Angeline Moore
Angeline Moore (~1857 – Jan. 6, 1872) was an indentured servant who was found dead in the Station Camp area in January 1872. She was the first person buried at Chimney Rocks Cemetery in what is now the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.
Biography
Almost nothing is known about the origin of Angeline Moore. Multiple newspaper reports at the time of her death reported that she was around 16 years old. The Knoxville Daily Chronicle reported on Jan. 28, 1872, that Moore had been bound to Keziah Thompson of Huntsville for two years prior to her death.
Although it is traditionally assumed that Moore was an orphan, some reports indicated that her mother lived in Kentucky. The Knoxville Daily Chronicle reported: “The girl’s mother, who resides in Kentucky, arrived here yesterday. Her grief at the tragic fate of her daughter is heartrending.”
Kristy Slaven, a retired Big South Fork NRRA ranger, related that she was once told by a caretaker of the Chimney Rocks Cemetery that Moore was an orphan from Oklahoma who had been sent to Scott County by train and bound to Thompson.
Moore was listed in the 1870 census as a 13-year-old girl living in Scott County. According to the census record, she was born in North Carolina, and her occupation was “domestic servant.” However, she was not living with Keziah Thompson in 1870. Instead, she lived with America Adkins. Also living in the home were 29-year-old Malinda Newport and her four-year-old daughter, Julia Newport. Malinda Newport’s occupation was also listed as “domestic servant.” By 1880, Malinda and Julia were living with James Taylor in Loudon, Tenn. Taylor was 23 years older than Newport. They were eventually married.
America Adkins was the widow of George Adkins of the Rock House community east of Huntsville. There is no obvious relationship between America Adkins and Keziah Thompson.
Death
Moore’s body was discovered on the old Monticello Road near the Station Camp community in January 1872. Her headstone at Chimney Rocks Cemetery states that she died on Jan. 6, 1872. However, the commercial stone was placed years after her death.
News reports indicated that Moore was found on Huckleberry Ridge, a place name that does not appear on topographical maps or modern maps. Writing for the Scott County News in February 1952, historian A.C. Terry wrote that Moore’s body was discovered “three miles west” of where Orlena O’Neal lived at that time. The O’Neal family lived along Station Camp Road just outside the Big South Fork NRRA boundary.
Although newspaper accounts at the time wrote of horrific injuries, newspapers of that day were prone to exaggeration, and there was initially some question as to whether Moore was murdered or froze to death. She was buried at what would become the Chimney Rocks Cemetery, also called Slaven Cemetery, and was the first person buried there.
The Knoxville Daily Chronicle reported: “The body bore evidences of brutality and inhumanity at the contemplation of which a demon might shudder. The affair has caused intense excitement. When found, the body was on a small path near the road. Her collar bone and one rib were broken. The left eye was mashed in, apparently by a severe blow, and the entire body, most horribly mutilated, bore witness to refined cruelty, which is at once sickening and a burning shame to advanced civilization.”
The Alexandria Gazette reported: “When the body was discovered in a mountain detile, nearly fourteen miles beyond Huntsville, it presented a horrible appearance. One eye was mashed in, the collar bone dislocated, and several ribs broken, and bruises innumerable bore evidence of the most inhuman treatment. It was not at first recognized and was buried by the finders.”
Investigation
Her body was later exhumed, and an inquest ruled her death a homicide. However, there were conflicting reports about how she died. The Knoxville Daily Chronicle reported: “Some weeks since, it is said, she was driven from Mrs. Thompson’s by harsh treatment, since which time she has been wandering through the mountains homeless, friendless, freezing and starving.”
The Alexandria Gazette reported: “It was rumored that the girl had been subjected to severe and cruel treatment, so inhuman that she was not given necessary clothing and shelter and in consequence had her fingers and toes badly frozen.”
Historian A.C. Terry wrote in the Scott County News in February 1952: ” It was never fully explained how she happened to be where she was found or the cause of her death. Tradition says he was not wanted in the widows home and that the widow was seen passing the Foster Mill in the night riding her grey horse with the girl. At that time there was a settlement along the river and it is thought that the widow thought she would find her way to the settlement from where she was left. The cause of her death was never solved. At that time the woods was full of wild animals, the widow’s dog was found guarding the girl’s body when she was found.”
Keziah Thompson, a resident of Huntsville who live at what is now called John Hall Flats, was indicted by a grand jury and charged with second-degree murder. Thompson’s daughter, Sally Thompson (who later married John Hall) was also indicted. The women were acquitted at trial.
There was considerable speculation about the motive. The Alexandria Gazette reported: “The only motive that is given by the neighbors as the possible reason for the murder of Angeline Moore, by Mrs. Thompson and her daughters, is that some property held by them would in a short time, have reverted to the girl, and they, perhaps, wished to avoid the necessity of parting with it.” That lines up with the story told by Slaven, which is that Moore was set to receive some money and had told others that she would leave the Thompson home when she received it because she had been mistreated. However, she was found dead at about the time the money was supposed to arrive.
Mystery
Angeline Moore does not appear in the 1860 census. The only known government record of her is the 1870 census, when she was a domestic servant in the Huntsville household of America Adkins at the age of 13.
It is not clear when she arrived in Adkins’ home (she was not living there when the 1860 census was taken), or how she wound up in Keziah Thompson’s home. America Adkins, who was 72 years old when the 1870 census was taken, appears to have died between 1870 and 1880 and it is possible that Angeline was transferred to the Thompson home upon Adkins’ death. However, there is no burial record of America Adkins or her husband, George Adkins, in Scott County.
George Adkins (~1792-~1869) was born into a Native American family in North Carolina, the son of Henry Adkins and Jemima Green Cloud. America Adkins was born America Dickinson, but her parents are not known.
George Adkins and several of his brothers moved to present-day Scott County. One of those brothers was John Stanton Adkins, whose son, Sterling Adkins, was a prolific preacher who founded Baptist churches at Smokey Creek and Jellico Creek.
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