Cemetery returns to life

Lane Minatra stands in an area that he and his wife, Julia, have cleared at the old Cotton Mills Cemetery. Bell is a common name at the cemetery. (T-G Photo by Sadie Fowler) [Order this photo]

When one thinks about hobbies, one of the last things that likely comes to mind is plowing through brush, cutting through sharp limbs and picking up trash.

For Julia Minatra, however, her passion has led her to a mystical land that's filled -- overwhelmed -- with just that. Brush, twigs, branches, leaves and who knows what else have taken over a small, yet ancient, cemetery on Shelbyville Mills Road.

Julia, passionate about genealogy and history, has made it her mission, with help from her husband, to uncover the mess and reveal the forgotten gravestones that lie at the Cotton Mills Cemetery.

"I think it is an absolute shame that this cemetery has grown up like so," said Julia, 70, of Rockvale.

'Keep digging'

Why would someone from another county take an interest in an old, neglected county more than a half hour away from her own home?

For Julia, it was quite simple.

"Anybody who works on genealogy knows that you've got to keep digging," she said, literally and figuratively. She and her husband, Lane, a deacon at the Rockvale Church of Christ, have been plugging away for a month, clearing away piles and piles of overgrowth that hid the grave sites in hopes of finding the markers of some of her ancestors.

Family mystery

Julia, whose family is from Clay County, works on family history during her spare time. Upon her research, she learned of mystery surrounding the death of her grandmother's sister. Supposedly, Julia's great aunt had died in a house fire.

"In 1996 when I started working on my Clay County Savage and Spear family history I knew that Nancy Bernetta Spear, one of my father's maternal aunts, had married a man named Varney Greenwood," Julia said of her great aunt. "I have a picture of this handsome young man, but none of my great aunt Nancy B. who was reported to have died in a tragic house fire.

"The story that we often heard was that a sudden rain came up causing a flood and Varney went to pick up the children at school. When he returned the house had burned, leaving no signs of our aunt Nancy B. The story of Nancy B. has been a family mystery now for about 80 years leaving little hope of finding the real story."

Digging deeper

Julia was interested in this story, and wanted to find out more about her great aunt, including where she lived.

"I found her in the 1920 Bedford County census," Julia said, explaining she also learned that her great aunt and her husband also had two children together.

While a death certificate for Julia's great aunt, Nancy Burnetta Spear, was never recovered. At least one of Nancy and Varney's children, Elma Greenwood, and other relatives, under the name of either Greenwood or Sanders, are also buried in the Cotton Mills Cemetery, which has also been referred to as the Bell Family Cemetery, Troup Family Cemetery, Shelbyville Mills Cemetery and Sylvan Mill Cemetery over the years.

Varney Greenwood remarried after Nancy's supposed death, and, while he is not buried there, at least one of his daughters from his second marriage lies beneath the grounds of the abandoned cemetery.

An obligation

(T-G Photo by Sadie Fowler) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Julia feels obligated to clean up the cemetery and possibly find the grave site of her relatives.

"It's my responsibility because it's my family," she said. "We haven't found the markers yet ... If we don't find one, we'll put one up," Julia said, who continues to research facts surrounding her ancestors who grew up in the Cotton Mills village decades upon decades ago.

"There were lots of children in the Cotton Mills village," she said, having learned so from local history buff Gene Williams. "Gene said it was a wonderful place to grow up."

Dates of gravestones at the cemetery range from the late 1800s to the mid 1950s, she said, and names such as Bell, Troupe, Sipsy, Bailiff and Fishell are common there.

Help wanted

They're currently about one-fourth complete with the work, and they'd like to have it finished within the next couple of months. They are hoping that individuals who may have ancestors buried there, civic groups, churches or other volunteers, may want to help in their mission to clean up the cemetery.

"Cleanup in this case is more than picking up a bit of trash and running a lawn mower over the grounds," Julia said. It means bringing chain saws or Weedeaters (with fuel and extra blades), heavy duty snippers, maybe an axe, a pitchfork, a rake or trash bags."

The couple works for a few hours every day except Sunday.

So far, the couple has received calls from a few folks (Julian and Elise Troupe of Tullahoma and Molly Sadler Frizzell) as a result of a notice.

What you can do

To help with the ongoing cleanup of the Cotton Mills Cemetery, located on Shelbyville Mills Road, contact Julia Minatra at (615) 274-6636.