Sacred Ground: Chimney Rocks Cemetery
Editor’s Note — Chimney Rocks Cemetery has been the subject of past stories in the Independent Herald. However, as part of the “Sacred Ground” series, we are revisiting every cemetery in Scott County.
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Two murder victims who died in 1872 formed the beginnings of the Chimney Rocks Cemetery in what we now know as the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.
There are a total of 58 cemeteries within the boundaries of the national park. Most of them are small, consisting of only a single grave, or a handful of graves. But some — like Terry Cemetery, Katie Blevins Cemetery and Hattie Blevins Cemetery — are larger. More than simply family cemeteries, they were community burial grounds in the era of human settlement along the Big South Fork River and its tributaries.
Chimney Rocks Cemetery certainly falls among those larger community burial grounds. But, of them all, it is perhaps the most unkempt. Like the Katie Blevins Cemetery near Bandy Creek, and the Terry Cemetery near No Business, Chimney Rocks Cemetery is privately-owned. But, unlike those other two, it is rarely maintained, though descendants of those buried there visit frequently and decorate the graves of their ancestors.
Chimney Rocks Cemetery is also known as Slaven Cemetery, and for good reason. There are at least eight Slavens buried here (several dozen graves are marked with uninscribed field stone and cannot be identified, or are not marked at all), more than any other family except for the Smiths who lived nearby. There are eight Smiths buried here, too. The two families make up exactly half of the verifiable graves at Chimney Rocks.
The Chimney Rocks Cemetery is frequently visited, as evidenced by the worn footpath that winds between the graves. These are mostly visitors to the Big South Fork NRRA, the curious who see the cemetery as a spectacle as much as anything else. And there’s nothing wrong with that. For the stones and epitaphs contained within it help tell the story of the people who defined this land before it was ever a tourist destination.
Angeline Moore
The story of young Orphan Girl Angeline Moore has been told over and over through the years. It’s a shocking story … and a sad one.
Young Angeline was just 15 when she died in early 1872. She was found beaten to death on Huckleberry Ridge on Jan. 6, 1872. If you look today, you won’t find Huckleberry Ridge on any map. But it would’ve been nearby, because her body was discovered on the old Monticello Road, which snaked through the Big South Fork between Huntsville and Kentucky, traveling through the No Business community. The best-guess estimate, based on writings from over the years, would place Huckleberry Ridge just outside the current boundaries of the Big South Fork NRRA, near Station Camp Road.
While the commercial headstone that was placed at Chimney Rocks Cemetery long after Angeline Moore’s death calls her an “Orphan Girl,” newspaper reports from the day indicate that her mother was very much alive and well, living in Kentucky. Some accounts said that the girl was indentured to a family in Huntsville.
The finding of Angeline’s body was sensationalized by newspapers across the region, as was commonplace in that day. One called it “a mountain horror.” Another asked, “Murdered or starved, which? Sad fate of a beautiful girl.” The Knoxville Daily Chronicle described the discovery of her body like this: “The body bore evidences of brutality and inhumanity at the contemplation of which a demon might shudder…her collar bone and one rib were broken. The left eye was smashed 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.”
Angeline Moore’s body was originally buried, then exhumed for an inquest, then buried again at Chimney Rocks. What became of her original headstone after the commercial headstone was placed years later isn’t clear, but it is no longer at the cemetery.
There was never justice for young Angeline. The woman to whom she had supposedly been indentured, Keziah Thompson of Huntsville, was indicted in connection to her death, as was Thompson’s daughter, Sallie Thompson. However, they were acquitted at trial.
(Angeline Moore’s death was the subject of a chapter of “Murders in the Heartland.”)
Dan Pennington
Just six months after Orphan Girl Angeline Moore was found dead and buried at Chimney Rocks Cemetery, another resident of the Station Camp area was murdered and buried there: Daniel Pennington.
Dan Pennington was 26 when he was killed by his brother-in-law on July 10, 1872. He was the husband of Susanna Slaven, who was five months pregnant with their first child.
For reasons that aren’t clear, Pennington wound up in a fight with Susanna’s brother, Elias Meshack Slaven, known to his friends as Shack. Amid the fight, Slaven fired a gun at Pennington. Pennington returned fire, striking Slaven in the shoulder.
Perhaps fearing retribution, and rightfully so, Pennington left his home and hid in the underbrush nearby. It wasn’t long before another of his wife’s brothers, Stuard Riley Slaven, approached Pennington and shot him.
Susanna later testified in court that her husband told her before he died that he saw Stuard Slaven running away after shooting him. Reports from the time indicated that Steward told others, as he packed up his belongings and prepared to flee the Big South Fork region, that there was no need for the law to go after Shack because it was he who had killed Dan Pennington.
Both Meshack and Stuard Slaven were indicted for Pennington’s death, but neither ever stood trial. Another man, Anderson Lewallen, did stand trial, but was acquitted.
Meshack, Steward and Susanna were the children of Absalom Slaven, the grandchildren of Richard Harve Slaven, the first white settler on No Business Creek a few miles down-river from Station Camp. Richard Harve Slaven is buried at Nancy Smith Cemetery. His descendants can also be found at Katie Blevins Cemetery and Hattie Blevins Cemetery.
Four months after Dan Pennington’s death, his son, William Marion Pennington, was born. William left the Big South Fork for Missouri and later settled in California. Stuard Slaven never returned and eventually died in California, while Meshack also left and later died in Missouri.
Susanna Slaven remarried to William Owens, whose family will be featured in a future segment of “Sacred Ground.” When he died, she left the Big South Fork for Mt. Pisgah, Ky., where she died in 1935.
Within just a few years of Dan Pennington’s death, all of the players in the saga had left Station Camp.
The Slaven family
Absalom Slaven, the father of Susanna Pennington Owens, Meshack Slaven, and Steward Slaven, was buried at Chimney Rocks when he did in 1877, at the age of 67. He was the third person buried there; the first to be buried there after Angeline Moore and his son-in-law, Dan Pennington, in 1872. His wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Wood Slaven, died in 1903 and is buried at Chimney Rocks, as well. Absalom and Betty had at least 11 children.
Other members of the Slaven family buried at Chimney Rocks include Absalom’s son John Wesley Slaven (1838-1878) and his wife Mary “Polly” Blevins Slaven (1838-1918), the daughter of Jacob and Catie Blevins who are the namesakes of the Katie Blevins Cemetery at Bandy Creek.
There’s also 10-year-old John William Slaven, who died in October 1884; P.A. (or Pa) Slaven, who died in 1887; and Onva Slaven, who died in 1927.
Ruth Slaven, who died in 1888 at age 20, was transcribed among the graves at Chimney Rock by Robert Bailey in his 1994 book, “Cemeteries of Scott County, Tennessee.” However, Tim West and Sue Posey were unable to locate her stone when transcribing the cemetery in 2012, and the Independent Herald was unable to locate it more recently.
Findagrave lists John “Moccasin” Slaven and his wife, Elizabeth Smith Slaven, as being buried at Chimney Rocks. However, their graves were not transcribed by either Bailey in 1994 or West in 2012, and also have not been located by the IH.
Finally, Bell More Slaven, who died in 1916 at age 28, is believed to be buried at Chimney Rocks. However, a stone cannot be located.
The Smith family
The Smith family was one of the more prominent families to settle the Station Camp area in the 19th century. The patriarch of the family was Anderson Smith (1800-1890), who is buried at Chimney Rocks. Both he and his wife, Sarah “Sally” Slaven (1796-1888), who is also buried at Chimney Rocks, lived long and fruitful lives. Sally Slaven was a daughter of Richard Harve Slaven. They established a farm on Laurel Fork Creek near where it empties into Station Camp Creek a couple of miles west of Chimney Rocks.
Among the members of the Smith family buried in the cemetery with Anderson and Sarah Smith are their sons, Absolom “Ab” Smith (1834-1899) and William Smith (1831-1892).
Also buried at Chimney Rocks is another of Anderson and Sarah’s children, Civil War veteran David Smith (1846-1891) and his wife, Amanda “Mandy” Litton Smith (1853-1932), the daughter of Littleton and Polly Coile Litton. Their son, Preston Smith (1894-1931) is buried there, as well.
Preston married Bettie Smith, the daughter of John J. “Hawk” Smith and Polly Ann Blevins, who lived up-river a few miles near Angel Falls. Her brother was Alford Smith, for whom Alford Smith Road to Angel Falls Overlook trailhead is named. (Bettie survived Preston by many years, dying in 1984, and is buried at Hazel Valley Cemetery in Oneida.)
Preston and Bettie’s oldest son, Floyd, was killed in 1933 at age 17 and is buried at Chimney Rocks. According to his death certificate, he was shot in the back of the head and died instantly.
Another of Anderson and Sally Smith’s children was daughter Catherine Smith Blevins, wife of Jacob Blevins and namesake of the Katie Blevins Cemetery. Polly Blevins Slaven, who is buried at Chimney Rocks, is their granddaughter.
Interestingly: The farms of both Anderson Smith and Absolam Slaven, two men buried at Chimney Rocks, were raided by Confederate guerrillas in 1863 as the precursor to the Duck Shoals Skirmish that left several of the Rebels dead. Both men were widely known as Union supporters during the Civil War.
A tale of tragedy
While some of those buried at Chimney Rocks — like Anderson and Sally Smith — lived very long lives, others’ graves tell tales of tragedy — like young Angeline Moore, Dan Pennington and Floyd Smith.
There’s also another tragedy that is told by the headstones here, and it’s one that played out on many farmsteads throughout the Big South Fork region and beyond in the 1800s: death by childbirth.
Lottie Blevins, the daughter of Harvey and Poppy Litton Blevins, and the granddaughter of John and Elvira Litton who settled the Litton Farm near Bandy Creek, married Claude Crabtree in 1931 at age 19. Five years later, in February 1936, they had their first child: daughter Shirley Faye.
But Lottie died just four days later, presumably from complications of childbirth. She was 36. She was buried at Chimney Rocks, and Claude Crabtree was left alone to raise his daughter. But that September, baby Shirley fell sick and died, too. She was buried a few feet away from her mother at Chimney Rocks, a small lamb adorning her headstone.
Claude Crabtree remarried in 1939 and left Big South Fork Country for Texas. But he never had another child.
Other children buried at Chimney Rocks include three-month old Victoria Blevins, who died in 1905, 14-year-old Sarah Blevins, who died in 1920, and infant Viscal Blevins, who died in 1911. Victoria and Sarah were the daughters of Newton and Mandy Blevins. Viscal was the son of Harvey Blevins and Poppie Litton Blevins, the brother of Lottie Blevins Crabtree.
There are also three baby Burk graves at the cemetery. Their stones do not contain birth or death dates and it is unclear whether they are the children of Emily “Emma” Burke, who was buried at Chimney Rocks after she died in 1926, at age 37. It seems possible that they were, however; according to some sources, Emma died in childbirth. She was the wife of Diance Burke.
Cemetery Inventory
CHIMNEY ROCKS CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.55685, -84.65884
First Burial: 1872
Last Burial: 1936
Burials since Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? No.
Harvey Blevins 1879-1919
Sarah Blevins 1906-1920
Victoria Blevins 1905-1905
Viscal Blevins 1911-1911
Baby Burke N/A-N/A
Baby Burke N/A-N/A
Baby Burke N/A-N/A
Emma S. Burke 1888-1926
Lottie Crabtree 1912-1936
Shirley F. Crabtree 1936-1936
Colorado Hix 1878-1878
Lieuvada Miller 1893-1894
Angeline Moore 1857-1872
Daniel Pennington 1846-1872
Saley Roberds 1884-1897
Absalom Slaven 1810-1877
Bell More Slaven* 1888-1916
Betty Wood Slaven 1812-1903
John W. Slaven 1839-1978
John W. Slaven 1873-1884
Onva Slaven 1906-1927
Pa Slaven 1839-1887
Polly Slaven 1838-1918
Ruth Slaven* 1868-1888
Absolam Smith 1834-1899
Amanda L. Smith 1853-1932
Anderson Smith 1800-1890
David Smith 1846-1891
Floyd Smith 1915-1933
Preston Smith 1894-1932
Sally Smith 1796-1888
William Smith 1831-1892
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project