The cemetery was established as the New Pulaski Cemetery in 1855.[2] The oldest section, known as Old Maplewood, contains the burials of whites and blacks.[2] In 1878, another section was added for African-American burials.[2] The name was changed to Maplewood Cemetery in 1880.[2] It was further expanded in 1907 and the 1940s.[2]
The first person to be buried in Old Maplewood was Robert H. Watkins, a planter.[2] The black burials are unmarked, while the white burials are often adorned with sculptures of angels and obelisks.[2] There is a sub-section for the 85 veterans of the Confederate States Army buried there, including a monument dedicated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1913.[2] Other burials include Masons, and 40 veterans of the United States Colored Troops.[2]
Notable burials include Confederate Generals John C. Brown (1827–1889) and John Adams (1825–1864), Confederate Colonel John Goff Ballentine (1825–1915), Confederate Congressmen Thomas McKissick Jones and James McCallum (1806–1889), and Thomas Martin (1799–1870), the founder of Martin Methodist College.[2] Politicians Ross Bass (1918–1993), Edward Everett Eslick (1872–1932), Willa McCord Blake Eslick (1878–1961), and Lena Springs (1883–1942) are buried there as well.
Three of the original December 24, 1865 founders of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee are also buried here: John C. Lester (OM-141-2); James R. Crowe (OM-169-2), and; J. Calvin Jones (OM-164-10).
The cemetery has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since November 15, 2005.[3]
