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mcc-jrr_872-037
Dickson - Rankin Cemetery, 87-2 Summary Report, page 37
The land record data below shows the transitions of the land ownerships. First, it was obtained from the government by Benjamin S. Jones. This was recorded on 21 June 1831, when he patented the Southeast Quarter of Section 21, Township 5 South, Range 1 West. (See Cowart's “Old Land Records” page image below.) Benjamin S. Jones sold the land in 1833 to George McLeod, as shown in the “Index to Lands” by G. W. Jones & Sons, Inc. (image below). According to this index, George McLeod sold the land to Hughy Smith in 1837. Smith sold the land to James Dickson in 1847, and the Adminstrator of James Dickson's estate transferred it to Joseph D. Graham (“and others”) in 1855. Therefore, the land was held under the Graham surname far longer than any other owner in the 1800s. Joseph D. Graham was, of course, a son of Nancy Tyree Dickson and her husband James B. Graham (who died in 1849, before his widow and her children inherited the land from the Dickson estate). Likewise, Nancy T. Graham was a daughter of James Dickson and Keziah Wood. Since Nancy Graham was one of the heirs of James Dickson, and that is how the Grahams got the land, it strongly supports the claim that both James Dickson and his wife Keziah are buried in the family cemetery, as stated by Dennis Simpson in the Dickson Ahnentafel shown earlier in this report. That information can be found on page 16 of this report, in Ahnentafel Generation No. 3, for persons numbered 6 and 7. While they have no tombstones remaining to mark their graves, James Dickson and Keziah Wood Dickson are almost certainly buried there beside the graves of their known children who are interred in the cemetery. This deduction additionally supports the name of the cemetery including “Dickson”, even though there is only one tombstone visible in the cemetery today with that surname inscribed. Considering all of these things, it now appears that the most descriptive name for the cemetery would be the Dickson - Graham Cemetery (87-2). 37 - (2893)