FREEMAN CEMETERY
WEAKLEY COUNTY, TENNESSEE
FAMILIES
Members of several sometimes interrelated families are buried in Freeman Cemetery. We have provided here information that we have, and are always eager to add more. Historical research is time-consuming, and records are sometimes hard to interpret, so please let us know if we are guilty of any errors. If you are a direct descendant or cousin of anyone buried in Freeman Cemetery, or otherwise have documented information to add, we would love to hear from you.
The Brooks family owned property near Freeman Cemetery starting with William Calvin Brooks and his wife Elizabeth Tabor Ivie Brooks. Ten of their eleven children are also buried in the cemetery, and many descendants remain in the area and retain ownership of a Heritage Farm just down the road from the cemetery.
Cassandra Elizabeth Baldridge Griffith Culbertson's family owned property in the Public Wells community, about two and a half miles east of Freeman Cemetery. Though her two husbands were buried elsewhere, Cass and numerous of her descendants lie in Freeman Cemetery.
Willis A. Freeman came to West Tennessee, probably with his father between 1840 and 1844, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. He and many of his descendants are buried in Freeman Cemetery, along with three children of his father's brother's sons (his first cousins once removed).
James Allen and Mary A. Henley Meek arrived in Weakley County from Chapel Hill, Tennessee, in 1848 and shortly thereafter buried two young sons in Freeman Cemetery. One of their daughters, Bertha Pairlee (Pat), married James Mahon, and they established a tradition of leadership in the community.
The Anderson Winchester Trevathan family, several of whom are buried at Freeman Cemetery, lived for many years in the neighborhood of the cemetery and were a well loved and respected family. In addition, some relatives of Anderson Trevathan's second wife, Martha Louisa Crutchfield Trevathan, also reside in Freeman Cemetery.
A few people who don't seem to belong directly to the main families of the cemetery are also buried here. For instance, Peyton Hendrix, who gave the land for the original burying ground, and who lived with the Freeman family in later life, and his two wives, rest here.
The information in this website, though updated with new information and research, is based on the work of Anne Meek and Marilyn Brooks Hammonds, who put together a 60-page print booklet on the Freeman Cemetery in 2010. The website has been constructed by Lisa Roney, Anne's daughter, but it relies on the previous work of so many who have pieced together their family histories and told and written the stories on which this is all based. With gratitude to all the following, as well as to Michael Rea of the Weakley County Historical Society.
Brooks Family: Ruth Ann Kilgore Jones, Howard Allen
Culbertson Family: Joan Culbertson Eakin, Joyce Culbertson Billingsby, Mary Nell House Robertson.
Freeman Family: Larry Freeman, Jere Freeman, Greg Freeman, Elaine Freeman Reasons, Mary Penick, Barbara Shannon
Meek and Mahon Family: Effie Meek Maiden (Home in the Wilderness), Donna Weaver, Jenna Wright, Jean Yates, John Duncan Meek
Trevathan Family: Sue Trevathan Foote, Nola Jeanne Baker Winstead, Jeanette Miles Breedeen, Joe Donald Trevathan
Wood Family: Deborah Bullington Johnson