CEMETERY SCHOOL BLACK 1874-1962 was on the southwest side of the old Nashville Highway and just northwest of Asbury Road. It was behind the Stones River Methodist Church. The site of the church is shown on the 1878 Beers Map.
On February 9, 1874, Mrs. Eliza Burrus deeded one acre or school land to School Directors James E. Stockard,
Elisha Hunt, and John A. Clopton. The parcel was near the Nashville and Murfreesboro Turnpike.
The school was a one-room frame building. In about 1945 the building was replaced by a concrete structure with
two rooms and a kitchen.
Teachers in the first building were Tennie Butler, Polly Smith, Bloss Pinkerton, Eisley Butler, Kitty Howse, and Webber Smith. In the new building were Flora Charlton, Emma Rogers, William Butler, Addle Mae Hancock, Gertrude Roberts, Estella Moore Reynolds, and Willa McIntyre Vaughn.
Family names of students included Washington, Smith, Anderson, Haynes, Vaughter, and Rucker.
CEMETERY SCHOOL was consolidated with SMYRNA ROSENWALD SCHOOL in 1962.
On May 25, 1963, the one acre of land with its schoolhouse was sold to Bertha and Queen E. Washington by
the Rutherford County School Commission.
SOURCES: Deed Book 20, P. 10; Book 154, P. 71. Interviews, Nov. 26, 1984, with Bertha Washington, b. 1900, a student in the old school; March 11, 1986, with Blossie Rucker Butler, a student. *Queen E. Washington. *R. T. Butler, d. April 5, 1986.