MY RIVERSIDE CEMETERY TOMBSTONE
INSCRIPTIONS SCRAPBOOK PART III
By Jonathan K. T. Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1992

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PLAT
SECTIONS OF RIVERSIDE CEMETERY

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

            Time and again I have been grateful for the efforts of the late Mr. Ingram James, who, in the spring of 1937 copied the tombstone inscriptions in Riverside Cemetery. He did so for the federal Works Progress Administration and his manuscript, RECORDS OF MADISON COUNTY TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS, RIVERSIDE CEMETERY, was typed and preserved. He made his survey conscientiously if not thoroughly; that is, he made an earnest effort to copy these inscriptions accurately but he deleted certain essential information from many inscriptions and took little time "to decipher" difficult-to-read data from tombstones. Still, posterity's debt to him is incalculable.

Years later, several members of the Mid-West Genealogical Society attempted to read and copy the essential information on all tombstones that could be read in this cemetery, resulting in the very useful publication, RIVERSIDE CEMETERY INSCRIPTIONS, 1830-1875, JACKSON, TENNESSEE (1975).

            Throughout this published scrapbook I mention the persons who have rendered genealogical assistance towards the successful completion of my present Riverside Cemetery scrapbook. I would like to mention, especially: Mr. Jack Darrel Wood, Tennessee Room Librarian, Jackson/Madison County Public Library for his keen observations and suggestions; Mrs. Helen Oxley Johnson of Jackson for her data contributions; Mr. Gary O'Neal of McNairy County as I have benefited from his encyclopedic memory; Mr. Steve Baker, Reference Librarian and Archivist, Union University Library, Jackson, for making available to me valuable papers in that archive; Mr. W. Ed. Terry, retired Jackson Banker and Mrs. Marguerite Holder, V. P. and Trust Officer, First American Bank, Jackson, for their assistance in my better understanding of the "original" records of the Riverside Cemetery Improvement Association; the staff members of the Jackson/Madison County Public Library; and the Memphis/Shelby County Public Library/Media Center, Memphis, and especially Mrs. Patricia LaPointe of the History/Travel Department; and the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville; Mr. Gary M. Lefargee, Supt. of Grounds, Parks/Recreation Dept. , City of Jackson, for his cooperation and his shared knowledge of the flora found in lovely Riverside Cemetery.

 

SECTIONS OF RIVERSIDE CEMETERY, JACKSON

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ADAPTED FROM THE RIVERSIDE CEMETERY MAP THAT WAS DRAWN BY EARNEST R. DIKE, CIVIL ENGINEER IN DECEMBER 1937. The numbers, above, refer to grave lot numbers, although most graves on the south slope have no number assigned to them.

 

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