The diversity of the people buried at Old Gray Cemetery is particularly evident in the tombs and gravemarkers that survived its 150 year history. This cemetery has provided a frequent destination for generations of families to visit and a peaceful place for loved ones to be at rest. Notice the old "head and shoulders" headstones, many of which date to the 1820's and 1830's. Later, these shapes were squared off, consistent with the geometry of classical lines. Next, notice the obelisks, Egyptian symbols of eternal life. These were popular in the neoclassical period, and were the result of the influence of ancient, classical cultures whose views of death and resurrection as well as the ideals of democracy were admired. During the last half of the 19th-century, fashionable monuments became thicker and more massive. Victorians added such symbolic elements as weeping willow trees, urns, the rose, fingers pointing heaven-ward, bundles of wheat, an open Bible, lilies, garland, or doves, but most of all, the sleeping lamp, symbolic of the many children too frequently claimed by epidemics and simple illnesses. Notice the Victorian Angel pictured here. She is a symbol of the agent of God as well as the guardian of the dead. She is one of many angels and Victorian women who watch over the graves at Old Gray Cemetery. William Gannaway Brownlow (1805-1877) William Gannaway Brownlow, also known as "the fighting parson," was a Tennessee senator, governor, and publisher. Born in Virginia Brownlow joined the Methodist traveling ministry at the age of 21. After ten years of circuit riding he married and settled in Elizabethton, Tennessee where he started the Elizabethton Whig. In 1949 he moved to Knoxville and began the publication of his Knoxville Whig and Independent Journal. A fearless and vocal Unionist he was arrested on charges of treason to the Confederacy in 1861 and his paper was suppressed. During the Civil War he lectured throughout the North and in 1865 and 1867 he was elected Governor of Tennessee and in 1869 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He returned to Knoxville and purchased interest in the Weekly Whig and Chronicle which he pursued with interest until his death in 1877. Charles McClung (1761-1835) Charles McClung was Knoxville's first surveyor. He came to White's Fort, the present site of Knoxville, in 1788 from Pennsylvania at the age of 27. He married Margaret White daughter of the founder of Knoxville, James White, in 1790. When Knoxville was established in 1791 McClung was the surveyor of the sixteen squares of four lots each. McClung's distinctions are many: he served as Knox County Clerk from 1792-1834; he was one of the drafters of the Constitution of the state of Tennessee; he served as County Trustee from 1794-1800 and he was a presidential elector in 1796 and 1800. McClung was also a merchant and the father of nine children. Many of Knoxville's distinguished citizens are descendants of Knoxville's first surveyor.