ALTOM CEMETERY

Altom Cemetery, January 1999

 

          The photograph of the Altom Cemetery shown above was made January 17, 1999. The cemetery now has 66 concrete blocks marking graves. There are no carved markers with information.

          Henderson County, Tennessee Cemetery Inscriptions (R. H. Harris, Memphis, 1976), Vol. III, p. 705, notes the following:

ALTOM CEMETERY

Sixth District
Researched by: Cova Lewis
Location: About 1-1/2 miles south of Natchez Trace store near the forks of Brown's Creek Lake.

The Maness school house was built directly over several graves in the 1920's. It is believed that the graves are Altom's.

 

Commentary: Most likely this cemetery never had carved markers. It probably is very old and contained only fieldstones. In appearance in probably was something like the Gibson Cemetery six miles east in Decatur County, one of the few cemeteries which retains an early-mid 19th century appearance. For a school to have been built over several graves in the Altom Cemetery would seem to indicate that the cemetery had been out of use for many years by the 1920s.

David Donahue, January 1999

 

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