Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Excellent map source

I have recently discovered an excellent map to search for cemeteries. It is located on the Rutherford County website. It is called a GIS map and when zoomed in to a low enough level shows the zoning map for the entire county. More often that not, cemeteries show up as small squares on the map. Mousing over them gives the information that it is indeed a cemetery-often showing the name of the cemetery and sometimes even the exact address. It can also show who owns the land/property surrounding a cemetery, though that doesn't always help when it comes to contacting someone about it. My general motto is, that if it cannot be seen from the road and is on private property, then I will likely never see it. Unless of course progress steps in(see post below!).

It can be time-consuming, going over so much area. I spent five hours looking over it yesterday and I only looked at the Smyrna, LaVergne and northern Murfreesboro areas. I will likely use this tool to get as much information as I can for cemeteries that I have yet to find when I list them on my website.

I am now very curious to see if there are GIS maps available for any surrounding counties, perhaps to aid in my hunt for the graves of Revolutionary War Soldiers of Williamson County.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Progress-the good, the bad and the ugly

I'm not really sure where I stand on "progress". Some days I despise it-most days it seems. And then some days, like today, I thank the heavens for it.

Today we went to a new subdivision. There is only one home built so far, and only a few roads laid out and paved. When I spotted the new roads a few days ago I prayed that it was indeed the property I had poured over for so many days on Google Maps. Driving out there today, parking at the farthest road in, and walking across a field of about 200 yards, proved me right. We located a small cemetery(pictured here), the Blackman Cemetery, that had been hidden back here for so many years. It sat about 1/2 mile from all surrounding roads. I was never sure exactly which property it sat on or who owned it. But thanks to progress, it has been found again.

The amount of farmland in my county that is being turned into subdivisions and strip malls is astounding.

And that brings me to the bad. The loss of two of the most historic homes in our county in the past few years, the Jenkin House and the McCulloch-Overall House.


Both of these homes played large roles in the Battle of Stones River. The top photo, the Jenkins Home, was the site of a field hospital for the Union forces. It sat near the intersection of Manson Pike and the interstate. It had sat abandoned for many years, and after exchanging hands a few times(and seemingly not allowing those who wanted to save to well, save it), it was torn down not long after this photo was taken in October of 2005. With the new interchange for Manson Pike, most assuredly someone wants to put a gas station or strip mall here. What a shame.

The other photo is of the McCulloch-Overall House. It was used as a headquarters for Confederate General William J Hardee before the battle. The home had been built in 1838 by Benjamin McCulloch. It was used as photographers studio for many years before being sold. From what I've heard, it was torn down in late 2006 for apartments or a strip mall, but I have not been back over there to see for myself-just the thought of losing this home makes my blood boil.

And then there is the ugly. I don't visit cemeteries in neighboring counties too often, unless they have a real historical significance. There had been one in Antioch, near Bell Road and Murfreesboro Rd, that we had stopped at once to photograph. It wasn't a large cemetery, just a few graves, but it was there and we stopped to photograph it. That was before I had a digital camera, probably back around 2002. I was recently informed that it had been destroyed by developers so we drove over to have a look. Now, I couldn't remember exactly where it was, but knew the general area, up on a small hill between some homes. When we drove by that area, the cemetery, the homes, and indeed the whole small hill had been flattened and there were bulldozers everywhere. Now, I don't know that these graves weren't moved first, but if they were not, that is a sad and miserable ending for this poor family and this little cemetery. I honestly can't imagine something like this happening, but it honestly does not surprise me.

Near the intersection where we exit the interstate to come to our house, there used to be a small graveyard. From what I had learned, when we first moved here, was that the markers had been plowed over when the subdivision was built in the 70s. However there still sat that little piece of land, with the tall weeds at the back, where I assumed the graveyard was-even if the stones were gone. Last year they built a Chem-Dry building on top of it. I hope they are haunted.

To sum this all up, progress can be good when it chooses to be. I can't count the number of small graveyards I have located thanks to progress over the past 5 1/2 years since I moved here and started this project-in fact I might make a list later in the week. But what we are losing at the same time makes me extremely sad and angry. Some subdivisions are built around existing historic homes(the Johns-King Home in Smyrna comes to mind), and some old homes are moved(the Morton house when Stewarts Creek schools were built), but when they are destroyed for no good reason, I cannot see the logic in this.

Please, whatever you do, save our history!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Nice day today

I actually went out and took some photos! Just a few, got some updated cemetery shots for a few that I think I had forgotten to take 'overall' shots of before. They were the Mitchell-Moore Cemetery here in Smyrna, the Baugh Cemetery-which is closer to Blackman, and the Walden Cemetery in Smyrna(which is basically nothing but a shot of some trees-the headstones are well hidden).

Working on the "B" cemeteries today, still getting easily distracted(and not for something productive! I *could* do the dishes, heh!), about 1/4 of the way through them.

Listening to Brad Paisley ALOT! Watched the CMT awards last night. Brad won 'Comedy Video' but didn't get to come up and accept-it was one of those "awarded previously". And he did not win Best Male or Overall Video. Bah, what do those people know anyway?? Smoochies, Brad!!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Blue Angels


We got to see the Blue Angels this weekend at the Smyrna Air Show. We weren't able to actually go *to* the Air Show, we parked at a parking lot across from the airport and watched from there. And despite the cold, it was quite a show! And despite using my little digital camera, I think I got some decent photos, including the one above! There isn't much that is equal to the feeling you get when one of those babies flies directly over you! The sound, the feel, it is incredible! And this comes from someone who is afraid of flying, but is obsessed with airplanes. Weird, I know.

Friday, April 11, 2008

TGIF

I worked on the site a bit today. I got all of the "A" cemeteries done for Rutherford County and uploaded. Working on the photos for the "B" cemeteries now. Thought it might be easier than going chronologically and completely redoing all of the photos, though I will probably do that at some point. I just want to get them all up and on the site as soon as possible. I am avoiding long lists of photos for now. I am trying to just add the "overall" area and gate photos for now. Individual pictures will come later.

The picture here is of one of the old columns from the Tennessee State Capitol. You can see the Capitol Building in the background. The old columns were replaced in 1955. They were originally placed in 1850 and were quarried nearby. Many of the columns ended up in a field near the old Tennessee State Prison. Some of them were brought back to the Capitol in 1996 as a memorial to the stonecutters who built it. Taken by me last summer.


A final note, and a sad one. One of my kid's softball coaches from last year passed away last week. He was only 37, with 2 young kids. His funeral was today. My heart and prayers are with Danielle and Aaron.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Random photo of the day

I have been lax as of late. In fact, I have been on a crusade to get one of my characters to a certain level in World of Warcraft. He will be there tomorrow. So I am hoping Monday to get back to getting serious about my website. In the meantime, I am going to add some photos here as a preview.

I plan to add quite a bit to the history section, and in fact should call it the history & interesting things section. The subsections include: Abandoned buildings; Architecture; Boats; Bridges; Churches; Forts; Historical Markers; Houses; Memorials; Planes; Signs; Statues; Trains; Trees; and Weird Buildings. And I have plenty to add to each I think!

More info to come, check back, oh around once a week maybe! Heh.

Forgot to add the info about the photo! I took this of the Trinity Church in downtown Nashville last year. Beautiful little historical church. It was a hospital during the Battle of Nashville, which was fought mostly just south of here.