Located at the intersection of State Hwy. 81 and Leesburg Road, Jonesborough, Tennessee
Contact information: Zina Forester-Carter, 423-491-2995 or zinaforester@gmail.com.
The Fairview Methodist Church is the white building on the left, while the Maple Grove Society of Friends building (brick) is adjacent to the entrance gate of the cemetery off of Leesburg Road.
Fairview Cemetery Map
2008
Click on the map to enlarge.
SECTION 0 SECTION 1 SECTION 2 SECTION 3 SECTION 4 SECTION 5 SECTION 6 QUAKER SECTION
MISSING MARKERS OR UNMARKED GRAVE
HISTORY OF THE FAIRVIEW CEMETERY
From The History of Washington County, Tennessee, compiled by Joyce and W. Eugene Cox. Washington County Historical Association, Inc. 2001.
p.774-775:
“Among these community institutions, the cemetery developed first. According to tradition the cemetery had its beginning when a westward-headed wagon train paused beside the crossroads to bury a young girl who had died of fever. This first burial is believed to have occurred around 1790 in Tennessee’s pre-statehood days. Community burials have continued ever since through the earliest records surviving for the cemetery are from a century later. At Decoration Day in 1897, members of the community approved by-laws organizing the Fairview Cemetery Association. The association took over responsibility for two cemeteries which had developed side by side at Fairview-Maple Grove Cemetery attached to the Maple Grove Church of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and the Seceder Cemetery*, adjacent to the Church Cemetery.
By-laws established a five member board of trustees who “look after all the legal interest of the cemetery.” The first trustees were Jacob Leab, John M. Droke, John H. Smmith, S.B. Ferguson, and P.A. Miller. An upkeep committee elected annually supervises maintenance of the grounds. Each family owning burial plots in the cemetery has a vote in the election of officers and of “all questions which arise in interest” in the cemetery.
In 1970 a group met with the association directors for the purpose of forming a new cemetery association to obtain a charter form the State of Tennessee. The main reason for incorporating was to establish an organization that would assure the upkeep and care of the cemetery for the years ahead. A charter was received and the organization’s name changed to the Fairview Cemetery Association, Inc. The association continues to operate the cemetery today under the 1970 charter a non-profit organization.
The Quakers were meeting there by the early 1800’s. Isaac Hammer worshiped with the congregation on Wednesdays. In 1894 the Quakers joined with members of the Christian Baptist faith to build a replacement structure for the old log cabin. A frame structure was built, which eventually was given a brick exterior. This small, red brick structure still stands at the entrance to Fairview Cemetery. By agreement, the different denominations used this house of worship on alternate Sundays. Other denominations used the building at other times. The Methodists met here before they built their own building about 1908.
From the Memoirs of Charles Edmund Strain, son of William Stephenson Strain and Eliza Miller Strain and grandson of William B. and Martha Alice Stephenson Strain. The memoirs were written in 1962 when Charles was 84 years old.
John Strain, came to Washington County in 1781 and settled on the Muddy Fork of the Big Limestone. The Strains lived in Washington County until William Stephenson Strain sold the mill and moved his family to Texas in 1887.
He was married to Isabelle Allison Dec. 20, 1787. She survived him only a few months [actually seven years]. He died March 21, 1840 and was buried at Secider [sic], now Fairview grave yard two miles north of Leesburg in Washington Co. Tenn.” John Strain was a ruling elder of the Leesburg Presbyterian Church in the 1800’s.
William B. Strain, son of John and Isabelle, is buried in Section 0 of Fairview Cemetery, the oldest part. This section is next to the Fairview Methodist Church. John and Isabella are supposedly buried on either side of William B. Strain.
*Seceder
\Se*ced”er\, n. 1. One who secedes. 2. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a numerous body of Presbyterians in Scotland who seceded from the communion of the Established Church, about the year 1733, and formed the so-called Secession Church,. Source: Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996, 1988 MICRA, Inc.
A section of the cemetery to the left of the Quaker Church Building has approximately 26 unmarked graves under the trees. As reported by oral history, these are graves of gypsies who died while camping near Muddy Creek, not far from the cemetery.
A few years ago, a part of Section 0, where graves were not marked, was graded and became a parking lot for Fairview Methodist Church.
In 2004, the Quaker Church Building (Maple Grove Friends Church) and the Quaker Cemetery were deeded to the Fairview Cemetery Association. Additional acreage has been purchased for the cemetery’s expansion. The cemetery is divided into six sections.