Latture Cemetery
LATTURE CEMETERY is located in Silvacola, Tennessee, a little spot about halfway between Kingsport and Bristol on the long stretch of road called, alternately, Lee Highway / US-11 / TN-1 (take your pick). There are no signs or real landmarks at Silvacola any longer.
Here are directions that might not be the shortest way, but will be the easiest to follow and actually find the cemetery.
- Drive to Blountville, TN.
- Drive north on TN-394 N/Tennessee Ernie Ford Pkwy (Highway 37).
- Travel about 3.5 miles to Lee Highway / US-11 / TN-1.
- Turn LEFT onto Lee Highway – and this is Silvacola.
- Travel a mile or so on Lee Highway.
- On the RIGHT look for Cold Springs Road – look for a white fence, a big utility box and an overgrown grassy plot behind the fence.
- Turn RIGHT on Cold Springs Road. (It forms a horseshoe to the right, becomes Central Heights Road and eventually comes back out onto Lee Highway.)
- Latture Lane is a mile or so around the horseshoe on the left. Turn LEFT on Latture Lane.
- A mile or so up Latture Lane there is a handmade sign for Latture Cemetery on the left.
There is no town at Silvacola now – only fields. Boozy Creek runs to the north; Reedy Creek to the south. In the 1800s it was a thriving little neighborhood with a church, schoolhouse, mill and country store. The area was populated by the Doggett, Harr, Latture, Droke, and Akard families – all of whom intermarried enthusiastically. My GGGrand Doggetts are buried in the Doggett/Harr Cemetery which is located in that little overgrown grassy plot behind the white fence in the picture at the top – this is where the church used to stand. My GGGGrand Droke family owned the mill (later owned by the Morrell family), my Ggrand Josie Latture Doggett was the teacher at the schoolhouse, and my Ggrand Doggett family owned the country store. In Silvacola there are roads named Latture, Droke and Akard. They all come together just north of the Latture Cemetery. ~ Janet Doggett LaFleur
I would like too know if anyone has records of the cemtary becuse my GreatGreat grandpa and grandmaw are buried their.Me and my mother are trying to find out which graves are theirs becuse some of the head stones have no names on them we are doing a family tree for our family if any one can help we would appreciate it.
Hi James,
Here is a website for the Latture Cemetery, which has good photographs of most, if not all, the gravestones there.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaschs2/joseph_latture.htm
I’m a Latture descendant, too, and have a fair amount of information about some branches of this family. If you have specific questions I would love to hear from you. You can reach me at thelafleurs@verizon.net
Cheers, Janet
The two stones next to William and Mary Wilson and once marked only by the initial W are the tombstones of Robert and Nancy Carnes Wilson. The land on top of Walker’s Mt where the Lature House and the Cemetery were located was the property of Robert Wilson by land grant from the State of Virginia with approval of the State of North Carolina prior to Tennessee Statehood.
Nancy died about 1811 and was the first person buried in the cemetery to my knowledge. Robert and Mary were my 4th Great Grandparents. They were both born in Northern Ireland of Scottish descent.
I would like to know who has the Latture cemetery records and how to contact them. In the 1900 census it shows my grandfather’s wife at the time having had 5 children, 3 of whom were living. I am trying to find out if these children belonged to my grandfather. His name was Thomas Fain Wilson who married Sarah Jane Taylor in 1889. There is no 1890 census records to see if she had children before she married my grandfather. I am “assuming” the children were born between 1889 and 1900 and the two deceased were probably infants. I think they would have been buried in Latture cemetery if that is the case. I would like to know if any Wilson infants or children are buried in the cemetery.
The best Latture cemetery records I know of are at the websites I’ve listed below.
https://tngenweb.org/cemeteries/index.html#cm=1290678
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaschs2/joseph_latture.htm
https://plus.google.com/photos/105337708083578342827/albums/5187218191138324113
https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=14526
Good luck – have fun!