Sacred Ground: Buttram Cemetery
The Sacred Ground series recently profiled the New River and Hurtt cemeteries in the New River community south of Huntsville. One of the names prominent in those stories was Buttram. This week’s installment of the series visits the Buttram Cemetery in Huntsville, where the story of the Buttram family continues.
Dating back to 1901, there are 24 graves in the well-kept Buttram Cemetery, which is enclosed by chain-link fencing in the center of a field across the highway from White Rock Baptist Church.
The Buttram family
The story of the Buttram family in Scott County begins with John and Jane Stephenson Buttram, a well-to-do farming family in the New River community.
Two of John and Jane’s sons, Bailey and William “Bill” Buttram, were also well-off, accumulating and farming thousands of acres of property along New River.
Bailey Buttram was Scott County’s second sheriff. Elected in 1858, it was Buttram who certified Scott County’s vote on the secession referendum in 1861, when Scott Countians voted against secession by the largest margin of any county in Tennessee.
Bailey Buttram’s son-in-law, Beaty Cecil, later served as a sheriff, county judge, and was elected to both the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tennessee Senate. The famed “Fighting Cecils of New River,” including Medal of Honor recipient Col. Joe Cecil, were Bailey Buttram’s grandsons.
Billy Buttram, meanwhile, was successful in his own right — especially as a farmer and landowner. He first married Rachel Reed and, after her death, married Silvie Ross Strunk.
The youngest of Billy and Rachel’s six children was John Buttram (1836-1886), who is buried at New River Cemetery. He married Mary Francis Hurtt, the daughter of John Crawford and Francis Bruton Hurtt, and the sister of New River businessman and county sheriff Reuben Hurtt. John Buttram was a sergeant in Company F, 7th Tennessee Mounted Infantry of the Union army during the Civil War.
The second-born of John and Mary’s nine children was William Harrison Buttram, or simply “W.H.” He served as district attorney general for 28 years, and was a circuit court judge for 12 years until his death of a heart attack on May 31, 1930, at the age of 70.
The McLeod family
The Buttram Cemetery in Huntsville began in 1901. The first burial there that year was 30-year-old Clarke McLeod, who died on June 4, 1901. His sister, Anna Belle McLeod, was the wife of W.H. Buttram. Very little information is available about Clark McLeod, including how he died at such a young age or how he wound up in Huntsville, Tenn.
The McLeods were the children of John McIntosh McLeod, a well-known educator who was born in Scotland and migrated to the United States. J.M. McLeod was enrolled at the University of Toronto in Canada but left school after the attack on Fort Sumpter to join the Confederate Army. Following his capture by the Union army, McLeod escaped and returned to school in Canada. He eventually graduated and spent several years traveling the world before beginning his teaching career at the prestigious Bell School in Kentucky.
From there, McLeod organized the high school in Georgetown, Ky. before serving as president of Oak Hill Institute in Tennessee and then Commerce College in Texas. Professor McLeod, as he was known, later served as a superintendent of schools in Hunt County, Tex., before returning to Greenville, Ky. to establish a private school. Late in life he was elected as a court clerk and practiced law. He was visiting his daughter, Anna Buttram, in Huntsville when he died in 1931. Like his children, Clark and Anna, he was buried at Buttram Cemetery.
The cemetery begins
The Buttram Cemetery began in June 1901 with the burial of Clark McLeod, the brother-in-law of Judge W.H. Buttram.
On October 7 of that same year, Anna Ruth Buttram — the eight-month-old daughter of W.H. and Anna Belle Buttram — died and was buried at the cemetery.
There were no more burials at Buttram Cemetery until 1930, when Judge Buttram died of a heart attack at the age of 70 and was buried near his brother-in-law and young daughter.
The Boshears family
Later in 1930, the same year that Judge W.H. Buttram died, Ewell Smith Boshears died suddenly at the age of 73 and was buried at the Buttram Cemetery.
Boshears was Scott County Recorder, who had previously served as a county trustee and county court clerk. He was a 24-year veteran of the Recorder’s office. He died when he was struck and killed by a truck.
Boshears was the son of William Riley Boshears and Elizabeth Adkins Boshears, the grandson of Isaac and Elizabeth Wilson Boshears (also spelled Brashears). His ancestors settled in Roane County, Tenn., but both his parents and grandparents lived in Scott County. His mother was a part of the Adkins family that settled Jellico Creek. She was a brother to Sterling Adkins, a Baptist preacher who organized churches at Smokey Creek and Jellico Creek.
Boshears first married Martha “Patsy” Byrd, who is buried at Huntsville Cemetery. Following her death, he married Sarah “Sadie” Adkins.
Today, there are two monuments within the Buttram Cemetery. One on the north end is inscribed “Buttram,” while a matching monument on the south end is inscribed “Boshears.”
The Doisy family
On April 10, 1952, Lina Belle West Doisy died and was buried at Buttram Cemetery. The daughter of Jeremiah West and Malissan Sexton West, she was married to Adelbert H. Doisy, who would be buried at the cemetery in 1962.
Adelbert Doisy was originally from Ohio. His grandfather was a Frenchman from Paris who migrated to Ohio in the early 19th century. Doisy came to Scott County as a hunter, met Lina Belle West, and settled down here permanently. He had a nephew, Dr. Edward Adelbert Doisy, who was a Nobel Prize winner during World War II.
Along with James F. Baker, Doisy opened the Huntsville Supply Company store in 1897. He operated the store for many years and it became a sort of central community hub in Huntsville. Nat Hancock, Scott County’s last slave who is buried at Huntsville Cemetery, was a familiar figure at the store. Historian Esther Sharp Sanderson wrote that “there was nothing (Hancock) prized more than the derby hat that Mr. Bert gave him.”
Today, the “Doisy House” in Huntsville still stands, just off the courthouse square, and is owned by the Scott County Historical Society.
Bert and Lina Belle’s only surviving child was Mary Helen Doisy, born in 1908. Another daughter had died in infancy the previous year.
Mary Helen Doisy married Daniel Boone Walker, a grandson of Civil War veteran Daniel Walker and Almira Goad Walker from the Brimstone community south of Huntsville. She was a prominent teacher at Huntsville High School, where she taught for 36 years.
Both Mary Helen, who died in 1997, and Dan, who died in 1969, are buried at the Buttram Cemetery.
The modern era
In 1952, Robert G. Owens died and was buried at Buttram Cemetery. He was the husband of Wilda Boshears, one of Ewell Boshears’ daughters.
Katherine West Harrington died in 1958 and was buried at the cemetery. Her husband, Fred Boyd Harrington, would later be buried there in 1970.
Jesse Hood, a World War I veteran, was buried at the cemetery in 1961.
Rose Campbell Buttram was buried at the cemetery in 1964. She was the wife of John McLeod Buttram, one of W.H. Buttram’s sons. He was buried at the cemetery in 1982.
Three years after Rose Buttram’s death, Eolia Fay Buttram Phillips died and was buried at Buttram Cemetery. She was W.H. Buttram’s daughter, who had been married to Dr. Tom Phillips who is buried at Robbins Cemetery.
Lawrence Austin “L.A.” West died in 1980 and was buried at the cemetery. He married Florence Boshears, one of Ewell Boshears’ daughters, who was buried at the cemetery when she died in 1989.
In 1990, Norman Kenneth West died and was buried at the cemetery. He was a World War II veteran.
In 1991, Frances W. Boshears died and was buried at the cemetery. She was another of Ewell Boshears’ daughters.
The most recent burial at Buttram Cemetery was Mary Helen Walker in 1997.
Cemetery Census
BUTTRAM CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.41280, -84.49580
First Burial: 1901
Last Burial: 1997
Ewell S. Boshears 1856-1930
Frances W. Boshears 1909-1991
Sadie Adkins Boshears 1885-1974
Anna McLeod Buttram 1869-1941
Anna R. Buttram 1901-1901
John M. Buttram 1892-1982
Rose Campbell Buttram 1893-1964
- Buttram Jr. 1896-1947
W.H. Buttram 1860-1930
Adelbert H. Doisy 1862-1962
Lina West Doisy 1876-1952
Fred B. Harrington 1883-1970
Katherine Harrington 1884-1958
Jesse L. Hood 1891-1961
Clarke McLeod 1871-1901
John M. McLeod 1840-1931
Robert G. Owens 1902-1952
Wilda Boshears Owens 1906-1988
Fay Buttram Phillips 1893-1967
Dan Walker 1906-1969
Mary Doisy Walker 1908-1997
Florence Boshears West 1904-1989
L.A. West 1899-1980
Norman K. West 1927-1990
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.