Sacred Ground: Hurtt Cemetery
Last week, the “Sacred Ground” series visited the New River Cemetery, where early settlers of the town of New River are buried — including members of the Buttram family, the Hurtt family, and others.
This week, we drive to the other side of “town” to the Hurtt Cemetery, which continues the story of the Hurtts, the Buttrams, and the other early families of New River.
The Reed Cemetery at the top of what we now call “New River Hill” grew to become the community’s most prominent cemetery, and remains active today. But it was used only sparingly prior to the early 1900s. Before that, the two primary cemeteries in New River were the New River Cemetery, and the Hurtt Cemetery.
Located on the end of a ridge above New River, the Hurtt Cemetery is located off Mudd Street, beyond the end of the county-maintained roadway on Zachary Street. It is located on private property owned by the Brimstone Energy Company.
The Hurtt Cemetery was once nearly forgotten, completely reforested after years of neglect. Parts of it have been cleared and are maintained, however. Today, the new growth that has not been cleared appears to divide the Hurtt Cemetery into two separate burial grounds. The graves of the Sexton family that is buried there are carefully maintained. A bit to the north are another dozen or so graves that include members of the Hurtt family and, behind them, some graves representing members of the Buttram family.
But the Hurtt Cemetery is only partially cleared. Perhaps whomever began the task of clearing it ran out of time. Whatever the reason, there are dozens of graves that are hidden in the thickets beyond the cemetery.
At first glance, the cemetery appears to only occupy the river-facing portion of a knoll at the end of the ridge. Upon closer examination, however, the old graveyard covers the entire knoll.
And because of the reforestation, many of the graves are closely cloaked by undergrowth. As you venture deeper into the thickets, every time you think you’ve seen all the cemetery has to show you, another stone will appear — often partially sunken into the earth. All of the graves in the reforested portion of the cemetery appear to be marked with simple fieldstones … until you wade a little deeper into the thicket and find a commercial headstone of five-year-old Willard Cecil, now dislodged and lying flat on the ground, and another nearby belonging to five-year-old Maggie Houston. The two children died two years apart in 1875 and 1877, their graves now having completely disappeared into the dense forest.
In his 1994 census of the Hurtt Cemetery, historian Robert Bailey documented 29 graves here. Using a combination of a few graves Bailey referenced that he couldn’t find and some new graves he discovered, Tim West documented 35 graves in 2012.
The reality, though, is that there are far more people buried here than that. Unfortunately, all of the cemetery’s secrets will never be known, for many of the graves are marked by simple field stones that were either never inscribed or that are no longer legible. And some of the graves aren’t marked at all. Here and there throughout the cemetery is evidence of a grave with no stone to denote its location.
In all, there are far more unidentifiable graves at Hurtt Cemetery than there are identifiable graves. That’s unfortunate, because this old cemetery — along with the indelibly-connected New River Cemetery — help tell the story of this once-prominent 19th century settlement.
Also, because of all the unmarked and uninscribed graves, it is impossible to accurately date the Hurtt Cemetery. However, it dates back to at least 1849 — just about seven years after it is believed that the New River Cemetery was established.
The Buttram family
The Hurtt Cemetery is named for the Hurtts that were among the most prominent families in early New River. But the Buttram family was very prominent, as well, and it was with the Buttrams that this cemetery began.
The earliest verifiable grave at the Hurtt Cemetery is that of two-year-old Milly Jane Buttram, who died on January 18, 1849. Her name and dates of birth and death are carefully chiseled onto her stone, which is located among other members of the Buttram family in the northwest corner of the cemetery.
Who was little Milly Jane? Because she was born and died between censuses, there is no historical record to go by. But she may very well have been the daughter of James and Jane Goad Buttram, both of whom are buried at the Hurtt Cemetery.
James Buttram (1825-1885), also called “Jim,” was the son of William “Billy” Buttram (1806-1888) and Rachel Reed Buttram.
You might recall from last week’s story about the New River Cemetery that William Buttram and Bailey Buttram were the highly successful sons of John and Jane Stephenson Buttram, who were themselves very successful farmers and among the wealthiest families in the New River community. (In 1860, Jane Buttram — by that time widowed — was the most prominent slaveowner in Scott County, owning 22 of the 59 total slaves that were owned in Scott County.)
You might also recall that Bailey Buttram, who was elected Scott County’s second sheriff in 1858, married Mary Hurtt, the daughter of John Crawford Hurtt and Francis Bruton Hurtt, which establishes a connection between these two prominent early New River families, the Buttrams and the Hurtts.
Jane Goad Buttram, meanwhile, was the daughter of Joshua Goad, a member of the first family to settle what would become known as the Vanderpool farm on New River. His father was Abraham Goad, a Revolutionary War veteran who moved to present-day Scott County with his son. Jane Buttram’s brother, Joshua Goad Jr., served as Scott County’s 10th sheriff, from 1894 to 1896.
In fact, one constant theme of these two cemeteries — Hurtt and New River — is just how many of Scott County’s early sheriffs were tied to the New River community. More on that in a moment.
Meanwhile, the second verifiable grave at Hurtt Cemetery is that of John Buttram, who was born on Christmas Day in 1852 and died less than three weeks later, on January 13, 1853. It seems likely, if not conclusive, that John Buttram and Milly Jane Buttram were siblings. If so, it could potentially rule out Jim and Jane Goad Buttram as the parents; they had a son, born in 1860, who was named John Franklin “Frank” Buttram.
The cemetery grows
On October 20, 1868, someone with the initials “R.S.” was buried at Hurtt Cemetery. The stone was not located on our trip to the cemetery, but was documented by Bailey in 1994 and was photographed by Yvonne West in 2010.
There is no indication of who the stone belongs to.
The first adult to be buried at the cemetery came next, and it was another member of the Buttram family: Joel Buttram, who died on June 30, 1875 at the age of 36.
The son of Bailey and Lucinda McCoy Buttram, Joel Buttram was a Civil War veteran who earned the rank of corporal and was captured at Rogersville in 1863. He married Arbana Ellis in 1866, and they had at least three children.
Four-year-old Maggy Houston was the next to be buried at the cemetery when she died on August 31, 1875. Her stone indicates that she was born on December 3, 1870 in Laurel County, Kentucky, but offers no further information about her.
The only Houstons living in Laurel County, Ky. at the time of the 1870 census were R.W. and Julia Houston, both of whom were born in Tennessee and both of whom were in the early 20s at the time. There is, however, nothing to indicate that they ever moved back to Scott County. There were no Houstons in Scott County as of the 1880 census.
The Hurtt family
On October 22, 1875, one-year-old Reuben L. Hurtt died and was buried at the Hurtt Cemetery. He was the first member of the family that the cemetery would ultimately be identified with to be buried there.
There’s no indication of who little Reuben’s parents were. The best-known member of the Hurtt family was a Reuben Hurtt, a brother to Mary Hurtt Buttram, who was elected Scott County’s sixth sheriff in 1876 and later owned a motel at New River before eventually moving to Williamsburg, Ky.
However, it should be pointed out that Sheriff Reuben Hurtt had a son named Reuben R. Hurtt, born in 1894.
Earlier, we pointed out that several of Scott County’s early sheriffs were tied to New River. That’s perhaps no surprise; before Oneida and Huntsville became Scott County’s largest population centers, New River was one of the largest communities found here. Bailey Buttram, the county’s second sheriff, was a New River resident. His son-in-law, Beaty Cecil, would serve as the county’s eighth sheriff (as well as a county judge and state legislator). Reuben Hurtt, the brother-in-law of Bailey Buttram’s nephew, was Scott County’s seventh sheriff. And John Goad, the brother-in-law of another of Bailey Buttram’s nephews, was Scott County’s 10th sheriff. All four of these sheriffs lived in New River.
Meanwhile, Reuben L. Hurtt wasn’t the only Hurtt child to be buried at the Hurtt Cemetery in the 1870s. On December 7, 1878, four-month-old S.C. Hurtt was buried there.
As was the case with Reuben L. Hurtt, it’s not conclusive who S.C. Hurtt’s parents were. One thing we do know, however, is that Sheriff Reuben Hurtt’s parents — John Crawford Hurtt (1807-1883) and Francis “Fanny” Bruton Hurtt (1810-1883) were both buried there. They died exactly three months apart in 1883.
Other members of the Hurtt family buried at the cemetery include Moses Foster Hurtt (1847-1921), who was a brother to Reuben Hurtt and Mary Hurtt Buttram. He married Ellen Buttram Hurtt — the daughter of Bailey Buttram. She died three days after Christmas in 1883 and was buried at Hurtt Cemetery. His second wife, Nancy Ellen Goode Hurtt, is buried at New River Cemetery.
Most of Moses Hurtt’s many children left Scott County. However, two of them — Rachel L. Hurtt and Lottie Hurtt — died in infancy and are buried at Hurtt Cemetery.
Moses Hurtt’s sister, Suffrona Hurtt, was also buried at the cemetery when she died on June 29, 1883 at age 44.
Another sister, Martha Hurtt McCcoy, may have been buried there when she died on May 4, 1897 at the age of 63. She married William Riley McCoy, the son of John McCoy and Nancy Hatfield McCoy. He may be buried at the cemetery, as well. Neither have stones that can be identified, but they were listed in West’s 2012 transcription of the cemetery based on information provided by Yvonne West.
Yet another sister, Mildred Hurtt Smith, was buried there in 1920, as was her husband, Sterling Cooke Smith, who died in 1902.
Latter years
By the early 1900s, the Hurtt Cemetery was mostly inactive as the population center shifted away from the area. Moses Hurtt, in 1921, was the last of the Hurtt or Buttram families to be buried there.
The last family to be buried at the Hurtt Cemetery was the Sexton family: Emma Jane Phillips Sexton (1889-1926) and several of her children.
Emma Sexton was just 36 when she died in April 1926. She was buried beside one of her sons, three-year-old Willie Sexton, who had died in 1923. She had two baby girls who were buried at the cemetery, along with another daughter, Ethel Sexton. Ethel was born in 1909 but her death date isn’t clear. Commercial stones for Ethel and her two sisters have been placed in recent years.
With the death of Emma Sexton in 1926, the Hurtt Cemetery became inactive. Its stories will never fully be told, because there there are so many graves that cannot be identified. As previously mentioned, Robert Bailey identified 29 graves here in 1994, and Tim West documented 35 graves here in 2012. But there are many more graves that cannot be identified — either because they are marked with uninscribed field stones or aren’t marked at all. On our visit to Hurtt Cemetery, we counted 71 graves in all. There are likely more that could be counted on a visit in the fall or winter, when there is no foliage to obscure stones that have sunken mostly into the dirt.
Cemetery census
HURTT CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.374061584, -84.551040649
First Burial: 1849*
Last Burial: 1926
Burials after Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? No
B.B. N/A-1858
Joel Buttram 1838-1875
John M. Buttram 1852-1853
Lenard C. Buttram 1855-1876
Milly J. Buttram 1846-1849
Poleet Buttram N/A-N/A
Silvie Buttram 1834-1885
R.C. N/A-N/A
S.C. 1872-1877
Nelson Cecil 1843-1879
Willard Cecil 1872-1877
C.E. N/A-1861
F.E. 1850-N/A
Maggy Houston 1870-1875
Rachel L. Hurt 1890-1891
Reubin L. Hurt 1874-1875
Ellen Hurtt 1849-1883
Francis Hurtt 1810-1883
John C. Hurtt 1807-1883
Lottie Hurtt 1903-1903
Moses F. Hurtt 1847-1921
S.C. Hurtt 1878-1878
Suffrona Hurtt 1838-1883
Martha Hurtt McCoy 1834-1897
William R. McCoy 1831-1898
R.S. N/A-1868
Ema J. Sexton 1889-1926
Ethel Sexton N/A-N/A
Rebecca J. Sexton 1860-1861
Daughter Sexton N/A-N/A
Daughter Sexton N/A-N/A
Willie Sexton 1920-1923
Millar Smith 1831-1920
S.C. Smith 1830-1902
Catharine Strunk 1854-1880
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.