Hunter's Walk Cemetery - Arlington, Tn, USA - Worldwide Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

Hunter's Walk Cemetery is located in Arlington, Tn on Bailey Drive. It contains four readable headstones with what looks like some others that have been broken off. It was discovered by a man who bought the land and heard rumors of an old graveyard from a local resident. (see story below).

The readable gravestones are of Maj Edwin Becton, Lovett Bell, Elizabeth Brock, and her husband Rev. Moses Brock. There are other stones that look like they've been broken off. There may be about eight graves total.

The research I've conducted shows that they all came from North Carolina, possibly sometime between after 1834. If my research is correct, the story below is incorrect in one area. It states that Lovett Bell was Elizabeth Brock's mother. Information that I've found shows that Lovett Bell, Esq. was the FATHER of Elizabeth Bell Brock who was Maj Becton's (see gallery picture) wife before she was married to the Rev. Moses Brock.
Edwin Becton and Elizabeth Bell were married in North Carolina in 1813. Moses Brock and Elizabeth were married in 1854 in Shelby County, Tn.

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THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

LONG-FORGOTTEN CEMETERY FOUND, RESTORED
Date: THURSDAY, April 1, 1999

Like chopping through jungle, Roy Holmes bushwhacked his way across
underbrush and overgrowth until he found the cemetery on the 52-acre tract that has since become Hunter's Walk subdivision.

It was two years ago when Holmes bought the property; an elderly neighbor told him about the cemetery.

"I didn't believe it but the man, who is in his 80s, said he played in it as a boy," Holmes said.

Using a GPS (geographic positioning system) instrument, Holmes stepped the property off in 50-foot increments until, after five days of intensive bush exploration, he came upon a clearing where the cemetery sat.

He was greeted by the local fauna: "There was a big ol' copperhead (snake) sitting on a grave marker," Holmes recalled. "I didn't want to mess with that snake."

Holmes, who has since sold the subdivision, also didn't want to mess with the state statute that requires notifying next of kin when a cemetery is moved. He and the subsequent Hunter's Walk owner did the easiest, and probably most pleasing, thing - they planned the subdivision around the cemetery, even assigning it its own lot.

Fresh paint and new metalwork have given the final resting place of Major Edwin Becton a new life, so to speak. Becton's and at least three other graves are restored to nearly the condition they were 160 years ago.

And the quaint old cemetery is up for grabs in Brunswick.
"We're hoping whoever buys the house next door, to the north (of the
cemetery), will agree to have the lot deeded over to them," said Chris
Taylor, one of the three builders active in Hunter's Walk, off North
Germantown Road.

The buyer of the house south of the cemetery declined the offer.
"Or we want to contribute it to a historical organization or society," said Taylor, who added he has approached a Brunswick community association about receiving the lot and cemetery but has not yet received word from the group.

Ownership would include keeping up the property; the cemetery has been
completely refurbished but the lawn would have to be mowed and trees
maintained.

It should be an interesting acquisition since Becton was born Nov. 19, 1790, and died Jan. 25, 1838. Holmes said his son was "doing a background check on the people in there" but came up empty-handed.

Other gravestones mark a Rev. Moses Brock (other information on the marker is not legible); Brock's wife, Elizabeth Bell Brock, Oct. 21, 1794, to Oct. 13, 1864; and Elizabeth's mother, Lovett Bell, March 22, 1767, to Feb. 17, 1843.

"We asked, knocked on doors, looked up the names but haven't found any trace of anyone who knows the names," Holmes said. "When we find out some information, we'll probably put up a brass plaque explaining who they are)."

Holmes estimates that $20,000, plus labor, has been spent repairing the elaborate wrought-iron fencing, remounting broken headstones, building a stepped sidewalk from the street to the cemetery and sodding the lot. Throw in the $47,000 value of the lot and the refurbishing labor and saving the cemetery has cost more than $70,000.

"It's part of the subdivision, part of the land and always will be," said Mike Hilliard, who, with his brother Mark Hilliard, are the other two builders at Hunter's Walk. The subdivision comprises 104 lots averaging 16,500 square feet each.

"I love the cemetery, I think it's cool," said Mark Hilliard. He said most Hunter's Walk home buyers have had the same reaction.

Jeanie Costa, one of the Crye-Leike real estate agents selling Hunter's Walk houses and lots, said the cemetery is "a great novelty" but also has an interesting history. "I hope a historical society gets it," she said.

City, Town, or Parish / State / Country: Not listed Approximate number of graves: Not listed Cemetery Status: Not listed Cemetery Website: Not listed

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