TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS FROM BLACK CEMETERIES IN MADISON COUNTY, TENNESSEE, compiled by Jonathan K. T. Smith

COPYRIGHT, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1995

Special thanks go to Jonathan K. T. Smith for his work to preserve and share this information about black cemeteries in Madison County and for giving permission to convert this work to web pages.

HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY

            This large (about 43 acres), privately-owned cemetery, established in 1887, is located on Hollywood Drive in Jackson, Tennessee, its entrance opening at the extreme southwest corner of the cemetery. About 10,000 persons have been buried here.

            Local blacks had established a privately-owned cemetery, Mt. Olivet, in Jackson, when Hollywood Cemetery was opened and but few blacks have ever buried their dead here. In an interview with Mrs. Ethel Snellgrove, Treasurer, Hollywood Cemetery Association, August 12, 1995, she stated that although the relevant records have long since been destroyed (with the cemetery under numerous ownership over a century many records have disappeared), she opined that the black burials of years ago would have been made in a small portion of the present Z Section, designated for "single burials," located on the east side of the cemetery, along the fence dividing Lambuth College from Hollywood Cemetery. She also stated that a few black persons have been buried in the lots of white friends over the years.

 

Supplement, Page 26

            The Griffin Funeral Home Record Book, 1890-1911, lists several black interment made in Hollywood Cemetery:

page 20. SIMON ATKERSON, d. Jan. 31, 1890, 55 yrs. Pneumonia.

page 48. DAVE HOLLAND, d.Mar. 10, 1890, 63 yrs. Residence, Proston St. Dropsy. John Howlett, responsible person for expenses of burial

page 57. NANCY LANCASTER, d. Mar. 24, 1890, 55 yrs. Residence, Liberty St. Congestion. Jack Lancaster, responsible person for expenses of burial

page 89. E. C. JACKSON, d. Mar. 2, 1892, 32 yrs. Residence, Lafayette St. Congestion of brain. Im. Conception, Knights Tabor, responsible organizations for expenses of burial

 

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