Lenoir Family Cemetery Historic Preservation & Education Project
Restoration and Repair in the Cemetery
The Lenoir Family Cemetery is an integral part of the history of Lenoir City. The General William Lenoir Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution received an Historic Preservation Grant to repair and stabilize two obelisks and make other repairs to the headstones in the cemetery. We are almost finished with all the phases of this large historic preservation project which the chapter voted to undertake. It has taken just slightly over a year to complete, including additional items that the chapter chose to include.
In the cemetery are two obelisk markers, approximately 10’ tall, that were leaning. One was completely loose from the base and in danger of falling over. The largest obelisk, that of William Ballard and Elizabeth Avery Lenoir, was difficult to read.
We retained Tennessee Memorials of Maryville, TN. and they did an excellent job. The work that was done was excellent and they went above and beyond to do some things that were thought by some to be nearly impossible!
When William Ballard Lenoir died in 1852 there was no wall behind it. But, after the wall was built, the inscription faced the wall. Couple that with the fact the top had rotated about an inch and we had to get it turned 90 degrees
Although it’s height and weight made it unfeasible to completely lift, this is how they released just a little of the weight to enable them to turn it…
And THIS – is how they turned it – 2×4 on two corners, about an inch at a time!
Those were some hard working young men!
The work that was done was excellent. They went above and beyond to do some things that were thought by some to be nearly impossible!
This obelisk was completely disassembled – then the bottom base was leveled. It’s hard to tell in these photos how badly this obelisk was leaning. The detail here shows it more clearly. And upon disassembling it, the pros discovered the rod attaching the top spire to the 3 bases was not at all secure!
But when they were done, it was solid! And level! Below are some shots of the process.
First, he obelisk was completely disassembled – then the bottom base was leveled
Reassembled with a masonry epoxy. I asked about the small balls of putty-like glue. It enables them to pull out the lifting straps before the stone completely settles. Otherwise, the straps would become trapped.
Many of the flat stones were either raised up, or sinking and there were several markers in need of repair. Two footstones were discovered completely sunk into the ground. One footstone had fallen flat on the ground and a marker broken into 4 pieces was reassembled and identified as a footstone for Waightstill Avery Ramsey. Tennessee Memorials did a wonderful job and worked very hard to ensure the cemetery would be in pristine shape before the annual General William Lenoir Day on October 5. These are a few pics showing some before and after comparisons.
Two sons of Dr. Benjamin Ballard and Henrietta Ramsey Lenoir died on the same day. They were buried together with this shared headstone.
This is one of two markers that had crumbling bases. The rods holding them together were visible through the base. They were both glued together and remaining gaps were filled in. Once they get a good cleaning you won’t be able to tell!
We did not know who, or what this broken marker represented.
But after Tennessee Memorials reconstructed it, and filled in missing pieces with mortar, we saw the letter W.
We are working on a map of the cemetery – more than just logging which headstones are where, we plan to lay the cemetery out in a grid. In September, Roof Maxx of Knoxville came out to do us the favor of flying their drone to provide some photos. They came out great and will be a great help in mapping accurately!
Any original map or plot plan of this cemetery is long lost. The family will get a copy of the map to keep and give to the local funeral home for future interments. One member of the chapter has walked the entire cemetery with dowsing rods, followed by another member to double check, as we make a plot plan for the future. We have discovered what appear to be unmarked graves for 6 children and eight adult or teen graves. Research is underway to try to identify who is buried in those plots and they have been marked on the development map, posted below.
One initiative of NSDAR encourages chapters to plane “Never Forget” gardens. We placed that marker in the cemetery with 2 dwarf white rosebushes. We plan to plant more. We did the original placement in the rain – and added a bench.
There is more to come – much more. We will be cleaning the concrete wall the remaining headstones before they are sealed with a high quality sealant.
In honoring the wishes of the late Louise Lenoir Norwood McNeely, one of the chapter’s “Women in American History”, the chapter voted to celebrate the first Saturday of October as General William Lenoir Day. On September 17, 2024, Lenoir City Mayor, Tony Aikens, issued a Proclamation to make this an annual celebration which, we hope, will grow over time to include many more of the Lenoir City residents.
General William Lenoir Day
To talk about the Historic Preservation Project and advertise General William Lenoir Day, Regent Liz Logan and Committee Chair Judy Benedetti (pictured at left) went on the air with Darrell Bryan at WFIV radion, 105.3FM,
Darrell is wonderful about publicizing our events and this was just another way to reach out to the community.
There was also a poster displayed at the Lenoir City Library for a few days – it had the invitation and a bit of information about the day
We had a wonderful celebration for the first annual General William Lenoir day! We had 16 chapter members and 9 guests including Tony Aikens, Mayor of Lenoir City, his wife Lee Eblen Aikens (also a chapter member) and City Councilman Jim Brandon. Tyler Rambo of Tennessee Memorials who did all the “heavy lifting” brought his adorable 2-1/2 year old son Rocky and spoke a bit about the project, Diana Anderson, DAR member from Captain William Edmiston, Clarksville TN artist that created the painting, Susan Dorsey, Lenoir city librarian and her daughter, Walter Hines from TUMC and the Lenoir City Museum Curator Joe Spence.
The mayor spoke a bit about his involvement when the condition of the cemetery was brought to his attention several years ago, and the historical importance of it.
The chapter’s educational part of the project came about when we realized many people, and businesses, think the land grant and businesses built here were the work of “General William Ballard Lenoir” – but there was no such person. The General had no middle name. William Ballard Lenoir was his son. We unveiled the painting done by Diana Anderson and presented it to the mayor and as a special surprise we had a small canvas print made to give to Joe Spence for the museum. He was very surprised!
Diana Anderson, DAR member from Captain William Edmiston, Clarksville TN artist poses with the painting presented to the Mayor. We will be having it suitable framed for display at City Hall. Click on the photo for a close up of the painting.
This educational part of the project came about when we realized many people, and businesses, think the land grant and businesses built here were to and by “General William Ballard Lenoir” – but there was no such person. The General had no middle name. William Ballard Lenoir was his son. This visual will clarify that.
Tyler Rambo discussed the restoration of the monuments. Walter Hines (far left) gave us a little history of the churches and the cemetery.
Beverly Gamble brought Lenoir family papers for people to peruse and spoke about her great aunt, Louise Lenoir Norwood McNeely. We read excerpts from a letter written by Louise where she expressed her desire to see the DAR remember the General with a special day.
Refreshments were provided by the Lenoir Family descendants: Beverly Gamble, Kathy LeNoir and Molly May. we enjoyed Biscuits with country ham, pralines and tea cookies made from traditional Lenoir Family recipes…. and we washed it down with apple cider – best drink for early fall.
We will be cleaning and sealing the wall soon. We also will be attempting to raise up the 14 footstones that we have discovered slightly below the grass
We tried to clean the wall using Wet & Forget. While this product is not really safe for headstones due to it causing “sugaring” if used on certain types of stone (and none of use are experts on stone), it is great for concrete. So we tried spraying a section of it to see how well it would work, and how long it would take. As you can see it worked – a little – and was going to take forever to clean the wall enough for our taste. So we opted for pressure washing. (Another thing you do NOT do to headstones due to the damage it does to them. But great for concrete.)
October 15 update – the wall!
Power washing of the wall is complete – tomorrow patching will take place – then we can seal it next week! Thank you Todd Richardson for a great job.
We are in the home stretch. Once the wall is sealed we are left with needing Tennessee Memorials to professionally seal the headstones, then excavating the remaining 6 or 7 footstones and placing some common bricks at the heads of the unmarked graves, we are done! Work to be done over the winter will be research to see if there is any way we can possible identify who is buried in the 14 unmarked graves.
In total, we found 14 footstones slightly buried, one buried under another and realized that the “headstone” broken in 4 pieces was actually a footstone. By December we had excavated them all. Our HODARs (Husband of DAR) worked hard on these – here are a few
We finalized the installation of common bricks to identify the unmarked graves (since the mowers kept driving over our flags!) and will continue searching for records that can identify those buried. Those identified as male have a blue flag, female have a white flag.
We installed and dedicated a plaque to commemorate our project and, when it warms up a bit, Tennessee Memorials will apply the professional sealant used on stones to the markers in this cemetery.
February 5, 2025 – we got a break in the weather and it was warm enough for Tennessee Memorials to come professionally seal the monuments using Hydrex, a sealer made specifically for Natural Stone, Ceramic and Quartz. This is NOT the type of sealer you would buy from your local hardware stone. As the saying goes “don’t try this at home”
Many thanks for all who helped complete this project in record time and under budget!