Sacred Ground: Morris Goodman Cemetery
At the base of Pine Hill, just off Paint Rock Road in East Oneida’s Pentecost neighborhood, is the Morris Goodman Cemetery.
Now known by the name of the man who owned it from the 1950s until his death in the 1990s, the cemetery was previously known as the Isaac Reed Cemetery. Reed owned the property the burial ground is located on for many years prior to his death in the 1950s, at which point Goodman bought it.
At the time of Reed’s death, the cemetery was known as the Reed Family Cemetery, although there are only a few members of the Reed family buried there.
The Duncan family
The Morris Goodman Cemetery dates back to 1906, with the death of 30-year-old Malinda West Duncan.
Malinda, born 1875, was the daughter of Pleasant West (1837-1922) and Emily Cross. Her father remarried to Martha Acres late in life.
Malinda, or Linda as she was often known, married Oliver Duncan in 1895. They had two children together: Claborn Duncan (1897-1968) and Edward Duncan (1901-1967). Edward Duncan was an ordained Baptist minister and a lifelong resident of the Pine Hill community.
Oliver Duncan was the son of Champ Duncan (1840-1896) and Emily Duncan (1828-1926). He was buried alongside his wife at Morris Goodman Cemetery when he died in 1946 at the age of 80.
The Duncan family was originally from the Pleasant Grove area in Winfield and would later spread into the Buffalo Creek area on the opposite side of the mountain from Morris Goodman Cemetery. Oliver Duncan had an uncle, also named Oliver Duncan, who was with Ransom Vanover and Larken Cross when they were hanged by Confederate guerrillas at Smith Creek during the Civil War. Duncan was able to escape by hiding in a rail pile.
The Goodman family
The second person buried at Morris Goodman Cemetery was Harold Goodman, a newborn who died in March 1920.
In April 1940, Morris Goodman and his wife, Eula Gertrude Harding, laid their 7-month-old daughter, Gereda Goodman, to rest in the cemetery. Harold Goodman may have been Morris Goodman’s brother. His parents, John Morris and Rosa Duncan Goodman purchased a home across the street from the cemetery in the 1910s.
Rebecca Goodman, a granddaughter of Morris Goodman, told Tim West that her grandfather purchased the cemetery following Isaac Reed’s death in 1956 because he “simply wanted a place for his family to rest together.” The full story can be found on West’s transcription of the Morris Goodman Cemetery at scott-county-tn.com.
By that time, in 1956, Morris Goodman had already buried two of his daughters at the cemetery. In addition to baby Gereda, 20-year-old Jo Ann Sexton was buried there in 1955 when she died of rheumatic fever. She had married Roel Sexton, who was buried at the cemetery in 2016.
John Goodman was originally from Straight Fork in eastern Scott County before moving to Oneida in the 1910s. Morris Goodman was a young boy when the family moved to Pentecost. He lived there or the remainder of his life, and was a member of Pentecost Baptist Church.
Morris Goodman’s oldest son, Kenneth Goodman, died in 1972 at the age of 44. He was a World War II veteran. He was buried at the family cemetery.
Morris Goodman’s wife, Eula, died in 1989 and was buried at the cemetery. At the time, she and her husband had 25 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren.
In more recent times, four more of Morris Goodman’s children have been buried at the cemetery: son Earl in 1998, daughter Kay Hicks in 2008, daughter Betty Hutson in 2014, and son Larry Goodman in 2022. Another son, Paul David Goodman, died in 2001 and was not buried at the cemetery. Rather, he was cremated.
Other members of the Goodman family buried at the cemetery at Pentecost include an infant grandson of Morris Goodman, Darrel Goodman, who died in 1971; and Earl Goodman’s wife, Carrie Whitmore, who died in 1982.
Also buried at the cemetery are Willard “Bill” Goodman, who died in 1986; his son, Stanley Eric, who died in 2000; and his first wife, Edna Goodman, who died on Nov. 15, 2023.
Many more members of the Goodman family, including Morris Goodman’s parents and siblings, are buried at the Peaceful Rose Garden Cemetery at Paint Rock.
The Pennington family
The Pennington family was also prominent in the Pentecost community. George Pennington was buried at the cemetery when he died in 1936. His wife, Erie Smith, would later be buried there in 1957. Their daughter, Flora Hall, was buried there in 1966, and her husband, Cecil, was buried there in 1975.
George and Erie’s son, Dewey Pennington, was buried at the cemetery in 1988, as was his wife, Hazel Hall, when she died in 1994, and their son, Noyle Ray, when he died in 1988.
Dewey and Hazel Pennington were the parents of Oneida Mayor Denzil Pennington. He was one of the longest-serving mayors in Oneida’s history, first elected in 1981 and serving until 1994.
One year after George Pennington died, Francis Marion Pennington died on Jan. 28, 1937, and was buried at Morris Goodman Cemetery. His wife, Nora Marlow, died two years later and was buried there.
Francis Pennington’s sister, Nancy Pennington Chambers, was buried at the cemetery in 1941 (and her husband, William Chambers, in 1953). Their brother, John Pennington, was buried there in 1942. Lacy Pennington was buried there in 1951.
William Harrison Pennington — Francis Pennington’s son — was buried there in 1962. He also has a daughter, Anna Mae West, who was buried there in 1983, along with her husband, Jerry West, in 1994.
The Reed family
The first member of the Reed family to be buried at the cemetery was Ona Reed, who died on July 23, 1932 at the age of 18.
Ona Reed was the daughter of Isaac R.S. and Sally Phillips Reed. Her family was from the Hazel Valley farm west of Oneida; Campbell County Reed was her great-grandfather. It was he who founded the Hazel Valley farm and was the first person buried at Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery in 1886.
Isaac Reed — who was named after his own great-grandfather, Isaac Reed of New River — moved cross “town,” such as it was in the early 1900s, and purchased the land that would include the Morris Goodman Cemetery. He married Sally Phillips, the daughter of Charles and Sarah Foster Phillips of the Cherry Fork community. After settling down in the Pentecost community, Isaac and Sally Reed joined the newly-formed Tunnel Hill Baptist Church.
Ona was the sixth of seven children of Isaac and Sally Reed. She had an older brother, Girstle, who died in 1910 and was buried at Hazel Valley. While Ona wasn’t the first person buried at the cemetery at Pentecost, it came to be known as the Reed Cemetery. In fact, her death certificate in 1932 identified the cemetery as Reed Cemetery.
In 1944, one of Isaac and Sally Reed’s grandchildren, two-year-old David Reed, died and was buried at the cemetery. By that point, it was being identified in official documents as the Isaac Reed Cemetery.
Isaac Reed died in 1956 and his wife died in 1957. Both were buried at the cemetery. Following his death, the land containing the cemetery was sold to Morris Goodman, and the cemetery gradually began to be called the Goodman Cemetery.
The only other member of the Reed family who would be buried at the cemetery was David Tate’s father, Hernald Howard Reed, who died in 1994 at the age of 75.
Cemetery census
MORRIS GOODMAN CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.49509, -84.50402
First Burial: 1906
Last Burial: 2023
Audrey Yancey Abbott, 193-1975
Junior B. Abbott, 1928-1982
Stevie L. Abbott, 1955-1975
Ancil R. Ball, 1954-1972
William P. Breeding, 1933-1994
Maudie Massey Burnett, 1890-1969
Delphia Chambers Buttram, 1901-1980
Edgar L. Buttram, 1919-2005
Marion Buttram, 1898-1975
Ruth Keeton Buttram, 1924-2024
Ida Roysdon Byrd, 1940-2017
Thomas B. Byrd, 1930-1983
Abraham H. Chambers, 1859-1940
Alta Harding Chambers, 1898-1971
Arlet Chambers, 1894-1973
Bonnie Boyatt Chambers, 1920-2001
James M. Chambers, 1944-2023
Nancy Pennington Chambers, 1867-1941
Susie Chambers, 1862-1940
Virgil L. Chambers, 1910-1983
William R. Chambers, 1871-1953
Dorothy Nelson Cowan, 1919-1984
Walter B. Cowan, 1913-1977
Tennee Cox, 1966-1966
Charles S. Craig, 1914-1985
Helen Honeycutt Craig, 1921-2004
Malinda West Duncan, 1875-1906
Oliver Duncan, 1865-1946
Ardelia Cross Ellis, 1881-1973
Audna Phillips Ellis, 1920-2001
Cathy A. Ellis, 1954-1954
Elda F. Ellis, 1951-1951
John F. Ellis, 1880-1966
Melbert Bellis, 1910-1974
Philip M. Ellis, 1950-1950
Lillian Shepherd Emory, 1944-2017
Robert L. Erp, 1871-1946
Carrie Whitmore Goodman, 1943-1982
Darrel W. Goodman, 1971-1971
Edna Hall Goodman, 1948-2023
Eula Harding Goodman, 1910-1989
Genneda Hicks Goodman, 1939-2008
Gereda F. Goodman, 1939-1940
Harold Goodman, 1920-1920
J. Larry Goodman, 1950-2022
Kenneth J. Goodman, 1928-1972
M. Earl Goodman, 1930-1998
Morris Goodman, 1909-1997
Stanley E. Goodman, 1963-2000
Willard Goodman, 1929-1986
Cecil Hall, 1918-1975
Flora Pennington Hall, 1917-1966
John T. Hall, 1925-1980
Omer G. Hall Sr., 1945-1981
Omer H. Hall, 1884-1955
Sallie Hall, 1888-1967
Toledo Sexton Hall, 1925-1998
Verda B. Hall, 1927-2009
Johnny Hammock, 1948-2004
Martha West Hammock, 1924-1998
Harrison M. Harding, 1868-1953
Sarah Smith Harding, 1880-1951
Genneda Goodman Hicks, 1939-2008
Janis Newport Hicks, 1947-1989
Vaughn Hicks, 1937-2015
Debra Bridges Honeycutt, 1955-2022
Ernest R. Honeycutt, 1956-2020
Onvie Honeycutt, 1950-2003
Vergie M. Honeycutt, 1948-2023
Virgil Honeycutt, 1921-1977
Zory Smith Honeycutt, 1930-2003
Alma F. Hughett, N/A-N/A
Bob P. Hughett, 1876-1949
Carl W. Hughett Sr., 1903-1969
Helen Reagan Hughett, 1941-1984
Ida Pemberton Hughett, 1878-1944
Robert E. Hughett Jr., 1965-1997
William A. Hughett, 1867-1930
Ada Jeffers, 1921-1924
Albert Jeffers, 1912-1972
Allman Jeffers, 1919-1983
David Jeffers, N/A-N/A
Flora Duncan Jeffers, 1905-1992
James J. Jeffers, 1906-1982
Lawrence Jeffers, 1892-1981
Lula Litton Jeffers, 1928-1991
Mary Chambers Jeffers, 1897-1953
Michael C. Jeffers, 1986-1987
Sarah Stanley Jeffers, 1887-1964
Willis Jeffers, 1943-1980
Albert Laxton, 1912-1950
Bonnita Layne Laxton, 1920-2012
Elizabeth Foster Laxton, 1879-1968
Hillard Laxton, 1921-2001
James T. Laxton, 1873-1951
Euell C. Lay, 1880-1952
Lindford L. Lay Sr., 1917-1997
Mary Freels Lay, 1882-1958
Sarah Slaven Lay, 1923-1994
Edna Layne, 1898-1986
Eula J. Layne, 1938-2005
Freeman Layne, 1934-1935
Infant Layne, 1936-1936
James H. Layne, 1896-1967
Robert L. Layne Sr., 1940-2012
Thomas Layne, 1922-1964
Arlena Phillips Litton, 1907-1972
Floyd Litton, 1906-1978
Jim Litton, 1892-1967
Lucinda Jeffers Litton, 1900-1994
Alta Honeycutt Marcum, 1923-2005
Deanna Sexton Marcum, 1950-1982
Michael L. Marcum, 1949-2013
Paula J. Marcum, 1966-1970
Destiny R. Morris, 2015-2015
Hester West Newport, 1916-1994
James E. Newport, 1908-1992
Dewey Pennington, 1922-1988
Erie Smith Pennington, 1892-1957
Francis M. Pennington, 1866-1937
George Pennington, 1889-1936
Hazel Hall Pennington, 1920-1994
John Pennington, 1870-1942
Lacy Pennington, 1872-1951
Nora Marlow Pennington, 1896-1939
Noyle R. Pennington, 1961-1988
William H. Pennington, 1900-1962
Tammy J. Phillips, 1971-1971
Ora Jones Pennington, 1904-1988
Pleasant M. Reagan, 1890-1971
David T. Reed, 1941-1944
Hernald H. Reed, 1919-1994
Isaac R. Reed, 1873-1956
Ona Reed, 1914-1932
Sally Phillips Reed, 1876-1957
Les Reynolds, 1939-1991
Loranzo D. Reynolds, 1895-1983
Trilby Jeffers Reynolds, 1904-1991
Roxie Ford Roysdon, 1912-1992
Gwendolyn S. Ryan, 1954-1954
Bradley Sexton, 1937-2015
Curtis Sexton, 1928-2014
Frances Clark Sexton, 1937-2010
Freeda Layne Sexton, 1931-1970
Hezekiah Sexton, 1899-1987
JoAnn Goodman Sexton, 1934-1955
Mildred Stanley Sexton, 1906-1999
Roel Sexton, 1932-2016
Opal Terry Shepherd, 1922-2008
Perry H. Shepherd, 1922-1991
Debra Strunk Slaven, 1950-2019
Harlin L. Slaven, 1946-2004
Lee R. Slaven, 1916-1987
Leonard Stanley, 1876-1965
Parliea Sexton Stanley, 1905-1981
Willard W. Stanley, 1911-1985
Imogene Phillips Strunk, 1929-1989
Roy E. Strunk, 1925-2006
Shirley A. Strunk, 1948-1949
Calvin C. Terry, 1890-1972
Laura Chambers Terry, 1892-1968
Anna Pennington West, 1927-1983
Ben P. West, 1956-1956
Elmer P. West, 1911-1982
Jerry M. West, 1920-1994
Lillie Carson West, 1912-2001
Alma F. Wright, 1975-1975
Vickie F. Wright, 1975-1975
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.