In March 1977, this small cemetery was located at the intersection of US Highways 11-E and TN23 in the middle of a trailer court. Parts of an old iron fenced remained. Patton’s Chapel Methodist Church was built of poplar logs and once stood here according to the late Mrs. Mary Hardin McCowan. It was abandoned when the church was moved to the Austin Springs community about 1890. The graveyard was about 40 x 50 feet, overgrown and abandoned. The parking lot of the old Lowe’s building now covers this area. Graves were moved 25 May 1990 to Snyder’s Memorial Gardens, Gray, TN.
Brockwell, David C., Mar. 6, 1846–Mar. 16, 1897 (His wife, an Archer, is buried here in an unmarked grave)
Gibson, Alvin H., Nov. 8 ???? — Dec. 5, 1906
Gibson, Henry, April 8, 1852–Jan. 15, 1916
Gibson, W.A., Dec. 14, 1874-Aug. 8, 1908
Gibson, W.A.H. Gibson, June 26, 1913–Nov. 8, 1913
Gibson, William R., Sept. 19, 1898–Oct. 20, 1899, Son of W.A. & Annie Gibson.
Gibson, Willie V., Oct. 23, 1907–Feb. 19, 1908
[Alvin, Willie V. and W.A.H. Gibson shared the same headstone]
Seller, [?]
Seller, Ruben A., Nov. 7, 1897–June 18, 1882
Vaughn/Vaughan, Clemmie, 1847–1928 (Wife of William Vaughan)
Vaughan, William, Nov. 17, 1898, aged 18y 1m 15d
Additional Information:
From Johnson City Press, Sunday, March 11, 1990, Section D, Page 51. (Used with permission given 8/4/2000)
SMALL FAMILY CEMETERY CONCEALED NEAR HUSTLE, BUSTLE OF HIGHWAY RUSH
By Sue Guinn
On an overgrown hillside in a growing section of north Johnson City, a quiet and long forgotten graveyard had overlooked where is now the busy division of the Kingsport and Bristol highways for more than 100 years.
Scattered through the overgrowth which hides the cemetery from the highways, weathered markers bear the names of 11 people buried there between 1881 and 1928 — Sellers, Vaughans and Gibsons who once farmed the land now dominated by shopping centers, fast food restaurants and used card dealerships.
Other stones worn smooth by the elements and sunken, unmarked plots int at the resting places of others whose identities have been lost to time.
West of the highways, adjoining the old Pioneer Trailer Park, the 40′ x 40′ graveyard is situated on a 2.6 acres tract purchased by Colonial Corporation from the Fulkerson family in 1952.
In an effort to develop the land for commercial use, Colonial Corporation is now attempting to locate the heirs of the graveyard’s peaceful proprietors in hopes of moving their bodies to “a more suitable perpetual care” cemetery.
In a petition filed in Johnson City Law Court in late January, the company has asked for the court’s authority to contract “a reputable funeral director” to remove and rebury the bodies “at no cost to any part” other than Colonial Corporation.
Those know to be buried in the cemetery include Rubena Sellers who died in 1882; Minnie Myrtle buried in 1881; William R. Gibson, 1899; W.A. Gibson, 1903; David Brockwell, 1897; William Vaughan, 1898; Clemme Vaughan, 1928; Alvin H. Gibson, 1906; Willie V. Gibson, 1908; W.A.H. Gibson, 1913; and Henry Gibson, 1916.
While the graveyard may have presented an intriguing puzzle to Colonial Corporation, to Mrs. Rhea Crumley Shipley, who has lived on her family’s farm just west of the site for nearly 85 years, the cemetery is no mystery at all.
“Clemme Vaughan was my grandmother,” Ms. Shipley said.
“She owned land from Brown’s Mill Road to beyond the Bristol Highway. That was their farm. And her home was near where the Japanese restaurant (Makato’s) is now.”
Mrs. Shipley said, to the best of her knowledge, her grandmother purchased the land from the Sellers family sometimes before 1905.
Henry Gibson, Mrs. Shipley said, was married to her aunt, Anna Gibson, her mother’s sister and one of Clemme Vaughan’s two daughters. Ms. Shipley said Clemme Vaughan’s youngest son Alex is also buried on the hillside and recalls a time when her grandmother allowed a neighboring family to bury an infant there.
“Other than that, I just don’t know,” said Mrs. Shipley who can remember only two or three funerals conducted there during her entire lifetime.
“At one time my father built a good fence around the whole thing and he took care of it. It’s disgraceful the way I’ve let it run down and I will help in any way I can,” Mrs. Shipley said.
According to E.B. Fulkerson, who along with his brother and sisters sold the property to Colonial Corporation in 1952, his father, Samuel P. Fulkerson, bought the land from the Vaughans around 1910.
While Colonial Corporation’s deed to the property reserves rights to the graveyard for his family, Fulkerson said the reservation was actually intended for the Vaughans and Sellers.
According to Fulkerson, members of the Sellers family are buried inside the iron fence in the center of the graveyard, and Vaughns are buried outside the fence.
Several babies were also buried in an infant graveyard there which Fulkerson said his sisters used to care for when they were girls. When Pioneer Trailer Park was built, Fulkerson said, several of the infant graves were coved by the blacktop street which leads from the Kingsport Highway to Swanee Drive.
Fulkerson remembers Mrs. Shipley’s father, Phillip Crumley, tending to the graveyard before his death, but estimates it may have been as much as 60 years since anyone really took care of it.
Attorney John Sanders, who represents Colonial Corporation in its petition to move the cemetery, said the company “will work to appease” Ms. Shipley and any other heirs who may be located in every way they can.
Donated to the Washington County TNGen Web July 2000 by Betty Jane Hylton member of the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee.
Copyrighted 2013 by the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee. No part may be copied without written permission from the Cemetery Survey Team.