ALDREDGE CEMETERY (Earl Townsend Road) GILES COUNTY, TENNESSEE


Mapping the Location

Aldredge Cemetery overview photos:  8626/8627/8628/8629/8630/8631
Photo from Mud Bottom Bridge picturing the Little Shoals Creek near this cemetery - aiming the camera southward: 8632

The two old historic homes along the east end of Earl Townsend Road in the "Hollar" called Mud Bottom were owned by folks who lived in this valley and were related in some way:
The old Earl Townsend Home - in earlier years - they raised a large family here: 8578L
Earl & his wife's grave monument in Booth Chapel Cemetery on Findagrave: Earl Townsend Memorial (off site-Findagrave). The road bears his namesake.
The Smitty Howard home. Smitty Townsend who is named after him said his Father, Earl b. 1891 & Smitty Howard often hunted together years ago: 8579

JOHNSON, Mamie Agnis, circa 18 Oct 1884 - 19 Mar 1885, Our Baby, dau of T.D. & P.A. Johnson. Died March 19, 1885. Age 4 months & 29 days. (daughter of Thomas D. "Tom" Johnson 1852-1914 and Priscilla Ann "Ann" Jones Johnson 1854 - 1931. The parents Thomas D. Johnson married Priscilla A. Jones 3 Apr 1881 in Giles County, Tennessee and are interred in the Shoals Bluff Church Cemetery a few miles north from here. Ann Jones Johnson 1854 - 1931 was the d/o John L. and Rose Williams Jones.  I do not know what the P. stood for in her name, but the A. of course was for Ann.) 8620/8621/8622/8625

+Unknown fieldstones marking graves in the cemetery: 8623/8624

Genealogy by Linda Dean
 

There was thought to be an Aldredge/(Eldredge) family living near here and the woman of the house was of American Indian descent. The family wouldn't let her be buried with the white people across the street in the Legg-Coffman Cemetery so this cemetery was created for her.

The Aldredge Cemetery is straight back upon the hill side 350 yards from where Smith Howard was raised and in my estimation the Aldredge family may have lived in that old house before the Howards did. Those old houses typically were founded from about 1840 to 1890. I am told this is Smith Howard's parent's house and it is still standing today, no one is living in it as it has been long since abandoned. 8579

The listing above is the only marked grave in this cemetery that I could find. If you can identify the unmarked graves please write me and list them for inclusion here.

This cemetery was about 50 feet by 40 feet and the whole site was covered in fully bloomed (spring time) Buttercups with also about 5 rugged Texas Bear Grass plants that can live hundreds of years. All these plants were lovingly planted by someone in the past with great respect for the interred here.

I could not survey the unmarked graves because of the flowers, but did notice two fieldstones still standing. Also the five Texas Bear Grass Plants may mark graves as they were scattered as if they did.

We are indebted to Smitty Townsend for taking me to this site; to Sue Davis and her friend Linda Dean for their knowledge of this place and also the book Giles County Cemeteries by the Historical Society, 1985.

This publication is based on the photography and visit by C. Wayne Austin 7 Feb 2012. Photographed with the help of Smitty Townsend and his sister Annie Townsend Hendrix & her husband David. Added to this site 12 Feb 2012 by C. Wayne Austin. This listing was previously published in the book Giles County Tn Cemeteries by the Historical Society, 1985 as a footnote in the Legg-Coffman Cemetery.