Did you know?

 Nashville/Davidson County has a program to protect the 465 cemeteries they have identified in their county? Being a metropolitan for of

government grants them a lattitude most counties in Tennessee do not enjoy. But Rutherford County has already identified and mapped

783 cemeteries! Yet state law as currently written does not grant us the authority as a community to protect and preserve this unique

aspect of our cultural heritage.

Why does cemetery preservation matter?

 Many people struggle to answer this question because many of my reasons fall under personal

opinion. Why cemetery preservation might matter to one person because of a loved one but why

should it matter to everyone? The answer is that saving cemeteries is the preservation of

history. It is the preservation of diverse, creative, and very personal histories.

Losing a loved one is one of the most heartbreaking experiences in anyone’s life. The ways in

which we memorialize these loved ones create some of the most heartfelt, emotional, and

sometimes detailed records of that person’s life. History is lost every day. We often lose the

important details of who someone was as a person because we focus on what they did or

invented, sanitizing the humanity out of the history. Tombstones and other cemetery

monuments are typically an expression of how loved ones felt about that person at the time of

their death.  Cemetery symbolism takes this a step further and can give us even more hints

about whom the person buried there was. They were more than a first and last name carved

into a pretty rock.

Cemeteries are among the most valuable of historic resources.

 They are reminders of various settlement patterns, such as villages, rural communities, urban

centers, and ghost towns. Cemeteries can reveal information about historic events, religions,

lifestyles, and genealogy. Names on grave markers serve as a directory of early residents and

reflect the ethnic diversity and unique population of an area. Cultural influence in grave marker

design, cemetery decoration, and landscaping contribute to the complete narrative of Rutherford

 County and Tennessee history. Established in large part for the benefit of the living, cemeteries

perpetuate the memories of the deceased, giving a place character and definition.

Cemeteries serve to preserve our diverse cultural heritage

 Names on grave markers serve as a directory of early residents and reflect the ethnic diversity

and unique population of an area. Many of those most in danger of being lost are our historic

African American cemeteries and those of indigenous Native Americans. Cultural influence in

grave marker design, cemetery decoration, and landscaping contribute to the complete narrative

of our local history. Established in large part for the benefit of the living, cemeteries perpetuate

the memories of the deceased, giving a place character and definition.

Unfortunately, historic cemeteries do not necessarily remain permanent reminders of our

heritage. Across Tennessee, and Rutherford County in particular, they are threatened by

development and expanding urban areas, natural forces such as weathering and uncontrolled

vegetation, lack of fences to keep cattle from toppling headstones, and vandalism and

theft, including removal of headstones and objects. Neglect accelerates and compounds the

process

 Cemeteries need active attention from their communities

 Attention is needed to preserve cemeteries, but they need the right kind of attention. They need

someone who cares enough to cut back the vines, remove the dying trees, fill in the sinkholes,

clean the tombstones (in some cases) or request professional assistance. They need well-

meaning people willing to invest time in understanding the cemetery’s needs. With thoughtful,

well-researched care of our local cemeteries, we too can preserve history for future generations.

We can work together to save and care for these monuments, once so lovingly installed in

memorial of someone’s father, mother, sister, brother. And perhaps in compassionately caring

for these physical manifestations of the community’s memory, we will understand our past in

new ways and build towards a brighter and more accepting future.