Grave Houses: A Southern Tradition

From the earliest times humans have chosen to commemorate and protect certain burials with pyramids, mounds, gifts and elaborate markers.

Locally we can find nice fences surrounding the graves of families who perished in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. One uniquely Southern method of protecting and marking the graves of loved ones was by building a house over tombstones where survivors could come to sit to visit with the one in the grave.

Southern grave houses seem to date from the 1830s into the 1920s, and might contain a table with a last meal or perhaps a toy, along with a vase of flowers.

Some might also have a chair where a grieving person could sit to remember a passed one and perhaps read their Bible.

I’ve known Bob Surber for much of my life, and Bob had mentioned the grave houses a number of times. Bob had previously owned Morristown’s Village Cleaners and is married to the former Drudy Thomas.

The Surbers have children Jana and John along with six grandchildren. The entire family has done well in life.

Still robust at 85, Bob’s interest in the grave houses came about from a Knoxville newspaper article written by Morgan Simmons in 2000.

Simmons’ article had mentioned that John Waggoner, Jr. of Carthage, Tennessee, who, 10 years prior to his article, had made an extensive search of cemeteries around his home area before focusing on grave houses.

Waggoner would locate more than 100 grave houses throughout seven Southern states. He had mentioned that some houses had been built of logs, while others were built like miniature farm houses, had been built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and that in many cases not much was left of the houses.

Waggoner would also mention Mrs. Laura Surber, who lived nearby the Clarkson-Surber Cemetary.

Now deceased and then at 74 years-old, she had told that her husband was buried in the cemetery and that as a little girl recalled families decorating the houses with photos, a lamp and the last plate used by the deceased. After reading the article, Bob had taken it on himself to locate and investigate some of the closer grave houses.

Finding Claiborne County’s Bill Surber, no relation to Bob, he was able to locate two such houses. That called for a road trip to the edges of Claiborne and Hancock Counties.

Along on the trip were my old Army buddy, Ronnie Yount, and Bob’s younger brother, Danny, who had years back been my college roommate at ETSU.

Those days with Danny and two other roommates would be a great deal of fun with little studying on my part, and would soon result in my serving a hitch in the Army.

Despite our fun at school, Danny would still manage a productive life with a career at Knoxville’s Patterson Dental Company, from which he has now retired. Married to the former Linda Ficker, they have a daughter, Stacey (Russell) Holton.

After determining the best route to take, we decided to head to Tazewell to go into the Powell River country.

Arriving at Tazewell at midday, and realizing that a long trip and an evening of exploring was ahead, that a good lunch would carry us into the back roads and over our search. Tazewell’s Tastee Freeze is one of the fewer old-school independent drive-ins around.

I knew that Tastee Freeze banana splits were among as good as can be found, and that was my order, while the others ordered the standard hamburgers and fries.

After seeing my banana split, the brothers split one of their own as desert.

Following lunch we headed out into the Powell River country and into some beautiful scenic and uncrowded country that is becoming more locally scarce.

After a good bit of travel past neat farms and wooded areas we finally came to Mt. Zion Road and the Clear Creek Farm and Feed Mill, owned by Bill Surber, which set practically on the Claiborne/Hancock County lines.

It was an enigma to see such a busy mill, with large trucks lined up, miles away from any other stores. Over time, the family had acquired farm land that included both the grave house cemeteries, even though they were a good distance apart.

A friendly and busy Bill came out to meet Bob and invited us to “take as much time as you want and look around as much as you want.”

The Surber family live in a nice comfortable home across from their mill. His hospitality went as far as providing us with two ATV vehicles to travel in, along with his half brother, Robert Harris, to serve as our guide.

Our first trip would be into the edge of Claiborne County to visit the Smith Cemetery. Not a large cemetery, there were about 20 burial sites marked with either field stones or engraved markers.

The cemetery hadn’t been well attended to and the grave house was the prominent marker. Setting near the crest of the cemetery on a solid foundation, the century-year old building’s door was off the hinges, but the house was neatly boarded over with a lathed inside wall.

Its tin roof still looked in decent condition.

Someone had taken their time in the building and the house showed signs of good craftsmanship on its outer boarded walls and it’s inner walls.

Prominent inside the house was the stone that marked “Walter, son of Arch and Ivory Smith. Born August 28, 1910, D. Jan. 24, 1923”. A doll much faded by time was beside the stone.

That visit was followed by a visit to the edge of Hancock County to the Clarkson-Surber Cemetary.

Still neat and well kept, a shed was above the cemetery, with benches set for visitors.

The cemetery held around 50 graves, some marked by inscribed stonnes and others by field stones. It was apparent that the shelter had been well used for homecomings and other gatherings. Guide Robert would share that he had once been getting up the cows when a storm came up and he took shelter in the grave house.

Also neatly boarded and interlocking lathe walls, the house protected the monument of Flossie Akers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Vic Minter. b. June 22, 1893, d. July 28, 1915, with the inscription: “Sheltered and Safe from Sorrow.”

A small table inside the house may well have been used as a preparation for the loved one’s last meal plate, or for a mourner to sit and read their Bible. Robert would mention that the cemetery had earlier had two other grave houses, but that years earlier a wind storm had blown over a large tree that crushed the other two houses.

A return trip along the scenic small towns of southern Virginia ended an almost perfect day.