MIDDLESBORO CEMETERY NAMES ARE ALPHABETICAL BY SURNAME. ABOUT 2600 NAMES. The first number after the death date is the section number the next one is the plot number. The plot number was furnished by Dr. Kenneth W. Smith who is on the board that oversees the cemetery. I have checked the section numbers and added where missing. Have added the unmarked list at the end that was given to me by Dr. Smith. He also furnished the history of the Middlesboro Cemetery. See map. HISTORY OF THE MIDDLESBORO CEMETERY The Middlesboro Cemetery is not the only Middlesboro Cemetery. C. Richard Matthews, in recording all the cemeteries in Bell County, has located more than 30 of them within Middlesboro and its immediate vicinity! (37) The Middlesboro Cemetery isn't even the largest in the city. Mr. Matthews has recorded 2,637 burials in it, but Green Hills had 4,911 graves at the time of his count. The Middlesboro Cemetery isn't the oldest. Cemeteries were needed from the time of the earliest settlements. Families, neighborhood communities had its origins in two of these. The first was located on the ridge to the right of the entrance road on land proably owned by John Calvin Colson, Sr. The oldest identifiable grave is that of his son, James Madison Colson. James' monument is unique, a large sandstone slab covering the grave and raised about six inches above the ground by blocks of supporting stone, and bearing the barely decipherable date of 1870. Two other very early graves, the first with professionally made stones, are those of Samuel Lane (1872) and William Lane (1886), both enclosed by a wrought iron fence. | |
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