Situated on a hilltop in rural Giles County, very close to the Alabama state line, lies the African American Odd Fellow(s) Cemetery. The age of the cemetery is not clear, although the oldest marked grave, commemorating Lee Holt, dates to 1912.
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| Odd Fellow Cemetery |
The burials in
the cemetery are arranged in neat rows, and are oriented east-west. The majority
of the marked graves date from the mid to late twentieth century. There are
also a number of grave depressions present, indicating the presence of unmarked
graves.
Odd Fellow Cemetery contains several yucca bushes, such as this one planted at the grave of infant Catherine Patterson, as well as a few cedar trees at the edge of the property.
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| Grave marked by a yucca bush. It is not uncommon to find yucca bushes in African American cemeteries. |
Sherene Baugher
and Richard F. Veit noted the presence of yucca bushes in African American
cemeteries in The Archaeology of American Cemeteries and Gravemarkers (Gainesville:
University Press of Florida, 2014). When discussing how to identify if a
cemetery is African American, particularly if it is not signed, “Various
topographic clues may also help in the identification of forgotten African
American burial grounds. Some are located adjacent to burial grounds for
plantation owners; others are on hilltops; and a few may be marked by
non-native plants, such as periwinkles, yuccas, daylilies, and cedar trees.(169)”
As noted before, Odd Fellows Cemetery is located on a hilltop and contains both
yucca and cedar trees.
More research is needed to uncover more information about Odd Fellow Cemetery. I would like to learn more about the specific lodge of Odd Fellows, and where the lodge was located. I would like to do a complete deed search and try to pin down the time period the cemetery was established. I would like to spend some time researching the people buried in the cemetery, to learn more about the people that made of the local African American community.
Despite the things I don’t yet know about the cemetery, Odd Fellow Cemetery is an interesting cemetery in a number of regards. First, it is remarkably well-signed for a rural African American lodge cemetery in Tennessee. In addition to a sign with the cemetery being present at the cemetery, there is sign directing traffic to the cemetery at Main Street and Drivers Lane, very close to the cemetery, and occurring very close to the exit off Interstate 65.
Secondly, the presence and location of the cemetery provides a mute testimony about the way in which segregation persisted beyond life and into death in Tennessee. This cemetery was established for African Americans in the community to bury their dead. There is a larger, white-established cemetery, Elliot Cemetery, literally within eyesight of Odd Fellow Cemetery. It is located approximately 200 yards of the Odd Fellows Cemetery. Why establish another cemetery so close to Elliot Cemetery? There are over 500 burials at Elliot Cemetery, and not all the internments were members of the Elliot family. A likely explanation is that the African American communities were not welcome for burial in the Elliot Cemetery, necessitating the establishment of a separate cemetery for members of the African American community.
View of Odd Fellow Cemetery
For more information
on Odd Fellow Cemetery, please see the following:
“Odd Fellows
Cemetery, Ardmore, Tennessee,” https://jparkes.github.io/smtc-website/Giles-Marshall-LincolnCountyCemWeb/OddFellow(AA)/odd_fellows_cemetery.html
“Elliot Cemetery (Ardmore), Giles County, Tennessee,” https://jparkes.github.io/smtc-website/Giles-Marshall-LincolnCountyCemWeb/ElliotCemGilesCo/ElliotCemMaps.html
If you are interested in African American lodges and cemeteries in Tennessee, I am proud to announce that my book, To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee, is scheduled to be published by Vanderbilt University Press and is forthcoming in Spring 2022. More details to come!
