Spell Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Spell Cemetery, out here in Jefferson County. Now, some places earn their history quiet and slow, and this graveyard is one of them. The land was designated a family cemetery back in 1873 by the Marble family.

That's where the story starts, but it reaches back a little further than that. The earliest known burial here is that of Martha Marble, who died in 1864, nine years before the land was formally set aside. Her husband, John S.

Marble, was buried here too, in 1873, the very year the family made it official. So in a way, the cemetery caught up to what the land already was. Their daughter and son-in-law, Noley and David E.

Spell, came to own the land after that, and they held it for a good long while. Then in 1924, it was officially designated a cemetery in the county deed records. The name Spell stuck, as names tend to do out here.

Notable local citizens found their final rest in this ground as well. Sam H. Tevis.

Daniel Comstock. Names that meant something to Jefferson County. The graveyard might have slipped into quiet neglect over the decades, the way many do, but in 1983 Spell family descendants organized a cemetery association to keep it up.

They've been maintaining it ever since. Some places hold on because somebody decides they should. This is one of those places.

What the marker says

The land on which this graveyard is located was designated a family cemetery in 1873 by the Marble family. The earliest known burial is that of Martha Marble (d. 1864), whose husband John S. Marble was also buried here in 1873. Their daughter and son-in-law, Noley and David E. Spell, owned the land until 1924, when it was officially designated a cemetery in county deed records. Notable local citizens interred here include Sam H. Tevis and Daniel Comstock. A cemetery association, organized in 1983 by Spell family descendants, maintains the historic graveyard.