This cemetery was inventoried and transcribed by Timothy N. West and Sue Posey on 2 Jun 2016.
From the junction of Highway 27 and Helenwood Road, travel on Helenwood Road until it dead ends on to Helenwood Detour Road. Turn left. This road become Helenwood Loop road after a sharp right hand turn in about 0.1 miles. Travel on Helenwood Loop road for about 0.1 miles and turn left on to road that takes you to the cemetery.
The name "Cut" apparently comes from the nearby train tracks cut through the hill when the tracks were expanded. The tracks adjoin the east side of the cemetery. Clell West believed several graves were destroyed when the expanded tracks were laid.
Theresa McCoy and Sue Posey originally inventoried this cemetery on 14 Aug 2002. The listing here now contains additional burials and corrects some obvious mistakes in the previous inventory. Also note there are many unmarked graves and graves only marked by fieldstones.
When you walk through the Helenwood Cut Cemetery, you can read the stones and almost feel the history of the long-forgotten town that once stood nearby. That’s because so many of the movers and shakers of what was once one of Scott County ‘s busiest towns are buried here, beside the Cincinnati-Southern Railroad (now Norfolk-Southern) that was built in the 1880s – the project that, as much as anything else, made Helenwood a civilization hub. There are two primary cemeteries that served the town of Helenwood, with the other being the Daniel Memorial Cemetery at Helenwood Baptist Church nearby. It is a slightly larger cemetery than Helenwood Cut, though it came later. It was also located right in the middle of what was once the town of Helenwood. Here, on the outskirts of what was once town, is the original burial place for the town – the Cut Cemetery. It’s called that because of the cut that was made into the hillside for the railroad when it was built. The railroad, in fact, “cut” right through the edge of the cemetery – some say through the cemetery itself. Clell West told Tim West, who maintains a database of Scott County’s cemeteries, that he believes several graves were destroyed when the railroad laid new tracks in the 1960s. Meanwhile, the cemetery hasn’t always been called Helenwood Cut. It has also been called the Pemberton Cemetery and the West Cemetery, and both of those families feature prominently there. The cemetery beginsAlthough it’s impossible to conclusively date the Helenwood Cut Cemetery, because there are so many graves that are marked with uninscribed or illegible fieldstone, the known burials at the cemetery date back to 1855, when the first wife of Rev. Robin Sexton was buried there. Salina Keeton (1817-1855) was only about 38 when she died. She shares a stone placed by descendants many years later with her husband and his second wife. Salina, who was more commonly known as “Lina,” was the daughter of William Keeton Jr. and Artema Stevens, who lived near Helenwood. She married Robin Sexton (1809-1885) in 1835. He was the son of Timothy Sexton Jr. and Nancy Ellis, and the grandson of Revolutionary War veteran Timothy Sexton Sr., who is buried at the Rob Sexton Cemetery near Round Mountain. Robin and Salina Sexton had several children before her death in 1855, including Artema, Emmanuel, Rebecca, Christopher, Melissa, Martha, Marion, and Trousdale. Most of Lina’s children would later be buried at the cemetery, including Artema, Rebecca, Melissa, Marion, and Martha. Following Lina’s death, Robin Sexton remarried to Elizabeth Newport in 1864, and they had several children, including Sylvania, Ellana, Amanda, Emily, and Simeon. Elizabeth was the daughter of Samuel Newport and Lucinda McPeters, and a granddaughter of Revolutionary War veteran Joseph McPeters. Robin Sexton died in 1885, and Elizabeth in 1910, and both were buried at Helenwood Cut. While some – or, perhaps, many – of the numerous unidentifiable graves at Helenwood Cut probably date to between Lina Sexton’s death in 1855 and her husband’s death 30 years later, there were no identifiable burials at the cemetery for some 29 years after Lina’s death. In March 1884, three-year-old James H. McDonald was buried in the second identifiable grave at the cemetery. It’s not clear who his parents were; his fading headstone identifies him as the son of “E. & A.” The only E. McDonald in Scott County at the time was Elihu McDonald, a grandson of Revolutionary War veteran James McDonald, who is buried at Winona Cemetery. He married Elizabeth Lewallen, the daughter of Scott County’s first sheriff, John Lewallen. Elizabeth’s middle name was Ann. And while the family would eventually follow John Lewallen to Texas, they were still in Scott County in 1880. However, there is no record of the McDonalds having a child named James. Their youngest child was 13 when the 1880 census was taken, and Elihu was about 55 at the time. Also, while Elizabeth’s middle name was Ann, she went by Betty, not Ann. In any event, it was with the burial of James McDonald in 1884 that the known burials at Helenwood Cut began to increase with frequency. Between young James’ death in March of that year and the death of Robin Sexton the following February, eight-year-old Gillie West died in June 1884 and was buried there. She was the daughter of Reuben West and Rebecca Sexton, a granddaughter to Robin and Lina Sexton. The West familyAs noted in the beginning, Helenwood Cut is sometimes called the West Cemetery. The West family’s prominence there dates all the way back to the beginning. Robin and Lina Sexton’s two oldest daughters, Artema and Rebecca, married brothers from the West family. Rebecca married Reuben West, and Artema married Charlie West. Both of the West boys were Baptist preachers. (Artema Sexton first married Riley Cecil, of the prominent Cecil family who lived at Helenwood and New River, and they had several children before he died young.) It was Reuben and Rebecca West’s young daughter, Gillie, who was the third known person buried at Helenwood Cut in 1884. Reuben and Charles West were the sons of John Wesley West (1820-1903) and Gracie Bauswell. When the 1860 census was taken, 18-year-old Reuben and 12-year-old Charles were living with their grandparents, Charles and Sarah Phillips. Charles West was born between 1774 and 1780 in Virginia. He married Sarah Phillips in Greene County, Tenn. about 1803, before their move to present-day Scott County. She was the daughter of Thomas Phillips and Sarah Betts. The rest of the Phillips family also moved to what is now Scott County. Artema Sexton married Riley Cecil about 1856. She married Charlie Westt in 1868. They had two children, Lorenzo and Monroe. Rebecca Sexton married Reuben West in 1863. They had several children besides Gillie, many of whom are buried at Helenwood Cut. Among them: Lina, Reubin, Silas, Zilphia, and Ellana. Charles and Artema, and Reuben and Rebecca, were all buried at Helenwood Cut, in addition to many of their children. Among other early burials at Helenwood Cut was 47-year-old Jeremiah West in 1890. He was the son of Reuben West (an uncle to the Reuben West already mentioned) and Emily Clemons. He also married into the Sexton family. He married Melissa (spelled Malissan on her stone), who was a sister to Rebecca and Artema. She was buried at the cemetery three years later, when she died at age 48. Many of their children are also buried at the cemetery. One of the exceptions is daughter Lina Belle, who married Adelbert Doisy. The Doisy family became prominent citizens of Huntsville and are buried at the Buttram Cemetery there. The Parker familyThere was perhaps no more important family in early Huntsville than the Parker family. Originally from Sheep Ranch between Robbins and Rugby, John Crawford “J. C.” Parker settled down in Helenwood as he became one of Scott County’s most prominent citizens. Born in 1841, Parker was the son of Joel Parker and Maria Hurt. He married Mary Burke, and they had several children, including Ella, Alice, Belle, John, Ida, Luther, Sam, and Burdett. An attorney by trade, J. C. Parker was Scott County’s first school superintendent, appointed in 1867. Later, he was elected Scott County Judge in 1883. He maintained a law office in Helenwood. Sadly, the Parker family’s story is one of tragedy. Mary Burke died on Christmas Day in 1885 at the age of 40 and was the first of the family buried at Helenwood Cut. She had two young children who were not yet school-aged. Burdett Parker was a bright student, described as a well-loved and intelligent person who left Helenwood and attended Lexington Business College. But he died in 1900 at the age of just 19. Then there was the story of Sam Young Parker. He followed in his father’s footsteps, attending the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to study law. There, he excelled as an athlete. He played both football and baseball and was recognized as one of the best athletes in the South. He was a fullback on the first UT football team to ever beat Alabama, in 1904. He was also UT’s ace pitcher in baseball and had offers to play professionally. But he wanted to return home to Helenwood to practice law, instead. But in 1906, shortly after returning to Helenwood, Parker was shot and killed as he stepped off a train at the Helenwood depot after returning from a baseball game in Oneida. Judge James E. Fulton, another attorney, who was an old friend of the Parker family, was arrested for the murder and later convicted. However, he served only 10 months in prison before being released. He was later shot and killed by newspaper editor J. E. Bell after a dispute over an editorial the newspaper had written while Fulton served as the city attorney of Oneida. Young Sam Parker was laid to rest beside his mother and brother at Helenwood Cut. And just a few weeks later, his father, J. C. Parker, also died and was buried at the cemetery. It is said that he grieved himself to death. John Parker, another of J. C.’s sons, was also buried at Helenwood Cut when he died in 1938 at the age of 54. There was also a Levina Parker buried at the cemetery when she died in August 1891. It’s not clear how she ties into the rest of the family, though it seems that she was likely a daughter of J. C. Parker. There’s also a Loretta Litton who was buried at Helenwood Cut in 1912, at the age of 34. She was born Loretta Parker. In the 1900 census she was listed as a servant in the household of Jeff and Belle Newman. Belle was one of J. C. Crawford’s daughters. It’s not clear what Loretta’s ties are to the family, but she was not listed in J. C. Parker’s household in the 1880 census. She later married Sterling Litton. The Strunk familyA partition in the Helenwood Cut Cemetery, enclosed with a wrought iron fence, contains several graves from the Strunk family. Among these are Eva Voss Strunk (1864-1929), who married Francis Marion Strunk. He is not buried at the cemetery, but several of their children are, including Francis M. Strunk Jr., who died as a young child in 1889; and Emma Strunk, who died at age 23 in 1917. Eva had two siblings buried at the cemetery: Jennie Voss Walker (1861-1952) and L. D. Ross (1869-1890). Her mother, Minerva Graham (1841-1913) is also buried there. Historian Robert Bailey, who compiled the Cemeteries of Scott County, Tennessee book in 1994, lists two unmarked Strunk graves: Starling, the infant child of Russell and Floridian Strunk, and Floridie Strunk herself. The Phillips familyThe Phillips family is also featured prominently at Helenwood Cut. Eight-year-old Rosa Phillips and her brother, infant Horace Phillips, were buried at the cemetery in 1888 and 1896, respectively. Listed in the 1880 census is an infant Rosa Ann Phillips who was the daughter of John and Martha Phillips, ages 23 and 16. However, they lived in the Buffalo Creek area. Magey Phillips (1862-1891) was buried at the cemetery in March of the following year. Her headstone indicates that she was the wife of John Phillips. John and Magey’s son, Fred A. Phillips, died in April 1891, at the age of four months, and was also buried at the cemetery. Aline Sexton, one of the daughters of Reuben West and Rebecca Sexton, married Blagburn Phillips. She was buried at the cemetery when she died in 1892, at age 35. Her son, Mitchell, and his wife, Mary Moore, were both buried at the cemetery when they died years later. The Pemberton familyHelenwood Cut Cemetery is often called the Pemberton Cemetery, even on some property records. The Pemberton family tied to the cemetery dates back to Churchwell Pemberton (1860-1940) and Nancy Duncan (1856-1929). Following Nancy’s death, he remarried to Sarah Madden (1876-1947). Church Pemberton was the son of George Washington Pemberton (1824-1895) and Mary Davis (1834-1874) from Wolf Creek in southern Scott County. Nancy Duncan was the daughter of George Duncan and Melissa Hurtt. She and Church were married in 1883. In 1891, Church and Nancy’s oldest child, 7-year-old Myrtie, was buried at the cemetery, as her parents would also be years later. Several of Church and Nancy’s other children were buried there, also, including Genie (1886-1917) and her husband, Reason Cecil (1877-1947); George Washington (1888-1957) and his wife Pharzina Thompson (1893-1983); and William (1891-1961) and his wife Pearl Adkins (1898-1925). Church Pemberton had a brother, Heywood Kingston Pemberton (1870-1954) who married Rachel Smith (1873-1931) and practiced law in Huntsville. Heywood and Rachel had an infant daughter who was buried at Helenwood Cut in 1899. George and Pharzina Pennington had a son who was also named Church, more commonly known as Churchie (1915-1986). He had an infant son, George Mitchell Pemberton, who was buried at the cemetery in 1936. Two years later, another of Churcie’s infant children, Milford, was buried at the cemetery. And in 1939, a third, Lanore, was buried there. The cemetery todayHelenwood Cut Cemetery now consists of more than 400 graves, and that number continues to go up. The most recent burial was James Howard Smith, who died last month. Prior to that, Lela Lackey Stewart was buried there in 2023. Her parents, R. T. and Vena Adams Lackey, had previously been buried at the cemetery. Bobby Grider was buried at the cemetery in 2022. His parents, Virgil Grider and Etta Lynn Grider, were also buried there, as were two of his siblings, Pauline Lackey and Billy Grider. Other recent burials include Ernest Phillips, one of the longest-serving county commissioners in Scott County’s history, in 2019, and his wife, Betty, in 2014. Son Mark Watters was buried there in 2020. Frankie Pittman Smith was buried at the cemetery in 2020. Her husband, Arnold Smith, had previously been buried there. James Howard Smith, just buried at the cemetery, was their son. (Source: The Independent Herald, 28 Mar 2024, p20-25)
This page was created by Timothy N. West and its contents copyrighted © 1996-2026 by him. All rights reserved.
