"Old Red"

I realize that this website seems to feature more than its fair share of articles featuring local cemeteries. I suppose the best explanation I can give for this is that cemeteries, most notably grave sites and markers, are often the last tangible remnants of the lives of those who came before us. Sometimes even the graves themselves have a story to tell...

In 1995, following up on some brief notes made several generations ago by a diligent member of our family, I sought out and eventually located the grave of my fourth great grandfather, Sanford Simpson. Sanford had migrated to Knox County with his family in the early 19th century, and had served in the Virginia militia during the War of 1812. The only other information I had was that Sanford had "drowned in the Tennessee River, May of 1868".

Sanford's brother, Jesse Simpson, Jr. was a prominent community leader and owned a marble quarry and ferry about a mile east of Knoxville on the south banks of the Tennessee River. (Present-day Simpson Road marks the original location of the ferry; the quarry was located adjacent to the old Cunningham-Flenniken cemetery.) Jesse was also an elder and charter member at Island Home Baptist Church, and his headstone, made from pink marble removed from his own quarry, is one of the most notable in the church cemetery.

Sanford is also interred at the Island Home cemetery, although it took me a while to locate his grave. The following is a description I made in my notes at the time:

Sanford’s tombstone is small and plain; so succinct that no birth or death information is even provided, and it is utterly isolated from all the other interments in the cemetery. The grave is located at the very edge of the church property and may have even originally stood outside of the cemetery proper. Sanford’s white stone marker, offering only his first and last name and that he was once a soldier in our country’s early struggle for independence, is located at the far north end of the cemetery, so remote from the remainder of the graves that even the most casual observer could not help but notice its isolation. I often wonder why this grave is so far removed from the others. Was it something as simple as a large family plot that never held but one grave? (It appears that Sanford’s wife, Hopey, was never interred at this location; though his son, Jesse Poston Simpson, was later buried at the southeast end of the yard.) Was it possible that Sanford was not a churchgoer? (A sure ticket to the outer reaches of any good Baptist cemetery.) Or was it something darker? Could Sanford’s drowning have been something other than an accident? Could he possibly have taken his own life?

I thought about this from time to time over the years and then, not long ago, I finally received my answer. A family researcher I was corresponding with had sent me a copy of the following article, taken from the Knoxville Daily Press & Herald, May 24, 1868 ~

Sanford Simpson, popularly known as Old Red, who has been missing for the past week, was found just below the dam on Saturday morning on the South Side of the river. The deceased was last seen about one week ago. He was in town, greatly under the influence of liquor, late in the evening he was set across the river in a skiff by John Dobson. It was supposed that in the insensible condition that he was in, he fell in the river and was drowned. A coroner's inquest was held over the deceased and the verdict was rendered in accordance with the above facts.

It's apparent that Sanford likely lived a life that fell far below the standards of the community of faith alongside of which he will now forever reside. I often wonder about him; the dubious reputation he probably garnered in the small South Knoxville community; what legacy he left to his wife and to his children; the strained relationship he likely maintained with his pious and prominent brother.
Recently, the girls and I visited the cemetery, and I noticed there were now some newer interments closer to Sanford's grave. I was glad to see it. Regardless of whatever vices Sanford may have wrestled with in life, it doesn't seem right to ask him to atone for them by being eternally marginalized in death.

Directions to the cemetery:
Driving south on Henley Street/Chapman Highway, turn left at Baptist Hospital, just over the Henley Street Bridge. You will be driving parallel to the river, and the road will quickly run into Island Home Avenue. Turn right from Island Home Avenue onto Island Home Pike. The church will be on your left, about one and a half miles up the road.