Feeley Cemetery
2003
Located behind 1314 Orleans Street, in Johnson City, Tennessee. The cemetery is almost completely impossible to find, as it is so overgrown. There are only 2 stones, but neighbors indicated that there was a “family” buried there. No other graves were found.
The family that lived there was the Kelley family.
James Feeley was the name that John Kelley went by during the Civil War. No documented proof has been found about that, other than family recollection and tradition passed down through the years.
There is also another burial ground on the same 5 acre parcel, the origins of which have not been found. These two burial grounds are documented on a plat surveyed in 2005 and recorded in Washington County Plat Book 19, Page 127.
LOCATION –
The Feeley-Kelley Family burial ground. Washington County tax parcel 047IJ015.00 behind the new apartments at 1400 Orleans Street and up on the hillside. The Feeley-Kelley military marker was found here, inside a small fence, along with an unnamed marble marker. This is behind where the Kelley homeplace stood.
The Unnamed burial ground located behind the residence at 1312 Orleans and under the parking lot of the apartment building on the same tax parcel. This spot is only noted based upon a survey from 1992 and the plat of 2005 – see deeds below.
Feeley-Kelley Cemetery
2015
GPS location:
Feeley-Kelley Marker: +36° 19.325, -82° 19.665
Unnamed Lower Location: +36° 19.315, -82° 19.735
DEEDS –
Deed Book 49, Page 168 (1879) – Caswell Taylor to Louisa Kelley – 5 acres. Louisa was the wife of John Kelley, also known as James Feeley, a name he obtained during his service during the Civil War.
Deed Book 236, Page 220 (1946) and Deed Book 425, Page 489 (1969) – Conveyances within the Kelley family. Quiet on graveyard(s).
Deed Book 571, Page 149 (1981) and Deed Book 576, Page 591 (1982) – deeds to Claude and Audrey Kelley – both mention and except the 30’ X 30’ fenced graveyard.
Deed Book 691, Page 59 (1990) – Audrey Simpson Kelley to Robert & Hazel Tipton – same 5 acre parcel, with burial ground mentioned and excepted.
Roll 25, Image 939 (1993) – This was a deed of correction to DB691/59. The correction was clearer and more accurate metes and bounds after a survey was done. This survey was done 18 Dec 1992, as noted on Plat Book 19, Page 127. The deed mentions and excepts the 30’ X 30’ burial ground. Still no mention of the unnamed graveyard.
Roll 117, Image 1313 (1997) – Tipton to Phil Street – mentions and excepts the 30’ X 30’ graveyard.
Roll 423, Image 584 (2004) – Phil Street to Orleans Terrace. In 2005, a thorough plat was surveyed prior to construction of the apartments. It was during this survey that both burial grounds were called out – the one with surveyed metes and bounds and the location of the Feeley-Kelley grave marker and fence.
BURIALS –
Civil War Military Marker
Feeley, Jas. CO A 1 N. J.L.A. [New Jersey Light Artillery] [No dates]
A Tennessee death certificate (#129) was found for Louisa Kelley. Born 23 August 1844 and died 16 March 1916.
In a correspondence to the Johnson City Press on 29 July 1985, Claude Kelley stated in part “…..This is a family cemetery, part of a homestead of 5 acres and contains five graves, three women, one child, one male. The last interment in this plot was in 1912. Only one military grave is in this cemetery, and that is of my grandfather, a veteran of the Civil War…..”
The names of the other 3 persons have not been determined.
Claude Kelley also stated that the fence was put up in 1983. He had acquired the property in 1982 (DB576/591).
A PARTING THOUGHT –
The size of the fence up on the hillside, although fallen and in very poor repair, appears to be about 10’ X 20’ maximum. Is it possible that the 30’ X 30’ spot was the lower spot, now under the parking lot, and that sometime during the latter years of Kelley ownership, the graves and/or markers were moved up on the hillside – a spot more protected? This theory is completely without proof, however, no proof of two burial grounds on this parcel has been found, either.
Surveyed, transcribed and donated to the Washington County TNGen Web 1 April 2003 by Donna Cox Briggs and Betty Jane Hylton members of the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee. Updated in November 2015 by Gordon M. Edwards, member of the Cemetery Survey Team.
Copyrighted 2015 by the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee. No part may be copied without written permission from the Cemetery Survey Team.