Then and Now: The Old Brainerd Mission Cemetery

Long before Eastgate was the focal point of Brainerd Road, this area of Tennessee and much of Northwest Georgia was a part of the Cherokee Nation.
A group of missionaries commissioned by a board in Massachusetts was sent to the area now called Brainerd to minister to the local Cherokee population. The Brainerd Mission was located where Eastgate currently sits. It was originally called Chickamauga Mission, but was later named in honor of Reverend David Brainerd, a Presbyterian minister who preached to the Delaware people of New Jersey.
Only the cemetery of the original mission remains.
Patty Parks, Brainerd Mission Cemetery chair of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which owns the property, gave me a tour.

She tells me, “The missionaries came down. They bought a piece of property and set up a mission school. The mission school was operational within six months. The missionaries did all of the land clearing and the building of the actual school and their spouses, their wives, and their children attended the schools. They taught basic reading and writing, mathematics as well as farming techniques to the boys, and sewing, cooking, home making to the girls, so it was technically one of the first trade schools in the United States.”

After the Indian Removal Act was enforced in 1830, some missionaries followed the Native Americans westward. The site lay abandoned until it was rediscovered and deeded to the Daughters of the American Revolution by Henry and Dorothy Hampton. Unlike some efforts to Christianize the Cherokee, the missionaries at the Brainerd Mission lived in peace with the local population.
A lone monument to Samuel Worcester stood among the overgrowth when the location was rediscovered in the early 1900’s.

Mrs. Parks continues, “President Jackson ordered the removal of the Cherokee so after a final communion, the mission was closed and the Cherokee left, this monument was one of the first it was established here in 1821. So it was here when the mission was still here and I’m guessing that the lady was able to find this space because this monument was here. So the cemetery, our ‘sacred acre’  is what we call it, is private property but to our goal is to keep it for the future. It’s been here now almost 200 years, and we want to be here for many more years.”

Patty and the D.A.R. are extremely passionate about the history of this area, and we’re extremely grateful to them for taking the time to share the history of the Brainerd Mission. There are a lot of details that sadly had to be left out of this piece for brevity’s sake, but more information can be found on the D.A.R.’s website .

The cemetery is currently available for tours by appointment, but the D.A.R. hopes to have regular visiting hours available again soon.