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Cemeteries of Redstone Arsenal Process And Summary, page 11
Of these cemeteries, the Lanier family cemeteries are perhaps the most historically noteworthy, as one of them (the Jordan - Lanier Cemetery, 51-1) contains the grave of Rev. William Lanier, who was another Revolutionary War soldier buried on the arsenal. His immediate family and Lanier relatives formed a sort of dynasty in pre-Civil War days, owning a large portion of the land that became the arsenal. Additionally, the Timmons Cemetery holds the story of an extremely prominent family that faded away with time, almost in a typical Tennessee Williams type of tale. Furthermore, the investigation into the Smith Cemetery unfolded the story of Hughy Smith and those who owned the land after his death. Hughy's descendants all married well and produced influential citizens of the area in the 1800s. However, none of them stayed on the old plantation where his cemetery is located on the arsenal. The land ownership passed first to William Edwards in a courthouse auction, and then William bestowed the Smith Plantation lands upon one of his daughters when she married Henry Grantland. One of Henry Grantland's daughters married Boling Rice, and they became the parents of Grantland Rice, who in the mid-1900s was America's foremost sportscaster and sportswriter. In fact, for many years the annual collegiate football championship trophy was named the Grantland Rice Trophy. It was Grantland Rice who coined the term “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” for the linemen of Notre Dame's football team in the 1900s. There are, of course, many more fascinating family stories to be associated with the cemeteries of Redstone Arsenal. Most are yet to be written, but there are probably none that will exceed the human interest of the Jacobs family pioneers of arsenal lands. Jacobs descendants are buried in many of the arsenal cemeteries, but it was investigation of the Jordan - Jacobs Cemetery that revealed the story of this extensive family of free blacks and mulattoes who came here from South Carolina around 1822. Apparently, they were free back in South Carolina (probably granted freedom for service during the Revolutionary War), and some of them arrived in Madison County in the company of the earliest Kennamer and Lemley families to come here. They initially settled in the New Hope area of the southeastern part of the county before taking land where the arsenal is today. The Jacobs family was obviously accepted in the pre-Civil War white society, and they established several communities or small towns on the pre-arsenal lands. These settlements included Mullens Flats, Silverhill, Pond Beat, Green Grove, and others. 11 - (3279)