Sacred Ground: Honeycutt Cemetery
Located directly behind East Robbins Missionary Baptist Church, Honeycutt Cemetery is a small cemetery consisting of fewer than a dozen graves.
Dating back to the early 1980s, the cemetery is also referred to as the Honeycutt-Lawson Cemetery. It consists exclusively of burials from these two families: the Honeycutt family that moved from Marcum Creek (near Smith Creek) to the East Robbins area, and the Lawson family that moved from Cordell (near Bull Creek) to the East Robbins area.
The Honeycutt family
The Honeycutt family of East Robbins began with Rev. George Harrison Honeycutt (1898-1987) and Louisa Jane Jones (1907-1992).
You might recall from our earlier Sacred Ground story on the cemeteries of Marcum Creek, which is located off Smith Creek in eastern Scott County, that the Honeycutt family was one of the families — along with the Marcums and Crabtrees — prominent during the settlement days of Marcum Creek.
That family was Hardy Honeycutt, his wife, Nancy Smith, and their children. Hardy and Nancy married in February 1845. Their oldest child was Edward “Ned” Honeycutt. He married Mary Jane Marcum, the second-oldest daughter of George and Mary Ann Marcum, on Feb. 26, 1873.
George Marcum was a brother to Hiram C. Marcum, the man who was targeted by the Confederate army during the Civil War for helping to guide East Tennessee men through the Buffalo area as they attempted to slip northward into Kentucky to join the Union army. George’s niece, Julia, was the Civil War heroine who rose to fame after losing a finger and an eye as she helped protect her family’s home on Marcum Creek from the invading Rebels. After the war, George and Mary Ann Marcum purportedly provided shelter and safety for outlaw brothers Jesse and Frank James during their travels through Scott County.
There is a Marcum Cemetery and a Honeycutt Cemetery on Marcum Creek. Ned and Mary Jane Honeycutt were among those buried on Marcum Creek.
Among Ned and Mary Jane’s children was son James Michael Honeycutt (1875-1964). He married Ida Bell Riseden in 1895 and they settled in the Tunnel Hill community east of Oneida, where they joined the Tunnel Hill United Baptist Church in 1950. They’re both buried at the Rector-Byrd Cemetery in the Straight Fork community.
James and Ida Bell had nine children — five sons and four daughters. One of their sons was George Honeycutt, who married Louisa Jane Jones in 1923 and settled in Robbins. Louisa was the daughter of William Thomas Jones and Kizzie Hutson of Bull Creek.
George and Louisa had 10 children: Ethel, Lillian, Burleen, Irene, Chester, Lester, Edgar, Vivian, Arthur and Kathleen.
The first person buried at Honeycutt Cemetery behind the East Robbins Baptist Church was Irene Honeycutt, in 1983. She shares a space with George, who died in 1987, and Louisa, who died in 1992.
Years later, in 2007, Edgar Honeycutt was buried at the cemetery at East Robbins.
The last surviving child of George and Louisa Honeycutt is Kathleen, who married Bill Golden, son of Perry and Melvina Golden, in 1970. She and her husband have a stone set at the cemetery and will someday be buried there.
None of the other seven Honeycutt children were buried at East Robbins. Ethel married Bill Goad and was married at Slick Rock in 2014. Lillian married Herman Hamby and was buried at Baptist Memorial. Burleen married Arnold Griffith and moved to Ohio, as did her younger brother, Lester, who married Darlene Partin. Chester married Esther Gibson and settled at Brimstone. He was later buried at Carpenter Cemetery in Morgan County. Vivian was cremated. And Arthur was buried at Fentress Memory Gardens in Jamestown.
One of the more recent graves at East Robbins is Stella Hamby Byrge, who died in 2022. She was the daughter of Herman and Lillian Hamby, and a granddaughter of George and Louisa Honeycutt. She married Daniel Byrge Jr.
The Lawson family
Frank Lawson was the second person buried at Honeycutt Cemetery when he died in 1986 at age 73. According to his granddaughter, Nancy Chambers, he owned the land where the cemetery is now located.
The son of Mike and Rebecca York Lawson, Frank was a World War II veteran who worked in the coal mines after the war. He was a member of Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in the Brimstone community and was later ordained there.
The Lawson family — from Bull Creek — was an extremely large family. Frank had 23 brothers and sisters. Both of his parents are buried at the Lawson Cemetery at Bull Creek.
One of Frank Lawson’s sisters was Mary Jane Lawson Bowling, whose murder resulted in her killer being lynched by an angry mob in 1921. Berry Bowling was kidnapped from the Scott County Jail in Huntsville and hanged after being accused of murdering both Mary Jane and her elderly husband.
Frank Lawson married Julia Belle Jones, the daughter of William Thomas Jones (1860-1926) and Kizzie Hutson (1874-1939) of Bull Creek, in 1931. If you’re wondering whether the Lawson and Honeycutt families were connected, the answer is yes. Julia (Frank Lawson’s wife) and Louisa (George Honeycutt’s wife) were sisters from Bull Creek. They were among the nine children of William and Kizzie Hutson Jones.
Frank and Julia had a total of eight children: four sons and four daughters. They were Gaither, Witmer, Roger, Dexter, Ellen, Lucille, Betty and Cathy.
Frank died in 1986 at the age of 73 and was buried at East Robbins. Julia died in 1999 and was buried beside her husband.
The Lawsons’ eldest daughter, Claudie Ellen, married Garfield Brown and moved to Indiana, where she later married Robert Dunlap. She died in 1995.
Another daughter, Hattie Lucille, married Claude Duncan, who died in 1980 and is buried at Newport Cemetery in Huntsville. Lucille died in 2009 and is buried at East Robbins. She had a daughter, Brenda Jo Duncan, who died in 2001 at age 41 and is also buried at East Robbins.
The Lawsons’ other two daughters survive. Cathy married Homer Garrett and lives in Cookeville. Betty married Billy Shannon and lives in Sunbright.
Among the Lawsons’ four sons, Dexter, the youngest, married Kathy Garrett. She died in 2023 at age 59 and is buried at East Robbins. Dexter lives in Robbins.
The other three Lawson sons all moved “up north.” Gaither and his wife, Sue, moved to Indiana, where he died in 2001 at age 63. Witmer married Shirley Griffith and moved to Ohio. He died in 2021 at age 76. Roger and his wife, Jackie, live in Ohio.
Cemetery Census
HONEYCUTT CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.35333, -84.57229
First Burial: 1983 • Last Burial: 2023
Stella Hamby Byrge, 1949-2022
Brenda J. Duncan, 1960-2001
Hattie Lawson Duncan, 1935-2009
Edgar Honeycutt, 1944-2007
George H. Honeycutt, 1898-1987
Irene Honeycutt, 1933-1983
Louisa Jones Honeycutt, 1907-1992
Frank Lawson, 1912-1986
Julia Jones Lawson, 1912-1999
Kathy Garrett Lawson, 1963-2023
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.