Sacred Ground: Byrges Creek Cemetery
Plus: Scott High football player spends summer helping to build concession stand, and Big South Fork plugs abandoned oil wells
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Sacred Ground: Byrges Creek Cemetery
It’s no longer the case, but there was a time in rural America’s history that nearly every church had a cemetery — or every cemetery had a church, as was sometimes the case. A prevalent line of reasoning was that burying loved ones close to a church would keep them close to God.
These churchyard cemeteries can be found throughout Scott County. In the Cordell community beyond Winona, both of the churches that remain today — Bull Creek United Baptist Church and Byrges Creek Baptist Church — are examples of these churchyard cemeteries.
The Bull Creek Cemetery, which was previously visited by the Sacred Ground series, was founded in 1923 with the death of a baby boy, the son of Andrew Lawson and Lucinda Jeffers.
The nearby Byrges Creek Cemetery was founded some 13 years later, with the death of Berry Jeffers in 1936.
Both of these cemeteries are relatively new; the settlements of Bull Creek and surrounding communities date back to the mid 1800s. The community’s preeminent cemetery, the Bowling-Harness Cemetery that is located near the head of Bull Creek, dates back to 1864. Shortly thereafter, the Lawson and Brown Cemetery at Hurricane was founded in 1879. It will be the subject of next week’s Sacred Ground installment.
The cemetery begins
Berry Jeffers was the first person buried at Byrges Creek when he died on July 21, 1936, at the age of 68. He was the son of Jasper “Jeff” Jeffers (1843-1901) and Elizabeth Newport (1842-1926).
The Jeffers family was quite prominent in the Byrges Creek community around the beginning of the 20th century. Located nearby the Baptist church and cemetery is the Jeffers Cemetery, where both of Berry Jeffers’ parents are buried. It was founded in 1901, when Jeff Jeffers died.
Berry Jeffers married Melinda Phillips in 1891. She was the daughter of Jeremiah Phillips and Malinda Delk of Bull Creek. She died in 1898 and was buried in the Phillips Cemetery on Little Bull Creek. Berry remarried to Indianapolis Sexton in 1900. She was the daughter of Manuel Sexton and Myra Brown.
They had six children together: Florence, Fred, Flotilla, Sterling, Lillie and Floyd.
Indianapolis would later be buried at Byrges Creek when she died in 1952. She was living with her daughter, Flotilla, in the Norma area at the time of her death. Flotilla had married to Virgil Burress, the son of Moses Burress and Serrelda Daugherty. Virgil and Flotilla are both buried at Riverview Cemetery at Smokey Junction.
As a side note: Berry Jeffers was an uncle to Lucinda Jeffers Lawson, whose baby boy was the first person buried at Bull Creek. Her father was Fealin Jeffers, Berry’s brother.
The cemetery grows
There are basically two types of cemeteries: family cemeteries and community cemeteries. Scott County has its mix of both, though most community cemeteries found here began as family cemeteries. As a churchyard cemetery, however, Byrges Creek was never really a family cemetery, and a mix of the various families who lived in the vicinity can be found in the cemetery from its earliest years.
The second person buried at Byrges Creek was Rebecca Harness Crowley in October 1936. She was the daughter of Jeremiah Harness and Leaner Sexton. She married Berry Crowley in 1901 and they had eight children: Endia, Claude, Nannie, Ella, Chester, James, Marie, and a daughter who died in infancy.
Rebecca’s paternal grandmother was Talitha Brown Harness, who was murdered on Bull Creek — along with her teenage son — by Elias Reynolds and Thomas Lloyd (who were later hanged by a mob) in 1889. She and her son are buried in a lonely cemetery near the base of Round Mountain on what is now the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area.
Less than two weeks after Rebecca’s death, Minnie Newport Younce was buried at Byrges Creek. She was only 27 when she died of tuberculosis.
The daughter of Lindsay Newport and Lodessa Sexton, who are buried at the Lawson and Brown Cemetery, Minnie married Edd Younce in 1926. She had at least two children: son Robert Nelson, daughter Irma, and perhaps one more.
Edd and Minnie had moved from Stoney Fork in Anderson County to Cordell shortly before her death. Edd, who was originally from Blount County, never remarried and returned to Blount County after her death.
The deaths of the sisters
Two more burials took place at Byrges Creek in 1938: Ina Faye Hutson in May, and Illa Mae Hutson in December. They were sisters, the daughters of Alexander Hutson and Louvania Sexton.
Ina, age three, died on May 20. Illa Mae, age eight, died on Christmas Eve. Illa’s death was caused by nephritis, a form of kidney inflammation. Ina’s death was caused by gastroenteritis, an inflammation of the intestines. Both their deaths, like so many others during this time period in eastern Scott County, were attended to by Dr. D.T. Chambers.
Alex Hutson was the son of Rev. James Calvin Hutson and Pheby York, who are buried at the nearby Jeffers Cemetery. Louvania was the daughter of James Sexton and Tamar Jeffers. Her mother was buried at Byrges Creek in 1957 (her father was buried at the Lawson and Brown Cemetery in 1900), which is also where Alex and Louvania were buried. Alex remarried to Geneva Duncan following Louvania’s death in 1943. She was the daughter of Euel Duncan and Ella Lawson, and was also buried at Byrges Creek in 2005.
The 1940s
It was in the early 1940s that the Byrges Creek Cemetery began to see new burials added frequently. There were 17 people buried at the cemetery between 1940 and 1949, beginning with Eva Harness Lawson in March 1940.
Eva was the daughter of William Harness and Mary Jane Lawson Bowling. Both her father and mother were murdered by Berry Bowling in 1921. Berry was later hanged by a lynch mob. Eva married Enmon Lawson and they had three children together: Glenn, Bobby and Jewell. Following Eva’s death, Enmon remarried to Georgia Barnes and they had eight more children. Enmon is buried at Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery.
Frances Lay was buried at Byrges Creek that same year, in June. He was the two-year-old son of Henry Lay and Amy Newport, both of whom are buried at Hazel Valley.
Jasper Jeffers was buried at the cemetery in September 1940, and Clyde Brumett was buried there in October 1941. He was only 23 when he died. His death was apparently the result of a car accident. An article in an October 1941 edition of the Knoxville News Sentinel states that Clyde Brummitt, age 18, and A.C. Brummitt, age 19, were killed when their car overturned on a curve on Rugby Road, and that A.C.’s funeral would be held at New River.
Clyde Brumett was the son of Ted Brumett and Rebecca Hutson Brumett, both of whom were later buried at Byrges Creek. A.C. Brumett was apparently Ted’s brother.
Baby Willard Lawson, age one month, was buried at the cemetery in December 1942, followed by Louvania Sexton Hutson in June 1943.
Fifteen-year-old Thelma Lawson, who died of pneumonia, was buried at Byrges Creek in September 1943. She was the daughter of M.D. Lawson and Martha Jeffers. Baby Gene David Lawson, who died one day after his first birthday of spina bifida, was buried there in October 1943. He was the son of Curtis and Hazel Lawson. Hazel was the daughter of Andrew Lawson and Lucinda Jeffers Harness.
Before 1943 had ended, James Mountville Sexton was buried at Byrges Creek. His wife, Gussie Jeffers, would later be buried there in 1961.
Other burials in the 1940s included Robert French, baby Jimmie Jeffers, Jasper Lawson Jr., Jasper Sexton, baby Chester Lawson, Leland Lawson, Harold Wayne Hutson, and Rebecca Hutson Brumett. Jasper Lawson, the son of Jasper Lawson Sr. and Maude Coker, was killed in World War II in Grossgerau, Germany.
As you can see, while Byrges Creek may not have been a family cemetery per se, it is heavily influenced by the families who lived in the community during the early and middle parts of the 20th century, like the Lawsons, the Sextons and the Jeffers. More on the histories of those families will be told as other cemeteries in the community are profiled by the Sacred Ground series.
The cemetery today
The most recent burial at Byrges Creek was Lonnie Russell in May 2023. A longtime educator, he retired as assistant principal at Huntsville Middle School. His wife, Kathy Smithers, was buried at the cemetery in 2018.
There had been a period of time from the mid 1990s to the 2010s with only a few burials at the cemetery. Oma Sexton Smithers (Kathy Russell’s mother) was buried there in 2001, followed by Geneva Duncan Hutson in 2005, but otherwise there were no burials following the death of Elmer Lawson in February 1995.
Beginning with the death of Bobby Lawson in 2009, however, there were 12 burials in nine years at the cemetery. Following the death of Kathy Smithers Russell in 2018, burials ceased again, with only her husband, Lonnie Russell, having been buried at the cemetery since that time.
One of the burials during that span was Chester Sexton, the lifelong Oneida barber who died in 2012. He also owned Sexton’s Dairy Mart, along with his wife, Helen Terry, and opened the first commercial car wash in Scott County.
Chester Sexton was the son of George H. Sexton and Vertie Lloyd, who are buried at Byrges Creek.
Cemetery census
Clyde Brumett, 1918-1941
Rebecca Hutson Brumett, 1898-1949
Teddy Brumett, 1896-1961
Mary Jeffers Burchfield, 1873-1950
Joby Byrge, 1958-2010
Lois Lowe Byrge, 1942-2017
Chester Crowley Sr., 1915-1993
Claude Crowley, 1904-1980
Natomia Sexton Crowley, 1929-2010
Rebecca Harness Crowley, 1879-1936
Sandra Crowley Earls, 1951-1976
Robert L. French, 1887-1944
Brian D. Garrett, 1972-2015
Netty Hutson Garrett, 1955-2015
Cynthia Sexton Harness, 1903-1955
Diffie Harness, N/A-N/A
Millard Harness, 1913-N/A
Alexander Hutson, 1892-1965
Endia Crowley Hutson, 1902-1958
Geneva Duncan Hutson, 1922-2005
Harold W. Hutson, 1932-1948
Illa M. Hutson, 1930-1938
Ina F. Hutson, 1935-1938
Louvania Sexton Hutson, 1891-1943
Mary G. Hutson, 1948-1954
Thomas E. Hutson, 1900-1962
Berry Jeffers, 1868-1936
Cansada Brown Jeffers, 1894-1975
Emer Jeffers, 1916-1955
Indianapolis Sexton Jeffers, 1878-1952
Jasper Jeffers Jr., 1884-1940
Jimmie D. Jeffers, 1944-1944
Marley D. Jeffers, 1922-1974
Roma J. Jeffers, 1951-1951
Lodessa Sexton, 1883-1956
Bobby C. Lawson, 1936-2009
Chester D. Lawson, 1944-1946
Elmer Lawson, 1920-1995
Eva Harness Lawson, 1920-1940
Gene D. Lawson, 1942-1943
Glenn C. Lawson, 1935-1959
Jasper Lawson Jr., 1924-1945
Leland M. Lawson, 1942-1947
Minnie Lawson, 1916-2011
Roger L. Lawson, 1950-1950
Ronnie L. Lawson, 1954-1954
Thelma Lawson, 1928-1953
Willard Lawson, 1942-1942
Frances E. Lay, 1938-1940
Larry McCrady Jr., 1958-1958
Athea Hutson Moore, 1924-1985
Infant Daughter Moore, N/A-N/A
Kathy Smithers Russell, 1952-2018
Lonnie G. Russell, 1950-2023
Chester D. Sexton, 1925-2012
Delphia E. Sexton, 1906-1983
Floyd J. Sexton, 1923-2013
George H. Sexton, 1900-1959
Gussie Jeffers Sexton, 1899-1961
Homer G. Sexton, 1938-1955
James M. Sexton, 1893-1943
Jasper Sexton, 1876-1945
June Sexton, 1906-1956
Mildred Lewallen Sexton, 1936-20216
Tamar Jeffers Sexton, 1870-1957
Thurman D. Sexton, 1931-2011
Tim T. Sexton Sr., 1880-1963
Vertie Lloyd Sexton, 1902-1963
Oma Sexton Smithers, 1921-2001
T.C. Smithers, 1925-1992
Minnie Newport Younce, 1909-1936
Find our past Sacred Ground articles on the Encyclopedia of Scott County.
Scott High football player spends summer helping to build concession stand
The following article was provided by the Scott County School System.
Visitors at Scott High School’s campus will see many positive changes that have occurred over the past year. Along with the new turf football field that was installed in 2024, the wrestling team has a new facility that has been built from the ground up. The Museum of Scott County, which is housed on campus and run by staff and students, has new play and learning experiences for little Highlanders that visit the learning lodge. Now, progress is being made on a new complex that will provide yet another upgrade to benefit students and families alike: a new concession stand facility.
Started during the spring 2025 semester, the new concession area is being built entirely by students led by SHS construction teacher, Jason Jeffers. Interestingly, the work didn’t end when school dismissed in May. Along with Mr. Jeffers, students have been working throughout the summer with hopes of completing the building of the facility by August. The new concession building will stand behind the football stadium and will house a brand-new concession stand area, bathrooms, and a locker room for soccer. None of this would be possible without some of the hardworking teachers and students at Scott High.
Aaron Lowe will be a sophomore at SHS this fall. He is a three-sport athlete, participating in football, wrestling, and soccer. Aaron has worked hard throughout the spring semester and the summer. Between practicing football and helping build the new facility, he hasn’t had the typical high school summer break. As a member of the SHS wrestling team, he gets the opportunity to take advantage of the new wrestling facility, and as a member of the Highlander football team, he gets to practice and play on our new turf field. Thanks to his hard work this summer, Aaron will have a new dressing room facility to use when he plays soccer next spring.
“We are very proud of students like Aaron who are willing to put in the hours of sweat equity necessary to make positive change happen, and we’re very happy he’s had the opportunity to learn life skills and the value of hard work along the way,” Jeffers’s wife, Sindi, says. “We’re excited to see a new Aaron Lowe stands in what will be soon be a new soccer dressing area generation embrace the Highlander spirit that we all know and love while helping to write the next chapter in Scott High’s history!”
Big South Fork plugs abandoned oil wells
BANDY CREEK | Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area encompasses 125,000 acres of rugged terrain within the Cumberland Plateau in southeastern Kentucky and north-central Tennessee. It is the fifth-largest National Park Service (NPS) unit east of the Mississippi River. It attracts more than 800,000 visitors annually. They can enjoy fishing, hunting, rafting, kayaking, horseback riding, mountain biking, rock climbing, wildlife viewing, nature photography, and more.
Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area also includes more than 275 permitted oil and gas extraction sites, most of them drilled in the 1970s and ‘80s. Many are abandoned sites known as orphaned wells.
“It’s truly a recreational destination for people – and oil and gas just happens to be here as part of our history,” says Tom Blount, Chief of Resource Management at the park.
The NPS and partners recently completed work at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area to plug six orphaned wells, remove often-rusted wellhead equipment, and restore affected land to a more natural state. The work’s primary goals were to protect groundwater from any oil, gas, or brine seepage; to eliminate public safety threats from derelict equipment; and to enhance visitors’ experience aesthetically.
Oil and gas restoration is complex work involving several steps: planning, access, plugging, and reclamation. Once logistical planning is complete, access – getting necessary heavy equipment in and out – is difficult and time-consuming because well sites often are remote. Plugging is laborious, too. It involves relieving any pressure in the wellbore, removing liquids and adding layers of cement. Reclamation involves removing wellhead equipment and creating conditions that let nature restore itself.
As of summer 2025, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area contains 146 orphaned wells that have been plugged (including six from the recent work), 16 active wells; 50 shut-in (temporarily inactive) wells; and 75 permitted wells that were not drilled or have not been verified in the field. “We’re very proud of our working wells, and the work being done to plug the orphaned wells,” says Niki Stephanie Nicholas, the park’s Superintendent.
The recent work at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area is one of about three dozen oil and gas restoration projects ongoing at 10 NPS units across the nation.
“Plugging these wells prevents contamination of soils, water, air, and it allows the ecosystems to recover and thrive,” says Forrest Smith, NPS lead engineer on oil and gas matters.
The benefits are widespread. Visitors “get to experience the natural beauty and enjoy the recreation without being inhibited by oil and gas infrastructure,” Smith says. Local communities benefit because methane and fluid leakage beyond the parks’ boundaries subsides. Taxpayers benefit from acting now, Smith says, because the longer the wells sit, the more expensive they become to clean up and the more dangerous they are to human and environmental health.
Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Blount says, conserves “the last piece of free-flowing river on the Cumberland River system.” The park is home to 91 fish species and 40 mussel species, many of them rare. Two endemic rare plants are Cumberland rosemary and Virginia spirea. Restoration of the oil and gas sites provides habitat for that wildlife and clean water for everyone downstream.
It’s not a stretch to say the two million residents of the Nashville metro area – a couple hundred miles down the Cumberland River – have oil and gas reclamation efforts at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area to thank, in part, for their clean drinking water. “You bet,” says Blount, “groundwater and surface water protection from us is protecting all the residents downstream.”
For more information, contact Big South Fork NRRA at 423-569-9778.
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