Benevolent Society No. 84 Cemetery, Hamilton Church Pike, Antioch

One of my favorite Benevolent cemeteries, and one of the smallest, is Benevolent Society No. 84 on Hamilton Church Pike in southeast Nashville. One reason it is my favorite is pure bias - it is located not far from where I grew up. I also love it because it has an abandoned lodge building on site.

What is likely an abandoned lodge building located on the property of the cemetery.

The cemetery is small, not marked, well maintained, and backs up to a suburban neighborhood. I feel that some graves may actually be located in the back yards of the houses behind the cemetery. The cemetery was a bit overgrown at the rear when I visited it, and it seemed to possibly extend into the neighborhood behind it. There were not very many marked graves (not more than 20), although it is always possible there are unmarked graves at the rear of the cemetery. There is at least one veteran buried here.  Many of the stones dated from the last half of the 20th century.

Tombstone located in an overgrown area at the rear of the cemetery.

Tombstone at the cemetery

Graves at the cemetery.

There are several mentions of the lodge in the Nashville Globe.  It often met with Benevolent Society No. 107 of Una, another small community in southeast Davidson County. For example, that paper noted in August 1909 that the two groups met together at B.O. No. 84 on "Hamilton Hill" (what the community located around what is now Hamilton Church Pike was once called).

From the Nashville Globe, August 27, 1909

I have done a bit of research on the members buried at this cemetery, using the cemetery transcription from findagrave.com. (http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=2300072) I was hoping to see what I could learn about what types of people were members of this lodge.  I learned that Albert Miller (1854-1939) rented a home in the community and worked as a road laborer in 1930. His death certificate, however, lists his occupation as farmer. Mr. Miller was literate and was not a veteran. His wife, Victoria Trimble Miller (1874-1941) was born in Rutherford County.  After his death, Victoria lived at 54 Trimble Street in Nashville.

I also researched Bernettie Whitsey (1875-1968).  Mrs. Whitsey was a laundress in 1930, married to John Whitsey, a farmer. Living with them in their home were two stepdaughters and two grandchildren, ages 6 and 8.  Like the Millers, the Whitseys rented their home. John has been born in Williamson County, and he died in 1943 at the age of 74.

I hope to do more genealogical research of the people buried in the Benevolent cemeteries. It humanizes the group, and it gives me a much better idea of what the members were like.  It also gives me a better sense of the importance of the group to the members.  These members listed here likely did not enjoy great financial prosperity, so a group like the Benevolent Society, which offered sick and death benefits at a time when the government did not, was likely very important to the Whitseys and the Millers. In time, I also hope that I learn about the fate of the lodge, and whether there are any members alive who remember meeting in this building.

Side view of the building. It is a concrete block building with a gable front roof, brick chimney, and several windows.

Interior of the building as it appeared in late 2012.

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.