Sacred Ground: Hatfield-Burke Cemetery
Deep in the heart of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, where Charit Creek empties into Station Camp Creek more than three miles west of the river, is a mysterious cemetery.
The Hatfield-Burke Cemetery, or simply the Hatfield Cemetery, contains only nine graves. It’s mysterious because the identities of most of those buried there are a mystery.
The cemetery is situated on the edge of one of the national park’s most significant historic homesteads. And it is the final resting place for the patriarchs of two of the Big South Fork settlements’ most prominent 19th century families: the Hatfields and the Burkes.
On the north side of Charit Creek Lodge — which today is a remote hostel accessible only by foot or horseback, not too dissimilar from the famous LeConte Lodge in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park — Hatfield Ridge towers over the valley farm. About five miles northeast, by trail, is Duck Shoals on the Big South Fork River, the site of the Burke farm where one of Scott County’s most consequential Civil War skirmishes took place. The namesakes of both locations are buried at the cemetery at Charit Creek, which is located about 900 feet east of the pioneer-era homes that still stand on the property.
A history of Charit Creek
Charit Creek dates back to around 1815 or so, though no one knows exactly when, or who was the first person to settle there. There have been writings claiming that Jonathan Blevins — one of the notable early settlers of the Big South Fork and the forefather of all the Blevins family in Scott County today — was the first settler of Charit Creek, but that’s unlikely to be true. The Blevins family did settle at Charit Creek, but that came later.
This inviting and fertile bottomland along Station Camp Creek likely dates all the way back to the early 1770s, well before there were permanent white settlers anywhere in the territory that would eventually become Scott County. This was Indian territory at the time, and King George III of England had forbidden settlement here. It was about that time, in 1772, to be exact, that a group of transient long hunters established a station camp in present-day Big South Fork, and that camp is believed to have been located at the site of modern-day Charit Creek Lodge. In fact, that old story about the long hunters is how Station Camp Creek got its name.
The first physical records of ownership at Charit Creek date back to 1824, when a man named David Miller patented 50 acres of land on Station Creek, a short distance east of what is now Charit Creek Lodge. That same year, brothers Burdine Young and Anderson Young patented 100 acres a short distance west of Charit Creek. Burdine Young is believed to have built one of the cabins that still stands at the lodge, probably sometime around 1830.
The property was later owned by Ale Hatfield, William Tackett, Anderson Smith, Isaac King and Jonathan Burke, among others.
The first Blevins to live at Charit Creek was probably John B. “Jack” Blevins, who was the son of Armstead Blevins and a grandson of Jonathan Blevins. His brother, Jacob Blevins, lived a short distance west of Charit Creek, at the place now referred to as “Jake’s Place.” His old cabin was disassembled and moved to Charit Creek by Joe Simpson in the mid 20th century, and still stands there today.
Simpson was the last owner of Charit Creek before the federal government swooped in bought up the land for the establishment of the national park in the mid 1970s. He operated it as a hunting lodge, called the Parch Corn Creek Wilderness Lodge. Hunters visited the lodge to hunt wild boar and Catalina goats for a number of years. Later, after the federal government purchased the property, it was used briefly as a youth retreat.
The cemetery begins
There are a total of nine graves at the Hatfield Cemetery, not all of which can be identified. For that reason, it is impossible to tell exactly when the cemetery began.
Among those known to be buried at the cemetery are William Riley Hatfield and Jonathan Burke. Believed to also be buried there are Elizabeth Troxell Burke and two Hatfield children, along with John Troxell and Patsy Winchester.
There are also memorials at the cemetery for Joe Simpson, his son, Pete, and his granddaughter, Sarah. Pete died in 2006, while Joe and Sarah both died in 2011. However, they are not actually buried at the cemetery.
The Burke family
Jonathan Burke was born Aug. 14, 1797, the son of Benjamin Burk and Elizabeth Troxell. The Burke family lived in Wayne County, Ky. Jonathan Burke’s paternal grandparents were John Burk and Mary Margaret Kendrick, from Virginia. His paternal great-grandfather, James Burk, migrated to the American colonies from Ireland and married Mary Bane, a Pennsylvania native whose grandfather migrated there from Scotland.
Jonathan Burke’s mother, Elizabeth Troxell, was a sister to George Jacob Troxell, who is believed by some family genealogists to be “Big Jake Troxell,” a character in Thomas H. Troxell’s 1958 book, “Legion of the Lost Mine.” Big Jake supposedly married a Cherokee Indian named “Princess Cornblossom.” However, the book has been largely discredited by historians.
Jonathan Burke married Nancy Cooper on March 31, 1820, in Wayne County, Ky. They were a part of a movement of settlers from the Rock Creek and Little South Fork areas to the Big South Fork in the early 19th century, though it’s not exactly clear when.
Burke built a cabin on the Big South Fork River at the approximate location of Duck Shoals, between Parch Corn Creek and No Business Creek, about 1.5 miles downstream from Station Camp Creek. It was there, in the spring of 1862, that a Civil War battle — known as the Battle of No Business, or the Duck Shoals Skirmish — was fought.
Some family histories suggest that Jonathan and Nancy Burke were estranged by that time, having separated in the 1850s, and that Jonathan lived with his son, Peter Burke. The 1860 census showed Nancy Burke living with Peter — and several other of her children — while the 1870 census showed Jonathan and Nancy Burke living together once more.
It was in May 1862 that a group of Confederate guerrillas under the command of Capt. Alec Evans spent a day raiding the settlements of the Big South Fork region before seeking refuge for the night in the Burke home. During the night, neighbors — including some of the Burke men — surrounded the cabin and attacked the Rebels, all of whom were killed. Most of them were buried in a mass grave nearby.
The battle created such a stir that it was written about in the New York Times.
In her book, “Mountain Memories,” historian Marie Hickey Davis wrote that the Burke family moved out of the home after the fight.
“Too much blood had been spilled on its floors for it to ever seem like home again,” she wrote. “After they moved, some residents of the valley hacked out the lead balls that had been fired into the house and remelted them for new ammunition.”
When the Burke family moved out of old Jonathan’s home at Duck Shoals, they moved to the farm at Charit Creek. The home on the river stood empty until after Jonathan Burke died in 1875. At that point, his son, Peter, sold it to George Pennington, who in turn sold it to France Miller. Miller disassembled it and moved it to the mouth of No Business Creek. It burned in the early 1900s.
Burke was buried at Charit Creek when he died on Aug. 28, 1875, two weeks after his 78th birthday. It’s not clear whether he was the first person buried at the cemetery.
The Hatfield family
William Riley Hatfield was born July 25, 1824, and was Jonathan Burke’s son-in-law.
You might recall from earlier in the story that Ale Hatfield was one of the early owners of the farm at Charit Creek. He was William Riley Hatfield’s uncle.
The Hatfield family moved from Virginia to Tennessee with Joseph Hatfield and his wife, Rachel Smith. One of their sons, Ale Hatfield Sr., was the grandfather of William Riley Hatflield. Their oldest child was Ephraim Hatfield, who would later move to Kentucky and was the great-grandfather of William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield of Hatfield-McCoy Feud fame. Devil Anse was William Riley’s second cousin, once removed.
A family history that appears to have originated with an oral interview that Joe Simpson conducted with a relative of William Riley Hatfield indicates that the Hatfield family moved to Tennessee to escape the violence of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud. However, the timelines don’t add up; the Hatfield-McCoy Feud began during or just after the Civil War, long after the Tennessee Hatfields made the move south.
Ale Hatfield Sr. married Milly Gibson in 1798 and they lived in Campbell County, Tenn. Family legend has it that Ale Hatfield fathered children by both Milly and a neighbor, Elizabeth Young, for several years before divorcing Milly in 1836, marrying Elizabeth a few days later, and moving to Indiana.
James Hatfield, born in 1804, was one of Ale Hatfield’s children with his first wife, Milly. He married Margaret Jones, and William Riley Hatfield was their oldest child.
Most of William Riley Hatfield’s family moved to Missouri. However, he remained in the Big South Fork and married Elizabeth Burke, the daughter of Jonathan Burke and Nancy Cooper.
Census records place William and Nancy Hatfield in Wayne County, Ky. in 1850, and in the Big South Fork area by 1860. They had at least nine children, the oldest of whom — Nancy Ellen — married Kirby Sherman King. Their son, Ike King, was a well-known schoolteacher, storekeeper and postmaster at Station Camp.
William Riley Hatfield died of a gunshot wound in 1892. According to Simpson, he was arguing with another man along the river and wheeled his horse in an effort to trample the man when he was shot through the abdomen and face with a .45-70 rifle. He died shortly thereafter. He was buried on the farm at Charit Creek, beside his father-in-law, Jonathan Burke.
It is believed that William Riley’s youngest son was buried at the cemetery when he died at birth in 1869. Elizabeth gave birth to twins three days before Christmas that year. One of them, Jonathan “Jack” Hatfield, survived. The other did not.
It is also believed that Jack — who married Mary Elizabeth Phillips — had a three-year-old boy, Fred, who was buried at the cemetery in 1903.
Both of those burials are likely among the seven unidentified graves at Charit Creek, since the Burke family lived in the vicinity at the time.
A mass exodus
Many of the Burkes and Hatfields left the Big South Fork for Oklahoma.
Following Jonathan Burke’s death in 1875, his oldest son, Peter, loaded up his mother, Nancy, and moved from the Big South Fork to Oklahoma. Nancy would not make it to their destination; she fell ill along the way and died, likely in Texas.
Several of Jonathan’s and Nancy’s children — Elizabeth Hatfield’s siblings — made the trip, along with Peter. Among them were Haden, Harmon and John Burk. The only ones who remained in the Big South Fork, along with Elizabeth, were John Granville Burk and Lewis Burk.
When William Riley Hatfield died in 1892, Elizabeth did the same thing her mother had done following her own husband’s death: she packed up and moved to Oklahoma, where she joined the rest of her family. Several of her children made the trip with her or within a few years thereafter, including daughter Polly, son John Granville, son Harmon Lafayette, and son Jack.
Another of her children, son Dick, also moved to Oklahoma. However, he returned to Scott County following the death of his wife, Vicey Thompson, in 1913. He married Poppy Litton in 1923, but was shot and killed by his wife’s brother, Newton Blevins, the following year. He is buried at Coffey Cemetery in Oneida. (Newton Blevins served a year in jail for the killing of Dick Hatfield, and was later murdered himself.)
The other graves
In his 1994 book, Cemeteries of Scott County, Tennessee, the historian Robert Bailey noted that Elizabeth Troxell Burke is said to be buried at Hatfield Cemetery, along with John Troxell and Patsy Winchester, though there are no identifiable markers at the cemetery for any of the three. Bailey identified Patsy Winchester as the mother of John Troxell’s children, but did not document the relationship of John Troxell to Elizabeth Troxell Burke, if there was one.
Elizabeth Troxell Burke, you’ll recall, was the name of Jonathan Burke’s mother, who died in 1851. However, Jonathan Burke’s mother is buried at the Smith-Kidd Cemetery in Kentucky. She has a hand-engraved marker at that cemetery, which is also where her husband was buried. And it was more than 10 years after his mother’s death that Jonathan Burke moved from his home on the Big South Fork River to Charit Creek. Therefore, it is almost certain that his mother was not buried at Hatfield Cemetery.
No other information can be found on John Troxell and Patsy Winchester.
So, all that is known for certain is that Jonathan Burke and William Riley Hatfield are buried at the Hatfield Cemetery. It seems likely that the two Hatfield children — Jack Burke’s twin brother, and his three-year-old son — are buried there. But there are at least five more graves, and their identities are a mystery.
Cemetery Census
HATFIELD CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.53751, -84.72500
First Burial: N/A
Last Burial: N/A
Jonathan Burke, 1797-1875
William Riley Hatfield, 1824-1892
Baby Hatfield, 1869-1869
Fred Hatfield, 1903-1903
*There are at least five more graves at the Hatfield Cemetery that cannot be identified. According to Robert Bailey’s 1994 book, “Cemeteries of Scott County, Tennessee,” three of them are Elizabeth Troxell Burke, John Troxell and Patsy Winchester.
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.