Circa 1796- Ebenezer Cemetery

"The Ebenezer Cemetery is located on Westland Drive, in the western part of Knox County, near the junction of Westland Drive with Ebenezer Road. The grounds are now occupied by the Ebenezer Methodist Church although the site still belongs to Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church. In 1796, Reverend Samuel Graham Ramsey organized the Grassy Valley Presbyterian Church, consisting of two congregations. The Lower Grassy Valley congregation was located on Concord Road at the site of present Pleasant Forest Cemetery. The Upper Grassy Valley congregation met at the present site of the Ebenezer Cemetery.

In 1833, the two congregations were organized into separate churches, the Lower Grassy Valley congregation becoming Pleasant Forest Presbyterian Church and the Upper Grassy Valley congregation becoming Ebenezer Presbyterian Church. When the railroad was built [in 1855], the Ebenezer Church found most of its membership living on the north side of the railroad, so they built a new church in 1860 on the site now occupied by the Cedar Bluff Baptist Church and the name was changed to Cedar Spring Presbyterian Church. In 1898, the church building burned and the congregation relocated on Kingston Pike, at Cedar Bluff Road.

The cemetery remained at the site of Upper Grassy Valley Church. The land was a deed of gift from John Swan, dated July 31, 1797. His is the oldest marked grave in the cemetery, his death occurring on August 13, 1804. There may have been earlier burials which would place this cemetery in the class with First Presbyterian churchyard in downtown Knoxville and Cunningham Cemetery at the end of Ford Street, South Knoxville. More than half the graves were never marked excepting with rough stones. Reverend Samuel Graham Ramsey was buried there July 5, 1817, and his grave marked with a rough stone. The cemetery is in a neglected state, some of the stones being toppled over on the ground and many of the graves sunken.

This record is a combination of physical surveys made by Mr. Glenn L. Loy, and by Roscoe C. d'Armand and his daughter, Virginia, plus records found in published historical works. It is not complete but is as complete as can be made at the present time.

Knoxville, Tennessee

Summer of 1964

Roscoe C. d'Armand"

(Excerpted from the book "Miscellaneous Knox County Tombstone Inscriptions, Vol. 1 & 2," p. 66)