NEW RAMIE CEMETERY, STIVERSVILLE, MAURY COUNTY TENNESSEE

STAFFORD, Thomas, born about 1816 or 1817 and died He died September 11, 1887 in Maury County Tennessee Stiversville Road area. Son of James and Mary (Eskridge) Stafford of Person County, North Carolina; then District 8, Fayette County, Tennessee in the early 1830s  Thomas married 1st Mary E. Bomer in Fayette County, TN on February 27, 1840 and they lived in the area of LaGrange, Fayette County, TN where they had three daughters, Louisa Jane, Mary T., and Sarah A. Thomas left his family and disappeared sometime between 1850 and 1860. Thomas returned to North Carolina after the Civil War because first went home to Fayette County, TN and found his wife and daughters had left. So he married 2nd to Sarah Ann Brown (who went by Sallie) of, and in, North Carolina in 1867 (see bible record below). At the time they married, she already had a son named Walter Brown. See below letter for rest of story.

The evidence for burial of Thomas Stafford in New Ramey Cemetery is: (1) "verbal" family information handed down, (2) it is close to where he and his family lived on Stiversville Road west of Stiversville - off Highway 31 south of the cemetery. There are many cemeteries in the area of Stiversville Road where he lived. No headstone for him has been found in any of them. With this, we can only "assume" he is there in New Ramey. He will be documented as "most likely there in an unmarked grave" He was born in 1816 and died about 1887. From conversations with folks known to be at her funeral Thomas' wife was buried in an unmarked grave in the Lynnwood Cemetery in Lynnville. Thomas is not in Lynnville because there is no vacant graves left on either side of her. We know who are in those graves. She was buried in one of her daughter's and son-in-laws Grissom plots abt. 1913.

Thomas J Stafford
Birth: 1817
Person County, North Carolina
Death: 1887
Maury County, Tennessee

Ex-husband of Mary E. Bomer Stafford
Husband of Sarah "Sallie" Ann Brown Stafford
Stepfather of Walter Brown
Father of: Luther, Mary, Ervin, Martha and Almond Stafford.

Information handed down over the generations of Thomas Stafford descendants states he was buried in New Ramey Cemetery (aka New Ramia Baptist Church Cemetery)Culleoka, Maury Co. Tn. A survey of the known graves reveal he was not listed. An on-site inspection of all headstones in 2010 by family members indicated none of the headstones had his name on them. Many headstones are damaged and have been moved. Also, records show that there are several unmarked graves in this cemetery. It is believed by the descendants of Thomas Stafford that he is buried here in an unmarked grave with a destroyed/damaged headstone.
This information was sent to me an a descendant who wishes to remain anonymous.