Sacred Ground: Mossop Cemetery
Many of the early movers and shakers in the Town of Huntsville are buried at Huntsville Cemetery, which dates back to 1863 and is located on the east side of the old downtown area.
But in the 1950s, the burials at the old town cemetery ceased. Howard E. McDonald Jr. was the last person buried there, in 1956. In fact, until an Eagle Scout project by Elijah West and Boy Scout Troop 333, the cemetery had become completely overgrown and many of the stones lost to the effects of time.
It was about the time Huntsville Cemetery ceased to be used that a new town cemetery, of sorts, began. And that cemetery was located adjacent to what had long been one of the town’s most prominent churches, the First Presbyterian Church of Huntsville.
Mossop Cemetery actually dates back to 1931, and was known as Woodlawn Cemetery through the 1970s. But for more than 30 years, the only people buried there were Scott County School Superintendent Heywood Kingston Pemberton and his wife, Rachel Cordenia Smith.
The Pemberton family
Cordenia Smith Pemberton was the first to be buried at Mossop Cemetery, in 1931. Born in 1873, she was the daughter of Joseph and Sallie Reed Smith. She was a great-granddaughter of Rev. Isaac Smith, the Methodist circuit rider from Virginia who so fell in love with the area that he moved to what is now known as Ponderosa on Oneida’s south side in the early 19th century.
Rachel married Heywood Kingston Pemberton, who was originally from the Wolf Creek area in southern Scott County. His parents were George Washington Pemberton and Mary Jane Davis. The Pemberton family was very prominent throughout the Glenmary area in the mid 19th century.
An interesting story is how Heywood Pemberton, known throughout his professional life as H.K. Pemberton, wound up moving from Wolf Creek to Huntsville. In his words: “Spare the rod and spoil the child was no part of my father’s philosophy. I didn’t mind the hard work on the farm but as I grew older I resented the frequent beatings. On the last occasion that I was threatened with a beating by my father, I got up enough courage to run out of the house and sit down out of his reach on a hill. Angrily, he bid me return, but I stubbornly refused. Temperamentally, he was not a man to be outdone. I could return and take the unmerciful flogging or pack up my belongings and leave. The choice was mine and I chose the latter course.”
Pemberton was 14 at the time, and he had an aunt — Poppy Sexton — who lived in Huntsville. She provided him room and board, in exchange for his help on the farm, and he later enrolled at the Presbyterian Academy.
Heywood was an attorney who served as Scott County Register of Deeds and also the county attorney. But he began his career as a school teacher, teaching at a one-room school in Oneida, and was appointed Scott County Superintendent of Schools from 1893 to 1895.
Heywood and Rachel had seven children: Olson, Oscar, George Joseph, DeFoe, Walter Haywood, Elma and Althea. There was also a daughter who died in infancy and is buried at the Helenwood Cut Cemetery.
Two of the Pemberton children wound up becoming dentists: Oscar, born in 1901 and George Joseph, or Joe, born in 1903. But all of them were well educated. Olson, the oldest, attended the University of Tennessee. Both Oscar and Joe attended the University of Louisville. DeFoe attended Maryville College. Elma attended Duke University, and Althea attended East Tennessee State University.
Several of the Pemberton children wound up teachers, like their father. Oscar wound up teaching in Georgia, Elma in North Carolina, and Althea in Knoxville. DeFoe taught at Huntsville High School, where he was also the principal. He was also a practicing attorney and served as an assistant district attorney.
Oscar practiced dentistry in Oneida, while Joe moved to Sparta to open a dental practice.
Finally, Walter Haywood was a surveyor and a rural mail carrier in Scott County. He also served on the Huntsville city council. (His niece, Angela Morrow, later served on city council as well, and her husband, Jim Morrow, is currently on the board. Walter moved to Kingston late in life.
Following his tenure as school superintendent, Heywood Pemberton served as Scott County Trustee from 1898 to 1906. He also served on the boards of education in both Scott County and Huntsville.
A few years after Cordenia’s death, Heywood remarried to Sarah “Sadie” Adkins, a granddaughter of the Rev. Sterling Adkins, who founded Baptist churches on Smokey Creek and Jellico Creek, and a great-granddaughter of Mikel Low, believed to be the first settler in what is now Scott County. She had originally been married to Ewell Boshears, who died in 1930. She is buried at Buttram Cemetery, along with her first husband.
The only one of Heywood and Cordelia’s children who are buried at Mossop Cemetery is Althea, who died in 2006. In addition to teaching in Knoxville, she also taught in Scott County.
The cemetery grows
For 31 years, Cordenia Pemberton’s grave was the only one at what is now known as Mossop Cemetery. Heywood was buried there in 1954, and then it was another 12 years before the next burial: Gary Hembree.
The Hembree family has long been a familiar name in Huntsville, and Gary — known by his family as “Bimbo” — was the 12-year-old son of J.R. Hembree and Anna Ruth Jeffers.
J.R. Hembree was the first manager of the Huntsville Utility District, and a businessowner in Huntsville. He was buried at Mossop Cemetery in 2021. His parents were Rufus Hembree and Alma Griffith. Anna Ruth was the daughter of Milford Jeffers and Pina Marie King. She was buried at the cemetery in 2012. J.R.’s mother and Anna Ruth’s parents were all buried at the cemetery, as well.
Bimbo died at Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati in Ohio following an illness. His obituary stated that he was being buried at Punkin Hollow Cemetery, which is more commonly known today as Peaceful Rose Garden. However, his stone is at Mossop Cemetery.
The Baker family
The fourth person buried at Mossop Cemetery — and the only person buried there besides Heywood and Cordenia Pemberton who was born prior to 1900 — was Viola Toomey Baker, who died in April 1968 at age 70.
Viola was the daughter of John Samuel Toomey and Elizabeth “Bettie” Phillips, who are buried at nearby Potter Cemetery. John Toomey made his fortune in the logwoods before being elected to the state senate and helping to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was the son of John Toomey and Margaret Linehan, who were native to Ireland. Bettie Phillips was a granddaughter of Jehu Phillips, one of Scott County’s early elected officials.
Viola married James Washington “Jamie” Baker in 1924, the brother of Congressman Howard Henry Baker Sr. He served as manager of Plateau Electric Cooperative. He remarried to Adrienne Terry following Viola’s death, and they’re both buried at Litton Cemetery in Oneida.
Jamie and Viola Baker had two children: daughter Betty and son James Toomey.
James Toomey Baker, who was also buried at Mossop Cemetery in 1994, married Irene B. Sobodoski. He managed Huntsville Utility District, which he helped organize, and she organized the Scott County Historical Society, which was chartered in 1984. Irene, the daughter of Polish immigrants to America who was originally from Michigan, was also buried at Mossop Cemetery in 2009. She has a sister, Bertha Sobodoski Lindsay, who was buried at Mossop Cemetery in 1996. Bertha’s husband, Robert, was buried there in 1994.
The Baker family was originally from the Demory area of Campbell County, near Norris Lake east of LaFollette. Jamie Baker’s grandparents, George Washington Baker and Jennie Irwin, are buried at Bakers Forge Memorial Cemetery there, as are several of his uncles and aunts.
James Francis Baker moved to Huntsville and was a prominent attorney who served as circuit court judge. He established the Baker law firm in 1888. He married Helen Blanche Keen, the daughter of Alderson Thompson Keen and Sallie Curd. It was Alderson Keen who, during the Civil War, convinced Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside to march his 10,000-man-strong army through Scott County en route to seize Knoxville from the Confederacy.
The Bakers had a daughter, Helen, who died in 1904 and was buried in Somerset. They also had three sons: Jamie, Howard Henry and William Doisy.
Howard Baker married Dora Ann Ladd in 1925 and, like his father, became a prominent Scott County attorney. He was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1929, to the Scott County Board of Education in 1931, and was elected district attorney general in 1934.
That same year, 1934, Dora Ladd Baker died and was buried in Knoxville. Baker remarried to Irene Bailey, who was active in Republican politics. She had served as deputy court clerk in her native Sevier County before becoming a Republican National Committeewoman in 1960.
Howard Baker, meanwhile, was elected to Congress in 1951, and served for 13 years until his death of a heart attack in 1964, at age 61. Following his death, Irene served out the remainder of his term in Congress.
Howard and Dora’s son, Howard Henry Baker Jr., was born in 1925. He followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps by going to law school, and began practicing law in 1949.
The younger Baker was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first Republican from Tennessee to serve in the Senate since Reconstruction. He played a key role in the Watergate hearings, famously asking of President Richard Nixon, “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”
Baker was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1980, and later served as President Ronald Reagan’s White House chief of staff. Still later, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan under President George W. Bush in the early 2000s.
Baker married Danice Joy Dirksen, the daughter of Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen. When she died in 1993 and was buried at Mossop Cemetery, her funeral attracted a crown of dignitaries to Huntsville. Dignitaries were once again on hand for the funeral of Baker in 2014, as he, too, was buried at Mossop Cemetery. In the meantime, he remarried to Kansas Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, who lived in Huntsville until her husband’s death.
The Stansberry family
Another family of Huntsville attorneys, besides the Bakers, are the Stansberrys.
The Stansberry family was originally from Knoxville. Several generations of the family lived there, beginning with Luke Stansberry, who moved to Tennessee from Maryland in the early 1800s. Several generations of the family are buried at New Hopewell Baptist Church in the Kimberlin Heights area south of town, towards Seymour.
Don Carlos Stansberry Sr. was Luke Stansberry’s second-great-grandson. Born in 1906, he died in Knoxville in 1978. His obituary noted that he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in south Knoxville — where his parents, Archelaus and Julia Galyon Stansberry, are also buried. However, he has a stone in the Mossop Cemetery, which is where his wife, Jean McDowell, was buried in 1999.
Don and Jean were married in 1935. Originally from Pennsylvania, she was a public school teacher for many years. She taught in Pennsylsvania and in Knoxville, retiring from Bearden Elementary School in 1968.
The Stansberrys had three children, including Don C. Stansberry Jr., who began practicing law with Baker in Huntsville.
After being established by James F. Baker in 1888, the Baker law firm eventually became known as Baker, Worthington, Crossley & Stansberry. Today, it’s known as Baker Donelson after a number of mergers.
Don Stansberry Jr. married Priscilla Ann Dorris of Knoxville in 1961. Priscilla won the title of Miss Knoxville in 1958, and was active in the Scott County Fairest of the Fair pageants after she and her husband moved to Huntsville.
Pris, as she was known, was buried at Mossop Cemetery in 2016. Her parents, James Russell Dorris and Zelma Tanner, were also buried there, in 1984 and 2001, respectively.
Don and Pris had two children, Don C. Stansberry III and Debbie Faires. Like his father, Don Stansberry III is a practicing attorney in Huntsville.
The Beaty family
Another of the burials at Mossop Cemetery was also an attorney: Robert Thomas Beaty.
Originally from Jamestown, Beaty practiced law in both Fentress and Scott counties. He was an assistant district attorney general and was elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 1979, representing Scott, Pickett, Clay, Jackson and Smith counties in the House of Representatives. He served as Scott County Attorney before it was an elected position, was the Town of Oneida’s attorney during the development of Oneida City Park, and was appointed by Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander to the Tennessee Juvenile Justice Commission.
The Beaty family has deep roots in Fentress County. Robert Beaty’s parents were Houston Beaty and Kathleen Smith. His grandfather, Dillard O. Beaty, was an elected official in Fentress County and, like Robert, served in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Perhaps the most famous of the Fentress County Beatys was Tinker Dave Beaty, who established the Union-aligned Independent Scouts during the Civil War. He was a distant cousin to Robert Beaty; their common ancestor was Billy Beaty (Dave Beaty’s grandfather; Robert Beaty’s fifth-great-grandfather).
Robert Beaty married Annette Frazier and they had four children: daughters Ann, Karen and Susan, and son John.
Like his father, John Beaty is an attorney in Huntsville. Also like his father, John Beaty serves as Scott County Attorney.
The Chambers family
In 1994, George Milford “Spot” Chambers was buried at Mossop Cemetery. He served as both mayor of Huntsville and on Scott County Commission.
The son of George Washington Chambers and Mary Elizabeth Thompson, Spot was the second-great-grandson of Revolutionary War veteran William Chambers, who is buried at the Chambers Cemetery in the Buffalo community.
Spot married Shirley Cotton and they had three children: Sue, Dewayne and Jean. His grandson, Donnie Phillips, has served as Scott County Circuit Court Clerk since 2006. Donnie’s twin brother, Ronnie, served three terms as Scott County Sheriff.
Spot was buried at Mossop Cemetery in 1994. His son, Dewayne, was murdered last year and was also buried at the cemetery.
The Sharp family
One of Huntsville’s most prominent families today is the Sharp family of educators.
Joshua Jonathan “Josh” Sharp was a schoolteacher in the county school system, and part of the Sharp family that had lived in Huntsville for several generations. His grandfather was William “Uncle Billy” Sharp, who was a prominent Huntsville merchant and is buried at the Huntsville Cemetery.
Josh Sharp married Erie West, and they were members of the Presbyterian Church. They had 11 children: Martha Joyce Loy, Nancy Sharp Johnson, William “Jake” Sharp, Wilma Sharp Chitwood, Judith Sharp Purcell, Helen Sharp Smith, Roger, James Douglas, Jean Sharp Riggins, Joseph, and Elizabeth Sharp West.
While Josh and Erie were buried at Carson Memorial Park, several of their children are buried at Mossop Cemetery.
First to be buried there was Jean Sharp Riggins in 2000. She retired as a teacher in Louisiana, and owned a shop in Huntsville called Jean’s Antiques & Collectables. She married Wes Riggins, a Huntsville alderman, who was also buried at the cemetery in 2010.
Joseph Alfred Sharp, known as “Joe Al,” was buried at the cemetery in 2008. He was a career military man, serving 23 years in the U.S. Air Force. He married Elean Adkins, who was buried at Fairview Cemetery in 2006.
Jake Sharp was also buried at the cemetery in 2008. A veteran of the Korean War, he was a career educator who worked with adult education and the GED program in Scott County. He was an alderman in Huntsville and also served on the Scott County Board of Education. He married Marie Barcolona, who was buried at Mossop Cemetery in 2006. Their son, William Jay Sharp, was buried at the cemetery in 2017.
Wilma Mae Sharp Chitwood was also buried at the cemetery in 2008. She was a standout basketball player in high school and earned a basketball scholarship at Nashville Business College. Like her father and so many of her siblings, she was a career educator, teaching with both the Oneida Special School District and the Scott County School System. She concluded her career as guidance counselor at Scott High School. She married Charles “Spivey” Chitwood, who was buried at the cemetery when he died just a few weeks later. He, too, was a career educator, having taught for 32 years in Oneida.
Martha Sharp Loy was buried at the cemetery in 2012. She first taught at a one-room school at Bull Creek, and later taught at Cherry Fork, Tunnel Hill, Pine Hill, Oneida and Huntsville Elementary.
Judith Sharp Purcell was buried at Mossop Cemetery in 2017. She taught first in Kentucky and then in Maryland for 30 years. She and her husband, Joseph Purcell, returned to Huntsville after their retirement in the early 1990s. He, too, was an educator in Maryland. He was buried at Mossop Cemetery in 1993.
Elizabeth Sharp West, who died in 1999, was buried at Carson Memorial Park, where her parents were buried. She married Charles Vernon West Sr. and they were the parents of a family of educators — including Chuck West, who was a teacher and basketball coach in West Tennessee, and daughters Beth Armstrong and Melanie Duncan. Another of their sons, Dr. Tim West, is a chiropractor in Oneida.
Like Elizabeth, Doug Sharp was buried at Carson Memorial Park when he died in 2014. He was a longtime educator and coach, working in the county school system for 42 years. He coached many sports, but is best remembered as the winningest girls basketball coach in Scott High’s history, with 176 wins. His teams won five district championships in the 1990s. His daughter, Delenia, was one of the all-time leading scorers for the Lady Highlanders. His wife, Linda Jeffers, was also an educator, and until recently served on the Scott County Board of Education. His son, Jackson, was the longest-tenured girls basketball coach at Scott High, serving in that role until 2020.
Helen Sharp Smith was also buried at Carson Memorial Park when she died in 2021. Like most of the rest of the family, she was an educator, teaching in Scott, Morgan and Roane counties.
The last of the surviving Sharp children is Roger Sharp, who lives in Oak Ridge. His wife, Shirley Fay Sexton, was buried at Mossop Cemetery in 2021. He also has a son, Roger Sharp Jr., who was buried at the cemetery in 1987.
Other notables
This isn’t an exhaustive list, by any means, but some of the other notable burials at Mossop Cemetery include:
• Bill York, who died in 1999. He was a veteran of World War II, and was among the prisoners of war forced to march in the “Bataan Death March.” He later served four terms as Scott County Trustee and was Huntsville postmaster for 25 years. His father, William York, served on the Scott County Election Commission and the Huntsville School Board. Bill’s wife, Wilda Sexton, was also buried at Mossop Cemetery in 2017. She was the daughter of Scott County Circuit Court Clerk Manford Sexton.
• James E. Coffey, who died in 2000. He was a builder and businessowner in Huntsville. He owned Master’s Touch Plaza with his wife, Phyllis, and established The Mighty Warrior Ministries. His son, Trent, is executive director of S.T.A.N.D. His daughter, Misty, married John Beaty, son of Robert Beaty.
• Frankie Strunk Blakley, who also died in 2000. She was a lifelong educator, who retired as principal of Huntsville Middle School. She served as an alderman in Huntsville, and was a constitutional delegate in Tennessee. Her husband was retired TCAT Oneida/Huntsville President Arvis Blakley. They had three sons, including educator John Blakley, attorney Mark Blakley, and Joe Blakley.
• Dr. Frank Thomas, who died in 2008. He was a president of the Stearns Coal & Lumber Co., and also served as a dentist in Stearns. His father was Dr. Mitchell Thomas. His wife, Mary Veach, was also buried at Mossop Cemetery in 1997.
• Larry Crowley, who died in 2013. He was mayor of Huntsville, and also served as an alderman and fire chief. He was appointed manager of Huntsville Utility District in 1994 and was instrumental in the construction of the Flat Creek Reservoir in Huntsville. He and his wife, Sharra, also have a daughter, Lisa, who was buried at the cemetery in 2024.
• Bert Walker, who died in 2013. He worked for the family-owned Texaco business and was an agent for the Brimstone Company for most of his life. His parents were Daniel Boone Walker and Mary Helen Doisy. His maternal grandparents were Adelbert Henry Doisy and Lina Bell West Doisy, who built the historic Doisy House in the early 1900s. His great-grandparents on his father’s side were Daniel Walker and Almira Goad.
• Ernest “Ernie” Petroff III, who died in 2015. He’s one of the several attorneys buried at Mossop Cemetery. He practiced law with Don C. Stansberry Jr. and became a partner in the Baker law firm in 1972. Later, he and Stansberry founded the firm of Stansberry, Petroff, Marcum & Blakley.
• Cecil “Paul” Roy, who died in 2015. He was the founder and long-time editor and publisher of the Independent Herald newspaper. He started the newspaper in 1976, and was its publisher until his death. He won numerous awards for his work in the newspaper industry throughout his career, culminating with the newspaper winning the “General Excellence” award from the Tennessee Press Association and University of Tennessee as the state’s best newspaper in its circulation class shortly before his death.
• Jack N. Diggs, who died in 2016. He was a longtime football coach who began his career at Jefferson City High School and later coached at Sevier County, Lake City, Huntsville and Scott High, among other stops. He came to Huntsville from Georgia, and led the Bears to their first undefeated season in 1966. The football field at Huntsville Middle School is named in his honor. His wife, Wilma Banks, was also buried at Mossop Cemetery in 2007.
• Gail Duerkes Jones, who died in 2017. She was the mother-in-law of Oneida Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones. Financial advisor Phillip Jones is one of her five children. Her husband, Grady G. Jones, was buried at the cemetery in 2020.
Cemetery Census
MOSSOP CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.40873, -84.49279
First Burial: 1931
Last Burial: 2024
Joy Dirksen Baker, 1929-1993
Howard H. Baker Jr., 1925-2014
Irene Sobodoski Baker, 1924-2009
James T. Baker, 1927-1994
Viola Toomey Baker, 1898-1968
Robert T. Beaty, 1938-2007
Arthur E. Becker, 1930-2006
Elizabeth Monteith Becker, 1930-2006
Frankie Strunk Blakley, 1937-2000
Charles J. Boonstra, 1918-2011
Daniel R. Byrge, 1933-2009
Diane Dietz Byrge, 1947-2011
George M. Chambers, 1915-1994
Milford D. Chambers, 1961-2024
Charles C. Chitwood, 1934-2008
Wilma Sharp Chitwood, 1936-2008
James E. Coffey, 1946-2000
Phyllis Chambers Coffey, 1945-2025
Larry W. Crowley, 1948-2013
Lisa D. Crowley, 1980-2024
Jack N. Diggs, 1924-2016
Wilma Banks Diggs, 1926-2007
James R. Dorris, 1907-1984
Zelma Tanner Dorris, 1909-2001
Henry J. Durant, 1945-2020
Eric E. Ericson, 1930-1993
Holly Nelson Ericson, 1939-2013
Larry B. Fox, 1967-2016
Beulah Cox Gazay, 1922-2007
Louis E. Gazay, 1921-1981
Michael C. Gazay, 1970-2021
Michael E. Gazay, 1948-1991
Albert J. George, 1907-1991
Mazie Chambers George, 1907-1994
Eliza Howard Gray, 1945-1998
James W. Gray, 1940-2012
Alma Griffith Hembree, 1908-1988
Anna Jeffers Hembree, 1934-2012
Gary R. Hembree, 1953-1966
Gerald D. Hembree, 1944-2023
J.R. Hembree, 1932-2021
Milford L. Jeffers, 1910-1974
Pina King Jeffers, 1917-2004
Gail Duerkes Jones, 1950-2017
Grady G. Jones, 1942-2020
Michael S. Jones, 1982-2019
Bertha Sobodoski Lindsay, 1923-1996
Robert Lindsay, 1922-1994
Martha Sharp Loy, 1928-2012
Mary Scates Martin, 1947-2003
William D. McDonald, 1974-1998
Billy R. Meyers, 1977-2016
Billy R. Myers Jr., 1977-2016
Althea Pemberton, 1913-2006
Heywood K. Pemberton, 1870-1954
Rachel Smith Pemberton, 1873-1931
Ernest A. Petroff III, 1945-2015
Charles E. Price, 1929-2016
Elma Pemberton Price, 1930-2018
Joseph R. Purcell, 1938-1993
Judith Sharp Purcell, 1939-2017
Karen Tibbals Reed, 1958-2012
Jean Sharp Riggins, 1923-2000
John W. Riggins, 1927-2010
Cecil P. Roy, 1948-2015
John F. Scates Sr., 1922-2003
Marjorie Stonecipher Scates, 1930-1998
Patricia Welch Seale, 1946-2021
Clara Rector Sexton, 1933-2024
James C. Sexton, 1932-2015
Neil Sexton, 1927-2006
Wanda West Sexton, 1926-1995
Joseph A. Sharp, 1927-2008
Marie Barcolona Sharp, 1939-2006
Roger A. Sharp Jr., 1967-1987
Shriley Sexton Sharp, 1944-2021
William J. Sharp, 1935-2008
William J. Sharp, 1968-2017
Don C. Stansberry Sr., 1906-1978
Jean McDowell Stansberry, 1903-1999
Elizabeth Williams Tate, 1928-2011
Paris Sutton Tate III, 1956-2015
Paris S. Tate Jr., 1924-2005
Frank C. Thomas, 1921-2008
Mary Veach Thomas, 1921-1997
Daniel A. Walker, 1940-2013
Dorothy Bell West, 1906-1992
James L. West, 1903-1985
Mary Hembree West, 1940-2022
Wilda Sexton York, 1926-2017
William E. York, 1916-1999
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.