Since I transcribed and uploaded this letter and this letter from John Hill Jacocks (1831-1902), which I found on my 50th Birthday Genealogy Road Trip, I’ve been looking for the Haywood County, Tennessee, cemetery where he was buried.
It was supposed to be on Brantley Road, but I couldn’t find it. Thanks to my cousin Betsy’s detective work, I discovered that the part of Brantley Road where the cemetery is located had been renamed Marbury Road, and Betsy knew right where the cemetery was. She even cleared it with the current owner for me to check it out when I was back in Tennessee last weekend for the Lovelace Family Reunion.
Finding the Jacocks Family Cemetery
Although there are likely many more people buried in the cemetery, below are photos of the headstones that can be found there now. A big shout-out to the members of the Hooper family, who have taken care of the cemetery and made sure it wasn’t destroyed by farmers like many in the area.
John Hill Jacocks headstone
John Hill Jacocks was born Nov. 25, 1831, in Haywood County. He married Sarah Catherine Carter Jacocks (1834-1904) on April 14, 1858. He was primarily a farmer and was very proud of his family and heritage. John’s father, Jonathan Thomas Jacocks (1799-1874), followed his uncle, Col. Richard Nixon (1769-1831), to Haywood County in 1823 and became one of the original founders. John farmed the same land his father settled.
John Hill Jacock’s son James Alonzo Jacocks (1864-1941) and daughter-in-law Mary Jennie Castellaw Jacocks (1866-1946), with children around 1894.
As you can tell from his letters, John had taken the time to educate himself more than many others in his community and was able to read and write very well. From 1882 to 1894, he also served as a justice of the peace. John and Sarah had six children: William Thomas Jacocks (1860-1937), Richard Alfonso Jacocks (1861-1908), James Alonzo Jacocks (1864-1941), Joseph Theodore “Joe” Jacocks (1867-1952), Myra L. Jacocks and Katie A. Jacocks (1870-1873).
John died Dec. 21, 1902, and was buried there on his property. Two years later, Sarah was buried there as well.
Richard Alfonso Jacocks; his wife, Mildred Watridge Jacocks (1867-1902); their infant (1889-1889); and son, Carey H. Jacocks (1891-1893)
Richard Alfonso Jacocks was one of the sons of John Hill Jacocks. He was born Aug. 27, 1861, in Haywood County. He married Mildred Watridge on Jan. 18, 1887, and they had several children together.
First, they had an infant who was likely stillborn in 1889. Then they had a son, Carey H. Jacocks, on Oct. 16, 1891, but he died July 4, 1893, when he was 2. They then had two daughters, Mildred Jacocks (1894-1976) and Lucille Jacocks (1897-1971).
Mildred Watridge Jacocks died Feb. 22, 1902, when she was just 34, leaving Richard a widower with two young daughters, ages 7 and 5.
Richard died six years later, on March 11, 1908, when he was 46. He was buried alongside his wife and two children in the cemetery.
Mildred was 13 and Lucille was 11. After their father died, they went to live with the family of his brother, Joseph Theodore “Joe” Jacocks, and Joe’s wife, Myra Lou Moody Jacocks (1869-1928), and their three young sons: Arthur Wayland Jacocks (1890-1979), Robert T. Jacocks (1897-1994) and Floyd Wilkes Jacocks (1899-1968).
Arthur was the father of my great-uncle, Jesse Theodore “J.T.” Jacocks (1919-1988).
Joe and Myra are buried at Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Haywood County.
Katie A. Jacocks
Katie A. Jacocks was an infant daughter of John Hill Jacocks and his wife, Sarah. She was born March 11, 1870, and died Sept. 27, 1873.
James Clyde Jacocks (1901-1902) and Marrie L. Jacocks (1904-1906)
James Clyde and Marrie L. were John Hill Jacocks’ grandchildren through his son Joe and daughter-in-law Myra. James was born in 1901 and died Sept. 27, 1902, just shy of his first birthday. Marrie, whose name appears elsewhere as Marie, was born April 1, 1904, and died when she was 2 in 1906.
Mattie Olivia Jacocks (1892-1895)
Mattie Olivia was a daughter of “J. T. and M. S. Jacocks.” Although her father was Joseph Theodore (1867-1952), the “M. S.” on the headstone is confusing because Joe’s wife was Myra Lou Moody Jacocks.
There is one other individual buried in the cemetery, but there is no headstone marking her grave.
| Mrs. M. J. Shaw died suddenly Friday, Jan. 29, 1904, at the residence of her nephew, Joseph T. Jacocks. She was “a Miss Jacocks” and “the last of the older heads of the Jacocks family,” the only daughter of Jonathan T. Jacocks, one of Haywood County’s first settlers. Her husband, Archibald Shaw, had died about 35 years earlier. She had lived with her brothers, Joseph B. Jacocks and John H. Jacocks, until their deaths. Her nephew, John T. Jacocks, was later appointed her guardian. The article says she lacked one day of being 77 and was buried Saturday in the Jacocks family burying ground. |
A 1904 notice in The States-Graphic of Brownsville, Tenn. adds another likely burial to the Jacocks Family Cemetery. Mary J. Jacocks Shaw (1827-1904), John Hill Jacocks’ sister and the widow of Archibald Shaw, died Jan. 29, 1904, at the home of her nephew, Joseph Theodore “Joe” Jacocks. The notice described her as “the last of the older heads of the Jacocks family” and said she was buried the next day in the Jacocks family burying ground.
Standing there in that cemetery, I was reminded of words John Hill Jacocks so eloquently wrote in his letter in 1898:
“Ever and again the full destroyer death claimed as its victims some of our loved ones — a father, mother, brother, sister or some schoolmate or associate. Just then our gladness changed to sorrow, grief and sadness. ‘Time flies’ and with it its light. We too pass, as have many of our loved ones, to the grave and but for the hope we have on meeting them on God’s blissful shore where we will live with them forever more, our heart of hearts would join and grieve us, our tears forever flow in sorrow and sadness.”
—John Hill Jacocks
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
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