Suburbs

As suburban neighborhoods have spread outside the boundaries of Memphis, they have engulfed some of the land for farming, smaller communities and rural crossroads.

And small, ancient cemeteries.

This week, reporter Michael Waddell wrote about the Wells Cemetery out in Arlington, one hardly as evident as Memorial Park on Poplar Avenue, Calvary Cemetery in South Memphis or Forest Hill on Whitten Road, where tens of thousands of commuters pass daily.

Instead, Wells is one of those burial grounds that must be protected as people transform the land for other uses. Because in many cases, the gravesites are unknown to people.

Cemeteries have a certain mystique to them. The myths they carry. The atmosphere that accompanies death. The remembrance of the ground where an acquaintance or loved one’s remains are buried. The landscape or having a tree overhead or a bench nearby for someone to sit and reminisce.

Some of the eeriness is compounded by unthinkable practices, such as those that haunted Galilee Memorial Gardens in Bartlett a decade or so ago — a story of misuse and abuse and neglect tucked on large parcel east of North Germantown Parkway on Ellis Road.

There are a number of places inside Memphis that have drawn attention. My colleague Jody Callahan recently wrote about St. John’s Episcopal Church Cemetery on Central Avenue east of the Pink Palace. And other places, like Bettis Family Cemetery on Angelus Street between Poplar and Madison avenues, have been talked about over the years.

The Toll Gate Cemetery in Bartlett, tucked behind Seth’s Lighting on U.S. 64 near Lowe’s, is maintained by Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Bartlett Alderman Kevin Quinn is working with a couple of family cemeteries in his role as president of the Bartlett Historical Society.

Many times, for smaller cemeteries, their lack of use and maintenance over time can leave them in disarray. There are no longer relatives around for people buried a century or more in the past.

When the Bedford Plantation subdivision was built in Germantown off Poplar Avenue at the Collierville border, there was a family plot there. The developer surrounded the handful of graves with an ornamental fence and turned the area into a park-like setting among the homes.

And there are other similar examples throughout the county.

That brings us back to Wells Cemetery. For now, the 1.1-acre site in a field near Arlington Trail south of Interstate 40, will be used for farming. No development is planned around the graveyard, which is amidst 2,500 acres owned by the Fogelmans. Fact is, no one has been interred there since the 1800s, there are no known living relatives of the deceased and the bulk of people aren’t even aware of the graveyard’s existence. Especially outside of Arlington.

But town officials say the resting places will be protected whatever is built there, a requirement landowners understand.

— Clay Bailey, Suburbs editor

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