- So there are 80,000 people buried in Elmwood, and Elmwood was founded in 1852.

So lots of Memphis history was founded here.

When the cemetery was started there were several other cemeteries located downtown.

Two of them notably were the Butler Morris and the Winchester Cemeteries.

And those cemeteries, after a time, for various reasons, were closed.

And most of the inhabitants, the residents we like to call them, were disinterred.

If you don't know what that word is, it means to be dug up and moved somewhere else.

So most of the residents were disinterred and moved over to Elmwood, which helped Elmwood really gain a reputation for being a solid cemetery for Memphians to use.

So, you know, those people who, old Memphis history, were brought here.

So if you ever come to Elmwood and you're walking around and you see gravesites that, you know, date back to the 1830s, the late 1820s, that's why.

So some of the people the public might not know are buried here... We have many veterans buried in the cemetery.

It's a tradition that I'm very proud of.

And one of them is an American Revolutionary War veteran named John Smith.

Now, he's not the John Smith that you're thinking of.

It's not the Pocahontas story.

I wish, but no, this is a different John Smith.

And he was buried in the Winchester Cemetery and moved to Elmwood.

And, his daughter married Isaac Shelby, and that's the man for whom Shelby County was named.

Other people who were buried at Elmwood that the public might not be familiar with: Dorothea Spotswood Henry Winston.

Now, that's deep American history.

She is the daughter of Patrick Henry.

We all remember Patrick Henry's, you know, words, "Give me liberty or give me death."

She grew up in the household with him.

And to imagine the people who would have been at her dinner table, would have been just fascinating.

Unfortunately, there's not a terrible amount written about her, but my imagination goes wild when I think about her and the things that she would have been privy to, in her formative years.