Sacred Ground: The Walker cemeteries of Brimstone
Editor’s Note: These cemeteries have been the subject of past stories in the Independent Herald. As part of the Scott County Cemetery Project, however, we’re revisiting every cemetery in Scott County.
There are two Walker Cemeteries on Indian Fork Creek off Brimstone, both linked to the Walker family that was once prominent here.
If you reach these cemeteries by traveling up Brimstone Creek, the expansive farmland you’ll pass through once you turn off Brimstone Road at what was once the Hughett community — named for the man who served as the community’s postmaster — was Walker country. Part of it on the lower end remains in the hands of Walker descendants, while much of it on the upper end is now owned by other families.
The last house on Indian Fork Road was once the home of Lawrence Walker, the long-serving Scott County Commissioner who died in 2013.
Today, the road through Indian Fork — while still a county road most of the way — is largely unsuitable for passenger vehicles. Of the two Walker Cemeteries, the southernmost of the two, located across the valley from what locals used to call “The Monster Pond,” is on property managed by Brimstone Recreation and is inaccessible without a four-wheel-drive vehicle. The northernmost of the two is best accessed from Ridge Road, and can be reached from that side with a two-wheel-drive vehicle.
The Walker family
The Walker family dates back to Civil War veteran Daniel Walker (1844-1902), who married into the Goad family and settled this fertile section of Brimstone Creek.
Daniel Walker was the son of Samuel Walker (1818-1907) and Mary Ann Walker (1818-1910).
The Walker family was originally from North Carolina, which is where Samuel Walker was born, and where he married Mary Ann in December 1847. Family genealogies generally indicate that Mary Ann was a Hutson before marriage. However, old court records identify her as a Summers.
Sam and Mary Ann’s oldest child, Daniel, was born in Burk County, N.C., around 1844. Daniel’s younger brother, William “Billy” Walker, was born about 1849, and a sister, Mary Elizabeth, was born a few years after that. Another son, Tom, was born in 1855, before the family made the move to Brimstone Creek.
A fourth child, Joseph Samuel, was born shortly after the Walkers arrived at Brimstone Creek in April 1857, and children Michael (1859) and Sarah (1863) came later.
Details of Sam Walker’s life before the move to Brimstone Creek are sketchy. But it’s known that he was a veteran of the Indian War, serving under the command of Capt. W.L. Connelly as part of Company C, a regiment of volunteers from Burke County, N.C. In 1838 he participated in the removal of 15,000 Cherokee Indians from their native lands in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama to Fort Emory on the Hiwassee River. This was part of the Native American displacement that is historically known as the “Trail of Tears.”
Ironically, the Indian removal was ordered and overseen by Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, the man for whom Scott County would be named in 1849 — eight years before Sam and Mary Ann moved to Brimstone Creek.
Also known is that the Walker family was Irish, migrating to the American colonies in the early 18th century. Sam Walker’s great-grandfather, John Walker, sailed into Philadelphia in 1720 and settled in Delaware. His grandfather, Col. John Walker, served under Gen. George Washington in the British army and later served in the Revolutionary War, as did all of his sons, including Sam Walker’s father, Thomas William Walker.
Like many other Scott Countians, Daniel Walker served in the Union army during the Civil War. He enlisted in Co. C, 7thTennessee Infantry, and later was transferred to Co. E, 11th Tennessee Cavalry before being transferred to Co. H, 9thTennessee Cavalry.
On Feb. 22, 1864, at the age of 19, Daniel Walker was captured by Confederate forces at Cumberland Gap. He was imprisoned at Richmond, Va. And later at Andersonville, Ga. In the process, he was confined to both of the Confederate army’s most notorious prison camps, Belle Isle and Camp Sumter. Many other Scott Countians who wound up at those prison camps did not return home after dying from disease.
In fact, Walker did become sick while he was at Andersonville and he was hospitalized for a period of time. After being released from prison he walked back to Brimstone Creek from Maryland. It has been written that he subsisted on acorns during the journey home. When he arrived at Scott County he was sick due to the disease and the lack of food he had endured while a prisoner of war.
On March 12, 1866, Daniel Walker married Almira Goad. The Goad family also lived at Brimstone Creek — descending from Revolutionary War veteran Abraham Goad — and were prominent there. Amira’s parents were Joshua Goad and Elizabeth Robbins. Her sister was Etta Tennessee Goad Lee, who was married to Scott County Superintendent of Schools William Lee and was the grandmother of U.S. Congressman John J. Duncan Sr. Her brother was John Goad, who served as Scott County Sheriff in the 1890s and was in charge of Scott County’s first legal hanging.
Daniel and Almira had 13 children, including two sets of twins, and the Walker family flourished.
The cemeteries begin
The oldest of the two Walker cemeteries at Indian Fork is the southernmost cemetery, or the upper cemetery. It is the one that is almost impossible to reach without a four-wheel-drive vehicle and located on Brimstone Recreation.
The original Walker Cemetery dates back to at least 1885. It’s impossible to say with certainty just how old it is because there are a number of graves that are marked with uninscribed field stones and that aren’t identifiable.
In 1885, five-year-old Martha Walker was buried at the cemetery. She was the daughter of Michael Walker and Mary Goad.
Michael Walker was the younger brother of Daniel Walker. Like Daniel, he married into the Goad family that was prominent at Brimstone Creek. Mary Goad was the daughter of William Goad and Martha Griffith. Mary was an aunt to Almira Goad; the sister of Joshua Goad. Her mother, Martha, was the granddaughter of Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Griffith, the daughter of his oldest son, Fielding.
It’s not clear what little Martha died of. But five years later, her brother, Samuel Walker, died and was buried beside her. He was 12 at the time. Today, Martha and Samuel share a flat stone at the cemetery, along with their mother, Mary, who died in 1899, at the age of 41.
Following the death of his wife, Michael Walker moved to Texas. It does not appear that he ever remarried. The couple had several other children, in addition to Samuel and Martha.
Also in the 1890s, young John Sedley Walker was buried at the cemetery. He was the son of Rev. Joe and Almira Walker. There is some confusion over John Sedley’s exact age because there are two stones at the cemetery with different dates of birth and death. The original stone lists his birth date as Nov. 7, 1891, and his death date as Feb. 7, 1895. A newer stone indicates that he was born in 1890 and died in 1894. Either way, he would have been three or four when he died.
John Sedley would have been Daniel Walker’s nephew; Joe Walker was the son of Sam and Mary Walker born shortly after the family’s arrival at Brimstone Creek in 1857. He married Almira Robbins in 1884.
Both Joe and Almira were buried at the old cemetery when they died, Almira in 1903 and Joe in 1937.
Also in the 1890s, 46-year-old Emily Walker was buried at the cemetery. Born Emily Sexton, she was the wife of Thomas Walker, who was another of Daniel’s brothers. They were married in 1879. She was the great-granddaughter of Revolutionary War soldier Timothy Sexton.
Following Emily’s death in 1898, Thomas remarried, and eventually moved to Knoxville.
James Roland Kesterson was buried at the cemetery when he died in 1900, at the age of 71. He married into the Walker family, wedding Eliza Jane Walker (1831-1895). Eliza Walker was likely a niece to Sam Walker. It’s unclear where she was buried when she died in 1895.
Samuel Walker was buried at the cemetery when he died in 1907. And his wife was buried there when she died in 1910.
Other graves at the cemetery included 18-year-old Marshall Henry in 1912. His stone identifies him as the son of Jim and Kizzie Goad Henry.
The cemetery fell largely inactive after 1912. Joe Walker was buried there in 1937, and that was the only other burial until 1954, when infant Doffice Lee Griffith was buried at the cemetery. He was the son of Lawrence and Oasie Hill Griffith. His father was one of five men killed in a Brimstone coal mine explosion in 1965. Both of his parents were buried at Lone Mountain Cemetery, and baby Doffice’s headstone has been moved there, too, though his body remains at Walker Cemetery.
In the meantime, the second Walker Cemetery — which is the northernmost, or lower, cemetery and is much more accessible from Ridge Road — started when Daniel Walker died in 1902, at the age of 57. His wife, Almira, was buried there when she died in 1924 at age 72.
The only other burial at the lower Walker Cemetery was Minnie Hughett in 1917. She was the 28-year-old daughter of Daniel and Almira. She died of brain cancer. She was married to William Freeman Hughett, the son of Jasper Hughett — the man who the Hughett community was named after, and who later became a prominent businessman in the town of Robbins. They had three children: William Sherman, Dorothy, and Walker.
It is clear that the lower Walker Cemetery was designed to become much bigger than it did. For whatever reason, though, there were no burials there after Minnie’s death in 1917. The cemetery is infrequently maintained but generally kept clear of undergrowth even though there hasn’t been a burial there in more than 100 years.
Cemetery censuses
WALKER CEMETERIES OF INDIAN FORK
GPS Coordinates:
36.28680, -84.52877 (upper)
36.30075, -84.52896 (lower)
First Burial: 1885
Last Burial: 1954
Doffice L. Griffith, 1954 – 1954
Marshall Henry, 1893 – 1912
Minnie Walker Hughett, 1888 – 1917*
James R. Kesterson, 1828 – 1900
Almira Goad Walker, 1852 – 1924*
Almira Robbins Walker, 1866 – 1903
Daniel Walker, 1844 – 1902*
Emily Sexton Walker, 1852 – 1898
John S. Walker, 1891 – 1895
Joseph S. Walker, 1857 – 1937
Martha Walker, 1880 – 1885
Mary Goad Walker, 1858 – 1899
Mary Hutson Walker, 1818 – 1910
Samuel Walker, 1878 – 1890
Samuel Walker, 1818 – 1907
*Burials in the lower cemetery