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Pike Cemetery dates back to Great Depression era
Through previous installments in the Sacred Ground series, a lot has been said about two of the earliest families of the Tunnel Hill community east of Oneida — the Carsons and the Keetons. But two other families prominent here have not yet been mentioned in this series: the Pikes and the Butlers.
This week, we visit the Pike Cemetery on Butler Lane, across the old Tennessee Railroad from Tunnel Hill Road. It is a cemetery that dates back to 1920 or 1930, and a family that ties into the Keetons who — by marrying into the Carsons — originally settled this railroad community along the headwaters of Paint Rock Creek.
The cemetery begins
It isn’t clear whether the Pike Cemetery began in 1920 or 1930. Some say that 17-year-old Sarah Pike, who died in 1920, was the first person buried here. But there’s no identifiable headstone to mark her grave; that wouldn’t be unusual, since there are some unidentifiable fieldstones in the cemetery. But her death certificate, which was signed by Dr. M.E. Thompson, states that she was buried at the Keeton Grave Yard — a probable reference to the Keeton Cemetery that is located just a few hundred yards away, as the crow flies.
There are also unidentifiable headstones at the Keeton Cemetery. And Sarah’s 18-year-old sister, Monnie, who died exactly three weeks later, on Nov. 28, 1920, was buried at the Keeton Cemetery, making it seem probable that Sarah was actually buried at the Keeton Cemetery, not the Pike Cemetery.
It is very unusual for teenaged sisters to die so close together. Sarah’s death was caused by a form of chronic kidney disease.
Ten years later, Sarah and Monnie’s 21-year-old brother, Bailey Pike, was likely the first person buried at Pike Cemetery when he was shot and killed by Luther Keeton.
The Pike family
As mentioned in the opening, the Pike and Keeton families were connected. Sarah, Monnie and Bailey were the daughters and son of John Clarville Pike (1860-1938) and Mary Ann Keeton (1869-1944).
John Pike was the son of Eli and Betsy Jane Pike. Mary Ann was the daughter of Baty Keeton and Emily Jane Carson. The Carson family was the first to settle Tunnel Hill, and the Carson Cemetery is nearby. It is there that John Linn Carson, the first of the Carson family to settle here, was buried. One of their daughters was Emily Jane, who married Baty Keeton, the son of Harrison Keeton and Elizabeth J. Reed of Helenwood, and that’s how the Keeton family came to Tunnel Hill. Just a few hundred feet from Carson Cemetery is the Keeton Cemetery. Luther Keeton, who shot and killed Bailey Pike, was Mary Ann’s nephew (his father, Henry Keeton, and Mary Ann were brother and sister).
John and Mary Ann had at least nine children: George Melvin (1884-1948), Emily Risden (1890-1967), Maudelly (1892-1892), Baty Eli (1898-1964), Monnie (1902-1920), Sarah (1903-1920), Eva West (1902-1970), Bailey (1909-1930) and Walter Bradford (1913-1971).
Maudelly, who died at the age of just two months in 1892, is married at the Carson Cemetery.
The Risden family
Emily Pike, the daughter of John and Mary Ann Keeton Pike, and the sister of Sarah, Monnie and Bailey, married James Beaty “J.B.” Risden (1890-1982), the son of Tom and Caroline Penlon Risden of Helenwood. He worked in the coal mines and on the railroad, and he and Emily initially settled in Stearns, Ky.
J.B. and Emily had six children: John Lee (1912-1994), Elmer (1915-1945), Milford (1919-1997), Lola Mae (1922-1937), Livona Evans (1925-1992) and Arzonia (1928-1930).
Arzonia Risden (spelled Risdon on her stone) was the second person buried at Pike Cemetery when she died on Nov. 7, 1930, at the age of two, just a couple of months after the death of her uncle, Bailey. An obituary noted that she had been ill for a few days, but that her death was “a severe shock to her family.”
Other Risdens would later be buried at the cemetery. Arzonia’s brother, John Lee Risden, married Geneva Caddell. Their daughter, Shirley, died at the age of eight months and was buried at the cemetery. Only eight days later, John Lee’s sister, Lola Mae, died of tuberculosis just a few weeks after her 15th birthday and was also buried at the cemetery.
In a community that was experiencing too many teenage deaths, there had been yet another one in 1933, when 17-year-old Martha Pike was buried at the cemetery. She was the daughter of George Melvin Pike and Winnie Jane West, a granddaughter of John Clarville and Mary Jane Keeton Pike, and was the third person buried at the cemetery.
Shirley and Lola Mae Risden were the fourth and fifth persons buried at the cemetery.
The cemetery grows
John Clarville Pike, the patriarch of the Tunnel Hill Pike family, who had married into the Keeton clan from the small community, was the sixth person buried at Pike Cemetery when he died on Feb. 6, 1938, at age 77.
The following February, Geneva Caddell Risden, the wife of John Lee Risden and the mother of baby Shirley Risden, died at the age of just 20 and was buried at the cemetery.
One-year-old Johnny W. Pike was buried at the cemetery in 1942. Mary Ann Keeton Pike was buried there in 1944.
Other early burials at the cemetery included Elmer Risden — another of the sons of J.B. Risden and Emily Pike — in 1945, when he died of a skull fracture suffered in an accident at the age of 30, George Melvin Pike in 1948, and his wife Winnie Jane West Pike just three months later in 1948.
George and Winnie had a 42-year-old son, Everett Charley Pike, buried at the cemetery in 1951. And Nancy Phillips Pike was buried there in 1952.
The Phillips family
Elmer Phillips was buried at Pike Cemetery after being killed in a mine explosion on Brimstone Creek in March 1959. He was one of nine miners killed in the blast.
He was the son of John Marion Phillips (1897-1958) and Disie Pike (1900-1932). He married Charlene Pike (1926-1977), one of the daughters of George Melvin Pike and Winnie Jane West. She was later buried at the cemetery when she died at age 51.
Their children included Delmer Lee Phillips, Hollis Odeal Phillips, Billy Gene Phillips, Elmer Dewayne Phillips, and Gerealdine Phillips.
Delmer Lee was buried at the cemetery in 1968. Billy Gene Phillips, who married Cosetta King, had a son, Delmer Gene, who died in infancy in 1970 and was buried at the cemetery.
The Butler family
The road on which Pike Cemetery is located is named Butler Lane. William “Buzz” Butler was from nearby Paint Rock, the son of Alfred Butler (1894-1937) and Maudie Griffith (1899-1981). He married Oma West (1926-2019). Their children included J ay D., Delmus, Barbara Feldman, Charolette Hatmaker and Donna Kay Jones.
In 1978, Delmus Butler was buried at the cemetery. Infant Charles Dean Koger Butler, the son of Dean Butler and Rita Finney Koger, had been buried there six years earlier.
Infant Christian Jo Butler, the daughter of Joe and Peggy Butler, was buried at the cemetery in 2003. William and Oma West Butler were her great-grandparents.
J.D. Butler was buried at the cemetery in 2010, and Oma West Butler in 2019. Charolette Hatmaker was buried there in 2025.
The cemetery today
The most recent person buried at Pike Cemetery was Charlotte Ruth Butler Hatmaker, age 61. She was one of the children of William Butler and Oma West.
A couple of months earlier, in December 2024, Sheridan Pike was buried at the cemetery. He was the son of Arlie “Ollie” Pike and Juanita Ellis. He was a grandson of George Melvin Pike and Winnie Jane West, and great-grandson of John Clarville Pike and Mary Ann Keeton. His brother, Beamon Pike, was buried at the cemetery in 2022. His sister, Bertha Lou Hammock, was buried there in 2018.
Charles Butler, 1972 – 1972
Christian Butler, 2003 – 2003
Delmus Butler, 1951 – 1978
J. D. Butler, 1947 – 2010
Oma West Butler, 1926 – 2019
William Butler, 1921 – 1998
Bobby Chitwood, 1943 – 2012
Patricia Smith Chitwood, 1948 – 2023
Louise West Evans, 1939 – 2012
Barbara Butler Feldman, 1958 – 1980
Olivia Feldman, 1979 – 1979
Delphia Pike Goodman, 1910 – 1986
James Goodman, 1909 – 1973
Bertha Pike Hammock, 1948 – 2018
Charolette Butler Hatmaker, 1963 – 2025
Claude Laxton, 1921 – 1997
Claudene Laxton, 1959 – 2018
Dorothy West Laxton, 1932 – 2001
Robert Laxton, 1952 – 1973
Carl Myers, 1937 – 1994
Delores Holliday Myers, 1939 – 2016
Veronica Phillips Owens, 1975 – 2009
Billy Phillips, 1947 – 2009
Charlene Pike Phillips, 1926 – 1977
Cloreda West Phillips, 1938 – 1989
Delmer Gene Phillips, 1970 – 1970
Delmer Lee Phillips, 1950 – 1968
Elmer Phillips, 1921 – 1959
Elmer Phillips, 1955 – 2021
Geraldine Phillips, 1942 – 2012
Hollis O. Phillips, 1944 – 2006
Gregory Pierson, 1957 – 2024
Arlie D. Pike, 1928 – 1966
Bailey Pike, 1909 – 1930
Baty Eli Pike, 1898 – 1964
Beamon Pike, 1953 – 2022
Donny Pike, 1980 – 2021
Eva Coffey Pike, 1929 – 1996
Eva Phillips Pike, 1921 – 2013
Everett Pike, 1908 – 1951
Frazier Pike, 1942 – 1982
Gaylon Pike, 1941 – 2006
George Pike, 1884 – 1948
Infant Pike, N/A – N/A
Infant Pike, N/A – N/A
Jerry Pike, 1951 – 2023
John Clarville Pike, 1860 – 1938
John L. Pike, 1919 – 1959
Johnny W. Pike, 1941 – 1942
Juanita Ellis Pike, 1921 – 2011
Martha Pike, 1916 – 1933
Martha M. Pike, 1916 – 1933
Mary Ann Keeton Pike, 1869 – 1944
Nancy Phillips Pike, 1894 – 1952
Sheridan Pike, 1962 – 2024
Walter Pike, 1913 – 1971
Willard Pike, 1924 – 1965
Winnie West Pike, 1883 – 1948
Wonnell Pike, 1960 – 2022
Elmer Risden, 1915 – 1945
Emily Pike Risden, 1890 – 1967
Geneva Risden, 1917 – 1938
James Beaty Risden, 1890 – 1982
John Lee Risden, 1912 – 1994
Mary Strunk Risden, 1922 – 1964
Roger Gene Risden, 1940 – 1971
Ronald J. Risden, 1942 – 1978
Arzonia Risdon, 1928 – 1930
Lola Risdon, 1922 – 1937
Shirley Risdon, 1936 – 1937
Katherine Goodman Silvers, 1930 – 2015
Cindy Gibson Smith, 1957 – 2022
Dena Butler Smith, 1986 – 2012
Earnest Smith, 1954 – 2008
Millard F. Smith, 1927 – 2014
Ruby West Smith, 1935 – 2007
William L. Smith, 1927 – 2003
Paul Strunk, N/A – N/A
Billy West, 1945 – 1972
Eva Pike West, 1902 – 1970
Leroy West, 1944 – 1999
Theodore R. West, 1901 – 1985
For more Sacred Ground articles, visit the Encyclopedia of Scott County.
OHS Class of ‘65 meets
The Oneida High School Class of 1965 held their 60th class reunion at RaeZack’s on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. There were 45 in attendance, including former teacher Mary Ann Brewster and former guidance counselor Amon Lay. This class is still the largest to graduate from Oneida High School, with 128 graduates.
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◼️ Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
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