MY OLD SALEM CEMETERY TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS SCRAPBOOK
(Madison County, Tennessee)
Jonathan K. T. Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1995HISTORY OF OLD SALEM CEMETERY
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Located about three and a half miles northeast of court square in Jackson, Madison County, Tennessee. Situated on the northwest side of Cotton Grove Road about .3 mile north of the junction of this road with Paul Coffman Drive.
The Methodist Episcopal Church [1] had a dedicated following in the early pioneer settlement of Madison County. (The county was established by the state legislature on November 7, 1821, from former Chickasaw Indian territory, having been temporarily under the jurisdiction of Stewart County in Middle Tennessee.) One of the earliest local camp-grounds was located some three and a half miles from the court square in the Madison county seat, Jackson. There was also located here a small Methodist meetinghouse, evidently built of hewn logs. The meetinghouse and camp-ground were known as SALEM. The earliest known mention of the Salem meetinghouse appeared in a Jackson newspaper in the summer of 1824 when it was announced that a camp-meeting would begin here on July 16 and would continue for several days.[2]
Throughout the 1820s and into the next decade the summer camp-meetings at Salem remained constant.[3] Methodists in the immediate area of Jackson organized a congregation in that town in the fall of 1826 with eight members; with increasing membership they built their church-house about 1834.[4] In another settlement about eight miles east of Salem, located in Civil District 14 (Salem was just barely in Civil District 15) area Methodists organized a congregation called Bethany. Tradition has it that these people met in the residence of Adam Brown (1780-1864) and his wife, Aquilla Brown (1785-1860) for some time before the husband deeded one acre of his land to the trustees of the congregation as the place where "they shall erect and build . . . thereon a house or place of worship for members of the Methodist Episcopal Church." The date of this gift was April 22, 1835.[5] This congregation prospered with its constantly active membership that helped to develop a cemetery on the church grounds. The name was changed to Brown's Church by which it has been known for generations.
From 1822, four years after western Tennessee had been purchased from the Chickasaw Indians, the Methodist churches in this area were assigned to the Forked Deer District of the Tennessee Conference. Then, with the organizing of the Memphis Conference, in 1840, area churches were included in the Jackson District and have so remained.
The Salem Church membership dwindled when these two congregations, in Jackson and at Bethany (Brown's) proved to be permanently organized. Other camp-meeting sites were opened throughout the county also, so that by another generation what was left at Salem was a cemetery that eventually became known as the Old Salem Cemetery.
Under the land scheme of the time, Salem was located in Surveyor's District 9, Range 1, Section 9, the cemetery being located on the northwest side of the stage road that lead a circuitous route from Jackson to Lexington, Tennessee, basically the same road in this locality now known as Cotton Grove Road. Dr. William Edward Butler (1790-1882), generally credited as having been the principal founder of Jackson, Tennessee was early granted several hundred acres in this vicinity. Among the acreage so granted to Butler was in Land Grant #15997, on October 19, 1821, 428 acres in Surveyor's District 9, Range 1, Section 1. He sold this entire tract to George Todd, another early settler, March 18, 1822, for $1712.[6] Perhaps Todd was a Methodist; at any rate he allowed the Salem meetinghouse, camp-ground and eventually, the cemetery to develop on a small parcel of this Butler tract, near
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Image "oldsal1.jpg" is missing
W. E. Butler's Land Grant, from General Land Grant Book R, page 737. Recorded therein on October 20, 1821.
his own residence and about a mile southwest of the homeplace of his son-in-law, after June 1829, the Hon. Adam Huntsman. George Todd also acquired 23 acres, adjoining the Butler tract, frorn James Vaulx (pronounced vox), September 15, 1823 for $170.[7] These two tracts comprised the Todd farm until George Todd died in 1834, leaving the farm to an unmarried daughter, Mary Ann Todd.[8] She subsequently married William A. Murchison and they sold the entire Todd farm to Judge Milton Brown on December 11, 1839 for $3500, "excepting out of the same so much as lays south of the road running between the aforesaid described land and Adam Huntsman in line of which there is being conveyed all of the tract of land on which said Huntsman lives which lies north of said road, having been by former agreement between Adam Huntsman and George Todd made the line." [9]
Judge Milton Brown (1804-1883) was a native of Ohio, moved to Tennessee (eventually to Jackson), studied law, became a highly regarded attorney and jurist; served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1841-1847; was an entrepreneur (helped to develop railroads in West Tennessee) who was also active in civic improvements.[10] Judge Brown bought up several hundred acres of prime farmland in the vicinity of Salem, most of which he gave to his children or he left to them at the time of his death. Among these acquisitions was a small parcel, 6.75 acres that he bought on October 9, 1867 from Thomas Beveridge for $67, "lying about three miles east of the town of Jackson, Tennessee, on the old stage road leading from Jackson to Lexington, Tennessee, adjoining and north and south of the ground now owned by Milton Brown formerly known as the Salem Campground and also adjoining the lands formerly owned by Wm. E. Butler but now owned by Milton Brown, it being all of my land lying north and west of said stage road." [11] The meetinghouse and the beginnings of a cemetery would have been located on this camp-ground tract, as subsequent deeds indicate. A similar arrangement was made with the county's oldest known campground, Bethlehem (established by Cumberland Presbyterians), located near Claybrook in northeast Madison County.[12]
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A map of the Section 9 of Range 1, Surveyor's District 9, Madison County, Tennessee, with "9" at the center of the section. Adapted from Map No. 6, MAPS OF MADISON COUNTY, TENNESSEE, HISTORIC AND GENEALOGICAL (Jackson, 1993), by James H. Hanna, page 17. His work, as a retired civil engineer, based in large part on Matthew Rhea's "Map of Tennessee, Philadelphia, 1832. Overlaid on base road "Map of Madison County, Tennessee" created and distributed to the public by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
In June 1884, some time after their father's death, the daughters of Judge Milton Brown divided his lands among themselves.[13] Years later, in 1889, these same ladies had this land surveyed into tracts by Robert T. McKnight, county surveyor at the time, and more properly apportioned among themselves by deed in 1892. The old Salem location was included in a tract that went to Ella Brown who became the wife of Stoddert Caruthers.[14] In 1889, Lizzie J. Brown Gilmore, a sister of Mrs. Stoddert, sold 2 acres just south of the old Salem Cemetery, to the trustees of Brown's Chapel Baptist Church, a congregation having been organized years before, with a meetinghouse (chapel) there.[15] Some of the membership of this black church were among Brown freedmen bearing the last name, Brown. The Gilmore lands adjoined those of the Caruthers and the Dancys. Some of Judge Brown's descendants (Caruthers line) have owned a large portion of this property to the present day, in partnership with a real estate entity known as Vann Properties.[16]
These several owners-partners have generally expressed an interest in the
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preservation of Old Salem cemetery and eventually Madison County may acquire a truly clear title to this historic burial ground. In the meantime, through the Madison County Parks and Recreation Department, the 1.51 acres of the fenced cemetery, was surveyed June 7, 1995 by Paul New of the J. W. New Land Surveying Company (2313 Westover Road, Jackson, Tennessee 38301).[17] The survey plat is reproduced here, courtesy of the Madison County Parks and Recreation Department and the New Surveying Company:
Image "oldsal3.jpg" is missing
During the Civil War, on December 19, 1862, a Skirmish, although usually called a battle, occurred around the Old Salem Cemetery, fought between General Nathan Bedford Forrest and some of his Confederate cavalry and the Federal troops of Colonel Adolph Engelmann. The "battle" resulted in the Federals withdrawing to Jackson and the Confederates leaving the area.
In his book HISTORY OF A COMMON SOLDIER OF THE ARMY LIFE IN THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865 (published 1920), page 119, Leander Stillvell, who fought "at Salem" wrote of it as "a lively and spirited little brush with the Confederate forces about two miles east of Jackson near a country burying ground called Salem Cemetery."
The old cemetery seems to have escaped any real damage at the time of this military engagement but fell into neglect, although with occasional cleanups over the years. On April 4, 1938, Mary E. Stovall and Mary W. Beatty, copied what they could of the inscriptions on the tombstones here, as a paid project for the Federal Works Progress Administration. The results
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of their work were incorporated in pages 108-112 of the manuscript, "Tennessee, Records of Madison County, Tombstone Inscriptions. Mrs. John T. Moore, State Librarian and Archivist." Those tombstone inscriptions have been reproduced elsewhere in this book.
In 1975 the Jackson and Madison County governments passed resolutions declaring Old Salem Cemetery to be a historic landmark. In 1975-1976 the Altrusa Club of Jackson cleaned the grounds, fenced-in portions of the cemetery and furnished it with a proper gate. Over subsequent years the fencing was vandalized, the tombstones further deteriorated, the grounds were "trashed" and left untended. More recently the county has assumed a firm role in keeping the grounds clean. In 1994 Malcolm D. Wilcox of Madison County rendered a considerable service to the persons buried in Old Salem Cemetery, their descendants and the public generally, by carefully repairing several of the tombstones in the cemetery. He also helped clean the grounds. Camp 219, Sons of the Confederate Veterans repaired the cemetery fence, erected a new gate and placed markers at the entrance of the cemetery describing the December 1862 military engagement, which improvements were dedicated December 17, 1994. A state historical marker has been placed at the entrance of the driveway into the cemetery.
REFERENCES
l. After 1844-1845 officially the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
2. JACKSON GAZETTE, July 3, 1824.
3. IBID., September 10, 1825; August 30, 1828; July 25, 1829; August 31, 1830. SOUTHERN STATESMAN, Jackson, August 6, 1831.
4. JACKSON DAILY WHIG, Aug. 11, 1893. Robert Brown was one of the founding members. The Methodists bought their town lot in Feb. 1833. Deed Book 4, page 218. Some sources speculate "1831" but that is a bit too early.
5. Madison County: Deed Book 9, page 371. Deed recorded August 31, 1844.
6. IBID. Deed Book 1, page 10. Deed registered March 1822. Tennessee State Library and Archives: General Land Grant Book R, page 737. Butler entered this land December 11, 1820; it was surveyed April 16, 1821. The land granted was listed as being in Stewart County, which Middle Tennessee county had jurisdiction for some time over the area of Madison County before it was created late in 1821.
7. Madison County: Deed Book 1, page 171. Deed registered December 16, 1823. This land had been granted to Vaulx (Grant #19168), May 22, 1823. These same 23 acres were given as adjoining the 428 acre Butler tract, specifically on the southern boundary of the same. Vaulx entered the land May 15, 1821; it was surveyed April 11, 1823. General Land Grant Book V, page 446.
8. Madison County: Will Book 1, page 444. George Todd executed his will Oct. 26, 1833; it was probated in May 1834. He left "all the land I own in Madison County" to Mary Ann Todd. Todd is probably buried in an unmarked grave in the Old Salem Cemetery.
9. Madison County: Deed Book 6, page 522. Deed registered December 13, 1839. The 428 and 23 acre tracts are described specifically in this deed by acreage, former owners and purchase dates by Todd.
10. Biographical sketch of Milton Brown, BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONGRESS, 1971, page 651.
11. Madison County: Deed Book 26, page 134. Deed registered July 18, 1868. Beveridge was misspelled Beverage in this deed. Beveridge bought this acreage from
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Locke Brown, June 7, 1851 (Deed Book 15, page 76) in which call references are made to the "big road", i.e. old stage road and a corner of the "camp ground tract."
12. For more about the Bethlehem camp-ground and the institutional nature of camp-meetings, see OUR CLAYBROOK HERITAGE (Jackson, Tennessee, 1993), by Jonathan K. T. Smith, pages 18-20.
13. Madison County: Deed Book 41, page 481. Deed dated June 2, 1884; registered June 4, l884. In Judge Brown's will executed Jan. 8, 1878, probated May 22, 1883 (Will Book A, page 320), he left lands not specifically devised to others to be distributed among his three daughters, Lizzie J. Gilmore, Sarah T. Dancy and Ella C. Brown.
14. Madison County: Deed Book 50, page 151. Deed dated May 11, 1892, filed May 25, 1892. R. T. McKnight surveyed these "Brown" lands in October 1889.
15. IBID. :Book 46, page 606. Lizzie J. Gilmore to Green Parker, Garrett Brown, John H. Brown, church trustees, 2 acres, July 27, 1889. Deed registered July 29, 1889.
16. On February 27; 1928, Ella Brown Caruthers deed several tracts of land in Jackson and Madison County to her daughter, Medora Caruthers. Deed filed Dec. 6, 1928. (Deed Book 115, page 228) December 29, 1932, Medora Caruthers deeded a ½ undivided interest in these very same tracts to her sister, Ella B. Caruthers Jobe. Deed filed Feb. 10, 1933. (Deed Book 120, page 567) Medora Caruthers became the wife of J. Randall Vann and in her will (executed July 16, 1960; probated June 7, 1961) she left her properties of the remaining real estate to her husband and two sons, William Irvin Vann and James Caruthers Vann. (Will Book H, page 302) In the will of J. Randall Vann (executed January 4, 1967; probated January 3, 1975), he left his interest in this real property, equally, to his sons. (Will Book P, page 433) James Caruthers Vann sold his interest to Thomas R. Yarbro, January 29, 1980 (Deed Book 390, page 387; filed January 31, 1980). William I. Vann and wife, Mary S. Vann, deeded their sole interest in these several tracts to a real estate entity known as Vann Properties. They would enjoy a share of the assets of this corporation. Date of conveyance:
June 13, 1989. (Deed Book 490, page 125; filed June 30, 1989) The Jobe interest was willed by Ella Caruthers Jobe to her children, Thornley Caruthers Jobe, Laura Jobe Clemmons and Elizabeth Jobe Davis in her will that was probated December 29, 1982. (Will Book W, page 367) Thomas R. Yarbro of Dyersburg, Tennessee is the partner listed with the Madison County Assessor of Property office as the contact person for payment of taxes on the Vann Properties.
17. J. W. New Surveying Company B999-l-P18. The 1995 cemetery survey was based on a description of tract 3 of the Vann-Jobe properties, defined in a deed establishing a trust for Kathryn Stanfill Jobe, widow of Thornley C. Jobe, July 2, 1993. (Deed Book 531, page 620; filed July 18, 1993)
In the mode of expediency, the county might, without protest from the Vann Properties and the Jobe heirs, consider the Old Salem Cemetery as a case in eminent domain, a parcel of land, a cemetery without a clear claim of private ownership and therefore a public property. Even so, the "deed history" of this tract indicates the ownership having descended through the Brown descendants and the Vann Properties.
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