Sacred Ground: Perkins Cemetery
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Sacred Ground: Perkins Cemetery
On Pleasant Grove road, about 1.5 miles off U.S. Highway 27 in Winfield, is the final resting place of the man for whom the Pleasant Grove community was named: Pleasant Chitwood Sr.
Chitwood, the son of Winfield’s first settler, James Chitwood, was one of this region’s earliest settlers. He is buried at what is now known as the Perkins Cemetery, which started sometime before 1850 — when this area was still known as Chitwood.
Sometimes called the Murphy Cemetery, this cemetery has grown to include more than 200 graves. It is one of Winfield’s largest cemeteries, and remains active today.
The Chitwood family
It’s impossible to say with certainty who the first person was to be buried at Trammell Cemetery, since there are several unidentifiable graves. But the first identifiable grave is that of Sarah “Sally” Chitwood, who died in August 1847. Her grave is marked with a simple fieldstone.
Born Sally Cowan in 1778, Sally Chitwood was the wife of Pleasant Chitwood Sr., who was buried at the cemetery four years later, in 1851, with a fieldstone marking his grave, as well.
Pleasant Chitwood was one of seven children of James Chitwood and Martha White, who were originally from Virginia. James Chitwood was the son of Richard Chitwood and Winney Randolph, and moved to present-day Winfield after serving in the Revolutionary War.
The Chitwoods were a family of split allegiance during the war. James Chitwood was a Patriot. But his dad, his uncle and two of his cousins were all Tories. All four of them fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain and were captured. His uncle, Capt. James Chitwood, was one of nine Tories hanged by the Patriots after the battle. Two of his sons were sentenced to hang but were granted 99-year reprieves after higher commanders intervened and stopped the hangings. Richard Chitwood was also sentenced to hang but granted a reprieve.
James Chitwood fought under Gen. Thomas Sumter of South Carolina, whose fierce fighting style led him to be nicknamed the “Carolina Gamecock” by the British. Lord Gen. Charles Cornwallis called Sumter his “greatest plague,” and Sumter is credited with helping drive Cornwallis out of South Carolina and turning the tide of the war. His legacy led to the nickname for the University of South Carolina.
Following the war, James Chitwood and one of his cousins who had been sentenced to hang, Shadrach Chitwood, made the move to present-day Winfield. The move may have occurred as early as 1795. Shadrach Chitwood later moved to Missouri.
James and Martha Chitwood lived at Pine Grove in Winfield, and Pleasant Chitwood, born in 1775, was their next-to-oldest son. Not all of their children stayed in the Winfield area, but most did. Pleasant was one of them, settling at what we now know as Pleasant Grove — which was named after him to differentiate from Pine Grove, where his father lived. James and Martha Chitwood are buried at the Chitwood Cemetery off Pine Grove Road.
Sally Cowan was from the Boyds Creek area of Sevier County, the daughter of David Cowan and Jane Wright. The exact date of her marriage to Pleasant Chitwood isn’t known, but Pleasant was likely a young adult by the time James and Martha Chitwood moved their family to Winfield.
Pleasant and Sally Cowan Chitwood had at least seven children: David, Daniel, Hugh, Isaac, Andrew, Pleasant Jr. and Safrona. Most of them left Winfield for the Kansas-Missouri area, along with their uncle, Shadrach Chitwood. The only two who stayed were David and Pleasant Jr. David is buried at Chitwood Cemetery along with his grandparents. Pleasant Jr. moved deeper into the mountains and is buried at Pleasant Chitwood Cemetery on Upper Jellico Creek. It is from these two brothers — David and Pleasant Jr. — that most of the Chitwoods in Winfield today descended from.
The only other Chitwood buried at Perkins Cemetery was Sallie Chitwood, who died in 1912 at age 51. She was listed in the 1910 census as being divorced and single, living on Isham Road in Winfield. Little else is known about her, but it appears she may have been a daughter of David Chitwood and Sarah Richardson, a granddaughter of Pleasant and Sally Cowan Chitwood.
The Ross family
Another prominent family in early Winfield — in addition to the Chitwoods, the Trammells, the Strunks and the Perkins — were the Rosses. Sarah Ross was the third person buried at Perkins Cemetery in 1864, when she died at age 50.
Unfortunately, we know little about who Sarah Ross was. However, the Ross family had become well established in the Winfield area by the start of the Civil War.
One-year-old Margaret Ross was buried at Perkins Cemetery in 1872, and one-year-old George W. Ross was buried there in 1879. Sixteen-year-old G.R. Ross was buried at the cemetery in 1881. Four-month-old Wilbur Ross was buried there in 1887. There was also two-year-old Charles Ross buried there in 1883, and 16-year-old William Henry Ross buried there in 1884. There were a couple more Rosses buried at the cemetery with unknown dates of death: Arthur and Robert.
Another Sarah Ross was buried at Perkins Cemetery in 1891, and her stone denotes that she was the wife of F.M. Ross. That would have been Francis M. Ross, who married Sarah Murphy.
Francis and Sarah Ross had many children. There were nine of them living at home, between the ages of one and 19, when the 1880 census was taken. It’s not clear if the younger Ross children buried at the cemetery between 1879 and 1887 were theirs. However, William Henry Ross, who died in 1884 at age 16, was their son. The G.R. Ross, who died in 1881 at age 16, may have been their son Robert.
Francis M. Ross owned a store in Winfield in the late 1800s. He was the son of Robert Ross and Sarrah Ryan. The first Sarah Ross buried at Perkins Cemetery in 1864 could have potentially been his mother. The Robert Ross who is buried at the cemetery with an undated stone could be his father.
Also buried at the cemeteryvwas Sarah Ross Slaven, the daughter of Alfred C. Ross and Hannah “Honor” Chitwood. Alfred Ross was a soldier in the Union army who died at Camp Nelson in Kentucky in 1861 after contracting measles. His wife, Honor, was a granddaughter of James Chitwood; a niece of Pleasant Chitwood. (Her father, Daniel Chitwood, was one of the Chitwoods who left Winfield for the Missouri-Kansas region.)
Alfred Ross had an uncle, John Ross, who married Elizabeth Chitwood, the daughter of James Chitwood. However, Alfred and John were apparently not closely related to Francis M. Ross.
The Murphy family
It was mentioned earlier that the Perkins Cemetery is sometimes referred to as the Murphy family. The first member of the family buried there was an infant baby in 1883. He was the son of Albert Murphy and Julia Ann Meadors, who would later leave the Winfield area and move to Oklahoma.
Albert Murphy’s parents were Archibald Murphy and Eva “Peggy” Stephens. The Stephens family was from the Jellico Creek area of Kentucky.
Peggy was buried at the Perkins Cemetery in 1891, and Archibald was buried there in 1894. Also buried there that same year was Campbell Murphy, the son of King David “K.D.” Murphy and Rachel Reed. K.D. Murphy was the son of William and Jane Murphy. He and his wife were later buried at the cemetery, as was his father.
Remember that F.M. Ross’s wife, Sarah, was originally a Murphy. She was the daughter of Archibald Murphy — the older sister of Albert Murphy.
The most recent member of the Murphy family buried at Perkins Cemetery was Beulah King Murphy in 2007. She was the daughter of Emby King Jr. and Rosa West, and the wife of Edgar James Murphy. She owned Winfield Grocery for many years, after purchasing it from her father. Her son, former Scott County Mayor Dwight Murphy, also owned the store. She was first married to Joe Anderson, a World War II veteran who was murdered in 1946.
Edgar Murphy, who was also buried at Perkins Cemetery in 1992, was also a World War II veteran. His parents were were Marion F. Murphy and Minnie Duncan, who are buried at the cemetery. Marion’s parents were James Harvey Murphy and Mary Ann Thompson — also buried there.
In all, there are dozens of members of the Murphy family buried at Perkins Cemetery. The only family that features more prominent there is the Strunk family.
The Strunk family
It is sometimes said that the first person buried at Perkins Cemetery — or Murphy Cemetery, if you prefer — was a man named John Strunk, who died in 1846, one year before Sally Cowan Chitwood. There are several unidentifiable graves at the cemetery, any of which may be John Strunk’s. However, there is no identifiable stone for him in the cemetery and he was not included in Robert Bailey’s transcription of the cemetery in 1994.
Most of the people buried at Perkins Cemetery between the 1840s and the 1880s were Rosses, although Albert Murphy’s baby boy was buried there in 1883. There had been a few other exceptions, in addition to Pleasant Chitwood and his wife: Stephen Cordell in 1866, his wife Catherine Patterson in 1883, Jewel Stephens in 1866, and baby Telithy Smith in 1885.
In 1885, 48-year-old Calvin Strunk became the first (or second, if John Strunk was buried there in the 1840s) member of the Strunk family to be buried at Perkins Cemetery.
The Strunk family was, of course, a very prominent family not just in Winfield but across the state line in southern McCreary County.
Calvin Strunk was the son of Daniel Strunk Sr. and Hannah “Honor” Pennington of Pine Knot. He married Mary Elizabeth Cordell — the daughter of Stephen Cordell and Catherine Patterson who were just mentioned.
Calvin and Mary had several children: James William, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Malinda, and Melton. Several of them, including James, Link and Linda, are buried at Perkins Cemetery, along with their spouses and some of their children.
The Strunk family has remained prominent in the Winfield area through the 20th century. Chandler Strunk served as postmaster of the Winfield Post Office for 32 years before retiring in 2000. He is buried at Carson Memorial Park. His son, Paul Strunk, represented Winfield on Scott County Commission on two different occasions. Another son, Brian Strunk, is a former Scott County Finance Director. Chandler Strunk was a second-great-grandson of Daniel Strunk Sr. and Honor Pennington. His great-grandfather, Alexander Strunk, was a brother to Calvin Strunk.
The most recent member of the Strunk family buried at Perkins Cemetery was Bobby Joe Strunk in 2020. He was the son of Eugene Strunk and Dessie Walker, who were buried there previously. Eugene Strunk was a third-great-grandson of Daniel Strunk Sr. and Honor Pennington.
The Perkins family
One family not yet mentioned is the family from which the cemetery most commonly takes its name: the Perkins family.
The first member of the family to be buried at the cemetery was one-year-old John Perkins in 1901. He was the son of Nelson Perkins and Lurinda Stephens, who would later be buried at the cemetery.
Nelson Perkins was the son of Lewis Perkins and Rhoda Ann Coffey. He and Lurinda had another child, Alice Bell, who was buried at the cemetery in 1914 when she died at age 21. Another daughter, Ida Fay, was buried there in 1985.
Lurinda died in 1941, and Nelson died in 1952.
In 1966, Carl Perkins Sr. was buried at the cemetery. The road by his home nearby is still named Carl Perkins Road. He was the son of Andrew Perkins and Jessie Perkins, and married Della Stephens. She was the daughter of Doswell “Bob” Stephens and Polly Jane Crabtree.
Della Stephens Perkins as buried at the cemetery in 2002. Her son, Carl Perkins Jr., was buried there in 2007.
The Slaven family
Sarah Ross Slaven, the daughter of Alfred Ross and Honor Chitwood, was buried at Perkins Cemetery, though her stone can no longer be identified. Robert Bailey, in his 1994 book, did not include dates of birth or death.
It is reported on the FindAGrave website that she died in 1866, at the age of 23 or 24. Her husband may Ancil Slaven, though it isn’t clear what became of him.
Baby Ralph Slaven was buried at Perkins Cemetery in 1916. He was the son of Richard “Rice” Slaven and Elizabeth Strunk, who were later buried at the cemetery. Elizabeth was the daughter of Link Strunk and Sallie Heath; a granddaughter of Calvin Strunk and Mary Cordell. Rice was the son of Andrew Slaven and Edith “Suckey” Hill, and a grandson of Richard Harve Slaven of No Business.
It has been reported that Rice had a first cousin, Andrew Slaven, buried at the cemetery in 1910. However, there’s no identifiable stone for him there.
Suckey Slaven was buried at the cemetery in 1918. Her son, General Washington Slaven — Rice’s brother — was buried at the cemetery in 1919 after falling from a bridge and dying. Rice Slaven was later buried at the cemetery in 1934. Elizabeth was buried there in 1927. They had another child, 11-year-old Leslie, buried at the cemetery in 1923. An adult son, Robert Lawrence Slaven, was buried there in 1957.
The cemetery today
The most recent burial at Perkins Cemetery was Dellie Lowe Trammell in 2023. She was the daughter of Turney Lowe and Myrtle Phillips. Prior to that, Bobby Joe Strunk was buried at the cemetery in 2020, and Nick Shane Crabtree was buried there the same month. Rose “Loretta” McCoy and Else K. Owens were also buried there in 2020.
For a complete transcription of the Perkins Cemetery, see Tim West’s genealogy website.
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