Restoration of Odd Fellow Cemetery

The Odd Fellow Cemetery in Elizabethton, TN, is one of Carter County's two largest public colored cemeteries and is in desperate need of cleanup, restoration and preservation. It is located at 219 Old Siam Rd. in the East Side Community in ELizabethton, Tennessee. It is the final resting place for many slaves and freed persons, including many prominent Negro citizens of Elizabethton, TN, until it was closed for burial in 1970.

Some imporant names that one might find in local history books in Elizabethton, Carter County, TN, that are buried in this cemetery include: Rev. George Philips (1895), who was the second pastor of Phillippi Baptist Church which is on the State Historical Registry as the first colored church in Carter County, established in 1867, Rev. W.A.C. Breedlove, the fourth pastor at Phillippi Baptist Church, was also an educator and is recognized as the founder and principal of Douglas School for forty-two years. Rev. Breedlove has been honored as one of the most prominent Negro citizens in Elizabethton, Alex Stover, a slave of Col. Daniel Stover and his wife, Mary Johnson, daughter of President Andrew Johnson, cared for President Johnson after he suffered a stroke and was by his side when he died in the Brown (Stover) home in 1875.

The cemetery is overgrown with trees and brush, many graves are sunken and headstones toppled. Trash and debris are scattered throughout. Erosion has destroyed the roadway that once led into the cemetery.

Volunteer cleanup efforts began in March, 2022. A small group of concerned citizens cleared an access pathway and cut several small trees but due to inclement weather and difficulty synchronizing individual schedules, not much progress has been made since. It didn't take us long to realize that it was going to take a lot more than a small group of unskilled workers on a Saturday to accomplish our goal.

Phase #1 of our plan, clean up, involves the cutting down and removal of several trees and brush and trash pickup.

Phase #2, restoration, will involve the filling in of sunken graves and the repair of headstones and markers.

Phase #3, preservation, will involve establishing and outlining the cemetery boundaries, creating an easy access roadway into the cemetery, placement of a state historical marker and identification of as many individuals buried there as possible.

We realize that this project is going to be a lot of planning and hard work as well as a very costly endeavor. We have set a preliminary monetary goal of $20,000 to begin this project. Unfortunately, there is not much recorded African American, Black History, in Carter County, TN. This is a very important part of that history and must be preserved.

Thank you for your generous contribution!