The Lambs of the Tabor Cemetery

Today I was enjoying my last day of vacation and chose to take a drive out to an area of the county I don't get out to nearly as frequently as I should - the Highway 28 corridor going from Lauada to Franklin. I had no particular destination in mind but while on Brush Creek, I noted a tiny sign for the Tabor Cemetery on the left and decided to follow it. Upon topping out on a hill above the creek, I found one of the most beautiful and well-tended cemeteries I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. 

Photo credit: Wendy Meyers

I love looking at old tombstones - not only because of the curiosity I have about the lives of the people they commemorate, but also for the artistry of the stones themselves. Whilst wandering through the stones at this cemetery, I noted something 'different' here amongst the ones marking the graves of children. In older cemeteries, lambs are often seen on the headstones of children - most of the cemeteries in Swain County have them. However, the Tabor Cemetery has a very interesting array of lamb stones - at least 7 different types - such that I felt them to be worthy of their own blog article. Some of these are below.

I would encourage all who are interested to visit this peaceful cemetery and view the beautiful stones that, while unique, are a bittersweet reminder of the very tenuous existence of children in days not so long past in these mountains.

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Frank West was born on September 10, 1905, died on October 5, 1905 of unknown causes. He was the son of Henry and Minnie (nee' Marr) West. His parents are buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Macon County.

Photo credit: Wendy Meyers

Everett Bates Jr., was born on February 27, 1919, and died on January 1, 1921 of meningitis. He was the son of Everett Robert and Lillie (nee' Marr) Bates. Everett Sr. was shipped to the World War 1 front in 1918, leaving behind Lillie, who was pregnant. He died in combat in France in November of that year before his son was even born. His remains appear to have been repatriated, and are interred near those of Everett Jr.. Lillie was remarried (to Floyd Cunningham) in March 1921 and is buried in Swain Memorial Park.

Photo credit: Wendy Meyers

Troy Tabor was born on October 3, 1928, and died on December 22, 1928 of unknown causes. His parents are unknown (no death certificate was filed), however, he may have been the son of the Reverend John and Amanda (nee' Cookston) Tabor, who he is buried next to.

Photo credit: Wendy Meyers

John H. Watkins was born and died on March 17, 1929 of unknown causes.  He was the son of Emlis Floyd and Delsia Angeline (nee' Anderson) Watkins. His parents are buried in the Derreberry Cemetery in Cherokee County.

Photo credit: Wendy Meyers

Kathleen Tabor was born on October 9, 1942 and died on January 13, 1946 of diphtheria.  (Note: her death certificate states that she was born in 1941). She was the daughter of Verlin and Louise (nee' Welch) Tabor, who are buried next to her.

Photo credit: Wendy Meyers

Melvon Ray Burnette was born on January 11, 1945, and died on February 6, 1945 of pneumonia. He was the son of Don Melvin and Jessie (nee' Howard) Burnette, who are buried next to him. (Note: His tombstone may contain a misspelling, as Macon County birth records spell his name as 'Melvin'.)

Photo credit: Wendy Meyers

Robert Zane Nelson was born and died April 12th, 1962 of unknown causes. He was the son of John E. and Wanda (nee' Tabor) Nelson, who are buried in the cemetery with him.

Photo credit: Wendy Meyers

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Note to the reader: to reach the Tabor Cemetery, take US 19-74 west from Bryson City and turn left on NC 28 South at the old 'King's Grocery' (Texaco gas station). Drive approximately 5.5 miles and take a left on Brush Creek Road. Approximately 1 mile up the road, it will split, with Marr Creek going straight ahead and Brush Creek going off to the right - stay on Brush Creek. In about 0.3 miles, you'll see a sign for Dan Springs Baptist Church on the right. About 0.1 miles past that, you'll see a low sign for the Tabor Cemetery on the left. Take the left and follow the gravel road about 0.1 mile to the cemetery at the top of a hill.

As always, please reach out with any corrections you might have or other information/pictures you feel could add substance to this article.

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Sources:
Ancestry.com
Burnette family members (information on Melvon Burnette cause of death)
Ed Ammons (information on Robert Zane Nelson's parents)
Kathy and Ryan Bennett (information on Robert Zane Nelson's parents)
Newspapers.com

Spring at the Old Home Place - A Photo Essay

One of my favorite times to visit old home places is in early spring. Flowers are blooming, springs are flowing bountifully, and fields are greening up. I hope you'll enjoy this little sojourn into spring, provided by those who have gone on before us.

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Double daffodils in bloom at the old Birch McHan/Doyle Hampton home place (Needmore).

Fields greening up at the McHan/Hampton home place (Needmore). I can sit for hours on the terrace above the old chimney here (the first picture below is taken from this vantage point), taking in the sounds of the spring and Brush Creek, the sight of the lush green fields below, and the slight smell of the wild onions that grow there. It's a very serene experience.

Crocus growing in a field at the old Freeman Mill (Needmore).

Leah Truett Hunnicutt's forsythia is still blooming beautifully more than 100 years after being planted (Deep Creek).

The spring is overflowing at the McHan/Hampton home place (Needmore).

Japonica (also known as quince) is in full bloom at the Othene Carson home place (Stephenson Branch).

This old apple tree is still hanging on, budding out at the very top (Needmore).

Garlic growing at the Jim Stephenson home place (Stephenson Branch).

This periwinkle was growing below the Old Brush Creek Baptist Church/McHan cemetery (Needmore).

While hiking on an abandoned logging road in the area that once surrounded the now-drowned town of Judson, my mother spotted these daffodils far down the hill below us. Upon investigation, we found that they marked the site of an old cabin. The first picture is the daffodil field, the second picture is of the same site, with the chimney fall in the front and the daffodils in back (Greater Judson area).

All photos by Wendy Meyers.

Old Needmore in Fall

Before I get to today's blog entry, I wanted to share an update on a previous entry. Shortly after posting last month's blog, I was able to get in touch with Larry Stallcup, who is a genealogist extraordinaire for the Stallcup family.  Larry informed me that the picture of Almarine Stallcup that I had located was actually only one half of a picture, and that the individual in the other half was in fact Pansy.  Furthermore, the picture had been taken on Pansy's wedding day.  I was thrilled that Larry generously shared it with me and allowed me to post it on the blog.  You may see the updated picture here.

 

And now onto this week's posting.

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As Thanksgiving is right around the corner and thoughts of autumn seem to disappear the day afterward in favor of Christmas, I wanted to give fall one last salvo.  In October, my middle daughter and I took one of my favorite walks in the county - along the Little Tennessee River in the Needmore area.  In addition to its extraordinary physical beauty, this walk is extremely rich in human history that I have not yet explored in as great a depth as I would like to (but plan to).  This is essentially a photo essay but I will fit tidbits into captions as I am able.  I am indebted to Ed Ammons and David Dehart for sharing their historical knowledge of this beautiful place with me, so that I may pass it along to you.

The Little Tennessee River, viewed from the swinging bridge.

The swinging bridge, taken from the east side of the river.  Swain County resident Bill Burnett
grew up in a home that once stood adjacent to the bridge.

The road (beyond the gate) heading to the Burch McHan (1823-1895)/ (Doyle Hampton (1904 - 1977) place.

Sunlight shines through the fiery leaves of a sourwood tree.



One of several beautiful old fields along the road. 
The Doyle Hampton place sits slightly up the hill in the middle of this picture.

A hand-dovetailed log from a fallen outbuilding.

A bumblebee on one of the ubiquitous gentian plants blooming along the road. 



The chimney at the Doyle Hampton place, which remained standing until not many years ago.



The remains of an old barn at the Doyle Hampton place.

A grand old walnut marks a home site.

The tombstone of little Sarah Davis (01 June 1873 - 05 January 1874) in the original
Brush Creek Baptist Church cemetery.




Thistles in one of the old (still tended) fields along the road.



A rusted plow point harkens back to days when farmers plowed these fields with horses and mules and not tractors.

A maple leaf floats in the river.



A yucca marks an old home place near the confluence of Brush Creek and the river.



The Little Tennessee River, looking upstream. Ed Ammons shared with me a childhood recollection of crossing the river in an old flat-bottomed boat with a kerosene lantern on the way to a prayer meeting at Lon Dehart's.  His dog, Pooch, swam alongside.

For those who are interested, directions are as follows.  Turn left onto Needmore Road just before the junction of US19 (toward the Nantahala Gorge) and NC28 (toward Almond Boat Dock), and drive several miles.  After cresting the hill at the Maple Springs church, the road begins to head downhill toward the river and the parallels it for a way.  It then leaves the river for a brief distance then returns to parallel it.  Just before the road once again begins to head away from the river, you will see an old swinging bridge going across the river on the left.  Park in the small lot here, cross the bridge, and turn right to begin your walk.

I wish each of you a blessed Thanksgiving!

A Tale of Two Slaves (Part 1)



When I returned home to Swain County in the late 90's, my former husband and I purchased a log home at the very end of Licklog Road in the Needmore area.  It was 25 minutes from Bryson City and terribly inconvenient to our two jobs, but we were enchanted with the area.  Upon getting off Needmore Road and heading up Licklog, a gorgeous valley opens up, containing acre upon acre of beautiful pasture and scant houses.  Upon a hill overlooking the valley lies a small cemetery which I have always envisioned as a most peaceful resting spot for its tenants.  Along with several unmarked graves, the names on the stones include that of Breedlove, Ammons, Crisp, Grooms, and Burnett. 

A view up the Licklog Valley
(Source:  Point2 for homegain.com)

But the cemetery also holds the grave of Nathan Dehart, one of the most prominent and early settlers of the Needmore area .  He and his wife, Catherine, were among the founding members of the Brush Creek Baptist Church and eventually owned a tremendous amount of land in the area that later became Swain County.  Ownership of such vast amounts of land would have, by necessity, required help.  Much of their help likely came from their children and other family members, as well as from hired help. However, they also owned slaves.  This article is not meant as a sermon on the evils of slavery, for many of us, including myself, have slaveowners among our ancestors.  It is rather to shed light upon an interesting, but little known portion of Swain County's history (even though these events took place in what was Macon County until the formation of Swain in 1871).

Ruffin Darffin DeHart, and his wife Susan lie interred in the African-American section of the Watkins Cemetery among many of their children and grandchildren.  Their stones are old and crumbling, but their graves are marked - somewhat anomalous among many former slaves.  They were remarkable people, and much light will be shed on them in this series, but in order to appreciate their many accomplishments, it is necessary to take one back to their very beginnings.



Tombstone of Susan Dehart
Watkins Cemetery

Tombstone of Ruffin DeHart
Watkins Cemetery

The first mention of either Ruffin or Susan (that I have found to date) comes in a deed registered in Macon County, dating to November 26th, 1840.  In this deed, one Taylor McNabb sold a Negro girl, 'Suck', who was 8 years old and 'sound in body and health', for $400 (nearly $11,000 in today's currency) to Nathan Dehart.  On June 19th, 1853, Ruffin came to join 'Suck' as Nathan Dehart's property, sold by Elijah Revel for $700 (around $21,000 today).  Ruffin was described as having a deficiency in his hand, which was subject to cholic and pains.  Nevertheless, he was obviously well able to work, and work hard, for the price he commanded.  Ruffin and Suckey must have bonded and married quickly, for sometime around 1854 they had their first child - a son whom they named Henry.



An Appalachian slave cabin
(Source:  The Museum of Appalachia)

The conditions in which this young family would have lived will forever remain unknown.  Slaves in Appalachia typically lived in the same type of mud-chinked log homes in which poor whites resided - small, one room, dirt-floor dwellings that were cold and drafty in the winter.  They would have had little in the way of furniture - probably one bed and a table and chairs or log stools.  Their food would have been the typical mountain fare of the time - beans, cornbread, probably some pork from a hog they raised for the Deharts, perhaps some milk, and whatever else they were able to raise.  It is unclear as to whether or not the Deharts were kind or unkind slaveowners, but it is likely the case that impoverished white settlers in the area resented them (for they took away work opportunities) and treated them poorly. Frederick Law Olmstead, who is best known today for creating the lovely grounds of the Biltmore House, traveled about the mountain south as a newspaper correspondent during slavery's later years and noted this stong anti-Negro sentiment in a short article, which may be read here.

John Dehart, son of Nathan Dehart
(Source:  Swain County Heritage Book)

We shall now return to the Deharts.  Around 1855, Nathan moved the household to the Shooting Creek area of what is now Clay County, and at some point either sold or gifted Ruffin and Suck to his son-in-law, James Allen Shearer. Ruffin and Suckey welcomed a son, Alfred, around 1856, and a daughter, Sarah Jane, in August of 1857.  Their joy over the birth of their daughter was to be short lived.  On June 18th, 1858, the family was torn apart when Ruffin and Suckey were sold by Allen Shearer  to Nathan Dehart's son, John, for $1800 (almost $51,000 today), and returned to the Swain County area, apparently without their sons. 

In the 1860 slave schedule, John is noted as owning 5 slaves:  a 30 year old male, a 27 year old female, a 15 year-old female, a 3 year-old female, and a 6 month old male.  The identity of the 15 year-old girl is unknown, however, it seems likely, based on birthdates that the identities of the others are Ruffin (born circa 1828), Suckey (born circa 1830-1832), and their children Sarah Jane (born in 1857) and Thomas (born in 1860).   The whereabouts of their sons Henry and Alfred are not entirely clear. The 1860 slave schedule shows a 6 year-old boy in the ownership of Nathan Dehart in Cherokee County.  Nathan's will, also drawn up in 1860, contains provision for his 'negro boy, Henson', to go to no one but his children. It seems likely that 'Henson' and Henry were one and the same.  The same slave schedule records that James A Shearer had retained a 5 year old male slave, who may well have been Alfred.

In January of 1863, Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ordered the immediate freeing of all slaves in Confederate-controlled areas.  This was widely disregarded by many slave owners, and not until the passage of the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery, did the remainder gain their freedom.  We do not know when Ruffin and Suckey were freed, and much of what they did in the early years after emancipation are unclear.  We do know that Suckey changed her name to the more dignified 'Susan', and Henry and Alfred returned to live with their family.  The family may have stayed on and worked as tenants for John Dehart for a time, but by 1870 had moved down the Little Tennessee River with their 8 children and had acquired $200 worth of personal property.  They counted among their neighbors the William Crawford and Frank Leach families, and were the only black family in the immediate area.

'The 'Narrows of the Little Tennessee River' circa 1900
(Source:  Senate document 84, published 1902)

Upon the death of a neighbor, Alexander Crisp, in 1871, the Deharts purchased a 100 acre tract from his estate for $12.  Thus began a period of great prosperity for Ruffin and Susan, whose remaining 20+ years of life will be discussed in the next blog entry.

Postscript:  Those interested in reading more about the institution of slavery in the Appalachian mountains might find the following books of interest:

"Appalachians and Race:  The Mountain South from Slavery to Segregation" by John Inscoe
"Slavery in the American Mountain South" by Wilma Dunaway
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Sources:
Ancestry.com:  1860 Slave Schedule and Census Records
Cemeteries of Swain County
Homegain.com:  Point2
Learnnc.com
Macon County Register of Deeds
"Senate Document 84:  Message from the President of the United States Transmitting A Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in Relation to the Forests, Rivers, and Mountains of the Southern Appalachian Region."  Available at: http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Publications/region/8/southern_app/index.htm
Swain County Heritage Book
Will of Nathan Dehart at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SCSPARTA/2001-02/0982542940
Swain County Register of Deeds