Richardson Cemetery, Smyrna, Rutherford County, TN

I have my daughter to thank for finding this small graveyard. It is located along her bus route, and one day she came home to say she thought she had seen some headstones. At first I dismissed her claim, as I knew there were no cemeteries at all in the vicinity of her school. After she later insisted that she had indeed seen headstones(that's my girl!), I had to check it out.

This small burial area is located just off Old Nashville Highway on Todd Lane. There are eight marked graves and an unknown number of unmarked. Only 2 of the graves have actual headstones, one being a military marker and the other a modest small flat granite marker.

The military marker belongs to Leonard S Richardson, 2nd Lt US Army, who died May 23, 1999. The other marker is for Larry Crawford Jr, who died April 18, 1984. The other markers are all funeral home markers. The surnames(that I could read) include Richardson and Davis. The most remarkable one is for Michael R Davis, who died May 23, 1974. His funeral home marker has been fixed onto a concrete slab, and it still lovingly reads "Pork and Beans" in the type at the top.

Brown and Elder Cemetery, Leanna, Rutherford County, TN

This African-American cemetery is located just east of State Route 840 on Joe Brown Rd and north of the exit to Sulphur Springs Rd. As it is still a fairly new cemetery, I did not photograph most of the markers. Many were simply funeral home markers. There are probably 50-75 graves, maybe more unmarked. Many of the surnames are Brown and Elder, with Alexander, Finney, Gooch and Smith also. I'm not certain if I had found the "Joe Brown", but there was a marker that was a small homemade concrete cross with letters bought from a supply store-but most had faded and could not be read.

The main sign was down when I visited, I hope to get back one day and get a better photo of the entrance.

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.