The year this cemetery was established
is not known. Christopher Cooper Senior
purchased the land in December 1803 from
Jesse Mossley. The farm remained in the
Cooper Family until 1851. Prior to
Christopher Senior’s death in 1830, he
deeded the land to his only son,
Christopher Junior. Christopher Junior
sold the farm in 1851 to John and Pheby
Stine. Christopher Junior then migrated
to Sullivan County, Missouri. The land
has remained in the Stine Family since
1851, and the burial ground has never
been disturbed. The cemetery remained
buried under shrub, brush and vines for
about 100 years, and perhaps longer.
The first clue that a cemetery existed
was found in the Pension Papers of
Sherwood Hatley, War of 1812 Soldier.
Sherwood’s first wife was Phebe Johnson.
Phebe is believed to be a daughter of
Zopher Johns(t)on Senior, who has a
military marker at nearby Kidwell
Cemetery.
Sherwood Hatley outlived three wives and
married a fourth and final time. It was
in the pension application filed by his
fourth and surviving wife, Thena (Bethena)
Reynolds Hatley, that the “Old Cooper
Burying” Ground was mentioned. In an
affidavit by James Graham, he stated
that Sherwood’s third wife, Sally Clark,
had been buried there.
The Old Cooper Burial Ground was finally
found in the Summer of 2005 by a
professional, Greeneville researcher.
After the removal of a century of
tangled vines, undergrowth and trees,
twenty-six old handmade markers were
visible above the ground. No writing on
the markers is visible, although a scant
trace of a name is visible on one larger
marker. Indentions in the ground give
indication there are more burials than
those marked by fieldstones.
There is no doubt this cemetery is on
the Cooper Farm purchased in 1803 by
Christopher and Jane Brown Cooper. The
present owners, John W. and Margie
Belcher Smith, inherited the land from
John’s sister, Mae Smith Stine. The
original Cooper landowners were unknown
to the present-day Stine/Smith family;
however, they were well aware the
cemetery was on a knoll on their farm.
Spider Stine, for whom the present-day
road to the property is named, said the
last person buried there was a “Grimes”
(Graham) woman. This burial would have
taken place around the turn of the 20th
Century.
In the early years when what is today
Greene County, Tennessee, was still part
of North Carolina, a state law mandated
that all landowners set aside ground for
a cemetery. The following is excerpted
from the book, Olden Times in Greene
County, by Harry B. Roberts, page 197,
published in 1983:
“FAMILY GRAVE YARDS
A familiar
landmark which usually characterized
pre-Civil War farms and plantations was
the family burial plot. One reason for
this is the fact that when these early
homesteads were first settled rural
churches were few and far between.
Another reason lies in the fact that an
early law of North Carolina, passed
while the area now occupied by Tennessee
was a part of that state, required every
plantation owner to set aside a plot of
ground in which all Christian people
including slaves might be buried.
The law in part follows:
Every planter, owner attorney or
overseer of every settled plantation in
this government or that hereafter shall
be settled, shall set apart a burial
place and fence the same, for the
interring all such Christian persons,
whether bond or free, that shall die on
their plantation; and that before the
interring there shall be called, at
least three or four of the neighbors to
view the corpse, and if it appears to
them that the person came to his or her
death by any violence of any unlawful
means, notice thereof shall be given
forthwith to the coroner of the precinct
so that proceedings may be had thereon
according to law; and in case any of the
persons so called shall refuse to come
and view, he or she so refusing, shall
forfeit and pay the sum of five
shillings; to be levied by a warrant
from the next justice of the peace and
paid to the churchwardens, for the use
of the poor of the said parish.”
It is my opinion that many, many of our
early Greene County kin are buried here.
Surnames could include all of the
intermarried families of Brown, Cooper,
Johns(t)on, Hatley, Foster and Graham.
Most of these families were intermarried
for well over 100 years. They lived in
close proximity to each other back in
Virginia (pre 1800) and in Greene County
(post 1800). They sold land among
themselves, and acted as bondsmen and
witnesses to legal events. In the
mid-1800’s, the descendants of many of
these families migrated together to
Missouri and Illinois. There is every
reason to believe that those who
remained behind would be buried
together.
The Family of Christopher and Jane Brown
Cooper lived on this land from 1803
until 1851. They had seven children, of
whom one went to Kentucky (Jane Cooper
Blair), one went to Missouri
(Christopher Cooper Junior), one went to
Illinois (Phebe Cooper Johnson), and one
went to Obion County, Tennessee (Lydia
Cooper Maloney). The other three
children died in Greene County and were
Elizabeth Cooper Johnson (died before
1850), Catherine Cooper Maloney (died
1862), who is presumed to be buried with
her husband at nearby Cross Anchor
Cemetery although she does not have a
marker, and Sarah Cooper Doty, who is
buried with her husband at Doty’s
Chapel.
Thus, one must ask the question: “WHO
are the twenty-six (or more) people
buried in the Old Cooper Burial Ground?”
The obvious answer to me is they are
related kinfolk. They are Browns,
Johns(t)ons, Fosters, Hatleys, and
Grahams, most of whom died before the
Cooper Farm was sold in 1851.
One may argue that the burial ground on
the Cooper Farm was begun by the Stine
Family in 1851. This is not the case.
John (died 1880) and Phebe (died 1881)
Stine who purchased the farm from
Christopher Cooper Junior in 1851, had
three sons, Rufus, Christian and David,
and four daughters, Sarah, Susannah
Catharine and Elizabeth. John and Phebe
Stine are buried at the Cross Anchor
Cemetery, as are the Stine’s unmarried
daughter (Sarah died 1901), and their
son, Rufus (died 1892) and his family.
The son, David, died in battle during
the Civil War in 1863, and the son,
Christian, migrated to Illinois by 1880.
As for the daughters, Catherine Stine
married Robert Brown (died 1898), a
grandson of Jotham Brown Junior, and the
daughter, Elizabeth Stine, married James
D. Brown (died 1878), who was also a
grandson of Jotham Brown Junior. Both of
the Stine/Brown families are also buried
at Cross Anchor. So, the burial ground
on the Cooper farm is absolutely not a
Stine Family Cemetery.
The possibility exists that our
Revolutionary War Soldier, Zopher
Johns(t)on Senior (died c. 1835) is
actually buried in the Old Cooper Burial
Ground, as are his sons John Johnson
(died 1855) and Joseph Johnson (died
1872), the husband of Elizabeth Cooper
Johnson. Although Zopher Johnson has a
Military Marker at nearby Kidwell
Cemetery, it must be acknowledged that
this marker was placed very recently,
probably in the 1980’s. When Kidwell
Cemetery was transcribed by Mr. Bufford
Reynolds and his colleagues in the late
1960’s, no Revolutionary War soldiers,
including Zopher Johnson, were on the
listing. This clearly indicates there
was no (readable) marker at that date.
The present marker at Kidwell contains
many errors, including Zopher’s year of
birth, year of death and the place of
his Revolutionary War service. There is
also no old stone or marker near the
present Military marker at Kidwell
Cemetery.
Christopher Cooper Senior, a
Revolutionary War soldier from Virginia,
died in 1830. Zopher Johns(t)on, also a
Revolutionary War soldier from Virginia,
gave an affidavit for Christopher,
attesting to Christopher’s service.
Zopher Johns(t)on died after 1832 and
before 1836. Christopher and Zopher were
friends. They were in-laws. And, they
were near neighbors. Zopher’s farm on
Roaring Fork is equal distance between
The Old Cooper Burial Ground and Kidwell
Cemetery. One must wonder if Zopher
would have been buried with his old
friend and fellow soldier from Virginia.
My personal opinion is that he was.
Page 3 History of the Old Cooper Burial
Ground
The close familial bonds of these
intermarried families of Cooper, Brown,
Johns(t)on, Foster, Graham and Hatley
survived through generations, and it is
my opinion they slumber together in
death in the Old Cooper Burial Ground,
united for eternity by these bonds of
kinship. The 1878 Affidavit by James
Graham in the Pension Application of
Sherwood Hatley, War of 1812 Soldier,
follows:
AFFIDAVIT BY JAMES GRAHAM, 10-14-1878
PENSION FILES OF SHERWOOD HATLEY,WAR OF
1812 SOLDIER
“State of Tennefsee County of Greene
On the 14th day of October A. D. 1878
before me V. S. Maloney, Clerk of the
County Court of said county personally
appeared, James Graham aged seventy six
years, a resident of Greene County
Tennefsee, well known to me, whom I
certify to be respectable and entitled
to credit, and who being duly sworn
according to law, doth on his oath make
the following affidavit relative to
Thomas England, former husband of
Bethena Hatley, now the widow of
Sherwood Hatley viz
This affiant States, that he was
personally acquainted with said Thomas
England and said Bethena, while they
lived together as husband and wife in
both Greene and Hawkins county late of
Tennesfee; that sometime before the late
war of the rebellion, this affiant heard
that said England had been sent to the
penitentiary from Hawkins county
aforesaid for shooting a boy or young
man and this affiant has never known or
heard of said England returning to his
home; that during the late war of the
rebellion some rebel Soldiers came into
affiants neighborhood, and one of them
was offering to sell a rifle gun, which
he said was or had been, Tom Englands –
that they had found him in the Mountains
near Kingston Tennefsee, and arrested
him and put him under the guard of one
rebel Soldier, and when the other
Soldiers went to a house near by, Tom
England shot his guard, and then tried
to make his escape, but was overtaken
and killed, and the gun which was
offered for sale, was the same gun taken
from him
Affiant
further states that it is the general
understanding that said England is dead,
and he has never seen or heard of said
England alive since. Affiant heard of
his death as aforesaid.
He further
states that Bethena, the widow of said
England remarried with Sherwood Hatley
of said county of Greene. He further
states that he was also acquainted with
said Sherwood Hatley while he lived with
a former wife named Sally or Sarah, and
that her name before her marriage to
said Sherwood was Sally Clarke – that at
the time said Sally died in said County
of Greene, this affiant lived within one
and a half miles of said Sherwood and
wife, Sally – that he did not see her
dead but knows from the neighborhood
talk, that she died in the winter of
1864 or in the Spring of 1865 and was
buried at Coopers burying ground about
two miles from affiants residence
He further
States that he is not interested in the
prosecution of said Bethenas claim for
pensions now pending under act of March
9, 1878, and that his Post Office
address is Cross Anchor, Greene County,
Tennefsee.
James Graham
“X” his mark
Witness: A. C. Harmon & W. G. ???
(surname not readable)”
Transcriber’s Comments:
James Graham, born c. 1800, died on
7-2-1880, “age about 80”. He is buried
at the Cross Anchor Church Cemetery,
about 1 ½ miles from the Old Cooper
Burial Ground. In 1806, Sally Johnson
married John Graham, bond by Jotham
Brown. Sarah is believed to be the
daughter of Zopher Johns(t)on Senior.
There is no marker at Cross Anchor
Cemetery for John and Sally Johnson
Graham.
V. S. Maloney is Valentine Sevier
Maloney, the son of Robert and Catherine
Cooper Maloney. Valentine died in Greene
County after 1880 and before 1900. His
burial place has not been found.
Valentine Maloney’s brother, John
Maloney, died between 1871-1879. John’s
burial place has not been found.
Bethena Reynolds England Hatley, fourth
wife of Sherwood Hatley, died on
5-26-1897, age 88 years. She is buried
in the Malone Family Cemetery in Ottway,
about 2 miles from the Old Cooper Burial
Ground. |
