A History of Restoration

A History of Restoration. . The grounds of the City Cemetery began to decline after it was closed in 1878. The stigma of disease that pushed the City Council to pass ordinances allowing only families with open plots to continue burials all but sealed the fate of Nashville's oldest public burial ground. A small number of the families began removing remains and transferring them to Mt. Olivet, as well, including such prominent figures as Felix Grundy., The plank fence that surrounded the cemetery fell into disrepair and was replaced by support wire once used to string the now condemned suspension bridge over the Cumberland River. The bridge was built by the Federal army during the occupation of Nashville in 1862 after the retreating Confederate army burned the structure to slow the advance of Union troops into Nashville., In 1878, the Health Department made the recommendation that the graves be removed and, again, the cemetery be turned into a memorial park. Nashvillians opposed the idea and the City Cemetery remained intact. , In 1868, a letter to the editor of the Nashville Banner noted that the cemetery was overcrowded. The letter suggests that a new location for the cemetery be found and the current grounds turned into a park., Felix Grundy (1777-1840), Considered one of Tennessee's greatest criminal lawyers, Felix Grundy, it was said, could "stand on a street corner and talk the cobblestones to life." A native Virginian (now West Virginia), he was born in 1775 in Berkeley County, just a few miles from the Maryland border. At the age of three Grundy moved with his family across the Appalachian frontier to Kentucky. After attending Salem Academy, where he read law under famed attorney George Nicholas, Grundy served on the state's second constitutional convention. in 1800, he became a member of the Kentucky legislature and emerged as a chief opponent of another young promising politician, henry Clay, a long-time rival and friend. Seven years later, Grundy was appointed Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. , In 1807, resigned his seat on the Kentucky bench and moved to Nashville. However, his return to practicing law full-time was short-lived. In 1811, he re-entered politics and was elected to Congress. A strong proponent of the War of 18 12, a popular slogan of the period blamed conflict on "Madison, Grundy, and the Devil."In the years that followed, Grundy was a prominent supporter of Andrew Jackson, this time in the United States Senate, and vigorously opposed the re-charter of the Second Bank of the United States. Later, he served as President Martin Van Buren's Attorney general (1838-1839) and as mentor to future President James K. Polk (1844-1848), himself a Tennessean and who read law under Grundy. He returned to the U.S. Senate in late 1839 and served until his death, Dec. 19, 1840., Ann Rodgers Grundy, Born in Lunenberg County, Virginia in 1779, Ann Phillips Rodgers moved with her family to Danville, Kentucky in 1781. One of nine children, her father, John Rodgers, was a mill operator and a veteran of the American revolution. her mother, Margaret Ann (Dougherty) Rodgers, spent much of her youth as a captive in a Shawnee Ohio River Valley village during the French and Indian War (1755-17620. Ann married Felix Grundy in 797 in Greene County, Kentucky. In all, she bore him ten children; seven daughters and three sons. A few years after their arrival in Nashville, the Grundy's became members of the First Presbyterian Church, now called Downtown Presbyterian. As part of the Female Bible and Charitable Society of Nashville, Ann distributed clothing and food to the city's poor. In 1820, she helped found with Samuel P. Ament, a Methodist, the nondenominational "Union" Sunday school. Classes were held in a small building to the rear of today's McKendree Methodist Church. The school was discontinued in 1822 when Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists each organized independent denominational schools. Following her death in 1847, the couple's downtown mansion, Grundy Place, was sold to President James K. Polk., A Renewed Interest, In 1927, the James Robertson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution petitioned Nashville Mayor Hilary Howse to restore and make improvements to the Robertson family graves. The city restored the tombs, laid a walkway to the plot, constructed an iron fence, and erected a tomb at the grave of Felix Robertson. Trees were also planted to offer shade to the gravesite. The DAR agreed to maintain the lot. , in 1954, D. Stanley Horn, President of the Tennessee Historical Society and noted Civil War historian, again pushed the Mayor's Office to restore the cemetery. Architect Edwin Keeble was hired to design a new office for the sexton to protect the cemetery's records. However, other than the construction of the record's office, few major repairs were made. , Finally, in 1958, Mayor Ben West asked the Board of Aldermen to appropriate $75, 000 to restore and upgrade the cemetery. Monuments were repaired, roads resurfaced, lights and street signs were added, trees and shrubs were planted, and memorial plaques were installed to recognize some of the dignitaries buried there. , A Plan of Action, By the 1990's the cemetery was again in disrepair. Buildings and roads were deteriorating, iron fencing around family plots was vandalized, and many headstones were damaged and almost impossible to read. Local limestone was the material of choice for the majority of the monuments in the 1800s, however, the rock was both soft and soluble. Weather combined with emissions from a nearby cotton seed mill, hastened the decay of the stone., A renewed effort to restore and preserve the cemetery began in 1998 with the formation of the Nashville City Cemetery Association, a Friends organization created by the Metro Historical Commission with assistance from concerned citizens and descendants. The NCCA organized public programming events to educate Nashvillians on the history of the cemetery, and recover lost information about the cemetery and those buried there. In 2005 and 2006, the organization, along with a host of volunteers, generated the first complete list of tombstone inscriptions since 1908. A phot log was also produced of all remaining inscriptions. Mayor Bill Purcell and the Metro Council appropriated funds for a full restoration.