POLK CEMETERY, CARTERS CREEK ROAD, MAURY COUNTY, TENNESSEE

An endangered Cemetery


Near the southeast corner of the intersection of Butler Creek (also called Roy Sellers Rd) and Carters Creek Pike 

Finding Polk Cemetery - Locator Map   Area Views of the cemetery

KIRBY, Wright, Esq., 25 Apr 1778 - 13 Jul 1824. Age 54 years
KIRBY, Monroe P., 3 Jul 1826 - 15 Nov 1829. Age 3 years.	
KIRBY, Lemuel E., 11 Jan 1837 - 31 Aug 1837. (Son of Ethelbert & Nancy Kirby)

The remains of the Polks listed below were moved to St John Cemetery several years ago. The cemetery was named
after the Polk's who lived in the Polk Antebellum Mansion which stood nearby until 1942 when it burned.
(Links below take you to St Johns Cemetery.)

POLK, John, died 24 May 1845. age 78 years. (Revolutionary War soldier.) (Note:This box tomb was moved from 
the Polk Cemetery on Carter's Creek Pike.)
POLK, Elizabeth Anderson, died 24 Nov, 1829, age 63, (Wife of John Polk) (Note:This box tomb was moved from
the Polk Cemetery on Carter's Creek Pike.)

Three box tombs belonging to the Kirby family remain in this cemetery. The Polk graves were moved to St Johns 
cemetery where many other Polk kin are buried. This cemetery was surrounded  by a rock wall at on time that 
kept the livestock from damaging it. That has long since fallen or been destroyed. The rocks for the wall are 
scattered around the cemetery. There is no easy way to evaluate unmarked graves in this cemetery due to the 
loose rocks.

The Polk Cemetery with the Kirby memorials lined up. The boxtombs are broken and barely standing.

Published in the book "They Passed This Way" by Marise Lightfoot and Evelyn Shackelford, Page B-76.
Published again in "Maury County Tennessee Cemeteries" 20 Jan 1987, by Fred Lee Hawkins, page 143.
Visited, transcribed and photographed for this site on a clear cold day, 30 Jan 2008, by Wayne Austin.