Sacred Ground: Robbins Cemetery
Stepping into the Robbins Cemetery feels a bit like stepping into an historic cemetery in the Old South — the ones dominated by sumptuous headstones and monuments that indicate the people who rest here were once people of note within the town.
Scattered throughout the countryside near Robbins Cemetery — which dates back to the 1880s and has seen only a handful of new burials in the modern era — are dozens of cemeteries that were in use at about the same time as Robbins Cemetery, and they’re dominated by either simple commercial headstones or even by common fieldstones. They mark the resting places of simple, hard-working people who lived hand-to-mouth and whose families often couldn’t afford ornate headstones even if they had wanted them.
In other words, among the cemeteries that date back to the 19th century, there aren’t many in Scott County like Robbins Cemetery.
To understand why Robbins Cemetery stands out is to understand that Robbins was once more than just an unincorporated dot on the map with a school and a post office … it was more than a railroad depot, even. By turn, places like Norma, Glenmary and Helenwood spent time as the economic hub of Scott County. And Robbins had its turn, too. There was a time when Robbins was a major town in Scott County. There was a high school and affluent churches, stores, major industry like the Southern Clay Mfg. Company — which we all know as The Brick Yard — and the town even had its own bank for a while.
In other words, this was an affluent population center in Scott County, and you don’t need the history books to tell you that … just the town’s grave yard.
Today, Robbins Cemetery is tucked away behind the community’s post office, one of the last remnants of the once-bustling town. It is just off the narrow lane that leads to the elementary school that remains where one of Scott County’s five high schools once stood.
And, like many old community cemeteries — including the Huntsville Cemetery just a few miles up the road — the cemetery is partitioned off; almost like several miniature cemeteries in one larger cemetery, each partition containing the graves of a different family. Many of the Robbins family who are buried here, for example, are buried inside a wrought iron fence in the center of the cemetery.
It is for the Robbins family that this cemetery draws its name. Or, you could say that the cemetery is named for the town it served. But the town drew its name from the Robbins family. So, either way, the once-prominent Robbins clan of southern Scott County left an indelible mark on this community and its burial ground.
The Robbins family
However indelibly shaped by the Robbins family the cemetery here may have been, the first Robbins wasn’t buried here until 1906. By that time, there were nearly two dozen graves in the cemetery.
Baby Florence Robbins — born in April 1907 and died in June 1907 — was the first Robbins buried here. She was the daughter of Melton James (M.J., or Mitt) Robbins and Etta Robbins. Mitt Robbins was a Scott County Judge. He married Bettie Hughett, the sister of Jasper Hughett — the first postmaster at Hughett (located in the general vicinity of where Indian Fork Creek and Huntsville Branch empty into Brimstone Creek) and that community’s namesake. Bettie died at age 22 and is buried at the recently-featured Hughett Cemetery, and Mitt remarried to Ettie. In addition to being the first postmaster at Hughett, Jasper Hughett would go on to establish a prominent general store in Robbins.
The Robbins family traces its lineage in Scott County to Michael Robbins, who moved here from Virginia in the early 1800s. By the 1850 census, Michael Robbins lived at Brimstone Creek and owned 2,000 acres of land there.
Michael Robbins and his wife, Mary, had four children: Elizabeth (Betty), William, John and Jonathan, born in that order.
Betty Robbins, born in 1831, married Joshua Goad. The Goad family had moved to Scott County and first settled at New River before Joshua Goad moved his family up Brimstone Creek to what would become Hughett, or Indian Fork, site of what is now known as the Walker farm.
One of Joshua’s and Betty’s children, son John, was an early Scott County sheriff and also held other elected offices. A daughter, Almira, married Civil War veteran Daniel Walker and became the matriarch of the large Walker family that traces its roots back to Brimstone. Still another of their children, daughter Etta Tennessee, married Scott County Superintendent of Schools Fred Lee and was the grandmother of U.S. Congressman John J. Duncan, who also served as a prominent mayor of Knoxville.
Several of Joshua and Betty’s children are buried at the Hughett Cemetery. Joshua and Betty are buried at Slick Rock Cemetery.
That sidestep into history is necessary to demonstrate how the Robbins, Goad and Walker families tie together.
Meanwhile, Betty Robbins Goad’s brother, William Robbins, married Lucinda Lewallen, the daughter of Joel and Rachel Taylor Lewallen. Joel and Rachel Lewallen are buried at Hughett Cemetery.
One of their children, Andrew Johnson Robbins, or A.J., married into the Hughett family (his wife was Julia Ann Hughett) and had more than a dozen children.
Another child, Horace Maynard Robbins, was named for the U.S. Congressman who visited Scott County with future president Andrew Johnson near the outset of the Civil War and played a key role in convincing Scott Countians to remain loyal to the Union. He moved to Oregon and was a prominent physician and mayor there.
William Robbins died in Lexington while serving the Union army during the Civil War.
John Robbins, born in 1834 and murdered at Brimstone in November 1869, was a brother to Betty and William. He married Mary Newport, and they were the parents of Judge Mitt Robbins, who served as county judge from 1926 to 1934. He was also a one-time superintendent of schools, a long-time member of the county court, and was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives for one term.
Mitt Robbins’ son, Little Mitt Robbins, worked at the bank in Robbins for a while, and later served as president of the Oneida Bank & Trust Co. and vice president of First Trust & Savings Bank, now United Cumberland Bank.
The Robbins family had an indelible impact on education in Scott County. Prior to his move to Oregon, Horace Maynard Robbins served as Scott County Superintendent of Schools for four years, and was one of the most noted school superintendents in the county’s history. A.V. Ellis, a grandson of Judge Mitt Robbins (making him a first cousin, twice removed, from Horace Maynard Robbins), also served as school superintendent from 1948 to 1952. Michael Robbins, the grandson of Johnathan Robbins and a cousin to H.M. Robbins and A.V. Ellis, served on the board of education. Finally, Ora Shoemaker Robbins — wife of John Robbins’ great-grandson, Jasper Robbins — was Scott County’s first woman superintendent of schools (and the only woman ever elected to the office of school superintendent). Her daughter, JoAnn Robbins, married Eddie Culver, who was also elected superintendent of schools. Several other descendants of the Robbins family served as teachers at Robbins School over the years.
Many of the names listed in the above paragraphs are buried at Robbins Cemetery.
The cemetery begins
The first person buried at Robbins Cemetery was John P. Bramble, a Civil War veteran who served in the Union army during the war. He died on Christmas Day in 1887 at age 45, and the Robbins Cemetery was founded.
Within the next year, George W. St. Clair and Amy Ann McDonald St. Clair had been buried at the new cemetery. They were a husband and wife who died three weeks apart at the ages of 22 and 23, respectively. Their son, Benjamin Bosworth St. Clair, was only six months old when his parents died. He later erected a shared headstone at the cemetery in their honor.
From there, many of the early burials at Robbins Cemetery were names that Scott Countians today aren’t familiar with; names like McPhener, Hemphill, Nance and Cannuo. Those were days of explosive growth in Robbins, thanks both to the railroad and the Brick Yard, and many people were moving to Robbins for jobs.
Dr. Foust
On March 5, 1927, an incident occurred that shook Robbins to its core.
That night, deputy sheriff Ben Fowler entered the auditorium of the Robbins High School for a motion-picture show. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a pair of .44 pistols. He was there to serve a warrant on a man who he had heard would be at the show. And he was drunk.
At some point during the show, Fowler became enraged that some kids were laughing at the movie. So he marched down to them and demanded that they shut up or be arrested. The thought of a deputy sheriff arresting kids for laughing caused Dr. Wiley Foust — a prominent physician in both Oneida and Robbins — to also laugh. It was reported that Fowler wheeled around to Foust and said, “Big boy, you will have to be quiet or I will get you, too.”
Foust is said to have replied, “Ben, you would not do that,” causing Fowler to strike him in the head with one of his pistols, then shoot the doctor five times in the face at point-blank range. Another deputy who was present, John Wesley West, was accidentally shot by Fowler, as well. He died later.
Fowler was shot five times by Foust’s adult son, who was present at the auditorium, but survived after four of the five bullets lodged in his metal vest. He was arrested, and was later put to death in the electric chair.
The 54-year-old Dr. Foust was buried at Robbins Cemetery nearby the school. His wife, Ernie Kline Foust, is buried beside him.
Ernie Kline was the daughter of George Washington Kline and Ella Jeanette Thompson Kline. Among their eight children, in addition to Ernie, was Charles Lawrence Kline — the father of prominent Scott County physician George Litton Kline.
While Dr. Foust and his wife are buried in the older part of the cemetery, there are several Kline graves on the northern side of the cemetery, adjacent to the Kline farm. Among them is the grave of Dr. Kline, who died on March 16, 1991 at the young age of 50.
Both of Dr. Kline’s parents, Charles Lawrence Kline and Flonnie Davis Kline, are buried there, as is his brother, Charles Lawrence Kline Jr.
The Robbins Cemetery had mostly stopped being used by the time of the Kline family. In fact, Charles Kline Sr. was the first person to be buried there in four years when he died in 1985, and only 11 people have been buried there in the nearly 40 years since then — including his wife and two sons.
Bobby Burton and his wife, Donnie Maxine Human Burton, were buried at Robbins Cemetery when they died in 2005 and 2019, respectively. Both were very active in the South Scott community, and Bobby Burton was both a county commissioner and the long-time postmaster at Robbins.
The last person to be buried at the cemetery was Alvin Walter Gibson Jr., who died on Oct. 26, 2019.
Cemetery inventory
ROBBINS CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.35430, -84.58821
First Burial: 1887
Last Burial: 2019
Burials since Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? Yes.
Link to Timothy West’s transcription.
A.B. N/A-N/A
Elmer E. Blake 1904-1914
J.P. Bramble 1842-1887
Annie Burchfield 1908-1909
Mary Burchfield 1877-1909
Charles E. Burris 1914-1916
Bobby L. Burton 1930-2005
Donnie M. Burton 1936-2019
Ida B. Byrd 1890-1911
Hattie Carney N/A-N/A
James Cecil 1899-1971
Minnie G. Cecil 1901-1967
Willard L. Cecil 1928-1932
Kendrick Chitwood 1933-1933
Rose E. Chitwood 1902-1911
Doyle Clark 1928-1929
George Clark 1917-1935
Glen Clark 1930-1930
James L. Clark 1918-1955
Margrett Clark 1860-1938
P.A. Clark 1863-1903
Robert Clark 1924-1929
Velma Clark 1914-1916
Willie C. Clark 1919-1943
Woodroe Clark 1914-1914
T.S. Collins 1867-1933
Jannie Darnell 1906-1906
Barbara M. Davidson 1882-1925
Jesse D. Davidson 1875-1932
Katherine Davidson 1901-1921
Cleophas A. Dixon 1883-1958
Hannah Z. Dixon 1864-1936
Maud L. Dixon 1892-1939
Nannie Dixon N/A-N/A
William Melvin Dixon 1859-1938
Elsadie Ellis 1883-1946
Ernie Ellis 1893-1925
James E. Ellis 1886-1954
Jewel Ellis 1917-1918
John E. Ellis 1940-1940
M.A. Ellis 1877-1950
Nancy Ellis 1856-1913
A.J. English 1840-1907
Lee Evans N/A-1933
Martha Evans 1873-1932
Taskel Evans 1892-1919
A.G. Farester 1881-1925
Wilma Farester 1926-1927
Ernie Kline Foust 1902-1924
Wiley W. Foust 1872-1927
Rosie H. Franklin 1901-1918
Cansada Gibson 1902-1978
Erve Gibson 1850-1909
Fanny M. Gibson N/A-N/A
Henry Gibson 1898-1935
Arrissa Smith Goad 1862-1935
Burnas R. Goad 1912-1914
Claude Goad 1898-1899
Coney D. Goad 1884-1939
Elbert Goad 1880-1920
Isabel Goad 1879-1946
Joseph Goad 1855-1932
Marion D. Goad 1912-1922
Ocie Goad 1916-1944
Dolly J. Griffith 1940-1940
Roy Harvey 1933-1933
William H. Harvey 1926-1926
William R. Harvey 1929-1929
Elsie Helfenberger 1901-1901
Jesse Helfenberger 1905-1907
Frances D. Hemphill 1901-1901
G.E. Hemphill N/A-N/A
George E. Hemphill 1867-1919
James Hemphill 1843-1894
L.H. Henry 1845-1903
Mary S. Henry 1849-1903
B.F. Hughes N/A-N/A
Lula Hughes 1900-1917
Martha Hughes 1877-1923
Ernestine Hughett 1931-2004
Elva S. Hughett 1910-1981
Ernest J. Hughett 1906-1973
Ettie P. Hughett 1866-1932
George W. Hughett 1895-1926
Hettie Ross Hughett 1897-1927
J.F. Hughett 1851-1910
Jasper Hughett 1855-1937
John Hughett 1824-1908
Lillie D. Hughett 1895-1957
Reuben L. Hughett 1886-1930
Samuel E. Hughett 1922-1923
Virginia R. Hughett 1921-1921
William Hughett 1872-1956
Emma Hutcherson N/A-N/A
Claude R. Justice 1895-1943
Ethel H. Justice 1887-1980
Gordon Justice 1927-1957
Dineelia Kennedy N/A-1916
E.J. Kennedy N/A-N/A
Charles L. Kline 1907-1985
Charles L. Kline Jr. 1927-2000
Flonnie Davis Kline 1908-1995
George L. Kline 1940-1991
Alice Farester Lawson 1872-1943
Dave Lawson 1843-1920
George T. Lewallen 1876-1952
Martha A. Lewallen 1840-1911
R.H. Lewallen 1848-1914
Freman R. Litten 1906-1922
Freeman J. Litton 1935-1935
Freeman M. Litton 1866-1935
Mary Litton 1870-1910
Nellie Litton 1909-1909
Nellie S. Litton 1905-1935
Oliver Litton 1918-1918
Starlin Litton 1900-1970
Cairl Loggains 1884-1928
Mamie Loggans 1918-1921
Elizabeth McCartt N/A-1924
Odessa S. McCarttt N/A-1930
Charles E. McCarty 1923-1924
Faye McCarty N/A-1931
Helen P. McCarty N/A-1930
Thomas I. McCarty 1932-1933
R.F. McCauley N/A-1911
Lonno D. McPherren 1894-1894
Stella Miller 1886-1947
Katherine F. Mittler 1847-1922
Peter Mittler 1847-1921
George M. Murphy N/A-1901
Harry Nance 1871-1901
Susan Nance 1858-1896
Harden Newman 1912-1934
Anna Lawson Newport 1893-1927
Freeman Newport 1921-1922
Luther Newport 1895-N/A
Manda Newport 1861-1925
Marion Newport 1880-1908
Mary E. Newport 1878-1930
Melvin Newport 1859-1933
Rachel H. Newport 1858-1940
Rebecca L. Newport 1860-1934
Thomas Newport 1852-1939
Vicie Newport 1884-1918
Wilbert Newport 1926-1926
Willard D. Newport 1920-1922
Carl Overton 1906-1939
William B. Pars 1860-1923
James W. Pemberton 1927-1927
Lydia M. Pemberton 1854-1925
Timothy Pemberton 1851-1930
Viola T. Pemberton 1898-1927
Alberta Phillips 1882-1917
Infant Phillips 1940-1940
Infant Phillips 1940-1940
Pitney Phillips 1876-1956
Ruth N. Phillips 1922-1940
Sarah Phillips 1852-1935
Thomas L. Phillips 1879-1941
William J. Phillips 1848-1915
Louvernia Pryor 1852-1930
Ellen Rains 1875-1939
Fatina Reed 1856-1948
Jesse C. Reed 1908-1910
Jesse V. Reed 1866-1954
Martha C. Reed 1874-1951
May Reed 1893-1915
Claude Robbins 1909-1950
Delphia P. Robbins 1881-1947
Ettie Robbins 1907-1907
Glennie M. Robbins 1901-1918
Hilton B. Robbins 1912-1918
Joe L. Robbins 1877-1921
Joe M. Robbins 1918-1935
Lucinda Robbins 1835-1913
M.J. Robbins 1865-1953
Ord C. Robbins 1923-1925
Ruby A. Robbins 1914-1914
Wiley T. Robbins 1922-1923
Erstle Sexton 1914-1915
Luvernia Sexton 1860-1937
Winfield Sexton N/A-1927
Fannie L. Shawl 1908-1910
Catherine L. Smithers 1925-1925
Jefferson W. Smithers 1878-1948
Nancy Black Smithers 1873-1940
Unknown Smithers 1873-1919
Amy St. Clair 1865-1888
George W. St. Clair 1866-188
Jane Thomas 1853-1926
Insie Oakes Thompson 1907-1932
Viola Thompson 1901-NA
Willard Thompson 1924-1924
Lillie R. Unknown 1894-1896
Arzilla Voiles 1890-1927
Franklin R. Voiles 1932-1941
James Voiles N/A-N/A
Emmanuel Walker N/A-N/A
Francis W. Walker 1918-1918
J.M. Walker 1855-N/A
Mary Hughett Walker 1866-1943
Unknown Walker 1857-1925
Bettie West 1880-1967
John West 1889-1966
John H. West 1917-1937
John W. West 1888-1966
Lemoms G. West 1895-1928
Luvernia S. West 1888-1958
Mary West 1855-1932
Nora Reed West 1902-1978
Pryor West 1883-1970
Roger C. West 1933-1933
William West 1860-1936
Candues Winters 1901-1951
Edger Winters 1923-1937
Orce Winters 1896-1958
Cathleen Wright 1931-1932
Jess W. Wright 1915-1935
Laura Wright 1918-1920
Pleas J. Zachary 1867-1919
Susan E. Zachary 1876-1915
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.