Tennessee, Giles County, Pulaski
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In 1854, the City Board of Mayor and Aldermen of Pulaski recognized the need for an additional cemetery. The initial purchase of what is now Maplewood Cemetery was approximately seven acres. The first lots were sold in 1855. This original design of what was named “New Pulaski Cemetery,” shows the names of the original purchasers of lots. Transfers have taken place over the years. According to the best records available, the first person to be buried here was Robert H. Watkins.
The eastern section of the “New Pulaski Cemetery” was designated as “Potter’s Field”, and indigents and unknowns were given a dignified internment there.
The City Board controlled this property until 1856 when an Act of the Tennessee General Assembly was passed and a charter for a corporation granted. A Board of Trustees was appointed by the City Board to manage the affairs of the cemetery. Oversight continued with Trustees for 139 years until in 1995 the ownership of the cemetery was transferred back to the City of Pulaski.
In 1880 it was suggested that a more attractive name should be given to this “Silent City,” The Board of Trustees appointed a committee and suggestions for a new name were made through the columns of the Pulaski Citizen. The name, Maplewood, was suggested by Mrs. John A. Jackson. It was accepted and the cemetery was formally re-named.
More land has been added over the years, the first of which was six acres on the south side, added in 1878, including a specific area for burial of “Negro citizens.”
Times of turmoil are represented by the graves of those who fought in the Civil War, two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.
This place reflects the history of Pulaski and Giles County as the rich and poor, prominent and unknown, rest in graves marked by unique and beautiful statuary or simple ground stones.
(Cemeteries & Burial Sites) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
In 1854, the City Board of Mayor and Aldermen of Pulaski recognized the need for an additional cemetery. The initial purchase of what is now Maplewood Cemetery was approximately seven acres. The first lots were sold in 1855. This original design of what was named “New Pulaski Cemetery,” shows the names of the original purchasers of lots. Transfers have taken place over the years. According to the best records available, the first person to be buried here was Robert H. Watkins.The eastern section of the “New Pulaski Cemetery” was designated as “Potter’s Field”, and indigents and unknowns were given a dignified internment there.
The City Board controlled this property until 1856 when an Act of the Tennessee General Assembly was passed and a charter for a corporation granted. A Board of Trustees was appointed by the City Board to manage the affairs of the cemetery. Oversight continued with Trustees for 139 years until in 1995 the ownership of the cemetery was transferred back to the City of Pulaski.
In 1880 it was suggested that a more attractive name should be given to this “Silent City,” The Board of Trustees appointed a committee and suggestions for a new name were made through the columns of the Pulaski Citizen. The name, Maplewood, was suggested by Mrs. John A. Jackson. It was accepted and the cemetery was formally re-named.
More land has been added over the years, the first of which was six acres on the south side, added in 1878, including a specific area for burial of “Negro citizens.”
Times of turmoil are represented by the graves of those who fought in the Civil War, two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.
This place reflects the history of Pulaski and Giles County as the rich and poor, prominent and unknown, rest in graves marked by unique and beautiful statuary or simple ground stones.
(Cemeteries & Burial Sites) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Thomas Jones was born in Peron County, North Carolina on December 12, 1816 and moved to Giles County with his family in 1817. Jones received his early education at Wurtemburg Academy and studied at the University of Alabama and University of Virginia. He returned to Pulaski in 1835 and studied law in the offices of Flournoy and Rivers.
John Calvin Brown was born on Giles County, Tennessee on January 6, 1827. He was one of nine children born to Duncan and Margaret Brown and the brother of Neill S. Brown, Governor of Tennessee (1847-1849). A graduate of Jackson College in Columbia, Brown returned to Pulaski and taught “a couple of sessions” at Wortemburg Academy in 1846. When the Civil War began, he was a successful lawyer, active in conservative Whig-Unionist politics. In 1860, he was part of the electoral college, then went on a long trip to Europe.
Adams was born on July 1, 1825, in Nashville, Tennessee, of Irish immigrant parents. Having entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1841, he graduated 25th in his class and was commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons/U.S. Regular Army. He served under Captain Philip Kearny in the Mexican War. Brevetted in 1848 for gallantry and meritorious conduct at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales, he was commissioned 1st lieutenant in 1851 and promoted to captain in 1856.
When spring burst forth, voyageurs paddled from Montreal, Canada to trade at outposts on the Great Lakes. After the long, white northern winter, they welcomed the green of spring found upon reaching Green Bay. Voyagers identified places by natural features, and, thus called this spot "Green" Bay.
Peninsula's eight-mile shoreline is ever changing. Some years, a soggy cobblestone coast cradles sparse populations of unusual flowers. When water is high, crayfish thrive in crevices of the rocky coast, providing food for abundant smallmouth bass.
The proclamation of George III, King of England, in 1763 ordered settlement west of these mountains to stop. The early treaties between the English and the Six Nations accepted this range as the dividing line between them.
Frontier defense, including blockhouse, stockade, and cabins. Part of the chain of forts established by George Washington about 1755. Point of refuge for the Bowmans, Lees, Logsdons and many pioneer families.
On Nov 20, 1863, scout Sam Davis stopped here while carrying dispatches to Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. According to local tradition, he was asleep under a plum tree when two members of the 7th Kansas Cavalry, disguised as Confederates, arrested and searched him. They found newspapers, maps, detailed descriptions of Federal fortifications, and other suspicious items in his boot and saddle seat. Taken to Union headquarters in Pulaski and charged with spying, Davis was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death within a week. Union Gen. Grenville M. Dodge promised Davis a pardon if he would reveal either the source of the papers or the location of the chief of Bragg’s scouts, Capt. E. Coleman (actually Capt. Henry B. Shaw, who was in jail with Davis at that time). Davis refused, saying, “If I had a thousand lives to live, I would give them all rather than betray a friend or the confidence of my informer.” He was hanged Friday morning, November 27.
Picnikers in sailboat days gave the key its name. In World War I, it was a Naval air base. In 1930, Pan American World Airways here inaugurated flying boat service to Latin America, erecting huge hangars and a terminal. The U.S. Government dredged first channel in history especially for aircraft. Over 100,000 visitors a month came to see the giant Flying Clippers.
On Thursday afternoon, February 19, 1891, Flora McFarlane and five other pioneer women of Dade County founded the Housekeepers Club, the first organized women's club in South Florida. The purpose was to bring the housekeepers of the area together for companionship. The club's first project was to raise money for a new Sunday school building. Miss McFarlane was elected president and dues were set at 40 cents a year.
Lincoln County was a Confederate stronghold during the Civil War. Local men formed companies for the Confederate army before Tennessee seceded. In April 1861, Col. Peter B. Turney organized the 1st Confederate Infantry Regiment (first in the state) in nearby Winchester, and it departed for Virginia the following month. The county provided almost 5,000 Confederate soldiers who served in at least six infantry regiments, three cavalry units, and an artillery battery. Some residents enlisted in the U.S. Army, but no Union companies were raised here.
In 1881 David Baldwin discovered small fossilized bones
on what is now Ghost Ranch. He mailed the bones to
paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in Philadelphia. Cope had been through the area in the late 1870s and had urged Baldwin to explore and see what he could collect. In 1889 Cope named the little dinosaur Coelophysis bauri after Georg Baur, a German morphologist. (Coelophysis means “hollow form,” referring to the lightly constructed bones.)
