Sacred Ground: J.M. Carson Cemetery
It has been nearly a year since the Sacred Ground series visited the Carson Cemetery at Tunnel Hill. As detailed in that visit to Tunnel Hill and one a year before that profiled the nearby Keeton Cemetery, there are two families primarily responsible for early settlement in this area along the headwaters of Paint Rock Creek just east of Oneida: the Carsons and the Keetons.
John Carson Sr. and his wife, Sarah Estes, moved to the Tunnel Hill area sometime just before 1850 and were among the first settlers there. Their granddaughter, Emily Jane Carson, married Baty Keeton, the son of Harrison and Elizabeth Keeton. And Emily Jane’s sister, Mary Ann, married Baty’s brother, Harrison Gatewood Keeton. And, so, Tunnel Hill’s long lineage of Carsons and Keetons began.
With time, the Carson family spread into the Cherry Fork and Ponderosa areas. The old family cemetery that is adjacent to Carson Memorial Park also helps tell the story. It was John Carson Sr.’s son, James Carson, who married the daughter of Rev. Isaac Smith — a Methodist circuit rider who was perhaps the first person to settle at what is now Ponderosa — and expanded the family into that area.
This week, Sacred Ground heads back to where it all began — Tunnel Hill — for a visit to the other Carson Cemetery there — the J.M. Carson Cemetery.
Located just off Paint Rock Road, the J.M. Carson Cemetery is squarely in the midst of what you might call “Carson territory.” The land on either side of the cemetery is still owned by members of the Carson clan today, and John M. Carson lived just across the road from the cemetery, where hundreds of acres along Tunnel Hill’s highest elevations still belong to his descendants.
J.M. Carson Cemetery is well-maintained and consists of 31 graves.
The Carson family
John M. Carson — or J.M. — was born July 15, 1887. He was the son of Jackson Carson (1843-1917) and Nancy Jane Terry (1852-1925).
Jackson Carson was a son of John Linn Carson Jr. and Jane Triplett, and a grandson of John Carson Sr., the first Carson to settle at Tunnel Hill in the 1840s. He married Nancy Jane Terry, the daughter of James Terry and Mary Matilda Smith.
Mary Smith was another of the daughters of Rev. Isaac Smith, the Methodist circuit rider who came to present-day Oneida in the early 1800s and liked the area so good that he settled down at what is today Ponderosa Estates. He was the founder of Oneida’s First United Methodist Church, which originally met at Ponderosa before much later moving to its current location on Main Street.
As you might recall from the earlier story of Carson Memorial Park, Jackson Carson’s uncle, James Bailey Carson, married Mary Smith’s sister, Frances “Franky” Smith. And Nancy Jane’s sister, Lewcinda “Cindy” Terry, married Jackson Carson’s brother, John C. Carson. Franky and Cindy had an aunt, Matilda — Rev. Isaac Smith’s daughter — who married William Carson, a brother to Jackson Carson.
For two generations, the Carson and Smith families were closely intertwined, and they populated this area south of Oneida from Tunnel Hill to Cherry Fork.
This Carson-Smith family alliance is an interesting study of contrasting loyalties in the mid 19th century. There was no greater supporter of the Confederate cause in Scott County than Isaac Smith, who was at one point forced to flee Scott County and return to Virginia after a conflict at his Ponderosa home that resulted in a Union loyalist being wounded by one of his sons.
Meanwhile, the Carsons were largely Union loyalists. Jackson Carson, who married Isaac Smith’s granddaughter, served in Co. C of the East Tennessee National Guard — a Union regiment — during the Civil War. Jackson’s brother, John C. Carson, who also married one of Isaac Smith’s granddaughters, served in the same regiment. And their brother, William Carson, who married Isaac Smith’s daughter, served in the Union army as well — as did a fourth brother, Samuel. Finally, their uncle, James Bailey Carson, who married Isaac Smith’s daughter, also served in the Civil War.
It has been written that Rev. Smith’s preachings of Confederate sympathies from the pulpit of the Methodist church caused the church to split and participation to dwindle during the war — little wonder, with so many members of his own family, many of whom would have attended his church, having Union loyalties.
The cemetery begins
Jackson Carson was the first person to be buried at J.M. Carson Cemetery when he died on Nov. 28, 1917, at the age of 74. His parents — and perhaps his paternal grandparents; it isn’t certain — were buried in Tunnel Hill’s original Carson Cemetery, on the other side of the “mountain.” It’s not clear why a new cemetery was started with Jackson’s death, though the J.M. Carson Cemetery was a decidedly better location for a cemetery than the hillside plot where his parents were buried.
Jackson was the only of the Civil War Carson brothers to be buried at J.M. Carson Cemetery. John C. Carson was buried at the family cemetery at Ponderosa, William Carson was born at a small family cemetery on Cherry Fork, and it isn’t known where Samuel Carson was buried. Their sisters all married and were buried at various other cemeteries throughout Scott County.
The second person buried at the cemetery came just two years later, when baby Ethel B. Carson died at the age of six months. She was the daughter of William “Sherman” Carson and Elsie Phillips, both of whom would be buried at the cemetery later. Sherman Carson was the youngest son of Jackson Carson and Nancy Jane Terry. He lived near the railroad tracks nearby; the small lane that turns off Paint Rock Road just west of Tunnel Hill Road is called Sherman Carson Road.
Baby Ethel had a brother, Alton Carson, who was buried at the cemetery in 2015, when he died at age 87. He was a long-time member of Tunnel Hill United Baptist Church, and married Lois Asher, who was buried at the cemetery in 1979.
Nancy Jane died in 1925 and was buried at the cemetery alongside her husband.
The Keeton family
It was 16 years after Nancy’s death before the fourth burial occurred at the family cemetery. In January 1941, Marlin J. Keeton Jr. died at the age of three months, after developing pneumonia. He was the son of Marlin Keeton and Ernie Buttram.
Marlin Keeton, who owned Keeton’s Garage in Oneida for many years, was the son of Harrison Gatewood Keeton and Mary Ann Carson.
You might recall from earlier in the story that Harrison Gatewood Keeton and his brother, Baty Keeeton, married sisters: Mary Ann Carson and Emily Jane Carson. The Carson sisters were the daughters of Jackson Carson and Nancy Jane Terry, and this was the start of the Keeton family at Tunnel Hill, which would become almost as prominent there as the Carson family.
So, the Marlin Keeton Jr. buried at J.M. Carson Cemetery was Jackson and Nancy Jane Carson’s great-grandson.
Both Harrison Gatewood and Mary Ann Keeton would later be buried at the cemetery, as well — he in 1947 and she in 1975. Like many other residents of the community, they were members of the Tunnel Hill United Baptist Church. Harrison Gatewood Keeton served as a deacon there, and he and his wife were among the charter members of the church who moved their letters from Cherry Fork in 1922. Mary Ann Carson Keeton was 103 when she died in 1975.
The cemetery grows
When Harrison Gatewood Keeton died in 1947, he was just the fifth person buried on the small knoll just off Tunnel Hill Road, and the cemetery — which had been established with the death of his father-in-law, Jackson Carson, 30 years earlier — was still referred to as simply the “Carson Cemetery” in official records.
It was two years after Harrison Keeton’s death that the next burial took place at the cemetery: six-year-old Wilma Stanfill.
Young Wilma was the daughter of Andrew Stanfill and Zora Belle Carson. Zora Belle was a sister to baby Ethel Carson who had been buried at the cemetery several years earlier, and a sister to Alton Carson, who would be buried there many years later. She married Andrew Stanfill and, following his death, Roy Norman. Wilma’s parents are both buried at Scott Memorial Gardens.
The Chambers family
The 1950s were a period of tragedy for the Chambers family. At the cemetery today, you’ll find a series of four flat stones in a single row. Three of them are Chambers children: Bill, who died in 1954, Danny Lee, who died in 1955, and Fred, who died in 1956.
All three were the children of Ernest Claude Chambers and Ruby Pearl Evans, who were later buried at Hazel Valley. All three died at birth. They were also the first people buried at the J.M. Carson Cemetery who were not members of the Carson family. However, the Chambers family lived at Tunnel Hill and were members of the Baptist church there.
Bill was born and died on April 9, 1954; Danny Lee was born and died on March 2, 1955; Fred was born and died on Feb. 8, 1956.
Later, on March 1, 1964, the babies’ sister, Mary Ellen, died in a car wreck at the age of 20, and was buried alongside them at J.M. Carson Cemetery. Hers is the fourth flat stone in the row. She had married Daniel Hammock in 1961 and had two children at the time of her death, Junior and Judy.
Surviving members of the Chambers family included a sister, Mable Ann, who married Voyd Lawson; a brother, Clark Earnest; a brother, James Sherman; a brother, Roy; a sister, Betty Jo, who married Robert Bowlin; and a sister, Barbara Nelson.
James Sherman was buried at J.M. Carson Cemetery when he died in 2016. Mable Ann and Clark were both buried at Hazel Valley with their parents.
Ruby Ann Bowlin, the daughter of Robert and Betty Bowlin and a niece to the Chambers babies buried at J.M. Carson Cemetery, was buried there when she died in 2018 at age 45.
Meanwhile, another child was buried at the cemetery in 1956. Danny Lee Brewster died on Aug. 24, 1956, one day after his birth. And, on Feb. 19, 1969, infant Sylvia Lee Keeton was buried there. She was the daughter of Lee Keeton and Darlene Phillips, and a great-granddaughter of John M. Carson.
The cemetery’s namesake
Back to the first of the story: John M. Carson was one of the sons of Jackson Carson and Nancy Jane Terry, the brother of Mary Ann Carson and Emily Jane Carson, who married brothers Harrison Gatewood and Baty Keeton. He was also the brother of Sherman Carson, who lived nearby, and James “Jim” Carson, who lived off Denzil Drive and is buried at the much larger family cemetery near his home.
There were other siblings, as well: a sister, Polly Jane; a sister, Matilda; and a sister, Lutempa.
John M. Carson married Levada Laxton in 1916. She was the daughter of John Laxton and Parsidia Chambers. They had seven children: Ovia, Odell, Nannie Mae, Arzo, Arvil, Rosalee and Sylvia Lou.
Ovia, Odell and Nannie Mae all wound up in the Cincinnati area. Arvil and Sylvia Lou are buried at J.M. Carson Cemetery. Sylvia married Lawton Phillips, who was also buried at the cemetery in 2000. (It was their daughter, Darlene, who married Lee Keeton and was the mother of baby Sylvia Lee Keeton who was buried at the cemetery in 1969.)
John and Levada Carson’s home was located across the road from the cemetery where they would eventually be buried. She died in 1975 and he died in 1978. In time, the cemetery came to be known as the J.M. Carson Cemetery rather than simply the Carson Cemetery.
The last of the surviving children of John and Levada Carson was Arzo Carson, who died in 2023 and was buried at Carson Memorial Gardens. He married Shirley June Laxton. He was a district attorney general in Scott County and later served as the father of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Arzo Carson had a son, Jared Carson and wife Michelle, who still live in Scott County.
Arvil Carson, who lived adjacent to the cemetery, had several children buried at the J.M. Carson Cemetery: Arvil Carson Jr., who died in infancy in 1950; Danny Lee, who died in 2005; Bruce, who died in 1976 at age 20 after being involved in a motorcycle wreck on Pine Hill; and Denna Lynn Carson, who died in infancy in 1968.
Most recently, Arvil Carson’s son, John Carson, who lived adjacent to the cemetery, was the last person — as of this writing — buried at the cemetery when he died on July 15, 2024.
Among Arvil Carson’s surviving children are Dean Carson and wife Ruth, Rose Terry, and Valerie Terry and husband Donny.
Sylvia Lou Carson Phillips has one surviving son in the Scott County area: James L. Phillips and wife Josephine.
The only person buried at the cemetery not yet mentioned was infant Stacy Michelle Carson, who died in March 1980. She was the daughter of Ronnie Allen Carson and Sandra Jeffers.
Ronnie Carson is the son of Alton Carson and Lois Asher, and a grandson of Sherman Carson and Elsie Phillips. Like many members of the Carson family before him, he and his wife are members of the Baptist church at Tunnel Hill. Alton and Lois have another surviving child still living in Scott County: Brenda Bond and husband Wayne.
Cemetery census
J.M. CARSON CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.47900, -84.50900
First Burial: 1917
Last Burial: 2024
Ruby A. Bowlin, 1972-2018
Danny L. Brewster, 1956-1956
Alton Carson, 1927-2015
Arvil Carson, 1925-2008
Arvil Carson Jr., 1950-1950
Bruce Carson, 1956-1976
Danny L. Carson, 1952-2005
Denna L. Carson, 1968-1968
Elsie Phillips Carson, 1894-1968
Ethel B. Carson, 1919-1919
Jackson Carson, 1843-1917
John Carson, N/A-2024
John M. Carson, 1887-1978
Levada Laxton Carson, 1895-1975
Lois Asher Carson, 1926-1979
Myrtle M. Carson, 1937-1996
Nancy Terry Carson, 1852-1925
Sherman Carson, 1892-1972
Stacy M. Carson, 1980-1980
Bill Chambers, 1954-1954
Danny L. Chambers, 1955-1955
Fred Chambers, 1956-1956
James S. Chambers, 1952-2016
Mary Chambers Hammock, 1943-1964
Harrison G. Keeton, 1874-1947
Marlin J. Keeton Jr., 1940-1941
Mary Carson Keeton, 1872-1975
Sylvia L. Keeton, 1969-1969
Lawton Phillips, 1930-2000
Sylvia Carson Phillips, 1931-2002
Wilma Stanfill, 1943-1949
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.