BOSWELL CEMETERY
Boswell Cemetery is a well-maintained family cemetery at the site of the old Boswell homplace on the west side of Longsought Road about 1 mile south of Strayleaf Road. In addition to the identified burials, five graves (four adults, one child) are marked with fieldstones and jonquils at other locations suggest six additional unmarked burials.
David Donahue recorded Boswell Cemetery in March 2004. Particia Baucum recorded Boswell Cemetery in 1976. Her record appears in Henderson County, Tennessee Cemetery Inscriptions (R. H. Harris, Memphis, Tennessee, 1976), p. 7.
Boswell, Brown, d. Apr. 14, 1863, Aged 60 Y'rs. 8 Mo's.
Boswell, Infant, d. Dec. 11, 1926, "Infant son of Joe Boswell & Lorene"
Boswell, Infant, d. Mar. 23, 1916, "Infant son of Bebe Boswell & Zelma"
Boswell, Isabella G. [see Rhodes, Isabella G.]
Boswell, Joe, 1861-1914, "Father"
Boswell, Larry, 1890-1914, "Son"
Boswell, Mannella A., Dec. 7, 1810-Nov. 18, 1859, "Wife of Brown Boswell"
Boswell, Mary E., June 19, 1846-June 7, 1864, "Dau. of B. & M. Boswell" (fallen)
Boswell, Mary, 1862-1955, "Mother" [adjacent to marker for Joe Boswell]
Boswell, Nancy J., Dec. 26, 1824-May 11, 1899, "Wife of Brown Boswell"
Boswell, William, June 15, 1842-Mar. 25, 1843, "Son of B. & M. Boswell" (eroded)
Crook, William Franklin, Nov. 22, 1871-Apr. 17, 1873, "Son of E. H. & N. A. Crook"
Flake, James L., Oct. 29, 1849-Aug. 17, 1850, "Son of Jas. S. Flake"
Graves, M. L., July 5, 1831-Apr. 30, 1905
Graves, M. G., Sept. 29, 1839-Aug. 30, 1905Rhodes, Isabella G., Apr. 7, 1832-July 30, 1884, "Wife of A. H. Rhodes" "Dau. of B. & M. Boswell" (eroded)
History Notes
By W. C. Crook, Henderson County Historian
Lexington Progress, August 19, 1988Along the Long Sought Road north of Lexington lies the old Boswell homeplace and family cemetery. The Boawell house was erected by Brown Boawell, who was born on 14 Aug. 1802 in North Carolina. On October 15, 1829, he married Manella Graves, the daughter of Azariah and Penelope Simpson Graves. They moved to Henderson County in time to be included in the 1830 Census, and built a 20 x 20 one room long house with a fireplace at one end. The house was added on to considerably in later years achieving its present dimensions well before 1900. In 1912, the house received a thorough remodeling by members of the Boswell family, descendants of whom still own the structure.
South of the main house lies the family graveyard, where Brown Boswell was interred on April 14, 1863, Boswell's family died with the Confederacy during the War — a relation raised by Boswell, M. G. Graves, served with the 27th Tennessee Inf. [CSA], and is also buried in the family cemetery. His son, Sanders, served with the 16th [21st] Tenn. Cavalry.
A daughter, Isabella, married Alexander H. Rhodes, the County Clerk. His son, John B. Boswell, served in Brown’s 55th Tennessee. John B.'s later son-in-law, Felix Creasy, was publisher of the Lexington Republican, a well known County newspaper before the turn of the century. Brown Boswell's seventh child, Nancy Adeline, married Elliott Harrison Crook in 1871, who had served in Company I [formerly Company A] of the 13th Tennessee Infantry, the first unit raised in Henderson County to fight for the Confederacy. A son, Elijah Franklin Boswell, became clerk of the Chancery Court and as a son-in-law of John S. Fielder, was a part of Boswell, Fielder, and Company which served Lexington for a number of years.
After Manolla Graves Boswell's death in 1859, Brown married her sister, Nancy. Two children were born to this union. The eleventh and last child was a girl, Nancy, who was born a scant six months after her father's death in 1863. She was given the middle name Brown, as a posthumous honor to her father.
[The house described in 1988 was no longer standing in 2004.]