Lampley & Oliphant Cemetery Desecrated

LAMPLEY & OLIPHANT CEMETERY

7391 Crow Cut Road, Fairview, Williamson County, Tennessee, 37062

Directions: From Highway 100 turn right onto Crow Cut Rd.  Go exactly one mile.  At the sharp right curve is the driveway of 7391 Crow Cut Rd. and the entrance into the Cemetery. 

Lampley and Oliphant Cemetery Burials

(There are seven known to be buried here and, perhaps, as many as 25 more unknown but previously marked gravestones among those destroyed.  Family lore says that, probably, Preston Ward Oliphant and wife, Mary Leanne Fitzhugh Oliphant are also buried at this site.

Collins Lafayette Lampley
(Son of Radford Tucker Lampley and Parthenia McDonald)
B. June 11, 1864  D. Feb. 3, 1930

Sarah Elizabeth Oliphant Lampley
(Daughter of Presley Ward and Mary Leanne Fitzhugh Oliphant)
B. Dec., 1862  D. March 27, 1901

James Buckner Lampley
(Son of Radford Tucker and Parthenia McDonald Lampley)
B. Oct. 27, 1857  D. May 22, 1927

Lea Fitzhugh Oliphant Lampley
(Daughter of Presley Ward and Mary Leanne Fitzhugh Oliphant)
B. June, 1864  D. Nov., 1900

Herman Lafayette Lampley
(Son of Collins Lafayette and Sarah Oliphant Lampley)
B. July 29, 1889  D. March 13, 1950

Lawrence Edward Lampley
(Son of Elton and Odell Lankford Lampley)
B. 1935  D.  1935

Leiland G. Lampley
(Son of Herman and Christine Buttrey Lampley)
B. Feb., 1936  D. Oct. 13, 1936

During the recent Reunion of the Descendants of the Pioneers of the First District, visitors attempted to visit the Lampley & Oliphant Cemetery only to find that there was nothing there. The stones and monuments once there, have been totally destroyed. Nothing remains but the memories of those old-timers who attended services there and the dogged determination of one woman who is trying to let others know her plight.
Camille Wyman Allen, whose great-grandparents were interred in the sacred site, will tell anyone who listens about her efforts for the last seven years and the efforts of a handful of others to restore or, at the very least, erect a monument to the memory of our ancestors.

Due to the cemetery being ‘lost’ for so long–because it ceased to be on real estate plats, cemetery records and tax cards–my ‘finding’ it about 7 years ago is important,” said Camille Wyman Allen. “Concerned neighbors and fellow genealogists who remembered the gravesites led me to the driveway of 7391 and pointed to where the cemetery ‘was,'” she said.  “It was then I started my research and campaign to re-establish the legitimacy of the cemetery on public records.” 
On February 2, 2003, Camille Wyman Allen, Charles D. Wyman (great-grandchildren of C.L. & Sallie Oliphant Lampley) and Larry Lampley erected a small temporary sign denoting the approximate location of the original graves, but the recent visitors didn’t even see the sign there. In the near future, there is hope that the Lankford Family, the owners, will allow an archaeological dig to re-establish the exact placement of graves, and permanent markers will then be erected by members of the Lampley and Oliphant descendants. 
“This is just unthinkable,” said Wanda Talbot, who’d gone by to pay her respects. Another visitor, Charlton Queen suggested there might be a way to determine the placement of the stones through sonar. 
The property presently belongs to Carla Lankford, whose parents, Carl and Emma (now “Bethshears”) Lankford bought the land in 1950 from Oscar and Pena Cunningham*.   Although it is illegal to desecrate a recognized cemetery, the newest owners are being cooperative and will accomodate visitors to the sacred site.
“I have become aware that long ago,” Camille Wyman Allen said, that “even in the 1960s, descendants were ignorant of the fact that even though someone else owns the land around the cemetery, it is TN state law that says they are still entitled to visit and pay respects to their kin.  These people were not educated in the law and did not have the advantages we do today in being able to access facts and communicate.”  She added that she did not grow up in Fairview and has no recollection of going there as a child. “But my Mother and Grandmother (Farrie Lampley Cox) did go and then quit going saying they didn’t feel welcome.” 
Lula Fain Major, Hilda Lampley Crabtree (granddaughter of James Buckner and Lea Fitzhugh Oliphant Lampley) and Larry Lampley (also direct descendant of James and Lea Lampley) submitted documentation to the Williamson County Archives (Louise Lynch, Chief Archivist) consisting of the names known to be interred in this cemetery. (See the list on the left)
According to eyewitnesses at burials, subsequent visitation by family and in the days before the destruction of the cemetery, the original site is believed to be about 75 feet to the left of the current house (if you are facing the front of the house). According to owner Carla Lankford, she believes the cemetery was under the tree. (See photographs)
*In the deed between Oscar and Pena Cunningham and Carl and Emma Lankford (Dec. 26, 1950), it is clearly stated that the cemetery is “in reserve, and the road thereto.”  The deed on record between Oscar and Pena Cunningham and Collins Lafayette and Sallie Oliphant Lampley (aka Carl, C.L.) on October 10, 1910, also mentions several times of the “burying ground.”  The farm was deeded to C.L. and Sallie Lampley about 1885 from Mary Leanne Fitzhugh Oliphant, Sallie’s mother.  
For more information or to assist in naming those buried there, please contact Camille Wyman Allen, 900 School St., Columbia, TN 38401. Camille can be credited with multiple sources on heycuz.