Famous Graves of Memphis: Outlaws, Historians, and Hollywood Connections

Scott: 00:00:07

Born in: 1843

Disillusioned and seeking adventure, Dalton fell in with the notorious Cole Younger gang. Alongside Jesse James and other infamous outlaws, he participated in daring bank and train robberies across the Midwest.

His quick wit and steady aim made him a valuable asset to the gang. And soon Dalton's name became synonymous with the Wild West's most wanted.

However, the outlaw life began to weigh on Dalton, and in a surprising turn of events, he decided to turn state's evidence against his comrades. His testimony failed to put Frank James in jail, but it was instrumental in several state governors pardoning Dalton from his past crimes.

Seeking redemption and a fresh start, Dalton eventually made his way to Memphis, Tennessee. There he reinvented himself and found solace in spirituality.

ck Flag that was published in: 1914

This larger than life character is just one of the famous graves we visited in Memphis, Tennessee. And so I dropped my revolver, not a soldier, when I found out that love can bring down the rain. And I hope. Welcome to Talk with History.

I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen.

Jenn: 00:01:47

Hello.

Scott: 00:01:48

On this podcast, we give you insights to our history Inspired World Travels YouTube channel Journey and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers and the history lovers out there. All right, Jen. Another podcast on Elmwood, the cemetery here in Memphis, Tennessee.

So last week we were talking about the mass graves and some of the events, kind of some of the darker spots of Tennessee history.

Jenn: 00:02:16

Sure.

Scott: 00:02:17

But this week we're talking about some famous people, relatively famous people that are buried here in Elmwood. Who's the first one here? She's got a long name, but she's related to someone that's super famous.

Jenn: 00:02:27

nessee. It was established in: 1852

They moved it to the outskirts of Memphis at the time because they were needing to expand in the city. And there were some older cemeteries there in the city that they needed to build over. St. Jude today is built over one of those.

Scott: 00:02:47

You talked about that last week, that they were trying to expand the parking lot or something and they started digging. They hit bones.

Jenn: 00:02:53

Yeah. They found a hundred year Old body.

Scott: 00:02:55

Oh, my gosh.

Jenn: 00:02:56

Which is some of the bodies that were never moved, including the first mayor of Memphis there.

Scott: 00:03:02

That's crazy.

Jenn: 00:03:03

And so: 1852

So, yes, if we talk about: 1852

Scott: 00:03:32

And a lot of people will describe him that way.

Jenn: 00:03:34

So Patrick Henry's daughter is buried.

Scott: 00:03:36

Give me liberty or give me death.

Jenn: 00:03:38

Famous Patrick Henry. And so his daughter, her name is Dorothea Spotsword. Henry Winston is buried at Elmwood.

Now, she is there because she was living with her daughter in law and her daughter in law living in Memphis with her husband. And because she had lived to such an old age. I think she dies in 54, she's 75, where her husband had died 20 years prior.

She ends up coming to live with her daughter in law and staying there in Memphis. But yeah, she's also the.

Scott: 00:04:15

She's a cousin of Martha Washington.

Jenn: 00:04:17

Martha Washington. So Patrick Henry's wife was a sister of Martha Washington.

Scott: 00:04:23

Okay.

Jenn: 00:04:24

And so she is a cousin to Martha Washington. So it's so much of this early American history, these names, these founding families of America. And she is buried at Elmwood.

And she has a very nice, I would say, marker that's well written. It's paid for, I think, by the Daughters of the American Revolution. I'm not quite sure what it said down. I think it was the darling. And.

But yeah, she's recognized as one of the daughters of American history. So, yeah, it says, eldest daughter of the illustrious patriot Patrick Henry, born at Red Hill, Virginia, seat of Patrick Henry.

Scott: 00:05:04

Died Memphis, Tennessee now, I believe for that one, and correct me if I'm wrong, that was put up by someone with a very famous last name of Toof. And so it was. The Toof family was relatively well off there in the Memphis area. Now we'll talk about why I bring that up.

And we were kind of surprised because neither of us were expecting that when we went and found this particular grave.

Jenn: 00:05:31

, so it says, Erected October: 1905

Scott: 00:05:45

So why does that name matter to our listeners?

Jenn: 00:05:47

The daughter of Stephen C. Too is a girl named Grace Too, And Graceland is named after Grace, too?

Scott: 00:05:59

Yeah. I thought that was. It was such kind of a pleasant surprise when we both saw that, because we were not expecting that whatsoever. Like, we just.

I was filming it, and I was like, hey, is that the same tooth? And you were like, oh, my gosh, it is. Graceland wasn't named by Elvis.

Jenn: 00:06:14

No. And people try to assume it was named for his mom, Glattus. Is it kind of like a play on the G? It wasn't Graceland.

The area was a farm and was owned by Stephen, too, who was a Memphis businessman. He was a dentist. I think he worked. He owned the newspaper, too. And he had a daughter named Grace.

the property after he died in: 1894

She never had children, so Ruth took the property.

y, never lost the name. So in: 1939

Scott: 00:07:07

So it had been named basically a cup, you know, Graceland as a. When it was kind of more of a farm a couple generations before Elvis ever got there to buy the property.

Jenn: 00:07:15

Before the house was ever built.

Scott: 00:07:17

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:07:17

And then it was a socialite who built this house for parties and things along that nature in your head.

Scott: 00:07:23

Picture that one picture of Elvis out in front of Graceland. He didn't build that. He bought it, Right?

Jenn: 00:07:29

Yeah.

Scott: 00:07:30

So it was Ruth that built it.

Jenn: 00:07:32

Had built it. And then her husband and her divorced, and the property eventually goes to her daughter Ruth. Oh, my gosh, the South. I can't think of another name.

Right. And then it's her daughter who eventually marries a Charles Pitman Cobb, and the cobs will sell Graceland to Elvis. So that is how it gets the name.

That's how it gets into Elvis's hands.

Scott: 00:07:53

He buys it, what, 57?

Jenn: 00:07:55

Yes. For $100,000. And it's kind of, if I remember correctly, you probably listen to a podcast we have about this.

He puts 50,000 in cash, and then he puts his other house on Audubon as payment. So it's the house. Yeah. And so the cops move into the Audubon house.

Scott: 00:08:13

Yeah, his old house.

Jenn: 00:08:14

They take the Audubon house and the 50,000.

Scott: 00:08:16

He was just starting to get famous.

Jenn: 00:08:18

Just starting to get famous. Lummi Tender had come out, and Heartbreak Hotel.

Scott: 00:08:21

It was funny. I actually found a picture of him with his girlfriend at the time, some blonde. I can't remember her name, but I put it in the video.

her out in front of Grace in: 1957

Jenn: 00:08:39

And it's funny because this is like the first time he's had money, real money. And this is what he buys. And he never moves away and he never builds anything onto it. It's just, this is Graceland. This will forever be the house.

So I love that about him. If you ever come to Memphis and you to visit the homes of Elvis Presley, he lived in basically an apartment which was kind of like the projects.

Then he lives on Audubon. He buys that house for his family when he first starts to make some money. And then Graceland. So it's basically three homes. And.

Yeah, so it's named for her. Grace, too. And if you find her grave in Elmwood. We talked about this in the other video with the mass graves. Her grave is one of those cradles.

It's one of those. It's basically like a circular monument, hollow cutout that goes around where you would assume the coffin would be in the ground.

And people will plant flowers inside the cradle, inside the monument. And hers are beautiful.

Scott: 00:09:43

And it looks like it's maintained by somebody.

Jenn: 00:09:46

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's. These are definitely maintained. Beautiful flowers and plants and. And it really is. Elmwood really upholds that.

So if you want to go see something really beautiful. When it comes to flowers and plant life, Elmud has these cradle gardens, basically, that you can walk through.

Her grave is also right in the eyeshot of where they filmed the Firm. Yeah, the funeral scene with the lawyer. It's basically like a circular pillar area, her grave. You can stand there and just look over and see it.

So if you want to put yourself in the picture of Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. And that is right by Grace Tooth's grave.

Scott: 00:10:25

So it was neat to see Grace. Too fair. I think she's one of the stops on the audio tour.

Jenn: 00:10:30

She is.

Scott: 00:10:30

That you can do there.

And so if you ever go to Elmwood, I mean, if some of these sound interesting, especially for those who live in the Memphis area or Memphis listeners, you can go there. And there's a whole audio tour. There's signs. He says audio. Audio tour stop number one, number two, number three. Right.

And it takes you kind of all around so you can drive around there's.

Jenn: 00:10:46

Many more famous graves there. There's definitely, like the. The first African American millionaire ever.

Scott: 00:10:53

Yeah, we didn't do that one on this video.

Jenn: 00:10:55

He's there. There's some people who affiliated with Southern culture. The author of Dixie is there.

Scott: 00:11:01

Interesting.

Jenn: 00:11:02

There's very interesting graves there, plus beautiful monuments there. Grace Tooth is by one of those ones we spoke about earlier of a young boy looking like he's being carried by an angel into heaven.

I mean, it's a huge monument.

Scott: 00:11:13

Now, the next one we actually did visit and make a little part of our video on was a kind of historic character that's right up more my alley. Right. Cowboy, former soldier.

All of a sudden, like, after the war, doesn't know what to do, and so he ends up falling in with the Cole Younger gang, running with Jesse and Frank James. So this is Captain Kit Dalton.

Jenn: 00:11:35

Yeah. When he dies, he's the sole survivor of the Jesse James gang, and he joins the Confederacy.

And like many men after the fall of the south and the Civil War, what do you do? And he fell in with these outlaws, and he runs with the Cole Younger gang. He runs with the Jesse James gang. He runs with these quadrille raiders.

He's down in.

Scott: 00:11:58

Was it like, Sam Bass?

Jenn: 00:12:00

Sam Bass in Texas. So basically, think of these train robbers and bank robbers.

Scott: 00:12:06

This guy's just, like, outlawing all over the place. Was like. Is it True Grit or is it. What was the John Wayne movie where he was basically like an outlaw in a few states?

Maybe it was the Searchers or something. And he comes home and he just kind of, like, kind of eludes.

Jenn: 00:12:18

Oh, Katie Elder. The son's the Katie Elder.

Scott: 00:12:19

Katie Elder. So I was like, man, this dude was all over the place. He wrote a book about himself.

Jenn: 00:12:24

Yes.

Scott: 00:12:25

And I mean, he mentions all the names, all the classic Wild west names in there. Super interesting guy.

Jenn: 00:12:31

I don't know if he has, like, a change of heart, but he eventually finds the Lord and then he turns state's evidence on these men. He testifies against them. I think you had said his testimony wasn't enough to put Frank James into jail.

Scott: 00:12:45

Yeah, for that particular one. For that case. I had read that that was kind of part of his deal to get pardoned on his side. So that's how.

Because he was wanted in five or six different states, in order for the state governors to essentially pardon him, he testified against. I think it was specifically Frank James, but somehow that wasn't enough to put Frank James in jail for that particular time.

But that essentially wiped his slate clean.

Jenn: 00:13:10

Yeah. And so he ends up going to Memphis. He leads a very quiet life for the next 30 years of his life. People remember him.

He would wear his Confederate uniform around all the time with an immaculate vest. And Memphians were very used to seeing him in his Confederate uniform.

Scott: 00:13:28

Interesting.

Jenn: 00:13:29

So it's kind of understandable why he's buried in Confederate Rest. So Confederate Rest, if you listened to our last video, is a big mass grave area of Confederate soldiers from the Civil War, over a thousand.

Scott: 00:13:42

And he's the only one that has, like, a true larger headstone with, like, his name and, like, a whole kind of mini history that says. Said it mentioned, like, the $50,000, like, reward that was on him at one time and all that stuff.

Jenn: 00:13:54

Yes, it's. Let me. I can read it for you. It says he fought for the Confederacy and the Quadrille Raiders after the war.

He rode with Jesse and Frank James and Cole Younger over 100 years ago. A $50,000 reward was offered for him, dead or alive, since they could not capture him.

He was later pardoned by several governors with his promise that he would lead an exemplary life, which he did during his last 20 years in Memphis. I think it's a little embellished.

Scott: 00:14:23

There's probably.

There was probably a lot of leaning in his favor on that because this dude was like a legit outlaw for a long time, but I just thought he was just one of those super interesting characters of history.

Jenn: 00:14:37

Yeah. It says Captain Kit Dalton on his tombstone, and it has a cross and a rebel flag.

Scott: 00:14:43

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:14:44

But. Yeah, I just thought it was very colorful. Here's someone who ran with Jesse James and Frank James and Cole Younger and other outlaws.

What was interesting, too, is he had free men of color ran with them. So they. Again, outlaws. It's all fair. Right. Everyone's doing the same thing.

So it's just very interesting that he had that background after the Civil War and then lives out the rest of his life in Memphis, Tennessee.

Scott: 00:15:10

Yeah, he kind of appealed to me, and I think he would. To some men, just. Yeah, outlaw. And then eventually, like, he gets his slate wiped clean.

Now, the next one we visited is someone that even I had actually heard of when it comes to famous historians, which I thought was kind of neat. So this is Shelby Foote. Now, what's Shelby Foote known for?

Jenn: 00:15:31

uting journalist to Ken Burns: 1990

I own one Shiloh. Shelby Foote. I don't know how accurate his information is.

Scott: 00:15:54

Well, there was some kind of. He was a semi controversial, wasn't he? Yes, because he kind of. He presented the South a much more favorable light than a lot of people would assume.

Jenn: 00:16:03

He's definitely a lost cause sympathizer is what you would call him. But he uses a narrative, which is a great way to tell history. You're using a personal story.

But what happens with historians when you do a personal story is he's taking liberty in what people's feelings and motivations and influences are. Unless someone has actually written that down or you interviewed someone and they actually told you, a historian can't make that up.

That's a storyteller. Right, Right. And that's what muddies the water around him, being a true historian.

Although so many people did learn their history from him because he is very engaging and a great storyteller. And that's what a historian is at heart, is a storyteller. It's very interesting. He is one of those controversial figures.

I keep his book on my shelf because of the influence he made. We. As a historian, you're studying history, you're also studying historiography. So historiography is how people write history.

And he is one of those people that definitely made an impact on how history is written. That's why he's such a big influence.

If you ever watch Ken Burns Civil War, which is a fantastic documentary, Shelby Freud is interviewed more than once.

Scott: 00:17:22

Yeah. Again, these were just a couple of the famous, kind of notable historic figures there in Elmwood Cemetery.

And then obviously we mentioned the firm being filmed there. So, you know, Gene Hackman and Tom Cruise were walking around there. I actually tried to recreate some of the shots while we were there.

It was kind of neat.

Jenn: 00:17:38

Yeah. And Shelby Foote is buried beside the Nathan Bedford Forest plot.

Scott: 00:17:42

That's right.

Jenn: 00:17:43

Our very first video on Walk with History.

I think it's probably one of our very first podcasts we talk about when we moved here, that was the controversial Confederate statue, downtown Memphis. And we were like, who the heck is Nathan Bedford? For us, we had no idea who this guy even was.

And so there's a plot in Elmwood because Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, when he died, he was buried at Elmwood with his wife and his daughter, who dies at 10 years old. And that's right beside where Shelby Foote is now buried.

Now, if you look, there's an open spot in the forest plot, because when they built that statue in downtown Memphis, they moved Forest's body and his wife's body from Elmwood and buried them under the statue in that park work. And that is what raised so much controversy about moving that statue, is that you were actually moving two people's graves.

And if you watch our video, like I even walk around and I'm like, are these headstones? These are two people's names and dates. These look like headstones. I didn't even realize they were buried underneath there.

My question was always is why would they move them and leave their daughter there, like their 10 year old daughters in Elmwood, still by herself?

Now, since the statue had been moved, the bodies have been moved and they were not put back in Elmwood, which I thought would be the most logical thing to happen. They were actually moved by the Sons of the Confederacy to their headquarters and they were buried, I think it's called Elm Spring.

Scott: 00:19:18

Oh, interesting.

Jenn: 00:19:19

And they're buried basically in the backyard of their headquarters and that's in Columbia, Tennessee. And I even think they opened their graves and allowed people to view them because I remember seeing pictures online.

Scott: 00:19:30

People are weird.

Jenn: 00:19:31

People are weird. But I still as a person, I was like, does anyone care about this 10 year old girl who's alone now?

Shelby Foot is not far away from her and she is in the Forest family plot. But Shelby Foote, I guess, always wanted to be beside the Nathan Bedford Forest plot.

And so if you're looking, both of those will be marked on the audio tour. And if you want to take the time to look, that's. That's where Shelby Foot is buried.

Scott: 00:19:58

It was super interesting. And you know, the history down here in the south is just so colorful sometimes. Right? And it truly does take. We talk about this all the time.

It takes context to understand a lot of this stuff. And so that's what we always encourage folks is don't just take a historic figure for the one thing that they're known for.

Learn a little bit more about them. If you're in the Memphis area and you kind of want something to do, highly recommend going to Elmwood Cemetery if you want to go see these things.

And they've got this great audio tour that wraps up our journey through Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. We walked among the graves of some truly remarkable figures from American history.

From the daughter of the legend legendary Patrick Henry to Grace Tooth, the unexpected namesake of Graceland, we uncover the fascinating tale of Kit Dalton, who rode with Jesse James before finding redemption right here in Memphis. And we paid our respects to Shelby Foote, the historian who brought the Civil War to life.

For so many of us, Elmwood Cemetery isn't just a final resting place. It's a treasure trove of stories, a place where history comes alive. It even has its moment of Hollywood fame featured in the Firm.

As we close this episode, I encourage you to explore the cemeteries in your own area. You never know what fascinating stories and connections to the past you might discover.

Remember, history isn't just in textbooks, it's all around us, waiting to be uncovered. This has been a Walk with History production. Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Benny. Episode researched by Jennifer Benny.

Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode. Talk with History is supported by our fans@thehistoryroadtrip.com our eternal thanks to those providing funding to help keep us going.

Thank you to Doug McLiberty, Larry Myers, and Patrick Benny. Make sure you hit that follow button in your podcast player and we'll talk to you next time.