The Billy Dotson Graveyard is one of the oldest burying grounds in the The Pound section of Wise County. Nobody knows when or for whom the first grave was dug there. Thomas Benton (Tom) Dotson told me that a big oak tree turned up there forty years ago and that they found an old carved out, but unlettered, tombstone embedded in its roots. Tom is eighy-two years old and the only living son of Billy Dotson, and he says that he believes the graveyard was started long before he was born. It was on this long, low, flat top hill that juts off southwest from a high ridge that runs down between the Middle and Mead forks of Bold Camp, and about four hundred yards northeast of the Middle Fork Road. The plot contains about an acre, is fenced with woven wire, and is in a fairly well-kept condition. I visited it at ten minutes till five, Wednesday afternoon, September 9, 1936. Charlie Dotson, Tom's boy, was with me. It was getting late when we had finished with the tombstones and I went down home with Charlie and stayed there that night. Tom and I sat up talked till after midnight. He told me many interesting tales he had heard his father tell about things that happened bakc in the old days when this part of the country was being settled up.

William P Dotson
Mar 16, 1850
Mar 24, 1917

He was a son of William (Billy) Dotson, and married first a Gilliam, and second, Eliza J, daughter of James W and Vina (Herron) Hill. He lived on Middle Fork of Bold Camp.

Eliza J Dotson
Sept 6, 1852
Feb 17, 1922

Charlotte Baker
April 11, 1936
April 11, 1936
[Grave has been moved to W C Baker Cemetery]

Paralee
daughter of W N & Sarah Hamilton
June 27, 1886
April 24, 1900

Low Powers
July 22, 1885
Nov 15, 1914
[daughter of William P and Eliza Hill Dotson]

She was the wife of Hugh Powers

Pheby Elizabeth Killen
June 30, 1857
April 13, 1920

She was the wife of Wilburn (Wib) Killen and a daughter of William (Billy) and Celia (Plummer) Dotson. Wib Killen was one time high sheriff of Wise County.

William Dotson 
Born Aug 6, 1803
Died Spet 26, 1893

Celia
wife of William Dotson
Born Jan 6, 1821
Died Mar 19, 1888

William (Billy) Dotson was a son of Simon and Phoebie (Hollingsworth) Dotson. He first settled on Bear Creek, and his first wife who, Tom says, was a Gray [Mary Hutchinson], is buried there somewhere. After his first wife died he married Celia, the widow of Madison Horton, and a daughter of William Plummer, and moved to the Middle Fork of Bold Camp and settled on land he bought from Robert Bice, who had bought it from Anthony Street, the first settler in that section. His home was just across Middle Fork from the graveyard. Tom told me that his father tld him that he moved there in February, 1860, and that one day he went out to salt his horsed and killed three bears before he got back,

Mathias Nickels
Dec 1, 1820
July 29, 1905

Louisa D 
wife of Mathias Nickels
Dec 12, 1816
June 17, 1902

James E Nickels
Sept 4, 1851
Mar 2, 1891

W W Nickels
May 24, 1848
Sept 29, 1911

Mary Herrin
wife of W W Nickels
June 3, 1853
Dec 3 , 1916

Virgil Ernest Tunnell
June 17, 1928
May 20, 1929

Stella TAylor
Aug 23, 1911
Dec 13, 1913

Inez TAylor
May 15, 1929
June 5, 1929

Mary A
wife of T B Dotson
Mar 30, 1864
June 18, 1899

This is the grave of Tom Dotson's first wife. She was a daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Powers) Freeman. Her full name was Mary Alice, but she was called Alice.

Ura Dotson
Mar 10, 1823
July 27, 1923

She was a daughter of Daniel Alvin (Dan) Dotson.

Henry Dotson
May 2, 1910
Nov 13, 1926

He was Dan's son. He died with typhoid fever.

N A Dotson
Born Nov 13, 1854
Died Feb 27, 1921

Nathan Alexander Dotson was a son of William and Celia (Plummer) Dotson. He married Jane, daughter of Wesley Swindall, and lived in Dickenson County.

F A Carico
Oct 6, 1856
April 19, 1915

Louisa
wife of S O Meade
Mar 8, 1855
Dec 4, 1908
 

submitted by Nancy Clark Brown 

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