Scott County, Tennessee
Smithers Cemetery at Robbins

This cemetery was inventoried and transcribed by Timothy N. West and Sue Posey on 19 Jun 2001.

From the intersection of Blackcreek Road and Highway 27 in Robbins, travel west on Blackcreek Road for about 0.1 miles crossing the railroad tracks. Turn right on to Sims Road and travel about 0.2 miles to where Sims Road takes a sharp left turn. Travel straight ahead into the church parking lot and continue on the road that leaves the parking lot(the church will be on your left and railroad tracks will be on your right). This road takes you to the cemetery.

Vickie Hicks, daughter-in-law of James "Ted" Hicks and Welthia Marie Bowling Hicks provided much of the information found in the "Comments" column below.

Timothy N. West and Sue Posey revisited, photographed headstones, and updated the inventory for this cemetery on 29 May 2013

ROBBINS – In a peaceful, wooded setting along the railroad tracks here, directly in back of the masonic lodge, is the Smithers Cemetery.

This small, well-maintained cemetery dates back about 100 years, and has grown to include about five dozen graves. It is named after the Smithers family that has long been prominent in the Robbins area; a family whose roots can also be found at the Black Creek Crossroads and Kilbeck cemeteries near here.

Smithers Cemetery is unique for the number of handmade headstones – often hand-painted rather than engraved – that are located here.

The cemetery is often called the Moffitt-Smithers Cemetery.

The Smithers Family

The Smithers family buried at Smithers Cemetery begins with James “Bud” Smithers (1868-1933) and his wife, Zelphia West (1871-1952).

Bud Smithers, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, was the son of Ruben Smithers (sometimes spelled “Smither”) and Anna Lawson. Reuben Smithers (1828-1881) was a veteran of the Civil War, serving in Co. F of the 1st Tennessee Infantry. (There was a separate Rubin Smithers from Scott County who served in the Civil War, as well.)

Reuben Smither was the son of William Smither and Eva Sanders, both of whom are buried at Kilbeck Cemetery a few miles away on Black Creek. He was one of five children. His siblings include Jane Smithers Lackey, Nancy Smithers West, Ephram Smithers, and Polly Smithers. William Smithers was originally born in Virginia before coming to Tennessee and settling on Black Creek.

It is not clear where Reuben or Anna Lawson Smither are buried.

Zelphia West was the daughter of Reuben West and Rebecca Sexton. Her father was also a veteran of the Civil War. He is buried at Helenwood Cut. Her mother was the great-granddaughter of Revolutionary War veteran Timothy Sexton.

Bud and Zelphia were married in 1889. They had at least 10 children, including Nathan Hurst, Rebeckey, Anna Moffitt, Mary Bowling, Archie Robbins, James William, Ella Davidson, Bessie, Pearl, and another child who died at birth.

Rebeckey died in infancy in 1891 and was the first person buried at Black Creek Crossroads. The other baby is one of the many young children buried at the Smithers Cemetery, though the dates of birth and death are unknown. The handwritten stone simply reads, “Baby Smithers.”

Nathan Hurst, known as Nate, married Nancy Smith, and later married Geneva Lawhorn. He had four children and died near Danville, Ky. in 1960.

Annie married William Moffitt Jr. and had six children. She is buried at Smithers Cemetery.

Mary Elizabeth, known as Lizzie, married William T. Bowling. She is buried at Smithers Cemetery.

Archie died in 1945 at the age of 42 and is buried at Smithers Cemetery with a handmade concrete stone.

James William married Mildred Griffith. He died in 1982 and is buried in Morgan County.

Ella married Isaac J. Davidson. She died in 1972 and was buried at Smithers Cemetery.

Bessie Smithers apparently moved to Ohio and lived to an old age.

Pearl married Roy Freeze and moved to North Carolina, where she died in 1993 at age 91. She had a 9-month-old son, Dewey Howard, who was buried at the Smithers Cemetery in 1939.

Bud Smithers was buried at Smithers Cemetery in 1933. Zelphia Smithers was buried there in 1952.

The Cemetery Begins

The first person confirmed to be buried at Smithers Cemetery wasn’t a Smithers. Rather, it was Charles Elmer Mullins, a teenager who died on April 1, 1924.

Charles was the son of Henry S. Mullins and Louvinia Cope and was just 15 when he died in 1924. He died in a railroad accident at Rockwood. His foot was crushed by a train, and he bled to death before he could be saved. A death certificate simply stated that he was buried at Robbins.

The Mullins family was originally from Pickett County, but Henry and Lou moved to the Mountain View community in Robbins. Henry and Lou were both buried at the Storey Cemetery in Mountain View when they died in the 1950s.

Charles had several siblings, including Hattie Mullins, McKinney Ambrose Mullins, Ella Mullins, J. Carroll, and James Alfred. Most of his siblings are buried at Storey Cemetery, though he has siblings buried at Black Creek Crossroads and Hazel Valley.

It’s worth noting that Charles Mullins may have actually been the third person buried at Smithers Cemetery. Information published by historian Timothy West in his transcription of the cemetery indicates that two children of William and Mary Bowling died in 1919 and were buried at the cemetery. More information on them is included below.

Bud Smithers was the next person buried at Smithers Cemetery, nine years later.

The next burial at the cemetery came one year after Bud Smithers’ death, in August 2024, when Isaac J. Davidson was buried there. Davidson was Bud Smithers’ son-in-law, having married Ella Smithers. They had a son, James Franklin Davidson, buried at the cemetery in 2011. His wife, Joyce Morgan, was later buried there in 2017. Another son, Isaac Jones Davidson Jr., was buried at the cemetery in 2014. He had an infant son, Michael J. Davidson, buried there in 1956.

The Moffitt Family

The same year that Bud Smithers’ son-in-law, Isaac Davidson, was buried at the family cemetery by the railroad, infant Frankie Elizabeth Moffitt was buried there. She was born and died on Dec. 9, 1934, and is one of many people buried at Smithers Cemetery with a homemade headstone.

Frankie Elizabeth was the daughter of William Archie Moffitt and Gladys Ruby Thomas. She has two siblings buried at the cemetery, including sister Bobbie Lorine Wilson, who died in 2013, and her husband, Fred, in 2001; and sister Barbara Joann Moffitt, who died in 2020.

William Archie was the son of William M. Moffitt Jr. and Annie Smithers, and a grandson of Bud Smithers, making baby Frankie a great-granddaughter of Bud Smithers.

William and Annie Smithers Moffitt had a number of children, including James Eveart, Zilphia, Bessie, Pearl, and Ralph. All of them were eventually buried at the Smithers Cemetery: James in 1957 (his wife, Arie Gross, was not buried there, but they had an 8-month-old daughter, Sarah Lou, buried there in 1942 and a month-old daughter, Janice Louise, buried there in 1945), William Archie in 2001 and his wife Gladys Thomas in 1965, Zilphia in 1935 when she died of a chronic bowel condition at the age of just 22, Bessie in 1996 and her husband Glen Laymance in 1968 (and their infant son, Phillip, in 1943 and two-year-old son, Samuel, in 1948, along with daughter Anna Mae Muse in 2012), Pearl in 1976 and her husband, Oscar Phipps, in 1978, and Ralph in 1981 and his wife Gwendolyn Dyer in 2013 (and their son, Ronnie James, in 2024).

Like Bud Smithers, William M. Moffitt was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He was buried in the Smithers Cemetery in 1947 and has a military headstone that is nearly identical to his father-in-law’s. He was the son of Millard Moffitt and Melinda Smithers.

William Archie and Gladys Moffitt have one of the more unique headstones found in all of Scott County: it is a large, homemade concrete stone with hundreds of color-coordinated glass marbles embedded in it.

In addition to their 8-month-old daughter, Sarah Lou, and one-month-old daughter, Janice Louise, James and Arie Gross Moffitt had a son, Kelly Nathaniel Moffitt, who was buried at Smithers Cemetery in 1997. He married Altie Bowling, and she was also buried at the cemetery in 2001. Their daughter, Sharon Kay Moffitt, was buried at the cemetery in 2013, and their son, Eveart, was buried there in 2013. Another of James and Arie’s daughters, Mary Sue Moffitt, was buried at the cemetery in February 2024, along with her husband, Talmon Sexton, in 2011, and their son, Talmon Dwayne Sexton, who died of leukemia in 1968 at the age of six. A grandson, Trevor D. Sexton, was buried at the cemetery in 2019, when he died at age 15.

Also buried at the cemetery in October 1861, was infant William Everett Moffitt, the son of William Moffitt and Irene Patterson.

The most recent burial at the cemetery, as of this writing, was Ronnie James Moffitt, who died Aug. 28, 2024, at the age of 64.

The Bowling Family

Another of Bud Smithers’ daughters, Mary Elizabeth, better known as Lizzie, married William Thomas Bowling. She died in 1935 and was buried at the family cemetery. He died in 1941 and was buried beside her.

One of their children died in infancy and was buried at the cemetery. It is one of several diamond-shaped, homemade headstones at the cemetery and simply says “Baby Bowling,” with no dates of birth or death. The baby was buried directly behind Zelphia Smithers and Archie Smithers, its aunt and uncle, who have matching stones. Another identical stone is located beside the baby’s grave, and it also reads “Baby Bowling.” That would suggest that William and Lizzie Smithers Bowling actually had two children who died in infancy and were buried at the cemetery. Indeed, information published by West on his website indicates that these are the graves of Velma Christine Bowling and John Henry Bowling, who both died in 1919.

Surviving children included Nola Jane, who married William E. Sexton and settled in West Robbins, and Welthia Marie, who married James Theodore Hicks. Welthia and James, or “Ted,” are both buried at the Smithers Cemetery. He died in 1993, and she died in 2004. Their seven-year-old son, Charles William, was buried at the cemetery in 1944. He drowned in Campbell County. (Source: The Independent Herald, 19 Sep 2024, p18-23)