SEVIER (JAMES) CEMETERY

The cemetery is located in the Nolichucky River Valley,  224 Charlie Carson Road, Jonesborough, Tennessee, off Tennessee Highway 107. The cemetery has been mowed and planted with day lilies but the stones are very old and hard to read.

 

 

 

A tomb walled with cut limestone, covered by a slab stone about three by six feet, the walls crumbling, the slab and inscriptions still intact.

Sacred -The Memory of Infant Children, 3 sons & 1 daughter of E.F. & M.D. Sevier.

A tomb walled with cut limestone, covered by a slab stone about three by six feet, the walls crumbling. The slab and part of inscriptions badly shattered, also a headstone in good condition.

In Memory of Nancy Sevier, died July 15, 1843, aged (71 or 79) years, 3m 23d (from the headstone) born in Virginia, March (2 ?) [March 22, 1772]

A tomb walled with cut limestone, covered by a slab stone about three by six feet, the walls crumbling, the slab and part of inscriptions shattered.

[James Sevier]born in Virginia, on the [25] October 1764, and departed this life on the 21 of January, [1847], aged 82y 2m (27?)d

A tomb walled with cut limestone, covered by a slab stone about three by six feet, the walls crumbling,, the slab stone badly eroded and parts shattered.

[James S. Johnston] nston, departed this life __ of January [1848] __years

This is James S. Johnston, husband of Elizabeth Sevier Johnston who died January 1848. Elizabeth is buried in the Old Jonesborough Cemetery.

A cut headstone:

Died on the 15^th of Feb 1843, Two Infants, son and daughter of James B. & Mary M. Sevier.

Additional information

From Notable Southern Families by Armstrong, p.192:

James Sevier, 2^nd son and 2^nd child of Governor John Sevier and his first wife, Sarah Hawkins Sevier, was born in Augusta County Virginia, on October 25, 1764; he died in Washington County Tenn. On January 21, 1847. He married, March 25, 1789, Nancy Conway, born March 22, 1772. She was the daughter of Col. Henry Conway, born 1749, died 1812. James Sevier was at the Battle of Kings Mountain with his father when he was not quite sixteen years old; he also followed his father in other engagements.

James Sevier was clerk of the Washington County Court for forty-seven years. James Sevier and wife, Nancy Conway, had eleven children:

(1) Elizabeth Conway Sevier, b July 9, 1790, m. James S. Johnston, 3/8/1810.

(2) Sarah Hundley Sevier, b July 22, 1792, m. Hugh Doulas Hale, 1/11/1810

(3) Maria Antoinette Sevier, b May 12, 1794, d at age 2.

(4) Minerva Grainger Sevier, b May 30, 1796, m. John Nelson, 4/30/1816

(5) Pamela Hawkins Sevier, b March 15, 1798, m. Alexander M. Nelson, 5/6/1817

(6) Susannah Brown Sevier, b June 25, 1800, m. Richard B. Purdom, 11/26/1818

(7) Elbert Franklin Sevier, b Sept 17, 1802, m Matilda Powell, Aug 9, 1832. In addition to the children buried in this cemetery, they had a son, Elbert Powell Sevier, who married and had a son, James. Elbert F. and Matilda also had a daughter, Sarah, who died with her mother, Matilda, in Knoxville in 1854 of cholera. Elbert F. married for his second wife, Eliza James, a daughter of Rev. Jessee James, of Chattanooga, and they had a son, James Sevier.

(8) Elbridge Gerry Sevier, b March 19, 1805, m. Mary Caroline Brown, 11/13/1827

(9) Clarissa Carter Sevier, b April 9, 1807, m. (1) John Jones, 5/7/822, m.2. Dr. John Calhoun, 10/13/1847

(10) Louisa Maria Sevier, b Dec 16, 1811, m. James H. Jones, 10/16/1827

(11) Mary Malvina Sevier, b April 4, 1814, m. James Stuart, 7/2/1829

From Tombstone Inscriptions & Historical Manuscripts by Acklen, p.222:

The following inscriptions are in the Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville, Tenn.:

Mary M. Stuart, dau of James and Mary Sevier, April 8, 1814 ’Äì Feb 2, 1887

Matilda D., dau of Rev. E.E. Sevier, Sept 3, 1854, age 10 years [should this be Rev. E.F.?]

The preceding records show that James and Mary Sevier had children buried beside the children of Elbert Franklin and Matilda Sevier in both the Washington County and the Knoxville cemeteries, yet the dates indicate that James was neither brother nor son of Elbert F. who were James B. and Mary Sevier? The dates of the Knoxville stone of Mary M. Stuart, dau of James and Mary Sevier are almost identical with the birth date of Mary Malvina Sevier who married James Stuart, who are given as the daughter and son-in-law of James Sevier and wife, Nancy. I have been unable to straighten out the relationship.[CMB=the late Charles M. Bennett]

More information about his family can be found in Sevier Family History by Cora Boles Sevier and Nancy S. Madden, ©1961 and The History of Washington County, Tennessee,1988 by the Watauga Association of Genealogists, ©1988.

Surveyed, transcribed and donated to the Washington County TNGen Web 2011 by members of the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee.

Copyrighted 2013 by the Cemetery Survey Team of Northeast Tennessee. No part of this work may be copied without written permission from the Cemetery Survey Team.

State of Franklin Chapter DAR unveiling of marker for grave of James Sevier.

Click for a larger view

On Sunday, 24 June 2001, The Sevier Family Association dedicated a marker to James and Nancy Conway Sevier and their family.

 

In 2013, a member of the Cemetery Survey Team visited this cemetery. He found a fence without a gate around the graves. The current owner does not mow around the markers.

Return to index