Located across from 1317 Timber Ridge Road in the Bluff City area of Sullivan County.  It is near where the Haynes property adjoins the old Paty property (now Frank Leonard’s.)  According to an older survey, there were more than 20 fieldstone markers at one time.  Some markers have been scattered about.

One marker with an inscription was found lying on its side. This cemetery is in a field and very overgrown with vinca covering the ground.  As of the most recent survey, only a few fieldstones and one base were found.

We strongly believe this is the Crockett-Offield-Howard Cemetery, which once contained a tombstone for Melvina M. Howard.  We were unable to locate the tombstone in 2006. It is possible that this cemetery is the same as the Crockett Cemetery.

Photographed and transcribed  17 September 2006 by Robert Shell and Donna Briggs, members of the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee.

Sullivan County Cemetery ID: 2097173

Map location: Keenburg Quad

GPS location:  36 °24.28N   082 °32.09W   Elevation: 1474 ft.

Additional Information

The graveyard is on property which came through Crockett-Offield.

Samuel Crockettt, born 1735, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, died 1795 in Sullivan County, Tennessee, was first married to Jane Steele (1737-1775) and his second was to Elizabeth Young, widow of James Young, of Sullivan County.  Elizabeth had two sons, James and Joseph, who sold land to Samuel Crockett.  Samuel and Elizabeth Young Crockett had only one son, Silas, who married Jane Offield, daughter of neighbor, Lewis Offield.  They apparently had no children that lived to maturity, although William, age 7, was living in the household of Silas, age 61, and Jane, age 49, in the 1850 census.

Silas was dead before 1860 and the census shows Jane, aged 59, living with Daniel Offield, age 23.  The census shows no Howard family in 1850 or 1860, but the 1870 census lists one Howard family in Sullivan County, which were black, living near Jane Crockett.  In 1870, Jane Crockett is 65 and living with William Offield, age 50, George Kets, age 16, and James Howard, age 33 (black).

Jane Offield Crockett left 1/3 interest in 213 acres left her by her late husband, Silas, and 1/3 of 434 acres conveyed to her by her father, Lewis Offield, to James Offield and James Howard.

Presumably the Howard family were slaves, since they were not listed in the census of 1850 and 1860, and Melvina may have been the wife of James Howard.  The other graves in the cemetery may have been of the Howard family.  This is perhaps another peculiarly Southern instance where slave owner rewarded the loyalty of slave.

Research by Alethia Haynes & Wilma McGarry Smith.