The Braden-Melton Cemetery, aka Fields Cemetery, is between Braden and Longtown on the east side of Highway 59. The Braden-Melton Cemetery is the family burial ground of Henry Melton and Joannah Brookes Melton along with their descendants. Henry was the wealthiest man in Dist. 6 of Fayette County before the Civil War.
The first burial was that of one of their sons in 1848. Joseph P. Braden married the second time, Elizabeth Melton. They and their family are buried there. Another Melton daughter married Joseph Dalton McCraw and their family are also buried in the Braden-Melton Cemetery.
Henry’s daughter married the man for whom the town of Braden was named, hence the cemetery name of Braden-Melton.
The Melton Cemetery began as the burial ground for Henry Melton’s slaves. One of his former slaves, married Rev. Ed Fields. Later, Rev. Fields bought a portion of the old Melton Plantation.
Early USGS referred to these two cemeteries within the same cultivated field as the “Fields Cemeteries” in error. The southern cemetery is an early African American cemetery named “Melton Cemetery” & the northern cemetery is “Braden-Melton Cemetery.”
Marshall, John Walker. The Early History of Mason. John Walker Marshall, 1985.
Henry and Joannah were married on 30 Mar 1824 in Giles County. Joannah is the daughter of William Bird Brookes and Sarah Paine.
