Sacred Ground: Phillips Cemetery (Little Bull Creek)
The Phillips roots run deep in Scott County, especially in communities like Cherry Fork, Huntsville and Oneida.
But some of the earliest and deepest Phillips roots extend through Winona and along the banks of Bull Creek south of Huntsville. We followed them to Phillips Cemetery, on a ridge above Little Bull Creek.
There are more than a dozen Phillips cemeteries in Scott County — about 15 in all. Most of them are small, and located in communities like Pine Hill, Cherry Fork and Helenwood.
The second-largest of these cemeteries — trailing only the Phillips Cemetery at Buffalo — is located along Little Bull Creek. Last week, “Sacred Ground” profiled the Bull Creek Cemetery at Bull Creek United Baptist Church. As the crow flies, the Phillips Cemetery is just across the valley, almost within shouting distance on a calm, quiet day.
The Phillips Cemetery at Bull Creek dates back to the 19th century. The first to be buried there were Joseph Phillips and his second wife, Elisabeth Hicks Phillips.
The Phillips Family
Joseph Phillips was the father of Jehu Phillips, one of Scott County’s early elected officials, and an ancestor to some of the most prominent Phillipses in Scott County today.
Born in Grayson, Va. In 1787, Joseph Phillips married Elizabeth “Millie” Lawson — the daughter of Revolutionary War veteran Randolph Lawson — and moved to what would later become Scott County.
(An interesting side note about the Lawson family: You won’t find Randolph Lawson’s name on the plaque outside the Scott County Courthouse in Huntsville that commemorates Scott County’s Revolutionary War veterans, but that was apparently an omission. An 1826 court document from Campbell County noted that Lawson purchased five acres of property on Paint Rock Creek, and he appears in the Campbell County census in 1830. At the time, the Huntsville area was part of Campbell County. Lawson left the area in 1832, and died in Albany, Ky. in 1848. One of Millie Lawson’s sisters, Lakey Katie Lawson, married Thomas Chambers and they settled at Smith Creek.)
Joseph and Millie Phillips had several children, the oldest of whom was daughter Lucretia, born in 1820. She married John Goad, an ancestor to some of the Goads who would later wind up in Scott County, and they settled in Morgan County.
One year later, Jehu Phillips was born. He would later serve as Scott County Trustee. In 1904, he wrote a lengthy article for the Cumberland Chronicle that provided invaluable insight into early Scott County.
Other children included Horace Aaron, Riley, Wiley, Jeremiah, and perhaps others.
Millie Phillips died in 1838. She was the first person buried at Phillips Cemetery, although her grave isn’t located within the actual cemetery. It is located in the woods nearby.
After Millie’s death, Joseph Phillips remarried, to Elisabeth Hicks. He died in April 1881, and she died in November 1881. Both are buried at the Phillips Cemetery at Little Bull Creek.
While the Phillips Cemetery began with the Phillips family, there aren’t many of them buried at Little Bull Creek. Jeremiah “Jerry” Phillips, one of the sons of Joseph and Millie, was buried there when he died in 1918. His wife, Malinda “Lindy” Delk Phillips, was also buried there when she died in 1910. Several of Jerry and Lindy’s children — Joseph Phillips (1866-1930), R.M. (1882-1883), Melinda Roehana Phillips Jeffers (1872-1898) and Etty Tennessee Phillips Lloyd (1874-1907) — are buried there, as well.
The Lloyd Family
Also figuring prominently at the Philllips Cemetery at Little Bull Creek is the Lloyd family. Along with the Harnesses and Lawsons, the Lloyd were among the largest families to settle Bull Creek.
One of Joseph and Millie’s granddaughters, Etty Tennessee Phillips, married one of those Lloyds, Lewis Lloyd (1876-1951). He is buried at Little Bull Creek, as well.
Lewis and Etty had several children before she died in 1907. Following her death, Lewis remarried, to Margaret Lawson Lloyd.
One of the children of Lewis and Etty, Berty Lloyd, died at the age of three and is buried at Little Bull Creek. Some of her siblings who are buried at Little Bull Creek include Bessie Lloyd Cecil (1905-1956), Delora Lloyd (1909-1931), James Lloyd (1916-2003) and his wife Allie Harness Lloyd (1920-1991), and Ruby Gean Lloyd Harness (1934-1957).
Several of James and Allie Lloyd’s children are buried there: E.C. (1938), Luverne (1939) and Audrey Ray (1940).
Child burials at Little Bull Creek
There are a number of children buried at Phillips Cemetery at Little Bull Creek. Among them are the three infant children of James and Allie Lloyd — E.C., Luverne, and Audrey Ray, all of whom were born and died between 1938 and 1940.
James Patton, the son of Ezra and Vicey Lawson Patton, died in 1925 and is buried there (his grave is mistakenly listed on the FindAGrave website as being in the Bull Creek Cemetery). There are a number of others, as well.
One of the most striking scenes at Phillips Cemetery is located in the oldest portion of the cemetery, in the bottom corner. There are four children’s graves, all in a row, the moss-covered mounds of earth that never settled still covering the graves and denoting their small size.
These are the children of Mitchell and Delanie Lloyd Lowe: Ama, Elmer, Alma and Bernettie.
Delanie Lowe (1912-1970) was the daughter of Lewis and Margaret Lawson Lloyd, the brother of James Lloyd, who also has several children buried at the Phillips Cemetery. She married Mitchell Lowe (1908-1970). They died just four months apart in 1970 and are buried at Fairview Cemetery.
The Lowe infants’ graves were originally marked by uninscribed fieldstone. More recently, family members have placed commercial stones at their graves. Only the grave of Bernettie contains a date: Sept. 22, 1941.
Mitchell and Delanie had several other children who survived to adulthood: Roscoe Lowe (1933-1999), Beatrice Lowe Harness (1934-2015), Wallace Dean Lowe (1943-1975) and Margaret Lowe Byrd.
Cemetery Inventory
PHILLIPS CEMETERY (LITTLE BULL CREEK)
GPS Coordinates: 36.32421, -84.42985
First burial: 1851
Last burial: 2020
Burials since Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? Yes.
Ewell L. Bowling, 1850-1920
James R. Bowling, 1848-1887
Thelma Cecil Buttram, 1935-2003
Thurman E. Buttram, 1934-2020
Arthur Byrd, 1884-1913
Leon Byrd, 1888-1907
Bessie Lloyd Cecil, 1905-1956
Charlie H. Cecil, 1930-1930
China Coker, 1918-1918
Early Coker, 1905-1918
Henry Coker, 1866-1918
Samma Cook, 1921-1925
Elizabeth Thomas Cross, 1856-1937
Henry Cross, 1880-1918
Shelby Gibson, 1945-1946
Ezra Goad, 1914-1914
Infant Goad, 1907-1907
Benny Harness, 1926-1927
Billy Gene Harness, 1943-2005
Cleaves Harness, 1916-1930
Cora Lawson Harness, 1896-1938
David A. Harness, 1980-2009
Grace Harness, 1938-1938
Infant Harness, 1935-1935
Joyce J. Harness, 1941-1941
Kristen A. Harness, 1968-2003
Luther HarnessN/A-N/A
Odessie Harness, 1903-1924
Mira Gibson Harness, 1862-1922
Quinton Harness, 1963-2018
Ruby Gean Lloyd Harness, 1934-1957
Samuel Harness, 1860-1933
Susie Harness, 1949-1949
Tresa G. Harness, 1952-1952
Allen P. Hughett, 1880-1990
Charlie Hughett, 1891-1896
Fred H. Hughett, 1895-1937
Hassie Hughett, 1910-1918
Infant Hughett, 1909-1909
James “Jim” Hughett, 1854-1920
John “Johnnie” Hughett, 1868-1942
Sherman Hughett, 1894-1914
William H. Hughett, 1929-1931
Cynthia Jeffers, 1897-1898
Esau Jeffers, 1895-1898
Melinda Phillips Jeffers, 1872-1898
Sherman Jeffers, 1893-1898
Tina Lloyd Lane, 1969-2018
Anngetta Lawson, 1939-1939
Dorisetta Lawson, 1940-1941
William “Bill” Lawson, 1856-1933
Harold Lloyd, 1940-2016
Johnny H. Lloyd, 1944-2020
Johnny J. Lloyd, 1970-2013
Joyce Lloyd, 1934-2006
Ricky Lloyd, 1967-1998
Stanley E. Lloyd Sr., 1948-2001
Alma LoweN/A-N/A
Ama LoweN/A-N/A
Bernettie LoweN/A-N/A
Elmer LoweN/A-N/A
Allie Harness Loyd, 1920-1991
Audrey Ray Loyd, 1940-1940
Berty Loyd, 1903-1906
Delora Loyd, 1909-1931
E.C. Loyd, 1938-1938
Erley Loyd, 1909-1909
Ethel G. Loyd, 1957-1957
Etty Phillips Loyd, 1874-1907
Frankie Loyd, 1942-1943
James L. Loyd, 1916-2003
Lewis Loyd, 1876-1951
Lucinda Loyd, 1918-1921
Luverne Loyd, 1939-N/A
Perley Loyd, 1909-1909
Bonnie Steakley Miller, 1942-2016
James Patton, 1925-1925
Elisabeth Hicks Phillips, 1775-1881*
Jeremiah “Jerry” Phillips, 1838-1918
Joseph Phillips, 1866-1930
Joseph Phillips, 1787-1881
Malinda Delk Phillips, 1838-1910
R.M. Phillips, 1882-1883
Allen Robbins, 1888-1915
Elsie Robbins, 1914-1915
*The death date for Elisabeth Phillips may be an error. The 1850 census for Scott County states that she was born about 1803.
This story is a part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.