Last updated: June 27, 2024
Place
Brainerd Mission Cemetery, Chattanooga
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
The cemetery is just under an acre and is located off of Brainerd Road and Eastgate Loop Road in the Brainerd Village Shopping Center, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Significance:
The mission was the principal mission among other, smaller ones within the Cherokee Nation, and served as a training ground for American Board staff.
Designation:
Certified Site; National Register of Historic Sites
Amenities
1 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions developed the area surrounding the site originally as a mission within the Cherokee Nation. The property, buildings, and improvements were purchased from John McDonald, the grandfather of Cherokee Chief John Ross. The mission was the principal mission among other, smaller ones within the Cherokee Nation, and served as a training ground for American Board staff. At the height of its operation, the developed mission complex consisted of 50 acres, and contained some 40 buildings including boarding houses, boys' and girls' schools and churches, houses, a mill, barns, warehouses, carpenters' and blacksmiths' shops, as well as extensive fields, gardens, and orchards. During removal, the missionaries sympathized with the Cherokee-most missionaries accompanied those that voluntarily removed before the 1838-1839 forced removal on the Trail of Tears, seeing removal as the way to save Indian culture. On August 18, 1838, the last church service was held at the Brainerd Mission near the cemetery. The mission subsequently closed.
Today, the site of the Brainerd Mission is mostly covered by the Brainerd Village shopping center. What remains is the cemetery, owned and managed since the 1930s by five local Chattanooga chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the one local Chattanooga chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. To commemorate Brainerd Mission's history, there is an exhibit at the site.
Site Information
Location (The cemetery is just under an acre and is located off of Brainerd Road and Eastgate Loop Road in the Brainerd Village Shopping Center.)