According to WREG television reporter, Melissa Moon, “Jack Brewer of Memphis Ghost Hunters, recently got the deed to the Old Raleigh Cemetery on Old Raleigh LaGrange Road” in Memphis, Tennessee, and intends to raise funds to restore the property. It is not clear what WREG means by Brewer’s claim of ownership or of “got the deed.” The Raleigh Cemetery fits the legal definition of a “public cemetery” in Tennessee and would therefore seem to be the responsibility of the municipality.

The “Old Raleigh Cemetery” was originally that of the long defunct Raleigh Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The Reverend Reuben Burrow, a prominent 19th century Cumberland Presbyterian minister and theologian is among many Cumberland Presbyterians buried there. It is reported to be the oldest cemetery in Shelby County and the Raleigh Church was the first Cumberland Presbyterian congregation in the area. Up to around 1840, Raleigh was larger and more affluent than Memphis.

From around 2010 to at least 2015, volunteers from the Raleigh Springs Conservancy (founded in 1999) made an effort to restore the cemetery. It was opened and a tour given on April 5, 2014. The cemetery was apparently abandoned and the cemetery is again overgrown.

The Raleigh Cemetery has often been referred to as one of the most haunted places in Shelby County, according to people who subscribe to such ideas. Interestingly, the most haunted site in Shelby County has often been claimed to supposedly be the Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Cemetery off US Highway 51 near the Shelby/Tipton County line.

 

Read the WREG article: https://wreg.com/news/memphis-ghost-hunter-takes-over-countys-oldest-cemetery-to-preserve-history-conduct-paranormal-investigations/

All photos were taken when the Raleigh Cemetery was open for a tour in 2014.