Sons of Ham Cemetery, Madison, Davidson County, Tennessee

The Sons of Ham Cemetery is located in Madison, Tennessee in Davidson County. A benevolent organization, the Sons of Ham No. 1 of Edgefield Junction was incorporated in 1869 “for the purpose of raising funds for the systematic relief, protection and education of its members; and for the care of the sick and burial of the dead” (Acts of the State of Tennessee, Passed by the First Session of the Thirty-Sixth General Assembly For the Years 1869-1870 (Nashville: Jones, Purvis & Co., 1870), 567). The group purchased land on Old Dry Creek Road in Davidson County for a cemetery which is still in use.

I visited the cemetery in December 2012 and was struck by the beauty of the site and by how well-maintained it is. There appear to be two separate sections to the cemetery. One is located up on a hillside while a second section of graves is located at the foot of the hill. A stacked-stone fence is located at the section of the cemetery that borders Gallatin Pike.

According to the Davidson County Cemetery Project, there were 91 tombstones in the cemetery when it was surveyed in March 2000. When I surveyed the cemetery in December 2012, there were more recent graves. A transcription of the cemetery may be found here.