This cemetery was inventoried and transcribed by Timothy N. West and Sue Posey on 2 Nov 2019.
From the intersection of Highway 297 and Highway 27 at Huntsville/Helenwood, travel east on highway 297 for about 8.8 miles. The Cemetery is located next to and behind the Fairview Baptist Church.
Note there are two cemeteries here. The large Fairview Cemetery and the Fairview Memorial Cemetery. The Fairview Memorial Cemetery is on the far left side of the Fairview Cemetery and is separated from the Fairview Cemetery by an access road between the two and at the back of the cemetery.
This cemetery was originally inventoried on 4 Sep 2001 by Theresa McCoy and Sue Posey
This was the last cemetery Sue Posey and I inventoried together before she passed away in late Nov 2019. Some of her ashes were laid to rest here. I deeply miss her. This inventory is in her honor.
It took Sue and I two days to photograph all the headstones. Even then I had to go back on 9 Apr 2020 to photograph headstones we missed the first time, unfortunately without Sue at my side (or me at her side). We took almost 900 pictures. It has taken me almost another three weeks of full time effort editing, transcribing, linking, and double and triple checking the transcriptions and links.
It was tough trying to find all the headstones and military markers because so many are flat stones. That in itself is not that important; however, the grass that grows in this cemetery is a bermuda grass. It grows vine like and quickly covers the flat stones with a thick thatch. We discovered some stones not previously inventoried in 1994 or 2001 but failed to find some flat stones we knew should be there (primarily military markers).
Fairview – In terms of Scott County’s largest cemeteries, there are three that stand out: Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery in Oneida, Black Creek Crossroads Cemetery in Robbins, and Carson Memorial Park in Oneida. Each of those three cemeteries contain in excess of 1,000 burials. But in each of Scott County’s communities, there is a cemetery that stands out as being larger than the others that can be found in that particular community. And in Fairview, that exception is Fairview Cemetery. Also known as Jeffers Cemetery, the Fairview Cemetery contains more than 700 graves. When combined with the adjacent Fairview Memorial Gardens, that number swells to more than 1,000 and places Fairview in the same category with the three cemeteries aforementioned. These cemeteries, Fairview and Fairview Memorial Gardens, are, in fact, two separate cemeteries, although there’s only an access road separating them. There are some who dispute that, arguing that the two cemeteries are actually one. For legal purposes, however, they’re very much separate, with Fairview Cemetery incorporating everything inside the access road that perimeters it, while also spilling over that road on the back, or north, side, and Fairview Memorial Gardens situated along the west side. The largest of the two cemeteries, by far, is Fairview Cemetery. It is more than double the size of its neighbor. It’s also by far the oldest, dating back more than half a century before Fairview Memorial Gardens. Because there’s often confusion about these two cemeteries, however, we’re treating them as one for the purposes of this installment of Sacred Ground. After all, the families buried at the two cemeteries also overlap in most cases. Hereafter in this story, “Fairview Cemetery” will oftentimes be used interchangeably and may also refer to Fairview Memorial Gardens. [Webmaster Note: I treat these two cemeteries as separate cemeteries. See Fairview Memorial Cemetery for an inventory of those buried therein.]The Byrd FamilyThe first burial at Fairview, though the stone has deteriorated and crumbled and is no longer legible, was Alvis Kincade Byrd, a young child who died in 1859. The Byrd family was one of the first to settle the Fairview area and remains prominent there today. Young Alvis was nearly two years old when he died in December 1860, the son of Farrell “Bratcher” Byrd and Margarette Boshears Byrd. Both of his parents would later be buried at the cemetery, as well. Bratcher Byrd was the son of William Byrd Sr. and Elizabeth Shoopman, who are also buried at Fairview Cemetery. It is with William Byrd that the Fairview Byrd family began. Born in 1804 in Buncombe County, N.C., William Byrd moved to present-day Scott County sometime prior to 1830. He may have married his wife, Elizabeth, in Virginia in 1828. She was the daughter of Jacob Sylvester Shoopman and Mary “Polly” Owens. Her family moved to present-day Scott County, as well, though her parents had moved away by the time of their deaths. When the 1830 census was taken, William and Elizabeth Byrd were listed in Campbell County, Tenn. The Fairview area was part of Campbell County prior to the establishment of Scott County in 1849. William Byrd was one of the few Scott Countians to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War. There may have been as many as 16 of the Byrd children, including Bratcher Byrd. The U.S. census did not list household members’ names prior to 1850, though there were a total of five people living in the home in 1830 (including what appears to be two children and, perhaps, a parent). By the time of the 1850 census, there were nine children living at home, including 21-year-old Sarah Byrd, and ranging down to one-year-old Zachariah Byrd. When the 1860 census was taken, five Byrd children still lived at home. Other known Byrd children included Martha, born in 1826, John, William, Jesse, F. W., Emiline, William Riley, Oliver Perry, Elizabeth, and Oliver. Bratcher Byrd, born in 1830, married Margaret Boshears in 1857. She was the daughter of Isaac Boshears and Elizabeth Wilson. They were married in 1818 and they, too, are buried at the Fairview Cemetery. Bratcher and Margaret had at least six children besides Alvis. There was Jessey Byrd, Alvis’s twin brother, who died just four days after Alvis did and is also buried at Fairview Cemetery. There was also William Riley, James Edward, Martha “Patsy”, Rachel, and Motlany “Lanie.” Besides Bratcher and Margaret, twins Alvis and Jessey, and William and Elizabeth, many members of the Byrd family mentioned here are buried at the Fairview Cemetery. Bratcher’s sister, Martha, and her husband, Jesse James Adkins, were buried at the cemetery. So, too, were Bratcher’s other children: William Riley and his wife, Martha Jeffers; James Edward and his wife, Patsy Boshears; Rachel and her husband, Sherwood “Shird” Adkins; and Motlany and her husband, Thomas Jefferson Jeffers. The only exception was Patsy, who was buried at Huntsville Cemetery, along with her husband Ewell Smith Boshears. In total, well over one in 10 people buried at Fairview Cemetery had the surname Byrd. That doesn’t include members of the family who married and took on other names. One of the most recent to be buried at Fairview was Vivian Simpson Byrd Lindsey, the wife of Verlon Byrd (and, later, Otis Lindsey), in 2016. Verlon Byrd, who died in 1977, was the son of James Enmon Byrd and Zora Belle Phillips, and a great-grandson of Bratcher and Patsy Byrd. There have been a handful of members of the Byrd family buried next-door at Fairview Memorial Gardens, as well. The first was Floyd Kenneth Byrd, who died in 1996. He was the son of Fairl Byrd and Isa Della Cross, both of whom are buried at the original Fairview Cemetery, and he married Ella Mae Silcox, who was buried beside him in 2002. Their daughter, Alma Ruth Lay, was also buried there in 2010, as was her husband, Donald Gene Lay, in 2015. Fairl Byrd was the son of James Edward Byrd and Patsy Boshears, and a grandson of Bratcher Byrd, making Floyd Kenneth Byrd a great-grandson of Bratcher Byrd. Several of Floyd Byrd’s siblings were buried in one of the two cemeteries, including Herbert Byrd and his wife, Elmina Hicks; David Kelly Byrd and his wife, Edna Hughes; Lola Byrd and her husband, Walter Robinson; Lowell Ancil Byrd; Fairl Byrd Jr.; Clyde Willard Byrd and his wife, Goldie Belle Silcox; and Effie Belle Byrd and her husband, Ora Lee Jeffers. The most recent burial of a member of the Byrd family at Fairview was Willis Gene Byrd in 2023. He was the son of Clovis Byrd and the grandson of L.D. Byrd and Della Chambers. He was a second-great-grandson of Bratcher Byrd. The Jeffers FamilyIt was mentioned earlier that the Fairview Cemetery is also referred to as the Jeffers Cemetery. And for good reason. There are just as many members of the Jeffers family buried in this sprawling cemetery as there are members of the Byrd family. Not surprisingly, you’ll find a connection between the Jeffers and Byrd family if you go back far enough, and that was Bratcher Byrd’s son, William Riley, who married Martha Jeffers. Martha Jeffers Byrd, who was buried at Fairview Cemetery in 1923, was a sister to Thomas Jefferson Jeffers, who married William Riley’s sister, Motlany Byrd. Martha and Thomas Jefferson were the children of Emsley Milton Jeffers and Elmira Chambers, both of whom were buried at Fairview Cemetery in the 1890s. Emsley’s mother, the grandmother of Martha Jeffers Byrd and Thomas Jefferson Jeffers, was Juda “Judy” Jeffers, the first member of the Jeffers family buried at Fairview Cemetery in 1881. Judy Jeffers was the daughter of William Jeffers and Mary “Polly” Flathers, who moved to Indiana in their later years. She had a brother, John Jeffers, who was buried at Winona Cemetery in 1903. She had another sister, Mary “Polly” Jeffers, who is buried at Crowley Cemetery in Huntsville. And sister Nancy Jeffers Lawson lived in Huntsville before moving to Missouri and then to Clinton County, Ky. According to most genealogical sources, Emsley’s father was Allen McDonald, a captain in the Union army during the Civil War and son of Revolutionary War veteran James McDonald. McDonald was married to Judy Jeffers’ sister, Lakie Jeffers. She fell ill and died in December 1849, and it isn’t known where she is buried. Judy Jeffers had several other children, as well. The only one of them buried at Fairview Cemetery, besides Emsley, was James Jeffers, who died in 1887 at age 35. His wife, Naomi “Oma” Boshears, is also buried at Fairview Cemetery. Her father, Bill Boshears, was a sister to Margaret Boshears, who married Bratcher Byrd. Both Bill and his wife, Sadie Adkins Boshears, are buried at the cemetery, as well. James and Oma Jeffers have a number of children who were buried at Fairview Cemetery: William Riley Jeffers and his wife, Rebecca Thomas; Polly Jeffers and her husband, Emsley; Alice Jeffers and her husband, Lanty; Martha Jane Jeffers and her husband, James Byrd; Emma Jeffers and her husband, Abner Thomas; and John Burlin Jeffers and his wife, Kizzie Duncan. William Riley Jeffers and Emma Jeffers married siblings, Abner Thomas and Rebecca Thomas. Alice Jeffers and Polly Jeffers also married siblings; Emsley and Lanty Jeffers were the sons of Isaac Jeffers. Back to Emsley Jeffers, who was the father of Martha Jane Byrd and Thomas Jefferson Jeffers: he married Elmira Chambers, the daughter of Civil War veteran John Riley Chambers and the great-granddaughter of Revolutionary War veteran William Chambers. In addition to Martha Jane Byrd and Thomas Jefferson Jeffers, their children included John B. Jeffers, Allen Jeffers and Emberson Jeffers. Allen and Emberson both died young and are buried at Fairview Cemetery. Thomas Jeffers first married Nannie Bell Botts. Following her death in 1889, he married Motlany Byrd. He had at least 11 children: Emerson, Nannie Bell Sharpe, Luther, Marzetia, Charles Dewey, McKinley Angie, Clyde Edison, Claude, Clara Mae Long, Pearl Lee Edwards, and Celia Edna Sharpe. With the exception of Claude, Clara Mae, and Pearl, each of whom moved out of Scott County, all of them are buried at Fairview Cemetery. Donald Ray Jeffers, a former school board member and longtime postmaster who owned D. J.’s Pitstop in Fairview, was buried at Fairview Memorial Gardens when he died last year. He was a great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson Jeffers – the grandson of Luther Jeffers. As for Martha Jane Jeffers, who tied the prominent Jeffers and Byrd families of the Fairview area when she married William Riley Byrd, she had 10 children: Christopher Columbus, Loranza Daw, Allen Kincade, Melvina, Emma, Rachel Chambers, Emsley Frazier, Marion Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Terry, and Rosey Bell. Rosey, the youngest, died in infancy and was buried at Fairview Cemetery in 1901. Her siblings who were buried at the cemetery include Melvina, Emma (who died as an 11-year-old child in 1899), Emsley and his wife, Inda Sexton, Marion and his wife, Lucy Burress, and Mary and her husband, Elijah Terry. As is the case with the Byrd family, the Jeffers family is well represented at both Fairview Cemetery and Fairview Memorial Gardens. The most recent member of the family to be buried there was Donald Ray “D. J.” Jeffers, a former school board member and longtime postmaster who owned D. J.’s Pitstop across the street. He was buried at the cemetery when he died last year. He was a great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson Jeffers, and a grandson of Luther Jeffers. In 2003, Sandy Jeffers was buried at Fairview. She was a student the University of Tennessee in Knoxville when she was kidnapped and murdered in 2003. She was the daughter of Walter Jeffers and Wanda Day, who are also buried at Fairview. The Marcum FamilyThe Byrd and Jeffers families are the most prominent families represented at Fairview Cemetery, but there are many others, as well. With more than 750 people buried here, delving into all of them would be very difficult. But one name that especially stands out at the cemetery is Marcum. Several dozen members of the Marcum family have been buried at Fairview Cemetery through the years, beginning with brothers John Marcum and Martin Van Buren Marcum in 1902. John Marcum was 32 when he died in March 1902. Two months later, Martin Marcum died at age 35. John and Martin were the sons of Simeon Marcum and Prudy Mathis, both of whom would later be buried at the cemetery. Simeon Marcum was the son of Elizabeth Byrd Marcum, who was a sister to William Byrd Sr. Simeon Marcum and Bratcher Byrd were first cousins. Martin married Mary Cross, the daughter of Absalom Johnson Cross and Sally Patterson. They had a son, Johnson Hurstle Marcum, who was buried at Fairview Cemetery in 1933, after dying at age 42 in a collision with a train. Martin’s other children included James, Ella, Luther, Florence, and Charles. John married Amley “Tucy” Silcox, the daughter of James and Nancy Silcox. When the 1900 census was taken, they had three children: Pruda, Bertha, and James. Unfortunately, death records for the brothers are not easily obtainable. It goes without saying, though, that two young brothers dying within two months of one another is attention-grabbing. Simeon Martin was buried at the cemetery in 1915, and his wife was buried there less than one year later. High-Profile BurialsThere have been several high-profile burials at Fairview Memorial Gardens in recent years. In 2003, Scott County Sheriff’s Department deputy Hubert Dean “John John” Yancey was buried at the cemetery when he was killed in the line of duty on Thanksgiving weekend at the age of 35. He and several other deputies were investigating a meth lab at a residence in Oneida when he was shot and killed by his partner, Marty Carson. His death sparked multiple investigations at the state and federal level, as well as a high-profile civil trial. In 2006, U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Rusty L. Washam was buried at the cemetery after being killed in combat in Iraq at age 21. He was the son of Sonny and Beverly Washam. His father was a career military man, and his mother was a school board member in Scott County. He had two brothers who served in the military, and an uncle who died in the Vietnam War. In 2013, Scott County Sheriff Mike Cross was buried at the cemetery when he died of cancer at age 56. He was also a former chief of police in the Town of Oneida. The Cemetery TodayBoth cemeteries, Fairview Cemetery and Fairview Memorial Gardens, remain very active. There have been 10 burials there so far in 2024: Stephen Adkins, Luther Quinn Chambers, James F. Fitzgerald, Marilyn Jeffers Gibson, Kathleen Byrd Harness, Gather Dean Lowe, Danny Ray Muse, Simon Scott Sharpe, Donald Ray Silcox, and Audrey Fay Smithers. (Source: The Independent Herald , 14 Nov 2024, p14-26)
This page was created by Timothy N. West and its contents copyrighted © 1996-2026 by him. All rights reserved.
