Evergreen Cemetery ~ Murfreesboro, Tennessee

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(Post still in progress)

Evergreen Cemetery was my second stop on my way back from Atlanta last week...

From Wikipedia, here's a little background information ~

Evergreen Cemetery is a 90-acre cemetery located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

The cemetery began as a slave cemetery until its owner, Dr. James Maney

(the owner of Oaklands Plantation), deeded a 20-acre portion of his land to the city

of Murfreesboro in 1872 to replace the "Old City Cemetery" which is located near downtown

Murfreesboro. The cemetery is the final resting place for many notable people from Tennessee

and the grounds are home to centuries old maple, oak and magnolia trees.

Some of the trees pre-date the cemetery and a number of the headstones are more than

140 years old.

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This was my favorite monument in the cemetery, a lovely white marble mourning

figure (love her little tiara) marking the grave of Martha E. Collier, only fourteen years old.

(Collier was my mom's maiden name, and there are lots of Colliers in this cemetery...

Related? I'll save that search for another day... ;)

Her scroll reads "Gone to join the Angels".

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A beautifully draped obelisk...

Draped fabric, fringe, tassels...

I'm always fascinated my these "soft" elements sculpted in stone.

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A classically posed angel (seems there's at least one of these in cemeteries of any size)

getting ready to drop a blossom from the variety she has in her apron...

(and she has a star ~ always a favorite element).

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Gabriel with a broken wing...

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A pretty view...

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The gravesite of Sarah Elizabeth Tompkins.

This was one of the most elaborate "natural" memorials I've come across...

So many elements/symbols from the Victorian Rustic Movement!

The "log" frame, of course; the climbing ivy and rock cairn are also common ~

but this also has a potted Calla Lily, broken right off!

Symbolizing "beauty"...and her life cut short.

So unique!

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"Oh! Wife dear: a short farewell.
That we may meet again above.
And rove where angels love to dwell.
Where trees of life bear fruits of love."

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A stylized version of the "hand and scroll"...

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Always, so many little lambs.

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Little Forrest Lee Jordan...named for Confederate Generals, maybe?

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Lenore

Ah, broken is the golden bowl! The spirit flown forever!

Let the bell toll! A saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;

And, Guy de Vere, hast thou no tear?

Weep now or nevermore!

See! On yon drear and rigid bier low lies the love, Lenore!

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Come! Let the burial rite be read ~ the funeral song be sung!

An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young ~

A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

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"Wretches! Ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,

And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her ~ that she died!

How shall the ritual, then, be read? The requiem how be sung?

By you ~ by yours, the evil eye ~ by yours, the slanderous tongue.

That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?"

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Peccavimus; but rave not thus! And let a Sabbath song

Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong.

The sweet Lenore hath "gone before" with Hope, that flew beside,

Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride.

For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies,

The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes.

"Avaunt! Avaunt! From fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven ~

From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven ~

From grief and groan, to a golden throne, 

beside the King of Heaven!

Let no bell toll, then ~ lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth,

Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damned Earth!

And I! Tonight my heart is light! No dirge will I upraise,

But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!"

Edgar Allan Poe



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Within this circle lies the remains of over 2000 gallant Confederate soldiers who
gave their lives in the battles in and around Murfreesboro during The War Between The States,
1861-1865. They were first buried on the battlefield where they died defending their native
southland. In 1867 under the direction of Captain Edwin Arnold they were moved to the original
Confederate cemetery two miles south of Murfreesboro on the Shelbyville hughway.
In February of 1890 this plot was granted to Joseph Palmer Bivouac No. 10 of the
Association of Confederate Soldiers, Tennessee Division.
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