News
Local Black Cemetery On its Road To Rebirth
Plans in place to document history, clean up graves, proposed city park
By Amy Ritchart,
The Leaf-Chronicle, Clarksville, TN
Mount Olive Cemetery, located between Rollins and Beverly Hills drives,
contains more
than 1,000 graves of black Clarksvillians. There are headstones for both
Confederate and
Union soldiers from the U.S. Colored Troops. Also buried there are a
World War II veteran
and a black "Mammy."
"We're starting a small committee to encourage the city to take (our)
donation of the land where the cemetery is. My main concern is to save
the cemetery," said Geneva Bell, a member of the Save Mount Olive
Cemetery Committee. Several forces are coming together to create this
new space, including historic preservationists, a nearby landowner, the
city Parks Department, grant proposals and the manpower of scores of
volunteers.
Volunteer Cleaning Power
Committee members estimate cleaning up and preserving Mount Olive
Cemetery will take
thousands of volunteer hours. The committee, with Benevolent Lodge Order
No. 210 spearheading organizational efforts, wants to form a council to
involve other predominantly black nonprofit organizations in cemetery
cleanup. The lodge already maintains the Benevolent Lodge Cemetery,
located a few miles from Interstate 24's Exit 11.
New information would routinely be added to the cemetery history as it
is discovered. "It's never complete. There's always different
information," said Riverview Cemetery Director David Carpenter. "Being
here 27 years, you can expect me to have a kind heart for all cemeteries
... and I see what's there. It would be slow. This is like an
archaeological find."
Documentation would coincide with restoration, and the committee will
have to be deliberate with its efforts. "You're not talking about
something that can just be cleared off. It'll have to be
documented as it's done. You've got to preserve what is lying there. You
can actually destroy some of your own history by moving too fast," he
said.
Land Donation
Committee members plan to ask the city to
accept donation of the cemetery and
a nearby
property to establish a park. As first steps, committee members are
circulating a petition to muster support and have asked to speak at the
Feb. 17 meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee. They then plan to
ask the council's Finance and Administration Committee to consider
accepting
donation of the land.
Landowner Robert Davis said he has wanted to donate the land for some
time, but he wants to be sure it will be properly maintained. "I'm
really more interested that the graves are looked after," he said.
"They're a continuing corporation and if there are any extra lots ...
(people) could be buried there."
City Grants Manager Ron McClurg has been working with committee members
on the project. "I thought maybe there are some ... uses for that
property Mr. Davis wants to give to the city," he said.
Volunteers hope the combined historical and social value of the
cemetery, paired with the park, will make the idea appealing to City
Council members.
"I don't think just because there's archaeological, historical and
social significance would make (the council) interested in taking the
land - seven acres of overgrown, uncared for property," McClurg said.
"(A park) makes it a package, along with showing a long-term community
commitment (to the cleanup)."
Historical Research
Committee members have researched the history of the cemetery and those
buried there, and they contacted State Archaeologist G.F. Fielder for an
opinion on the value of the site. "We want to be able to show ...
it's not just our cemetery," Bell said. "It's the city's history."
Fielder visited Mount Olive to gauge its boundaries and estimate the
number of graves. "This is one of the largest cemeteries I've
seen," he said. "I usually find (cemeteries) when the bulldozers have
gotten to them. It's really great to find one people want to preserve."
Fielder said the cemetery's entrance was likely on Rollins Drive. A path
through the cemetery was likely a road used by visitors and the
undertaker to bring coffins by wagon for burial.
Fielder and McClurg are also looking into getting the cemetery on the
National Register of Historic Places.
McClurg said the park could become a place to chronicle the history of
Civil War soldiers and the military units represented in the cemetery.
"There's really no place for people to walk and think about those
things," he said.
McClurg is investigating whether grant money could be used to pay for
cleaning up the cemetery. He said both state and federal grants are
possible, but private foundations might also be a leading resource.
Family Folklore
Folia Harris, an 85-year-old Nashville woman born and raised in
Montgomery County, has hoped for years the cemetery would be restored.
She can't remember when the cemetery was named Mount Olive, and said it
was originally known only for its purpose. "It started as the old
African cemetery. The stones out there were very primitive," said
Harris, who has four relatives, including her grandmother and aunt,
buried there. "I picked up it might be just for slaves right after
slavery."
As stones were added, many of them were more elaborate and artistic.
Harris said her grandmother's headstone, which was donated, was
beautiful.
Foston Funeral Home director Larry Meriwether, who has buried clients at
Mount Olive, said many people believe the cemetery contains graves of
slaves. "It was called the slave cemetery at one time," he said.
Golden Hill Cemetery owner Wiley Moore remembers his elders speaking of
Mount Olive Cemetery when he was younger. "Not too much information is
said about it (now), except for the oldest people around," he said.