June 13th Elizabethton & the Stover Cemetery

Headstone for Daniel Stover Jr. with an American flag

At long last I made it to Elizabethton where 4 generations of my ancestors lived and farmed for nearly 100 years from 1790-1880. I visited Elizabethton, known by locals as “E-town”, once before in 2012 and knew it was a beautiful place so I was excited to return. It’s a small town, so easy to find my way around and is steeped in significant pieces of our American history. Their old town is not really thriving but it is mostly intact. The new part of the town is unremarkable. Elizabethton has a nice old brick Courthouse, a pink jail which fortunately has faded since I first saw it five years ago, a striking war memorial, a distinctive historic covered bridge and a number of nice homes.

One of the many wildflowers growing in the cemetery

I did a lot of research during my first visit and left with hundreds of pages of documents – most of which I have get to process and incorporate into my genealogy database. On this trip I wanted to return to the Stover Cemetery, look for documents at the courthouse, and visit the Sherrod Library on the East Tennessee State University campus (ETSU).

Marker for William Lincoln Stover, my 3rd Great Grandfather

Finding my way to the cemetery was a trial in 2012 so this time I printed out a copy of the directions and a map to help me find my way back. Unlike cemeteries in California, in the East they are often located on private property and whether they are maintained or not is left to private individuals. With all the rain, heat and humidity in this part of the country it does not take long for headstones to be overtaken by vegetation. I’d corresponded with Bill Hicks from an associated family who reported having recently cleaned up the cemetery as a volunteer, which is why I wanted to go back.  In 2012, the site was so overgrown with weeds, grasses, wildflowers and blackberry that I simply could not find the graves I most wanted to see and photograph.

Anyway, despite having a map I still could not find it. I drove up and down every possible combination of roads having to turn around in the motor home repeatedly. Then, determined, I parked the car and decided to walk. I climbed over the chained off road marked “Private Property Keep Out” until I heard voices and backtracked quietly. Then I saw a concrete foundation that was familiar and I knew I was close.

Sarah Murray Drake Stover my 3rd Great Grandmother

I fought through some brush to a semi-cleared area and studied the topography and vegetation. It looked right but I could not see any headstones. If Bill had cleared the cemetery I should see headstones. I kept walking and then saw that I was surrounded by poison ivy. It was everywhere. There was no way to get to where I thought the headstones should be and not walk through 40 yards of poison ivy. Did I mention how determined I was? I’d driven all the way across the country for this, so I was not giving up. Oh, did I mention I was wearing shorts? I looked down at my knees to see rivulets of blood from the sharp little blackberry thorns.

Bloody knees - they got worse as I continued

As I waded in deeper I finally spotted headstones and knew I was in the right place but the tangle of vegetation was just as dense as it had been on my first visit – maybe worse. OK, I was a bit discouraged at this point. In 2012 there hadn’t been poison ivy, so I could brush vegetation aside to reveal text on headstones. Now I wanted to touch as little as possible.

Broken marker for S.M. Stover - the one son
that lived a full life with his Confederate flag.

Then I noticed a fenced grave that looked somewhat familiar and intriguing. It was about 25’ further through the briar patch. I made my way taking care to not step in a hole or lose my balance and fall. Once there I found my reward. Immediately adjacent to the rusted iron fence I found the burial place of Colonel Daniel Stover my second great uncle, and even better next to Daniel’s upright marker I found the two flat headstones of William Lincoln Stover and Sarah Murry Stover my third great grandparents. This was what I’d sought.

What I had not expected was several more Stover graves. These fell into three categories – graves with barely legible headstones, graves with faded and illegible stones, and depressions in the soil marked only with a rock and a small white flag. This portion of the cemetery had in fact been cleared by Bill and I suspect it is Bill who placed the flags to mark these grave locations. Of the other graves I could discern I found one for Daniel’s brother S.M. Stover.

Henry Tucker Stover, Samuel's son

Samuel was the only son of three that lived a reasonably full life – he died at age 66 after practicing medicine. Sadly, I also found the graves of three of Samuel’s children – Charles David Stover who died in 1897 when he was only 32, Henry Tucker Stover born in 1869 and was 38, and worst an infant son that was born and died in May of 1868. Samuel’s grave was marked with a confederate flag – probably placed there by Bill Hicks. His brother Daniel’s grave had an American flag. Yes, mine was one of those civil war families with divided allegiances. Their father William was also a confederate.

Infant son of Samuel & Caroline Stover

I identified the grave of William M. Cameron who was Samuel’s brother-in-law, and Robert McGhee another relation to Samuel’s wife. Then there was Lizzie Stover, Connie Stover and Robert Stover none of whom are in my database. I’m sure they are related but don’t yet know how.  In addition, there were at least 5 headstones too faded to read and 20 graves marked only with white flags.

Finding all these additional Stovers was unexpected because I’ve seen multiple lists of those buried at this cemetery and none of them include these individuals, except for Daniel and William Stover. I’ll have to do something about this.

Charles David Stover, Samuel & Caroline's
third son

I remained at the cemetery for a while feeling a tremendous sense of satisfaction for having found it, and a subtle grief for these ancestors who made my life possible. Then I headed back to the motor home to strip off every bit of clothing, shove it in a dirty (and contaminated) clothes bag, and scrubbed my body down twice while praying that I not get a horrific rash from the poison ivy …… my prayers were answered, I am happy to report.

Some of the white flags marking other unidentified Stover burials