November 18, 2017 Billy Pittard
The Hoover Family Cemetery is also known as the Walterhill Community Cemetery in the Rutherford County Graveyards and Cemeteries book, and also known as the Johns Cemetery at the Rutherford County Registrar of Deeds Office.
To enjoy several photos from this wonderful tour, please visit: https://rutherfordtnhistory.org/caravan-tour-cemeteries-home-sites-ancestors-tab-hattie-henderson/
More commonly known as the Walterhill Community Cemetery, the Hoover Family Cemetery is the final resting place of John Hoover, Sr. (1777-1845) and most of his immediate family.
The cemetery is in a stand of oak trees approximately 1,300 feet straight behind the old house at 466 Jefferson Pike. I believe that the house at 466 Jefferson Pike may have been the home of John Hoover and his family. The cemetery is in very poor condition. It appears to have fallen out of maintenance and new interments well over 100 years ago.
On Rutherford County’s online GIS map, the 1-acre cemetery name is “Johns
Cemetery” with ownership listed as “Courthouse.” Rutherford County deeds office has a plat of the cemetery property that shows legal “ingress and egress easement for Johns Cemetery” via the property at 680 West Jefferson Pike. In 2014, this property was owned by Jamie L. Hughes. In 2014, Mr. Hughes was uncooperative with granting access across his property. According to the plat, access is at the southwest corner of the cemetery after crossing the afore mentioned property.
The cemetery can be reached most easily by parking in front of the house at 213 Walt Road (owned by Clyde & Catherine Howard in 2011) that connects with the very short Earnest Johns Road (aka Arnold Drive) off of Lebanon Pike (US 231).
Most of the graves in the site are closely related to John Hoover, but there are two graves with no known family relationship to him. One is Mary Neely, wife of Dr. M.E. Neely who owned the property several years after it left the possession of John Hoover’s relatives. The other is Frances Burk, whose connection to the property is unknown.
Ernie Johns, former Rutherford County Historian made a list of graves here in 1971, but even then it was in very bad condition and several graves were missed because the stones were down, buried, broken, or all the above. That list is published in the book Cemeteries and Graveyards of Rutherford County, Tennessee published by the Rutherford County Historical Society. John Hoover descendant, Ceacy Henderson Hailey made a new list a few years later and added a couple of names.
In the fall of 2010, Ceacy returned to the site along with myself and our cousin Bruce Werme. On this visit we found the long-lost tombstone of our ancestor, Billy Malone.
This was especially exciting for Bruce, who lives in the antebellum house built by Billy Malone – and he was the one who found the tombstone. Bruce has since returned several times to the cemetery and has found several more tombstones.
Below is a list of graves that have been found to date:
John Hoover Sr. (patriarch of the Hoover family)
born July 13, 1777
died June 8, 1845
Lydia Hoover (wife of John Hoover)
Stone is broken, but birth date may read:
Born Feb 1783 or 1782
William N. “Billy” Malone (son-in-law of John Hoover) Feb 10, 1803 July 13, 1847
Mrs. Martha A. Black born May 30, 1816 died July 7, 1847 (a week before Billy Malone) (daughter of John Hoover, widow of Dr. Patrick Neilson, wife of Lunsford Pitts Black)
Martha Malone (daughter of Billy & Mariah Malone) Sept 27, 1831 May 22, 1837
Maria Neilson (daughter of Martha Hoover & Dr. Patrick Neilson) Oct 20, 1838 Nov 1839
Andrew J. Hoover [stone box] (son of John Hoover) Sept 4, 1806 Nov 11, 1837
William H. Hoover (son of John Hoover) Feb 23, 1822 Feb 21, 1839 NOTE: died same day as his brother Joseph Joseph Hoover (son of John Hoover) Sept 6, 1818 Feb 21, 1839 NOTE: died same day as his brother William
Frances Burk (no known relationship to Hoover family) Consort of Thomas Burk Mar 30, 1800 Dec 13, 1857
Mary Neely (no known relationship to Hoover family) Wife of M.E. Neely Age 32 yrs, 8 mos, 17 days [1855] – __ 27, 1887
Suspected other graves in this cemetery:
Mariah J. Hoover Malone (wife of William N. Malone and daughter of John Malone Sr.) b. 1804 d. After 1880. Maybe 1898, but not certain. Bruce Werme makes a good case that she may be buried in the gravesite surrounded by a metal fence. This is adjacent to where Billy Malone’s headstone was found.
John D. Malone (son of Billy & Mariah Malone)
b. 1826, d. Aug 16, 1850
William C. Malone (son of Billy & Mariah Malone)
b. 27 Nov 1829, d. 17 Jun 1847, Note: died one month before his father, William N. Malone.
John Hoover Jr.
Presumed son of John Hoover because John Hoover’s tombstone uses “Sr.”