Photos of the Cemetery

Maps of the Cemetery Location

The Howard Cemetery is on the old Howard Family Farm (1828 to about 1890)more recently (1890-1930s) known as the Allie Kittrell Home & Farm, now owned by Mrs. Arthur Harris on the road between Mt. Pleasant and Enterprise. This is across road from the point where Arrow Lake Road enters. With permission take the lane past the padlocked gate for 300 yards down the old home lane. After crossing (a 2 foot deep fording) Sugar Creek in front of the old house go on about 200 yards crossing the spring branch also. Next turn left 90 degrees (south) and go about 100 yards up the steep rocky hill into the grove of Cedars that are dying off and being naturally replaced by hardwood trees. The cemetery is in this thicket. Many of the cedars are fallen and some have knocked over the memorials and clutter the ground inside the cemetery. There are not many of the memorials standing due to the following reasons; destruction from fallen trees; invasive tree roots; cattle that at one time roamed at will; and; sinking of the memorials into a leaning position and falling. The stones lying on the ground are either slowly sinking into the ground and/or sliding down the steep hill toward the spring branch below. 
I must confess I am a person used to the modern amenities of our time and when I crossed the quite deep (Sugar) creek which crosses this place it was as if the clock were turned back at least a hundred years. To my left was a gorgeous old antebellum home in a serious state of decay. It had the typical four columns of the old south style and was at least 10,000 square feet based on a quick visual estimate. It is my belief that the original founder of this home was Willoughby Howard who settled here in Maury County in 1828. However it is quite logical that the home he first built was of log construction. 
In the 1878 D. G. Beers census map of Maury County the property owner was listed as B. Howard. Likely this was the son of James Howard or the grandson of Willoughby who was known as Bithel Howard. We know Willoughby & wife were deceased about the time of the breaking out of the Civil War or 1862. Also known is that James Howard lived until 1906. Following this logic further the son James Howard would likely have inherited the place from Willoughby (research I have not proven.) 
The house had been expanded over time just as many of the old homes were but there is evidence that it was once a log structure. Closer inspection reveals logs behind some of the fallen white clap boards. Behind the house there were also old hand hewn logs fashioned into a smoke house for curing meat. Another log structure lies in decay to our right as we pass by probably indicative of logs from an original home on the place. These were hand hewn logs and I don't know anyone after the invention of saw milling in the 1840s who would tackle the vicious task of felling a tree and taking an axe and hacking & shaving away at a log to get it down to a square shape. I would estimate that to be about 10,000 more burned calories per log than any modern day person would tackle and such efforts as this was the very reason why there were no obese people then. 
As I went by the house on the way to the cemetery located back on the hill behind the house I passed a spring branch bubbling out of the side of the hill which undoubtedly furnished the Howard family and later peoples that resided here an ample supply of fresh water. To my right was an old cattle milking barn just about completely fallen onto the ground. Just to the west of the decaying barn stands a grain silo. I am told Chick Harris one of the deceased owners of the farm turned the place into a dairy milking operation. He was deceased by the 1940s. 
I judge that due to the depth of the creek and otherwise lack of access the house shown as a graphically altered image here in the background has largely escaped the usual vandalism that occurs to vacated property. Most of the deterioration has occurred as the result of the early stages of the breaking up of the roof which allows water to penetrate the structure setting up decay which in my opinion can be reversed for some ambitious but enterprising person who can win the heart of the current owner in a purchase for repair bid if such possibilities can be entertained.