RICHARD CHANDLER GRAVE (REMOVED)
NW-42: NASHVILLE, DAVIDSON COUNTY, TN. Original Location on the Bluff
Nathaniel Cross, Esquire, sent a communication to the Tennessee Historical Society, in 1850, about the last grave in the Bluff cemetery. This report was reprinted in W.W. Clayton’s History of Davidson County, Tennessee, 1880, page 344.
Being on the Bluff immediately above the Sulphur Spring this afternoon,
which, as is well known, was formerly a place of burial for our city, as we
now consider it… I observed that there is but one stone left with an inscription
on it to tell who lives beneath. As this, which is a horizontal slab, and is already
considerably defaced and otherwise impaired … and (will) disappear from the
Bluff … I was induced to copy the sole remaining inscription:
ERECTED BY SUNDRY OFFICERS AND COMRADES
To the Memory of Richard Chandler, late 1st Lieut. And Paymaster,
4th Regiment of Infantry. In the Army of the United States, who
deceased on the 20th day of December, 1801, aged 37 years, 7 months
and 16 days.
He lived esteemed an honest man and brave soldier;
He died regretted by all who knew him.
Exalted truth and manly firmness shone
Conspicuous in him beneath this stone.
According to Clayton, “his remains were removed, under the auspices of the Historical Society from the Sulphur Spring Bottom to Mt. Olivet Cemetery, with impressive ceremonies, in which Hon. E. H. East, participated as orator of the day.”
Mt. Olivet Cemetery on Lebanon Pike opened in 1855. Mt. Olivet Interment records list the burial of Lieut. Richard Chandler, on September 23, 1859, in Section 1 Lot 48.
His age was listed, as on the original tombstone slab, as 37 years 7 months 16 days.
Report: 3-12-2004
Return to The Davidson Co Cemetery Survey Page