PROMISE LAND CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1880

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Promise Land Community was established and settled by former slaves 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.

BCN Contact Information:

Promise Land Heritage Association

TuesRd2@gmail.com

www.promiselandtn.com