Spot Of Ground Is Hard To Find, Where
Of President Polk Is Buried
By George T. Wilson
Resting in an honored spot on the Tennessee capitol grounds are
the remains of President James K. Polk, while the unmarked and
bramble-covered grave of his sister is all but forgotten in a grove
of cedar trees four miles north of Dancyville, Tennessee.
Apparently no one can point to the exact spot where the metallic
casket of Mrs. Lydia E. Richmond is buried, but Annie Foster, a
76-year-old Negro spinster who lives on a shrunken farm that was
once part of the Richmond plantation, can probably point as close to
it as anyone.
Annie's information came from the one-time slaves that she knew
during her childhood, and is backed up by such residents of the
Dancyville community as George Cook, 85-year-old planter, and R. J.
(Dock) Clark, 54 year-old grocery man.
"I can show you the spot of ground" where Mrs. Richmond and other
members of her family are buried, Annie told me.
She led the way down
a mule path from her house, where she lives with a tenant family, to
the grove of trees. The area near an old, log barn and an outdoor
well, is grown up with blackberry bushes and other shrubbery. There
are no signs of tombstones.
"My folks come to Tennessee the first year after freedom," Annie
related, "They came from South Carolina. I'se born a quarter-mile
from here, but have been living on this place since I'se 14 years
old. The older people told me all about it. Mrs. Richmond is buried
here in a metallic coffin; it don't never rot."
Local historians agree that Mrs. Richmond died either in 1864 or
1865. She was buried on the outer edge of the graveyard, Annie says,
and her burial was considered temporary because the Civil War was in
Later, under provisions of Mrs. Richmond's will, her body was to be
moved to the Polk family cemetery near Bolivar. Just why she
remained buried near Dancyville and why some history-minded
organization hasn't marked her grave is a mystery.
Mrs. Richmond's will, recorded at the Haywood County Courthouse in
Brownsville and dated Dec. 21, 1860, named Will Turner executor and
directed him to have her body buried in Polk cemetery near Bolivar,
"with suitable monument or tombstone."
Later courthouse records reveal that Mr. Turner refused to act as
executor and Oliver Alexander was appointed in open court under
$40,000 bond, an indication that Mrs. Richmond left a large estate.
Mrs. Richmond's will also directed that her land be sold on credit
of one, two or three years. Courthouse records, however, do not
disclose what disposition was made of the land.
Annie now owns part of the 172-acre farm on which she lives. She
remembers that several years ago someone dug up some tombstones in
the unmarked graveyard but covered them back up. She doesn't
remember the inscriptions on them.
"Old slaves told me," she recalled, "that there used to be eight or
nine hundred acres on Mrs. Richmond's plantation, 22 plows and their
own cotton gin. Mrs. Richmond would knit on her horse, which was the
style in those days, and she had a colored boy to hold her ball of
"Uncle Ben Richmond, who was a slave, told me about it. Wally Polk,
who used to drive the black horses to her carriage, wore a churn hat
She measured the height of Wally's beaver hat with her hands,
indicating about two feet.
Life on the Richmond place was colorful and gay during the life of
its mistress, Annie said the former slaves told her.
After being nominated for the Presidency (on the ninth ballot at the
Democratic National Convention in Baltimore), Mr. Polk visited his
sister before the election which made him the 11th President of the
United States. The former slaves told Annie that the Negro children
were gaily dressed for his arrival and carried little flags colored
with "polk berries." They ran ahead of Mrs. Richmond's carriage
shouting, "Hurrah for James K. Polk."
Annie also recalled that the former Tennessee governor returned to
his sister's home after he was elevated to the position of chief
executive of the nation.
"Uncle Ben Richmond told me he stayed a month," she continued, "and
there's a barbecue every day and a ball every night. They had tables
in the yard that was 75 feet long. They had a big hog barbecued one
time, with a stick through his mouth and an apple in it."
Annie's explanation of why the graves are unmarked is that a man who
owned the land after Mrs. Richmond had the grave markers taken down
and buried because he had difficulty in getting Negro tenants to
live on a place where tombstones were located. Mr. Cook reports that
Annie's information closely coincides with what he has heard. Mr.
Cook is one of the oldest native residents in the section.
Mr. Clark reported that he went to school near the place where Mrs.
Richmond is buried and "have known about it all my life. I am
distantly related, on my mother's side, to the Polk family."
Mr. Clark, who has the first two nickels that he took in when he
opened his store in l936 tacked to the wall with the names of the
children making the purchases written alongside them (Jack Smith and
Moore are grown up now and still live in Dancyville) recalls that
three tombstones were dug up at one time but that they were covered
up again. Sometime he wants to unearth them again and also find the
casket of Mrs. Richmond to prove conclusively that she is buried
Mr. Clark; whose store has a television set and who was getting
ready to go to a Shriner's Club meeting in Memphis when I visited
him, likes to talk about Dancyville's history and the days when it
was larger than its present population of 150.
"Lot's of the old people have died out," he remarked, "We ought to
do what we can to preserve our history."
Editor's note: This¹
should read "sister" instead of "wife" and "Una²
Moore" instead of "Nina Moore". mkds