Benevolent Cemetery

Benevolent Cemetery is a Tennessee historical marker in Rutherford County.

1160 Park Ave

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In 1897, Lodge #11 of the Colored Benevolent Society established this cemetery to serve Murfreesboro's African Americans in the era of Jim Crow segregation. Members included Berry Seward, the city's first black electrician, and Drs. George C. Harden and John McClellan, both graduates of Meharry Medical College. The cemetery's approximate 800 burials include workers, professionals, trades people, and veterans from the Indian Wars, Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World Wars I and II. In 1988 Mrs. Mary Finch sold the cemetery to Allen Chapel AME Church trustees to ensure its preservation.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1862 · Johnson's Kentucky & Tennessee (1862) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1864 · Kentucky And Tennessee (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1891 · Middle Tennessee Campaign. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1916 · Murfreesboro, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1950 · Murfreesboro, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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