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mcc-jrr_881-011
Unknown Cemetery, 88-1 Summary Report, page 11
An interesting point of conjecture is that several of the census pages for the folks that were located (as mentioned in the 1952 notes) included Woodward / Woodard families as neighbors. It is known that the Woodwards lived near the Woodward Cemetery, 88-2, in a community that was known as Woodwardville and had its own post office in the 1840s. There is another small, unnamed cemetery (88-1) without any tombstones in that area, in Section 28 of Township 5, Range 1 West. The cemetery is along a gravel road on the west side of Pershing Road, about 400 yards north of the Woodward Cemetery. It is about one mile southwest of the Joiner - Lacey Cemetery, 89-2. From the interview comments by Lizzie Jacobs Ward recorded in the notes of the Army's files, it may well be that this is the cemetery referred to as being the “colored cemetery ... on down towards Leeman's Ferry in the pine”. [“The colored cemetery is on down towards Leeman's ferry, in the pine.” - from page 3 above.] It is known that Leeman's Ferry was located on the banks of the Tennessee River in Section 27, less than a half mile east from the location of this unnamed cemetery. Of course, it was also about a half mile south from the location of the Joiner - Lacey Cemetery (89-2), so that may not be conclusive. However, it seems that the census trails indicate a southern location for the “colored cemetery”, which was described in different terms than the one now called Joiner - Lacey. For example, being “in the middle of our field” and being able to “plow right up to the edge of the cemetery” fits the one near the Woodward Cemetery, which is in relatively flat land. The Joiner - Lacey Cemetery is on a steeply sloped hillside. It is not at all likely that anyone ever plowed right up to its edges, as stated by Lizzie Jacobs Ward on page 4 above. The statement about being in the middle of a field suggests a relatively flat place, not hillsides. Furthermore, the unknown cemetery (88-1) is definitely “in the pines”, as there are still pine trees in abundance there, and there are large old pine stumps in the cemetery. Finally, the size fits. Lizzie said that the cemetery in the pine was about a half acre. That agrees with current estimates, as opposed to the higher estimated size of the Joiner - Lacey Cemetery, 89-2. While this could explain the Unknown Cemetery 88-1, it still leaves the question of another cemetery that Lizzie Jacobs Ward called “the Jacobs Cemetery”, where her mother wanted to be buried (but couldn't, due to high water being “backed up” - implying “backed up” from the Tennessee River at flood stage). That situation most certainly would not fit either the Joiner - 11 - (2908)