Sacred Ground: Keeton Cemetery
ONEIDA | Tucked away in a forested ridgetop overlooking old mining lands is a cemetery where some of the earliest residents of the Tunnel Hill community between Oneida and Paint Rock are buried.
It’s called the Keeton Cemetery — and for good reason: all but a handful of the graves there are Keetons.
The Keeton family was one of the earliest and most prominent families of this area along the headwaters of Paint Rock Creek, and its descendents still live in the area today. Just over the hill from the cemetery is the home of Mike Keeton, one of the sons of Junior and Delone Keeton. The long-time railroad engineer and his wife aren’t buried there, but Junior’s parents — John Harrison Keeton Sr. and Vicie Keeton — are, along with several other members of the family.
Junior was an engineer on the Tennessee Railroad that was carved through this community a couple of decades before his birth and gave Tunnel Hill its name, and he and his wife were long-time and influential members of the community’s church.
Founded in 1807, with the burial of the infant son of James Madison Keeton and Arlena Carson, the Keeton Cemetery is nearly forgotten today. No one has been buried there since John Harrison Keeton died 60 years ago. Located on private land, there’s no longer a road leading to the cemetery. And while it isn’t overgrown — far from it, in fact — the cemetery isn’t regularly maintained, either.
The earliest Keetons
The Keeton roots around the headwaters of Paint Rock Creek can be traced back to the early 19th century, when Harrison Keeton arrived on the scene. The earliest members of the family had apparently settled for a short period of time in Kentucky, then wound up further south in what was then Campbell County, Tenn. and would become Scott County in 1849.
Harrison Keeton, born in 1818, first married Elizabeth J. Reed and later married Elizabeth J. Rosser. He had as many as a dozen children, several of whom fought in the Civil War. He settled on Phillips Creek in Helenwood, not far from New River.
One of Keeton’s sons, a deputy sheriff named Scott Keeton, was murdered by the brother of a man he had earlier killed. A daughter, Susan Keeton Newport, left Scott County to live with her husband in Oklahoma and later moved to New Mexico.
For the most part, however, Harrison Keeton’s children remained in the Oneida and Helenwood areas, and established their own families there.
One of those children, Baty Keeton, became the first of the Keeton lineage to be buried at the Keeton Cemetery at Tunnel Hill. Born in 1846, he married Emily Jane Carson, who belonged to a prominent family in the Tunnel Hill area. They made their home in the community between Oneida and Paint Rock. He died in 1830, and she died in 1841.
The Keeton Cemetery
It was Baty Keeton’s grandson — baby Hirstal Keeton — who was the first person buried at Keeton Cemetery in May 1907. His father, James Madison Keeton, married Arlena West in May 1905. It was two years later that their newborn baby died and was buried in the ridgetop plot that would become Keeton Cemetery.
For nearly a decade, little Hirstal’s grave was the only one on the ridgetop. But in December 1914, just a week before Christmas, another of Baty Keeton’s sons lost a child. Madell Keeton, the one-year-old daughter of George Harrison Keeton and Ida Phipps, died and was buried alongside her cousin.
Eight months later, in August 1915, James Keeton — Hirstal’s father — died of a gunshot wound to the stomach and was buried alongside his baby boy.
After that, burials began to occur at the family cemetery more frequently. In February 1920, another of Baty Keeton’s grandchildren was buried there. Oscar Keeton, the 14-year-old son of John Harrison Keeton and Dicie Terry, died. Interestingly, while he was only 14, the 1920 census reported that Oscar Keeton worked in the coal mines that had become prominent in the Tunnel Hill and Paint Rock areas.
Later that same year, Monnie Pike — the 18-year-old daughter of John Clarville Pike and Mary Ann Keeon, another of Baty Keeton’s grandchildren — died and was buried at the cemetery.
In 1925, George Harrison Keeton — who went by Harris — died at the age of 34 and was buried at the cemetery.
One-year-old Ozro Marcum, the son of John Harrison Keeton’s daughter, Anna Belle, and her husband, James Marcum, was the next person to be buried at the cemetery when he died in August 1929.
Seven months later, Baty Keeton was buried at the cemetery when he died of heart failure.
One-year-old Lorine Thompson, one of Baty Keeton’s great-granddaughters, was buried at the cemetery in October 1930. Five years later, an infant named Martha West was buried there.
In 1940, Arnold Keeton, the 17-year-old son of Harris Keeton and Ida Phipps, was buried in the cemetery. Later that same year, Luther Keeton, the 32-year-old son of Henry and Mae Keeton, was buried there.
Baty Keeton’s widow, Emily Jane Carson, died on Aug. 9, 1941 and was buried at the cemetery. Seven years later, PFC Ronald L. Keeton died while in service at Fort Benning, Ga. and was buried there. He was another of the children of Harris Keeton and Ida Phipps.
On Valentines Day in 1949, Ovie Keeton — the son of John Harrison Keeton and Dicie Keeton, and a veteran of World War II — died and was buried at the cemetery.
Ovie Keeton’s mother, Dicie, died two years later and was buried at the cemetery. Her husband, John Harrison, died 11 years after that and became the last person to be buried on the ridgetop. In between, Guy Virgil Hammock — the 19-year-old grandson of Harris Keeeton and Ida Phipps — died in a motorcycle accident and was buried there.
The Keeton Cemetery is located at 36.466937, -84.504008.
KEETON CEMETERY
36.452935, -84.615654
First burial: 1907
Last burial: 1962
Burials since Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? No.
Guy V. Hammock 1932-1951
Arnold Keeton 1922-1940
Baty Keeton 1846-1930
Dicie Terry Keeton 1878-1951
Emily Carson Keeton 1848-1941
George H. Keeton 1891-1925
Hirstal Keeton 1907-1907
James M. Keeton 1885-1915
John H. Keeton 1880-1962
Luther Keeton 1908-1940
Madell Keeton 1913-1914
Oscar Keeton 1905-1920
Ovie Keeton 1919-1949
Ronald L. Keeton 1927-1948
Ozro Marcum 1927-1929
Monnie L. Pike 1902-1920
Lorine Thompson 1929-1930
Martha N. West 1935-1935