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 A friend and I made a trip to a cemetery where many of his ancestors were buried. He was there to visit and I was there to enumerate. I've done this in the past and will likely continue to do as such. Below are my notes and information that I collected from that visit. If you stumble upon this page and want more information just let me know.
My other contributions of this type are on rootsweb but the process for this file didn't fit their formatting guidelines and since I took such trouble to make such a pretty map I decided to just put it here and allow it to be searchable by search engines. Click the read more link to view the notes and preview a couple of pictures.
Davis Cemetery
White County TN
Geographic Location:
N 35 49.551
W 85 19.931
elv 886
Getting to this cemetery:
This is a very very remote cemetery accessible only by hiking
or using an off road capable vehicle. No car would ever make
the "road" portion of this trip and only one known two wheel
drive vehicle has been known to make it in the current state.
There are times when even this road is inaccessible to all
vehicles due to water depth. A winch is always advised for
all vehicles. There is NO cellphone service in this area.
At ALL. GPS units work sparingly.
Directions:
From Sparta, TN follow Young Street which will become Hickory
Valley road. Follow this for 10ish miles, crossing a concrete bridge
and remaining straight on this road until you cross a one
lane bridge with a superstructure (like a train trestle.)
After this bridge the road becomes gravel. Soon afterwards the road
turns hard left and there will be a fork in the road. Turn Right.
This "road" gets progressively worse for the next 1.5 miles.
On the right will be a swimming hole and the ground is all sand
at this fork in the road. This is as far as a non off road
vehicle should travel. Less than .5 miles up the road there
is a low spot filled with water to the point that 30" tires are
the smallest that will navigate it during the dry season
(summer drought, 2007 -- dryest summer on record). Again, a
winch should really be considered mandatory if this route is
chosen. After the large mud pits (one that goes around a corner
-- the first, and then one that is just deep and across the
"road") you will come upon a riverbed crossing. To the left is a
dry road. Do not take that. Cross the riverbed and enter the
woods. If you are not on smooth sandy soil you are in the wrong
place. Do not get lost in here. A gps with tracking turned on
is a very handy way of getting out if you do get lost. After
crossing the riverbed the next intersection will have one "road"
going very steeply up a hill that one wonders if even a monster
truck could make. Do not take this path. Go left. This area is
smoother than the river rock but still treacherous in the rocks
in the mud. Use caution and proceed on the main path until
you see a sign at a T intersection. The sign indicates the way
to Virgin Falls and Davis Cemetery. Turn right to go to the
Cemetery. This is approximately 12 miles from Sparta.
Individuals:
In this cemetery there are 66 known graves. There may be a few
more as there are unmarked spaces (noted below) that may or may
not have graves. There are 20 markers with identification
(listed below) and 46 other known graves.
List of known individuals:
Brown, H
Davis, Absalom
Davis, Archibald
Davis, Catharine nee Nichols
Davis, David
Davis, E
Davis, Elizabeth Martin Grissom
Davis, Ephram
Davis, James
Davis, Louise
Davis, Lucy
Davis, Mary E
Davis, Mary Mooneyham
Davis, Nancy j
Davis, Robert
Davis, Ruth
Davis, Susan M
Fraser, Charlie A
Fraser, Eliza
Wilson, Marthe
Layout:
This cemetery is bordered on the west and south by dirt roads.
The north and eastern boundaries are marked by forest.
The rows of this cemetery are not even or straight. In some
places there are obviously graves in what amounts to a row.
Many of the graves in this cemetery are the old
stone tent style. Many others are a simple stone or stones again
with no information available. Very few of these tents or stone
markers have any information available.
S
E + W ____ __
N __..--'' `-. ____ / `
_,,.---'' | | _ \ :
_,,.,--'' Row2 Row 1 | | |_) | |
__..--'' Row3 | | _ < |
__..--''' | |_| \_\ |
| Row 4 | ___ |
| Row 5&6 | / _ \ |
| | | (_) | |
| | \___/ |
| | __ _ |
| | / _` | |
| | | (_| | |
| | \__,_| |
| | _ |
| Davis Cemetery | __| | |
| | / _` | |
| | | (_| | |
| X | \__,_| |
| Tree | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| ________| |
:.......,----------------'''''''''''''''''
All locations use the reference of the southwestern corner.
Row 1 is the most westerly. Row 2 is one row east of Row 1.
Row 1
1. Tent Infant
2. Stone
3. Concrete slab [Transcriptioner's note: it would appear
as though a marker went on this slab but was not present.
Furthermore, #2 & #3 appear to be a couple but there is no
evidence to support this other than placement.]
4. Stones possible infant
5. Tent
6. Nancy J Davis 03/26/1839 - 04/03/1918
David Davis 01/01/1829 - 12/25/1903
[Transcriptioner's note: it would appear that #5 is
Nancy Davis as this stone (#6) is placed between
graves #5 and #6.]
7. Stones
8. Empty or unmarked
9. Stones Infant
10. Lucy Davis 1793 -1930
11. Archibald Davis 1791 - 1858
12. Stones Infant
13. Stones Infant
Row 2
Note that in placement terms, Row 2 grave 7 matches up with
Row 1 grave 1.
1. Absalom Davis 05/29/1833 - 02/09/1920
2. Mary E. Davis 10/04/1844 - 04/03/1892
3. Tent
4. Tent Infant
5. Susan M Davis 12/08/1836 - 04/03/1912
6. Robert Davis 05/28/1825 - 04/08/1892
7. Ephram Davis 1783-1843
8. Catharnine "Nichols" Davis 1802 - 1886
9. Tent
10. Tent Infant
11. Stones Infant
12. Stones
13. Stones
14. Stones Infant
15. Tent [Transcriptioner's note: This marks the western tree,
seen in video]
16. Eliza Fraser b. 12/01/1897 abt 67 y/o
17. Charlie A. Fraser 05/08/1891 - 11/05/1892
18. Stones Infant
19. Stones
Row 2.5
Note that there are 4 Stones Infant between rows 2 and 3 near the
northern end of the cemetery. They start around the western tree
and move in a northern direction.
Row 3
1. Tent Infant
2. E Davis 08/12/1864 - 09/1?/1873
[Transcriptioner's note: This is a tent style with that information
carved into the rock. The date of death is difficult to discern]
3. Mary Davis Mooneyham 04/10/1827 - 09/07/1920
4. Tent Infant
5. Stones
6. Stones
7. Stones
8. Stones
9. Stones
10. Stones Child or Infant
11. Stones Child or Infant
12. Stones Child or Infant
13. Stones Child or Infant
14. Stones Child or Infant
15. Stones
16. Stones
17. Tent
18. Marthe Wilson 05/19/1837 - 10/23/1896
[Transcriptioner's note: This is a tent style with that information
carved into the rock.]
Row 4
1. Ruth Davis 09/13/1915 - 12/15/1915
[Transcriptioner's note 1: This stone is clearly in the aisle of row
#3 and Row #4.]
[Transcriptioner's note 2: According to the grandson of the sister of
this child, the night before her death the youngest sister woke
everyone and explained that she was trying to catch the pretty bird
that was on Ruth. Everyone was roused and the girl was dismissed.
The next day Ruth died.]
2. James Davis 02/10/1831 - 03/06/1917
3. Louise Davis 11/28/1831 - 05/04/1888
4. H: Brown 11/05/1809 - 03/19/1864
[Transcriptioner's note: This is a tent style with that information
carved into the rock.]
5. Empty or Unmarked
6. Empty or Unmarked
7. Stones
8. Stones
9. Stones
10. Stones
11. Stones Infant
12. Stones
13. Stones
14. Stones
15. Tent
[Transcriptioner's note: These are more of a hodgepodge near the forest
than actual rows but I gave it a shot.]
Row #5
1. Elizabeth Martin Grissom Davis 1825 - 1898
Row #6
1. Stone
2. Tent
3. Stone  Stone wall on the route to the Cemetery  A glimpse of the stones in the Davis Cemetery |
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