Sacred Ground: Jim Carson Cemetery
The continuing story of the Carson family that settled the area east of Oneida — already documented in the Sacred Ground series’ stops at the old Carson Cemetery and new Carson Cemetery at Tunnel Hill, as well as the old Carson family cemetery at Carson Memorial Park and the Cecil Cemetery at Cherry Fork — can be found at the Jim Carson Cemetery on Harmony Lane in the Pentecost neighborhood of east Oneida.
Traditionally called Carson Cemetery before gaining the name Jim Carson Cemetery in more recent years, this cemetery began in 1911 and has grown to include more than 100 burials. It is a well-maintained cemetery that remains active today.
The Carson family
Jim Carson, for whom the cemetery is named, was a great-grandson of John Carson Sr. and Sarah Estes, who moved to Tunnel Hill in the early 19th century and are the common ancestors of most Carsons in Scott County today.
The Carsons married into the Smith family at present-day Ponderosa Estates and spread in that direction, also settling what is now the Pentecost community in between, which is where the Jim Carson Cemetery is located. They also spread into the High Point and Cherry Fork communities south of Oneida.
Jim Carson’s grandfather was John Linn Carson Jr., who made the move to Tunnel Hill with his parents in the early 1800s, married Jane Triplett, and had at least 13 children. John Carson Jr. and his wife are both buried at the old Carson Cemetery at Tunnel Hill.
One of those 13 children was Jackson Carson, born in 1843. He was the first person buried at the new Carson Cemetery at Tunnel Hill (which is actually called the J.M. Carson Cemetery) when he died in 1917. He married Nancy Jane Terry in 1871, and their second-born child was James Monroe “Jim” Carson.
Jim Carson was born in 1876, and married Elizabeth “Betty” Terry, the daughter of Lindsay Terry and Sarah “Sally” Chambers. They had nine children.
Betty died in 1959 and Jim in 1971. Both are buried at the family cemetery off Harmony Lane. And that’s where this story begins.
The cemetery begins
The first several people buried at the Jim Carson Cemetery were children. In fact, there were 11 children buried there between 1911 and 1923, when the first adult was buried at the cemetery.
The first burial at the cemetery was an infant named Sherman Cross in November 1911. He was the month-old son of Marion Cross and Lutempa Carson.
Lutempa, born 1884, was Jim Carson’s younger sisters — one of eight siblings. She married Marion Cross in 1910. He was the son of Micajah Cross and Flemon Barron, and the grandson of Lark Cross, the Buffalo man murdered by Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War. Marion’s brother, Clabe Cross, was a prominent businessman in early Oneida, and the founder of First National Bank.
Sherman was Marion and Lutempa’s first child, born Sept. 25, 1911. He was just six weeks old at the time of his death. Marion and Lutempa went on to have several more children. One of them, Bailey Cross, was a career educator who served as Scott County Superintendent of Schools. Another one, Millard, was also a teacher who was killed in action in Italy near the end of World War II.
About a year and a half after baby Sherman’s death, another child was buried at the cemetery. Maudie Terry was 16 months old when she died in April 1913. She was the daughter of Henry Terry and Lucinda Ellis. The Terry family was not related to the Carson family, but lived in the Pentecost community. The Terry family was actually from the area near what is now Ponderosa Estates, while the Ellis family lived at Pentecost.
Both Henry and Lucinda were buried at Jim Carson Cemetery along with baby Maudie. So, too, were Lucinda’s parents — James Ellis Jr. and Mahulda Buttram — and two more of their children, Lester Terry and his wife Bertha Thomas, and Bessie Milligan, who died in 1934 at the age of 26. Lester also had a young son, 8-year-old Curtis Marvin, who was buried at the cemetery in 1946.
Just seven months later, another baby — Fred Lemual Carson — died and was buried at the cemetery. He was the son of James Lenard Carson and Rosie Keeton. James Lenard was a first cousin to Jim Carson, the son of John C. Carson and Lewcinda Terry.
Fred was one of 13 children born to James and Rosie. His parents and three of his siblings — 29-year-old Corbett Carson, Emily, and Della — were also buried at Jim Carson Cemetery.
In 1915, an eight-year-old girl named Georgia McDonald was buried beside the other children at the cemetery. She was the daughter of George McDonald and Molly Duncan, and was killed in an accident involving a gun. Her parents were later buried at the cemetery, as well.
Georgia’s death certificate indicates that by the time of her death in 1915, the cemetery was already being called Carson Cemetery.
The fifth person buried at the cemetery was a 10-month-old boy named Earl Carson, who died in July 1916. He was the son of Lemuel Carson and Allison Eller. Lemuel was another of Jim Carson’s first cousins, a brother to James Lenard Carson. Both he and his wife would later be buried at the family cemetery.
Some records indicate that another baby from the Carson family was buried at the cemetery in 1916, but there’s no information available and no headstone to be found.
The next burial at the cemetery came in 1918, when three-year-old Milford Chambers died. Little information is available, but his headstone notes that he was the “infant brother of Pearl Carson.”
Pearl Carson, who is buried at Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery across town, was the daughter of John Millard Chambers and Ella Massengale of the Pine Hill community. She married Jimmy Carson in 1946. He was the son of Henry Carson and Rose Shepherd, and the grandson of Peter Carson. Peter Carson was one of the first people buried at Coffey Cemetery. He was a great-grandson of John Carson Sr., the first of the Carsons to settle at Tunnel Hill. However, he was not closely related to the rest of the Carson family mentioned in this story. His grandfather was William Carson, a brother to John Linn Carson Jr., which would make him a distant cousin to the rest of the Carsons at Tunnel Hill and Pentecost.
It was apparently Pearl Carson who placed Milford Chambers’ headstone at his grave some years later. And she had several other siblings buried at the cemetery who received identical commercial stones: two-month-old Goldia Marie Chambers in 1925, eight-month-old Helen Frances Chambers in 1930, one-year-old Clettia Irene Chambers in 1933, and one-year-old Sylvia Jewell Chambers in 1941.
Luther Lemuel Stephens Jr., a three-month-old infant, was the next to be buried at the cemetery in 1918. He was the son of Luther Lemuel Stephens Sr. and Bertha Phillips. Like some of the other children buried during Jim Carson Cemetery’s early days — including Milford Chambers — Luther has a stone that has been placed in more recent years.
Luther’s parents were both buried at the cemetery, as were two of his brothers, also apparently babies: Hirburt and Harold. They both have newer stones that are identical to Luther’s, but the stones do not include their birth dates or deaths.
The Stephens boys’ maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Phillips, was a sister to Rosie Keeton Carson, whose baby boy — Fred Lemual — was buried at the cemetery just a few years earlier.
William Harry Chambers was buried at the cemetery in 1920. He was the infant son of Arlet Chambers and Alta May Harding. His grave is one of three in a row that are marked by homemade headstones of cement that have metal nameplates attached. The others are his sister Alma, who died in infancy in 1923, and his brother Bobby Lee, who died in infancy in 1929.
Arlet and Alta May were both buried at the Morris Goodman Cemetery nearby. Arlet’s father, William Riley Chambers, was a brother to John Millard Chambers, who was the father of Milford Chambers, the infant buried at the cemetery in 1918.
There may have been another baby from the Carson family buried at the cemetery in 1920 but, again, there is no headstone to be found. (In his transcription of the cemetery, Scott County genealogist Tim West does not include either of the Carson babies from 2016 and 2020.)
In 1921, five-year-old Floyd Carson was buried at the cemetery. He was the youngest son of Jim and Betty Terry Carson.
The cemetery grows
By now there were quite a few graves in the Carson Cemetery — all of them children, and almost all of them from the Carson family, or from families that were at least connected to the Carson family.
In 1923, the first adult was buried at the cemetery: Lemuel Carson. Remember that one of the children buried at Carson Cemetery was Lem’s: Earl Carson had been buried there in 1916.
Lem Carson, the son of John C. Carson and Lewcinda Terry, was just 37 when he died of pneumonia in 1923. His death left five young children without a father. The youngest, Harold, was only a year old when his father died. His wife, Allie, never remarried, and was also buried at the cemetery when she died in 1950 at age 55.
Meanwhile, more children were being buried at the cemetery. It isn’t uncommon to find children’s graves in cemeteries that date from the early 19th century to the early 20th century; life was hard before modern medicine. In fact, many of Scott County’s cemeteries began with the burial of a child. But Jim Carson Cemetery seems to have had more than its fair share.
Alma Chambers was buried at the cemetery in 1923, and then Reba Wright was buried there in 1925. She was just six months old, and the daughter of William Wright and Vestie Jones. Her mother died just a few years later at the age of 35. Both her parents are buried at the cemetery.
In 1926, Jewell Derossett was buried at the cemetery. She was one month old but nothing more is known about her. The headstone simply says, “Gone to be an angel.” She was probably the daughter of George and Hester Derossett, who were recorded as living in Oneida in 1930. George would have been 25 years old in 1926; Hester would have been 19. The Derossetts later moved to Knoxville, where George died in 1948.
Later that same year, Loy “Buddy” Terry died at the age of four months and was buried at Carson Cemetery. He was the son of William “Pete” Terry and Perna Chambers. His father was later buried at the cemetery in 1972. Pete’s father, John Terry, was a sister to Lewcinda Terry and Nancy Jane Terry, the sisters who married into the Carson family.
In 1928, another child was buried at the cemetery — the infant son of Corbett Carson and Mary Orick, who both died young and were buried at the cemetery in the 1930s. Corbett was the son of James L. Carson and Rosie Keeton, a brother to Fred Lemual Carson, who was buried at the cemetery in 1914.
Rosie Keeton Carson had been buried at the cemetery in 1926, just the second adult to be buried there. Her brother-in-law, Lem, had been the first, in 1923.
In 1929, the third adult was buried there: Effie Chambers Carson. While she wasn’t a baby, she died very young. She was only 24 at the time of her death. She was the wife of Herman Jack Carson, the son of Jim Carson and Betty Terry. They had three children. One of her sons, Arzo T. Carson, was buried at the cemetery in 2003.
Meanwhile, babies continued to be buried at the cemetery.
In 1929, newborn Bobby Lee Chambers was buried at the cemetery — the third of the Chambers siblings who were the children of Arlet and Alta May Chambers.
Newborn Brian Smith was next, in 1931. He does not have a headstone; his grave is marked by a simple funeral home marker.
Four-month-old Fred Elbert Chambers was buried at the cemetery in 1932. He was the son of Frank Chambers and Lucille Laxton. Frank was a brother to Arlet Chambers, who has three babies buried in the cemetery.
Adults began to be buried in the cemetery more frequently at that point — there was Vestie Jones Wright, the 35-year-old wife of William Wright, who had a daughter buried at the cemetery a few years earlier; Mary Orick Carson, the wife of Corbett Carson, who died at age 25 in 1932; and Dora Ellis, the 52-year-old wife of Rev. William Ellis, in 1932 (her husband was buried beside her just five months later).
But there were still children being buried at the cemetery, as well. Lawrence Posey Chandler Jr. died in infancy in 1932 and was buried there. He was the son of Lawrence Posey Sr. and Glenna Posey. And there was Clettia Irene Chambers, one of the many Chambers siblings, buried there at age one in 1933.
At the time of young Clettia’s death, there had been 29 people buried at Jim Carson Cemetery. Remarkably, 23 of the 29 were children. And of the six adults, none were older than 52, and four of the six were far younger than that.
The cemetery today
Jim Carson Cemetery remained very active throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, with dozens more burials taking place there.
The cemetery is still active today, but the number of burials taking place there has dwindled. There have been only nine people buried at the cemetery in the past 25 years, and only two in the past 14 years.
The most recent burial at the cemetery was Paizlee Annabella Phillips in 2024. It is sadly ironic that the most recent addition to the cemetery is like so many of the early graves at the cemetery: a child.
Paizlee, who lived in Coalfield, was only seven years old when she died in August. The daughter of Olivia Phillips and Adam Bunch (and great-granddaughter of Osmond and Judy Smith, who are buried at the cemetery), she died of a rare congenital heart defect. Her obituary described her like this: To have known and loved Paizlee was a pure gift from God. Paizlee never met a stranger and could make a room sparkle with just a smile or a laugh. Paizlee was a fighter, and she battled her illness like every day was a new adventure. She loved her baby dolls and every one of them had to have a specific name like ‘heart’ or ‘Paizlee.’ Her ‘babies’ were her world! Paizlee was the boss of the family and she made sure everyone knew it, too. Paizlee will be missed dearly but she will never be forgotten because she left an imprint on everyone’s heart.”
Today, there have been 109 burials at Jim Carson Cemetery since the cemetery began in 1911. Forty-four — almost half — have been children.
Cemetery Census
JIM CARSON CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.48545, -84.50948
First Burial: 1911
Last Burial: 2024
Markus W. Butler, 1870-1957
Allison Eller Carson, 1894-1950
Arzo T. Carson, 1926-2003
Claude H. Carson, 1906-1976
Corbett Carson, 1907-1937
Della Carson, 1919-2004
Earl Carson, 1915-1916
Elizabeth Terry Carson, 1880-1959
Emily Lucille Carson, 1917-2002
Etha Chambers Carson, 1905-1929
Floyd Carson, 1916-1921
Fred Lemual Carson, 1914-1914
Howard Carson, 1916-1975
Infant Carson, 1916-1916
Infant Carson, N/A-1920
Infant Son Carson, 1928-1928
James Lenard Carson, 1878-1961
James Monroe Carson, 1876-1971
Jimmy Allen Carson, 1937-1937
Lemuel Carson, 1885-1923
Mary Orick Carson, 1906-1932
Rosie Bell Keeton Carson, 1885-1926
Vessie Strunk Carson, 1911-1990
Helen Frances Chamber, 1929-1930
Alma Christine Chambers, 1923-1923
Bobby Lee Chambers, 1929-1929
Clettia Irene Chambers, 1932-1933
Fred Elbert Chambers, 1931-1932
Goldia Marie Chambers, 1925-1925
Milford Chambers, 1914-1918
Peggy Janice Chambers, 1938-1939
Sylvia Jewell Chambers, 1939-1941
William Harry Chambers, 1920-1920
Lawrence Posey Chandler Jr., 1932-1932
Hessie Hicks Collins, 1905-1981
Russell Alonzo Collins, 1899-1985
John Cotton, 1881-1950
Kissiah West Cotton, 1871-1948
Sherman Cross, 1911-1911
Jewell Derossett, 1926-1926
Nancy Ward Eller, 1872-1958
Robert L. Eller Jr., 1905-1990
Robert Lewis Eller Sr., 1871-1957
Eldora Ellis Ellis, 1880-1932
William E. Ellis Sr., 1855-1933
Michael Lee Gibson, 1948-1948
Erva Jeffers, 1924-1992
Ida Robbins Jeffers, 1902-1960
Leo Jeffers, 1891-1974
Leola Jeffers, 1939-1940
Nancy Carson Jeffers, 1901-1945
Oliver Mount Jeffers, 1872-1949
Charles Edward Jones, 1945-2020
Edene Jones, 1936-1937
Florence Phillips Jones, 1908-1999
William Edison Jones, 1908-1985
Brenda Sue Keeton, 1941-1942
Henrietta Keeton, 1948-1948
Tabitha Rae Keeton, 1970-1970
Mearl Dean King, 1943-1943
Francis Wesley Lewis, 1867-1947
James Espy Marcum, 1928-1988
Mary Carson Marcum, 1876-1950
Violet Jeffers Marcum, 1927-2011
George McDonald, 1872-1937
Georgia McDonald, 1907-1915
Molly Duncan McDonald, 1873-1933
Bessie Terry Milligan, 1908-1934
John Wilson Phelps Jr., 1920-1962
Delilian Phillips, 1879-1933
Lindsay Dowell Phillips, 1877-1957
Paizlee Annabella Phillips, 2017-2024
Frieda Carson Reaster, 1951-2011
Joe Lindell Shelton, 1939-1939
Barney Byrd Smith, 1897-1973
Brian Smith, 1931-1931
Danny Osmond Smith, 1951-2006
Emma Terry Smith, 1898-1977
Lendal Smith, 1940-1940
Ollie F. Smith, 1886-1948
Osmond Smith, 1932-2004
Nancy Lee West Stanley, 1883-1938
Bertha Phillips Stephens, 1895-1984
Eddie Joe Stephens, 1941-1942
Harold Stephens, N/A-N/A
Hirburt Stephens, N/A-N/A
Luther Lemuel Stephens Jr., 1918-1918
Luther Lemuel Stephens Sr., 1891-1947
Thomas Edward Stephens, 1969-1969
Hattie Blevins Stringer, 1923-1966
Bertha Thomas Terry, 1911-1979
Bettie Ruth Terry, 1934-1936
Curtis Marvin Terry, 1938-1946
Elsie Butler Terry, 1897-1973
Henry Terry, 1884-1937
Lester Terry, 1906-2003
Lindsay Terry, 1861-1957
Loy Osby Terry, 1926-1926
Lucinda Ellis Terry, 1887-1970
Maude Terry, 1911-1913
Nancy Terry, 1888-1953
Sarah Chambers Terry, 1862-1941
William Culm Terry, 1895-1972
Amanda Smith Wright, 1884-1959
Emily Gale Wright, 1955-1956
Larry T. Wright, 1945-1945
Reba Wright, 1924-1925
Vestie Jones Wright, 1896-1932
William M. Wright Sr., 1890-1981
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.