After spending many years upon this spinning ball called earth, we come to realize that time passes quickly and the body begins to go south.  We also look around us and discover that, alas, we are the “old folks.”  With this in mind, we place before you the following statements so that you, too, can determine if you are an official “Old Timer.”

You are a Gatlinburg Old Timer if you can remember:  When Miss Marjory Chalmers was the school nurse; Ogle’s store sold anything you wanted; the Gatlinburg Inn was new; the Mountain View Hotel opened its doors as the first hotel in Gatlinburg; Evan’s Chapel No. 1 and the Bridge School were in operation (located near where the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Headquarters building is located now); all the children were afraid of water dogs; if you wanted a drink of cold milk. you went to the spring house; the law was our constable Isaac Eslinger; Arthur Ogle did not drive his taxi on Saturday afternoons because he cut customers hair; The First Baptist Church was a white frame building located on the corner of Baskins’ Creek and Parkway.  Wiley Oakley was the Roaming Man of the Mountains; Crocket Maples carried the mail by horse-back; Tubbies Barn on Airport Road.   

You are an Old Timer in Pitman Center if you can remember:  Dr. Robert F. Thomas was you doctor; Pittman Center School’s mascot was the eagle; Walter Blalock and Arnold “Tubby” McMahan had a saw mill; bulger wagons; going for a swim in the river at recess; Emert Cardwell ran the grist mill; capturing silversides to go fishing; Wilburn Cowden teaching woodcarving; the Jeep Angel.

You are a Pigeon Forge Old Timer if you can remember:  The First Baptist Church was located on the hill beside the cemetery; the road through town was a small dirt road; the only buildings were the “Old Mill,” Butler Brothers General Store,  and Stott Brothers General Store; the elephant in the mill pond; corn and wheat fields everywhere; the hack; the rail road ran through town to McCookville; the Pigeon Forge Bottling Company; Fort Wear Game Park; the Pigeon Forge Canning Factory.

You are an Old Timer in Sevierville if you can remember:  The railroad “turn-a-round;”  Dr. Z. D. Massey; Yarberry’s Hospital; Dr. Broady’s Clinic; Sevierville being flooded; the K. S. & E. railroad being called the Knoxville Slow and Easy; The Rawlings family helping to establish a library; Rawlings Furniture Store; James H. Atchley opening a funeral home;  the Sevierville Electric System was a generating plant at the Beason Dam owned by Dr. J. Victor Henderson; Cy Thurman’s Garage; Isenberg’s Ford; Dick Allen’s restaurant featuring beef stew; Red’s hamburgers; the pool hall on Bruce Street; Bashor’s Florist; Conley Marshalls’s cattle barn; the Park and Pines theaters; the ice house; West Main Street was called Chinatown; Murphy College.

As a dear friend once reminded me, “You’ll cry because time is passing so fast; and you will eventually lose someone you love.  So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you’ve never been hurt before.  Don’t be afraid that your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.”  It is good to be an “Old Timer” no matter where you are from.

In this busy world we live in we hardly have time to telephone each other for a nice long chat.  E-mail has become the normal, fast way of communication.  The result is that no one has the desire to become close or make attachments to another person.   In times past, neighbor visited neighbor.  They would take the time to bring the children to play and to have a cup of coffee.  At these visits when all the recent events were discussed, old events were remembered.  During these discussions of yesteryear, it was not necessary to say every word as your friend knew what the next word would be.  It is with this thought in mind that we submit the following poem:

GRANNY’S SEEDS

I found them there.

In Granny’s old dresser.   In a dusty shoe box.  The future wrapped in pieces of paper, old rags, and in jars with snuff in them.  Seeds of tomorrow.  But, O, what a past.

The Cow Cumber (cucumber) seeds.

Aunt Molly gathered their ancestors.  Did not notice the copperhead hiding under the leaves.  Its head flashed.  Sinking poison fangs into her ankle.  They placed a tourniquet on it, and left it for hours.  She begged them to loosen it.  They feared her death.  She said, “Death would be better.”  They untied it.  She lived to be 75.

The Maze (corn) seeds.

Nancy was pounding the seeds to make bread.  A neighbor’s boy came running.  “The soldiers have come to take us,” he said.  She took a poke, placed the cornmeal and the corn she had in it, grabbed her baby, and ran for the mountains.  They would not take her family west.  Tears would be shed on that road, and she wanted no part of it.

The Mustard seeds.

They tasted good after a long winter of dried beans and fat back.  Caldonia’s spirit was refreshed.  Tonight’s meal with her 20 children would be fresh greens, fodder beans, cornbread, and milk from the spring house.  It would not be hard to fix the meal.  She had plenty of help.

The Red Runner Beans.

Jane was gathering some to make fodder beans for the winter.  Will this war between the Democrats and the Republicans (Civil War) never be over?  They came then.  “David died of fever at Gallatin, Tennessee,” they told her.  All she could think of was to pick those beans.  She took them to the house, set down and cried.

We planted them.

The seed of the past would nourish our bodies and souls.  The old stories would be told as we worked in the garden.  In winter, when we took the summer harvest down from the shelf, we remember.  We speak with thanks at the beginning of the meal, “Thank you God for this thy bounty and for helping us watch under the cow cumber vines.

This poem was written by Theresa Williams.  It contains information obtained from family get-to-gathers, and talks with grandparents.

During the next few weeks you will have the opportunity to gather with friends and family.  We urge you to make it a quiet time.  Let your home be filled with the laughter, and by all means, bring up the old stories.  Only by remembering, can we come to the knowledge of just how thankful we should be.

Theresa Williams, Genealogist

The following is a listing of the older schools in Sevier County, Tennessee.  This listing was compiled by Olene Large Cagle many years ago.  It was updated in 2008 by Glenn Cardwell and D. Tim Fisher.  We need information (memories, pictures, location, grade cards, etc.) on these schools.  If you know of a school that is not listed here please call us at 908-7988.  Thank you, Theresa Williams.

Ballard’s School                                                                

Banner School                                                                   

Baskin’s School                                                               

Belmont School                                                          

Benson School                                            

Bethel School

Beech Grove School

Beech Springs School

Benson School

Big Ridge or Old Ridge School

Birds School

Black Ankle School

Black Gum Gap School

Blowing Cave School

Bluff Mountain School

Bracken’s School

Bridge School

Boyd’s Creek Academy

Caney

Cartertown

Cates Cross Road

Catlett’s School

Catlettsburg School

Caton’s Chapel

Cedar Bluff

Chinquapin School

Clarks School

Copeland School

Cowan School

Covenant School

Crockettsville School

Crowson School

Cummings School

Cusack School

Cynthiana School

Douglas School

Dripping Springs School

Dudley Creek School

DuPont School

Elkmont School

Emert’s Cove School

Evan’s Chapel School

Fairgarden School

Fairview School

Flea Hill School

Fighting Creek School

Forks of River School

Fox’s School

Frame School

French Broad Academy

Free School

Gist Creek School

Glades School

Gatlinburg School

Gatlinburg Pittman High School

Granny College

Graves School

Greenbrier (Little Greenbrier School)

Greenbrier (Big Greenbrier School)

Gum Stand School

Harrisburg School

Harrison – Chilhowee Baptist Academy

Henry School (Located in Boyd’s Creek area)

Henry’s Cross Roads School

Higgins Creek

Highland View

Indian Creek

Island View School

J. L. School

Jones Chapel School or Jones Academy

Jones Coves School

Jones Cove Elementary

Juniper School

Kellum School

Kings Academy

Knights School

Knob Creek School

Kodak School

Laurel School (Near Melvin Carr’s home)

Laurel School (in Gatlinburg)

Laurel School (Big Greenbrier)

Levering School

Little Cove

Locust Ridge School

Long Springs School

Lynn Camp

McCookville School

McMahan School (Pearls Valley Area – burnt)

McMahan School (Second school built after first one burnt)

Maples School House

Meigs Mountain School

Middle Creek School

Midway School

Mill Creek School

Millican School

Mortar Branch School

Mountain View School

Montgomery Christian Academy

Murphy College

Nancy Academy

New Albany School

New Center School

New Era

North View Primary and Middle Schools

Oak City School

Oak Grove School

Oldham Creek School

Owl College

Payne’s Temple School

Paw Paw Hollow

Pi Beta Phi School

Pigeon Forge Primary

Pigeon Forge High

Pine Grove School or Piney School House

Piney School

Pittman Center Elementary

Pittman Center High

Park Road School

Park Settlement

Pleasant View School

Republican School

Richardson Cove

Reeds School House

Ridge Road School

Roaring Fork Church School

Roberts School House

Roseville Mission School

Rocky Flats School

Rocky Mountain School

Ricky Springs Academy

Sevierville Elementary

Sevierville Primary

Sevierville High

Seymour School

Seymour High School

Shady Grove School

Shady School 12

Shady School 13

Shaw’s Bluff School

Sheep Pen Elementary

Shiloh School

Sims School

Smith’s School

Smokey Mountain Academy

Snyder School

Camp School

Sockless School

Stinnett School

Sugerlands Schools

Sunset Gap Mission School

Temple School

Trinity School

Underwood School

Union Academy

Union School

Union Valley School

Walnut Grove School

Wears Valley School

Wearwood Academy

Webb’s Creek School

Whites Community School

Whittles School House

Williamsburg School

Zion Hill School

It is always nice to go home. Home is the place where one feels safe and has refuge from a troubled world. We give our homes names. In naming our homes, they take on a personality. With this in mind, let’s visit some of our neighbors in their homes.

As you go four miles out Highway 321 from Gatlinburg, near the top of the big hill, on your right, you will see a little round mountain. This mountain is called Round Top. Near the base of this mountain is a place called the Monkey Den. When Monroe Ownby first came to this area to make his home, he looked at all the tangle of grapevines and thick undergrowth and said, “This place seems only fit for a den of monkeys!” The remains of a chimney is all that indicates the homestead of Mr. Ownby.

This Round top is not to be confused with the Round Top in Wears Cove, or the Round Top near the Tennessee, North Carolina border near Clingmans Dome. Round Top seems to be a name we give any round-shaped mountain in the neck of the woods in which we live. We do not stop to consider that our neighbor over the next ridge may have their very own Round Top.

Panther Creek (Panther Den, Panther Branch or Panther Gap) is also a popular name in this area. Many stories have been told about hearing the call of a panther, which is said to sound like a woman screaming in terror. Every family has a story to tell of how a panther stalked a member of their family through the woods. The individual was delivered from the clutches of death– either reaching a safe haven, or by dropping a fish along the path to escape. Every child was warned not go outside alone for fear of being dragged away by a panther. Somewhere in time, a child had been dragged off through the woods by a panther, never to be seen again. It is said the panther was hunted to extermination here in Sevier County. Yet, sightings of panthers still make their rounds in local communities.

In Gatlinburg, as you go up Ski Mountain Road, the creek that comes from this mountain is now called Holly Branch. Old timers know this area as Holly Butt Mountain and Holly Butt Branch. Aunt Lydia Whaley made her home on the slope of this mountain, and being a devout Christian, she disapproved of the name. She preferred the name Holy Branch. Aunt Lydia made baskets, was an herb doctor, and birthed several babies. She could also quote the Bible from cover to cover. She believed that every bit of our mountains was made by the hand of God, therefore the name HOLY Branch.

Located near Mount Le Conte is an area called Huggins Hell. It is said a man by the name of Huggins decided he would find his way through a seemingly impenetrable area overgrown with rhododendron and mountain laurel. He was discouraged from doing so by the men folk who swore he would come face to face with a bear, or be bitten by a poisonous snake and die. To which Mr. Huggins replied, “I’m determined to go through it–or hell itself.” Since the gentleman was never seen again, folks believe he is probable still trudging through the underworld.

Even though your piece of paradise is located on Monkeys Den, Panther Creek, Holly Butt, or Round Top you must agree; there is no place like home in Sevier County, Tennessee!

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I have been dragged from my “set ways” into using a computer, and now I am blogging.  Quite an adventure for an “old maid” don’t you think?

It is my desire to fill these pages with genealogy, and Sevier County’s history.  That is where you come in.  Sevier county, Tennessee is a big county with lots of places and interesting facts hidden around every bend.  Don’t you think everyone should know those facts?  Let’s get started.  One, two, three–blog.