Ceremony will replace old gravestone with new one

Fletch Woodward’s gravestone will be replaced by another memorial marker during a ceremony taking place this Saturday at 2 p.m. at Riverside Cemetery. Woodward’s current stone is cracked.

A graveside memorial for McMinnville’s first photographer, J. Fletch Woodward, is this Saturday at 10 a.m. at Riverside Cemetery.

The chief order of business is to dedicate a new memorial marker at Woodward’s grave. The current marker is cracked and the inscription is almost illegible.

Although a photographer, a medical doctor and a commercial printer, Woodward gained ill fame when he was blamed for killing city marshal Enoch Cooksey. Woodward was arrested, jailed, tried by jury and found guilty of first-degree murder.

Woodward was sentenced to hang but the verdict was eventually overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. In a subsequent trial in Sparta, Woodward was acquitted and released.

In 1878, Woodward published a book, entirely set by hand, detailing hour-by-hour circumstances surrounding the murder he was accused of committing. He names and accuses many of dishonesty, perjury and downright meanness. He also names the person who he is convinced did the killing.

After Saturday’s memorial dedication, presented by the Warren County Historical Commission in cooperation with Heritage Alliance, Jimmy Haley will give a tour of the cemetery. County Historian James A. Dillon will be guest speaker.

For more information, call Haley at 668-1330.