Benevolent Cemetery, Murfreesboro (Rutherford County)

Benevolent Society Cemetery, Murfreesboro, January 2012 (image by author)

Tucked away in an industrial zone and virtually inaccessible by car lies the burial grounds of Benevolent Society No. 11.  Although this cemetery was once a vital part of the community, today it sits overgrown and overlooked.  According to research done by John Lodl and others at the Rutherford County Archives, more than six hundred African Americans are buried in this graveyard.  Yet the history of the group responsible for creating this cemetery is largely forgotten.

The Benevolent Society in Tennessee dates to at least 1865, when the Colored Benevolent Society was formed in Nashville.  The General Assembly soon amended the Articles of Incorporation of the group to allow for branches and lodges to be established throughout the state (A.A. Taylor, The Negro in Tennessee1865-1889, 156-157).  By 1900, lodges were located across the state, in locations such as Memphis, Jackson, Nashville, and Fayetteville.

It is not known when the Benevolent Society in Murfreesboro was organized, but it is known that they purchased land for their cemetery in 1897.  This property was located off of South Church Street (also known as the Shelbyville Highway).

The Benevolent Society in Murfreesboro must have thrived because the Nashville Globe reported in 1908 that the Fortieth Annual Session of the Delegated Assembly of the Benevolent Orders was held in Murfreesboro.  The headline boasted of "Complete Successful Four Days Work at Rutherford County Capital" (Nashville Globe, August 14, 1908).   Describing the convention, the paper stated, "The town of Murfreesboro has been all aglow with the major portion of this work with the spirit of Benevolence, having had the state assembly in their midst" (Nashville Globe, August 14, 1908).  The paper also described the event as "Historic Town of Murfreesboro overrun with Benevolent Workers."

Benevolent Cemetery, January 2012 (image by author)

    Despite the warm welcome given to the convention members in 1908, the Benevolent Society in Murfreesboro did not survive.  By 1988, the last surviving member of the organization deeded the cemetery to Allen Chapel AME Church.  Despite sporadic clean-up efforts throughout the last two decades, the cemetery remains overgrown and in poor condition.

Obscured tombstone (image by author)

View of Church Street from the cemetery (image by author)

United Helping Society

In 1889, the Strength of the No. 1 United Helping Society was incorporated in Davidson County, Tennessee.  The stated purpose of the organization was "the mutual benefit and moral elevation of its members and care for those in cases of great distress" while its motto was "Christ is head over all" (Charter of Incorporation, Secretary of State's Records, Record Group 42, Book O, Page 46, Tennessee State Library & Archives).

In addition to elevating the morals of its members, the group also worked to help its members purchase homes.  An article in the October 11, 1907 Nashville Globe described the annual meeting of the group in Antioch that month.  The article stated, "Progress was reported along all lines, and the people are awakening to the importance of owning their own homes and having a bank account" (Nashville Globe, October 11, 1907).  Furthermore, the paper reported, "the purpose of the Society is to encourage its members to secure homes and to become, as far as me be, self-sustaining" (Nashville Globe, October 11, 1907).

Nashville Globe, October 11, 1907

 Beyond assisting African-Americans in purchasing their own homes, the group began to organize a separate, African-American town in Dickson County in the 1910s.  The December 16, 1911 edition of the Lexington Standard reported "Negro City Planned" and that a tact of over 1,300 acres had been purchased in Hortense, Tennessee, in Dickson County.  The paper reported, "The United Helping society of Tennessee is back of the project, having already built a number of homes for colored people at Antioch.  All available land there has been used.  At Hortense an agricultural and industrial school has been projected and a widows and orphans' home" (Lexington Standard, December 16, 1911, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025729/1911-12-16/ed-1/seq-3/).

More research is needed to learn whether Hortense was actually planted, and if the plans for the agricultural school and widows and orphans home came to fruition.

Odd Fellow's Cemetery, Knoxville, Knox County

Odd Fellows Cemetery, Knoxville

Located on Bethel Avenue in East Knoxville since c. 1880 is the Odd Fellows Cemetery, an African-American fraternal and benevolent cemetery.  The Odd Fellows, the Daughters of Zion, and the Good Samaritans purchased the property to create the joint cemetery.  Oddly enough, the cemetery is located on the same street as Bethel Confederate Cemetery, showing that the lines of segregation where not always drawn as rigidly in the decades following the war as they were in the early twentieth century.

According to Robert J. Booker, the Banner Lodge Chapter of Odd Fellows purchased the first section of the cemetery before 1881.  The Daughters of Zion purchased a section adjacent to this in 1881.  In 1884, the third section of the cemetery was purchased by Rebecca Lodge Chapter of the Independent Order of Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria (Robert L. Booker, Two Hundred Years of Black Culture in Knoxville, Tennessee, 1791 to 1991, p. 90).  It is not surprising that these groups purchased a cemetery together as the Rebecca Lodge and Banner Lodge of Odd Fellows shared lodge space, both meeting at Odd Fellows Hall on 92 Gay Street (1887 Knoxville City Directory, p. 29).

Odd Fellows Cemetery, Knoxville

The cemetery is in mixed condition.  It is apparent that there have been recent efforts to clear part of the vegetation at the site and to set upright fallen tombstones. The section belonging to the Daughters of Zion looks largely abandoned.

A partial transcription of the cemetery is located here.