McDaniel/Huffine Cemetery 2015
Washington County, Tennessee Tombstone Inscriptions by Charles M. Bennett and the Watauga Association of Genealogists. Information used with the permission of Lorraine Bennett Rae.
From volume 2, page 277 – WCCL
“McDANIEL – 5 miles South of Johnson City, in the 8th district. Established by Joe McDaniel.”
From volume 2, page 277 – WCCL
“HUFFINE – 5 miles South of Johnson City in the 8th district, on the Byrd Huffine estate. Byrd Huffine was a Civil War Soldier”
This is clearly the same burial ground. [Daniel] Byrd Huffine owned this subject property, having acquired it from his father, Daniel Huffine. Joe McDaniel did not own the property here, however. Daniel Byrd Huffine is buried at Speedwell Cemetery, not on his estate.
Lydia was Joe McDaniel’s first wife and she was the mother of Omega McDaniel Leonard (Mrs. Batson Leonard). Joe’s second wife, Ellen (1843-1921), is buried off Southwest Avenue in the Keen Cemetery. They were married 26 April 1867 in Washington County, Tennessee.
LOCATION – North off Cherokee Road, about 1000 feet west of Sleepy Hollow Road. Washington County tax parcel 069-035.00 – This burial ground is on private property.
GPS Location: – +36° 16.255, -82° 24.085
McDaniel/Huffine Ariel View 2015
DEEDS – No deeds specifically call out the burial ground.
Deed Book 36, Page 315 (1857) – Estate of Nathan Peoples to Daniel Huffine.
Deed Book 44, Page 19 (1873) – Daniel Huffine to Daniel Byrd Huffine.
Deed Book 34, Page 281 (1853) – Henson Hunt to Joe McDaniel. This is for the property east of the graveyard location where Joe and Lydia resided in 1860, not the subject burial ground parcel.
CENSUS –
1850 – McDaniel, Jos 46 NC; Lydia 49 NC.
1860 – McDonel, Joseph 56 NC; Lydia 61 NC.
1870 – McDaniel, Joe 63 NC; Ellen 26 TN.
1880 – McDaniel, Joseph 72 NC; Ellen 32 TN.
1900 – McDaniel, Ellen 56 TN (widow).
BURIALS – There are 4 clear depressions. The marble marker for Joe & Lydia McDaniel lays on the high spot between the heads of two depressions which are marked with fieldstones. It appears that this marker was placed at a later date and that the fieldstones mark the actual graves. The other two depressions are marked only with fieldstones – their identity is unknown – and they are adult length graves. There may possibly be a few more graves, but if so, not many.
From census records, Lydia was born between 1799 and 1801. Her exact death date is unknown, although she was enumerated in the 1860 census.
Based upon census records, Joe was born about 1804. He was found in the 1880 census, however in 1900, Ellen was enumerated as a widow.
No specific evidence has been found to suggest why Joe McDaniel established this burial ground at this location, if in fact he actually did. Joe & Lydia were not living at the location when she died. Perhaps there were earlier burials of family, and Joe returned Lydia here when she died as opposed to burying her on their own property.
Surveyed, transcribed and donated to the Washington County TNGen Web October 2015 by Gordon M. Edwards and Elaine Scott Cantrell, members of the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee.
Copyrighted 2015 by the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee. No part of this work may be copied without written permission from the Cemetery Survey Team.
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