Sacred Ground: Terry Cemetery at Station Camp
A short distance off Station Camp Road near its intersection with Williams Creek Road is the Terry Cemetery, a small cemetery that is the resting place of Calvin Terry and several members of his family.
This is one of several Terry Cemeteries found in Scott County, all of them tied to the same Terry family that first settled the Oneida area in the early 19th century.
They came with Josiah Terry Sr. (1780-1868), the first permanent settler of Oneida. Originally from Botetourt County, Va., he moved to Tennessee as a young man in the early 1800s. He was here by 1806; he married Nancy Thomas in 1806 in Anderson County.
The Terry family
Calvin Terry Sr. was Josiah Terry’s great-grandson, the son of Miles Terry and Artema “Artie” Coyle of the Black Oak community. Miles and Artie are both buried at O’Possum Rock Cemetery.
It should be noted that this is not the same person as Rev. Calvin C. Terry, whose family is buried at the Terry Cemetery off O&W Road. That particular Calvin Terry was the son of Elijah Terry, who was Josiah Terry’s brother.
The Station Camp Calvin Terry was one of eight children. His siblings included Elijah Terry, Elisha Terry, Lisie Terry Roysdon, Lectie Terry Burk, Daniel Terry, Byrdine Terry and Loransy “Rans” Terry. Most of them are buried at Possum Rock.
Calvin Terry married Easter Elizabeth Smith. She was the daughter of Harmons Smith and Rhoda Foster of Oneida. Her father is buried at Marcum Cemetery in Oneida. Her mother is buried in McCreary County.
Calvin and Easter had seven children, and it was with one of those that the Terry Cemetery off Station Camp Road began in 1929.
The cemetery begins
Dortha Terry was the next-to-youngest of the Terry children, born on Feb. 25, 1919. But in April 1929, less than two months after her 10th birthday, she died. She was buried on the family property at the head of the long ridge that ends abruptly over the Big South Fork River between the John Hawk Smith Place and Stephens Shoals.
Later that same year, Dortha’s 17-year-old brother, James, died and was buried beside her. Born in 1912, he was the third-oldest of the Terry children.
Calvin Terry died in 1936 at the age of 58, and was buried beside his two children. His wife, Easter, would die in 1971 at age 83 and was also buried at the cemetery.
In 1943, infant Ruth Faye Terry was buried at the cemetery. She was the daughter of Harmon Terry and Minnie Anderson. Harmon was the second-born of Calvin Terry’s children. His wife, Minnie, was the daughter of William Proctor Anderson and Ethel Mae Slaven of Jamestown. She was the oldest member of Black Oak Baptist Church when she died at age 92 in 2011. Harmon and Minnie had six other children besides Ruth Faye: Haskell, Alma, Pauline, Brenda, Anthony, and Beverly.
Following Ruth Faye’s death, there were no burials at the Terry Cemetery for 28 years. The cemetery consisted only of Calvin’s grave, and the graves of his two young children and baby granddaughter. That changed in 1971 when his widow, Easter, passed.
Ten years after Easter’s death, Elmer Terry was buried at the cemetery. He was another of Calvin and Easter’s children. His wife, Myrtie Louvelle Anderson, was later buried at the cemetery as well. She was a sister to Minnie Anderson.
Rhoda Artennie Terry was buried at the cemetery in 1984. She was the first born of the Terry children, born in 1909.
Earry Terry, the fifth-born of the Terry children, was buried at the cemetery in 1989.
The only of Calvin Terry’s children not buried at the family cemetery is the youngest, Cal Terry Jr. He and his wife, Connie Burke, are buried at nearby West Cemetery on Williams Creek Road.
The cemetery today
The Terry Cemetery is located on a small tract of property owned by Dorsey Terry. He is one of the children of Elmer and Myrtie Anderson Terry, a grandson of Calvin and Easter Smith Terry.
Cemetery Census
TERRY CEMETERY (STATION CAMP)
GPS Coordinates: 36.52661, -84.61860
First Burial: 1929
Last Burial: 2016
Dortha Terry, 1919-1929
James L. Terry, 1912-1929
Calvin Terry Sr., 1878-1936
Ruth F. Terry, 1943-1943
Easter Smith Terry, 1888-1971
Elmer C. Terry, 1913-1981
Rhoda A. Terry, 1909-1984
Earry Terry, 1916-1989
Myrtie Anderson Terry, 1925-2016
The Independent Herald has been the Voice of Scott County and Big South Fork Country since 1976. If you need to subscribe or update your subscription, please use the option below.