Madrid Bend Cemetery/Whitson Cemetery

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The Madrid Bend Cemetery was created in the 1850s and moved in the 1910s owing to erosion. The cemetery is now owned by the Carrie Parks Wilson Trust and is a testament to some of the families that once lived in this area. The Kentucky Bend a part of the state on the Mississippi River that is geographically separated from the rest of Kentucky. While there are less than 20 people living in the Bend, the area was once home to hundreds. At its height, there were some 300 people, mostly farmers and ranchers living in the area.

Images

Front stone for the Madrid Bend families' cemetery (known in official registries as Whitson Cemetery)

These maps, hanging in the New Madrid Museum, show the changes made by the earthquakes, erosion and flooding 1810-1990.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

In 1811 and 1812, a series of earthquakes on the New Madrid Fault, which an uplift of a fault running through what is now the Kentucky Bend, dammed the Mississippi River in two places. The damning of the river caused waterfalls and rapids with a 30-foot drop, and the nearby town of New Madrid sank twelve feet and was submerged. It is unclear why the boundary of the Bend was drawn so that the boundary for Kentucky was drawn through the Mississippi, but the result was the creation of the Kentucky Bend. The seismic event resulted in fertile floodplain and hundreds of people, mostly cotton farmers, made their way to the Bend.

This cemetery was once the Everett Cemetery, and was located northwest of the current site in the northwest side of Kentucky Bend. It was created in the early 1850s, and was moved around 1910 because of erosion by the Mississippi River. The last Everett left Kentucky Bend in 1923. But female descendants of the Everetts, as well as members of the Whitson family, used the cemetery after that. There are dozens of marked and unmarked graves. This cemetery is a monument to those who first tamed this land.

To get to this part of Kentucky by car, drive through Tennessee on State Route 22. After passing the state line into Kentucky, you are officially in Kentucky, on Kentucky Bend Road. The cemetery will be on the right.

Sources

Madrid Bend Families Cemetery For Fulton County, KY, Genealogy Trails. Accessed July 14th 2020. http://genealogytrails.com/ken/fulton/madridbendfamcem.html.

Madrid Bend Cemetery, Kentucky Kindred Genealogical Research. May 21st 2019. Accessed July 14th 2020. https://kentuckykindredgenealogy.com/2019/05/21/madrid-bend-cemetery-fulton-county/.

The Fascinating Story of Kentucky Bend, Kentucky Tourism. Accessed July 14th 2020. https://www.kentuckytourism.com/the-fascinating-story-of-kentucky-bend.