Sacred Ground: Cecil Cemetery
CHERRY FORK | A shootout outside a saloon in Helenwood sparked a family feud that ultimately left several people dead and resulted in the start of the Cecil family cemetery here.
Today, the Cecil Cemetery has grown to include nearly 200 graves. It remains active, and more than two dozen members of the Cecil family have been buried there. It dates back to a tragic series of events that began Christmas 1881.
The Cecil family
As noted when the Sacred Ground series visited Daniel Memorial Cemetery in Helenwood, the Cecil family is one of Scott County’s most prominent families in the Christian ministry, including longtime pastor Virgil Cecil and his sons, pastors Roger Cecil and Milford Cecil.
The Cecil lineage is well-documented all the way back to 16th century England, when the surname was spelled Syssal. Rev. Virgil Cecil’s 10th-great-grandfather, William Cecil (1520-1598) served as prime minister of England under Queen Elizabeth I.
It was James T. Cecil — the great-grandfather of Virgil Cecil — who moved to Scott County. He married Phariba Reed and they settled in the Helenwood area.
The Cecil heritage of ministry in Scott County began with brothers Reuben “Rube” Churchwell Cecil and George Washington Cecil, the latter of whom was the first pastor of First Baptist Church of Oneida.
Rube Cecil was Virgil Cecil’s grandfather. One of his sons was William Washington Cecil, who married Nancy Jane Duncan and had 11 children, including Virgil.
The family cemetery on Cherry Fork began when two of Rube’s brothers were killed in the Helenwood tragedy that occurred during the winter of 1881-1882.
The Helenwood tragedy
John Wesley Cecil was born in 1864, the eighth child of William Riley Cecil and Nancy West. His father was a justice of the peace in Helenwood. He was three years younger than his brother George Washington and 11 years younger than his brother Rube, the two Cecil brothers who went on to become well-known Baptist ministers.
John Cecil was just 17 years old when he died on Christmas Day in 1881 and became the first person buried at Cecil Cemetery off Cherry Fork Road.
Newspaper accounts from the time told the story of a shootout that occurred the day before — Christmas Eve — after an argument between Cecil and his uncle, Robinson Crusoe West.
Crusoe West was a sister to Nancy West Cecil, John Cecil’s mother. He was born in 1857, the son of Reuben West and Emily Temple Clemons. Like the Cecil family, the West family lived at Cherry Fork.
Crusoe married Matilda Smithers in 1874, and then married Mattie Arlena Laxton in 1877. His second wife was the daughter of Blagburn Thomas and Nancy Laxton, and had first been married to Tilmon Goad. Crusoe and Arlena had one child, Sylvania. (It should be noted that there was a younger Robinson Crusoe West, born in 1873, who is remembered for living in a cave with his family near the Pine Hill community, a story that was later featured in the FNB Chronicle. The younger Robinson Crusoe West was a nephew to this story’s Crusoe West; his father, Charles West, was a brother to this story’s Crusoe West. John Wesley Cecil also had a brother named Robinson Crusoe, but he spelled his middle name “Crusaw.”)
The Knoxville Daily Chronicle told it like this: “John Wesley Cecil and Crusoe West were friends and comrades, companions in mischief and in deviltry, and considered by the community as bad and dangerous men.”
Newspapers were infamous for their exaggeration in the late 19th century. However, Crusoe West had previously been into some trouble. When the 1880 census was taken, he was serving a prison sentence in Nashville.
As the Knoxville newspaper told it, John Cecil and Crusoe West had been drinking and shooting their pistols and got into an argument outside a saloon in Helenwood.
“West said, ‘Let’s shoot it out.’ Cecil answered, ‘shoot,’ when both drew their weapons, which were discharged in the act of drawing,” the newspaper wrote.
Both men were wounded — Cecil in the chest and West in the head. A fight ensued, and several more men were wounded or injured, including Jerry West, Charles West, George W. Thompson and William West. “All dangerously if not mortally wounded,” the Knoxville newspaper wrote.
Both John Cecil and Crusoe West were able to leave the scene of the fight and return home. Cecil died at 9 a.m. Christmas morning.
The violence didn’t end there. According to historical accounts, members of Cecil’s family swore to avenge his death if he died. The Knoxville newspaper reported that Reuben Cecil had sworn out a warrant for West. It was alleged that when Cecil arrived at his father-in-law’s farm and informed Crusoe West that he was under arrest, “West answered that he would surrender to lawful authority but never to one of the Cecil family.”
Another fight ensued, and West was shot to death. The Knoxville paper reported that he was shot a total of 15 times.
In the melee, West apparently managed to stab to death one of John Cecil’s brothers, 25-year-old Reason Burl Cecil. He died, as well, and was buried next to his brother at the Cecil Cemetery.
Among the dead: John Wesley Cecil died on Dec. 25, 1881, at the age of 17, and was buried at the Cecil Cemetery. Robinson Crusoe West died in January 1882, at the age of 24, and his burial location isn’t clear. Reason Burl Cecil died on Jan. 10, 1882, at the age of 24, and was buried at the Cecil Cemetery.
It isn’t clear exactly when the second battle took place at the West home on Cherry Fork, other than it would have been between Dec. 25, 1881 and Jan. 10, 1882. The Knoxville newspaper article was published on Jan. 8, 1882, indicating that it likely occurred before that and Reason Burl Cecil survived his wounds several days.
There’s no indication that any of the other men mentioned in the article died of the wounds they sustained in the initial fight in Helenwood.
Another violent tragedy
In May 1883, just a year and a half after the Helenwood tragedy that left two of his brothers and an uncle dead, William Riley Cecil Jr. was killed at the age of 27, and became the third person buried at Cecil Cemetery.
William Riley Cecil was a brother to John William Cecil and Reason Burl Cecil. He was married to Lucinda Thomas. They had three children: Beaty, William and Crawford.
Newspaper accounts written at the time indicated that Cecil and his father were gunned down by two or three men named Smith as retribution for the killing of their father four years earlier.
However, William Riley Cecil Sr. did not die until 1903, at the age of 74. One of the newspapers, the Plateau Gazette in Morgan County, wrote in a follow-up story in June 1883 that William Cecil Sr. “was reported to have been killed at the time of the fatal affray in which his son met his death, (but) has recovered after a long illness, and will be present at the trial of the murdered.”
The Phillips family
Following the tragedies of 1881, 1882 and 1883, it would be a few years before another member of the Cecil family was buried at the Cecil Cemetery. In the meantime, several children were buried there.
In 1886, three-year-old Emley Phillips was buried at the cemetery. Nine-month-old Martha Phillips was buried there the following year. Martha Phillips’ headstone indicates that she was the daughter of P.W. and Emily Phillips. Emley Phillips’ hand-engraved field stone does not indicate her parents, but there is a signature, “S.J. Phillips,” at the bottom of the stone.
P.W. and Emily Phillips were Pleasent Winford Phillips and Emily Clemons Cecil. Emily was the daughter of William Riley Cecil Sr. and Nancy Willimas, and a brother to the Cecil brothers who were killed in the earlier tragedies.
P.W. was the son of Johnathin Phillips and Sally West. His mother was a sister to Reuben West, the father of Robinson Crusoe West, making him Crusoe West’s first cousin.
P.W. and Emily were married at the home of her father, William Riley Cecil Sr. They had 10 children: William Henderson, James Newell, John Young, George Harrison, Nancy, Pharaba Jane, Emily, Martha Rosemary, Susie and Della.
Emily Phillips was buried at the Cecil Cemetery in 1925 and P.W. was buried there in 1936. Most of their children were also buried there, including: William and his wife, Nancy Jane Cecil, and their infant son; James; John and his wife, Laura Cecil, and their daughter, Hazel Phillips Randolph; Nancy Clark; George and his wife, Emily Phillips; Pheraba (or Pherby); Susie and her husband, Calvin Moore, and their daughter, Morna; and Laura and her husband, Ellard Newport.
The Keeton family
In 1892, five-month-old Lenora Keeton was buried at Cecil Cemetery. Her headstone notes that she was the daughter of Elizabeth Keeton.
Several years later, in 1907, John Freeman Keeton was buried at the cemetery. He was the son of Milton Keeton and Sally Phillips. His mother was a sister to P.W. Phillips. He married Eldora Litton, who remarried after his death and moved to Kentucky before dying during the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918. John Keeton had four children: Ester, Oma, Oran and Estel.
In 1915, Sterling Keeton was buried at the cemetery when he was murdered. He was the son of Maynard Harrison Keeton and Lucinda Thomas, and a nephew to John Freeman Keeton. He married Emma Sexton, who later remarried and moved to Illinois.
Sterling had a son, Starlin Orlando Keeton, buried at the cemetery when he died at the age of two in 1917. Another son, Leon Stanford Keeton, buried at Cecil Cemetery in 1952.
In 1916, Mitchell Keeton was buried at the cemetery. He was a brother to Sterling Keeton and was just 27 when he died. He married Zona Phillips, who later remarried and moved to Kentucky.
The continuing story of the Cecil family
The next member of the Cecil family to be buried at the cemetery was another tragedy — although this time not at the hands of another man.
James Trausdale Cecil died in 1894 at the age of 42 and was buried at the cemetery. He was another of the sons of William Riley Cecil and Nancy West; a brother to John Wesley, Reason Burl and William Riley Jr.
James Cecil was killed in a mining accident at Paint Rock, when a rock fell on him. He was married to Phoebe Jane Phillips, who was a sister to P.W. Phillips and Sally Keeton. He had 13 children: Sally, William Riley, Nancy Jane, Charles Milton, John Henry, Charnetti Isabelle, Reuben Hurtt, Arlena, Ora, Cora, Rosemary, Emily and Susan.
Sally Cecil, who never married, was buried at the Cecil Cemetery when she died in 1921. Phoebe, who did not remarry after her husband’s death at the mines, was buried there in 1925. William Riley was buried there in 1936, and his wife, Nancy Owens, was buried there in 1956. William and Nancy had a son, Willie, who was buried there when he died in a car accident on S.R. 63 in 1930, at the age of 26. They had another son, Loya, who was buried there when he died in 1931 at age 19 after being hit by a train. John Henry was buried at the cemetery after being shot in the back in 1926. His wife, Nora Randolph, had been buried there the year earlier. They had a daughter, Leonra, buried there in 1965, along with her husband, Pryor Foster. Nancy Jane was buried there in 1908. Her husband, William Henderson Phillips, had previously been buried there in 1903. He was the son of P.W. and Emily Cecil Phillips.
In 1897, Harrison Maynard Cecil died at age 28 and was buried at the cemetery. He was another of the sons of William Riley and Nancy West Cecil. His was yet another violent tragedy to occur in the family, as he was killed by a member of the Keeton family.
Nancy West Cecil died in 1900, and William Riley Cecil Sr. died in 1903. Both were buried at the cemetery.
There were a number of other family members being buried at the cemetery in this time frame. Baby Walter Denzil Carson died in 1898 and was buried there. He was a grandson of William and Nancy Cecil. His mother was Nancy Cecil, who married James Carson.
In 1900, newborn Earl Phillips was buried at the cemetery. He was a great-grandson of William and Nancy Cecil. His parents were Elvin and Polly Jane Carson Phillips, who would later be buried at the cemetery. His grandparents were Euel Wesley Phillips and Pherby Jane Cecil, who were likewise buried at the cemetery.
The following year, an infant child of William Henderson Phillips and Nancy Jane Cecil was buried at the cemetery.
In 1902, 23-year-old Rosie Cecil Sexton was buried at the cemetery. She was a granddaughter of William and Nancy Cecil, the daughter of Rube and Vina Marcum Cecil. She married Bill Sexton. Their son, Matthias Sexton, was buried at the cemetery in 1924 when he died of the flu at age 21.
In 1903, William Cecil was buried at the cemetery when he died at age 24. He was the son of William Riley Cecil Jr. and Lucinda Thomas.
In 1913, Harrison Leonard Cecil was buried at the cemetery when he died at age 27. He was the son of Clifford Cecil and Elizabeth Keeton.
The Carson family
As noted above, baby Walter Denzil Carson was one of the earliest burials at Cecil Cemetery, in 1898.
Nancy Cecil, one of the daughters of William Riley Cecil and Nancy West Cecil, married James Monroe Carson in 1894. They had 10 children. One of their children was baby Walter, who was only three months old when he died in January 1898. Another of their children was Oneida Mayor Robert Lee “Bob” Carson, who was buried at the cemetery in 2009.
Several of their other children were buried at the cemetery, as well. Agatha Carson married John Wesley Malone and had one child before she died during the Spanish Flu pandemic at the age of just 19. She was buried at the cemetery. So was her sister, Lottie May, who died of kidney disease at age 22 in 1921 — one week after giving birth to her only child. That child, Boyd Roark Jr., was stillborn and buried at the cemetery. Etchel Carson married Milo Dewey Cross and was buried at the cemetery in 1967. He died in 1927 at age 29 and was also buried at the cemetery. Harry Carson married Leora Seabolt, and was buried at the hospital in 1965. She was buried there in 2000.
Other Carson children included Charles, Samuel, Harry, Colletta and Princess.
Both James and Nancy Carson would later be buried at the cemetery.
Emily Reed Carson, James Carson’s mother, was buried at the cemetery in 1917. Her husband, Samuel, was buried there in 1925. Another of their sons, James’ brother Harrison, was buried at the cemetery in 1935. Harrison had a one-year-old son, Denzle Lee Carson, who was buried at the cemetery in 1929. His wife, Annie Coffey Carson, was buried at the cemetery in 1965. Harrison and Annie had eight other children, but none of them were buried at Cecil Cemetery. Several of them were buried at the Peaceful Rose Garden, which is located just over the hill at Paint Rock.
Baby Katherine Ruth Carson, the daughter of Harry and Leora Seabolt Carson, was buried at Cecil Cemetery in 1938, after dying of pneumonia. She had five surviving siblings: Donald, Princess, Hazel, Kay and Curtis.
Another Carson baby, Freddie, was buried at the cemetery in 1941. His twin sister, Freda, died just a week later. They were only five months old at their deaths. They were the son and daughter of Leon Carson and Laura Jane Cecil.
Laura Jane was the second member of the Cecil family to marry into the Carson family. She was the daughter of William Washington and Nancy Jane Duncan Cecil, a sister to Rev. Virgil Cecil.
Leon Carson was not immediately related to James Monroe Carson; they were cousins. Leon’s parents were James Lenard Carson and Rosie Bell Keeton. His second-great-grandfather was John Linn Carson Sr., the forefather of the Scott County Carson clan who is likely buried in the Carson Cemetery at Tunnel Hill.
James Monroe Carson, meanwhile, was a great-grandson of John Linn Carson Sr. His father, Samuel, who is buried at Cecil Cemetery, was a brother to John C. Carson, who was James Lenard Carson’s father and is buried at Carson Memorial Park. Leon Carson and James Monroe Carson, the two Carsons who married into the Cecil family of Cherry Fork, were second cousins, once removed.
Charles Edward Carson, a brother to twins Freddie and Freda, was buried at the cemetery in 2003. He had a son, Jerry, who was buried there last year.
In recent years, four Carson brothers have been buried at the cemetery: James H. Carson Jr. in 2004, Jason Carson in 2013, Marty Carson in 2021 and Kevin Carson in 2023. They are the sons of former Scott County Sheriff Jim Carson. Jim Carson is another of the sons of Leon and Laura Cecil Carson; a brother to twins Freddie and Freda.
The cemetery today
The most recent burial at Cecil Cemetery, as of this writing, was Lawrence “Bobby” Hill, who died in February 2024 at age 75. He was the son of Lawrence Hill and Mary Magdalene Byrd, and pastor of Big Ridge Baptist Church.
Cemetery Census
CECIL CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.44940, -84.51440
First Burial: 1881
Last Burial: 2024
Marshall Allen, 1947–2017
Nancy K. Allen, 1879–1967
Nannie Mae Honeycutt Allen, 1914–1978
Robert Allen, 1898–1974
Roscoe Franklin Allen, 1911–1953
Wanda Faye Phillips Allen, 1952–1980
Condy Byrge, 1926–2006
Johnny E. Byrge, 1932–2007
Lonzy Byrge, 1923–2011
Mable Byrmer Byrge, 1926–1965
Margie Marie Massengale Byrge, 1930–2015
Ollie Geneva Carter Byrge, 1905–1989
Peggy June Stittums Byrge, 1935–2011
Annie Coffey Carson, 1891–1965
Billy Joe Carson, 1937–2014
Charles Edward Carson, 1939–2003
Denzle Lee Carson, 1927–1929
Emily Reed Carson, 1849–1917
Freda Carson, 1940–1941
Freddie Carson, 1940–1941
Harrison W. Carson, 1880–1935
Harry Othelo Carson, 1901–1980
James Howard Carson Jr., 1967–2004
James Monroe Carson, 1872–1934
Jason Eric Carson, 1980–2013
Jerry Carson, 1958–2023
Katherine Ruth Carson, 1938–1938
Kenard Lee Carson, 1935–2018
Kevin Lee Carson, 1973–2023
Laura Jane Cecil Carson, 1913–1994
Leon Carson, 1910–1980
Leora Seabolt Carson, 1906–2000
Martha Byrd Carson, 1936–2023
Marty Carson, 1972–2021
Nancy Cecil Carson, 1874–1948
Robert Lee Carson Sr., 1908–2009
Samuel Carson, 1838–1925
Walter Denzil Carson, 1897–1898
Wanda Fay Carson, 1949–2016
Beaty Cecil, 1874–1949
Charles Nelson Cecil, 1892–1942
Deborah Kay Cecil, 1958–2015
Denada L. Cecil, 1937–2006
Durward Linbergh Cecil, 1927–2010
Harrison Leonard Cecil, 1886–1913
Harrison Maynard Cecil, 1869–1897
James Trausdale Cecil, 1851–1894
John Henry Cecil, 1876–1926
John Wesley Cecil, 1864–1881
Lenora Cecil, 1879–1925
Louvina Marcum Cecil, 1851–1934
Loya L. Cecil, 1911–1931
Nancy Jane Duncan Cecil, 1876–1964
Nancy Williams West Cecil, 1833–1900
Peggy Sue Latham Cecil, 1932–2019
Phoebe Jane Phillips Cecil, 1853–1925
Reason Burl Cecil, 1857–1882
Reuben Churchwell Cecil Jr., 1896–1918
Reuben Churchwell Cecil Sr., 1853–1929
Sally E. Cecil, 1873–1921
William Cecil, 1878–1903
William Harrison Cecil, 1904–1930
William Riley Cecil, 1875–1936
William Riley Cecil Jr., 1856–1883
William Riley Cecil Sr., 1828–1903
William Washington Cecil Sr., 1875–1943
Winnie Phillips Cecil, 1890–1938
Floyd Lee Clark, 1931–1934
Nancy Phillips Clark, 1876–1908
Willard Guffery Clark, 1905–1934
Derrick Dwayne Coffey, 1980–2019
Riley Thomas Cotton, 2010–2010
Wrenlee Blayke Cotton, 2022–2022
Etchel Carson Cross, 1903–1967
Herbert Alden Cross Sr., 1920–1987
James Monroe Cross, 1889–1966
James Walter Cross, 1916–1998
Jo Ann Cross, 1937–1938
Milo Dewey Cross, 1898–1927
Nancy R. Phillips Cross, 1890–1962
Ruby Phillips Cross, 1931–2018
Elie Sexton Dobbs, 1901–1957
Mack Caswell Dobbs, 1936–2014
Harvey S. Duncan Sr., 1915–1972
Abel Ellis, 1895–1956
James Frederick Foster, 1929–1973
Leonda Cecil Foster, 1900–1965
Pryor Foster, 1897–1974
Nancy Almira Owens Goodin, 1875–1956
Jessie Goodman, 1877–1963
Milford Goodman, 1915–1918
Myrtle Goodman, 1913–1923
Pherbie E. Goodman, 1903–1925
Sallie Phillips Goodman, 1875–1952
William C. Goodman, 1910–1932
Lawrence Hill, 1948–2024
Caswell Lee Huff, 1945–2020
Edrie Rosemary Sexton Huff, 1911–2001
Ernest Huff, 1904–1993
Maxwell Ernest Huff, 1935–2015
Ronnie Lomax Inman, 1957–2012
Infant Jeffers, 1916–1916
Mertie Keeton Jeffers, 1892–1916
Leon Stanford Keaton, 1913–1952
John Freeman Keeton, 1870–1907
Lenora Keeton, 1891–1892
Mitchell Keeton, 1889–1916
Starlin Orlando Keeton, 1915–1917
Sterling E. Keeton, 1888–1915
Agatha Carson Malone, 1896–1916
Barney B. Moore, 1916–1916
Calvin Moore, 1886–1954
Joe Bell Moore, 1931–1993
Morna Edna Moore, 1915–1997
Susie B. Phillips Moore, 1890–1976
Mary Helen Cecil Morrow, 1912–1990
Ellard Newport, 1891–1958
Laura Della Phillips Newport, 1892–1987
A. Y. Phillips, 1904–1994
Artha M. Phillips, 1906–1906
Bessie Hammock Phillips, 1916–1965
Calanza Newport Phillips, 1887–1934
Claude A. Phillips, 1911–1911
Dessie Earlen Vorhees Phillips, 1945–2000
Dona Phillips, 1897–1978
Donnie Phillips, 1897–1930
Earl E. Phillips, 1900–1900
Elvin Young Phillips, 1880–1967
Emily Phillips, 1900–1968
Emily Clemons Cecil Phillips, 1850–1925
Emily Othola Phillips Phillips, 1886–1954
Emley Phillips, 1883–1886
Euel Wesley Phillips, 1855–1925
Frona Bernice Phillips Phillips, 1908–1962
George H.S.A.W. Phillips, 1877–1963
Hazel L. Phillips, 1907–1960
Henderson Phillips, unknown
Infant Phillips, 1901–1901
James E. Phillips, 1923–1944
James Newell Phillips, 1872–1904
John Howard Phillips, 1904–1977
John Marion Phillips, 1897–1958
John Young Phillips, 1874–1957
Kenneth Lee Phillips, 1937–2012
Laura Leona Cecil Phillips, 1874–1954
Loma Phillips, 1912–1938
Marcella Joan Phillips Phillips, 1937–1995
Martha M. Phillips, 1906–1906
Martha R. Phillips, 1886–1887
Monroe Phillips, 1933–1998
Nancy Jane Cecil Phillips, 1879–1908
Pherby Jane Cecil Phillips, 1859–1937
Pherby Jean Phillips Phillips, 1882–1903
Pleasent Winford Phillips, 1849–1936
Polly Jane Carson Phillips, 1874–1903
Roscoe Phillips, 1941–2023
Thomas Harold Phillips, 1827–1939
Troy Allen Phillips, 1969–2014
William Dale Crusoe Phillips, 1885–1957
William Henderson Phillips, 1872–1903
Maxine Price, 1926–1927
Ralph Price, 1924–1924
Hazel Lucille Phillips Randolph, 1907–1960
Joseph Randolph, 1900–1977
Milford Randolph, 1886–1969
Boyd N. Roark Jr., 1921–1921
Lottie May Carson Roark, 1899–1921
Carrie Akers Robbins, 1893–1984
Fannie Southerland Robbins, 1893–1926
John E. Robbins, 1881–1950
Virginia Rose Robbins, 1937–1937
Harold Rodgers, 1940–2000
Theodore William Schrock, 1941–2017
Caldona Jeffers Sexton, 1887–1916
Caswell Sexton, 1867–1919
Elma Sexton, 1910–1910
Ethera Sexton, 1912–1916
Karyn Ellyn Sexton, 1962–1993
Matthan Sexton, 1907–1908
Matthias Sexton, 1902–1924
Rachel Rosemary Cecil Sexton, 1872–1959
Rosie Lee Cecil Sexton, 1879–1902
Peggy Sue Cecil Sims, 1963–2023
James George Tabaka, 1937–2004
Kay Sandra Sexton Tabaka, 1935–2005
Karyn Ellyn Trotter, 1962–1993
Bernard Berry West, 1911–1988
Bonnell West, 1931–1931
Flora Magalene Keeton West, 1910–2003
Morlena West, 1936–1937
Reuben Lee West, 1975–1975
Alvin Ernest Wiebeck, 1917–1994
Marye Crucita Dobbs Wiebeck, 1921–2007
Stephen Wilson, 1953–1995
Ruth Marie Cantrell Wright, 1965–2012
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.