Promise Land Cemetery
Site Brief:
Founded: 1880
Location: Charlotte, TN
Additional name(s): N/A
Affiliate group(s): N/A
History:
The Promise Land Community was established and settled by former enslaved people from the Cumberland Furnace during the Reconstruction Period (1870-1875) in Charlotte, Tennessee.
Deed records and Census reports reveal that some of the early settlers were Nathan Bowen, Joe Washington Vanleer, William Gilbert, John Grimes, Jeff Edmondson, Charles Redden, George Primm, and U.S. Colored Troop Veterans brothers, John and Arch Nesbitt, Clark Garrett, Landin Williams, and Ed Vanleer. These early settlers went on to become landowners with their descendants continuing to own the land.
The Promise Land Cemetery was established in 1880. John Nesbitt purchased property with backed pension funds. U.S. Colored Troop Veterans are buried at this site like John Nesbitt and Arch Nesbitt.
Today, only the St. John Promise Land Church and the old Promise Land School Building remain. In 2007 the Promise Land School Building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In July 2010 a Civil War Trails Marker was placed on the site of the historic school building in recognition of the Civil War records of John and Arch Nesbitt and their contributions to the community.
“Most of the residents tended to bury on the property they purchased, which is why Nesbitts are buried there. Hutton family had property next to Nesbitt land, which is why they are buried at the cemetery. Primm's married into the Nesbitt family. Majority of Nesbitt descendants moved to Ohio, and Primm's have the key to the cemetry gate, and have kept the area where there family members are buried tidy, but I believe it is owned by Nesbitts. However, I don't have a deed. The last time I was there was 2018. We jumped over the fence onto land that felt mushy under foot. People are still being buried there, and the cemetry is less than 1/10 of a mile from the historic Promise Land School and St. John Church. The Promise Land Cemetery would benefit from federal funds to be properly preserved.”
-Kimberly Castaneda Great, great granddaughter of John Nesbitt
