In this month’s article, we will dig deeper (no pun intended) into a local cemetery with a list of residents that reads like a Who’s Who of the early pioneers of Jefferson County. The Green[e]’s Station cemetery (also called ” Green[e] family cemetery, Green[e]-Massey cemetery, or the Smith’s Chapel cemetery) is located on Kent Road near to the main campus of Jefferson State Community College on AL highway 79 between Tarrant and Pinson. The cemetery is adjacent to the site of, but was not affiliated with the Smith’s Chapel Methodist Church on the old Huntsville Road. The cemetery is of singular historical import to those of us living today in Pinson Valley. The area began to be settled between 1817-1818 and many of the area’s early pioneers (and a minimum of seven slaves) are buried in the cemetery.
Settlers began coming into the area by wagon train, ox-cart, Indian-drags, on foot or horseback and staked out homesteads for themselves and their families. The plantations and farms of early pioneers stretched from one end of Pinson Valley to the other, bordered by Tarrant on one end and Pinson on the other. The area also stretched from Trussville and Roebuck to New Castle and Springdale.
The city of Tarrant as we know it today was not incorporated until 1918. Named for Rev. Benjamin Tarrant, the town grew up around the National Cast Iron Pipe Company and related companies. However, the settlement was much older. Travelers on the Huntsville Road in about 1817 often stopped at an area known as the Big Spring to rest and recharge on their way further into Alabama. While many moved on, others stayed and built a community, originally called Green[e]’s, or Green[e]’s Station. Brothers George Livingston Green[e]and Robert Hardy Green[e] both built large plantations in the area. The Tarrant area was also sometimes known as Nabor’s Spring.
The cemetery is the final resting place of Zachariah Hagood, one of the earliest physicians in Jefferson County, who practiced from 1840 to 1856. Dr. Zachariah, as he was known, almost single-handedly populated the settlement in northeastern part of Jefferson County that would eventually bear his name. He came here with his wife and baby… However, the valley was soon teeming with life from the many sons and daughters, Zachariah had 21 children from three wives. Robert, son of Dr. Zachariah, built a store on a crossroads next to the Huntsville Road which, beginning in 1836, also functioned as the community’s first post office. The area quickly became known as Hagood’s Crossroads. However, horse traders settling in the area from Pinson, Tennessee came in around 1852, eventually outvoted the Hagood’s and renamed the town Mount Pinson which, in turn, was later shortened to Pinson..A more poignant burial is that of Thomas Haughey, a physician who owned land in the area. Serving as a Republican US Congressman in the years following the Civil War, Haughey was assassinated in Courtland, AL while making a speech in 1869.
The cemetery started as a family burial place for the Green[e] family, who had significant land holdings in the area. The oldest known burial is reflected on a stone carved in 1829. Two of the oldest known burials are that of Goldsmith Whitehouse Hewitt (a veteran of the American Revolution), who died in 1846 and George Nash who died in 1852, the father of Zachariah Hagood’s first wife, Nancy Nash. Also buried there are John and Margaret Erwin, parents of Zachariah’s second and third wives, Nancy and Mary Ann Erwin. Families represented in cemetery include Greene, Hagood, Erwin, Massey, Reed, Reid, Marshall, Nash, and Hewitt.
Registered as an Alabama Historic Cemetery on January 20, 2004, the cemetery is likely older than Alabama statehood. However, the years have not been kind to this venerable old resting place… In its current state, it is horribly overgrown, with numerous sunken graves and vandalized gravestones.
This hallowed place of rest for our ancestors deserves better than it has received. It falls to the generations living today to give the cemetery its due, if for no other reason than a show of respect for this burial ground, and especially in gratitude for the stalwart pioneers who risked everything to settle what is now known as Pinson Valley.
This article is intended to provide accurate historical information to a general audience. Material contained herein is gathered from reputable online and traditional sources, but unless otherwise noted, is not the result of original scholarship or research by the author.
–E. E. (Skip) Campbell, Ph.D.
Skip Campbell retired from UPS in early 2012 after 38 years as a senior manager, working in numerous locations in the United States and abroad, with primary responsibilities in operations and industrial engineering. He received his BS degree in Applied Science and Operations Analysis from the University of Alabama and holds Master’s degrees in Engineering Management, Quality and Management,. Skip holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Development, with concentrations in Organizational Theory and Macroergonomics. Skip is a Senior Member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and sits on the Board of Visitors for the College of Continuing Studies at the University of Alabama. Since retiring, Skip serves as an Adjunct Professor with the College of Continuing Studies (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at the University of Alabama and focuses his academic research efforts on the area of pre-20th century Alabama history. Skip belongs to a number of historical and cemetery preservation associations. He and his wife Denise have 3 grown children and 2 grandchildren.