TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS FROM BLACK CEMETERIES
IN BENTON COUNTY, TENNESSEE
(Revised Edition with Maps)
Compiled by Jonathan K. T. Smith
Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 1995

(Page 55)

BLACK DEATHS MENTIONED IN
CAMDEN, TENNESSEE NEWSPAPERS

 

THE CAMDEN HERALD

February 8, 1884, JOHN MOORE's son died January 31.

March 13, 1885, "Aunt" CAROLINE WYLY died March 11 in south Camden.

February 5, 1886, PAUL TAYLOR, aged man, died near Camden, February 1.

March 3, 1887, MAT MILLIGAN, formerly of Camden, died in Fulton, Kentucky, February 7.

 

THE BENTON COUNTY ENTERPRISE

September 13, 1888, JOSEPH (Joe) COLEMAN given as barber at the Stigall House /a local hotel in Camden/

October 18, 1888 "Aunt" DAPHNY HUBBS, residing at Coxburg, was 105 years old and was "still lively as a cricket. "February 14, 1890, she died at Coxburg, February 8.

September 13, 1889, ELLA, wife of JACK PERKINS died September 8.

 

THE CAMDEN CHRONICLE

January 15, 1892, WILLIAM SIMPSON died near Camden, January 13; "a colored pioneer citizen . . . died at his home a short distance south of Camden. . . . "

March 10, 1893, MACK THOMAS, cobbler, died in Camden, March 6.

August 16, 1895, MARION NORMAN was killed by a fellow-black in south Camden, August 12.

April 1, 1904, "Aunt" BETSY TRAVIS, over 90 years old, died March 28.

July 29, 1904, JOSH SIMON, oldster, died in Camden, July 28.

July 29, 1904, Mrs. LEONARD COOLEY died July 22.

March 1, 1907, JEFF ELEY, over 100 years old, died February 22; came with the William Bartlett family from middle Tennessee to Benton County before 1861. "Uncle Jeff was always as polite as a Chesterfield to old and young and when it came to barbecuing, he was a past grand master at the art and for fifty years, perhaps, a barbecue was not considered a success unless Uncle Jeff had charge in preparing the meats."

June 24, 1910, SOLOMON DONLOE died in Camden, June 18.

May 21, 1915, "Aunt" HETTIE MILLIGAN died in Camden, May 17.

 

(Page 56)

December 17, 1915, PHYLLIS SIMONS died in Camden, December 11, to which place she had moved about 41 years previously. "Kindly, faithful, trustworthy . . . had been a kind of godmother to nearly every child born here since that time. She administered to the sick, soothed the dying . . . endeared herself to both the black and the white."

March 9, 1917, EASTER WYLY, aged, died in Camden, March 7; burial in Yarbrough lot in Camden cemetery; had lived with and been a member of the Yarbrough family since her youth.

April 20, 1923, LOLA MONTGOMERY died April 13 from stab wounds inflicted by Tiny Donlow in argument about chickens; body sent to Cairo, Illinois for burial.

 

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