Finally, after 69 days and 250 hours of labor, the 1/2 acre cemetery had been cleaned and restored as much as possible, without cash expense. One-hundred-sixteen previously recorded burials were identified. One-hundred-one unrecorded burials were found. Of the latter, a few had very little or no useful information because of effacement, missing parts, or lack of any inscription. Also, a few of this number represented corrections to previous data. There are surely more burials, because of obvious grave-shaped depressions in east to west arrangement with no markers, and repeated reports that headstones have been seen around the Hardin area. In fact, a few were returned one day.

Reading through Turtle Creek and Washington Townships’ historical records with Carey Cemetery’s inscriptions in hand brings to mind how rightfully it is called a "pioneer cemetery." Many of those interred came from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other places to the east to be the first settlers on their land. The graves of their young wives and small children bear witness to the hardships of those times. By far the most burials by age were of infants of less than one year. Mortality declined with age after that until puberty, after which a person appeared as likely to die at any one given age as another through the eighth decade. In present times, we would expect mortality to increase with old age.

The "life" of the cemetery spanned 82 years, with most known burials being in the period 1835 to 1875. The most occurring in one year was 15, in 1850, about double the usual number.

The earliest known interment was that of Jane, wife of Cephas Carey, who was one of the first settlers. She died in 1814, only two years after they arrived. We uncovered the tombstone of Mary Brodrick Cannon. She and her husband Richard were the first to be married in Turtle Creek, in 1818, by Cephas Carey, who was then justice of the peace. Her son, N.F., lies near her. He died in the army at Murfreesboro.