Sacred Ground: Winfield Cemetery
WINFIELD | The old cemetery adjacent to Winfield Baptist Church is commonly called the Winfield Baptist Church Cemetery, or simply Winfield Cemetery, for obvious reasons. But it’s also sometimes referred to as Sharp Cemetery because it’s the final resting place of most of the Sharp family that once lived in Winfield.
However, before any of the Sharp family were buried at the cemetery, the cemetery contained the graves of members of the family that was synonymous with the community in the mid 19th century: the Chitwoods.
The cemetery, which today contains more than 100 graves, dates back to at least 1862, and perhaps 1852.
The Chitwood family
You can find Chitwoods scattered throughout the cemeteries of Winfield, Pine Grove, Pleasant Grove, Capachene and beyond. Before this northern Scott County community was known as Winfield — named for Gen. Winfield Scott, same as Scott County — it was called Chitwood. It was the Chitwoods — beginning with Revolutionary War veteran James Chitwood — who first settled this area at the beginning of the 19th century.
The oldest verifiable grave at Winfield Cemetery is Miley Chitwood, who died of typhoid fever during the Civil War when he was only 19.
Miley Chitwood was the oldest son of James and Elizabeth Thompson Chitwood. He was a great-grandson of the James Chitwood who settled in Winfield after the Revolutionary War (his grandfather was Daniel Chitwood).
Chitwood joined the Union army on Oct. 25, 1861. He was assigned to Company G, 2nd Tennessee Infantry Regiment. However, he died of typhoid fever while training in London, Ky. on Jan. 4, 1862.
The Civil War was tragic for the Chitwoods of Winfield. Miley Chitwood’s uncle and several of his cousins died in Confederate prisons later in the war. John H. Chitwood was an older brother of James L. Chitwood. He and several of his sons — Henry, Daniel and James Chitwood — died at the infamous Andersonville prison. John Chitwood’s wife, Nancy Hamby Chitwood, is buried at Davis Cemetery on Alderville Road.
It isn’t clear whether Miley Chitwood was the first person buried at Winfield Cemetery. Some historical accounts suggest that his grandfather, Daniel Chitwood, was buried at Winfield Cemetery in 1852 (or 1857; the accounts vary) after falling off a cliff near the home of a brother, William Chitwood.
There is no inscribed stone at Winfield Cemetery for Daniel Chitwood’s grave, and he was not listed as being buried at the cemetery by Robert Bailey in Bailey’s 1994 book, “Cemeteries of Scott County, Tennessee.” However, it’s worth noting that there are several graves at the cemetery that are marked by uninscribed flat field stones, including graves on either side of Miley Chitwood’s grave. Daniel Chitwood could easily have been buried in one of those graves.
Daniel Chitwood was the son of James and Martha White Chitwood, the original settlers of Winfield.
The 1850 census lists Daniel Chitwood as living in Winfield with his wife, Anna, and four of their children. By the 1860 census, Daniel Chitwood is no longer listed; Anna Chitwood is listed as living with two of her daughters, Mary and Martha. This lends significant credence to the idea that Daniel Chitwood, son of Revolutionary War veteran James Chitwood and grandfather of Miley Chitwood, did in fact die in either 1852 or 1857 and is buried in Scott County.
Several other members of the Chitwood family were buried at Winfield Baptist Church later on. This came after the Sharp family married into the Chitwood family.
The Sharp family
The Sharp family was once prominent in Winfield, dating back to James L. Sharp and Mary “Polly” Gibson Sharp. They arrived on the scene in the 1850s.
An original Sharp home in Winfield, a log structure, became known as the Hines Motel. It stood until 1980, when it was destroyed by fire. It was owned by George B. Hines, who married one of the Sharp daughters.
James Sharp (1816-1893) was the third sheriff of Scott County, elected in 1864. He succeeded Bailey Buttram and served six years before leaving office in 1870.
Prior to serving as sheriff, Sharp served in the Union army during the Civil War. He joined at Winfield on Sept. 5, 1863 and was discharged in Clinton, Tenn. three months later.
James and Polly Gibson (1821-1916) were married in 1846. Polly was James’ second wife. Their infant daughter, who was born and died on the same day in 1865, was one of the first burials at Winfield Cemetery. James and Polly would later be buried at Winfield Cemetery themselves.
It was James and Polly Sharp’s first-born child, daughter Kissie, who married into the Chitwood family. She married John G. Chitwood in 1872. They are both buried at Winfield Baptist Church (in 1901 and 1921, respectively), along with one of their children, son Robert (1881-1935).
Nicholas Sharp (1841-1887), who was James Sharp’s only child with his first wife, has one of the most elaborate headstones at Winfield Cemetery, as does his wife, Elizabeth Jane Hill (1847-1910). Nicholas and Elizabeth were married in 1879. Elizabeth was the daughter of Joab and Elizabeth Hill from the Williamsburg, Ky. area.
It was Nicholas Sharp who built the two-story motel that would come to be known as the Hines Motel. He died in 1887 of tuberculosis, and was one of Winfield’s more prominent citizens at the time of his death. He was in his 30s before he married; he and Elizabeth apparently had no children.
Many other members of the Sharp family would later be buried at Winfield Baptist Church. Among the first was four-year-old Dessie Hazle Sharp, who died in September 1908. She was the daughter of Calvin M. and Sarah “Sallie” Chitwood Sharp, and the granddaughter of James and Polly Gibson Sharp.
Both Calvin and Sallie Sharp would be buried at the cemetery alongside their daughter, and their son, John Artist Sharp, was buried there in 1970, as was his wife, Cora Loudin, in 1987.
Sallie Sharp was only 48 when she died on Jan. 5, 1913. Her husband, Calvin, died many years later, in 1953.
Other children of James and Polly Sharp to be buried at Winfield Cemetery included son John in 1907, and son Sterling in 1916 (and his wife, Delphia Pennington, in 1935).
Calvin Archer “Callie” Sharp was also buried at the Winfield Cemetery when he died in 1947 at the age of 61. However, he may have been from a different line of Sharps. His mother was Kizzie Sharp, originally from Norma.
George Perry Hines (1873-1954), the Winfield businessman who married into the Sharp family, is not buried at Winfield Baptist Church. He was buried at Walter Duncan Cemetery when he died in 1954. However, his wife, Edna Sharp, is buried at Winfield Cemetery. Following her death in 1934, George remarried to Verna Duncan.
George and Edna have several infant children buried at Winfield Cemetery, including a daughter born in January 1904. There is another stone that reads “infants,” inferring they may have been twins. There are no dates on the stone, however.
The Ross family
Another prominent family in Winfield in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the Ross family. The first of them to be buried at Winfield Cemetery was John A. Ross, who died on Nov. 24, 1889.
Hannah “Honor” Chitwood Ross, the daughter of Daniel and Anna Chitwood and an aunt to Miley Chitwood, married Alfred C. Ross in 1837. She was buried at Winfield Cemetery in 1890.
Like Honor’s nephew, Miley Chitwood, Alfred C. Ross died at London, Ky. during the Civil War as disease ran rampant through the Union army camps. He died of measles on Dec. 8, 1861, and is buried at Camp Nelson National Cemetery.
Alfred Ross was the son of Samuel and Margaret Gray Ross, who left Scott County and wound up in Missouri.
Alfred and Honor had several children born well before the Civil War started. One of them, Mary Ross, was buried at Winfield Cemetery in 1912.
Another of Alfred and Honor’s children, Cpl. Joel C. Ross, died during the Civil War, when he was only 16. Family legend has it that both Alfred and Joel were forced into service by Union soldiers who visited the family’s Winfield home on horseback. It is believed that Joel, who was only about 13 or 14 when he joined the army, died after being taken prisoner. He is buried at Annapolis National Cemetery in Maryland.
One of Mary Ross’s children, Francis Marion, was born in 1870 and was buried at Winfield Baptist Church when he died in 1954. He married Mary Orick, who is also buried at the cemetery. They raised a large family.
Among Francis and Mary’s children buried at Winfield Cemetery are daughter Iva Lou, who died in November 1918 at the age of 22; son Charlie who died in May 1944 at the age of 41; son Willie who died of pneumonia in November 1918 at the age of 11; and son Willard, who died in November 1910 at the age of 1.
Other Ross burials at Winfield Cemetery include several children: three-year-old Earl in 1930; five-year-old Edith in 1930; one-year-old Gary Lynn in 1959; and infant Paulee in 1936.
Cemetery Census
WINFIELD CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.55761, -84.45176
First Burial: 1852
Last Burial: 2021
Elsie Creekmore Acres 1920-1989
Philip C. Babb 1943-1944
Eliza Trammell Cecil 1885-1913
Ancil Chambers 1913-1948
Doris Grimes Chambers 1939-2006
Infant Chambers 1935-1935
Infant Chambers 1935-1935
Nellie S. Chambers 1914-1979
Paul Chambers 1932-2021
Sarah Chambers 1883-1942
Daniel Chitwood 1795-1852
Doris L. Chitwood 1922-1924
John G. Chitwood 1848-1921
Kissie Sharp Chitwood 1846-1901
Miley Chitwood 1842-1862
Robert L. Chitwood 1881-1935
Vernon M. Chitwood 1897-1936
William W. Chitwood 1881-1909
Arthur C. Cole 1901-1930
Melvin Cole 1923-2002
Ella G. Collins 1903-1907
Hettie Coffey Crabtree 1881-1912
Gertrude H. Crain 1887-1909
Eva Cordell Creekmore 1892-1943
Hobert Creekmore 1917-1927
Polly Davenport 1841-1926
Edgar Dunaway 1896-1907
Anna Strunk Duncan 1855-1931
Granville C. Duncan 1838-1921
Joseph E. Duncan 1896-1942
Thomas J. Duncan 1897-1917
Bessie P. Hail N/A-1896
Infant Hail 1894-1894
Sallie Hamilton 1859-1928
Elizza Stodgill Heath 1835-1887
Nan Hill 1925-1925
Ednar Sharp Hines 1879-1934
Infant Hines 1904-1904
Infants Hines N/A-N/A
Ella Jones 1872-1910
Sally B. Lambirth 1873-1904
Cynthia Brown Owens 1872-1925
Jewell Owens 1909-1918
Lucy L. Owens 1917-1917
Opal Owens 1894-1919
Ruth Owens 1910-1911
William B. Owens 1858-1939
Dorothy Phelps 1917-1941
General S. Phillips 1850-1912
William L. Pyle 1860-1959
Charlie E. Ross 1903-1944
Earl Ross 1927-1930
Edith Ross 1925-1930
Francis M. Ross 1870-1954
Gary L. Ross 1957-1959
Hannah Chitwood Ross 1817-1890
Iva L. Ross 1896-1918
John A. Ross N/A-1889
Mary Ross 1842-1912
Mary Orick Ross 1877-1961
Paulee Ross 1936-1936
Willard Ross 1909-1910
Willie Ross 1907-1918
Calvin A. Sharp 1885-1947
Calvin M. Sharp 1860-1953
Cora Loudin Sharp 1904-1987
Dessie H. Sharp 1904-1908
Elizabeth Hill Sharp 1847-1910
Infant Sharp 1865-1865
James L. Sharp 1816-1893
Jane Sharp 1847-1910
John A. Sharp 1900-1970
John L. Sharp 1852-1907
Mary Gibson Sharp 1821-1916
Nicholas Sharp 1841-1887
Sarah Chitwood Sharp 1864-1913
Delphia P. Sharpe 1865-1935
Sterling G. Sharpe 1856-1916
Corda A. Simpson 1878-1908
George W. Simpson 1873-1936
Martha Walker Simpson 1874-1955
Ralph Simpson 1905-1911
Samantha Simpson 1904-1904
Cecelia Slaven 1927-1929
Lesley Slaven 1924-1924
Magnolia A. Stanfield 1885-1892
Gennella F. Stanfill 1912-1921
James M. Stanfill 1868-1909
Milton L. Stanfill 1843-1933
Pearlie Stanfill 1902-1907
Polly S. Stanfill 1905-1906
Rebecca Collins Stanfill 1843-1907
Ruby Stanfill 1905-1906
C.A. Strunk 1894-1985
C.S. Strunk 1886-1890
Delores J. Strunk 1932-1932
John L. Strunk 1886-1928
Marion W. Strunk 1862-1911
Mary C. Strunk 1870-1950
Robert Strunk 1900-1960
Ruby Strunk 1905-1906
Elmon Thompson 1921-1925
Escar L. Thompson 1911-1932
William W. Thompson 1887-1956
Huey L. Walker 1851-1905
Josephine Bibbs Walker 1846-1887
Margarette M. Walker 1860-1942
Sarah Walker 1885-1886
Della G. Wilson 1931-1932
Eva Strunk Wilson 1906-1984
Lorene Wilson 1933-1933
Samuel Wilson 1899-1978
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.