Atchison Cemetery

Submitted by Joel Atchison

The Atchison Cemetery is located on land that was a Federal Land Grant to James Atchison, issued on May 17, 1831, however they had been living on the land from circa 1828. It is situated in T22-R12E-S23, the SW quarter, which is about 1 mile N-NE of the Abney Cemetery. The cemetery appears to have been "lost in time" for about 100 years, until we (6 family members) did some research and located it last year, March of 2005. The broken gravestone of Bennett Atcheson (the spelling changes from one Probate Court doc. to the next) is the 2nd oldest son of James Atchison and the 3 Lawhon children are his youngest son, Samuel J. Atchison's grandchildren. As you can see from the attached jpg cemetery layout, there are at least 25, we think probably about 30 graves in the cemetery. It is located on timber company land that has changed hands several times, since Belcher Lumber Co. purchased it around 1890 or 1900. Timber planting and harvesting over the 100 years since has caused quite a bit of damage.

7/4/06, Additional note from Joel regarding accessing the cemetery: The cemetery is not in a location that anyone can just drive up to and visit without problems. The timber company has this land leased to a hunting club, so access is limited during hunting season. Also, the cemetery is not directly accessible by car or pickup, I would not advise trying to go there in a car. A pickup is best and still, you would have to park and walk the last 150 yards or so. Last, but not least, about two weeks ago, logging crews starting harvesting timber on the land. Log trucks and narrow gravel roads will probably be, for the next few weeks, a bad combination.

Atcheson, Bennett, Oct 3, 1791 - Aug 25, 1858

Lawhon, Beulah, dau of J.T. & Z.E. Lawhon, died July 17, 1861; aged 15 days

Lawhon, Mary Jane, dau of J.T. & Z.E. Lawhon, Nov 2, 1854 - Jul 22, 1857; aged 2 years, 8 mo and 20 days

Lawhon, Samuel Brooks, dau of J.T. & Z.E. Lawhon, Feb 23, 1857 - Sep 23, 1858; aged 1 year and 7 months