Sacred Ground: Davey Boyatt Cemetery
When the Sacred Ground series visited Foster Crossroads Cemetery a few months ago, we began the story of the Boyatt family that settled the area. This prominent Scott County family began with Jordan Boyatt (1770-1815), and the first to settle in the Foster Crossroads area was his son, Thomas Boyatt (1806-1864).
This week, we return to Foster Crossroads and to the Davey Boyatt Cemetery. Located at the end of Rob Watson Road, this cemetery is far back in the woods, near the boundary of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area and along the headwaters of Cub Branch.
The cemetery is no longer active; the last burials there were more than 20 years ago. But it is still well-maintained and frequently visited, and contains more than four dozen graves — most of them members of the Boyatt family.
The Boyatt family
David Boyatt (1836-1899) was the person for whom this cemetery is named. A veteran of the Civil War (he served in Company 1 of the 30th Kentucky Infantry), he was the son of Thomas Boyatt and Susannah Maxwell (1806-1863).
As detailed on the visit to Foster Crossroads Cemetery, Thomas and Susannah Boyatt were the first Boyatts to settle in the community. They were the parents of 10 children.
David Boyatt — or Davey, as he was commonly known — wasn’t the only of the Boyatt siblings to serve in the Civil War. His younger brother Elisha Boyatt, who is buried at Foster Crossroads, served in the war. They had a nephew, William “Happy Willie” Boyatt, who also served in the war and is buried at Foster Crossroads. Elisha Boyatt was credited with saving William Boyatt’s life after he was wounded while serving on a picket line near Monticello, Ky.
Another of Davey Boyatt’s brothers was Jordan Boyatt (1828-1900), who lived on the headwaters of No Business Creek. He was the grandfather of Jerome Boyatt, who was murdered by vigilantes in the 1930s.
In a claim for a Civil War pension at the age of 56, Davey Boyatt was described as being 5-7 with a fair complexion, light hair and blue eyes.
Following the war, Davey Boyatt married Sarah Winchester (1840-1888). After she died, he married Rebecca Jane Wattson in 1894.
When the 1870 census was taken, Boyatt had two children: Henly and Susannah. Other children born later included William Riley, James and Mary.
Another daughter, Rose Anna, or “Annie,” was born in 1893. She was found dead in a pond in Stearns, Ky. in 1935, at the age of 41. Her estranged husband, Charles McPheron, was convicted of murdering her, and died in prison a few years later.
Davey Boyatt was also thought ot have been the victim of foul play. His boyd was discovered beneath a cliff in the Big South Fork in February 1899. He was 63 at the time.
Interestingly, while there were a number of other Boyatts buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery, they were not members of his immediate family — though they were relatives.
Among the other Boyatts buried at the cemetery are Andrew Jackson Boyatt (1873-1929) and his wife Lucinda Emerine Boyatt (born 1865). A.J., as he was known, was the son of Jordan Boyatt, and a nephew to Davey Byatt.
Several of AJ Boyatt’s children are buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery, including William Boyatt (1884-1932), Jordan Boyatt (1893-1970) and his wife Victoria Slaven (1904-1976), Lina Watson (1895-1951), and Lewis H. Boyatt (1904-1920).
A couple of William Boyatt’s children are also buried at the cemetery, including Roy Edward Boyatt (1912) and Willard Boyatt (1909-1934).
Also buried there is Tom Boyatt, who was the son of Granville and Nancy Slaven Boyatt and a nephew of Davey Boyatt.
The Watters family
The Davey Boyatt Cemetery began with the Watters family.
Lucinda Watters died on Feb. 22, 1881 at the age of 37 and was the first person buried at the cemetery.
The second person buried at the cemetery was Ruben Watters, but there is some mystery surrounding his grave. His stone lists the dates as Sept. 23, 1881 – Feb. 23, 1881. Did he die the day after Lucinda Watters and the birth date was incorrectly inscribed? Or were the dates of birth and death accidentally reversed, and he died on Sept. 23, 1881?
Ruben’s father was Mose Watters (1858-1927), who married Elizabeth Boyatt — the sister of Davey Boyatt — and had a very large family. Elizabeth was buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery when she died in 1904 at the age of 57.
While there are undoubtedly relatives of the Watters family who know the relationship of Lucinda Watters to Ruben Watters, it is not information that is easily verified using genealogical and available court records. Interestingly, when the 1880 census was taken just one year before their deaths, there were no Watters listed as living in Scott County.
Worth noting, Mose Watters’ mother — the grandmother of Ruben Watters — was Lucinda Watters. Is this the Lucinda Watters buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery? It would make sense, although census records indicate that this Lucinda Watters was born much earlier than 1843, the date that is indicated on the stone of the Davey Boyatt Cemetery Lucinda Watters.
If this is indeed the same Lucinda Watters, she was born Lucinda Abbott, and married Joe Watters. They were originally from Kentucky — which is where Mose Watters was later buried when he died in 1927.
Meanwhile, another of Mose Watters’ infant children, daughter Elizabeth, was buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery in February 1883. Another of his children, Rev. Elijah Watters (1878-1920) was buried there later.
Following Elizabeth Boyatt’s death, Mose Watters remarried to Dora Spradlin and moved back to Kentucky.
The Ross family
Other early burials at Davey Boyatt Cemetery included several Ross children, whose graves are marked only with funeral home markers. Eva Ross died in infancy in 1895. Minnie Ross died in infancy in 1909. Another Ross baby died in 1912.
Were these babies siblings? It would stand to reason that they were. But who were their parents?
In 1918, Annie Slaven Ross died at the age of 27 and was buried at the cemetery, her grave marked only with a field stone and a funeral home marker. She was the wife of Francis Marion Ross, who would himself die in 1923 at the age of 29 and be buried at the cemetery.
Francis Ross was the son of Brackston Ross and Emerine Boyatt. Emerine was the daughter of Granville Boyatt and Nancy Jane Slaven — a niece to Davey Boyatt and Elizabeth Boyatt Watters. (Interestingly, while Emerine was an uncommon name at the time, Emerine’s first cousin — Andrew Jackson Boyatt — also married an Emerine. Her first name was Lucinda but she went by Emerine.)
So were the Ross babies at Davey Boyatt Cemetery the children of Brackston Ross and Emerine Boyatt? Likely, yes.
Emerine Ross was buried at the cemetery when she died in 1930 at the age of 61.
The Slaven family
With the exception of James C. West, the son of Greenberry and Filana Marcum West who died in 1919 at the age of 36 in a logging accident, the first person other than a Boyatt, Watters or Ross to be buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery was infant Elbert Slaven in 1921. He was born Oct. 9 and died Dec. 31.
Like so many of the other children buried at the cemetery, it’s difficult to pinpoint with certainty who Elbert Slaven was.
However, he was likely another member of the expansive Boyatt family. Margaret Boyatt, another of Davey Boyatt’s siblings, married Peter Slaven. Peter was the son of John Slaven and Elizabeth Smith, and a great-grandson of Richard Harve Slaven, the first settler of the Big South Fork region.
The burial locations of both Margaret (1920) and Peter (1926) are unknown. There are unidentified graves at Davey Boyatt Cemetery and theirs could be among them.
One of Peter and Margaret’s children was John Silas, born in 1882. He was buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery when he died in 1942. He married Mary Jane Musgrove, of the expansive Musgrove family that lived in both the Oneida area and in McCreary County.
Elbert Slaven may have been the son of John Silas and Mary Musgrove Slaven.
Several other Slavens were buried at the cemetery in the mid 1900s: 61-year-old James Henry Slaven in 1946, and his wife Hettie in 1970; an infant in 1947; infant Jimmie Silas Slaven in 1947; and 79-year-old William Owen Slaven in 1953.
The cemetery today
No one was buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery for 18 years after the death of Victoria Slaven Boyatt in 1976. Then there were several burials that took place over an eight-year period beginning in 1994 before they ceased again.
The first modern burial at the cemetery was Ernest Ray Barnett, who died Feb. 9, 1994., at the age of 18. He was a Grave Hill resident who had graduated from Scott High School the previous year. His grandparents were James “Clint” and Thelma Slaven of the Grave Hill community.
Clint Slaven was buried at the cemetery when he died just two months later.
Clint Slaven’s wife, Thelma, was one of four people buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery in 2001 or 2002, beginning with Ethel Godsey in 2001. Thelma Slaven was buried at the cemetery on Jan. 17, 2002, followed by Billie Ray Hill on Jan. 29, 2002, and Wilda Mae Watson Hill on Feb. 15, 2002. Wilda Hill was Billie Hill’s mother, and she died just two weeks after he did. She was also the mother of Rob Watson, who is buried in a small family cemetery nearby. She was the last person buried at Davey Boyatt Cemetery.
Cemetery census
DAVEY WATSON CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.58246, -84.57657
First Burial: 1881
Last Burial: 2002
Ernest R. Barnett, 1975-1994
Lloyd D. Barnett, 1950-1995
Hatie Botts, 1900-1964
Andrew J. Boyatt, 1873-1929
David Boyatt, 1836-1899
Jordan Boyatt, 1893-1970
Lewis H. Boyatt, 1904-1020
Lucinda E. Boyatt, 1865-N/A
Mary Risden Boyatt, 1860-1920
Roy E. Boyatt, 1912-1912
Tom Boyatt, 1862-1929
Victoria Slaven Boyatt, 1904-1976
Willard Boyatt, 1909-1934
William Boyatt Jr., 1884-1932
Ethel Godsey, 1914-2001
Glen Godsey, 1939-1945
Billie R. Hill, 1942-2002
Wilda Watson Hill, 1922-2002
Annie Slaven Ross, 1890-1918
Baby Ross, 1912-1912
Emerine Boyatt Ross, 1869-1930
Eva Ross, 1895-1895
Francis M. Ross, 1893-1923
Minnie Ross, 1909-1909
Elbert Slaven, 1921-1921
Hettie Hughes Slaven, 1891-1970
Infant Slaven, 1947-1947
Clint Slaven, 1935-1994
James H. Slaven, 1884-1946
Jimmie S. Slaven, 1947-1947
John S. Slaven, 1882-1942
Themla Cranfill Slaven, 1928-2002
William O. Slaven, 1873-1953
John A. Thomas, 1951-1996
Haston Watson, 1933-N/A
Isaac Watson, 1889-1949
Lina Boyatt Watson, 1895-1951
Elijah Watters Sr., 1878-1920
Elizabeth Watters
1883-1883
Elizabeth Boyatt Watters, 1846-1904
Lucinda Watters, 1843-1881
Ruben Watters, 1881-1881
James C. West, 1883-1919
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.