Sacred Ground: Old Cecil Cemetery
In a recent installment of Sacred Ground, we began the story of Helenwood’s Cecil family with a visit to the Cecil Cemetery at Cherry Fork. It is a story that can also be continued at the Daniel Memorial Cemetery.
The Cecil family’s legacy in Scott County is an intriguing one, from the shootout at a Helenwood saloon in Christmas 1881 that sparked a feud and left several people dead, to one of the strongest “preacher families” in Scott County’s history.
Every story has a beginning, and the Cecil family’s beginning in Scott County is with James Cecil and Phariba Reed, who are buried at the Old Cecil Cemetery in Huntsville.
Family roots
Born 1805 in Monticello, Ky., James Timothy Cecil was the son of Samuel Cecil and Katherine Peavyhouse.
The Cecil family’s lineage is fairly well-documented, all the way back to 14th century England. Back then, the surname was spelled Seisyll. The spelling adaptation “Cecil” did not come until later.
The Cecil family was politically well-connected for several generations in England, and even tied to royalty. William Cecil — who would’ve been the seventh-great-grandfather of James Timothy Cecil — served as the 1st Baron of Burghley in the 16th century, and was Queen Elizabeth I’s chief advisor. He twice served as secretary of state and also served as Lord High Treasurer.
William Cecil developed plans to conquer Ireland, and to forge an alliance with Scotland. It was he who persuaded Queen Elizabeth to execute Mary, Queen of Scots, after she was accused of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth.
The Cecil dynasty actually began with William Cecil’s grandfather, Sir David Cecil, who found favor with King Henry VIII and became High Sheriff of Northamptonshire. His son, Sir Richard Cecil, was High Sheriff of Rutland and accumulated a large estate.
One of William Cecil’s children, Anne Cecil, served as a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth.
William Cecil has been portrayed in several movies and TV series, and is regarded as the model for the character Polonius in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
The Cecil family came to America with another William Cecil — great-grandson of the older William Cecil, and James T. Cecil’s fourth-great-grandfather — in the 17th century.
In America, the Cecils originally settled in Maryland. They remained there for several generations before Samuel Witten Cecil — James T. Cecil’s great-grandfather — moved to Virginia, where he purchased more than 1,000 acres of land.
It was Samuel Cecil’s son, Benjamin Sollers Cecil, who moved from Virginia to Kentucky, settling near Monticello. His oldest son was Samuel Cecil, born in 1786 — James Timothy Cecil’s father. Samuel Cecil was born in Virginia, before the family made the move to Kentucky. But it was there, in the Monticello area, that he spent the rest of his life before dying in 1851.
James Timothy Cecil was the oldest of Samuel Cecil’s children, and the only one born by his first wife, Catherine Peavyhouse. Catherine died just three months after James’ birth.
James T. Cecil had two sisters, Jane and Rhoda, who married brothers from the Carpenter family and settled in McMinn County, Tenn.
Move to Tennessee
It was around 1823 that James T. Cecil married Pharaba Reed, daughter of Isaac Reed and Rachel Pharabia Hatfield. The Reed family was originally from the Carolinas, but had moved to present-day Scott County, though it was part of Campbell County at the time.
It’s likely that James and Pharaba Cecil made their home in Scott County from the time of their marriage in 1823 (or 1825; sources conflict). They were certainly here by 1830, when the next census was taken.
James and Pharaba had many children — perhaps as many as 18. It was through one of the oldest, William Riley Cecil, that much of the Cecil lineage in Scott County continued. Among his sons were Reuben Churchwell Cecil and George Washington Cecil, which marked the beginning of the Cecil family legacy in the ministry. George W. Cecil was the first pastor of First Baptist Church of Oneida.
The rest of the children of James and Pharaba Cecil included Samuel, Sarah, Granville, Riley, Isaac, Charity, Catherine, Rebecca, Martin, Wilson, Nelson, Pheraba, Malinda, Elizabeth, Phoebe, Allen and Nancy.
The cemetery begins
James Cecil died Dec. 5, 1871, at the age of 66. He was buried on the plot that is now directly behind the offices of Pave, Grade & Aggregate, formerly Potters, just off Old Jamestown Road in Huntsville. Pharaba died 10 years later, in 1881, and was buried by his side.
That was the start of the Old Cecil Cemetery. A newer, commercial stone has since been placed by descendants at the graves of James and Pharaba Cecil.
The Old Cecil Cemetery remained that way for many years, with James and Pharaba’s descendants being buried mostly at the Cecil Cemetery at Cherry Fork. The next burial at the Old Cecil Cemetery didn’t come until 1922, when 38-year-old J.J. Daniel was buried there. It is not clear who, exactly, J.J. Daniel was.
It was another 25 years before the next person was buried at the cemetery. Cordelia Cross Barnes was buried there in 1947. She was the wife of Glen Alvie Barnes, who died in 1954 and was also buried at the cemetery. Glen Barnes was the son of Mack Gilby Barnes and Tempie Green.
Five years after Glen Barnes’ death, Rebecca Hembree Norris was buried at the cemetery in 1959. The daughter of Robert Hembree and Elizabeth Gibson, she married George Norris in 1910. He was the son of Billy Norris and Polly Jones of the New River community, and would later be buried at Old Cecil Cemetery in 1967.
The cemetery today
Old Cecil Cemetery has gone through alternating periods of care through the years. As recently as the late 2000s, the cemetery was extremely overgrown — to the point that it was difficult to locate headstones in the cemetery. However, the cemetery is currently well-maintained.
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.