From the Vertical Files, Tennessee Room, Jackson-Madison County Library

EDNA PENNINGTON TOMBSTONE

Sometime in 1994-1995 several boys reportedly found a broken tombstone in a "road ditch" near Cotton Grove. They took it to Cotton Grove Baptist Church where it was allowed to be kept, against a back fence, until March 1996 when it was re-erected in the adjoining cemetery.

This tombstone, that of Edna Pennington, 1827-April 2,1892, marked the grave of a spinster lady of that name, located on the east side of Potts Chapel Road about 3.5 miles south of the junction of Cotton Grove and Potts Chapel roads. The general location of the grave and tombstone were known to local people for years but by minor vandalism the tombstone had been broken and knocked off its base and thrown into a ditch.

As the exact location of Miss Pennington's grave was not known and as the grave was reputed to be so close to the edge of the highway, the tombstone would have been liable for more abuse had it been re-erected somewhere along the highway. In order to preserve the tombstone, hence the memory of the existence of this lady, permission was given for re-erection of the tombstone in the Cotton Grove Cemetery and this statement was prepared to be filed in the Tennessee Room of the Jackson-Madison Co. Library, in order to provide a permanent record of this example of vandalism and an attempt made to adjust reasonably to it, towards the preservation of a tombstone and the memory of the person for whom it had been created.

Compiled and donated by Jonathan K.T. Smith, Jackson, TN (1996).

 

Go to 1998 record of Pennington Cemetery
Go to Cotton Grove Cemetery