Lay Cemetery
Driving west on S.R. 63 after entering Scott County, the highway enters the peaceful valley along Straight Fork Creek and straightens for a ways before it dips to cross Buffalo and Paint Rock creeks further east. Here, in the Straight Fork community, the well-kept Lay Cemetery sits enclosed in chain link fencing on a farm that is nestled at the base of the mountains towering over the valley.
Last week, the Sacred Ground series visited the Lay-Silcox Cemetery at Rock House Creek. That cemetery, along with the previously-featured Allred Cemetery that sits further east on the Scott-Campbell county line, tells the story of the Lay family that settled eastern Scott County in the late 19th century.
The story of the Lay family continues here, in a pristine farmland setting along Straight Fork Creek, where the family cemetery dates back to just after the Civil War.
Beginnings
It’s called the Lay Cemetery, but it wasn’t until nearly a century after the first burial here that a Lay was laid to rest at the Lay Cemetery. The early burials are a mix of some of the families of Straight Fork Creek from the late 19th and early 20th century, including the Adkins, Marcums and others.
The first person buried here was four-year-old Alice Adkins, who died in September 1873. Her grave is marked by a simple hand-inscribed fieldstone.
Alice was the oldest daughter of Benjamin Franklin Atkins (1845-1909) and Jane Bruce Smith (1843-1888), who would later move away from Scott County.
The Adkins (or Atkins) family was prominent in the Straight Fork area in the latter half of the 19th century, and included Rev. Sterling Atkins, who founded the Baptist churches at Smokey Creek and Upper Jellico Creek.
Benjamin Atkins, though, was originally from Georgia. He married into the Smith family of eastern Scott County. Jane Smith was the daughter of John Lampkin Smith and Keziah Gibson. She was a younger sister to Ewell Smith, who was a noted Confederate soldier from Scott County during the Civil War. Her father was the first circuit court clerk of Scott County, and later served as clerk and master.
Jane’s marriage to Benjamin Atkins took place in McMinn County, Tenn. in 1868. They were living in McMinn County when the 1880 census was taken. They aren’t found in the 1870 census, but Alice’s burial at Straight Fork indicates that they must have lived here for a short period of time.
Another Adkins was buried at the cemetery in 1902 — one-month-old Flora. She was the daughter of Sanuis A. Adkins (1886-1970) and Sarah Elizabeth Baird (1887-1953). Sanuis, or S.A., was the son of John Crittenden Adkins and Martha Lay. He was a great-nephew of the aforementioned Sterling Adkins.
The Williams family
A name featured prominently in the early years of the Lay Cemetery is Williams. Andrew Carson Williams was the second person buried there in 1880, and several other members of his family were buried there, as well. (A stone cannot currently be found at the cemetery for Andrew Williams; however, he was included in Robert Bailey’s 1994 transcription of the cemetery. The same is true of most of the other Williams buried at the cemetery.)
The son of George Jackson Williams and Polly Snyder, Andy Williams was born in North Carolina in 1820, later moving to Scott County. He married Sarah Huckaby (1837-1919) in 1858. She was buried at Lay Cemetery, as well, and is the only Williams buried there with an identifiable stone. She was the daughter of William Thomas Huckaby and Sarah Glasscock, who were not from Scott County.
Andy and Sarah had several children, including Martha Melvina Cook (1849-1898), Francis Woods (1859-1942), Jacob Carson Williams (1860-1932), Joseph Russell Williams (1863-1945), Henry Nelson Williams (1868-1935), Charles Michael Williams (1873-1937) and Fowler Williams (1877-1883).
It is believed that Fowler Williams, who died at age five or six, was buried at the Lay Cemetery in an unmarked grave.
Several of the other Williams children were later buried at the Williams Cemetery in nearby Norma. Joseph Russell Williams is one of them. He married Arlena Duncan (1865-1936), and they had a one-year-old son, Jacob Carson Williams, who is believed to have been buried at Lay Cemetery in 1894. Another of their children, four-year-old Stacy Williams, is believed to have been buried there in 1911 after dying of diphtheria.
Martha, the oldest of the Williams children, married William Brownlow Cook (1839-1930). She died in 1898 at age 48 and was buried at Lay Cemetery. Her husband remarried and moved to North Carolina.
Another Cook buried at the cemetery was six-month-old J. Harlin Cook in 1899. He was the son of Doctor Patton Cook (1878-1945) and Helen Mary Chandler (1878-1960). Doc was the son of William and Martha Cook, making J. Harlin one of Martha’s grandsons.
Four-month-old Ishmul Cook was buried at the cemetery in 1905. He was likely another of Martha’s grandchildren.
The Marcum family
Another early family represented at Lay Cemetery is the Marcum family, beginning with three-year-old James Henry Marcum, who was buried there in 1882.
James Henry was the son of Joseph Ozias Marcum (1861-1906) and Henreatta Cross (155-1926), both of who were later buried at Lay Cemetery.
Henreatta, or “Ritta,” as she was known, was the daughter of John C. Cross and Lucinda Acres of the Straight Fork community. The Cross family was originally from the Buffalo area. Ritta’s uncle was Larkin Cross, who was murdered by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.
Meanwhile, there were other Marcums buried at Lay Cemetery, including one-year-old Oley E. Marcum in 1885, one-month-old Lawrence Ernest Marcum in 1904, an infant Marcum in 1907, 11-month-old Edna Marcum in 1914, and 16-year-old Kermit Elmer Marcum in 1918. For the most part, it isn’t clear who their parents were, although Kermit was the son of Claiborne Marcum and Selina Byrd. Selina was buried at the cemetery in 1932. She was the daughter of Jesse “Baldy” Byrd and Martha Adkins, a prominent family in eastern Scott County at the time. Claiborne was the son of Joseph Ozias Marcum and Ritta Cross. He later remarried and is buried at Fairview Cemetery.
The final member of the Marcum family to be buried at Lay Cemetery was 32-year-old Avery Marcum in 1937. He married Esther Lay, who was part of the Lay family soon to enter into this story.
The Byrd family
Obadiah “Dyer” Byrd was buried at Lay Cemetery when he died in 1915 at age 48. He was a brother to Selina Byrd Marcum, who would later be buried at the cemetery. His wife was Alice Hatmaker (1881-1918), who is also buried at the cemetery. She died of influenza during the Spanish Flu pandemic.
The Boston family
In 1920, 53-year-old Mary L. Boston died and was buried at Lay Cemetery. Four years later, her husband died and was also buried there, at age 69. Their headstone indicates that they were reasonably wealthy, but little information is available about them. When the 1920 census was taken, they were living alone at Pioneer. Mary appears to have been a Chambers, and she and her husband were married in 1886. When the 1900 census was taken, they had four children at home: James, Annie, Thomas and Maud, ranging in age from 12 to three.
Mary was living with her grandparents, Edward and Isaphany Smith, when the 1880 census was taken. She appears to have been the daughter of Thomas and Susannah Chambers of Huntsville.
The Lay family
Finally, in 1938, the Lay family for whom the cemetery is named today came into the picture. The first member of the family to be buried there was infant McKinley Lay Jr. in August 1938.
McKinley was the son of McKinley “Kense” Lay (1896-1985) and Ellen Lay (1896-1970). They had a number of other children: Esther Lay Dupps (1915-2008), William Clayton Lay (1918-2000), Uldean Cieri (1921-2018), Beaulah Arlene Wright (1923-2004), Lennis “Tobe” Lay (1927-1995), Roy Glen Lay (1930-1972), Jama Pauline Ray (1932-2009), and Bobbie Lee Lay (1935-2023).
Kense was the son of Wymer Lay (1867-1932) and Elizabeth Booth (1863-1924). He was a grandson of William Dandy Lay and Nancy Ann Croley from Elk Valley. As you may recall from last week’s visit to Lay-Silcox Cemetery, it was William Dandy’s descendants who moved from Elk Valley to Rock House Creek in Scott County. Kense’s uncle was Rev. Greenberry Lay, the ancestor of most Lays from the Rock House community.
The first member of the family to be buried at the Lay Cemetery at Straight Fork was Avery Marcum, who married into the Lay family when he married Kense and Ellen’s oldest daughter, Esther. She later remarried and moved to Ohio.
Kense and Ellen were both buried at the cemetery, in 1985 and 1970, respectively. Several of their children were also buried there, including William Clayton Lay in 2000, Tobe Lay in 1995, Roy Glen Lay in 1972, and Bobbie Lee Lay in 2023. Bobbie’s wife, Wanda Pearl Miller, was buried there in 2024. Tobe’s wife, Leta June Fowler, was buried there in 2000.
The cemetery today
Wanda Pearl Miller Lay, wife of Bobbie Lee Lay, was the most recent burial at Lay Cemetery. She died on Christmas Eve 2024.
Prior to that, Starlette Rheana Bowling Lay was buried at the cemetery in August 2024. She was the wife of Mack Lay.
Jeff Boshears was buried at the cemetery in 2015.
Alice Adkins, 1869-1873
Flora Adkins, 1902-1902
Jeffrey L. Boshears, 1964-2015
George W. Boston, 1854-1924
Mary L. Boston, 1866-1920
Alice Hatmaker Byrd, 1881-1918
Obadiah B. Byrd, 1866-1915
Ishmul Cook, 1905-1905
J. Harlin Cook, 1899-1899
Martha Williams Cook, 1849-1898
Jack Fennell, 1885-1961
Bertha Parton Lay, 1939-2015
Bobbie L. Lay, 1935-2023
Ellen Lay, 1896-1970
Lennis T. Lay, 1927-1995
Leta Fowler Lay, 1927-2000
McKinley Lay Jr., 1938-1938
McKinley Lay Sr., 1896-1985
Nancy B. Lay, 1924-1963
Roy G. Lay, 1930-1972
Roy V. Lay, 1959-1960
Starlette Bowling Lay, 1965-2024
Wanda Miller Lay, 1943-2024
William C. Lay, 1918-2000
Avery Marcum, 1905-1937
Edna Marcum, 1913-1914
Henreatta Cross Marcum, 1855-1926
Infant Marcum, 1907-1907
James H. Marcum, 1879-1882
Joseph O. Marcum, 1861-1906
Kermit E. Marcum, 1901-1918
Lawrence E. Marcum, 1904-1904
Oley E. Marcum, 1884-1885
Selina Byrd Marcum, 1882-1932
Andrew C. Williams, 1820-1880
Fowler Williams, 1877-1883
Jacob C. Williams, 1893-1894
Sarah Huckaby Williams, 1837-1919
Stacy Williams, 1907-1911