OH-20: NASHVILLE, DAVIDSON COUNTY, TN

 

ON MARCH 7, 2003, CEMETERY SURVEY VOLUNTEERS MET WITH THE STATE ARCHAEOLOGIST AND NEIGHBORS TO STUDY A POSSIBLE SITE.   FROM STUDY OF EXISTING 1920s PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE AREA,  FROM REMEMBRANCES OF AN EYEWITNESS TO THE CEMETERY IN THE 1940s,  FROM THE FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS OF THE NEIGHBORS AND AFTER SURFACE EXAMINATION, THE ARCHAEOLOGIST CONCLUDED THAT THE PROBABLE SITE OF THE DILLAHUNTY GRAVEYARD HAD BEEN LOCATED.  NO TOMBSTONES WERE VISIBLE.   DURING BUILDING OF HOUSES IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, 50 YEARS BEFORE, SOME OF THE TOMBSTONES HAD BEEN REMOVED TO THE “DILLAHUNTY CHAPEL” IN A LOCAL HOSPITAL AND THE CEMETERY WAS VIRTUALLY “LOST.”

 

ACCORDING TO FAMILY HISTORIAN,  ROBERT WILLIAMS,  THE DILLAHUNTY CEMETERY WAS ADJACENT TO THE RICHLAND CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY REV. JOHN DILLAHUNTY IN 1796. RICHLAND CREEK WAS THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH WEST OF THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS.  JOHN DILLAHUNTY AND HIS WIFE HANNAH NEAL DILLAHUNTY DIED WITH 3 MONTHS OF EACH OTHER IN 1816 AND WERE BURIED IN THE GRAVEYARD.

 

THE CEMETERY EXISTED AND WAS PHOTOGRAPHED IN 1925.  THE TOMBSTONES WERE COPIED AND RECORDED IN A BOOK,  TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS AND MANUSCRIPTS, COMPILED BY JEANNETTE TILLOTSON ACKLEN AND PUBLISHED IN 1933.  THE TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS:

    

         JOHN DILLAHUNTY, DEC. 8, 1728 – FEB. 9, 1816, WAS FOR

         60 YEARS A MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL, BAPTIST ORDER.

 

         SALLY BEATON DILLAHUNTY DIED ON SUNDAY,

         JUNE 10, 1817, IN 10TH YEAR OF HER AGE

 

         HANNAH DILLAHUNTY, MAY 30, 1732 – MAY 5, 1816

 

         DORCAS BEATON DIED MARCH 22, 1813, AGE 69 YEARS

 

         LUCY McFADDEN DIED AUG. 11, 1843, AGE 45 YEARS

 

         WILLIAM McFADDEN, OCT 7, 1824 – DEC. 4, 1830

 

          JAMES BRANCH McFADDEN, NOV. 13, 1832 – JAN. 23, 1837

 

REPORT. 2-1-2004