Sacred Ground: Carpenter Cemetery
So far, the Sacred Ground series has profiled only cemeteries found in Scott County, Tenn. But there are a few we want to venture beyond the county lines to get due to their ties to Scott County, and the Carpenter Cemetery at Nydeck is one of those.
Nydeck Road stretches from Glenmary in Scott County to Brewstertown in Morgan County and the Carpenter Cemetery is sometimes called the Nydeck Cemetery. It’s located not far from the Scott-Morgan county line, just beyond White Oak Creek.
The cemetery dates back to the mid 19th century. One of the first persons buried here was Andrew Leutian Lewallen, who died in 1873 at age 80.
Much of Nydeck remains farmland today, and Andrew Leutian Lewallen was one of the first significant farmers in this community, owning substantial land holdings in the mid 19th century. Although he was buried on the Morgan County side of the line, he lived on the Scott County side of the line, according to census records.
The Lewallen family
Andrew Leutian Lewallen, born in 1793, was the son of Anderson Grant Lewallen (1764-1829) and Lucy Rice (1766-1832), who are buried in the small Lewallen Cemetery on Wolf Creek in Scott County. They were the first Lewallens in present-day Scott County, marrying in Prince Edward, Va. In 1784 and moving to the Cumberland Plateau at some point after that.
Anderson Grant Lewallen — sometimes spelled Llewellyn — was of Welsh descent. His third-great-grandfather, Daniel Llewellyn Sr., migrated from England to the American colonies, and the family can be traced back as far as Sir John Llewellyn in 16th century Wales.
After settling in the Coal Hill area, the Lewallens became a prominent family in this region. Anderson and Lucy Lewallen were the parents of Scott County’s first sheriff, John Lewallen. Their great-grandson, John Goad, also served as sheriff of Scott County, and presided over the county’s first legal hanging in the 1890s. And their third-great-grandson, John J. Duncan Sr., later represented Scott County in Congress.
Andrew Lewallen was the older brother of Sheriff John Lewallen. He served in the War of 1812, fighting under Gen. Andrew Jackson. He was 19 when he fought at the Battle of New Orleans. His nickname was Shade Lewallen, but he was not the same Shade Lewallen who cast Scott County’s only vote for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. That Shade Lewallen came later, and is buried in Huntsville.
Andrew Lewallen married Malinda Elizabeth Davis in 1814. She was the daughter of Joseph Davis and Elizabeth Young. Joseph Davis was a Revolutionary War veteran from North Carolina, but appears to have died before the family’s move to present-day Scott County. His wife, Elizabeth, did move to Scott County, and was living with Andrew and Malinda when the 1850 census was taken. Her stated age at the time was 100.
Andrew and Malinda Lewallen had six children: Elizabeth, Herod, Nancy, Andrew Russell, Rhoda and Walter Davis. Interestingly, the three Lewallen girls — Elizabeth, Nancy and Rhoda — all married brothers from the Young family of Glenmary. Nancy married Solomon Young. Elizabeth and Rhoda both married the same man: Matthew Young. Elizabeth married him first, in 1838. But she died in 1845, and he married Rhoda in 1846. They’re all buried at Campground Cemetery at Coal Hill.
Among the other Lewallen children: Herod moved to Arkansas, Andrew Russell is buried in Robbins, and Walter Davis is buried at the Lewallen Cemetery that is a short distance away from Carpenter Cemetery at Nydeck.
Andrew Lewallen was buried at Carpenter Cemetery in 1873, and his wife was buried there in 1876.
Beginnings
The Carpenter Cemetery is unique for this area in that a number of the graves here are covered with stacked stones. That’s the case with the very first grave that was established here: a Walker who died in August 1843.
The hand-inscribed field stone is difficult to read but it appears to be “AR WALKER.” The date “AUG. 1843” is plainly visible but, unfortunately, there is no birth date given. And because census records included the names of only the heads of household prior to 1850, they don’t do much to help establish who A.R. Walker may have been.
Walkers listed in the 1840 census for Morgan County included Margaret Walker, E. Walker and Audley P. Walker. There were no Walkers listed in Scott County. There were two people living in Margret’s household, two living in E.’s household and seven living in Hudley’s household.
There are some who think that Mary Young Guthrie — wife of George Guthrie — was the second person buried at Carpenter Cemetery. However, there’s no marker for her to be found in the cemetery when she died in 1849. Her daughter, Susannah, is buried at the cemetery, however. She married Consider Carpenter and died in 1892 at age 91.
The Guthrie family certainly lived in the area, moving from Anderson County to Fentress County and then to Morgan County before George Guthrie later lived to Indiana, where he was living with his daughter in 1850.
The Webb family
The first person whose grave can be conclusively identified at Carpenter Cemetery is Hiram Webb, a child who died in 1855. Just nine when he died, he was the son of Willis Webb and Margarette Ann Stewart, who are buried at Coal Hill. The Webbs have several children buried at Carpenter Cemetery, all with matching stones. There was 13-year-old Nancy in 1862, 14-year-old James in 1862, 10-year-old Martan in 1862, and 20-year-old Samuel in 1862. The four all died within nine days, beginning with Nancy on Sept. 13, 1862, followed by James on Sept. 14, Samuel on Sept. 18 and Martan on Sept. 22.
There is no indication what the children died of, though it would’ve certainly seemed unusual for three young people to die so close together at a time when there was no known epidemic sweeping through the community. It must have been a tragic time for the Webb family — especially for their mother, Margarette, whose husband was in a war hospital in Cincinnati at the time.
Willis Webb joined the Union army during the Civil War, which began about seven years after the family moved to Glenmary. According to family history, Willis Webb fell ill after marching from Camp Dick Robinson in Kentucky to Camp Wild Cat (near London, Ky.) in 1861.
The Webbs also have a 31-year-old daughter, Martha, who was buried at Carpenter Cemetery in 1876.
A final note: Willis Webb appears to have fathered several children out of wedlock with a Todd woman who lived in southern Scott County.
The Brewster family
Besides the Webb children, the unidentified Walker, and perhaps Mary Young Guthrie, the only people buried at Carpenter Cemetery prior to the 1870s were Brewsters.
The Brewster family was quite prominent in this part of Morgan County; the community nearby is named Brewstertown. The first member of the family buried at Carpenter Cemetery was Phoebe Brewster, who died in 1858 as a young child (born in 1857). She was the daughter of John W. Brewster and Rebecca Farr, who would later be buried at the cemetery.
John Brewster was a Baptist minister, the son of James and Phoebe Brewster. Like the Webbs, the Brewsters had several children buried at Carpenter Cemetery in the 1860s. There was 14-year-old Sheron Brewster in 1865, 10-year-old Fairbea Brewster in 1866, 19-year-old Jesse Brewster in 1869, eight-year-old Andrew Brewster in 1871, and six-year-old George Brewster in 1872.
Rebecca Farr Brewster was buried at the cemetery in 1894, and John was buried there in 1911. In between, they had a great-granddaughter, Annie Brewster, buried at the cemetery in 1901, one week after her birth. She was the daughter of Martin Simon Brewster and Ceceilia “Nettie” McKinney Thompson. Her father was buried at the cemetery when he died young in 1913. Her mother is buried at Daniel Memorial Cemetery in Helenwood.
Mary Patton Brewster was buried at Carpenter Cemetery in 1917. She was John and Rebecca’s daughter-in-law, the wife of James Thomas Brewster, who was buried there in 1941.
The Carpenter family
The first member of the Carpenter family buried at the cemetery that would take the family name was Consider Carpenter, who died on May 22, 1869. As mentioned earlier, his wife was Susannah Guthrie, whose mother may have previously been buried at the cemetery. Susannah was buried there in 1892.
Consider Carpenter was the son of Timothy Carpenter and Hannah Brown of Athens, Tenn. Both were originally from Massachusetts before moving to Tennessee. Timothy Carpenter was a Methodist circuit rider.
Interestingly, while the Nydeck Cemetery has officially become the Carpenter Cemetery, Consider and Susannah Carpenter are the only members of the family buried there. Their children were all girls, and although most stayed in the area, they’re buried in other places.
The Young family
Two-year-old John Mann Young was buried at Carpenter Cemetery on Aug. 21, 1874. He was the son of Daniel C. Young and Hannah N. Galloway, who would later be buried at the cemetery in 1935 and 1942.
Young John had an infant sibling buried at the cemetery in 1876. It is said that the baby had a twin sibling who survived but, if so, it’s not clear what their name was. They had a five-year-old daughter, Mary Jane Young, buried at the cemetery in 1892.
Daniel Young’s parents were John Young and Nancy Ann York, who would be buried at Carpenter Cemetery in 1877 and 1881, respectively.
The Peters family
The crossing of the Clear Fork River several miles from Nydeck is known today as Peters Ford. The Peters family was quite prominent in this area in the 1800s, and Daniel Young’s sister —Frances, or “Frankie” — married Henry Fowler Peters.
Frankie Young Peters was not married at Nydeck; she was buried at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Burrville. But several of her husband’s relatives were buried at Nydeck.
Martha Peters (1882), Arthur Peters (1891) and Clarence Peters (1891) all died in infancy. Arthur and Clarence were twins. It’s not clear who their parents were. But in 1896, Mary York Peters was buried at the cemetery. She was the 34-year-old wife of Wesley Consider Peters, who was buried there in 1906. They had a baby boy, Sherman, buried at the cemetery in 1896. Her parents were Henry Mitchel York and Nancy Jane Galloway, who would later be buried at the cemetery. Her husband’s parents were Leander J. Peters and Nancy D. Carpenter.
Nancy Carpenter was the daughter of Consider Carpenter and Susannah Guthrie. She’s buried at Lewallen Cemetery across the creek. Her husband is buried at Mount Vernon. He was the son of Wesley Peters and Catherine Paul.
The cemetery today
Carpenter Cemetery was extremely active in the 1890s, and continued to be used heavily in the 1910s, 1920s and into the 1930s. But then the burials slowed. After Jasper Brewster’s burial in 1955, no one was buried at the cemetery until James Otis Young in 1977, and then no one was buried until Daniel Young in 2003.
The last person buried at the cemetery was Chester Honeycutt of Brimstone in 2014. His wife, Esther Gibson, was buried there in 2012. He was the son of George Harrison Honeycutt and Louisa Jones, who are buried at East Robbins.