FREEMAN CEMETERY
WEAKLEY COUNTY, TENNESSEE
FELIX McCAGER and
CHARLOTTE TEMPERANCE ATKISON MEEK FAMILY
FELIX McCAGER MEEK (1850-1928) married CHARLOTTE TEMPERANCE (TEMP) ATKISON MEEK (1859-1919) in 1876. They raised their family on the farm near Freeman Cemetery and are both buried there. Traumatized by the early death of his sister Phelly in childbirth, Felix made sure a doctor was in attendance at each of their five children's births, and all lived to adulthood. The five children of Felix and Temp were:
EFFIE VIVIAN MEEK MAIDEN (1878-1954)
CHARLIE MARVIN MEEK BROOKS (1880-1966)
THOMAS HARRIS (TOM) MEEK (1886-1922)
JAMES RUSSELL MEEK (1894-1968)
WILLIAM PAUL MEEK (1897-1972)
After Temp's death, Felix married Sudie A. Kemple Meek, but it is unknown what happened to her after Felix's death.
Although only one of Felix and Temp's children is buried in Freeman Cemetery, all of their children played important roles in the Bethany Church Road community or in the surrounding communities of Dresden, Martin, and Weakley and Obion counties.
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Above, the "wagon picture," left to right, Cosette (Cosy) Maiden, Dillard Brooks, George Brooks, Mignonne Maiden, Royal Edward (Ed) Maiden, Jr., Russell Meek, Effie Meek Maiden, Paul Meek, Charlie Meek Brooks, Temp and Felix Meek, c. 1909.
Felix and Temp Meek with their son Paul Meek, 1915.
Although Effie Vivian Meek Maiden (1878-1954) and her husband, Judge Royal Edward Maiden, Sr. (1868-1940), are buried in Sunset Cemetery in Dresden, Effie played a major role in what we understand about life in the community around Freeman Cemetery and Bethany Church Road. She authored Home in the Wilderness, a fictionalized but well-researched historical account of the lives and of James Allen and Mary Henley Meek and their children. The typescript manuscript was edited and an extensive family tree added by Anne Meek and Marilyn Brooks Hammonds, and the book was published in 2003 with the cooperation of Effie's grandchildren.
Royal was an attorney and then circuit court judge in Dresden, and Effie and Royal were prominent members of the community. They had four children:
Mignonne Murphy (Non) Maiden Dunlap (1897-1970)
Cosette (Cosy) Maiden Caldwell (1899-1967)
Royal Edward (Ed) Maiden, Jr. (1907-1987)
Effie M. Meek (1911-1991)
Mignonne married Porter Dunlap (1877-1954), and they had two children, Mignonne Maiden (Biddy) Dunlap (1919-1978) and Porter Dunlap, Jr. (1922-1986). Cosette married Dock John Harold Caldwell (1899-1975). Ed married Vinton English (1913-1995), and they had four children: Royal Edward (Eddie) Maiden III, Thomas Harrison Maiden, India Maiden, and Melanie Ann Maiden.
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Effie Meek Maiden (center) and Martha Campbell Meek (far left) with various children and grandchildren of Effie, Summer 1924.
Effie Meek and Royal Maiden, Sr., with daughter Effie M. Maiden.
CHARLIE MARVIN MEEK BROOKS (1880-1966) is the only one of Felix and Temp's children to be buried in Freeman Cemetery. She married GEORGE DILLARD BROOKS (1877-1966), and they had one INFANT DAUGHTER BROOKS (1904-1904) who died at birth and one, Dillard Brooks (1906-1995), who lived to adulthood and for many years in the community near Freeman Cemetery. The Charlie Meek and George Brooks family are discussed on their own sub-page of the Brooks family page. To read more, click the button below.
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Tom Meek, Jr.
Thomas Harris Meek (1886-1922) graduated from McFerrin School and Vanderbilt University, then returned home to Martin, where he practiced law until his untimely death from pneumonia and lung disease when he was 35. He is buried in East Side Cemetery in Martin, and his wife, Maude Euphrasia Mathes Meek (1890-1967), is buried in Monte Vista Memorial Park in Johnson City, Tennessee. They had two children:
MARY EVELYN MEEK FORD (1912-1989)
THOMAS HARRIS MEEK, JR. (1915-1987)
Evelyn married Clifton (Tip) Ford; they had no children. Tom Jr. married Florence Margaret Anderson Meek (1917-1997). Tom Jr. and Florence's children are two sons: Terry Harris Meek and Jerry Clifton Meek. The family has placed a memorial stone for the whole family next to Thomas Meek's headstone at Eastside.
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Tom Meek, Jr., Maude Mathes Meek, and Evelyn Meek.
Florence Anderson Meek, Terry Meek, and Tom Meek, Jr.
James Russell Meek (1894-1968) married Lelia Ellen McCrary Meek (1898-1968), and they established the Midway community between Martin and Union City. Russell was a church and community leader and led the effort to establish Highway 22. Russell and Leila are buried in the Stanley's Chapel Cemetery in Obion County. They had two children:
MARY BLOUNT MEEK WINTER (1916-1961)
JAMES RUSSELL (J. R.) MEEK, Jr. (1920-2010)
Mary married George Winter, Jr. (1916-1979). They had four children: George (Butch) Winter III (1938-2004), Mary Meek (Cissy) Winter Ermis, Felix Dixon (Dick) Winter, and Lucy Ellen Winter Wilson.
J. R. married Barbara Joy Bragg Meek (1925-2002). They had three children: Suzanne Meek Powers, James Russell (Russ) Meek III, and Cynthia (Cyndy) Meek Earls.
Sheep on the Russell Meek farm, c. 1919-1920.
Russell Meek and his descendants represent, in many ways, the fulfillment of his grandfather James Allen Meek's dreams. Russell remained in the West Tennessee area, with its rich soil, and farmed for many years. Several of his children and grandchildren settled on additional land near Russell and Leila's farm home and are still living on those lands today, engaged in farming, teaching, and business activities that enrich and support the wider community around them.
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Russell Meek, tall, in center, and farmhands gathered for hog butchering, c. 1915-1920.
William Paul Meek (1897-1972) dropped William from his name and went by Paul. He married Martha Washington Campbell Meek (1899-1967) in 1922, after meeting at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville from which they both graduated. After spending some years teaching in the public schools, Paul and Martha brought their young family back to Weakley County, where Paul helped establish the University of Tennessee at Martin, first as a junior college and later as a full four-year institution. He served in numerous positions and retired as Vice Chancellor. The library at UTM is named for him. Paul and Martha were also life-long members of First Methodist Church in Martin, and they are buried at East Side Cemetery.
Paul and Martha had three children:
JOHN PAUL (PAUL) MEEK (1925-2004)
DAVID CAMPBELL MEEK (1930-2006)
MARTHA ANNE (ANNE) MEEK (1936-2022)
John Paul Meek spent most of his career as an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank and lived in New Jersey. He married Rachael Lee Williams Meek (1924-2019) in 1947. Paul and Rachael's two children are Paul Winston Meek and Mary Melati Meek Busto. Although John Paul Meek's burial site is unknown, the family has placed a marker in his honor in Freeman Cemetery.
David Meek became a cardiologist and practiced medicine and drug-and-alcohol counseling in California. He married Louise Stratton Duncan Meek (1930-1984) in 1951. Louise is buried in the Smith Family Cemetery near Centerville, Tennessee. They had three children: David Campbell Meek, Jr. (1954-1989), John Duncan Meek, and Rebecca Louise Meek (1958-2020). Both David's and daughter Rebecca's ashes are interred in Freeman Cemetery.
Anne Meek, a life-long educator and editor, married Robert Kelly (Bob) Roney III in 1957. They divorced in 1985, and Anne returned to use of the last name Meek. She married Owen Joseph Donley (1927-1995) and, after his death, Gilbert Louis Kraine and lived in Virginia until shortly before her death in 2022. Anne and Bob have two children: Robert Kelly (Kelly) Roney IV and Lisa Claire Roney.
Paul and Martha Meek fiftieth wedding anniversary, 1972.
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