About Us History
A Mystery Solved
The historic monuments of Elmwood Cemetery have a true friend in Todd Fox, Superintendent of Elmwood. Todd has worked at Elmwood for twenty-five years. Over that time, he has developed unique skills in restoring the old monuments and preserving their beauty for generations of visitors. He began with smaller projects such as reattaching the hands of the well-known angel that graces the grave of Yellow Fever Martyr Mattie Stephenson. From the smallest to the largest, Todd has expertly put them back together. (Click here to see Todd’s work up close.)
His most recent restoration completes the long journey of the monument for a little girl named Mary Vanhook Holeman who died in 1862. In 2003, while living in Middleton, TN Liz Welling found a small white marble headstone leaning against a tree deep in the woods. The stone had a lamb, the symbol of a child, carved near the top and was inscribed: MARY VANHOOK Dau. Of Rebecca F. & Tom Holeman, Jr. born Oct. 29, 1860 died June 30, 1862. Wanting to return the monument to its final resting place, she made inquiries locally and on the internet, but could find no record or descendants. Where the headstone belonged was a mystery. Years passed, and she moved to Houston, TX taking the headstone with her. One weekend in 2009, she decided to look one more time. This time, the internet had more information available including references to Mary’s family and information about the Walker Family Cemetery. Mary’s mother, Rebecca, was a Walker. This old family cemetery was on the property of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, and in July of 1980, all the graves were moved to Elmwood Cemetery to make way for an expansion of FedEx facilities at the airport. Elmwood Cemetery records show that a total of 12 headstones dating from 1845 to 1877 were moved to the Chapel Hill Circle Section plot # 77 including that of Mary Vanhook and her mother, Rebecca, who died March 31, 1861. How her stone came to be in a forest in Middleton, TN is still a mystery, but Liz Welling decided it was finally time for it to return to Elmwood. She contacted the cemetery and mailed it safely here. When the weather permitted, Todd Fox completed its final journey.
Since the headstone was it such good condition and was broken cleanly at the base, Todd decided to glue it to a new base rather than resetting it in the ground. Vicky de Haan of Crone Monument company, donated a beautiful white marble base for the headstone. The photos show Todd’s steps to resetting the marker: preparing the two stones, bonding the marker to the base, leveling the marker, and finally setting it in the correct place beside family members.
Liz Welling put it best, “Mary’s father lost his wife, then baby and obviously loved her very dearly to commission so lovely a tribute during such an incredibly hard time. His objects of affection are reunited at last.”