Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis TN

[dee_burris]

I wanted to go to Elmwood ever since I found out last summer that my g-g-g-grandfather, Nathaniel C Callaway, was buried there, in the section called Confederate Soldiers Rest.

This week, one of my newly found Callaway cousins and I had a Nike moment, and said let's just do it.

So we went today.

We found Nathaniel's grave, with the help of a map with tiny little plot numbers on it, and a very enthusiastic office staffer with a magnifying glass. We also found Levi Callaway's grave - he was a fourth cousin to Nathaniel.

Neither grave was marked, apart from the little concrete markers with the plot numbers, 652 and 140, on them. But now we know where they are, and we can order markers from the government, pay the cemetery to set the stones, and then get our photos.

Elmwood is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is huge, and tours are given by advance request for groups of ten or more. You can take an audio driving tour solo, but we just decided to meander on our own.



I took 202 photos. It was very hard for me to pare down the number to post.



This is a long shot of the Oddfellows section of the cemetery. The name Oddfellows refers to a number of friendly societies operating in the United Kingdom. It also refers to a number of Lodges with histories dating back to the 18th century. These various organisations were set up to protect and care for their members and communities at a time when there was no welfare state, trade unions or National Health Service. The aim was (and still is) to provide help to members when they need it.



All the markers in that section look the same.



Confederate Soldiers Rest was impressive in its size, and the variety of states from which the soldiers came.





The Confederate Soldiers' monument.



This has to be the largest broken tree monument I have ever seen. The tallest I had seen before was about the size of a grown man. This was much larger.



Lt. Col. Snowden's monument is a cenotaph.



He was buried in American Military Cemetery #1 in France.









There were two other photographers shooting this one when we came up on it.













The monument on a child's grave.



The crypts and mausoleums were impressive.







We couldn't figure this one out. It was shaped like a cross, and was completely sealed in concrete.



Side view.





There is a section of interment of cremains of people who donated their bodies to research at death.

Comments

[dee-burris.livejournal.com]

Oh wow...I learn something new every day. Thanks for the correction.

I somehow cannot imagine you going to goofus meetings...

;)

[oakmouse.livejournal.com]

Sure, no problem. The Wikipedia articles were pretty confusing as to who was what when, and an outsider wouldn't have much chance of figuring it out from the way they had things, erm, "organized".

That particular lodge met once a year, and was a chance for the ladies to let their hair down at the state convention. I'm not much of a practical joker by nature, but I got dragged into it by the ear and went along to oblige several friends. I didn't spoil it for them by telling them that their initiation was much tamer than they thought. I had worse in high school at the annual band and orchestra outing. ;)