In this part of the country, there are several kinds of burial grounds:
Except for the public and military cemeteries which are maintained on a regular schedule with public funds, the other types of gravesites exhibit a range of maintenance ranging from abandoned and unkept to graveyards that are mowed weekly and where the stones are kept erect and in good repair.
The same labor problems that affect the gathering of hay and the mending of fences and barn affect the rural cemeteries. The smaller family plots in particular quickly fall into disorder, especially if the plot is fenced or walled. In these plots, a process like that in the fence row begins to occur. Soon the plot is infested with weeds and vines and then small saplings appear. Eventually the plot becomes rife with weeds and saplings, and the larger saplings begin to push against the gravestones. As the saplings mature, the roots begin to heave the stones aside or encircle foot markers in heavy coils of roots. Clearing and restoring such a site overrun with vegetation can be difficult. As families pass from the land and the grandchildren move away, these old sites have fallen into decay by the dozens throughout the rural areas of Tennessee. [They are noted on topographic maps by a small dotted rectangle with a cross above it.]
The great difficulty in maintaining a traditional gravesite is mowing and weeding around the gravestone. In a graveyard of several dozen or more burials, this chore if performed weekly would be more than any family could keep up. In a cemetery like that the University Cemetery in Sewanee, the weeding problem is multiplied many fold because most of the plots have plot boundary edging in addition to large gravestones. At the foot of Sewanee mountain on the straight section of Rt. 64 into Cowan, there are two family graveyards visible from the road on the left, but the causal driver never perceives that these are graveyards. They are walled and even though they each contain about thirty graves, the thicket that has grown up within and around them completely hides their identity.
By contrast, this labor intensive dimension of grave keeping is avoided in the newest public cemeteries by policies that require surface mounted grave markers. This kind of cemetery can be seen just past the intersection of Rt. 64 and the Connector Road on the right on the way into Winchester. This very large cemetery has no above ground stones and can be effectively maintained with a riding mower. The above ground ornamentation consists of containers of plastic flowers mounted by means of a special narrow-necked support that does not interfere with the mower.
There are many things to note about graveyards, but one type of marking on stones may be unfamiliar to this generation of students. Some stones contain in the center of the stone what appear to be two overlapping engineers tools forming a diamond with the bold capital letter "G" in the middle. These stones mark the graves of members of the fraternity of Masons; sometimes the letters AF&AM occur which stand for Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Freemasonry is alleged to be an ancient brotherhood which reappeared in its present organizational form in the seventeenth century in Europe. It was popular in America at the time of the American Revolution and has remained popular until the last two decades when membership began to decline. Most rural graveyards in the south will contain at least one or two Masonic burials. On occasion, a Baptist graveyard will be entirely lacking in Masonic burials because of the strong anti-Masonic stance of some nineteenth century Baptists to all fraternal organizations.
A Sampler of graveyards.
A Sampler of gravestones.