Sacred Ground: Carson Cemetery (Tunnel Hill)

When you think of the Tunnel Hill area east of Oneida, two prominent names come to mind: Keeton and Carson. These families were the primary settlers in the region, even before the Paint Rock Coal & Coke Co. dug tunnels through the hill to lay tracks for the railroad, which later became known as the Tennessee Railroad, and gave the community its name.

One of the first cemeteries the Sacred Ground series profiled was Keeton Cemetery, which overlooks the railroad from the end of a ridge and became the final resting place of many of the community’s early residents.

“Just across the holler” from Keeton Cemetery, as the old-timers would say, lies Carson Cemetery. In fact, it is almost literally a stone’s throw from Keeton Cemetery.

Carson Cemetery, in fact, predates Keeton Cemetery. It contains only a handful of graves, all of which date back to the end of the 19th century. Keeton Cemetery, on the other hand, wasn’t established until 1907. There’s also a newer Carson Cemetery located on the other side of Tunnel Hill, just off Paint Rock Road.

Upon stepping into Carson Cemetery, it’s not difficult to understand why this burial ground was abandoned relatively quickly. It’s situated on the edge of a steep ridge in an inconspicuous location. Sadly, the Carson Cemetery has all but faded from memory. It was cleared of reforestation at some point not too many years ago, but it is no longer maintained, and the graves are left undecorated.

In 1994, Robert Bailey documented in his book, “Cemeteries of Scott County, Tennessee,” that Carson Cemetery contained five identifiable graves, along with some unmarked ones.

At least three graves are marked with uninscribed field stones. One of them is set back in the trees, separated from the other graves, almost as if it was forgotten when the cemetery was last cleared of new growth. Based on indentations in the earth, it’s possible that there are a couple of unmarked graves nearby.

Altogether, there were at least eight people buried at Carson Cemetery, and possibly a few more.

The Carson family

The Carson family’s connection to Tunnel Hill goes back to John Linn Carson Jr. (1808-1899) and Catherine Jane Triplett Carson (1815-1893), both of whom are interred in Carson Cemetery. Many of their descendants found their final resting place in Tunnel Hill’s other Carson Cemetery, which is closer to the highway, and was established a few years later. Additionally, a number of their descendants are buried at Carson Memorial Cemetery at Ponderosa, which is just a short distance away as the crow flies. The Carson family further expanded into High Point and Cherry Fork south of Oneida.

John Carson Jr., the son of John Carson Sr. and Sarah Estes, was born in Kentucky sometime between 1808 (as indicated on several family trees) and 1812 (the date he provided to census enumerators). His wife, Jane, was born in Virginia and was the daughter of James and Nancy Oliver Triplett.

It’s challenging to pinpoint the Carson family’s move to Tennessee. However, it’s clear that John Carson Sr. and his wife, Sarah Estes, initiated the move. They were married in Grainger County, Tenn., in 1801. The Carsons might have moved to Kentucky at some point, as that’s where John Carson Jr. later informed census enumerators he was born in 1808. John Carson’s name first appeared on an early property record in Campbell County (which would have encompassed the Oneida area) in 1837. This might have been the same year that John Carson Jr. and Jane Triplett were married.

By the time the 1850 census was taken, John and Jane Carson had already moved to the Tunnel Hill area. Their oldest child, William, was 16 years old, while their youngest, Emily Jane, was just a baby.

The cemetery begins

The history of the cemetery begins in 1888 with the burial of John and Jane Carson’s 10-year-old granddaughter, Martha Jane Keeton. Martha Jane was the daughter of Emily Jane Carson, the youngest daughter of John and Jane Carson, who married Baty Keeton.

Baty Keeton was the son of Harrison Keeton, who moved with his wife, Elizabeth, to Scott County and settled on Phillips Creek in Helenwood. Harrison and Elizabeth had as many as a dozen children. One of them, Baty, married into the Carson family and settled in the Tunnel Hill community. Baty and Emily Jane Carson Keeton were the ancestors of all the Keetons who followed in the Tunnel Hill area, including those buried at the Keeton Cemetery, which is situated “on the other side of the holler.”

Martha Jane, born in 1877, was the second-born daughter of Baty and Emily Keeton, and her older sister’s name was Mary Ann Keeton. It’s not clear what caused Martha Jane’s death. Mary Ann Keeton, Martha Jane’s older sister, married John Clarville Pike, initiating the beginning of another family that played a significant role in the early Tunnel Hill community and still does today. John and Mary Ann’s oldest child, George, was born in 1884, followed by Emily in 1890 and Maudelly in 1892.

Tragically, little Maudelly died in August 1892 at just two months old. She was buried next to her 10-year-old aunt, Martha Jane, at what would later become known as Carson Cemetery.

Jane Triplett Carson, Martha Jane’s grandmother and Maudelly’s great-grandmother, passed away in December 1893 at the age of 78. She was buried at the same cemetery. Six years later, in May 1899, her husband, John, passed away at the age of 90 and was buried beside her.

The final burial

Only one more person would be laid to rest at Carson Cemetery before it fell into disuse: baby Lee E. Keeton in November 1901. Lee was the 15-day-old son of John Harrison and Dicie Terry Keeton, and he was a first cousin to Maudelly Pike. John Harrison Keeton and Mary Ann Keeton Pike were siblings.

Following that burial, there were no more interments at the cemetery. The Keeton Cemetery was established six years later, where Baty and Emily Jane, as well as John Harrison and Dicie, and many other family members, were buried. The Carsons started to be interred at the Carson Cemetery on the other side of Tunnel Hill in 1917, and the original Carson Cemetery slowly faded from memory.

Nevertheless, the Carson legacy continued to have a strong presence at Tunnel Hill. Today, Carson Cemetery is situated on property owned by heirs of the late Arzo Carson, a former district attorney and TBI director who passed away earlier this year. He was the great-grandson of John and Jane Triplett Carson.

When there are unmarked graves at a cemetery, it’s intriguing to speculate about who they might belong to. In this case, the uninscribed graves may belong to John and Sarah Estes Carson, the parents of John Carson Jr., whose burial locations remain unknown. Unfortunately, there’s no way to confirm this.

In addition to the original burials, there was one more burial at the location of Carson Cemetery, although it wasn’t part of the original cemetery. Patsy Smith Honeycutt was born on May 3, 1948, and passed away on April 29, 1974, just days before her 26th birthday. Her grave is located just over the hill from Carson Cemetery. She was the first wife of Avery Honeycutt, who still resides at the foot of the hill just beyond her grave.

Cemetery Census

CARSON CEMETERY (TUNNEL HILL)
GPS Coordinates: 36.467720032, -84.505203247
First Burial: 1888
Last Burial: 1974*

Jane Triplett Carson        1815-1893

John L. Carson Jr.              1808-1899

Patsy Smith Honeycutt   1948-1974

Lee E. Keeton                      1901-1901

Martha J. Keeton               1877-1888

Maudelly Pike                    1892-1892

This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.