Tennessee

History

Layout and marker styles

Notable interments

See also

References

Further reading

External links