Riverside Cemetery is a
cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...
located in
Jackson, Tennessee
Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis and 130 Miles Southwest of Nashville, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population wa ...
. It is located few blocks south of the Madison County Courthouse, separated from Riverside Drive by a five-foot-high red brick wall. Riverside Cemetery was listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on 9 May 2003.
History
The City of Jackson established Riverside Cemetery in 1824 to replace the original municipal graveyard founded a few years earlier. Most remains from the earlier cemetery were reinterred at Riverside, either when it opened or in 1871–72. The oldest legible marker is for Mary Jane Butler (died 1824). Riverside Cemetery holds approximately 4,000 graves, but only 3,000 markers remain. It is estimated that there are 200 unmarked burials, including approximately 100
Confederate
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
soldiers who died during the
war
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
, plus
slaves
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
buried prior to 1865. Riverside continues to accept a limited number of burials from families whose plots have space.
[Jonathan K. T. Smith]
Tombstone Inscriptions in Historic Riverside Cemetery in Jackson Tennessee
rev. ed., Privately published, 1998.
Notable burials
*
Isaac Lane (1834–1937), American bishop and namesake of
Lane College
*
James Franklin Lane (1874–1944), American educator and college president
See also
*
List of cemeteries in Tennessee.
References
{{reflist
External links
Riverside Cemetery- history
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
Jackson, Tennessee
1824 establishments in Tennessee
National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Tennessee