Old Gray Cemetery, Knoxville, Tennessee

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name =Old Gray Cemetery
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location = 543 N. Broadway
Knoxville, Tennessee
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added = December 4, 1996
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refnum = 96001402
mpsub = Knoxville and Knox County MPS
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Old Gray Cemetery is Knoxville, Tennessee's oldest cemetery, with the exception of the First Presbyterian Church cemetery. It is located on Broadway, between Tyson and Cooper Streets.

It is named in honor of Thomas Gray, author of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. The name was suggested by Mrs. Henrietta Brown Reese, wife of Judge William B. Reese and the first president of the cemetery board of trustees. It was originally known as Gray Cemetery, until New Gray Cemetery was established in 1892.

The cemetery consists of thirteen acres, and was established in 1850. Before it was established, it had been an open pasture. The grounds include many old oak trees, as well as examples of Victorian architecture. The curvilinear streets also add to feel of the property. Its perimeter fences, layout, grave markers, and the lodge and gateposts on Broadway are notable.

Notable monuments

There are several monuments of significance. The Horne monument is a near life-size monument marking the graves of two Confederate Army veterans. The Shepard monument marks the grave of Knoxville's first embalmer, and was reputed to have been used to store illegal liquor during Prohibition. The Porter's Lodge, constructed in the late 19th Century, is a marble, one story rectilinear structure with a hip roof.

Notable interments

The cemetery is the resting place of many significant Tennesseans. These include Governors William Gannaway Brownlow and Robert Love Taylor. U.S. Senator Lawrence Tyson, U.S. Treasury Secretary Thomas McClung, Confederate Colonel Henry M. Ashby and General William R. Caswellare are buried here. Women's suffrage leader Lizzie Crozier French; Charles McClung, son-in-law of Knoxville's founder and the surveyor who laid out James White's Fort; and Joseph Alexander Mabry, Jr., immortalized in Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" and owner of the Mabry-Hazen House, are also buried here.

References

* "Knoxville: Fifty Landmarks." (Knoxville: The Knoxville Heritage Committee of the Junior League of Knoxville, 1976), page 31.

External links

* [http://www.discoveret.org/oldgray/home.htm Old Gray Cemetery Home Page]
* [http://www.knoxmpc.org/historic/areas/citylist.htm Knoxvill MPC Historic List]