Another Cemetery Hunt

We finally got a day with no other pressing matters to spend in search of family burial grounds.  Knowing that Gene would not really appreciate curvy dirt roads, I studied the map and devised a route which accomplished my goal by staying mostly on primary country roads.  I lucked out and all the roads were paved, even the ones that had been dirt the last time I made this trek.  We got an early start, which was good because it took longer than I thought it would.

We drove down Hwy 100 to Centerville in Hickman County.  I had taken this same route hundreds of times over my lifetime.  When living in Nashville as a child, we visited my grandparents almost every weekend and my brother and I lived there during the summer months.  During these summer stays, my grandfather would drive me around showing me all his special places—where he went to school, where he lived, where my grandmother lived as a child.  I can very well remember going for those rides, but as a child I had no concept of direction or distance.  Today I can remember being in the car and seeing the building or house, but have no idea where those places are located.  I can also very well remember going for dinner on the ground on Decoration Day at the cemetery.

Today I wanted to visit Chessor Cemetery.  That wasn’t difficult to find.  I had been there often as a child, but also a few times as an adult.  Besides, it is on Chessor Cemetery Road which is very clearly marked on the map.  Luckily, HWY 438 was very near by.  We are related to several folks buried here, but the primary one I was interested in was my great grandfather John Dee Harper, my grandmother’s father.  We found the row of Harpers easily enough, but John Dee was not among the headstones in that row.  We found his brother Samuel and wife and we also found his sister Sally and her husband.  We even found his stepmother Helen Fain Harper, but not John Dee.  There are at least 3 other family members buried at this cemetery that I know of that we did not find.  There were, like in so many old cemeteries, many tombstones which were illegible.  They are, no doubt, among those that couldn’t be read.  I was disappointed.

Chessor Cemeetery

John Dee and Mary Etta Daily Harper, my great grandparents.

Back out on Hwy 438 we headed west to connect with Hwy 13 toward Lobelville in Perry County.  My grandmother was from Perry County.  Both her father, John Dee and his wife, Mary Etta Daily, lived there.  The Harpers came from Halifax, North Carolina in the early 1800s.  The first Harpers to settle in TN were Wiley V (John Dee’s grandfather) and his wife Sarah. They had several children born in Hickman County and then died in Perry Co.  I learned just this week in my research that Wiley V and his wife are buried in Perry Co on Lost Creek Road.  My goal today was to find that cemetery.

Carroll and Susan Daily,
my great great grandparents.

It just so happens that Lost Creek Road is intersected by Russell Creek Road.  It is on Russell Creek Road that the Daily’s are buried.  I know very little about the Daily’s.  I know that my grandmother’s grandparents were Carroll and Susan Daily.  Only this week did I learn from the 1850 US Census of Perry County that Carroll’s father was John Daily.  The Daily Cemetery on Russell Creek Road is a very small family plot with only 4 tombstones still standing and 2 field stones with no legible markings.  In searching the Perry Co Cemetery records I cannot find a John Daily or wife Sarah listed.  John died before the 1860 census, Sarah being listed as the head of household, and in the 1880 census Sarah was living in the household with her son Carroll and his family.  I would not surprise me if these two fieldstones were the grave markers for John and Sarah Daily.

Daily Cemetery

Down the street at Lost Creek Road we searched for the Dudley Cemetery where John Dee’s grandfather, Wiley V Harper, is said to be buried.  We made two trips down the road and found 2 other cemeteries, but not the one we were looking for.  Again, I was disappointed.  Finding this cemetery is a high priority for me so I will give it another shot another day.

Ice cream at McDonald’s on the way home and we called it a day.