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Sacred Ground: Sulphur Springs Cemetery
There was a sentiment the old-timers used to use to describe people who lived way back in the sticks. So-and-so, they’d say, “has to walk toward town just to hunt.”
That might’ve been true for the families who lived in the Sulphur Springs area near Helenwood.
Today, there’s nothing to speak of in this vast area that lies “behind” Helenwood Loop, between Silcox Ford and Greasy Creek. Even the name “Sulphur Springs” doesn’t show up on the Atlas anymore.
But there was a time when Sulphur Springs had its own school and was home to several families — which is why you’ll find the Sulphur Springs Cemetery at the very end of what is today known as Appleton Crane Road.
This small cemetery dates back to the turn of the century. It remains active, although there have only been a handful of burials here through the years.
The Honeycutt family
The cemetery’s beginnings was with the Honeycutt family that once lived at Sulphur Springs. Baby John Honeycutt was buried there in 1902, and baby William Honeycutt was buried there in 1904.
The Honeycutt babies have matching headstones. Even the epitaph is the same: “Suffer little children to come unto me,” the popular paraphrase of Matthew 19:14.
John and William were almost certainly the sons of James Honeycutt and his wife, Rebecca, who would later be buried at the cemetery themselves.
James Honeycutt was the son of William Honeycutt (1837-1898) and Catherine Frances Rosser (1841-1900), who were married in Scott County on Christmas Eve in 1865. William served in the Union army during the Civil War, assigned to the 32nd Kentucky Infantry. Their children included James, John, Leanza, Andrew, and Elizabeth.
James came from a large family of Honeycutts in the mid-county area. His father was one of 14 children, the sons and daughters of John Honeycutt. One of William’s siblings, Hardy Honeycutt, was the father of Edward Honeycutt, who married into the Marcum family at Buffalo and expanded the Honeycutt family in that direction.
(See Also: The Cemeteries at Marcum Creek)
James Honeycutt and Rebecca Jane Phillips were married in 1890, when she was 24 and he was 23. She was the daughter of Fountain Phillips (1842-1911) and Sarena Ellis (1841-1912). Their surviving children included Reaney “Jane”, Andrew, Harvey, Mary, Bettie, Abbigail, and Fred.
It is not known when James Honeycutt died. However, he is said to be buried in an unmarked grave at the Sulphur Springs Cemetery. Rebecca Jane died in 1923. Her grave at the cemetery is also unmarked. (James’ death was sometime after 1930, according to census records.)
James and Rebecca’s oldest daughter, Jane Honeycutt, age 26, was buried at the cemetery in 1918. She died of tuberculosis during the Spanish flu pandemic. Her mother also died of tuberculosis a few years later.
The cemetery grows
The third person buried at Sulphur Springs, after babies John and William, was Mahalla “Haley” Lackey Wright, who died in 1916 at age 31.
Haley was the wife of Wesley Wright, son of Willis Riley Wright and Francis Dishman of the Black Creek Crossroads community near Robbins.
A few years later, in 1919, the infant son of James Luther Phillips and Barzena Jane Reed was buried at the cemetery. Luther was the son of James Granville Phillips and Catherine Reed of Helenwood, while Zena was the daughter of Wiley Reed and Sophie Ellis of Mountain View.
The infants L.V. Owens (in 1919) and Sailor Owens (1923) were next to be buried at the cemetery, with matching flat stones.
Hamilton Griffith
In 1929, Civil War veteran Hamilton Griffith was buried at Sulphur Springs when he died at age 84. He was one of Scott County’s last — if not the last — surviving Civil War veterans.
Griffith served in Co. A, 4th Tennessee Cavalry, along with the 7th Tennessee Infantry and the 9th Tennessee Cavalry during the war. He was a great-grandson of Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Griffith of Brimstone, and enlisted in the Union army with his brother, Fielding Griffith.
During training at Camp Dick Robinson near Danville, Ky., in the fall of 1861, Fielding Griffith became Scott County’s first casualty of the war when he died of suspected poisoning. The children of Hamilton Griffith later related to the Independent Herald’s Paul Roy that a woman was selling pies at Camp Dick Robinson and the Griffith brothers purchased some of them. Hamilton fed his to a dog, which almost immediately died. Fielding fell ill and died later.
When Roy published his book, Scott County in the Civil War, in 2001, Griffith still had two living children: Fred Griffith, who was 75 at the time and lived in Helenwood, and Elzada Maughan, who was 80 and lived in Rogersville, Tenn.
Hamilton Griffith was 81 when his youngest son, Fred, was born in 1926.
The Phillips family
Many of the burials at Sulphur Springs since Hamilton Griffith’s death in 1929 have been members of the Phillips family, which has been as prominent as any other in the Helenwood area through the years.
First to be buried was Josiah Phillips, who died of typhoid fever in 1931, at age 51. He was the son of James Granville Phillips and Catherine Reed; a brother to James Luther Phillips, whose infant son was buried at the cemetery in 1919.
Josiah married Bessie Lee Hammonds, and they had a large family. Their children included Verlie May Wilson, Mabel Vermillion, Athna McGhee, Mildred Ola Keeton, Josephine Catherine Sullivan, Josiah Phillips Jr., Onta Lee Daniel, Bonnie Marie Jeffers, Shirley Ann Williams, and James Granville Phillips.
Bessie was later buried at the cemetery in 1943.
Hobert Condy Phillips, age 1, was buried at the cemetery in 1932. He was the son of William Hobert Phillips and Bertha Louverna Pittman, and a grandson of James Granville Phillips. William Hobert was a brother to Josiah and James Luther.
William and Bertha had another son, infant Coyet Folden Phillips, buried at the cemetery in 1933. And their infant daughter, Rubena, was buried there in 1938.
In 1946, 17-year-old James Granville Phillips was buried at the cemetery. He was the youngest son of Josiah and Bessie.
The cemetery today
The first person buried at Sulphur Springs in the modern era was Josiah Phillips Jr. in 1986. At the time of his death, it had been 40 years since anyone had been buried at the cemetery. He was another of the children of Josiah and Bessie Phillips.
There have been several other burials through the years, including Albert Whipley and his wife, Patricia Ganhan, in 1988 and 1999, respectively.
In 2017, Roger Don Stephens was buried at the cemetery.
Alexis Lowe, 41, was buried at the cemetery in 2020. He was the Plateau Electric Cooperative lineman who was severely injured at a competition several years prior to his death. He was the son of Robbie and Susan Lowe of Helenwood.
The most recent burial at Sulphur Springs was Samuel Scott Hughett, 38, who died in December 2025. He was the son of Larry and Susan Hughett.
Hamilton Griffith, 1844-1929
James Honeycutt, 1867-N/A
John Honeycutt, 1902-1902
Reaney J. Honeycutt, 1892-1918
Rebecca Phillips Honeycutt, 1866-1924
William Honeycutt, 1904-1904
Samuel S. Hughett, 1978-2025
Sarah J. Lawson, 1879-1942
Alexis L. Lowe, 1978-2020
L.V. Owens, 1919-1919
Sailor Owens, 1923-1923
Bessie Hammonds Phillips, 1891-1943
Coyet Folden Phillips, 1933-1933
Hobart C. Phillips Jr., 1931-1932
Infant Phillips, 1919-1919
James G. Phillips, 1929-1946
Josiah Phillips Jr., 1919-1986
Josiah Phillips Sr., 1879-1931
Rubena Phillips, 1938-1938
Roger D. Stephens, 1946-2017
Albert W. Whipkey, 1937-1988
Patricia Ganhan Whipkey, 1933-1999
Haley Lackey Wright, 1885-1916
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