Sacred Ground: Todd Cemetery
ELGIN | Located on a wooded ridgetop off High Street here is the Todd Cemetery, a family cemetery belonging to one of this community’s most prominent late 19th century and early 20th century families.
Encompassing more than 2.5 acres, the Todd Cemetery runs the entire length of this short ridge, which is the second-highest elevation point in Elgin.
In some aspects, this ridgetop contains two separate cemeteries: the Todd Cemetery on one side, and a smaller cemetery containing several unrelated graves on the other. However, it’s considered one cemetery. It’s maintained and still active.
The cemetery dates back to at least 1882, when Salina Morris Todd was buried there. However, it’s impossible to date the cemetery conclusively, as there are several old graves that are marked only by uninscribed field stones.
The Todd family
Salina Morris Todd, the first person buried at the Todd Cemetery, was the first wife of George Washington Todd (1846-1925). He was the son of Hannah Todd (1816-1886) of Elgin. His father appears to have been Andrew Lewallen, of another prominent south Scott County family. Because they never married, he and his siblings kept his mother’s maiden name.
Andrew Lewallen was the grandson of Anderson Grant Lewallen, the first of the Lewallen family to settle at Glenmary. Hannah Todd was the daughter of William and Martha Todd of Morgan County. She was one of the first people buried at a separate family cemetery, the Sexton-Todd Cemetery, a couple of miles south near Wolf Creek, after being killed by a train on the Cincinnati-Southern Railroad in 1886.
Unfortunately, very little is known about Hannah Todd’s parents. When the 1850 census was taken, 25-year-old Hannah was living with her mother, Martha Todd, and her two oldest children, five-year-old George and two-year-old Sarah, in Morgan County. William Todd had apparently died by that time.
When the 1860 census was taken, the only Todd family living in Scott County was William J. Todd, a 36-year-old widower, and his children: 19-year-old Martha, 13-year-old Louisa, 11-year-old Columbus, 9-year-old Margrette, 7-year-old Matthew, and 4-year-old Cissiah. William Todd may have been Hannah Todd’s brother, though that isn’t certain.
Hannah Todd first showed up in Scott County when the 1870 census was taken. By that time, she had moved to Wolf Creek and was living with her children, including 17-year-old William, 15-year-old Missouri, 13-year-old California, 9-year-old Mary, 6-year-old John, and James.
George Todd had left home by the time that 1870 census was taken, having married Salina Morris on Dec. 21, 1866. Following her death in 1882, he married Louisa Miller in 1884. He had a total of 17 children — eight with his first wife and nine with his second — and is buried between his wives at the Todd Cemetery.
Salina was the daughter of Willis Morris and Nancy Hanks of Sunbright. Louisa was the daughter of Jacob Miller and Martha Jane Russell of Glenmary.
Among George Todd’s siblings: James was killed in a work-related railroad accident in Jellico in 1888, at age 19. His oldest sister, Martha Jane, married Little Berry Goad and is buried at the Goad Cemetery near Skull Creek. William married Sarah Williams and, later, Jicie Bowling, before dying in 1918 and being buried at the Sexton-Todd Cemetery. Missouri married Columbus Parker and moved to Kentucky. California married Ezra Stonecipher and moved to California. Mary married James Redman and settled down in Elgin. John Todd died in 1923.
The early years
Following Salina Morris Todd’s death in 1882, there was not another burial at the Todd Cemetery until 1896, when 10-year-old Frank Todd was buried there. He was the son of Samuel Todd and Emily Jane Hawn, and a grandson of George Todd and Salina Morris.
Two months later, Myrtle Lee died at the age of eight months and was buried at the cemetery. She was the daughter of W.F. Lee and Alice Todd, and another of George Todd’s grandchildren.
W.F. Lee was likely William Fred Lee, who was originally from Overton County, Tenn. and served as Scott County Superintendent of Schools in the late 1880s. He originally married Etta Tennessee Goad of the Brimstone community. She died in 1890 and was buried at the Hughett Cemetery. Their daughter, Cassie, married Flem B. Duncan and was the mother of U.S. Congressman and Knoxville Mayor John J. Duncan.
Following his first wife’s death in 1890, W.F. Lee opened a store on Rugby Road in Elgin, and also served as the postmaster there. He remarried to Alice Todd on March 18, 1895, and baby Myrtle was born 10 months later.
Just a year and a half after Myrtle’s death, Alice Todd Lee died at the age of 20. She shares a headstone with her baby daughter.
The next burial at the cemetery occurred on Christmas Eve the following year, 1898, when baby J.F. Lawson died. He had been born nearly two months earlier, on Oct. 31, 1898. His grave was marked with a difficult-to-read fieldstone that was hand-engraved with initials indicating that he was the son of “W. and O.N.” No additional information is available.
The 1900s
Following baby J.F. Lawson, the next burial at Todd Cemetery was five-year-old Lucy D. Todd, who died on Jan. 2, 1904. She was the daughter of Samuel Todd and Emily Jane Hawn, and the sister of Frank Todd, who was buried at the cemetery in 1896.
That same year, 49-year-old Susan Reagan was buried at the cemetery. Her grave is one of those marked with a field stone.
Two years later, in February 1906, W.M. Sims was buried at the cemetery. His grave, too, is marked by a common fieldstone. And, like the other field stone graves at Todd Cemetery, there’s a dearth of information about who he was.
However, it’s worth noting that several other members of the Sims family were buried at the cemetery. These included William Russell Sims in 1908, Delila Sims, age 80, in 1911, Willard E. Sims in 1931, and Russell E. Sims in 1950.
Like W.M. Sims, William Russell Sims and Delila Sims’ graves are marked by a hand-chiseled fieldstone and have funeral home markers in front of them.
William Russell Sims and Delila Sims were husband and wife, and were listed in Pickett County, Tenn. when the 1900 census was taken. William Sims was the son of Russell and Polly Sims of Wayne County, Ky.
This offers no additional information about who W.M. Sims was. It stands to reason that he was closely related to William and Delila Sims. However, they lived along when the 1900 census was taken, and there’s no evidence that they had a child with the initials “W.M.” Their children in 1870 were Sarah, Susan, Elijah and Nancy.
The Willard E. Sims and Russell E. Sims who were buried at the cemetery later were the great-grandsons of William and Delila Sims. They were the sons of Bill and Ida Loudin Sims. Their paternal grandfather was Elijah Sims, who married Bernettie Thomas and settled at Coal Hill.
Meanwhile, George Harrison Todd — one of the many sons of George Washington Todd — was buried at Todd Cemetery in 1906. And, in 1908, another of George Washington Todd’s grandchildren — Della May Todd, the 13-year-old daughter of William Millard and Sally Russell Todd — was buried at the cemetery. Also buried at the cemetery in 1908 was 17-year-old Monroe Todd, one of George Washington Todd’s sons. No information was recorded about the deaths of either Della or Monroe.
Also in 1908, 21-year-old Frank Burchett was buried at the cemetery. He was the son of William Carr Burchett and Mary Todd, and another of George Washington Todd’s grandchildren. Both his parents would later be buried at the cemetery: his mother in 1914 and his father in 1926. William Burchett was the son of Richard Burchett of Kentucky, who was killed in the Civil War. William and Mary had several other children, one of whom — Florence Blankenship — was buried at Todd Cemetery. She married Homer Blankenship, who was also buried at the cemetery.
The cemetery today
The Todd Cemetery remains active today. The most recent burial was in 2022, when Edith Campbell Todd was buried there after she died at age 89. Originally from Middlesboro, Ky., she was a retired schoolteacher and the wife of Charles Todd Jr., who died and was buried at the cemetery in 1977. They also had a son, John Charles Todd, buried at the cemetery in 2006.
Charles Todd Jr. was one of the many grandchildren of George Washington Todd.
Prior to that, Sammie Lindsay was buried at the cemetery when he died in 2021 at the age of 82. He was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and a second-great-grandson of George Washington Todd. His mother, Wilma Walker Lindsay, is also buried at the cemetery. His maternal grandmother was Nellie Todd Walker, the daughter of William Todd and Sally Russell.
Sammie had a daughter, Santina Breeden, buried at the cemetery in 2018.
TODD CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.33000, -84.59860
First Burial: 1882
Last Burial: 2022
Barney Babcock, 1901-1920
Guy A. Babcock, 1871-1941
Lora Todd Babcock, 1880-1961
Florence Burchett Blankenship, 1901-1941
Homer Blankenship, 1889-N/A
Santina Lindsay Breeden, 1977-2018
Imogene Mitchell Brewster, 1919-1999
Kathlyn Brewster, 1951-1995
Lawrence Brewster Sr., 1919-1994
Frank Burchett, 1886-1908
Mary Todd Burchett, 1869-1914
William C. Burchett, 1863-1926
Boyd Clowers, 1924-1925
Edith Clowers, 1930-1933
Flora I. Clowers, 1929-1929
Samy Clowers, 1927-1996
Nannie Lavender Duncan, 1890-1923
Fred B. Ellis, 1907-1929
Martha Anderson Ellis, 1867-1945
Tommy Ellis, 1901-1916
David Foster, 1910-1984
Jewell Foster, 1912-1952
Ida R. Fuston, 1921-1924
Leslie Jones, 1910-1976
Lillian Todd Jones, 1927-1990
Infant Daughters Lawhorn, 1924-1924
J.E. Lawson, 1898-1898
Alice Todd Lee, 1876-1897
Myrtle Lee, 1896-1896
Sammie L. Lindsay, 1939-2021
Wilma Walker Lindsaay, 1914-1961
Robert M. Miller, 1909-1910
Daughter Mills, 1947-1947
Charles Mitchell, N/A-1940
Henry E. Mitchell, 1882-1943
Katie Smithers Mitchell, 1887-1976
Willard Mitchell, 1908-1940
Willard H. Mitchell, 1850-1922
Ervin Mixen, N/A-N/A
Baby Son Norman, 1932-1932
Margaret L. Patterson, 1929-2018
Ralph C. Patterson, 1922-2004
Amanda Pemberton, 1962-1962
J.D. Pemberton, 1922-2004
Norma Todd Pemberton, 1923-2016
Scott L. Pemberton, 1957-2017
Susan Reagan, 1855-1904
Delilah Smith Sims, 1831-1911
Russell E. Sims, 1923-1950
W.M. Sims, N/A-1906
Willard E. Sims, 1913-1931
William R. Sims, N/A-1908
Jeffrey D. Smith, N/A-N/A
Margaret Todd Smith, 1923-2018
Charles E. Terry, 1940-1940
Charles E. Todd Jr., 1928-1977
Charles E. Todd Sr., 1895-1962
Della M. Todd, 1894-1908
Diana J. Todd, 1944-1956
Edith Campbell Todd, 1932-2022
Elmer Todd, 1895-1962
Emily Hawn Todd, 1864-1938
Florence Thompson Todd, 1895-1974
Frank Todd, 1895-1896
George H. Todd, 1882-1906
George W. Todd, 1846-1925
Herbert C. Todd, 1895-1970
Infant Daughter Todd, 1948-1948
James A. Todd, 1893-1975
James E. Todd, 1922-1922
John C. Todd, 1949-2006
John M. Todd, 1888-1943
Lawrence W. Todd, 1899-1951
Louisa Miller Todd, 1866-1920
Lucy D. Todd, 1898-1904
Marie Shoemaker Todd, 1918-1990
Odie E. Todd, 1891-1989
Ollie Shannon Todd, 1892-1961
Phronie Young Todd, 1895-1964
Salina Morris Todd, 1845-1882
Samuel M. Todd, 1863-1953
Sarah Russell Todd, 1873-1941
Sonnie L. Todd, 1925-1926
Willard L. Todd, 1899-1941
William M. Todd, 1872-1947
Froken T. Walker, 1912-1928
Ernie Ellis West, 1905-1984
James E. West, 1891-1980
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.