1) Road sign at the junction of Goose Creek Road and New Center Church Road near Flat Creek Tennessee: 3020
2) Nearby farms/homes & barns - north side of Goose Creek Rd: 3026W/3034/3034
3) Nearby farms/homes & barns - south side of Goose Creek Rd: 3022/3023/3028/3030/3032
4) Gate at the road which gives access to the private property & cemetery site: 3064
Strong case for these graves being here:
WILHOITE, Jacob, II, b. 1781 - d. 1833. 3044
WILHOITE, Mary "Polly" Powell, b. 1786 - d. Nov., 1863. 3044
WILHOITE, Wiley, 1812 - d. 1833.
Other unmarked graves here could be for:
AUSTIN, Harris, born about 1805 & died about 1870. (s/o Drewy/Drury Austin and Elizabeth "Betsy" Gurley Austin. h/o Amelia/Emily "Milly" Wilhoite Austin )
AUSTIN, Emily Wilhoite, (born about 1814 & died about 1870. (nee Ameila Wilhoite "Milly" Austin, wife of Harris Austin & daughter of Jacob II & Polly (Powell) Wilhoite)
5) Stones that mark graves but unknown as to whom: 3041/3042/3043/3044/3045/3047/3048/ (rotting logs abound here - obscuring the grave stones as no one respected this as a grave yard.)
6) Area views of the barn & fence row in front of the barn where the cemetery lies immediately east of: 3035/3046/3050/3051/3049/3052/3054/3055/3062/3066/3075
7) Views of the old home where only the logs remain. This was the Jacob Wilhoite (b. 1781) family home: 3037/3038/3039/3040/3056/3057/3058/3059/3060/3061/Only known photo-from/Wilhoite book:Wilhoite Home
8) Foundation of the old home now fallen into a pile: 3063
9) Nearby similarly built home known to be the Banks A. & Jemima (Casteel) Burrow home. They lived here for many years until dying out in the late 1800s. This home is similarly built with different porch: 3070
Deed book "KK", Bedford County, Tennessee.
Page 424 - 16 Mar 1841. H. Austin and A. Bruton to A. W. Reagor. Deed 11 acres. Harris Austin and Amelia Bruton one part and A. W. Reagor other part, all of Bedford County TN, sold land in Bedford County on
waters of Big Flat Creek, being part of the lands which Bruton inherited of her father's estate, John Bruton's interest in same having been sold for debt, Austin purchaser. Land borders Reagor's land, Peter Raney,
William Boone, Henry Hart's corner. Wit: William Boone and James Wilson. Reg: 6 Aug. 1841.
Bedford County Court Minutes
Wilhoite, Wiley Died before 12 July 1838 as shown in the suit of James M. Jones and wife vs John Bruton and others. The wife of James M. Jones was Polly Jones, formerly Polly Wilhoit, the sister of Willey Wilhoit
who died intestate without issue, but he left brothers & sisters. The suit is against Jacob Wilhoit, Jane Wilhoit, all of Bedford County, and John Bruton whose residence is unknown. James M. Jones has purchased the
interest of John Bruton and wife Emily. Jones has purchased 4 shares and also owns the share in right of his wife, Polly, and the other 2 shares are held by Jacob and Jane.
(Bed TN Ch Ct Min 1/370) 28 December 1843 in the suit of Harris Austin & wife Emily vs John Brewton & Pearce Wilhoit, it is stated that Wiley Wilhoit died some 8 or 10 years ago, that he was the brother of Emily Austin,
that Pearce Wilhoit was administrator. About the time of the death of Wiley Wilhoit, Emily was the wife of John Brewton and he deserted her & fled to parts unknown and that she married Harris Austin in 1841. She has
since heard that John Brewton is still living and she never obtained a divorce from Brewton. The money coming to Emily from the estate of her brother is to be paid to her and neither her former husband nor her new
husband is to have any part (IBID 2/275)
Jacob Wilhoite, Jr. born 1781, died 1833. Bedford County, Tennessee; married 2 Dec. 1803. Mary "Polly", POWELL. she was born 1786, North Carolina and died Nov 1863, Bedford County, Tennessee. Tennessee. Jacob Wilhoite
lived on Goose Creek Road aka Big Flat Creek. In the back of the house were cemetery stones. The ones in front of the barn are carved grave covers one at least 10' X 10' by about 8" inches thick and are thought to be Jacob Wilhoite Jr.'s
b. 1781 family gravestones. USGS mapping has that location pegged as the Parker cemetery. A newspaper article stated that when Mary "Polly" Wilhoite died, she was buried in the family cemetery. We believe that Jacob (II, b. 1781)
and son Wiley who died of Cholera in 1833 and were thus buried there on their property in the family graveyard. This farm may have fallen into the hands of a daughter Milly Wilhoite who was married to Harris Austin. When Milly
died first Harris sold property to an Isaiah Parker who if lived there may have caused this cemetery to carry his name. If this Isaiah Parker was the one born in 1830, he is buried in the nearby Rosebank cemetery and not here.
Mary "Polly", POWELL WILHOITE was born 1786, North Carolina and died Nov 1863, Bedford County, Tennessee. She married 2 Dec. 1803 to Jacob Wilhoite, Jr. (II) born 1781, died 1833, Bedford County, Tennessee. She is
thought to be interred in the graveyard beside her husband. Fieldstones & carved grave covers without inscription were found there verifying burials are there. One of them in front of the barn 40 feet is thought to be the gravestone for
Jacob WILHOITE JR.
A newspaper article stated that when Mary "Polly" Wilhoite died, she was buried in the family cemetery. It is thought that Jacob (II) b. 1781 and son Wiley died of Cholera in 1833 and were thus buried on the property. Later Mary joined them.
Willie/Wiley Wilhoite - Birth: 1812 - Death: 1833, Flat Creek (Bedford County), Bedford County, Tennessee, Believed to have died in a Cholea Epidemic of 1833. He along with his father were buried in the cemetery on their home place.
Source of information is: Ancestors and Descendents of Jacob Wilhoite 1751-1821 by Jacob (d. 2007) & Faye Wilhoite.
The weakness of this presentation may be that Harris & Milly Austin are possibly buried either in the nearby Flat Creek cemetery about one mile east of here or the Center Church Cemetery about two miles northwest of here. Both of these
cemeteries have large unmarked grave populations with Flat Creek having the most.
There are also several small graveyards with no marked stones in them within a mile of this place. No one will probably ever figure out who is buried in these places which now become small clumps of trees with unmarked rocks in them unless we can
reconstruct the land deeds, Census locations and age of the cemeteries better and then it is still an estimate.
So much for how the early pioneers were interred as they spread across and populated this land, especially in a time before and after the Civil War (1861-1865) when resources for carved gravestone were scarce in the south. I realize to the
casual observer this is too much information with all the details of this place shown above. However, the keenly interested will take away a feel and vision of this location where these old ancestors lived and ultimately are buried
as they have thousands of descendents today.
Sources the book: "Ancestors and Descendents of Jacob Wilhoite" by Jacob Wilhoite and wife. 1991. A trip to explore Goose Creek in Bedford County found this place as pictured in the book Jacob Wilhoite 1751-1821 and his descendents. Land
records research in 1990 by Carolyn Goodrich, wife of Judge Goodrich who owned a farm nearby and resided also in Weakley County Tennessee near Jackson Tn.
Jacob Wilhoite (II) is shown just north of New Hermon on Goose Creek Road in the 1876 mapping census of landowners. If you have information more closely depicting this grave location E-mail me at Wayneal1@aol.com
Much of the above conclusions resulted from the work of Jacob & Faye Wilhoite who published a book "Ancestors and descendents of Jacob Wilhoite (1751-1829)". Also included was the final trip here with a search and subsequent visit and photographic
effort on 23 Feb 2011 by C. Wayne Austin who first depicted this site on 14 Dec 2011/It was revised for photos 17 Apr 2012.
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