Many Of Nashville's Most Famous Residents Lie In This Cemetery And The Stories Will Fascinate You
By Meghan Kraft|Published August 24, 2018
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Meghan Kraft
Author
Meghan Kraft loves to travel the world, but she makes her home right here in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a degree in English, and has worked in the digital marketing realm with companies such as Apartments.com, USA Today and HarperCollins Publishing.
Nashville is a city packed full of all kinds of history from every era. The early pioneer days, the battles of the Civil War, the triumphs of the Civil Rights movement, and the immortalization of country music — the city has been there through it all. One of the places in town where you can find monuments to that history — especially the older history — is in City Cemetery. This urban cemetery is home to some of the city’s earliest residents and founding members, and it’s an absolutely beautiful spot to visit.
Due to the cemetery's age, frequent restorations are needed to keep the cemetery preserved, but because of those restorations, we have so much history right at our fingertips.
Two of the most historic graves in the cemetery belong to James Robertson and his wife Charlotte. They were two of the original founding members of Nashville and are the namesakes of Robertson County and the James Robertson Parkway in downtown Nashville.
The cemetery is also home to the newly re-interred remains of Charles Dickinson who had a historic feud with Andrew Jackson and was killed by him in a duel in 1806, 23 years before Jackson would become president. They have reenactments of the duel occasionally, which you can see here.
And here's Timothy Demonbreun sitting at his gravesite. (That's not really him, of course). He was the first citizen of Nashville and is famous for camping out in a cave on the Cumberland River before establishing the settlement.
If you're in to Nashville history, City Cemetery is the place to go. The cemetery is open from dusk 'til dawn every day and admission is of course, always free. You can visit for yourself at 1001 4th Avenue South.
Nashville has plenty of great food options, but these old-school pizza parlors are absolutely worth the trip every time.
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