A

        Four years ago, I happened upon an old graveyard near Cornersville, Tennessee, with a type of grave this Midwestern native had never seen before. Rather than the common vertical headstone on a flat earthen grave, these graves were marked by tent-shaped structures of stacked stones, approximately eight feet long. Some had typical headstones with names and dates while others were unmarked. I took some photos and did a little research and determined that these were comb graves. I learned this past week from an expert on the matter that I was incorrect. The ones I spotted near Cornersville are instead known as cairn graves because of their structure being stacked stones. More on that later.

     My fascination with the graves at Cornersville had been such that I mentioned them often, so my wife was aware. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, my wife and stepson were driving around in Manchester and happened upon the Manchester City Cemetery. They spotted a couple of graves that they assumed to also be comb graves and sent me some pictures. Not knowing any better, I also called them comb graves. I went to Manchester to investigate and found several other types of graves, most of which we’ll discuss next week.

Since these new discoveries were local, I started investigating and happened upon a website called The Grave Walkers run by John Waggoner, Jr. and his late wife, Retta. It was full of information about various types of grave covers on the Cumberland Plateau region of Tennessee, as well as some in Kentucky and Alabama. Bonus, the site also included a couple of small photos of comb graves in Coffee County. I was able to contact John through his Facebook page, and he informed me that the two graves in Manchester were grave houses, not comb graves. And he sent me a list of locations of comb graves in Tennessee, an appendix from another website, Grate Rutabaga Enterprises, owned by Ric and Janie Finch.

Ric and his wife have been tracking and documenting (with GPS coordinates) cemeteries all over the Cumberland Plateau and Highland Rim area for decades and have compiled stacks of information. I spent hours on their website and didn’t see it all… yet. Ric is the one who kindly informed me of my incorrect analysis of the graves at Cornersville. That brings us to this week’s discoveries: comb graves and grave houses.

Comb graves (sometimes called tent graves, though comb is the correct term) are grave covers consisting of two long flat stones, usually locally quarried sandstone or limestone but sometimes concrete, laid in an inverted V-formation with one overlapping the other (that being the comb) and supported on the ends with triangular “eaves” of the same material. Comb graves are believed to have originated in White County, Tennessee, in 1816 as that is where the oldest ones are found, although Overton County has the highest concentration of them. There are known comb graves in ten other states, but Tennessee has more than all other states combined by a nearly three-to-one margin. In 2012, when Ric Finch’s data was compiled, Tennessee had 516 known comb grave cemeteries with 3660 comb graves.

So, what is the purpose of comb graves? In all cases, the deceased occupant of the grave is still buried below ground, and a vast majority of these graves are found in family cemeteries. It seems that the purpose was to protect the actual grave from rain erosion, grave robbers, and animals. When combs came into being, coffins were made of wood and not placed in vaults, so when the wood deteriorated, the ground over it would sink. Also, in the decades before the creation of powered lawn mowers, cattle grazing in the cemeteries kept them somewhat trimmed of grass. They couldn’t walk up the side of the comb grave, but they could wreak havoc on a regular grave. That many have survived as much as 200 years is surprising, though a large number have deteriorated substantially and/or been removed.

Grave houses like the two in Manchester were meant to serve the same purposes as comb graves. These particular ones have brick bases/walls with wooden structures to support their sheet metal roofs. I sent Ric Finch photos of them, and he said they’d deteriorated substantially since he last saw them a few years ago. Some of the bricks have fallen away and the tin roofs have rusted through in a few spots, allowing the wood underneath to rot, so they are not offering the intended protection any longer.

Which brings me to preservation. Grave covers like comb graves and grave houses are a significant part of many families’ history in this part of Tennessee. As such, all reasonable effort should be given to preserving them for future generations. Without some care and repair, they won’t last forever, even though they are at least partially made of nearly permanent materials like brick, stone, and concrete. A good number of the cemeteries containing comb graves are old family cemeteries, so overgrown as to be inaccessible. If you value local history, see what you can do to help preserve it.

     Resources: John Waggoner, Jr. (www.thegravewalkers.com) and Ric Finch (www.graterutabaga.com)