Oscar Blevins
Oscar Blevins (1915-1988) was the owner of the Oscar Blevins Farm near Bandy Creek in what is now the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.
See Also: Noteworthy Settlers of the Big South Fork Region
Biography
Oscar Blevins was born Oct. 12, 1915. He was the son of John Blevins and Louisa Slaven. His father was the great-grandson of Jonathan Blevins Jr., and his mother was the great-granddaughter of Richard Harve Slaven. Jonathan Blevins and Richard Slaven were two of the first white settlers in what is now the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. (Lineage: John Blevins < Jacob Blevins < Jacob Blevins < Jonathan Blevins Jr., and Louisa Slaven Blevins < Nimrod Slaven < Elisha Slaven < Richard Harve Slaven.)
Blevins married Martha Ermon Smith (1911-1994) in 1939, when he was 24 and she was 28. They had a child that died in infancy in 1941, and a second son named Lawrence, who lives in Allardt, Tenn.
Life & Times
Oscar Blevins is best-known for owning the historic Oscar Blevins Farm near Bandy Creek in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. It is one of four homesteads that have been kept intact by the National Park Service, along with the nearby Lora Blevins Farm, the John Litton Farm, and Charit Creek Lodge.
The Blevins Farm was a 24-acre landscape consisting of fields and pasture surrounded by split rail fences, a cabin, a large barn, a modern wood-frame house, and various outbuildings. It was located on what was once the main road through the Bandy Creek area.
The Blevins Farm dates back to 1879. The original cabin was built by John “Jack” Blevins, who was an uncle to Oscar Blevins. It was a story-and-a-half, double-pen log home with a large stone fireplace on one end.
Oscar Blevins purchased the farm in the mid 20th century. In the 1950s he added a wood frame house and outbuilding. The original log home was used as a barn, and a wooden addition was built onto its south side.
In the 1960s, Oscar Blevins built the large, two-story wood frame barn on the farm.
In the 1970s, Blevins began constructing a root cellar on the farm. However, he stopped when he learned that the federal government would be purchasing his land for the national park. The partial root cellar can be seen just south of the farm on the old road trace.
The federal government purchased the farm in 1980, and Blevins and his wife moved from the property and settled in Jamestown, Tenn.
Death
Oscar Blevins died in 1988 at the age of 72 and was buried at Katie Blevins Cemetery near the farm. Martha died in 1994 and was buried beside him.
There have been stories written through the years claiming that the Oscar Blevins Farm is haunted by Oscar himself. Understandably, family members resent those stories.
From “Haunted Hikes”:
“According to NPS cultural historian Tom Des Jean, more than one ranger reported getting the “willies” while at Oscar’s farm. One hot summer evening, a ranger was unsaddling a horse inside the corral behind the barn when his hair stood up on end. Someone was watching him. The ranger looked behind him. Just outside the barn stood an old fellow wearing bib overalls and a black slouch hat. The ranger hailed the man in the overalls and continued to unsaddle his horse. Then he carried the saddle to the barn so that he could chat with the elderly park visitor when he was done. But in the time it took the ranger to set the saddle down and come out of the barn, the old man had vanished.
“The old man with the slouch hat appeared again sometime in the early 1990’s. Early one morning, the Bandy Creek wrangler went to Oscar’s farm to pick up a horse and load it into a trailer. As the wrangler led the horse out of the barn, the horse stopped at the barn door and reared back. This behavior was out of character for this normally docile mare. Coaxing the horse with encouraging words, the wrangler pulled on the halter, but the mare absolutely refused to cross the threshold of the barn door. Suddenly the wrangler’s scalp began to prickle. Feeling a presence, the wrangler looked over his shoulder. Standing not more than 30 feet from the doorway of the Blevins cabin was an old man wearing bib overalls and a slouch hat.”
Legacy
The Oscar Blevins Farm is located on the Oscar Blevins Farm Loop, a 3.5-mile hiking trail that begins and ends at Bandy Creek.