Martha Dandridge Garden Club Jefferson County Historian Bob Jarnagin presented a fascinating History of the Dandridge Revolutionary Graveyard
The Martha Dandridge Garden Club (MDGC) met on February 23, at 1:00 pm at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Jefferson County Historian Bob Jarnagin presented a fascinating History of the Dandridge Revolutionary Graveyard, including surprising news about the graves in the graveyard. In 1785 the Reverend Henderson organized the Hopewell Presbyterian Church. The church meeting house was a large log building located in what is now the graveyard. When Jefferson County was formed in 1792, this spot was chosen as the county seat. The new town of Dandridge was named after Martha Dandridge Custis Washington in 1793. Francis Dean, who held the land grant, transferred 50 acres to the Commissioners of the Town of Dandridge, excluding three acres previously transferred to the church within which the meeting house and graveyard lay. After the Hopewell Presbyterian Church relocated to a new building in 1843, the graveyard became abandoned and overgrown. It continued in that condition until the Martha Dandridge Garden Club was formed in 1927, with the mission of restoring the graveyard. Since that time the MDGC has cared for the graveyard and its gardens. The graveyard holds about 100 marked graves, but it turns out that there are many more. In October 2013, Bob Jarnagin was contacted by Barry Phillips of Cleveland, TN, who offered to donate his time and expertise to use dowsing to locate unmarked graves in the Revolutionary War Graveyard. The dowsing process indicated about 380 unmarked grave sites. Bob Jarnagin showed videos in which he and Ann Bloomquist of the Jefferson County Historical Society filmed the possible grave sites, which were temporarily marked with survey flags. In 21 rows of evenly-spaced sites there appear to be about 480 graves in the graveyard. MDGC members were very interested to hear this news and thank Bob Jarnagin for bringing it to us and to the community. Thanks also to the meeting hostesses: Luly Atkins, Becky Felty, Caroline Sherouse, and Donna Suppa.
The next meeting of the MDGC will be a tour of the Renovatus Farm in Jefferson City on March 23rd. Renovatus is a recovery community for those seeking to be free from a drug or alcohol addiction. The farm helps develop work skills and training for those to whom Renovatus is ministering. Anyone wishing to take the tour may carpool from Food City in Dandridge at 12:30 pm. The tour begins at 1:00 pm. Guests are welcome. MDGC membership is open to anyone interested in gardening, and costs $25 per year.
