Sacred Ground: Trammell Cemetery at Capuchin
The Trammell family — beginning with James Trammell, son of Capt. Dennis Trammell — owned the farm where Capuchin Mountain Road meets Capuchin Creek Road in northeastern Scott County
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Trammell Cemetery tells the story of the family of David Trammell, son of Revolutionary War Capt. Dennis Trammell
Located on Capuchin Creek (sometimes spelled Capachene), near where Capuchin Mountain Road crosses the ridge from Jellico Creek to Capuchin Creek and joins up with Capuchin Creek Road, is the Trammell Cemetery.
This is not to be confused with the Trammell Cemetery on Alderville Road in Winfield. That cemetery, located at the base of Chitwood Mountain, is the final resting place of Capt. Dennis Trammell — the Revolutionary War veteran who settled in present-day Winfield — and many of his descendants.
But some of Capt. Trammell’s descendants moved deeper into the mountains. That led to the Trammell Cemetery at Jellico Creek, not far from where the road travels over the mountain from Jellico Creek to Capuchin. Many more of his descendants are buried there.
And, of course, Capt. Trammell’s daughter, Nancy, married Archibald Angel. They established the farm along Jellico Creek at the base of Capuchin Mountain that is still known today as Angel Valley. Nancy and many more of Capt. Trammell’s descendants are buried at Angel-Wright Cemetery on the farm at Angel Valley — including his son, James Trammell, who died in 1826. His headstone is the oldest verifiable headstone found in Scott County.
In short, this is Trammell country — from Alderville, where Capt. Trammell settled as the patriarch of the family, all the way to Jellico Creek and Capachin deep in the mountains.
And that’s the Sacred Ground series’ next stop: Trammell Cemetery on Capuchin Creek.
The Trammell family
The Trammells who moved to Capuchin included Capt. Dennis Trammell’s son, David Trammell (1793-1872).
It’s not surprising that the Trammell family spread out so quickly. The pioneer settlers of this area came through the Cumberland Gap from places like Virginia and North Carolina — often leaving well-established family farms and relative wealth behind — because those states had become too crowded. They came here looking for solitude. A neighbor within shouting distance was a neighbor too close. So while Capt. Dennis Trammell settled at Alderville, his children moved to Jellico Creek and Capuchin, deeper in the mountains. The same pattern can be found with the family of James Chitwood, another Revolutionary War veteran who moved to the Winfield area.
David Trammell married Lucinda Holt (1795-1872) in 1813. She was the daughter of Drury Holt and Sarah Rogers, who moved to present-day McCreary County. They raised at least children on their farm at Capachin, including son Hiram Trammell (1832-1890), who served as the first postmaster at the Capachin Post Office when it opened in October 1882. The post office served the Capachin community until 1914, when it closed and moved to Newcomb, across the mountain in Campbell County.
David and Lucinda’s other children included Jarett, Dauswell, Nancy, James Marion, Mary, Sarah Elizabeth, Richard, Elizabeth and Lucinda.
Jarett Trammell, the oldest, served in Co. A of the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry during the Civil War. He died of bloody flux at Vicksburg, Miss. on April 3, 1865. It isn’t clear where he was buried.
See Also: Scott County’s Civil War soldiers
The cemetery begins
David and Lucinda Trammell, and Hiram Trammell, would all be buried at the Trammell Cemetery on Capuchin Creek. But the first person buried there was a woman named Anny Long, who died on Oct. 19, 1870.
Anny’s birth year isn’t recorded on the hand-inscribed stone. But also buried at the cemetery is a Henry Long. He has a matching stone, which also does not include a birth year. The death date is difficult to read, and may be Jan. 15, 1874 or Jan. 15, 1894.
Unfortunately, census records don’t include a Long family in Scott or Campbell counties in 1860, 1870 or 1880, so it isn’t clear who they were — or whether Anny was a daughter or wife of Henry.
However, users on the FindAGrave website identify Henry Long as the husband of Lucinda “Cindy” Trammell, who was a daughter of Hiram Trammell and his wife, Anna Campbell. She married her second husband, Ewell Blankenship, in 1877 — which probably mean’s Henry Long’s death date was 1874 instead of 1894. Ewell, who is buried at Angel-Wright Cemetery across the mountain, was a son of Civil War veteran Dennis Trammell with Camilla Blankenship.
If this information is correct — and it probably is, because it explains how a Long was the first to be buried on the Trammell family farm — Anny Long was probably a daughter of Henry Long and Cindy Trammell.
Both David Trammell and his wife, Lucinda, died in 1872. Lucinda was the first to pass, in May, at age 76. David died in December, at age 79. They have matching stones, clearly homemade but neatly chiseled.
The Baird family
Next to be buried at the Trammell Cemetery was Travis Baird, in October 1877.
The Baird family was another family that settled in the Capuchin area in the 19th century, and Travis married Dina Trammell (1854-1936) in June 1870.
Travis was one of the many children of Samuel Baird and Ann Dooley.
Dina was another of the children of Hiram and Anna Trammell. She remarried to Litt Rains. She was buried at Trammell Cemetery in 1936. Her second husband was buried at the Baird Creek Cemetery nearby in 1930.
Another member of the Baird family was buried at Trammell Cemetery in 1899. Hiram Baird was the three-year-old son of Andrew Baird and Celia Jane Cox, both of whom would later be buried at the cemetery.
Andrew Baird appears to have been the son of Travis Baird and Dina Trammell. He was listed in the home of Litt and Dina Rains when the 1880 census was taken as a stepson of Litt Rains. (Anna Baird and Phoebe Baird, ages seven and four, were also listed as stepchildren.)
Andy and Celia had an infant son who was buried at the cemetery in 1902.
Emeline Baird was buried at the cemetery in 1917. She was the wife of Colbert Baird, and one of the six children of Litt and Dina Rains.
Finally, 21-year-old Frank Baird was buried at the cemetery in 1925. He was another of the children of Andy and Celia Baird.
The continuing story of the Trammell family
A baby boy had been buried at the cemetery in 1892. He was the son of Ulysses S. Trammell and Susan Douglas. Ulysses was another of the children of Hiram and Anna Trammell, who would later be buried at the cemetery in 1951. He married the daughter of King Hiram Douglas and Mary Ann Perkins. The Douglas family was from the Newcomb area in northwestern Campbell County, across the mountain from Capachine.
Another baby, Arthur Trammell, was buried at the cemetery in August 1911. He was the son of Roscoe and Maude Trammell. Roscoe was the oldest son of Ulysses and Susan Trammell.
Nineteen-year-old Ruby Trammell, another child of Ulysses and Susan, was buried at the cemetery in 1922. An interesting footnote from a family member: she had a pair of new shoes that caused her to develop terrible blisters on her feet before she died, but she refused to stop wearing them.
Louisa Ellen Grant Trammell was buried at the cemetery in 1922. She was the wife of Mart Trammell, who was buried there in 1929. Mart was one of the sons of Dauswell Trammell; a grandson of David Trammell and Lucinda Holt.
Dause Trammell, a son of Hiram and Anna Campbell, was buried at the cemetery in 1925.
Finally, Willie Trammell was buried at the cemetery in 1938. He was another son of Ulysses and Susan Trammell.
The final member of the Trammell family buried on Capachine was Ulysses in 1951, 14 years after his wife died and was buried there.
Other names
Besides the Trammell and Baird surnames (and Henry and Anny Long), there are a few other names that show up at Trammell Cemetery, beginning with baby Noah Shields in 1900. He was the infant son of M.E. and Lizzie Shields.
Mary Blankenship was buried at the cemetery in 1911. She was a daughter of Ewell and Lucinda Trammell Blankenship, and was just 16 when she died.
One-year-old Arnold Meredith was buried at the cemetery in 1922. He may have been the son of Tivis and Carrie Meredith who lived nearby.
The only name not yet mentioned is Elisha Siler Angel. She was born in 1860, but her stone is sunken and the death year cannot be determined.
For a complete cemetery transcription, see Tim West’s genealogy website.
Did you know? You can find the entire “Sacred Ground” series archived on the Encyclopedia of Scott County.
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It is not Willie Trammell! It is
Willas Trammell and he is my grandfather!