MY RIVERSIDE CEMETERY TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS
SCRAPBOOK PART VI
by Jonathan K. T. Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1995

NOTES BY LOT

(Page 15)

LOT 130, TOMLINSON

south to north:

1. J. A. TOMLINSON
   1819-1882
2. FRANCIS, wife of J. A.
   TOMLINSON
   1817-1888
3. IKE S. TOMLINSON
   Oct. 6, 1860-Mar. 22, 1913
   Woodmen of the World Memorial emblem
4. SALLIE POPE TOMLINSON
   1866-1930

Griffin Funeral Home info: Sallie Pope Tomlinson, born Dec. 23, 1864; died June 1, 1930. Daughter of William Pope and Sallie Walker.

PERHAPS this man is buried in an unmarked grave in this, the John A. Tomlinson lot:

WHIG-TRIBUNE, Jackson, Tenn., May 31, 1873:

Died. In this city, on Saturday, May the 24th, JAMES TOMLINSON, in the 85th year of his age. Mr. Tomlinson was a native of Montgomery (now Stanly) county, North Carolina, but had become a citizen of this county fifty-one years. He was one of the oldest men and citizens of our county; one of the few who saw 'Old Madison' in its virgin luxuriance and power. No higher eulogy could we pay any man, than this, 'He lived and died an honest man.'

 

OLD LOT 50, McNAVIN

Listed as Lot 50, "McNoin", Jackson City Council Minutes 1869-1874, page 516. This is the approximate location of later Lot 178-E, Timberlake; 178-W, Caldwell. No evidence of a McNavin grave or tombstone.

THE JACKSON SUN, Sept. 8, 1876. "In this city on the 7th inst., of Intermittent fever, Timothy McNavin. Deceased was an industrious man, a machinist, aged about 25 years. His funeral takes place tomorrow (Saturday) at the residence of his mother on Royal street."

 

(Page 16)

LOT 339A, ALLISON-DUDLEY MAUSOLEUM
[Lot 339 in Tombstone Inscriptions]

This is one of the two mausoleums in Riverside Cemetery. Over the front door is inscribed: R. A. ALLISON. The date: 1902. On the lower west side of the entrance is inscribed A. F. DUDLEY. The small circular window in the front door and the small slit window in the back (north) side of the mausoleum are open to the natural elements. I read the inscriptions on the vaults on April 27, 1995 with the help of a flashlight.

West Side, top to bottom vaults:

1. ROBERT ALLISON
   son of
   AMBROSE FERGUSON
   & REBECCA ALLISON DUDLEY
   Born October 18, 1899
   Died Nov. 20, 1901
2. REBECCA ALLISON DUDLEY
   no dates
   God touched her and she slept
3. AMBROSE FERGUSON DUDLEY,
   Dearly beloved husband of Rebecca A.
   Sept. 22, 1862-May 1, 1914
   God bless him, keep him and reward
   his many virtues is my prayer
4. ISABELLE KELSO ALLISON
   Feb. 1, 1839-Jan. 30, 1934
   The Lord is my Shepherd
5. ROBERT ALLEN ALLISON
   Nov. 28, 1836-Jan. 9, 1908
   Christian, Soldier, Gentleman

 

East Side, top to bottom vaults:

1. THOMAS A. ALLISON
   Feb. 5, 1886-June 28, 1887
2. ANNE DIXON ALLISON
   Aug. 2, 1866-Feb. 6, 1882
3. ISABEL ALLISON RAINE
   June 13, 1913 (only date inscribed)
   I believe in the communion of saints,
   the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection
   of the body and the life everlasting

The lower two vaults are not inscribed.

 

CONFEDERATE VETERAN, volume 16, NO. 3 (1908), pages 137-139):

MAJ. ROBERT ALLEN ALLISON. "Of no distemper, of no blast he died, But fell like Autumn fruit that mellowed long."                        -Dryden         At his home, at Winona, Miss., on January 9, passed to his reward Maj. Robert Allen Allison, aged seventy-one years, one month, and twelve days. Major Allison had had a severe spell of pneumonia during the fall of 1907, from which he had never fully recovered. On the day the summons of the grim reaper reached him he had expressed himself as feeling even better than usual and had spent some time in his office. After gently protesting to the anxious ministrations of his always devoted wife that he was "all right," he seated himself in a reclining chair, and almost immediately and without a struggle quietly passed away. It was truly a fitting end to his long, gentle, and unobtrusive life, evidencing even in his last hours the same earnest devotion to duty, the same courteous regard for those about him, the same gentle self-effacement and brave self-control that had characterized his whole life.         Robert Allen Allison, the second son of Andrew and Rebecca Allison, was born at the home of his maternal grandfather, Robert Allen (who was a distinguished officer of the War of 1812), in Carthage, Tenn., on November 28, 1836. He graduated at Cumberland University, in Lebanon, in the class of 1857, and soon thereafter became associated with his father and elder brother in the wholesale trade of Nashville. In early boyhood he became a member of the Presbyterian Church, and even at that early age manifested that piety of heart and purity of mind that distinguished him throughout his entire life. His faith was ever that of a child trusting a good and tender father, an his service to his Church was faithful as member, deacon, and elder.         In February, 1861, he married Miss Belle Kelso, of Lincoln County, Tenn., a beautiful and noted belle, and entered upon that loving and tender companionship for which his loving heart and exquisitely refined nature so eminently fitted him and which was ended only with his death in her arms after almost a half century of ideal love and devotion.

 

(Page 17)

In the very morning, of his wedded life, with a brilliant and successful business career just opening, before him, with the tender kiss of his firstborn upon his lips, he heard the call of his country to her sons, and. turning aside from all thought of personal pleasure sternly set his face to duty, sprang to her defense, and enlisted in the Provisional Army of Tennessee in the early spring of 1861. When the State seceded and the State troops were transferred to the army of the Confederacy, he was made adjutant on the staff of that distinguished preacher-soldier, Col. Wyley M. Ried, in whose Church he had long been a devoted member, and remained with him until his chief fell, in the forefront at Shiloh.         Upon the reorganization of the army after Shiloh he went to Lincoln County, saw his girl wife with her baby, and assisted in the organization and equipment of a company for the mounted artillery service, and marched them one hundred and ten strong, on their own horses and furnished with their own uniforms, side arms, camp furniture, and rations, to Lavergne, where they were sworn into the service and offered themselves to that "Wizard of the Saddle," Gen. N. B. Forrest. But, alas for the poverty of the cause upon the altar of which they had offered themselves! there were no guns for them, and the only thing to be done was for officers and privates alike to take service in the ranks and, as the grim chieftain expressed it, "wait until they could capture a battery." This they manfully did, and thus became a part of that glorious troop "Whose hoof beats die not on fame's crimsoned sod, But will ring through her song and her story. For they fought like Titans and struck like gods, And their dust is our ashes of glory."         Nor was it long until the General's promise was made good, for in little more than two weeks they captured a full battery, and in this battery he served as sergeant until captured, in 1863. After his capture, he was carried to Nashville and placed in the penitentiary, where he found as fellow-prisoners his elder brother and an uncle, and that his mother and sisters were being held under guard in their home as prisoners.         From Nashville he was sent to Camp Chase, near Columbus. Ohio, and finally to Castle Thunder, near Baltimore, and thence to City Point, on the Potomac, from which place he was exchanged and sent South. The deprivations of prison life had so undermined his health that he was ordered to report to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston for staff duty, and was at once assigned as assistant to Maj. W. H. Warren, chief ordinance officer of the Army of Tennessee. But he had hardly assumed his duties when he was stricken with a most malignant attack of typhoid pneumonia and sent back to Marietta, Ga. It was then that his, young wife, at her home in Fayetteville, learned of his whereabouts and condition, and at once set out in a buggy across the disorganized and lawless country, filled with roaming and desperate bands of bushwhackers, guerrillas, and stragglers from both armies, to his bedside. After four days and nights of almost continuous travel and through many dangers and hardships, she reached Rome, where she got a train for Marietta, where she found her husband on the very brink of the grave, and where through ten weeks of loving devotion she nursed him back to health.         Upon sufficiently recovering to be able to travel he was assigned to the staff of Gen. Leonidas Polk as assistant chief ordnance officer; but the very day after he reported for duty General Polk was killed, and Gen. Alexander P. Stewart, Major Allison's old and beloved preceptor at Cumberland University, was promoted to the command of the corps, and it was under him that he served in an unchanged position until the final surrender at Greensboro, N.C., his commission as major reaching him at Smithfield, N.C., only a few days before that sad event.         He was one of the founders and long the President of John Ingram Bivouac at Jackson, Tenn., his comrades in which, in pursuance of his often expressed wish, conducted the last sad rites over his grave.         In childhood and youth a devoted and dutiful son, a loving and tender brother, a genial and charming companion, he entered manhood rich in those high qualities that ripened with his years and gained for him the love and respect of all with whom he was brought in contact.         Returning to his home, in Nashville, after the surrender, he gathered the small remnants of his scattered and wasted resources, and with a smile upon his lips and resolution in his heart he set about the upbuilding of his fortune. Reentering business in Nashville, he was soon attracted by the development of the Southwest, and in 1867 moved to Memphis, and in connection with his brothers established a large and successful business there. He subsequently moved to St. Louis, and from there to Jackson, Tenn., and thence to Winona, Miss., where he resided until the final settlement of his earthly accounts. In all these places and in all the relations of life he was always the same high-toned gentleman and consecrated Christian. Modest and retiring, he sought no prominence or public position; but his character and talents made him a leader in every field he entered and forced upon him many positions of trust and honor in his Church and in business affairs, the duties of which were always discharged with noted faithfulness. Broad and catholic in his convictions, he was always tolerant of the opinions of others, but firm and unalterable wherever a principle was involved. His home life was ideal in its beauty and purity; and when his gentle spirit winged its flight to its home in heaven, he left behind him a void not only in the hearts of his mourning family but in the community, and gave to all who come after him an example whose ennobling influence will be felt as long as honor, Christian virtue, and high character are known.         And when it is remembered how fully, even from his boyhood days, he had been consecrated to his Master's service and in every event of his life had faithfully heeded his voice, it is easy to understand how, when the summons fell upon his attentive ears, the things of this life receded from his view, and the great white light of that other world broke upon him, his soul rose within him and his lips sent forth the happy answer. "It is all right! It is all right!"

(A picture of Major Allison accompanies this article)

Mrs. Belle Kelso Allison was instrumental in organizing Chapter 5 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Jackson, Tennessee, March 1895.

 

(Page 18)

On one of the stone slabs, at the entrance of the mausoleum lot is a metal plate which reads: Whitehead Co. Builders, Jackson, Tenn. In the Jackson City Directory, 1900-190l (Jackson: T. R. McCowat Co., 1901, page 272) appears this advertisement:

 

LOT 207, West 1/2, MASON
[Lot 207½ in Tombstone Inscriptions]

Double tombstone:
T. T. MASON, Father
Born October 11, 1830
Died Aug. 24, 1886
ELVIRA A. MASON, Mother
Born Sept. 17, 1837
Died Aug. 16, 1877

There are three small upright tombstones, now all but defaced and one of these is broken with top portion missing, located adjoining and to the north of the T. T. and E. A. Mason tombstone. In 1937, Ingram James read the first names on two of these stones: GEORGE and MARY. Cleaned with water, one can detect both names, but barely so. George being the first next to his evident parents, then Mary.

The TRIBUNE SUN, Jackson, Tennessee, August 17, 1877 carried this very brief notice: Died. Mason. In this city, Mrs. E. A. Mason, wife of T. T. Mason.

The 1870 (June 2) U. S. Census of Jackson, Madison Co., Tenn., page 308:
T. T. Mason, 40, born Ohio; had livery business
E. A. Mason, female, 30, born Ohio
G. Mason, male, 5, born Tennessee
F. Mason, male, 2, born Tennessee
I. Mason, male, born Dec. 1869, in Tennessee

The 1875-1876 Jackson City Directory, page 8, lists Theodore T. Mason, bookkeeper, res. es Market, s. Reid.

Theodore T. Mason appears in the master deed indexes (grantee, grantor) with several land transactions in the 1870s.

The Mason Tombstones

 

The broken tombstone is evidently what remains of the grave marker for little Freddie Mason. In the WHIG-TRIBUNE, Jackson, July 12, 1873: Died. In this city on Thursday morning last /July 20/, little Freddie, infant son of T. T. and E. A. Mason, aged 14 months.

 

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