Old Memphis Cemetery, Jan. 15, 2000

Memphis was a thriving river port where cotton was loaded on steamboats and sent to Mobile. The town consisted of mercantile stores, doctors, saloons, schools, churches, a female academy, and other various businesses such as carpenters, saddle makers, well diggers, warehouses and cotton gins. Memphis continued its growth until the beginning of the Civil War. By 1870, the personal wealth of its prominent families had diminished dramatically and the town began its decline. Slavery being abolished and carpetbaggers creating havoc brought an end to the massive cotton plantations. The final blow was dealt with the construction of a railroad at Cochrane, five miles south, which literally stopped river transportation. Once having a population of over 500 residents, Memphis slowly became an abandoned town. Today its population is 32.
Members of the following forty one families are buried here: Calhoun, Carraway, Cole, Carroll, Coleman, Cook, Ellis, Foster, Garner, Gilkey, Graham, Grice, Grizzelle, Hatch, Heisen, Hinton, Hibbler, Irwin, Ivey, Lackey, McCarty, Moss, Mouchette, Paschal, Parker, Price, Purnell, Saxon, Smith, Speed, Skinner, Sprowl, Swallow, Tolson, Tweedie, Upton, Wallis, Wedgeworth, West, Williams, and Windham.
Old Memphis Cemetery contains the graves of many veterans of the Civil War, C.S.A., namely, J.G. Carraway, J.S. Foster, L.W. Smith, William B. Calhoun, Elijah Crockett Wallis, John M. Sprowl, Rice G. Parker, Charles McCarty, Oliver H.P. Windham, Francis Duanlar Carroll, A.M. Graham, James D. Purnell, Lewis Dunn, Henry C. Mouchette, Jonathon T. Mouchette, W.P. Wilson, and J.W. Garner. Francis Duanlar Carroll was killed during the Battle of Shiloh and Elijah Crockett Wallis was killed during the Battle of Chancellorsville.