Hopewell Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out in north Anderson County, where the community of Brushy Creek puts down its roots, there's a patch of ground about six acres wide that has been holding the stories of this land since the 1860s. They call it Hopewell Cemetery, and if you slow down long enough to listen, those six acres have a lot to say.

The earliest documented burial there belongs to a woman named Zylpha Wylie, who died in 1862. That's as far back as the records reach, but the ground itself remembers further. There are at least seventy-four unmarked graves in Hopewell.

Seventy-four. No stone, no name, just earth. A number of those burials came in the 1870s, and many of them, the marker doesn't let you forget this, were infants and children.

The frontier took what it wanted, and it didn't always wait. Five Confederate veterans of the Civil War were laid to rest here too, and several generations of pioneer Anderson County families are represented in the gravestones scattered across that quiet plot. Now, for all those years of burying and grieving and remembering, the land itself didn't have an official designation as a burial ground until 1881.

That's when John H. and Mary Young deeded the property over to the trustees of the Church of Christ at Hopewell. The church trustees, William Elkins, Chesley Murphey, and John L. Scarborough, purchased those six acres for fifteen dollars.

Fifteen dollars for six acres of memory. Fast-forward to 1953, and the descendants of those same pioneer settlers hadn't forgotten what Hopewell meant. They formed a cemetery association specifically to maintain the historic graveyard, and to this day, a memorial service is held there once a year.

Once a year, the living come back to stand with the seventy-four who left no name behind, and with Zylpha Wylie, and with the children of the 1870s, and with the veterans and the pioneers. That's not upkeep. That's a promise kept.

What the marker says

Serving the rural area of north Anderson County and the community of Brushy Creek, this cemetery traces its history to the 1860s. The earliest documented burial in the graveyard is that of Zylpha Wylie, who died in 1862. There are at least 74 unmarked graves. A number of people were buried here in the 1870s, including many infants and children. Several generations of some pioneer Anderson County families are represented by the gravestones found in the Hopewell Cemetery. Also interred here are five Confederate veterans of the Civil War. The land on which the cemetery is located was officially designated as a burial ground in 1881, when John H. and Mary Young deeded the property to trustees of the Church of Christ at Hopewell. Totaling about six acres, the land was purchased for $15.00 by church trustees William Elkins, Chesley Murphey, and John L. Scarborough. Descendants of the area's pioneer settlers formed a cemetery association in 1953 to provide maintenance for the historic graveyard. A memorial service is held once a year. (1990)