(OLD) MARS HILL CEMETERY, LYNNVILLE (129) RD, MARSHALL COUNTY TENNESSEE

A severely endangered Cemetery

Mars Hill Cemetery  (Old) List photos of known stones
Area photos of the Cemetery
Mars Hill (Old) Unknown or lost gravestones
Mapping the location of the Cemetery

This is a very old cemetery with a colorful history. The Old Mars Hill Meeting house at one time stood near this place and its founders no doubt set aside this land for burial purposes. 

There are many lost graves in this cemetery. Some from never having had an inscribed stone and others lost because the stone crumbled under the age of time or was trampled by the cattle that roam freely in this cemetery. The stones are broken and scattered around as badly as I have ever seen. One expects to see the large number of graves with un-inscribed markers here. There are many graves marked with field stones, another indication of the age of this cemetery. Prior to 1836 this cemetery was located in Giles County Tennessee so many of these folks were buried in Giles County.

  Find this cemetery by exiting onto Hwy 129 from Interstate 65. Go west toward Lynnville for about 1/4 mile and turn north on Mars Hill Road at Mars Hill Church of Christ. The Mars Hill Church Cemetery is immediately on the left, but go past Mars Hill Church cemetery about 1/2 mile. There the road will bend sharply to the left. The cemetery is in the bend on the north (right) side of the road in a grove of trees.

In this thicket here and all around this photo lies the cemetery. The clear land in the back is private. Do not enter that area on the three sides (open areas as of 2005) of this cemetery. The farmer here is very protective of his assets and you will hear from him if you do. One does not have to cross private land to enter this cemetery because this cemetery is adjacent to the public (road) right-of-way of Mars Hill Road. However it still may be prudent to get the blessings of the local owner.

 
Family History details by Rick Gray 7/26/06
 The Old Mars Hill or Old Marrs Hill Meeting House Cemetery is where my 4th great-aunt Hannah Kennedy Ross Herron Patterson is buried.
There are a few other relatives buried there too, but I do not remember all the names right now.

My wife, mother, son and I visited there last year, and thought we were going to carted off to jail. I know that the law says we had a right to be there but we thought
be were very close to getting arrested for trespassing. My son and I got in there and had just found my gggg aunts stone before the owner of the property made
a stink and made us leave.

My gggg aunt Hannah Kennedy married first to Thomas Ross, then 2nd to Francis Herron, and then 3rd to Thomas Patterson. She only had one child, Thomas
Ross, by her first husband. Her 3rd husband, Thomas Patterson, had been married to a Hannah Adams first and they had children together.

I am not sure where Thomas Patterson is buried but I assume in Bedford County. Hannah either moved to Marshall County to be close to her son,
Thomas, after her husband's death, or county lines just changed. I do know that in the listings I have found that there is no grave listed for Thomas
Patterson in the Old Mars Hill Cemetery.

All the people I have mentioned lived in the Garrard County, Kentucky area. Sometime around 1810 Thomas Patterson and his 2nd wife, Hannah, moved to
Bedford County, Tennessee.

Hannah had 4 brothers living in the area. They had moved to Tennessee somewhere around 1807. Her brother, John Kennedy, (my direct ancestor), was
on the first petition in 1807 to form Maury County. The other 3 brothers were Francis Herron Kennedy, James Kennedy Jr., and Thomas C. Kennedy. These
3 brothers living in the Marshall and Giles County areas. James Jr.'s family were early leaders in Marshall County. One of his son-in-laws was the first
sheriff and one was one of the first commissioners.