Zack Taylor Batey Cemetery, Blackman, Rutherford County, TN

I found this small cemetery by searching zoning maps. It is located at the back of a yard of a home. It is surrounded by a low thick brick wall. There appears to be about 8-10 burials here. The large marker in the middle has a listing of the members of this family that are buried here. All the rest of the markers that I could see were fieldstones except for one. The one marker with an inscription is a small modest marker that says:
Jennie O Pishan McGuire Nicks Sep 25, 1877-Dec 16, 1931
The family marker lists the following names:

Zack Taylor Batey Nov 18, 1848-Dec 9, 1920
Katherine Richardson Batey Mar 2, 1859-Feb 22, 1923
Albert Green Batey Dec 6, 1879-Aug 5, 1929
Evelyn Macklin Batey Sep 7, 1899-Oct 11, 1899
James LaFayette Batey Jr Feb 16, 1925-Jul 18, 1926
Lorena Lynne Batey Sep 11, 1954-Sep 13, 1954
Lola Katherine Tramel Sep 15, 1964-Sep 15, 1964

According to some sources, Zack Batey is the grandson of Captain William Batey, a Revolutionary War soldier who settled near Blackman and is buried a few miles south of here. Zack's father is listed as Benjamin Bass Batey, whose grave I have not located, though a wife and another son, James M. Batey, are said to be buried in another small cemetery a few streets over. However that cemetery can not be found at this time.

New Year!

One of my resolutions is to spend more time keeping this blog up to date. One of the first things I'm going to do is post information on all of the cemeteries that I have found in my county, Rutherford County, Tennessee, that were never listed in the historical society's books. These are cemeteries that I found spending hours and hours researching old maps, zoning maps, various books about the county and its history, and time spent simply driving every road in the county looking. Then I hope to get back to posting some of the more interesting cemeteries, graves and stories about cemeteries from the southeast. I hope you enjoy reading them.

Battle of Franklin, TN Unknown Soldier is reburied

Back in May of this year, the news broke that the bones of a Civil War soldier had been found at a construction site in Franklin. It really came as no surprise to me, I'm more surprised that it doesn't happen more often. It probably does, but most people don't seem to care and dirt is hauled away from construction sites daily without nary a bother to look for anything historical. And I'm still rankled by the thought of the mass grave underneath the Dominoes Pizza across from the Carter House, but that's a whole other story.

On this day in May, workers uncovered the bones and a few artifacts while digging for the foundation of a new condo complex. The location is next to the new Target shopping center, which sits near the base of Winstead Hill. It was never determined whether or not this soldier was Union of Confederate, though most of the fabric found was of a blueish hue. There were Southerners who wore blue, and the area was decidedly an area where Confederates would have died. But there were skirmishes in the years leading up to the Battle of Franklin, which took place on November 30, 1864. Skirmishes everywhere from Columbia to Nashville. And on the day of the battle, there were Union forward pickets who possibly could have been this far south of the main lines of battle.

But it matters not for who this soldier fought. It matters that he died fighting for his country, whether it be to keep the Union whole or for the rights that Southerners so dearly wanted. He was someone's son, possibly someone's husband, father or brother. He was surely missed when he did not return home. And he deserved to be buried an honorable burial, just as any other soldier who does his duty deserves. And admirably, the City of Franklin gave that to him. He becomes the Unknown Soldier of Franklin, buried at the foot of a new memorial to all of the unknown soldiers who died in the area.
The morning of the funeral was a fittingly moody gray, chilly, windy day. And the crowds were much larger than I expected. The morning began with a service in honor of the soldier, and all soldiers really, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church near Five Points in Franklin. At the conclusion, the casket was laid onto a horse drawn caisson, covered in both the flags of the Union and of the Confederacy, and led through the steets of Franklin.
I was amazed to learn that attending the funeral were two actual sons of Civil War veterans. On the left is Harold Becker, 91, son of Charles Becker who fought in the 128th Indiana Infantry, and on the right is James Brown, 97, son of James H. H. Brown who fought in the 8th Georgia Infantry.
Following the caisson were the women mourners dressed in the period clothing.
Many reenactors also attended and marched in the procession. They represented many of the states that fought during the Civil War.
At Rest Haven Cemetery, the crowd was quite large. I was somewhat surprised to see so many.
The casket being brought through the cemetery by Union and Confederate pall bearers.
At the end of the graveside service was a twenty-one gun salute.
Reenactors from the different states that were represented at the Battle of Franklin brought some soil from their home states to be buried with the unknown soldier. They took turns placing the dirt onto the grave and giving a respectful salute.
This is the memorial to the Unknown Soldier of the Battle of Franklin. This was the best shot I could get of it that day. I will certainly get back to get better photographs of it one day. It was created from the limestone columns that once graced the Capitol building in Nashville. The old columns were replaced in the 1950s. There is a memorial to the stonecutters on the Capitol grounds now. Most of the rest of the columns sit in a field near the old Tennessee State Prison off Briley Parkway.
The pine box, lowered into the ground, covered with the soil of the possible states he could have called home.
I didn't want to be negative at all in this column that is dedicated to someone who died 145 years ago, but I spent a bit of time at the memorial being a bit ticked off. There are far too many people out there with absolutely NO respect for the dead. How much I would loved to have gone over and smacked this guy upside the head. But he wasn't the only one. I saw people on the opposite side of the crowd who could not have actually been 10 feet tall-and I doubt were sitting on someone's shoulders, unless that someone was a weightlifting champion. And the conversations I overheard from many made me wonder why they bothered to come out for this. But then again, there are far too few people these days who have any respect for the dead or for the past. At least my daughter won't be one of them when she grows up.

Grassmere Cemetery, Nashville Zoo, Nashville, Davidson County, TN

The last thing you might expect to see at a trip to the zoo is a cemetery! There is one at the Nashville Zoo in Nashville, Tennessee. The historic house here was built in 1810 by Michael C Dunn. Dunn later sold the home to his son-in-law, Lee Shute, who later gave the home and land to his son, William and new bride, Lavinia. One of their daughters married Willam Croft, and his daughters, Elise and Margaret, eventually came to live at Grassmere until their deaths. It was their idea to leave the home and land to the city of Nashville as a place to study animals and nature.

The land was owned by the Children's Museum for many years. Eventually, in 1996, the Nashville Zoo at Joelton closed and moved to the Grassmere Park. Despite being a zoo featuring wild animals such as tigers and elephants, the area around the Croft home has been maintained as a working 19th century farm. The home can be toured, there is a full garden, barn with farm animals, and the family cemetery.

Those buried here include original owner Michael C Dunn(1770-1853) and his wife Elizabeth(1781-1837); his son John R Dunn(1803-1836); the Croft sisters, Margaret(1889-1974) and Elise(1894-1985); and various other family members. Supposedly the Shute family members were moved to Mt Olivet in Nashville, but the marker for Lavinia is still here and there are no markers for them at Mt Olivet.