This map shows the GPS coordinates of the McNeese Cemetery as: N 35.21769, W -86.96864.
Location using directions I followed: Go northeast on Hwy 31 Alt to Blooming Grove Road and turn right. Follow that for about a mile and the cemetery is nearly a mile northeast of you upon a high hill. Today's directions: Go to Mrs Hill's home and turn left with permission. Follow her farm road straight back from the home about a half of a mile. Look to your right and there will be a gate before you dead end on the field road. If you dead end on the road you will be staring at a large insurmountable chasm on your right. So cross thru the gate and the small creeks and climb the tree covered hill on your left going northeast. If you directions are right at the top you will come out into a large open field and the cemetery is on the other end of the field in the northeast corner in the edge of the woodland. Alternate location from Giles Co book: Location: Highway 31A east; right on Powell Chapel Road for one and one half miles on the south end of the Mitchell Newton farm. Copied by Gerald S. Young and Mitchell Newton, 1984. Cemetery consists of two rows of graves. There are no fieldstone marked graves visible.
My human interest story of the trip back to find this cemetery:
I took an alternate route to get to this cemetery. I went down the field road going east off of Blooming Grove Road. Troy Bass a knowledgeable local man had informed me of this method of reaching the cemetery without walking straight up a cliff for a mile. Well, that is way it seemed to me as I analyzed maps. So I followed instructions and turned into a field road that went beside Mrs. Raymond Hill's home. I was lucky because the gate was unlocked and open, but they were expecting me. I drove back about 800 yards on the field road and found my self peering into the Grand Canyon of Tennessee. Well, it might have well been. A deep chasm was on my right between me and the hill I had targeted to climb to gain access to the large open field I needed to cross. So I backtracked to a gate 100 yards back and on the right. It became a walk from there, but only for a mountain man. I crossed over the gate and went across two small creeks and various other fence hazards without damaging them and started the 200 yard climb up a large hill that was so steep it had me moving up from one tree to another to stay in balance. I literally pulled myself up the hill using my hands by gripping the trees. Finally at the top while puffing like a choo choo train I came out into a long open field. I knew from mapping the McNeese Cem was on the far distant northeast corner of the field. That was another 600 yards away. So I began the trek across the field. It was covered in poison Ivy so I stepped lightly around that stuff. I did not worry about chiggers or snakes because I had gotten there early enough that the temps were still below 60 degrees. All toll that was nearly a mile trip most of which was walking and climbing. I could have visited this cemetery from Powell Chapel road but that was further than a mile and more fence hazards and unknown land owners. Anyway the McNeese Cemetery came into view in the corner under a giant dead cedar. It had never before been reported in photography by the Findagrave crowd. Who could blame them because of the effort required. There were two rows of gravestones and two stones with lost inscriptions, which were actually more crumbled today. I was able to partially transcribe one of them, but the other one was in too bad of shape. Oddly the footstones and the headstones were crumbled, but the crumbled ones were all memorials for Marks children. I think that was the lost information.
Mapping from Topozone MS Streets & Trips, MS Bing & Google mapping sites. Modified and added here 8 May 2016 by C. Wayne Austin.
