ClarksvilleNow.com Reporting
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CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Carolyn Stier Ferrell has spent the last nine years actively researching Clarksville’s past. Her fifth book, Greenwood Cemetery: A History, details the beginnings, organization, and history of Greenwood Cemetery.
The manuscript includes the cemetery’s charter, 1873 opening ceremony and addresses by prominent speakers, important burials, a list of superintendents, stories of endearment, plant and animal inhabitants, events that occurred within the boundary of the cemetery, notable gravesites, the Confederate monument and its dedication ceremony, and finally a study of the tombstone symbolism and iconography. The meaning behind the designs and artwork on the monuments is explained so visitors can understand the lives of those buried in the cemetery.
“It is my hope that readers will come to appreciate the history of Greenwood as well as the artistic skill of the monument carvers. This cemetery evokes a feeling of peace, beauty, and reverence for those buried within its walls. Perhaps this book will be used to educate our youth on the importance of honoring the dead,” Ms. Ferrell stated.
Also available is Ferrell’s booklet on the Civil War soldiers buried at Greenwood.
“Greenwood’s records go back only as far as the 1880s and so it has been a journey of research and cross-referencing records on file to get as accurate a list as possible. I see this as ongoing research that is aided when descendants come to Clarksville with their own information to add to ours,” Ms. Ferrell stated. “Some Federal soldiers came back to live in Clarksville after the war, which may be a surprise to some. Regardless on which side they fought and often died for, the soldiers now repose under the same trees at Greenwood.”
For more info, contact Ms. Ferrell at carolynsferrell@hotmail.com or 931 980-2584.
The Greenwood Cemetery book can be purchased for $30, and the booklet for $10.
Ms. Ferrell sells and signs copies of all her books at Winter Market at the Smith-Trahern mansion each Friday from 9 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. She will also sell books at the L&N Train Station on December 20, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.