Sacred Ground: Pleasant Chitwood Cemetery
Shortly after the Revolutionary War, a war veteran by the name of James Chitwood moved with his family to the area of Tennessee that would become Scott County and established roots.
You could say that Pvt. James Chitwood is the father of Winfield. For it was here that he and his family settled down. And before it was known as Winfield, it was called Chitwood. In fact, James Chitwood ran the community’s post office out of his home in the Piney Grove area for many years. Chitwood Mountain is named after him.
James and Martha White Chitwood’s oldest son was Pleasant Chitwood. It is for him that the Pleasant Grove area of Winfield is named.
And one of Pleasant and Sarah Cowan Chitwood’s children was Pleasant Chitwood Jr., who is buried in a hillside cemetery along Upper Jellico Creek.
Those original Chitwoods are buried at various cemeteries throughout the Winfield area, from New Light to Jellico Creek. But many of them are buried at Chitwood Cemetery, located in the Piney Grove area where James Chitwood settled down. It is one of the largest cemeteries in Scott County, and was believed to have started with the graves of James Chitwood and his wife (though neither of them have identifiable grave markers).
As the Chitwood family spread, many of them left Scott County, with a number of them following the westward expansion and winding up in places like Arkansas and Kansas. Shadrack Chitwood — James Chitwood’s cousin — was the first to move, winding up in Missouri.
Among the exodus of Chitwoods were all of Pleasant Chitwood Sr.’s children — except one. While six of his brothers and sisters left Scott County, Pleasant Chitwood Jr. stayed on. He married Polly Thompson, and they wound up on Upper Jellico Creek, across the mountain from Piney Grove.
It is there, at the Pleasant Chitwood Cemetery, that Pleasant, Polly, and five of their family’s children are buried. There are other graves, too, though it’s impossible to know who they belong to.
The Pleasant Chitwood family
It is not known exactly when James Chitwood and his family moved to Tennessee. Clearly, Pleasant Chitwood Sr., born in 1775, came to what is now Scott County with his family. But census records indicate that Daniel Chitwood — Pleasant Chitwood Sr.’s second-oldest son, born in 1808 — was born in Tennessee. So it is quite possible, if not likely, that the Chitwoods had arrived at Winfield by that point. And they were certainly there by 1819, when Pleasant Chitwood Jr. — the only of Pleasant and Sarah’s children who remained in the area — was born.
On Aug. 7, 1841, Pleasant Chitwood Jr. married Polly Thompson. He was 22, and she was close to the same age. Polly was the daughter of Harmon Thompson Sr. and Nancy “Tender Twig” Richardson. They were from Virginia and made the move to Tennessee.
Pleasant and Polly had a large number of children — at least 11, beginning with the birth of Calvin Chitwood in 1842. Others included Louisa Trammell, Lucretia “Crecy” Ryan, Elizabeth Trammell, Bailey Chitwood, Julian Chitwood, Pleasant Chitwood III, Poppy Trammel and Jarrett Chitwood.
The start of the cemetery
The Chitwood Cemetery at Jellico Creek is located near the head of the creek, not far from the base of the mountain that separates Jellico Creek from Piney Grove.
The cemetery was started on Nov. 12, 1898, when the daughter of Pleasant Chitwood III was born and died.
Pleasant — also known as Ped, according to census records — married Gemama “Amy” Davis, the daughter of Wilson Andrew Davis Jr. and Lucinda Jane Chitwood.
Two years later, on March 1, 1900, baby Chitwood’s older brother, Welker, died at the age of only eight. He was just one week shy of his ninth birthday.
On Jan. 11, 1904, Polly Chitwood died died at the age of around 85. And the following year — Sept. 15, 1905 — Pleasant Chitwood Jr. died at the age of 86. Both were buried beside their grandchildren at the Jellico Creek cemetery.
Missing records
When Robert Bailey published “Cemeteries of Scott County, Tennessee” in 1994, the graves of infant Chitwood, Welker Chitwood, Polly Chitwood and Pleasant Chitwood Jr. were the only ones listed at the Jellico Creek cemetery. That’s because those were the only original stones that were legible. At least 12 other people were buried there, however, with uninscribed field stones or illegible stones.
Since that time, Chitwood descendants have placed three more modern, commercial stones that identify three of those graves. They are Austin Chitwood (1924-1925), Paul Chitwood (1927-1929), and Eugene Chitwood (1935-1935). These are grandchildren of Pleasant and Amy Chitwood, great-grandchildren of Pleasant and Polly Chitwood. All three were the children of Rev. Robert Bernard Chitwood and Edith Smith Chitwood. Six-month-old Eugene died of pneumonia. It isn’t clear what caused the deaths of the other two, one-year-old Austin and two-year-old Paul.
Robert and Edith had at least two more sons: Pershing and Robert Earl Chitwood. Robert Earl Chitwood died in 2012 at the age of 90.
Unfortunately, the remainder of the graves at Pleasant Chitwood Cemetery remain unidentified. The cemetery is no longer maintained.
Cemetery census
PLEASANT CHITWOOD CEMETERY (JELLICO CREEK)
GPS Coordinates: 36.52412, -84.40650
First Burial: 1898
Last Burial: 1935
Burials since Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? No*.
Austin Chitwood, N/A-N/A
Eugene Chitwood, 1935-1935
Infant Chitwood, 1898-1898
Paul Chitwood, N/A-N/A
Pleasant Chitwood Jr., 1819-1905
Polly Thompson Chitwood, 1821-1904
Welker Chitwood, 1891-1900
*There have been no burials since Bailey’s cemetery census in 1994; however, some graves at Pleasant Chitwood Cemetery that were not included in Bailey’s listing have since been identified. There are several more unidentified graves at the cemetery that have not been identified. If you have any information on these graves, please contact us at newsroom@ihoneida.com to help complete the historical record.
This story is a part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.