Asylum Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi

About

Get directions University Medical Center, 2500 North State Street
Jackson, Mississippi, USA

Coordinates: 32.33000, -90.16520
Cemetery ID:

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About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

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An explanation of the name and the double nature of this cemetery: "The cemetery's name dates from the former Mississippi Lunatic Asylum, which was established by the state legislature in 1848 and was built where UMC now stands. During the Civil War, the grounds were the site of several skirmishes between Union and Confederate soldiers, one historical account says. Reportedly, patients came to the asylum windows and jeered at the Northern troops; when the North claimed victory, the Yankees took possession of the asylum and flew the flag of the 45th Pennsylvania Volunteers from the cupola. The asylum closed when the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield opened. UMC opened in 1955. Some asylum patients were buried on the grounds. Today, the consecrated cemetery also holds the ashes of many of UMC's anatomical donors and is the repository for the ashes of infants who died at UMC and whose families wished them to be buried there. A Ceremony of Remembrance honors them in a fall service." From Medical Center News, 2001-05-07.

In 1935 the Mississippi State Insane Hospital was closed and the patients moved to the new State Hospital in Whitfield, Mississippi. Based on historical records it is believed that 4000-7000 patients were buried there between 1855 and 1935. There are plans to have the cemetery excavated by professional archaeologists with the bodies exhumed and relocated. The limited exhumations already completed show the deceased were buried in simple pine coffins and historical accounts show the burials were usually done within a day of death and the graves were at least marked by simple wooden crosses with their name painted on them.