Lynch Family Cemetery, Madison County, Tennessee

DO YOU IQ~OW A1~IY BITS OF MADISON COUNTY HISTORY (Edited by Charles We MoMillin)

(This article was taken from The Jackson Sun. some 30 odd years ago and shared with us by Robert Nole~"

Today’s mail brought a letter that we believe will prove of interest to

readers of this column. The contents of the letter follows:

"I have a bit of pioneer history that might be of interest (thank you, sir for the next words of the letter) to those interested in Madison County history. Referring to an article I had published in "The Jackson Gazette in November 1899,. my story is as follows:

"About ten miles north of Jackson, in the southern edge of the Forke~. fleer Riber bottoms, is an. old cemetery-known as the Lynch family graveyard. It is surrounded by a brick wall about 60 feet square, 5 feet high and 1 foot thick, and has no means of entrance. Within these walls are four graves. Near the center is a brick vault containing three bodies; at the west end of which is a krick wall 8 feet high, 16 feet long and 1 foot thick. Inset in this wall are two marble slabs; the first beari~ig the following inscription: "Sacred to the memory of John and Annie Lynch. John Lynch was born September 1769 and died June 14, 1842. Annie Lynch was born Oct. 17, 1768 and died February 24, 1834. The second: Sacred to the memory of Christopher Lynch, son of John and Annie Lynch, was born April 11, 1797, and died Oct. 27, 1844.

In the southwest corner . of the enclosure is the fourth grave, va3z1- ted like the other three, and has the following inscription: "Sacred to the memory of Nathanial D. Landcaster, son, of John A. and Adelaid M. Landcaster of Richmond, Va., was born Feb. 26, 1825 and died in Holly Springs, Miss., August 24, 1844."

This cemetery is a short distance from the south bank of the Middle Fork of the Forked Deer River, and about one-half mile below what was known as the "Double Bridges" - which were the Medina road and the 1.0. RR. (Sigued) J. Clarence Smith."

In chapter CCI of the Acts of the General Assembly of Tennessee, Sterling Brewer, James Fentress and Abram Murry were appointed commissioners to establish permanent seats of justice in the counties of Henry, Henderson and Madison. And they were authorized to acquire as much as fifty acres of land for such county town to be established near the center of the respective counties. The Act directed that the streets were to be ninety feet wide, with four acres reserved in the center of the town as slid off for a site for a courthouse, and that suitable lands were to be reserved for the establishment of a jail. At this time James Fentress was the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Sterling Brewer was Speaker of the Senate.

(Note: The next paragraph is, regardless of previously reported data, as unimpeachable as the State of Tennessee. THIS is history.)