HART-DICKENS CEMETERY

Photographs from the collection of Fran Marlow.

Located off the Ashport Road east of Matthews Road on the farm belonging to Howlett Forsythe, son of W. O. Forsythe. It is located deep in a wooded area, surrounded by tended fields. The area is very overgrown and not easily located unless you know exactly where to go. It is quite distressing to see how bad the condition of the cemetery looked. What once was Hart property when the cemetery was established has not been in the Hart family for many years now.

Image "hart-p01.jpg" is missing

Hart-Dickens Cemetery, 2000

 

Image "hart-p02.jpg" is missing

Hart-Dickens Cemetery, May 2003

 

Image "hart-p04.jpg" is missing Silas Hart Marker, May 2003

Image "hart-p08.jpg" is missing Martha Ann Markham Marker 2000

 

Silas HART was the patriarch of the Hart family. His grave marker, which had fallen over when we first saw it in 2000, and is laying on the ground, has written under his name "ca. Dec 25, 1851." The marker is broken halfway down through the word "AGED." In cursive, just below the crack is written "about 54 years."

Martha Ann, who Silas married in Northampton Co, NC in 1831, and most of their children settled in District 10 of Madison Co, TN in the late 1840s. Martha Ann Markham, was Silas' widow, who married H. H. Markham years after Silas' death. Her marker shows a Holy Bible at the top. Her dates of birth and death are given, b: Feb 7,1815, d: Nov 18, 1896. Written across the bottom is "Heaven is my house."

 

Image "hart-p05.jpg" is missing Cornelia Hart Marker

Image "hart-p06.jpg" is missing Wm. Joseph Hart Marker

 

Three of Silas and Martha Ann's children are buried in the cemetery:

daughter, Cornelia S. HART, Nov 16, 1839-Jan 1, 1904,written on the bottom of her marker "She died as she lived trusting in God"

son, Wm Joseph HART, May 3, 1842-June 10, 1918, across the top is inscribed 'In Loving Memory of ' with his name written as shown, abbreviated spelling of Wm. Across the botton is "Gone but not forgotten."

son, Silas D. HART, 18 May 1851 - 19 Oct 1918, w/ small Woodman of the World insignia. In 2000 the marker was upright. In May 2003, showing footstone w/initials SDH, it had toppled over backward. I show two pictures, one the marker is upright, and other it had fallen on the ground.

Image "hart-p03.jpg" is missing Silas D. Hart Marker, 2000

Image "hart-p10.jpg" is missing Silas D. Hart Marker and Footstone, May 2003

 

Image "hart-p11.jpg" is missing

Silas D. Hart Marker Toppled, Plus Back Sides of Welzie Hart
and Marth Ann Markham Markers, may 2003

 

Image "hart-p12.jpg" is missing

Welzie D. Hart Marker

The son of Silas D. Hart is Welzie D. HART, June 12, 1891-Sept 25, 1909. Under given name of Welzie, the marker denotes "son of S. D. & J. V. Hart." Written below that is "He was an angel that visited the earth and took the flower away."

 

Image "hart-p13.jpg" is missing

Fallen Dickens Obelisk

The few photos I've sent were the only graves which could be read at all. It's most difficult to even know how many graves there actually are there. The portion of the one Dickens marker I am sending only showed the surname, nothing more. The other graves could not be read on the remaining pieces of broken, shattered grave markers. I know of no confirmed info about any of the non-Hart people.

 

Image "hart-p09.jpg" is missing

Unidentified Graves

 

[HTML editor's note: Helen Johnson's 1992 record of Hart Cemetery provides names of two Dickens burials including the one represented by the fallen obelisk. The listing for Hart-Dickens Cemetery in Cemetery Records of Madison County, Tennessee, Volume II — North Half of the County lists several additional Dickins burials here known from the Dickins family bible.]