Smokey Junction
Smokey Junction is an unincorporated community along the now-defunct Tennessee Railroad, named for Smokey Creek. It was a whistle stop on the railroad, which served coal-mining and logging operations in the Cumberland Mountains for more than 100 years. Smokey Junction is located south of Norma, where Smokey Creek empties into New River. Smokey Junction and Smokey Creek were two separate communities. For the purpose of this discussion, both will be included as one community.
See Also: Communities of Scott County
Geography & Demographics
Smokey Creek has its headwaters along the east side of the ridge that divides the New River basin from the Emory River basin. It heads up at Ligias Ridge. It is along this ridge that the old coal haul road that is today known as Trail #1 on both Brimstone Recreation and the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. One of its early tributaries, Asher Fork, drains Guinea Hill Knob, the highest point in Scott County, where the Scott, Anderson, and Morgan county lines join. It later merges with Shack Creek Bill’s Branch, Lowe Branch, and others. All of the highest points in Scott County are drained by Smokey Creek.
It’s unclear how Smokey Creek got its name, but the mountain that towers over the south side of the Smokey Creek valley, along which the Scott-Campbell county line runs, is Smokey Mountain — not to be confused with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Smokey Creek empties into New River at Mile 36 of the river, located at the base of Smokey Mountain. It is there that Smokey Junction was established when the Tennessee Railroad was built in the 1910s.
All of Smokey Creek and Smokey Junction fall within the 37756 (Huntsville) zip code and are part of Scott County’s 1st Civil District.
Business & Commerce
There was never significant commerce at Smokey Creek. The largest industry was coal mining, though timber-cutting and natural gas exploration have also played smaller roles through the years. Virtually every mountain peak surrounding Smokey Creek and Smokey Junction were strip-mined in the mid 20th century. There was a coal loading facility at the top of the mountain near the headwaters of Smokey Creek. It has since been removed.
Further up-river from Smokey was the mining community of Clinchmore. Downstream, towards Norma, was the Dean mining community at Roach’s Creek.
Today, there is one business at Smokey Junction: Hembree’s Store. It is owned by William Hembree, a descendant of one of Smokey Creek’s earliest families.
Schools
Today, students from Smokey Creek and Smokey Junction are served by Fairview School (K-8) and Scott High School (9-12).
Traditionally, schools that were located in this community included Smokey Junction, Smokey, and Hembree. Smokey Junction was located at the railroad; Smokey was located about where Bowling Branch empties into Smokey Creek, near where Smokey Creek Baptist Church is now located, and Hembree was located at Shack’s Creek.
Churches
There are two churches that serve this community: Smokey Creek Baptist Church, and River View Missionary Baptist Church. Smokey Creek Baptist Church is located in the Smokey Creek community, and was founded in 1873 by Rev. Sterling Adkins. River View Missionary Baptist Church is located at Smokey Junction, and was founded in 1909.
There was once a second church at Smokey Junction, Corinth Baptist Church. It was established at nearby Shoal Creek in 1887, and moved to Smokey Junction in about 1909. It disbanded in 1987.
Just up the river from Smokey Junction was the Nicks Creek Baptist Church, in Campbell County.
Post Offices
Today, Smokey Creek and Smokey Junction are served by the Huntsville Post Office. Traditionally, though, these communities had their own post offices.
Smoky Junction Post Office opened in May 1907 with Nancy Low serving as postmaster. It moved to Nicks Creek in 1916, then to Straight Fork in 1920, but reopened at Smoky Junction each time. It finally closed for good in March 1973. William Hembree was the last postmaster.
Smokey Post Office opened in January 1898 with John C. Courtney serving as postmaster. It closed in April 1927 and moved to Straight Fork. The last postmaster was Debra Cross.
There was also a Smoky Post Office that opened in March 1880 with Larry Adkins serving as postmaster. It closed in July 1881, with W.A. Cross serving as the last postmaster.
There was also the Hembree Post Office, which was located at Shack’s Creek. Meshack Hembree served as its postmaster.
Additional post offices in the area included Gennett and Newland. Gennett opened in November 1927 and was named for its first postmaster, Andrew Gennett. It closed in December 1945 and moved to Huntsville. Its last postmaster was Mae Sexton Harness. Newland opened in September 1908 with Sylvester B. Leeper serving as postmaster. It closed in May 1923 and moved to Smokey. The last postmaster was Carl H. Sparks.
Origins & First Families
It was sometime around the beginning of 1800s when Mikel “Grand Mikey” Low moved to Smokey Creek and became the first permanent settler of Scott County. He is the ancestor of all Lowes in Scott County today. At about the same time, the Carroll and Hembree families moved to Smokey Creek, and a new settlement was begun.
Things changed around 1910, when the Tennessee Railroad was constructed along New River. It had started in the 1880s as the Paint Rock Coal & Coke Co. Railroad from Oneida to Morning Glory, near Paint Rock. However, it was later sold, and its new owners realized the need for a railroad to serve the New River Lumber Company that was operating at Norma, so an expansion of the railroad began. By the 1910s, it had been extended into Campbell County, then into Anderson County, all the way to Fork Mountain, near the headwaters of New River.
Coal mining became a major industry in the Smokey Creek area throughout much of the 20th century, until the mines finally played out. Timber-cutting was also a major industry in the early 20th century, and has become a major industry again in the 21st century.
Much of the land surrounding Smokey Creek was purchased by the State of Tennessee in the early 2000s for the creation of the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area.
The Lowe family
Grand Mikey Low (1771-1852) was born in Tulpehocken Township, Pennsylvania, the son of Johan Phillip Lau and Maria Magdalene Gentzler. His grandfather, Johann Philip Lay (1726-1781), was born in Alsace, France, and migrated to the American colonies with his father, Johann Christian Lau (1696-1772), aboard a pinke called the “John and William,” landing in Philadelphia on Oct. 17, 1732. They settled in York County, Penn.
Mikey Low married Maria Elizabeth Bortner in 1794, when he was 23 and she was 20. She was also born in Tulpehocken Township. At some point after that, the Low family moved to present-day Scott County.
In her book, County Scott and Its Mountain Folk, the historian Esther Sharp Sanderson wrote that Low moved to Smokey Creek in 1776, receiving a land grant from North Carolina. The date of this move is inaccurate.
The earliest records placing Low on Smokey Creek aren’t found until 1830, when the U.S. census was taken. However, it’s likely that he moved well before 1830. He served in the 5th Regiment of the East Tennessee Militia during the War of 1812, making it almost certain that he had moved to Smokey Creek by then.
In Sanderson’s book, she wrote that Low’s land grant “included the land which borders on each side of Upper Smoky, to the top of the mountains on both sides. The fertile creek bottoms were planted in corn and vegetables, and the vast tracts of virgin timber remained uncut for many years as a haven for the wild animals which were plentiful at that time.”
Sanderson also wrote of an encounter between Low and a Cherokee Indian who was living at Smokey Creek: “The Indian had been banished from the tribe in North Carolina before coming to Smoky,” Sanderson wrote. “Shortly afterward he accused Grand Mickey (name by which he is familiarly referred to) of casting amorous glances at the pretty, young squaw. Soon after when Lowe went to fish in a deep hole in Smoky Creek, he spied the Indian lurking in the bushes nearby, evidently waiting for him to cast his line and become quietly engaged in fishing, when he could, unnoticed, aim a death-dealing shot with his bow and arrow. Apparently undisturbed, Grand Mickey nonchalantly picked up his hog rifle and killed the Cherokee on the spot. Since that time the deep hole of water has been known as the Indian Hole.
“According to stories by relatives of Grand Mickey, the squaw remained in the Smoky settlement and was cared for by the white settlers. She left some half-breeds whose blood can be traced through several generations of Lowes. However, intermarriage and illegitimate mixture of the races was relatively small in Scott County in comparison with some of the other counties in East Tennessee where the tribes had settlements.”
The Lowes have been very prominent in the Smokey Creek and Smokey Junction areas since Mikel Low arrived in the early 1800s, and they remain prominent there today.
The Carroll family
At about the same time that Mikel Low was settling on Smokey Creek, so was John Drewry Carroll (1776-1852).
Born in North Carolina, Drewry Carroll was the son of John Carroll (1741-1830) and Nancy Hollingsworth (born about 1743). He married Nancy King (1779-1850) in North Carolina on December 21, 1797. They moved to Smokey Creek at some point after that. The earliest land grant record for Carroll is found in Anderson County on January 17, 1825.
There are disputed claims that Nancy King Carroll was a Cherokee Indian. According to some, her parents were Peter “Man Who Tells Stories” King and “Mother Who Has Empty Heart.”
Sarah Nancy Carroll, one of Drewry’s daughters, married Phillip Low in 1820. He was the son of Mikel Low.
Another daughter, Martha Katherin Carroll, married Meshack Hembree in 1831.
The Hembree family
Meshack Hembree (1812-1885) was the son of John H. Hembree (1772-1836) and Mary Laws (born in 1780). His father was originally from South Carolina. His great-grandfather, John Armory, was from England. He migrated to the American colonies and settled in South Carolina, landing at Savannah, Ga., on Dec. 21, 1737. He moved to the Charleston area and was named administrator of the estate of Gov. Robert Johnson, who had died in 1735. John Amory’s son, John Amory Hembree, was the first to take the Hembree surname. According to oral history, he was closely associated with David Hembree of Virginia, so he began spelling his last name the same as David did.
John Amory’s second wife, Mary Moore, was a half-Cherokee from Keowee, a Cherokee village in South Carolina. She was the daughter of Col. John Moore. Her grandfather is believed to be Gov. James Moore of South Carolina.
The Hembrees eventually left South Carolina for eastern Kentucky, where John H. Hembree died in the Barbourville area. From there, several of their children moved to present-day Scott County, including Meshack, James, W.B., and Robert Buford. James and W.B. are buried at Huntsville Cemetery. Robert also died in Scott County, but it isn’t clear where he was buried. Their sister, Lucinda Hembree, married in Scott County, though she may have returned to Kentucky before her death.
Meshack Hembree married Martha Katherine “Kissiah” Carroll (1812-1879) in 1831. She was the daughter of Drewry Carroll and Nancy King. They eventually divorced, after Kissiah accused him of adultery with Ibey Surilla Smith (1853-1884), the daughter of William Smith and Pherbie Jeffers. At the time, Ibey was 20 and Meshack was 60. They were married in 1873 and had six children together.
Meshack’s children included Nancy Louise Lowe (born 1833), Rebecca Low (1834-1912), William Alexander “Bill” Hembree (1836-1928), Sarah Jeffers (1838-1912), Ezekiel Hembree (1841-1919), Jennie Keathley (1844-1931), Jemima Low (1845-1906), Elizabeth “Betty” Lewallen (1845-1926), Harmon Hembree (1871-1950), Mary Jane Hembree (1874-1930), Kissiah Hembree (1876-1891), William Hembree (born 1878), James Martin “Jim” Hembree (1880-1965), and Julia Ann Hembree (1882-1884).
Meshack and his family lived in the area of Smokey Creek that is today known as “Shack’s Creek,” named after him. He served in the Union army during the Civil War, enlisting at Somerset, Ky., in 1861. He was injured after being struck by a barrel of salt in 1862, and received a medical discharge at Nashville in 1863.
One of Meshack’s sons, William Alexander “Bill” Hembree, also fought in the Civil War. Legend has it that he was wounded on 13 separate occasions during the war. According to local historian David Jeffers, who represents Smokey Creek on Scott County Commission, there was a cave on Smokey Creek to which he would return after being wounded, and there his wife and mother would nurse him back to health. (There is a stream just up Smokey Creek from Shack’s Creek that’s called “Cave Branch.”)
At one point late in the war, he was severely beaten by Confederate guerrillas at New River and left for dead. The guerrillas attempted to force Hembree’s horse to trample him. When the horse refused, the soldiers shot the horse dead and left Hembree to die. He survived, and became a noted leader in the Smokey Creek community after the war. He ran a grocery store and boarding house, and donated the property where the Hembree School was established. He also served as the first postmaster of the Hembree Post Office.
Today, the name “Hembree” still appears on maps, as that was the name of the post office and school located at Shack’s Creek.