Landowner: City of Clinton
Indexed by: Jean Swann, Betty Johnson, Linda Everhart and others. Photos by volunteers including: Fred Bradley, Herbert Rickards, Larry Spangler, Linda Everhart, Don Varner, LaDon Brennan, Richard Parker, Joni Dietz, L. A. Wilkes, Steve Jones, Lyle & Marsha, J. Harrison, Bev Mundy, and many more.
Directions: Located on the southeast edge of the City of Clinton, east of the southern intersection of 7 and 13 Hwys. Take South 7 Hwy at stoplight one block, turn right (south).
History: The first burial was Apr 22 1885. Older graves were moved here from other cemeteries.
Notes: Official Website: Englewood Cemetery

Englewood Cemetery is the largest and most popular cemetery in Henry County. Located on the east side of Clinton, its neatly paved avenues, shaded by trees of all kinds, cross the flat land near the entrance and gently rise to higher ground where the cemetery name is spelled out in stone.

The town of Clinton was first laid out in 1836, when Henry was still known as Rives County. The first city burying ground was Oak Grove Cemetery, a small area on the west side of town. The old cemetery served it's purpose well for many years, but as as the population grew, it became obvious to the city fathers that more space would be needed.

In early 1885, the City of Clinton made a deal with John Shobe to purchase 80 acres, about a mile east of the city limits, to be used as a city burial ground. The price was $3600. The city paid $1000 down and received a deed for the north 40 acres, agreeing to pay the balance at 6 percent interest before the deed for the south 40 acres would be handed over.

This property was originally entered by Jonathan Sweeney in 1843, and the older cemetery where he is buried, known as Sweeney-Owen, is on the south side, technically a part of Englewood, although separated by a large open area.

By April of 1885, lots in Englewood were being surveyed and sold at $20 each. The first burial was Elsie Tussey, an infant daughter of the local photographer, Julian Cicero Tussey and his wife Anna Elizabeth Simes Tussey.

During the next few months, burials at Englewood included: Samuel S. Boyles, died May 24; Col. Edward Cresap McCarty, died Aug 19; Chalmers C. DeWolf, died Aug 23, and Micaja Treadway, who died Sep 18. Treadway was only the seventh person interred; averaging about one burial per month. The old cemetery was still being used more often than Englewood because so many had pre-paid lots at Oak Grove, and others simply didn't like the idea of burying their loved ones in an open field so far from town.

It took a while, but attitudes slowly changed as local groups began donating their time and money to tree planting and improvement projects, and some of the rural landholders relocated their family graveyards to Englewood. Soon, nearly everyone who suffered a new bereavement, and could afford it, buried at Englewood then had the rest of their family graves moved from Oak Grove; more than 200 of them.

In the 1970s and early '80s, when the Kaysinger Dam project meant flooding cemeteries all across the county, hundreds of graves were moved by the Corps of Engineers to Englewood.

Today, Englewood Cemetery is within the city limits of Clinton, and more than 14,300 burials have taken place there. The number grows by at least 100 per year. Expansion is on the south 40, and there is room for new blocks and avenues to be constructed in the future.

It's a beautiful, well-kept cemetery the community has a right to be proud of. On every Memorial Day, it would be hard to find a place more impressive than Englewood Cemetery.