Lay-Silcox Cemetery
During the 19th century, the Lay family spread westward from Elk Valley and other areas of western Campbell County, across the mountain and into the Rock House area of eastern Scott County.
At the time, long before S.R. 63 was built as the modern highway system was developed, an old wagon trail through the Rock House community was part of the main travel route between Jacksboro in Campbell County and Huntsville in Scott County, then on through the Big South Fork region to Monticello, Ky.
The Lays in Scott County — which later included Oneida business owner Arlie Lay and Oneida Mayor Jack E. Lay, as well as Scott County Road Superintendent James D. “Headin” Lay — trace their ancestry to John Michael “Missouri Jack” Lay (1790-1874), who lived in Elk Valley.
With time, the Lay family became quite prominent in the Rock House community, and several cemeteries in the community — which is located off Sugar Grove east of Huntsville — tell that story today. One of those is the Lay-Silcox Cemetery, which dates back to the turn of the 20th century.
The Lay Family
John Michael “Missouri Jack” Lay was the son of Jesse “River Jesse” Lay and Catherine Bradley. He was originally from North Carolina, but his folks moved to the Elk Valley area in the early 1800s. He married Rachel Foley (1789-1879) in 1810. They had nine children: Spencer Lay, Jesse Lay, Jane Lay, Moses Lay, James Lay, Michael Lay, Winnie Lay, William Dandy Lay and Thomas Lay. Several of their sons were Baptist preachers.
Although Missouri Jack lived in Campbell County, several of his children moved to Scott County. One of them, a Baptist preacher named Michael Lay, was the first person buried at Allred Cemetery in the Straight Fork community in 1879. (Michael Lay’s brother, James A. Lay, was also a Baptist preacher. Headin Lay descended from him. Arlie Lay descended from James’ and Michael’s brother, William Dandy Lay, while Jack E. Lay descended from another brother, Moses Lay.)
Family legend has it that John Michael was given the nickname “Missouri Jack” because he made several trips across the Mississippi River to Missouri, but was never satisfied and always came back home. He met Rachel while living in southeastern Kentucky, not far from Williamsburg, as a young adult. He had moved back to Campbell County by 1813.
Among the children of Missouri Jack: Spencer, also a Baptist preacher, and William Dandy stayed in Elk Valley; Jane and Thomas moved to Missouri; Winnie moved to Kentucky; and Moses, James and Michael moved to Scott County.
The Lay-Silcox Cemetery
Not all of the Lays who settled in Scott County did so in the Rock House community. Michael settled in Straight Fork, while Moses and James wound up at Buffalo, which is a stone’s throw from Rock House. In time, though, the Lays became quite populated in the Rock House community, and some remain there today.
The Lay-Silcox Cemetery began in the summer of 1902, when 26-year-old James Lay was buried there. He was the son of Rev. Greenberry Lay and Martha Jane McKinney, both of whom would later be buried at the cemetery. His paternal grandfather was William Dandy Lay — who was an ancestor to Arlie Lay, the founder of the Lay-Simpson brand of furniture stores. Although William Dandy remained in Elk Valley his entire life, his son, Greenberry, moved across the mountain to Rock House.
Greenberry’s wife, Martha Jane, was one of many children of David McKinney and Nancy Wade. Her parents were part of a broader move from Campbell County to Missouri in the late 1800s, which also included two of Missouri Jack’s children — Greenberry’s aunt and uncle. David McKinney served several terms as a county judge in Texas County, Mo.
Greenberry and Martha Jane had eight children: Nancy Lay Cooper (1870-1933), Sarah Jane Silcox (1872-1938), William Alford Lay (1874-1955), James Lay (1875-1902), Margaret Irene Sharp (1881-1928), Rachel Louana Dupuy (1885-1959), John Crittendon Lay (1888-1975) and Michael C. Lay (1892-1979). It was William Alford who was the father of businessman Arlie Lay.
Following Martha Jane’s death in 1914, Greenberry remarried to Connie Barron of Elk Valley. She had previously been married to William Sexton. They had one more child together: Wymer Lay, born in 1915.
James Lay, the first person buried at Lay-Silcox Cemetery, married Sarah Botts (1877-1952). They had two children together, Elgin Monroe Lay (1899-1975), and Nancy J. Lay. Nancy was only a few months old when her father died, and she died in January 1903, six days short of her first birthday. She was the second person buried at the Lay-Silcox Cemetery.
Sarah and her remaining child, Elgin, left Scott County for Oklahoma, where Sarah remarried to John F. Glenn in 1906. He would later die in 1917, and she married again.
Another child, one-year-old Elra Johnberry Lay, was buried at the Lay-Silcox Cemetery in April 1903. He was the son of William Alfred Lay and Margaret Collins — the younger brother of Arlie Lay.
Following Elra’s death, William Alfred moved his family to Oneida, near where the Scott County Fairgrounds is now located. He had another son, Elmer Richard, who died in 1923 at age 19 of tuberculosis. He was buried at Coffey Cemetery, which is where William Alfred and his wife would later be buried, as well.
The Silcox family
Another family that lived at Rock House in the late 1800s and early 1900s was the Silcox family. This was really an extension of the Lay family, because Greenberry Lay’s second-oldest daughter, Sarah Jane, married James Mountville Silcox of Elk Valley in 1891 and they settled at Rock House with her folks.
James M. Silcox (1869-1927) was the son of Joseph Franklin Silcox (1847-1880) and Emily Arene Boshears (1849-1892). Emily was originally from Scott County, the daughter of William Riley Boshears and Elizabeth “Sadie” Adkins of the Straight Fork community. They’re buried at Fairview Cemetery. However, Emily and her husband settled in Elk Valley, and it is believed that they are buried in the Turley community there.
The fourth person buried at Lay-Silcox Cemetery was William A. Silcox, son of James Mountville Silcox and Sarah Jane Lay. Called Willie by his parents, he was just 10 years old when he died in August 1905.
They had another child, an infant daughter, who was buried at the cemetery in 1908. Seven other children survived to adulthood.
The cemetery grows
The only person buried at Lay-Silcox Cemetery between 1908, when James and Sarah’s infant daughter died, and 1923 was Martha Jane McKinney Lay — Greenberry Lay’s wife — in 1914.
In the 1920s, however, burials began to increase in frequency at Lay-Silcox Cemetery.
One-year-old Leon Lay was buried there in 1923. He was the son of Michael Lay and Emma Ford, a grandson of Greenberry Lay and Martha Jane McKinney. Just four days later, his two-year-old brother, Hubert, died and was buried beside him.
More babies would soon be buried at the cemetery, as well.
The Loyd family
In 1926, an infant child of Benjamin “Ben” Loyd and Myrtle Silcox was buried at Lay-Silcox Cemetery.
The Loyd family was another extension of the Lay family. Myrtle was a daughter of James Mountville Silcox and Sarah Jane Lay. She married Ben Loyd in 1913. The Lloyd family was an expansive family in western Campbell County and eastern Scott County.
Ben and Myrtle had another infant buried at the cemetery in 1932. They also had a number of children who survived to adulthood, including Odessa Mae Cross, Ada Pearl Robbins, Amos Mountie Loyd, Irene Byrd, Hurstle Esau Loyd, Velma Inez Chambers, Mildred J. Owens and Jeanetta Meredith.
The cemetery today
The Lay-Silcox Cemetery remains active, with the last burial occurring there in March 2024: Loretta Sue Lay Vick.
Loretta was the daughter of Arnold Lay and Iona Inez Lay — a great-granddaughter of Greenberry Lay. Her parents are also buried at the cemetery, as is her husband, David Vick, who died in 2007.
Prior to Loretta’s death, Geraldine “Jerri” Marcum Gagne was buried at the cemetery in 2022. Her husband, Donald Gagne Sr., was buried there in 2016. She was another descendant of William Dandy Lay. Her great-grandfather, Michael C. Lay, was a brother to Greenberry Lay. His daughter, Susanna Lay, married Emerson Marcum.
Nettie Evelyn Lay was buried at the cemetery in 2020. She was one of the Lay family who continued to live in the Rock House community into the modern era. She was a granddaughter of Greenberry Lay.
Other burials at the cemetery within the past 10 years include Addie “Lou” Lay Comer in 2018. She was the daughter of George Flemon Lay and Bertie Arvilla Silcox, who are buried at the cemetery. Her husband, Everett “Gene” Comer, is buried there, too.
Eula Ellen “Boog” Lay was buried at the cemetery in 2017. She was Lou’s sister. Lou lived to be 101, and Boog lived to be 99. They have several siblings buried at the cemetery, including Nancy Collins (in 1994), Jim Lay (1989), Ollie Navarro (1994), infant James William Lay (1927), Lloyd “Bucky” Lay (2013), infant Joseph Prior Lay (1937), and 7-year-old Larry Ray Lay (1951).
Claude Allen, 1900-1945
Lewis Allen, 1873-1950
Dorothy Lay Byrd, 1930-2003
Manerd Byrd, 1928-1995
James M. Chambers, 1910-1927
Mary Haney Chambers, 1872-1942
Thomas R. Chambers, 1869-1955
Nancy Lay Collins, 1920-1994
Raymond Collins Jr., 1950-1951
Addie Lay Comer, 1917-2018
Everett E. Comer, 1918-2002
Donald R. Gagne Sr., 1937-2016
Geraldine Marcum Gagne, 1941-2022
Arnold Lay, 1932-2013
Bertie Silcox Lay, 1897-1992
Bobby L. Lay, 1936-2012
Brittian Lay, 1929-1931
Elra J. Lay, 1901-1903
Emma Ford Lay, 1898-1972
Eula E. Lay, 1918-2017
George F. Lay, 1891-1987
Greenberry Lay, 1851-1933
Hubert Lay, 1920-1923
Iona I. Lay, 1925-1997
James Lay, 1875-1902
James A. Lay, 1923-1989
James W. Lay, 1926-1927
Joseph P. Lay, 1937-1937
Larry R. Lay, 1943-1951
Leon Lay, 1921-1923
Lloyd G. Lay, 1931-2013
Margie Gipson Lay, 1935-2011
Martha McKinney Lay, 1850-1914
Michael C. Lay, 1892-1979
Nancy J. Lay, 1902-1903
Nannie Brooks Lay, 1924-2007
Nettie E. Lay, 1935-2020
U.W. Lay, 1926-1927
William D. Lay, 1949-2011
Willie L. Lay, 1946-1970
Susan Marcum Kline, 1948-2011
Infant Loyd, 1926-1926
Infant Loyd, 1932-1932
Gladys Clark Marcum, 1917-1980
Horace M. Marcum, 1916-1994
Nathaniel Muse, 1922-1998
Joseph R. Navarro, 1922-1978
Ollie Lay Navarro, 1925-1994
Margaret Lay Sharp, 1881-1928
Audrie Silcox, 1938-1938
H.B. Silcox, 1899-1989
Infant Daughter Silcox, 1908-1908
Infant Son Silcox, 1929-1929
James L. Silcox Sr., 1931-1987
James M. Silcox, 1869-1927
K.D. Silcox Jr., 1939-1939
Kelly D. Silcox, 1907-1987
Lillian I. Silcox, 1927-1937
Lula Allen Silcox, 1905-1994
Nellie Silcox, 1934-1934
Sadie Byrd Silcox, 1909-2002
Sarah Lay Silcox, 1872-1938
William A. Silcox, 1895-1905
David D. Vick, 1949-2007
Loretta Lay Vick, 1955-2024
Elmer P. Yaden Sr., 1907-1986
Hoyle G. Yaden, 1937-1937
Ina Silcox Yaden, 1913-1974