Sacred Ground: Owens Cemetery
Editor’s Note: Owens Cemetery at Station Camp Creek has been the subject of multiple past stories that have been published by the Independent Herald. However, as part of the “Sacred Ground” series, we are revisiting every cemetery in Scott County.
To the average person, unaware of the history of the territory that is now called the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, it’s just a trail. It follows an old wagon road, which was an old Indian trail before that, traversing the Station Camp Creek valley to link Charit Creek Lodge with the BSF river crossing some four miles down the creek.
The towering ridge lines on either side of the valley — Hatfield Ridge to the north, the plateau lands around Bandy Creek to the south — are easy enough to pick out, as are the hemlock trees and beech trees that stand tall along the stream’s edge. But hidden in nature’s cloaking undergrowth — out of sight, out of mind, for the most part — are the remnants of civilization in this valley.
Station Camp was once alive with the activities of hearty settlers who carved out a subsistence lifestyle there. Those families have been gone for decades, and time has erased much of their footprint on this land. But for those who are hiking or riding along Station Camp Creek and know where to look, and what to look for, there is a stark reminder of just how difficult life was in those times.
It isn’t visible from the trail. A faint footpath leads away from the old wagon road and up the hill, but it’s hard to see if you don’t know it’s there. It can just as easily be mistaken for a game trail. But if you leave the road behind and climb the bank to a small point that overlooks the creek, you’ll stumble across it — mostly hidden in the undergrowth, but there just the same: a family graveyard.
This is the Owens Cemetery, a place where William Wesley Owens and his wife, Susanna Slaven Pennington Owens, buried their children. And it underscores their troubles.
The Owens family
Among the early families who lived along Station Camp Creek were Wesley and Susanna Owens. They had 10 children and owned a sizable farm approximately 1.5 miles west of the Big South Fork River, where they operated a grist mill along Station Camp Creek.
Wesley Owens was the son of Willis Owens and Sarah Thomas Phillips. The Owens family was originally from Fentress County. Wesley Owens was born between 1825 and 1835. Not much is known about his early life, except that he served in the Civil War — Company 1 of the Tennessee National Guard — and may have been married before he and Susan Pennington married.
Susan Owens was the daughter of Absalom Slaven, a granddaughter of Richard Harve Slaven, the first white settler in the Big South Fork region. She was first married to Daniel Pennington, who is buried at Chimney Rocks. Dan Pennington was shot and killed in 1872 during a fight with his wife’s brothers, Elias Meshack Slaven and Stuard Riley Slaven, both of whom left the BSF region following the incident.
Five years following Pennington’s death, on July 28, 1877, the 25-year-old Susan married Wesley,who was considerably older than her.
The historical record is difficult to nail down with certainty. Wesley Owens’ headstone reads that he was born in 1825. But in the 1900 census he reported that he was born in August 1834. There is also the marriage certificate that dates Wesley’s marriage to Susan to July 1877. But in that same 1900 census, he reported that they were married in 1873. And, in fact, their first child was born in 1874.
Tragedies begin
The Owens Cemetery dates to Feb. 22, 1888, when Wesley and Susan’s oldest child — daughter Samantha — died just four days shy of her 14th birthday.
When Samantha died, she was buried on a small point overlooking the creek-bottom fields that the Owens family farmed. Her father carved her headstone out of field rock.
On that day, little James Owens — the sixth of Wesley and Susan’s 10 children — was celebrating his first birthday. But just five months later, he, too, died, and was buried next to his sister.
In between 13-year-old Samantha and baby James, their brother, Ebbin Owens, is buried. The exact date of his death isn’t known; the field stone onto which his epitaph was chiseled is too eroded to be legible. But he would have been around 10 years old at the time.
In a span of just months, three of the Owens children had died. But the tragedies were just beginning.
At some point in 1889 — the exact date isn’t known — little Sarah died. She was just five. It had been just over a year at that point, and four of the family’s children passed away.
The deaths stopped with Sarah’s passing. In fact, there were brighter days ahead. In 1890, just a year after the four children died, a new arrival came to the farm. Baby Electa was born. But the happier days wouldn’t last.
In 1892, illness again visited Station Camp Creek. Ten-year-old Lawrence, who the family called Larry, died. And, four years after that, Electa died at the age of six, and was buried alongside her brothers and sisters.
Susan had been pregnant again in 1892, the year Larry died. Their son, George, was born that same year. But in 1900, eight-year-old George died as well.
In a span of 12 years, seven of Wesley and Susan’s 10 children had died and been buried in a single row of graves on the family farm.
The cause of the children’s deaths isn’t clear. But the late Tom Des Jean, long-time archaeologist at the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, once speculated that it might have been Yellow Fever. An epidemic of Yellow Fever was sweeping through the Big South Fork region in the 1890s. It’s uncommon in America today, due to vaccination, but was once feared. Spread by mosquitoes, it caused typical viral symptoms: fever, headache, chills, and muscle pains. But many of those infected saw the disease turn toxic just as they seemed to be improving. The second phase caused liver damage that resulted in jaundice and vomiting. It caused bleeding from the mouth, eyes and gastrointestinal tract, followed by kidney damage, delirium, and, often, death.
The last burial
Three of the 10 Owens children survived the tragic 1890s: son Willis, born in 1886, daughter Cordelia, born in 1888, and son Baily, born in 1894.
In 1903, Wesley Owens died and was buried alongside his children. It’s not clear whether the Owens family still lived on Station Camp Creek at that point, or whether Wesley was returned to the family plot following his death. He served as postmaster at Frona from 1892 to 1895.
With Wesley Owens’ death in 1903, the Owens Cemetery became inactive. Susan Owens and her surviving children moved away from the Big South Fork, and to Kentucky. The Owens grist mill was purchased by Jacob Blevins Jr.
The aftermath
Susan Owens died in 1935, at the age of 82, and is buried at Mt. Pisgah Cemetery in Wayne County, Ky., where she moved after leaving the Big South Fork region.
Cordelia Owens married and lived until 1970. She is buried at Possum Rock Cemetery at Black Oak.
Willis Owens died in 1973 at age 87 and is also buried at Possum Rock. He married Maudie Cordell Davis and they had six children, two of whom survive today.
Finally, Bailey Owens died on Jan. 31, 1975 at age 80 and is also buried at Possum Rock. He married Cora Ann Mays and they had two children.
Today, Owens Cemetery is completely unmaintained and is difficult to find if you don’t know where it is located. It is accessible only by hiking or by horseback.
Cemetery inventory
OWENS CEMETERY
GPS Coordinates: 36.54593, -84.6904
First Burial: 1888
Last Burial: 1903
Burials since Robert Bailey’s 1994 cemetery census? No
Ebbin Owens 1879-N/A
Electa Owens 1888-1896
George W. Owens 1892-1900
James Owens 1887-1888
Larry Owens 1882-1892
Samantha Owens 1874-1888
Sarah L. Owens 1884-1889
William W. Owens 1825-1903
This story is part of the Scott County Cemetery Project.