EAST CYRUSTON CEMETERY, Hwy 273, LINCOLN COUNTY TENNESSEE
Commentary by Terry
Magyar:
John Milliken (I), married Isabella Doak, 27 Sep 1786, in Augusta Co.,
Virginia. They farmed in Lincoln Co. TN. Their son John Milliken II
(b.1791) most likely inherited the land from his father in 1814. He is
listed in the Lincoln Co. census from 1820 thru 1860 when he and son
John H. are using the Viney Grove P.O. In 1870 John H. Milliken is
listed at the Cyruston Posted Office.
I've not located John Milliken II, but John H. Milliken, 1832-1872, is
buried at the Bethel cemetery, memorial# 64046987.
I have found Millikens' in the Barnes and Bethel cemeteries, but I've
not located John Milligan (I) and his wife Isabella Doak, 1786-1803. It
could be they were buried on the old farm or the tombstones have simply
succumbed to time and/or they could be here at the East Cyruston
Cemetery under the same circumstances.
It's odd that Findagrave.com has a listing for this cemetery, but no
memorials. This abandoned cemetery is not in the counties cemetery book,
but I'm told it does exist. So, I'm posting this memorial and hoping to
find out more information. (It is not there because most of the cemetery
listings in the Marsh book of the county did not include black
cemeteries or cemeteries thought to be black when in fact there may have
been old white graves which were unmarked.)
Commentary by CW Austin:
The Millikens' could be interred here. If so their graves are
unmarked. Their graves fall generally earlier than when headstones were first
imported into the south, mostly quarried from the Missouri hill country. The East
& West Cryuston is a large community of land area spanning down the Old Elkton
Pike from Swan Creek westward nearly to Dellrose. There are many possibilities
of land ownership in that area. Whereas there are really no recognizable villages
that grew up around these names, the East Cyruston community is concentrated around
the junction of Swan Creek Rd and Old Elkton Pike (Hwy 273) near where this
cemetery is located. There was a Post office in the 1800s there. This is also
the place where the Swan Creek crosses the Pike on its bubbly travels south to
empty into the Elk River a 1/2 mile south of East Cyruston. Many of the Milliken
descendents have marked graves and are interred in the Bethel Cemetery 2+ miles
to the northeast of East Cryuston along Gunter Hollow Road.
I am sure in time this cemetery was discontinued by the African American
Community for the nearby Antioch Church cemetery a 1/2 mile east of here,
because of ownership and access reasons.
Date: 7 May 2015
To: Terry Magyar, (descendent of the Milliken family.)
From C. Wayne Austin
Yesterday I visited the
East Cryuston Cemetery as per your write-up on Findgrave.com. My conclusions are
flavored with an archeological & historical geographical perspective and should
give you a way to figure out more about whether or not your Millicans were
buried here. I have my conclusions in a bullet listing below:
1. The gravestones that exist there belong to the African American community.
One can tell black cemeteries by certain characteristics, in spite of not being
able to tell otherwise as I made no attempt to find a caretaker. That
identification largely centers around the amount of resources available for
graves & markers etc. in old times. So its not likely you are related to them.
2. As per when white families of the Old Plantation culture died away and were
buried on their places, I could not prove any of that with the grave records
because the grave space is covered in brush and plant growth as dense as any I
have seen. It was so dense I could see hardly anything and was lucky to find
about 15 recent gravestones (averaging about 1920) for the black families.
3. Analyzing the Topography shows this area marked on the maps to be the highest
and therefore the most desirable grave area as all the other places on that 700+
land space identified below
4. The cemetery is not presented in the Marsh Cemetery book because they did not
include the black cemeteries and no information came to light that East Cyruston
Cemetery could have been a white cemetery before blacks last used it as a burial
ground. From the looks of things it is no longer active and has not seen
visitors in years.
5. The cemetery space is at least 2 to 3 acres and gravestones populate only a
small part of that with grave sinks common to black burial methods being
primarily located in the eastern part of the space, but the marked and unmarked
graves are scattered along a line east to west near the south side of the space.
Granite markers and one concrete marker of the Leatherwood surname are used in
the western part and older limestone markers in the east with one concrete
marker barely readable in the area close to the gate. The higher part of the
cemetery is better suited for graves but shows no gravestones and is in the
north area. As I say though I could not tell much because of the brush if there
were old fallen stones for white settlers or even if they had only fieldstones
or just plain unmarked graves. Also, I did not linger long due to having several
cemeteries on my visitation platter that day.
6. The farm though is used as a cattle feed lot and also serves the big bird
community as a buzzard roost leaving me desirous of getting the heck out of
there asap. Actually the Buzzard Roost was over next to the barn. but the smell
from the hot south wind drifted into the cemetery and was horrific to my
citified nose.
7. The East Cyruston cemetery is completely abandoned, but is well fenced and
gated on the southeast corner. It was clearly named with a community name and
that probably was something the African American Community did to establish it
as a community designation and would have been their way of taking control of
the grave space. If there are whites buried that was done long after anyone had
forgotten who started the graveyard.
8. But I believe the place could have been owned by white families prior to
blacks using recent tombstones. The farm looks to be in white's hands today
though that is unimportant as a deciding factor. It could be that the white
families all died out and/or moved away and the portion marked on maps as the
East Cyruston Cemetery had its beginning as an old white family cemetery with a
slave section which later was converted to an all African American (community)
Cemetery.
9. It is apparent that the farm in that area would have been hugely in demand as
an agriculture land plot. It sits at the junction of the Elk River and the Swan
Creek to the Gunter Hollow Road having highly prized soils for great crops and farming. So if one can
identify what white family owned that plot in the early 1800s then they are on
the path to figuring out who lived there and is likely buried there in now
unmarked plots. I do believe on that space was prized as a cemetery space and
would have been chosen to be used as a burial ground for any early farmer living
there in the early 1800s.
An old 1876 DG beers map would tell you something in the 1876 time era, but that
was a bit late. That name and area would be plotted on the map. I don't have
this map for Lincoln Co., but do for other counties around.
10. This plot of farm land is unique in that the plot here is an old farm
bounded by the road on the east, The Elk River on the southwest and the Swan
Creek on the west. A small branch actually bounds the land space on the south &
east area and all that would encompass about 700 acres of land. That along with
the very adequate water supply from the streams makes this is a very desirable
land space and you can bet a prominent early settler secured at least that area
for agriculture assuming they had land grants big enough or the ability to
consolidate purchased grants of the whole area under one ownership.
With your help I might like to recreate this cemetery on findagrave and add some
of the above info/writing into the Cemetery menu page for anyone interested in
this cemetery. You can transfer your listings to that and I will add all the
African Americans gravestones. I do believe it is necessary to designate the
race of those interred here because to correctly tell the history and to help
out in the genealogy area. After we vacate the old listing on findagrave.com
which now only has your two Millicans the blank one could be deleted as that is
all there is now in that listing.
C. Wayne Austin - Mid Ten Cemeteries Web site.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maury/cemetery/index.html
Location: From Fayetteville go west on Hwy
64 to Old Elkton Pike and turn south (left) and follow that for about 7
miles and look to you left at a cattle ranch with barns and silos and
fences. Turn into the driveway with permission/notification and as you
go toward the barns you will see the cemetery in a thicket straight
ahead of you. Follow the road around the barn and park on the south side
of the barn and go into the gate closing it behind you and walk along
beside the barn to the cemetery. Turn right as you bump into the fence
row of the cemetery and follow along the cemetery fence row to the gate
on the south eastern corner of the cemetery. This cemetery is subject to
being locked up behind gates so you may have to deal with that. There is
a large cattle operation going on here so be prepared to get by that
without disturbing the livestock or damaging anything.
This historical topography map shows the cemetery surroundings; the
houses/barns/creeks/hills and the cemetery. Some of these no longer
exist.
Maps from Topozone & MS Streets & Trips &
Bing mapping sites, modified for this
site by Wayne Austin, 10 Oct 2011.
