First Presbyterian Church Cemetery

In 1790, after his fort was chosen as the capital for the newly created Southwest Territory, James White asked his son-in-law, surveyor Charles McClung, to lay out a new town, named "Knoxville" after Secretary of War Henry Knox. McClung initially divided the town into 64 half-acre (0.2-ha) lots, and added additional lots in 1795, with the cemetery lot being included in the later additions. During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers (who occupied the town 1861–1863) kept horses in the cemetery, and Union soldiers (who occupied the town 1863–1865) used the church as a hospital and barracks. Humorist George Washington Harris (1814–1869), an ardent Presbyterian, served as an elder of the First Presbyterian Church during his years in Knoxville. Two of his children, Harriet (1838–1846) and George (1841–1842), are buried in the graveyard. In the 1870s, the graveyard had an indirect effect on the career of future newspaper publisher, Adolph Ochs. Ochs, then a young teenager working after hours as a "printer's devil" for the Knoxville Chronicle, feared walking past the graveyard at night, as many locals believed it to be haunted. Rather than leave work after his shift (which ended close to midnight), Ochs stayed until daylight, spending the extra time learning the typesetting and printing trades. The present First Presbyterian Church, constructed in 1903, is a Neoclassical building, with a Tiffany-style stained glass window. ==Layout and marker styles==

(left) and his wife, Mary Grainger Blount The First Presbyterian Church Graveyard resembles a traditional early Anglo-American cemetery, with graves crowded together and marked by relatively simple headstones. Most of the headstones are polished, upright stones, although a few (such as the Blounts') are flat stones. Most are adorned with simple inscriptions noting the deceased's name, date of death, and number of years lived. A low iron fence surrounds the graveyard's perimeter, and crude stone walkways allow access. ==Notable interments==

• Abner Baker (1843–1865), a Confederate veteran lynched for killing a Union veteran at the Knox County Courthouse in September 1865. • Thomas Humes (1767–1816), church elder and early Knoxville businessman, builder of the Lamar House Hotel building (now houses the Bijou Theatre). • Hugh Lawson White (1773–1840), U.S. senator (1825–1840), presidential candidate in 1836 (Whig Party). Buried adjacent to his father, James White. • James White (1747–1821), Knoxville's founder. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a bronze plaque on his headstone in 1932. • John Williams (1778–1837), U.S. senator (1815–1823). ==See also==