This day comes G. R. [Gilbert R. - Maybe Riddle?] PATTERSON, M. [Mason "Mace"] EZZELL, J. G. ALLEN and others, Citizens of Greenfield, a village in Civil District No 9 of Weakley County and files their petition asking to have their said village of Greenfield in-corporated.

It is therefore ordered by the Court that Mason EZZELL, W. H. FISHER and Samuel BAKER be and are hereby appointed Commissioners to fix boundaries of said town by metes and calls and that they file their report with the Clerk & Master of this Court wherever said limits of the Villiage of Greenfield shall have been fixed by them. - Chancery Court Weakley County, Tennessee Order Book G (July 1874-Oct 1875) page 62.  MaryCarol
 

G. R. PATTERSON, M. EZZELL, W. H. FISHER, J.B. ALLEN et als Ex Parte

Be it remembered that on this the 22nd day of January 1875 before the Honorable John Sommers, Chancellor, etc came on this cause to be finally heard, upon the petition, Interlocutory decree herein, and report of the Commissioners: Samuel BAKER, W. H. FISHER, and M. EZZELL filed in this cause, showing that on the 21st day of September 1874 he had opened and held an election in said proposed limits of the Town of Greenfield, and it appearing to the Court that the said Commissioners here fixed the Corporate limits of said Town of Greenfield as appears from their said report, which report is in the words and figures following to Wit:  See plat attached to this sheet [ it wasn't there].  MaryCarol
 

Tri-City Observer
Friday December 1, 1967
Harvey L. Gardner, Editor and Manager
Mrs. Frances Parham, Advertising and Office Manager
Published weekly at 103 East Main Street in Greenfield, Tennessee
$2.00 per year subsription rate in Weakley County and adjoining counties. $4.00 elsewhere.

submitted by Leslie Bell

PATTERSON CEMETERY PLACE OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
by LeRoy Baker

Strange but ture are many facts of Greenfield history, as is evident by what may be seen in the old Patterson Cemetery, inside the city limits, and which was a burying ground some 22 years before the town came into being.

The first grave ever made in this old graveyard is as plainly marked as if it had been made in 1967.  All lettering can be read easily at the a long distance.  This pioneer cemetery contains the graves of a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren of a United States President and Govenor of Tennessee.  It also contains the grave of the man who has been called the "founder of Greenfield" and his wife.

The late Oscar Elam, who lived to be 90 is responsible for most of the facts printed here.  This first grave is that of James J. Hatcher who died August 21, 1852, twenty three years before the building of the Illinois Central Railroad in 1873-74.  Standing by the grave of his great grandfather is Will Edd Akin of Greenfield.  Mr. Akin is 72. Other great grandchildren of Mr. Hatcher, who has been dead for 115 years, are Joe and Thomas Akin, Mrs Iva Corum, Hall McAdams, Mrs. Mary Elinor Dueberry, and Eli and Fred Tillman, all of Greenfield.  Jim C. Tillman of Chicago, a frequent visitor here, is also a fourth-generation descendant as are a number of other out-of-town people.  The wife of James F. Hatcher, Jane Hillis Hatcher, died in 1910 and is buried in a family plot west of town. 

A fact known to but a few, perhaps, is that the wife of James K. Polk, Jr.. son of President James K. Polk, and her two infant children, Knox and Ella, are buried in Patterson Cemetery.  Mrs. Polk, who died at age 20, was a sister of the late Oscar Elam, who lives only a few steps from the graveyard.  Lettering on these markers is still readable after some 90 years.

About the center of the burying ground is the tomb of the man who has been called the "founder of Greenfield",  Samuel Baker, and his wife Frances Patterson Baker.  Mr Baker is said to have owned most of what is now Greenfield when it became a town.  Standing at their graves is a fourth-generation direct descendant, LeRoy Baker, who is just one of the hundreds who have descended from this couple who had 16 children.  Perhaps the oldest of these, was a granddaughter, Mrs. Lula Lipscomb Ross, who died a year ago at 96.

Most present day buriels are in the cemetery across the street known as Morris graveyard, but occasionally one is held in this historical Patterson burying ground.  If many of those sleeping out there could rise up, what a story they could tell!

PHOTO 1-  Distant Relative - Will Edd Akin stands behind the gravemarker of James J. Hatcher, his great grandfather, Mr. Hatcher died in 1852, 115 years ago at age 27.

PHOTO 2 - Founder of Greenfield - This stone marks the grave of Samuel Baker, generally regarded as the "founder of Greenfield", and his wife, Frances Patterson Baker. LeRoy Baker, pictured at this site, is a fourth-generation direct descendant of Mr. and Mrs. Baker.

PHOTO 3-  Related to President - These gravestones mark the burying places of a daughter-in-law of a United States President and her two infant children.  Mrs. James K. Polk Jr.�s husband was the son of President James K. Polk.  She is the sister of the late Oscar Elam and an aunt of  Robert Elam who lives near the cemetery. **note - not sure where this story came from, but turns out to be false. President Polk had no children.

Found your website and love it!  Thought you might want to mention something about the Greenfield High Yellow Jackets under Coach Bullington in the late 20's and early 30's.  It was 1932-33 that they were state champs.  My father, Fate Lett, was the captain and stayed in high school an extra year just to play football as the quarterback, then went on a football scholarship to Union Univ. in Jackson.  He was the son of Samuel Lee Lett and Nora Rigby Lett (she was from Bradford, he from Greenfield), and the nephew of Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Reed, both long-time educators of Weakley County.  Mr Reed served as president of Bethel College for a number of years and as trustee/treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church of Greenfield. They lived in a big old Victorian house on Main Street, torn down in the 1970's, and had the first indoor plumbing in the area.. All the relatives are buried in the Highland Cemetery.  I'll be watching for further Weakley County news!  Anna Rolling

1932 GREENFIELD High School football team - with photo