Sacred Ground: Hattie Blevins Cemetery

In the far northeastern corner of Scott County, just off Divide Road in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, is a community burial ground that stands as a testament to the Blevins family who once made their home here.

Among the prominent early families of what we now know as the Big South Fork were three primary names: The Slavens, the Blevins and the Burkes. Richard Harve Slaven moved to No Business Creek in the 1800s and was likely the first white settler in the Big South Fork region. He and many of his descendants are buried in the Nancy Smith Cemetery at No Business Creek that was the subject of the Sacred Ground series several weeks ago. Jonathan Burke quickly followed. He is buried at a cemetery in the BSF that has not yet been featured in this series, but among his descendants was Lewis Burk, whose grave at No Business was featured in this series two weeks ago. At about the same time, Jonathan Blevins arrived on the scene. Many of his descendants are buried at the Katie Blevins Cemetery near Bandy Creek that has already been featured in this series. And many more are buried at the Hattie Blevins Cemetery just off Divide Road, on the ridge above the headwaters of Station Camp Creek.

Located along the road that would eventually dip to Massey Branch and then on to Rock Creek during the days when coal was being mined heavily nearby, it is the Hattie Blevins Cemetery. And while it grew to become a community cemetery, it started as a small family plot where the Blevins family buried their dead in the late 1800s.

Hattie Koger Blevins herself isn’t buried at the cemetery; rather, when she died in 1982 she was buried at Possum Rock  in the Black Oak community west of Oneida — along with many other former residents of what had become the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. 

By that point, in 1982, Hattie Blevins had returned to McCreary County, where the Koger family roots run deep, and was living in Pine Knot. But there was a time when Hattie and her family lived off Divide Road, carving out a way of life in the lands that would become the Big South Fork just as several generations of the Blevins family had before them.

Armstead & Hattie Blevins

Hattie’s husband, Armstead Blevins, died young. He was the grandson of Armstead Blevins who settled on Parch Corn Creek, the great-grandson of Jonathan Blevins, the ancestor of all the Blevins family in Scott County and one of the first white settlers in what would become the Big South Fork NRRA.

Armstead and Hattie were married in 1910 and had seven children. Armstead — called Armp by most folks who knew him — was the son of Isaac “Ike” Blevins and Melirina Koger Blevins. Hattie was the daughter of William Koger and Adalade Burnette Koger. 

Armp Blevins died on Feb. 20, 1926, at the age of 38. He was buried at the cemetery that would eventually bear his wife’s name on family property just off Divide Road — which at that time was named the Jamestown Road and followed an old Indian trail that predated white settlement on the northern Cumberland Plateau.

Armp was not the first person buried at the Hattie Blevins Cemetery. In fact, the first burials there far predated his death. 

It is commonly thought that Armp’s grandmother, Margaret Marjory “Margie” Carson Blevins, is buried at Hattie Blevins Cemetery. If so, hers may have been the first grave there; she died in 1862.

There is no stone that can be found for Margie Blevins, who was the first wife of Armstead Blevins. However, there are many graves at Hattie Blevins Cemetery that are marked only with simple field stones that are not inscribed. In fact, most of the graves there are not identifiable — which also makes it impossible to date the cemetery with any certainty. 

The first identifiable grave at Hattie Blevins Cemetery is that of Isaac Blevins Jr., who died in 1878 at the age of five. He was Armp’s older brother, though he died nine years before Armp’s birth.

On March 30, 1887, Surepta Terry Blevins — who had married Isaac Blevins’ brother, John Blevins — died at the age of 42 and was buried at the Hattie Blevins Cemetery. She died three weeks before Armp was born. (John Blevins is thought to be buried at the cemetery as well, though his death date isn’t known and there is no identifiable stone for him.)

The cemetery takes shape

It was 15 years after Surepta Blevins’ death that the next verifiable burial took place at Hattie Blevins Cemetery. One week before Christmas in 1902, Jane Blevins Slaven — a sister of Isaac and John, who married William Calvin Slaven — died at age 31 and was buried at the cemetery.

In February 1908, Lewis Burke died at age 67 and was buried at the cemetery. An old Civil War soldier who had fought with the Union, Lewis had married Sarah “Sally” Blevins, yet another of the children of Armstead — another sister to Isaac and John. Sally was also buried there when she died in 1914.

Orpha Miller, a 21-month-old child, was buried at the cemetery in June 1917. A few months later, on Nov. 20, 1917, Isaac “Ike” Blevins Sr. died and was buried there. 

Other Blevins buried at the cemetery include Diansis “Dide” Blevins (spelled “Died” on his stone), another of Armstead and Margie’s children who died in 1903 at the age of 57; and Francis Marion Blevins, the son of Isaac and Melirina — Armp’s brother — who died in 1880 at age 22.

Armp and Hattie’s daughter, Minnie Blevins Burke, died on April 30, 1941 at the age of 41 and was buried at the Hattie Blevins Cemetery. She shares a stone with Christine Burke, her infant daughter (both apparently died in childbirth). She had married Ausburn “Aus” Burke, the son of Isaac and Mary Pennington Burke and great-grandson of Jonathan Burke, the first of the Burke family to arrive in the Big South Fork region. Their son, Archie Leon Burke, was also buried at the cemetery when he died in 2000.

The Crabtree family

While Blevins make up the majority of graves at the Hattie Blevins Cemetery, there are other families buried there as well — though they usually had ties to the Blevins family.

On Oct. 29, 1925, George Marion Crabtree became the first of several Crabtrees buried at the cemetery when he died at age 26. He was the son of William Hiram Crabtree and Delphia Blevins Crabtree. Delphia was the daughter of Isaac, Armp’s sister, and would also be buried at the cemetery when she died in 1939, as was her husband when he died in 1959.

Other Crabtrees buried at the cemetery include George Marion’s brother, Joel Sherman, and his wife, Rebecca “Becky” Watson Crabtree; and babies Dinver and Ralph Crabtree (children of John Isaac “Ike” Crabtree and Lexie Pearl Lowe Crabtree; Ike was a brother to George Marion and Joel Sherman). 

Armstead Blevins’ burial location unknown

If Margie Blevins is indeed buried at Hattie Blevins Cemetery with an uninscribed stone when she died in 1862 — a dangerous assumption, at best, though it does seem to be the consensus among those who trace the Blevins family — is it possible that Armstead Blevins was also buried there with an uninscribed stone when he died in the late 1800s? 

Armstead’s second wife, Hellen, was buried on the family farm at Parch Corn Creek when she died in 1913, but Armstead’s burial location is not known. Five of his children, and several other of his direct descendants, are buried at Hattie Blevins Cemetery.

Cemetery Inventory

HATTIE BLEVINS CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.57315, -84.75321 
First Burial: 1862*
Last Burial: 2020
Burials Since Robert Bailey’s 1994 Cemetery Census? Yes

Adalade Burnett Blevins 1861-1932

Armp Blevins         1887-1926

Diansis “Dide” Blevins   1846-1903

Francis M. Blevins            1880-1903

Isaac Blevins Jr.     1873-1878

Isaac “Ike” Blevins Sr.    1843-1917

John “Bum” Blevins*     1848-N/A

Margaret Carson Blevins*         1819-1862

Melirina Blevins    1843-1905

Surepta Terry Blevins     1844-1887

Lewis Burk  1841-1908

Sarah Blevins Burk           1847-1914

Archie Leon Burke            1929-2000

Christine Burke     N/A-N/A

Minnie Blevins Burke      1913-1941

Tammy Butler        1964-2020

Delphia Blevins Crabtree           1876-1939

Dinver Crabtree     1942-1942

George M. Crabtree          1899-1925

Joel S. Crabtree      1904-1954

Kathleen Daugherty Crabtree   1946-2002

Ralph Crabtree       1941-1941

Rebecca Watson Crabtree          1916-2000

William H. Crabtree         1857-1959

Danny K. Goad       1951-2004

Andy King    N/A-N/A

Dovey King  1933-1933

Orpha Miller           1915-1917

Granville Slaven    1857-1930

Jane Blevins Slaven          1871-1902

John Henry Slaven            N/A-N/A

Levi Slaven  N/A-N/A

Polly Phillips Slaven        1858-1932

*Most of the nearly 100 graves at Hattie Blevins Cemetery are marked with simple, uninscribed field stones, which makes it impossible to date the cemetery accurately. The graves of John “Bum” Blevins and Margaret “Margie” Carson Blevins are purported to be among them, but cannot be verified.

This story is a part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.