Sacred Ground: New River Cemetery
It’s literally a stone’s throw away from one of the mid-county area’s largest churches, and nearly as close to the main transportation artery through Scott County, U.S. Highway 27. And, yet, if you didn’t know New River Cemetery was there, you’d drive by it a thousand times without noticing it.
Tucked away on a hillside above New River Missionary Baptist Church, along a one-lane gravel road, New River Cemetery is mostly out-of-sight and out-of-mind. That’s unfortunate, because out-of-mind is basically another way of saying uncared for, and the cemetery — once the primary burial ground for one of Scott County’s bustling little lumber towns — suffers from decades of neglect.
That’s not necessarily uncommon, of course, but some cemeteries are surprising in their neglect for various reasons. The Hughett Cemetery at Brimstone because it’s the resting place of the grandmother of a U.S. Congressman; the Huntsville Cemetery before a restoration project was undertaken by Boy Scout Troop 333 because it is literally in the middle of the county seat; and New River Cemetery because it was the burial ground of some very prominent people in the once-bustling New River community.
Not that it’s anyone’s fault, of course. Cemeteries are only kept up if the family members or descendants of those buried there put in the time to do so, or if someone — usually a church or a family — pays for their upkeep. Once they’re inactive, community cemeteries often suffer more than family plots because there’s no one family that feels a sense of ownership to the cemetery. It’s one thing for community cemeteries like Black Creek Crossroads or Hazel Valley to be kept in pristine condition; they’re active burial grounds that are still being expanded on a near-weekly basis. But once a cemetery becomes inactive and a couple of generations pass, it tends to be forgotten … especially if it’s out-of-sight and out-of-mind, as New River Cemetery is.
And the cemetery isn’t nearly as unkempt as it once was. When Tim West transcribed the cemetery in 2006, he found that it was completely overgrown, with many of the headstones invisible in the dense growth. It was in even worse shape before that; as recently as the 1980s, it was being used as a trash dump.
The cemetery has since been cleaned up, the undergrowth trimmed back, and is kept cleared. Yet, many of the stones are broken or crumbling, and others are missing entirely. That makes it a challenge for visitors to locate the graves of their ancestors.
As was the case with Huntsville Cemetery, perhaps a community organization will take a special interest in the New River Cemetery and help restore it to its rightful condition. After all, this cemetery helps tell the story of what was once a thriving community along the river and the railroad.
There were two cemeteries that were primarily used in New River’s heyday as a settlement — the New River Cemetery and the Hurtt Cemetery on the other side of “town” (in addition to the Reed Cemetery at the top of the hill). This is the story of the former.
The cemetery’s beginning
It’s difficult to date New River Cemetery with any certainty. There are many graves that are marked with only simple, uninscribed field stones. Other stones are so weathered that they’re impossible to read — and more are becoming so with the passage of time.
But it is believed that the cemetery may date back as far as 1842, when a young child named Peggy Ann Lawson died.
You won’t find a headstone for little Peggy in the cemetery, and Robert Bailey did not list her in his 1994 cemetery inventory, “Cemeteries of Scott County,” which is available for purchase from the Scott County Historical Society. But Peggy’s father, Thomas Lawson, owned the land where the New River Cemetery is located. He donated that land to New River Missionary Baptist Church for a cemetery.
In the deed, Lawson said that he was donating one acre of land “for the love and affection that I have for the Named Church.” The deed was signed on February 19, 1842.
It is not known exactly when Peggy Lawson died, but the timeline makes sense, as her death would’ve been sometime around 1842.
Thomas Lawson (1803-1891) came to New River from Hawkins County, Tenn. He was the son of Revolutionary War veteran Randolph Lawson, who moved to Scott County — along with two of his brothers who were also Revolutionary War veterans — and settled on Buffalo Creek for a short period of time. Thomas Lawson’s sister was Lakey Lawson Chambers, who married the son of another Revolutionary War veteran, Thomas Chambers, and is buried at the Chambers Cemetery on Buffalo Creek. Another of Thomas Lawson’s sisters is Millie Lawson, who married Joseph Phillips and is buried in the Phillips Cemetery at Bull Creek.
Thomas Lawson married Nancy Jeffers, and they had at least 19 children, including little Peggy.
You won’t find any of Thomas Lawson’s family in Scott County today. At some point after Peggy’s death in 1942, the family moved — first to Missouri, then back to the Cumberland Plateau region to Albany, Ky. It was there, during the Civil War, that Nancy Jeffers Lawson was accidentally shot and killed by chicken thieves. Late in life, Thomas Lawson moved again, to Texas, and most of his children went with him.
The Buttram family
Whether or not Peggy Lawson was the first person buried at New River Cemetery — if she was buried there, she was almost certainly the first — there were likely others buried there before James Cattlett Buttram died in October 1884.
James, “J.C.” as he was called, was a member of one of the most prominent families of the New River area during the late 19th century. And his is the earliest verifiable grave at New River Cemetery.
J.C. Buttram’s story is a tragic one. He was only 26 when he fell sick and died of flux, and he was only days away from his wedding day. He was engaged to be married to a member of the Hale family — another prominent family in the New River area at that time — on September 27, 1884, less than two weeks before he died. According to a death notice that appeared in a Chattanooga newspaper, a home had already been built “and necessities for housekeeping bought” when J.C. died.
J.C. Buttram was the son of John Buttram and Mary Hurtt Buttram. You might remember that the other primary cemetery in New River was the Hurtt Cemetery off Mudd Street. The Hurtt family was another of the prominent families in New River at the time.
John Buttram (1836-1886) was the son of William and Rachel Reed Buttram — pulling another of New River’s prominent early families (the Reeds) into the equation. John Buttram’s uncle, Bailey Buttram, served as Scott County’s second sheriff. J.C. was his oldest son. His second-oldest, William Harrison Buttram, later served as a circuit court judge. Mary Buttram (1834-1896) was the daughter of John Crawford Hurtt and Francis Bruton Hurtt. Her brother, Reuben Hurtt (1850-1924), was elected Scott County Sheriff at the age of 26 and later built a hotel at New River, which was eventually purchased by A.Y. Keen.
J.C. Buttram is buried at the “bottom” of the cemetery, alongside both his parents, John and Mary Buttram.
Other members of the family buried at New River Cemetery include J.C.’s brother, Burl Buttram (1867-1941), and his wife, Nettie Barlow Buttram (1876-1962). Burl worked as a telegraph operator for the Southern Railroad. Also buried there is one of their children, Flora Buttram, who died in 1912 at the age of 16. She was studying at Maryville College in 1912 when she fell ill of typhoid fever and died.
The cemetery grows
Following the death of J.C. Buttram in 1884 and his father, John Buttram, in 1886, the next person to be buried at New River Cemetery was a child named J.A. Cecil. It is believed that this child might be the son or daughter of Beatty Cecil (1849-1931), who served as both a county judge and sheriff, and was also elected to the state legislature. That makes sense. Beatty Cecil lived at New River. He married Polly Buttram (1858-1938), who was another member of the very prominent Buttram family.
In his 1994 cemetery book, Bailey noted that there was another Cecil grave located next to J.A. Cecil’s grave, but the headstone was missing.
That same year, 1988, Mahalia Gibson died at age 76. Little more is known about her.
Arlena Sexton Phillips died in 1891 at age 53 and was buried at New River Cemetery. Nicknamed “Orleany” by her husband, she was married to Levi Phillips, who was also buried at New River Cemetery when he died in 1897 at age 62. He had one of the more elaborate headstones at the cemetery.
The Hale family
Several graves in the upper part of the cemetery belong to members of the Hale family that once lived at New River. This is the same family that J.C. Buttram was set to marry into when he died at the young age of 26 in 1884.
The first of the Hales to be buried there was George Berry “G.B.” Hale Sr., who died in 1892 at age 69. He was married to Martha McPheron Hale (1834-1921), who is buried at the cemetery. Also buried there are two sons, Thomas Hale (1857-1916) and G.B. Hale Jr. (1878-1904), and a son-in-law, William Isaac Pickering (1867-1918).
There are at least three other Hales who are buried at the cemetery, as well. One of the stones is simply inscribed “M.A.H.,” which is likely M.A. Hale. Dates of birth and death are not inscribed. Bailey, in his 1994 book, describes a stone that was inscribed with “J.L.,” which was not located by this writer.
Nearby is another stone, lying flat on the ground, that appears to be inscribed with the letters “A.J.” and another letter that isn’t legible. It is not documented in Bailey’s book, but is probably the stone of Amanda Jane Hale Carson, another of George and Martha Hale’s children. She died in 1916 at age 57, and her death certificate noted that she was buried at New River Cemetery.
Latter burials
Robert Bailey documented 31 graves at New River Cemetery. There were more people buried there than that; it’s just that their stones aren’t inscribed or are illegible.
What is clear is that the cemetery was being frequently utilized in the 1890s, which was near the prime of the New River community. Other burials in the 1890s included child Willie Mullins in 1892, baby Thelma Cross in 1894, and Arlena Gibson Hudson in 1897.
Arlena Hudson was the wife of Iven C. Hudson. She was only in her early 20s when she died in 1897. Her grave is marked by a flat commercial stone that was placed later.
Nearby are three separate flat stones that read “Hudson Baby,” with no dates of birth or death. They are flat commercial stones in the same style as Hudson’s, which might suggest that they are her children. Otherwise, their parents are unknown.
Bailey also documents a broken stone with no name but dates of April 1865 – April 3, 1893. That stone cannot currently be located.
However, one stone that can be located is a broken stone that is actually outside the cleared part of the cemetery, in the edge of the undergrowth. The upper part of the stone is missing and no name or dates are available. The part of the stone that remains reads, “Though thou art gone, fond memry clings to thee.”
One interesting grave at the cemetery is that of H.G. Massengale (1851-1901). His grave was marked with a Masonic headstone, and was surrounded by a layer of bricks engraved “CHEMICAL NO.1”. The origin of the bricks isn’t clear. Graves Brick Company, located in Birmingham, Ala., and founded by Knoxville native William Graves, engraved some of its brick “Chemical No. 1,” though often with the Graves name included.
By the 1920s, burials at New River Cemetery had slowed. Besides Burl Buttram and Nettie Barlow Buttram, who died in 1941 and 1962, the last verifiable burial was James N. High, who died on Christmas Eve in 1928 at the age of 77.
The cemetery was largely inactive by the 1960s, but Nettie Buttram’s burial there was the last. It is interesting that the cemetery began — perhaps; not including the possible grave of little Peggy Lawson — with the burial of a Buttram in 1884, and concluded with the burial of a Buttram — his sister-in-law — some 78 years later.
Following Nettie Buttram’s burial in 1962, the cemetery quickly fell into an unkempt condition, reaching its worst in the 1980s.
Cemetery Census
NEW RIVER CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.38403, -84.54565
First Burial: 1842*
Last Burial: 1962
Burials since Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? No.
Burl W. Buttram 1867-1941
Flora Buttram 1896-1912
James C. Buttram 1858-1884
John Buttram 1836-1886
Mary Hurtt Buttram 1834-1896
Nettie Barlow Buttram 1876-1962
Amanda Hale Carson 1859-1916
J.A. Cecil 1886-1888
Unknown Cecil N/A-N/A
Claude Creekmore Jr. 1918-1919
Thelma Cross 1894-1894
Rebecca M. Eastham 1882-1901
Baby Gibson 1916-1916
Mahalia Gibson 1811-1888
George B. Hale Jr. 1878-1904
George B. Hale Sr. 1822-1892
J.L. Hale N/A-N/A
Martha McPheron Hale 1834-1921
Thomas P. Hale 1857-1916
James N. High 1851-1928
Arlena Gibson Hudson 1873-1897
Baby Hudson N/A-N/A
Baby Hudson N/A-N/A
Nancy Goode Hurtt** 1858-1926
Peggy A. Lawson* 1840-1842
William Madam 1882-1901
H.G. Massengale 1851-1901
Elizabeth Adkins** 1848-1927
James Meers 1925-1925
E.A. Merle*** N/A-1931
Willie Mullins 1890-1892
Millard F. Newport*** 1880-1914
Alvin Parker N/A-N/A
Virginia L. Parson 1923-1923
Arlena Sexton Phillips 1837-1891
Inez Phillips 1910-1919
Johnny M. Phillips 1923-1924
Levi Phillips 1835-1897
William I. Pickering 1867-1918
Dimple G. Thompson** 1887-1925
*No stone can be found, but historical accounts indicate it’s likely that she is buried at New River Cemetery.
**No stone can be found, but death certificates state that they were buried at New River Cemetery.
***No stone can be found, but newspaper publishings indicated that they were buried at family cemeteries in New River, which would possibly have been New River Cemetery.
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.