Sacred Ground: Goad Cemetery (Skull Creek)
ROBBINS | On a small plot of land just above Skull Creek, surrounded by actively harvested timberland, is the Goad Cemetery.
It is only half a mile from Hamby Lane where the last houses are located, to the end of Skull Creek Road, where the cemetery is located. It feels like further than that. Goad Cemetery feels like it’s a good ways off the beaten path.
Maybe that’s because the cemetery is surrounded by wilderness land. Maybe that’s because the cemetery is no longer active. The last burial was more than 35 years ago, and there’s only been one burial in the past 75 years.
But the cemetery is still well-maintained, even after all these years. There are only about 30 graves there, but the descendants of those who are buried there take care to keep the cemetery mowed and clean.
The York family
The first burials at Goad Cemetery actually weren’t Goads, but Yorks. The cemetery was founded in 1884, after a tragic logging accident that claimed the life of a 12-year-old boy. However, the York family and Goad family were connected.
Savage York, born in 1872, would be the first person buried at Goad Cemetery. He was the son of William Mitchell York and Elizabeth Hogue York. The York family was originally from Fentress County. William M. York was the son of Thomas Jefferson York and Mary Mitchell. His wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Milburn Hogue and Rachel Young.
How the York family wound up in Scott County isn’t completely clear. But William York died in 1876, still in his 40s. When the 1880 census was taken, his oldest son, Samuel York, was listed as the head of the household. Elizabeth still lived with her children: 14-year-old Ava, 12-year-old John, 8-year-old Savage and 4-year-old Senter, or Center. An older daughter, Mary Ann, had married and left home by that time. There was also an older son, Ambrose Johnson York.
Since the Yorks were from Fentress County, you might be wondering if they were related to Tennessee’s most famous York, Sgt. Alvin C. York, who was also from Fentress County. The answer is yes; they’re from the same lineage. Alvin C. York’s great-great-grandfather, Thomas York, was Savage York’s great-grandfather. That makes Savage York and Sgt. York second cousins, once removed, although Sgt. York was not born until three years after Savage York’s death.
The Goad family
It was Savage York’s older brother, John William York, who married into the Goad family from Scott County. He married Sarah Goad, the daughter of Little Berry Goad and Martha Jane Todd Goad.
Berry Goad’s father isn’t known. His mother, Anna Goad, married Richard Newport, who served in the Union army during the Civil War and died in the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville. Berry Goad also served in the Civil War, and later served as a justice of the peace and Register of Deeds in Scott County.
Anna Goad’s father was Joshua Goad and her grandfather was Abraham Goad. They were the first of the Goads to migrate to Scott County, settling what would later become known as the Vanderpool Place on New River.
By 1900, John W. and Sarah York were living in the West Robbins area with three children. Census records reveal many of their neighbors were from the same families that are still common in the West Robbins area today: Yorks, Frogges and Todds among them.
John York and Sarah Goad were not married until 1891, however, seven years after Savage’s death. And because the 1890 census records were destroyed in a fire, it is difficult to ascertain from the limited information available how the York family wound up in Scott County in the 1880s. It is also difficult to ascertain what became of Samuel York, who took over as the head of the household following his father’s death in 1876.
The start of Goad cemetery
In 1884, 12-year-old Savage York was killed in a logging accident and buried near Skull Creek. There were no newspapers being published in Scott County at that time — the Scott County Call in Helenwood didn’t begin publishing until 1887, and the Cumberland Chronicle in Huntsville didn’t begin until two years after that — so no additional information about the logging accident is readily available.
It wasn’t until nine years later, on Dec. 10, 1893, that a second burial took place at Goad Cemetery. James S. York, the nearly two-year-old son of John and Sarah, was buried beside his uncle.
On March 1, 1896, Sarah York’s 19-year-old sister, Dora Goad Welch, was buried in the cemetery. She had married Isaac D. Welch in 1895. Isaac would later marry Nancy Mays.
In 1899, Sarah and Dora’s brother, 21-year-old James Melvin Goad, died and was buried in the cemetery.
One year later, in 1900, Little Berry’s mother, Anna Goad Newport, died and was buried there. Eight months after that, in January 1901, Little Berry died at the age of 67 and was buried alongside his mother and children.
In 1903, James Melvin Goad’s three-year-old daughter, Annie, died and was buried in the cemetery. And in 1906, another of Little Berry’s children, 33-year-old Riley Jefferson Goad, was buried there.
Tragedy struck again for the York family in 1908. Porter A. York, the 12-year-old son of John William and Sarah Goad York, died and was buried in the cemetery.
On Feb. 13, 1917, Effie and Jeffie Goad, the newborn twins of John L. Goad — a son of Little Berry Goad — died and were buried in the cemetery.
And in May 1918, Maudie Goad, the infant daughter of Millard — another of Little Berry’s children — and Etta Mitchell Goad, died and was buried there.
Martha Todd Goad, Little Berry’s wife, died in 1923 and is buried in the cemetery. Catherine West Goad, John L. Goad’s wife, died at age 46 in 1924 and is buried in the cemetery. John L. Goad would die in 1928 and be buried there, as well.
John William York, the Fentress County York son who married into the Scott County Goad family, died in October 1925 and is buried in the cemetery. He died just three months after his wife, who is also buried there.
Geneva Goad, the nearly three-year-old daughter of Asberry and Delcie Goad, died and was buried in the cemetery in May 1925. Her toddler brother would be buried there in 1927, and another infant brother, Clifton Odell Goad, was buried there in 1941.
Millard Goad’s wife, Etta Mitchell, died in 1926 and is buried there. He would also be buried there in 1929. And toddler A.J. Goad was buried in the cemetery in 1927.
On Valentine’s Day 1932, newborn Mildred York became the last of the Yorks to be buried at Goad Cemetery.
Several more of the Goad family would be buried at the cemetery through the years. Fread Goad, the 25-year-old daughter of Millard and Etta Goad, was buried there in 1935.
George B. Goad, the son of Little Berry and Martha Goad, was buried there in 1941. And Willard Goad, the son of Millard and Etta Goad, was buried there in 1947. Willard’s brother, Barry Columbus Goad, was the last person to be buried in the cemetery in 1987.
There are some other Goads who are buried at the cemetery whose dates of death aren’t clear. Minnie J. Goad, a daughter of Little Berry and Martha, was born in March 1892. Her death date isn’t inscribed on her stone, or isn’t legible. Her sister, Hattie, is buried there, as well. There is also a stone for Lawrence Goad.
Little Berry and Martha Todd Goad, the father- and mother-in-law of Fentress County’s John William York — brother of Savage York who moved to Scott County in the 1880s — had at least 10 children, and eight of them are buried at the Goad Cemetery near Skull Creek.
The only of Little Berry and Martha’s children who weren’t buried there were Julia Ann and Mary Line.
Julia Ann married William West and spent the rest of her life in Robbins. She died in 1971 and is buried at Baptist Memorial Cemetery near the old Robbins Brick Yard. Mary married Ike Shoemaker and also spent the rest of her life in the Robbins area. She died in 1973 and is buried at Hawn & Shoemaker Cemetery in Elgin.
Cemetery Inventory
GOAD CEMETERY (WEST ROBBINS)
GPS Coordinates: 36.32421, -84.42985
First burial: 1884
Last burial: 1986
Burials since Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? No.
A.J. Goad, 1926-1927
Annie Goad, 1899-1903
Barry C. Goad, 1920-1986
Catherine West Goad, 1877-1924
Clifton O. Goad, 1940-1941
Effie Goad, 1917-1917
Etta Mitchell Goad, 1889-1926
Fread Goad, 1910-1935
Geneva Goad, 1922-1925
George B. Goad, 1889-1941
Hattie Goad, N/A-N/A
James M. Goad, 1877-1899
Jeffie Goad, 1817-1817
John L. Goad, 1879-1928
Lawrence Goad, N/A-N/A
Little Berry Goad, 1833-1901
Martha Todd Goad, 1850-1923
Maudie Goad, 1918-1918
Millard Goad, 1885-1929
Minnie J. Goad, 1892-N/A
Riley J. Goad, 1873-1906
Willard Goad, 1924-1947
Anna Newport Goad, 1815-1900
L. Dora Goad Welch, 1876-1896
James S. York, 1892-1893
John W. York, 1869-1925
Mildred York, N/A-1932
Porter A. York, 1896-1908
Sarah Goad York, 1874-1925
Savage M. York, 1872-1884
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.