Benevolent Society cemeteries of Middle Tennessee

Lately I have been thinking about the number of Benevolent Society cemeteries I have observed in Middle Tennessee, and whether there we can look at these cemeteries as evidence to tell us more about the group itself.  My thoughts are still being clarified, so this is something of an exercise in gathering thoughts in a semi-coherent manner.

To begin, I do not believe I have observed all the cemeteries in Middle Tennessee that were established by the Benevolent Society.  I think that, as the group died out in smaller communities, the cemeteries started by the Benevolent Society were given other names.  Also, I think that it is very possible that some cemeteries were surveyed by well-meaning transcriptionists in the past, and a name assigned to the cemetery that the community that established it would not have recognized.  For example, if a cemetery has fallen into apparent disuse, any sign that existed marking the name of the cemetery may have disappeared.  When a well-meaning genealogist then transcribed the names on the visible tombstones, a name, likely reflecting the last name of one of the families buried there, was assigned to the cemetery.  I also think some may have suffered from development, and after wooden grave markers deteriorated, they were overlooked and forgotten on the landscape.

Marker to the Benevolent Society No. 11 in the Benevolent Cemetery in Murfreesboro

Marker to the "B.O" (Benevolent Order, another name for the Benevolent Society), Port Royal

One thing I have found is that several of these cemeteries have a large, ornate marker to the local chapter of the Benevolent Society.  Examples include the Benevolent Cemetery in Murfreesboro, Mount Ararat in Shelbyville (a Benevolent Society cemetery), and the Benevolent Cemetery in Port Royal. Individual grave markers in these cemeteries are not often that ornate, and this leads me to think that while the Benevolent Society as a whole may have enjoyed some financial stability, the individual members did not enjoy the same level of financial resources.

Monument to the Benevolent Society in Mount Ararat Cemetery in Shelbyville. It reads "Sacred to the memory of the honored dead of the Benevolent Society. Their works do follow them. August 1897."

Commemorative marker for the Benevolent Society at Mt. Ararat Cemetery in Nashville. This cemetery was organized by the Benevolent Society and by the Sons of Relief, another fraternal group.

  Something else noticeable in the Benevolent Society cemeteries is that they are physical representations of the segregated landscape African Americans navigated in Tennessee. Some, such as the Mount Ararat Cemetery in Shelbyville and the Benevolent Society Cemetery in Goodlettsville, are located adjacent or across the road from an older, white cemetery. In the case of the cemetery in Goodlettsville, the two cemeteries, Benevolent Society (African American) and Cole Cemetery (white) are adjacent with no fence between. In that case, it is difficult now to know which cemetery is which, but my gut tells me the community was never in doubt of which cemetery was black and which was white.  I think that more should be done to document cemeteries as sites of segregation in Tennessee, and how Jim Crow pursued you even into death.

Mount Ararat (black) Cemetery in Shelbyville in shown in the foreground. The road and the cemetery in the background (surrounded by a fence) is the white Willow Mount Cemetery, established in the 1840s.

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)