The Ward family apparently arrived in the Smyrna area in the early 1800s. Their land would have been in the vicinity of the Nissan plant, as evidenced by the number of Ward cemeteries in this area.
Ezekiel Ward was born in 1773 in North Carolina. He and his 2nd wife Mary are buried in the Ward Cemetery near Florence Rd. When the Rutherford County Cemetery books were compiled in 1975, there were approximately 18 marked burials. (Though one of them may have been a duplicate.) On a recent visit, I was able to locate 12 of those. The cemetery is partially overgrown and will warrant another visit to do a complete survey.
Another burial in this cemetery is Samuel McClanahan (1801-1847). His marker is in remarkably good condition considering its age. Samuel was married to Elizabeth Ward (I’m assuming she was a daughter of Ezekiel. Can anyone confirm that?) It also appears that Samuel was the son of Matthew McClanahan, the 2nd sheriff of Rutherford County. Matthew’s burial place is unknown. Is it possible that Matthew is also buried here? This cemetery covers a lot of space and there aren’t a lot of markers. It just seems that there should be more graves in this Ward Cemetery. Does anyone out there have any ideas/info to share?
