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.
(The oldest cemetery in Middlesboro was the Green Cemetery that was given to the Methodist Church who sold it to a builder, who pushed it out of the way and built two houses on top of it. I ask the building inspector why he issued a permit for houses in a cemetery. And his answer was they are only dead people and won't mind it at all and ask him, "what if it was your people and he reply he wouldn't care." I sure wouldn't live in a house with dead people buried under me. I didn't get these 60 graves recorded before they where destroyed. CRM)
Proably there are other early graves. Marking graves was a problem for the pioneers. Marble, granite and high quality slate were not available locally, nor were artisans to carve lettering and decorations. Until the railroad arrived about 1890, it would have been necessary to purchase real gravestones in some distant city and bring them in by horse and wagon. Due to the transportation problem and cost, such stones dating from before 1890, are infrequent. Early settlers marked graves as well as they could with ordinary field stones.
The second little cemetery began with the burial of John Calvin Colson, Sr., in 1882, at the top of the hill to the left of the entrace road. This was on one of his farms, overlooking his home on the Wilderness Road (the stucco house with the historical marker on North 19th St.) Since his death more than a century ago, he has been surrounded by numerous descendants and in-laws. The "Colson Square" became the nucleus of Section 1 of the present cemetery.
In 1906, on land acquired from John Calvin Colson, Sr.'s, estate. The Colson Cemetery was organized as a public cemetery, the Colson Cemetery Company being incorporated Sept. 27, 1906, by John Calvin Colson, Sr.'s daughter, Eudoxie Colson Hurst, her husband William Hurst and her brother, Atty. William Gillis Colson. From that date until 1927, Eudoxie Hurst owned a controlling interest (143 of 150 shares) in the company and was its president, while her husband was the secretary and manager of the corportion.
By 1927 both Mr. Hurst and Mr. Colson had died, and Mr. Hurst's records had been lost. It is recorded that in 1929, J.W. Ridings, William Hurst, Jr. and D.G. Hinks representing all the stockholders, changed the company name from the Colson Cemetery Company to the Middlesbor Cemetery Company.
The organization and management of the cemetery are basically the same today, with a few dozen stockholders and a board of directors. The stockholders receive no remuneration. The board of directors and those who manage the Middlesboro Cemetery perform their dutie without pay as a service to the community. Only the groundskeepers are paid. Kenneth W. Smith, M.D. 1999