Shug Baxter and Swift Jenkins' sons

Facebook has a wonderful asset called Vintage Photos of Sevier County, TN and if you have been avoiding Facebook, well, it's worth the hassle of using Facebook, just to see the pictures of yesteryear from all over Sevier County.

Recently, this picture was on the site. Linda Baker Jenkins who I believe is from Roy or Larry Jenkins ("Swift" Jenkins's sons) family put it on there. The date is March 1968 and for those who know the Cove, it was taken at the base of the Williams' Cemetery hill near the driveway.

Pictures of New Salem School and Rocky Flats School

With a tip of the hat to Vintage Photos of Sevier County, TN - a great Facebook page to see lots of old pictures of Sevier County, I present these two pictures for you.

The Rocky Flats School in the late 1800's. I don't know who any of these people are.

New Salem School in Jones Cove in the early 1900's. Verna has this picture and I believe Uncle Walk (Walker Williams) was the teacher who's picture has been cut off in this photo. I'll get a copy and replace this one when I can.

The Baby House

George Ray and Verna Rolen built his little house - the Baby House - sometime during the 1920's.

Edna's Porch

Edna Williams, my great-aunt who I knew as "Aunt Ed", lived on a beautiful piece of land where Dunn's Creek and Yellow Britches come together. Here are a few pictures from her home which fortunately is still in the family.

The house has tremendous family history. Built by Walker Williams in the early 199's and used by Edna to raise her family.

Once upon a time, before air conditioning and television, people built and used porches as extensions of their homes. A generous porch was a place to relax and visit with neighbors and friends. Today it is rare to see anyone even with a porch, much less using one. Aunt Ed had a great porch.

The porch swing on Aunt Edna's porch has provided many a place to relax and enjoy Edna or Kenneth's company when they stopped by. Kenneth was Edna's son who passed away only recently. He is indeed missed by all who knew him.

Updated now, just inside this kitchen door once was a wood cookstove that baked the most wonderful biscuits and other tasty foods. Screen doors serve many purposes besides keeping pesky bugs out, they also let the delicious smells of cooking foods out. If you have you ever smelled cornbread baking in a wood fired oven you won't forget it.

Looking off the creek bank onto Dunn's Creek you have to notice the giant cedar tree growing right at the edge of the bank, stabilizing it with its roots. There is a deep spot to cool of just below this tree.

Now it's purpose is something else; it serves as a shed but once this little building was essential. Everyone had one and they were everywhere. Now most are gone. It's these bits of history still around that remind us of our heritage, our history... of times now long gone but not forgotten.

Enjoying the View

A few years ago, I was fortunate to get to go on a hike with Bobby Farrell and Sam Huff on a beautiful spring day.

Rocky Flats Field

This field in the Rocky Flats is, or once was, owned by Cleophas Sutton. Dunn's Creek's crystal clear mountain flow runs through this property (by the treeline past the field). One side of the Sutton land is full of hemlock trees providing a shady cover for the creek and this side is beautiful pasture that reflects the season's colors.

The Remains of Another Day, Another Time

Not many of the older places remain

This long abandoned Rocky Flats house belonged to Gladys Harrell who has now passed on. Many of the empty old homes are gone; some were torn down, some, like the Rolen log cabin used to film "The Dollmaker" movie, were victims of arson, and some houses were abandoned and ignored until they rotted and fell in on themselves. This house has remained. Even though the house has been empty as long as I can remember it being there, the house's tin roof looks to be in amazingly good shape rust-wise.

New Salem Baptist Church

New Salem calls everyone to come worship with its bell. The rich sound resonates all through the Cove every Sunday and Wednesday. Generations have enjoyed the sound of the church's bell.

New Salem is a Jones Cove landmark.

Shultz Grove Church

Williams Cemetery

These two views from Williams Cemetery are among the most beautiful anywhere and they reflect the peacefulness found on this hilltop that holds the bodies of so many of our beloved family members.

The flag proudly flies above some of the older gravestones.

Sallie and Carroll Williams

Nan's 100th Birthday

Verna Mae Williams Rolen was the oldest of all her brothers and sisters when she died. And probably the healthiest of all them, throughout her whole life. She died at 102 years of age in 2006.

She had some beautiful cakes, homemade for her 100th birthday by Tim Baxter's mother-in-law (forgive my memory lapse). These cakes were among the best crafted, most beautiful and delicious cakes I've ever seen or sampled.

Bobby and Verna, son and mother, were a good pair together.

Nan and Linda Baxter are pictured here. Our Nan had many who loved her; even the spouses of her descendants just naturally considered her "theirs" and were loved as if they were her's. She was one-in-a-million. We were lucky to have her... for all those precious years.

Revolutionary War Grants

I don't remember where I caught this piece of information but I find it interesting. My grandmother told me one of her great- or great-great-grandfathers owned 5000 acres, more or less, of land. That was all I remember about the conversation. The following may help gather insight about just where that 5000 acres came from.

Continental soldiers (or their heirs) qualified for acreage as follow:
privates 640 acres;
noncommissioned officers 1,000 acres;
subaltern 2,560 acres;
captain 3,840 acres;
major 4,800 acres;
lieutenant colonel 5,640;
lieutenant colonel commandant 7,200 acres;
colonel 7,200 acres;
brigadier 12,000 acres;
chaplain 7,200 acres;
surgeon 4,800 acres;
and surgeon's mate 2,560 acres.

In 1783 an act reduced the amount of land according to length of service and allowed privates 225 acres for two years’ service or 274 acres for three years’ service. Pruitt, A.B. Glasgow Land Fraud Papers 1783-1800: North Carolina Revolutionary War Bounty Land in Tennessee (Albert Bruce Pruitt: n.p., 1988).

The History of Jones Cove by Sam Huff

Dunn's Creek at Pearl Valley Road

permission given by Sam Huff, 2008

Jones Cove was settled in the late 1780’s by Anglo-Saxon people
migrating west across the Allegheny and Appalachian Mountains.
Early settlers from Virginia discovered a passageway
across English Mountain into the Jones Cove valley.
It’s believed the Jones family came from Berkley County, Virginia.
Stephen Jones was killed by Indians
and is buried near New Salem Baptist Church.
Some of the early settlers were
McMahans, Jones, Larges, Huffs, Williams, Howards, Rolens....
Slaves were owned by the large landowners.

Jones Cove had its own post office,
but it was discontinued when rural delivery was established in 1907.
Those serving as postmasters were Samuel Rolen,
Frank Templin, Robert McMahan, Joseph Huff and Carroll Williams.

New Salem Baptist Church, with 51 members, was organized in 1845 in an old log school house. There were some black members.
A new building was dedicated in May, 1914.
On April 19, 1922, New Salem Baptist Church
was destroyed by a violent storm,
but was soon rebuilt.

Jones Cove School has had three locations:

• The first was a log house near Dave Rolen’s home.
  
• The second school was built on the Carroll Williams farm and consisted of the consolidation of Jones Cove, Feedwell (located on the Henry Williams farm) and Stinnett Hill (located on the Stinnett farm), making a new three room school.
• The third was a block building at the present site, which was later replaced by the present building.

Much progress has been made and
Jones Cove is now a fast growing community.

Rocky Top

Here it is. Click here to hear "Rocky Top" and don't forget to sing along!!

Homeplaces: Carroll & Sallie Williams

Carroll, Sallie, baby Verna

Carroll, Sallie, baby Verna
Originally uploaded by rolenrock2

This is a really big portrait. The original was hand-colored with pastels and is still in good shape. It was digitized in 2006 to copy for other family members.

Williams Family Portrait 1903

Williams Family Portrait 1903
Originally uploaded by rolenrock2

The family outside their home.

Henry Town Road

antique dolls

the baptizin' hole on Sunday afternoon

Fred McMahan, "Pinky" Rolen and Verlin "Shug" Baxter are among those being baptized by New Salem pastor, Melvin Carr. So many of us were baptized here in Dunn's Creek in front of Jane Huff's house that the whole Cove knew where the "baptizin' hole" was. I, too, was baptized in the "baptizin' hole."

Arlie Williams

Arlie retired from the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta.
He died in 1972 or 1973 from prostate cancer.
Arlie never married and had no children of his own. I remember him being very kind, gentle and generous.
I'd like to know more details about him, his life.... What did he do at the prison? When did he go to work there? How did he get the job? The who, what, where, when, hows of his life....

Arlie and Verna

Arlie Williams and Verna Mae Williams Rolen need no introduction to anyone whoever met either one of them. This picture captures them very well.

Bobby Farrell

Kenneth Williams with Dolly

Dolly Parton is one of Sevier County's favorite daughters and must be included in any Sevier County mention....

Kenneth worked at Dollywood for quite a few years.

Who? What? When?

We do know where this was taken: New Salem Baptist Church has very distinctive windows. I do not recognize any of the people in the group. I am going to continue trying to identify as many of them as possible. Do you recognize any of them?

A Meeting of Different Generations

Sisters Verna Williams Rolen and Edna Williams Williams visit with Verna's great-granddaughter Allison in 1977.

George Ray and Amanda

Ceborn Hartsell

Ceborn Hartsell

He was married to George Ray's sister, Francis.

Lonnie Paul Hartsell, Ceborn's son, allowed me to photograph the picture that was taken when Ceborn was playing baseball on a minor league team that was affiliated with the Cleveland Indian.

I've more information (somewhere) about this photo and Ceborn's impressive baseball era; when I find it, I'll post it. :)

evening's light

Dunn's Creek

Sevier County Library: Old photos

I know you've seen the Blaine Large pictures I've linked to in previous posts. He gave the Library in Sevierville permission to include his photos in their historical archives. I didn't know he had died until starting this site, so I never got the chance to talk to him about his collection. Access to his pictures, as well as the pictures provided by all other contributors, is available online.

If you have old one-of-a-kind pictures please consider letting me post them on this site for others to have and enjoy. A good digital picture of your photo can work; send me a copy made on a copier - don't let the original picture out of your hands; or have your picture digitized at any photography business and share it via an online photo website like Kodak, flickr, shutterfly, etc... and let others enjoy it too. Another idea is to allow the Sevier County Public Library to use your photograph: email me (rolenrock2@gmail.com) if you have trouble contacting them.

The Internet has been a blessing to so many, in so many ways and I want this Jones Cove site to be a blessing to all our people.

There is this book I found...

...that is a wonderful resource on Sevier County's history and families from there. Two of the three previous posts were taken from it. This thick volume is well worth the price just for the pictures in it (I don't know what the cost is). The articles were written by local people. There is an excellent article about George Ray written by cousin Terry Baxter Price in it.

Here is the info on it if you are interested:

Sevier County, Tennessee and Its Heritage
1994
authored by the Sevier County Heritage Book Committee and Don Mills, Inc. representing Walsworth Publishing Company, Inc.

LC#94-61944

Don Mills, Inc.
P.O. Box 34
Waynesville, N.C. 28786

704.452.7600
704.452.7690 FAX

Anna McMahan Rolen

Daughter of Archibald McMahan, wife of Joab Rolen, Anna lived from the early 1800's until 1900.

Joab Rolen

George Rolen

Married to Susie Rolen.

He and his wife, Susie, lived in a log cabin beside Dunn's Creek. I think their cabin and homestead was near the place we've known as the "Mill Pond" which was between Otha Thomas' bridge and Ceborn Hartsell's modern-day homes.
Anyone with more info on George and Susie?
I've always marveled at just how much George reminds me of more than a few of his descendants.

Susie Rolen

Sanders McMahan

McMahan

My family tree may not branch out as much as it ought to. Two of my great-grandmothers had the last name of McMahan and I expected them to be related. There were more surprises in store for me.

1. Amanda Melsini McMahan Rolen who married David Crockett Rolen is one of my paternal great-grandmothers. I am also a descendant of Archibald McMahan (who came over from Ireland or Scotland) through at least two ways. Once through great-grandmother Amanda Melsini and also through her husband David Crockett's ancestors as he is a descendant of Joab Rolen. Joab married Archibald's daughter after Archibald raised him. I'll post later about how Joab ended up orphaned at 4 years of age on the banks of Cosby Creek.

2. Ruth Almeda McMahan who married M.C. "Bruff" Derrick was one of my maternal great-grandmothers. Her father was David McMahan and I have not been able to find any information on him... but, I'd imagine he might also be a descendant of Archibald McMahan. I believe he was because my Uncle Fred McMahan (he married Imogene Rolen - this is another intermarriage of McMahan and Rolen) visited the Almeda/Bruff home and openly recognized his kinship with Almeda. Unfortunately, Fred has died and I did not ask about the kinship while I had the time and opportunity.

Ask while there is someone to ask! Don't let information die with the generations. People have told stories as long as we've had language. The stories helped people pass along wisdom, sometimes they were just anecdotes remembering beloved relatives lives.

If I am correct about my family tree, which should fork with each line of generations, I've been given me a double helping of McMahan blood, without considering the Ruth Almeda/David McMahan line which gives me a triple shot of Scots-Irish McMahan bloodline!

Here's more on "the elder" Archibald McMahan:
Archibald, who was thought to be born in Ireland maybe migrated to Pennsylvania about 1762 at the age of 16. He lived in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. He applied for Revolutionary War pension at the age of 103 and some sources say he lived to 110. t is believed Archibald McMahan left his home in Ireland and came to America about 1746 to seek his fortune in the wilderness of the new world. Archibald McMahan, then 16 years of age, landed in either the state of Virginia or North Carolina.
"His great grandson Sanders McMahan said "Archibald 'the elder' was born in Scotland and he went to Ireland, met Mary McNulty and married there, then came to America through port of Washington North Carolina and settle Buncombe County, North Carolina.
There is debate over Archibald's given name. Some believe Archibald and Redmond are one in the same, but both names have not been found to be used together. Other researchers believe they were brothers.
During Archibald's lifetime he accumulated quite a bit of wealth and at the time of his death he owned seventeen slaves." This quoted information comes from this smokykin link - I thank my newly discovered distant cousin, David L. Beckwith for the information.

There is an extensively researched McMahan family history at this link.

Here is a site listing all the McMahan family researchers. According to this site there are 12 generations of 5,167 known descendants (7986 if you include spouses) of Archibald "Redmond" McMahan - this is only a partial listing.

sometimes a cloud is just a cloud

and sometimes a cloud is a mask filtering weak January Jones Cove sunlight.

WWII Jenkins girls

Johnny and Caldonia Jenkins had two daughters, Geneva and Rosa, who volunteered for the U.S. Army as registered nurses in World War II. Lt. Geneva Jenkins and Lt. Rosa Jenkins both served in the Pacific Theatre of Operations. Lt. Rosa’s plane took off from Mindanao just before the fall of Bataan to Japan in 1942. On May 10, 1942, Lt. Geneva’s seaplane, with 6 nurses on board, hit a rock on take off and everyone fell into the hands of the Japanese. After 3 months at Mindanao, Lt. Geneva was taken by a Japanese freighter to Santo Tomas where she was until General MacArthur’s liberators stormed the stockade in February of ‘45.
Lt. Geneva said the Japanese fed them cornmeal mush and rice; sometimes there was nothing at all. They had to have ration tickets for each meal. She reported she lost from 134 pounds to 100 pounds when liberated. “...I didn’t see any Japanese atrocities, but I heard plenty about them. While interned, I was treated all right by the Japanese. I worked 4 hours a day as a nurse and helped care for wounded American soldiers and civilians during the manila fighting,” said Lt. Geneva.
They were welcomed back home at the courthouse on March 6, 1945. A reception was held for them that was attended by their parents and local dignitaries.

compiled from article written by Mary E. Trotter, R.N. in the book:
Sevier County, Tennessee and Its Heritage
1994 Walsworth Publishing Company, Inc
Sevier County Heritage Book Committee and Don Mills, Inc.

In my opinion: Anyone interested in history of Sevier County, researchers of local genealogy or family trees would enjoy having a copy of this huge volume full of
If you’d like a copy of the book, contact:
Don Mills, Inc.
P.O. Box 34
Waynesville, N.C. 28786

704.452.7600 704.452.7690 FAX

Who is at Henrytown School?

I do not know who this is but I think it is one of George Ray & Vernie's daughters. Do you recognize her? I would like to put a name to this person.