Sacred Ground: Elijah Smith Grave
Editor’s Note — The Elijah Smith gravesite was the subject of a previous story in the Independent Herald. However, to complete the record of Scott County’s cemeteries, we are revisiting each cemetery in the county as part of the “Sacred Ground” series.
Scattered throughout the 125,000 acres of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area are several cemeteries — usually a single grave, but sometimes half a dozen or more — that are located off the beaten path, with no marked road or trail leading to them.
Stumbling upon a gravesite when you’re wandering in the Big South Fork backcountry isn’t too uncommon. There are a total of at least 58 cemeteries throughout the BSF, and many of them are off-trail.
Usually, though, stumbling upon a gravesite in the BSF backcountry means discovering a weathered stone that is hardly legible, if at all. Seldom do you find a newer commercial stone off the beaten path. But that is exactly what you’ll find if you discover the gravesite of Elijah Smith along the banks of Station Camp Creek.
It was here, in the fertile bottomlands near where Station Camp Creek and Laurel Fork Creek meet, about a mile west of the Big South Fork River, that Elijah Smith farmed. The Smith family was prominent in this area dating back to the arrival of Anderson Smith in the late 1810s or early 1820s.
Years after Elijah Smith’s death in 1873, some of his descendants — including Big South Fork Ranger Mary Grimm and her father, who are native Fentress Countians — purchased and placed the stone that marks the location of Smith’s grave.
Elijah Smith’s gravesite is one of the few cemeteries in Scott County that doesn’t appear in Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census, which is published by the Scott County Historical Society. That’s because there was no fixed, permanent record of Smith’s burial place when Bailey’s work was originally published. It was several years later that Elijah Smith’s headstone was placed.
Who was Elijah Smith?
Elijah Smith, born in 1813, was the grandfather of one of the Big South Fork’s most colorful and best-known characters, John “Hawk” Smith. That means he was the third great-grandfather of little Archie Smith, the baby who is buried along the Grand Gap Loop Trail a few miles to the south of Laurel Fork Creek.
Elijah Smith was also a second great-grandfather of Oneida Mayor Denzil Pennington.
Elijah Smith married Nancy Smith, and they had 10 children: Harmon, William, Patsy, Elijah, Nancy, Sarah, James, Emberson, Anna and Margaret. (The 1860 census does not list Patsy; however, she is found in the 1870 census, age 19 and still living at home along with brothers Elijah and Harmon, and sister Nancy.)
It was Sarah Smith who was John “Hawk” Smith’s mother. She married Samuel Smith, from another family of Smiths who lived in the Laurel Fork Creek area. Denzil Pennington’s lineage is through Elijah Smith Jr., who married Thursa Ann Woods. Their youngest daughter, born in 1894, was Erie Smith, who married George Pennington.
Determining how Elijah and Nancy Smith wound up in the Big South Fork is difficult because, so far, the genealogical record is incomplete. It has been speculated that Elijah Smith may have been a brother to Anderson Smith, one of the first permanent settlers of the Laurel Fork Creek area. But little more is known about who he or his wife descended from. Many genealogical sources list Nancy Smith as Nancy Weir. While there was a Nancy Weir who married an Elijah Smith, they were a different family who lived in Kentucky. Perhaps aiding the confusion is the fact that Nancy Smith is listed in the 1870 census as “Nancy W. Smith.”
The burial location of Nancy Smith is unknown. What does seem certain is that she is not the Nancy Smith for whom the cemetery at No Business Creek is named. That Nancy Smith died in 1861, according to her stone. While some genealogical sources list Elijah Smith’s wife Nancy as dying in the 1860s, she was listed in the 1870 census — as was her daughter, Nancy J. Smith. Elijah Smith’s widow was also listed in the 1880 census, meaning it was sometime after that point that she died.
A connection to Anderson Smith?
Anderson Smith (1801-1890) was born in Virginia, and migrated to Laurel Fork Creek when he was in his late teens or early 20s. He married Sarah “Sally” Slaven, the daughter of Richard “Harve” Slaven — the first permanent white settler on No Business Creek. They are buried at the Chimney Rocks Cemetery. While Richard Slaven was also from Virginia, Anderson and Sally were not married until after both families made the move to the Big South Fork.
One of Anderson and Sally Smith’s daughters was Catherine Smith, who married Jacob Blevins, son of Jonathan Blevins, another of the Big South Fork’s first permanent settlers. Jacob Blevins was the first person buried at the Katie Blevins Cemetery, which is named for Catherine.
Anderson Smith originally settled at Laurel Fork Creek. In 1853, however, he purchased what is now known as the Charit Creek Lodge further up Station Camp Creek. It had originally been deeded to brothers Burdine and Andrew Young in the 1820s, and later sold to Ali Hatfield and then to William Tackett.
By the 1890s, Anderson Smith’s original farm at Laurel Fork Creek was owned by Shade Blevins, a grandson of Jonathan Blevins.
Some genealogy sources list Anderson Smith and Elijah Smith as brothers. However, the record is far from conclusive. Whether there is a link between the two Smiths who settled Laurel Fork Creek is a mystery that awaits solving.
What became of the family
As of the 1870 census, three years before Elijah Smith’s death, he and Nancy still had four children living at home: 19-year-old Patsy, 16-year-old Elijah Jr., 13-year-old Harmon, and 10-year-old Nancy J.
James Smith was 32 years old and living next door, married to Rebecca, and with two children, ages six and three.
William Smith was also living next door and gave his age as 32, married to Jane Hammock and with two children, ages six and four.
Living next door to William Smith in that 1870 census was a 40-year-old Jordan Boyatt — who would later move his family from Station Camp to No Business and whose son and grandson, Ransom and Jerome, were part of one of the most tragic stories in Scott County’s history.
A decade later, in 1880, the census was taken again. Elijah had died and Nancy, a widow, lived alone on the family farm at Laurel Fork Creek.
Living next door was daughter Sarah Smith and her family, which included six children at the time — one of them being a teenage boy named John “Hawk” Smith.
Elijah Smith Jr., born in 1853, married Thursa Ann Wood and had many children, including Calvin Smith, who would later own a store on Station Camp Creek in the 1910s and early 1920s before selling it to Ike King.
Harmon Smith married Rhoda Ann Foster and they had at least nine children. He died in 1938.