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mcc-jrr_371-010
Williams - Scott Cemetery, 37-1 Summary Report, page 10
The transitions of ownership for the NW/4 of Section 22 show that in 1867 Archibald McDonnell sold the land to Dallas J. Jones (see the Summary Report for the Jones Cemetery, 37-5). Other owners of land in the NW/4 included Robert C. Harrison, Isaac Alexander Lanier, and Isham J. Fennell, for times before the Civil War. However, it should also be noted that Thomas Allen Scott purchased 40 acres in October of 1832 as the NE/4 of the SE/4 of Section 20, Township 4, Range 1 West. This land is just over a mile west of the cemetery in the NW/4 of Section 22. It is today found to the west and the south of the western end of Gray Road, very near the Landman Cemeteries. The Landman Cemeteries were apparently used exclusively for the Landman family, or one would expect that perhaps Thomas Scott would have buried his wife Elizabeth there, in the nearest cemetery, since he did not bury her on his own land. However, there is another likely explanation of the reason that Elizabeth Scott was buried in the Williams - Scott Cemetery over a mile further away. Note that the 2nd line of entries in the INDEX TO LANDS above for Section 22 was for Robert and Ann C. Lanford to a Methodist Episcopal Church in the NW/4. How Robert Lanford came to own any land in the NW/4 of Section 22 is not shown, apparently being one of the deeds lost to the poor recording practices of the early days. In any event, research done while investigating the location of the Jordan's Chapel Cemetery (and therefore the associated Jordan's Chapel site) revealed that the original location of the Methodist Episcopal Church that became known as Jordan's Chapel was in fact on land owned by Robert Lanford. This land was in the NW/4 of Section 22, Township 4, Range 1 West. (For exhaustive additional detail about Jordan's Chapel and its cemetery, see the Jordan's Chapel Cemetery files on the CD-ROM supplied to the Army's Environmental Management offices or the copy of same supplied to the Huntsville -Madison County Public Library's Heritage Room.) Since the INDEX TO LANDS showed no entry for a Williams family to have owned land in Section 22, just as there was no ownership by Thomas A. Scott there, it brings into question why families of these names would have used a cemetery other than on their own lands. With the establishment of nearby community cemeteries not yet accomplished in this area in the early 1800s, the only other reason known for “remote” burials off of a landowner's property was to use a church cemetery. There is no known blood or marriage relationship between any Scott or Williams family to the known family names that owned the land of the NW/4 of Section 22, so it 10 - (1803)