LOWRY CEMETERY
(Destroyed December 2003)The Lowry Cemetery in Decaturville was destroyed, probably in December 2003. This cemetery was in the woods in the southeast quadrant of the intersection of the Decaturville bypass (TN 69) and Middleburg Road (TN 202), behind what was once an antique shop. The cemetery dated to the 1820-1840 period. In 1992 it was possible to recognize about a dozen fieldstones and about an equal number of sunken spots within the Lowry cemetery, so there were about 2 dozen burials there. Given the number of burials, it is likely that this was the local community cemetery before Decaturville Cemetery opened in 1845. Lowry Cemetery probably had already been abandoned when the separate Young Family Cemetery (about 30 yards to the east) was established in 1869. Lowry Cemetery was surrounded by very large trees, 2-3 feet or more in diameter. There was one marker with information, that of Jemima Lowry.
Jemima M. Lowry
Wife of Robert Lowry
Died Sept. 10, 1840
Age 33 Y'rs 11 Mo's 26 Da's
Edwin her son
Died Jan. 7, 1838
and her infant son both are lying by her side
Erected in honor of their mother by her sons
John A., Robt. & Wm. LowryJemima Lowry was the daughter of David Rushing and Nancy Deason. Her mother and two brothers are buried at Campground Cemetery. She has a sister Rebecca Jackson buried at Smith Chapel in Henderson County. Jemima's husband was Robert Lowry, a merchant somewhere in the Decaturville area. (This is a different person from the slave owning planter Robert Lowrey who lived on Doe Creek south of Scotts Hill, see Lowrey Cemetery.) The Lowry's moved to what was then Perry County (now Decatur County) from the Chesterfield District, South Carolina, in the early 1830s. Robert Lowry was in business with his brother-in-law Calvin Rushing. Perry County Court records show them being sued several times. Following his wife's death, Robert Lowry moved to Mississippi.
Jemima's son Robert Lowry, who with his brothers had the marker erected, was a Confederate Brigadier General and Governor of Mississippi 1882-1890.
The marker for Jemima and her sons probably was erected in the 1860s. It was in very good condition right up until it was broken during the logging, probably by a falling tree. Heavy equipment has obliterated all signs of the fieldstones and depressions.
The late Margarett Alexander recorded both cemeteries together in 1976. They appear in Decatur County, Tennessee Cemetery Records under the name of Houston Cemetery. Except for the marker information itself, everything said about Jemima Lowry in the cemetery book is wrong.