Widow’s Gravehouse– The final resting place of Letha Ann Ratliff Grissom. Letha Grissom died on March 24, 1861 at the age of 16. Weeks after marrying, her husband, Henry Jackson Grissom, marched off to fight on behalf of the Confederacy, leaving his young bride to care for their home. Three months later, Letha was dead, a victim of yellow fever. Grissom was heartbroken. After his wife was buried in Oak Grove, he built for her final resting place a grave house, a small, single room hut to house her marker. Although common at the time, according to Franks, few such grave houses remain. The house stands among a row of gravestones, Letha’s grave marker sits just beyond its walls. Open the door and dust-filtered sunlight falls on Letha’s marker, now barely legible with the wear of time. Windows surround the marker, as if Grissom wanted his wife’s spirit to be able to peek outside at the farmlands she called home.
