ELMWOOD ~ (Part 1 - Memphis Cemetery Tours)

RJ JUKES
ELMWOOD ~ Memphis Cemetery Tour
Part I

The first in this series and a lil darker than the rest this vid features a tour of one of the most historic cemeteries in the South ... ELMWOOD . A tad creepy, but not near has scary as the shorts, white socks and black Converse I was wearing while filming the tour. It was a hot Memphis day .

You will recognize alotta of Memphis mainstreets on the monuments. Featured are yje Montgomery, Snowden, EH "Boss" Crump, The Falls, Herman Frank Arnold (Dixie), and Wade Bolton ... among others .

Elmwood Cemetery was established on August 28, 1852. Buried here are Memphis pioneer families: 14 Confederate generals; victims of the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878; Governors Isham G. Harris and James C. Jones; U.S. Senators Kenneth D. McKellar, Thomas B. Turley, and Stephen Adams, who succeeded Jefferson Davis in the Senate; E.H. Crump, prominent political leader for decades, along with 21 other mayors of Memphis; and Robert Church, the South's first black millionaire.

Fifty Memphis gentlemen committed $500 each to purchase land and establish a new cemetery 2.5 miles from town in 1852. Originally consisting of 40 acres, it was expanded after the Civil War to 80 acres.

In the 1870s the original corporation was dissolved and Elmwood became one of the oldest nonprofits in Tennessee. Since then, Elmwood Cemetery has become the final resting place to over 75,000 inhabitants including mayors, governors, madams, blues singers, suffragists, martyrs, generals, civil rights leaders, holy men and women, outlaws and millionaires.

Elmwood was established as part of the Rural Cemetery Movement which swept the nation in the early to mid 1800s. It is a classic example of a garden cemetery with its park-like setting, sweeping vistas, shady knolls, large stands of ancient trees, and magnificent monuments.

During the Victorian Era, the popular view of death became romanticized; death was now represented by symbols including angels, flowers, and plants. These ideas are reflected in the many magnificent monuments, mausoleums and life-sized figures.

Elmwood is the final resting place of those who created Memphis history and has emerged today as Memphis' finest and oldest active cemetery.

The grounds of Elmwood Cemetery were entered on the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 2002.

I have always loved old cemeteries for their ability to shed so
much light on the history of a region as well as
the craftsmanship that goes into such areas

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