The origin of Scott County’s place names
The origin of some of Scott County’s community names is unclear. Others are based on oral history that has been handed down through the years. Some, though, are clear and documented.
Scott County itself was named for Winfield Scott, the U.S. Army general nicknamed “Old Fuss and Feathers” who was a hero of the War of 1812 and later was President Abraham Lincoln’s military commander at the start of the Civil War. Scott County was named in 1849 when it was formed by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly.
The Town of Winfield is also named for Winfield Scott. Prior to being named Winfield, it was known as “Chitwood,” for James Chitwood, the Revolutionary War veteran who first settled there.
Almy
Paint Rock was originally known as Almy, the name of the post office that served the community. It was established in September 1890 and was named for the first postmaster, Adrian A. Almy. It closed in August 1909 and moved to Oneida, after which Almy gradually became known as Paint Rock again. The last postmaster at Almy was James D. Roberts.
Originally from New York, Almy was one of the early investors in the coal mining industry that surged on Paint Rock Creek after the building of the Cincinnati-Southern Railroad in 1880. The mining activity led to the creation of what would become known as the Tennessee Railroad, which initially went from Oneida to Stanley Junction at Paint Rock — or Almy.
Almy didn’t stay in Scott County long. In 1880 he was living in New York and by 1900 he had left Scott County and moved to Kentucky, then to New Mexico.
Angel Valley
The area along Jellico Creek near Gum Fork is referred to as Angel Valley. This is the surname of the first family who settled there: Archibald Angel and his wife, Nancy Trammell Angel. They moved to present-day Scott County sometime between 1807 and 1810, settling first on Pine Creek in present-day Oneida before moving to Jellico Creek. They’re both buried at the Angel-Wright Cemetery at Angel Valley.
Bandy Creek
Bandy Creek is one of the best-known tributaries of the Big South Fork River, if only because it lends its namesake to the facilities on the west side of the river: Bandy Creek Visitor Center, Bandy Creek Campground, Bandy Creek Pool, Bandy Creek Stables, and the Bandy Creek Trailhead. Bandy Creek itself crosses S.R. 297 (Leatherwood Road) just west of White Pine United Baptist Church. Before this area was known as Bandy Creek, it was known as White Pine. Bandy Creek empties into the river just upstream from the Leatherwood Bridge. One theory is that an early 1800s settler built a homestead near Bandy Creek, then abandoned it, or ‘bandoned it, leading to the name Bandy Creek.
Big South Fork
The Big South Fork River is formally named the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. It is the third-largest tributary of the Cumberland River, and flows into the Cumberland River at Burnside Island in Burnside, Ky. Further north, a smaller tributary that enters the Cumberland River west of Parkers Lake is known as the Little South Fork of the Cumberland River.
Brynffynon
It doesn’t exist today, even as a place name on maps, but there was once a Welsh settlement near the present-day intersection of Toomey Road and O&W Road west of Oneida that was called Brynffynon. It was located on Nancy Creek, just east of Toomey Road.
The community was established by Samuel Roberts (1800-1885), a Welsh minister and writer who was known by the initials S.R. A pacifist and abolitionist who worked for the London Peace Society, Welsh began campaigning for radical causes through a Welsh language journal he founded, Y Cronicl. He moved with a group that included his brother, Richard Roberts (1810-1883), to Tennessee in 1857, where he purchased land in Scott County and attempted to start the Welsh colony. In Welsh, bryn means “hill,” and ffynnon means “spring” or “well.” Roberts named his settlement Brynffynon, meaning “hill of the spring.”
The colony suffered greatly during the Civil War. It was located on the Monticello Road that was the main road through the region, and was raided multiple times by both the Union and Confederate armies. On one occasion, Roberts was nearly hanged by rebel troops, until they learned of his nationality and feared hanging him would give the British cause to get involved on the side of the Union. The war left Roberts destitute, and he returned to Wales shortly after it ended.
A post office was established at Brynffynon in 1865 and operated for five years with Richard Roberts — John’s brother — as postmaster.
Clear Fork
There’s no definitive answer on how Clear Fork got its name. However, one likely possibility: Clear Fork and New River merge near Helenwood to form the Big South Fork River, which is formally named the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. Because of the geology in the area, the water in Clear Fork is traditionally clearer than water in New River. This can usually be illustrated with aerial or satellite photography, which shows a clear distinction in the water clarity of the two streams as they merge to form the Big South Fork.
Cumberland
Explorer Thomas Walker discovered a large waterfall in Kentucky in 1750. He led the surveying team responsible with establishing the frontier boundary between Virginia and North Carolina colonies, which at the time laid claim to what is now Kentucky and Tennessee. (He erred because he guessed at the location of the line instead of actually surveying it once he reached the rugged terrain of the mountains. As a result, the boundary line between Tennessee and Kentucky was disputed for many years until the two states’ legislatures reached a compromise in the 1820s that established the border as Walker’s erroneous line. If the line had been correctly surveyed, the TN-KY border would’ve run through the Oak Grove intersection in Oneida.)
Walker named the waterfall “Cumberland Falls,” after the Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn — named after Cumberland County in England and Strathearn in Scotland. (The duke position wasn’t actually created until 1766, however.)
As a result, the river also became Cumberland River, the mountains surrounding it became the Cumberland Mountains, and the tabletop land west of the mountains became the Cumberland Plateau.
Glenmary
First called Redman and later Black Wolf Creek, Glenmary took its permanent name in 1880 — the year the Cincinnati-Southern Railroad began operation and the station there was named Glenmary. According to Maggie Barger, a lifelong resident of the community and a career teacher, writing for the FNB Chronicle in 1989, a railroad executive named the town after his two daughters: Glenman and Mary, combining them to form Glenmary.
However, it’s worth pointing out that Glenmary was also called Glen Hazard in Mariston Chapman’s 1928 book, The Happy Mountain.
The name Redman, which preceded Glenmary, came from James Rowsey Thomas Redman, who was the first postmaster there in 1878. The Redman family owned a large farm on Nydeck Road, which at the time was the main road from Glenmary to Jamestown, before U.S. Highway 27 was constructed. James R.T. Redman’s father was Hinchea Gillum Redman (1809-1891), who moved from North Carolina to Scott County. Both men are buried at a family cemetery on the old farm. H.G. Redman was one of 10 slaveowners in Scott County when the 1860 census was taken. He owned seven slaves: a 47-year-old man, a 32-year-old woman, and five children.
Helenwood
Helenwood was one of Scott County’s busiest places in the early 1900s. It was a coal-mining town, which sprung up along the Cincinnati-Southern Railroad. It was originally called Homestead, dating back to 1859 when it was first established.
On April 5, 1935, much of the town was destroyed by a dynamite blast. While there were no fatalities, it was an historic event that forever changed the town. It has been said by the National Park Service that Helenwood received its name — “Hell in the Woods” — as a result of that explosion. However, the town was known as Helenwood long before 1935. It was being called Helenwood at least as early as 1883, when a newspaper article refers to it as Helenwood. The name has nothing to do with the 1935 explosion.
According to former FNB Chronicle editor Josetta Griffith, the phrase “Hell in the Woods” may have come from the rough-and-rowdy nature of the saloons that were once found in the railroad town. Or, it may have come from the daughter of a man named “Captain Woods,” who was named Helen.
Hembree
The Hembree family settled on the Shack’s Creek area of Smokey Creek in the 1800s. Meshack Hembree was the family patriarch (which is where the name “Shack’s Creek” comes from). Meshack Hembree’s son, William Alexander “Bill” Hembree, was a Union soldier during the Civil War who was wounded on a number of occasions. On one occasion, he was brutally beaten and left for dead by Confederate soldiers at New River.
After the war, Bill Hembree was a storekeeper on Smokey Creek, and donated the land for a school that was named Hembree. When a post office was established there, he served as postmaster, and hence the community became known as Hembree.
Much like Hughett, on Brimstone Creek near Robbins, the term “Hembree” isn’t used as a place name any longer, but still appears on many maps.
Hughett
The area around Slick Rock in the Brimstone community was once known as Hughett, for the post office located there. Jasper Hughett, a prominent merchant in Robbins and a Scott County School Superintendent, was the postmaster there, and the post office — and, in turn, the community — were named after him. The post office was located on what is now known as the Walker Farm near the intersection of Brimstone Road and Indian Fork Road.
Hughett Post Office opened in January 1887. It closed in September 1935 and moved to Cortland, which was located near Lone Mountain further up Brimstone Creek. (In December 1936, Cortland closed and moved to Robbins.) The last postmaster at Hughett was May Chambers. Today, the name “Hughett” isn’t used as the community name, though it still appears on many maps.
Huntsville
Huntsville was adopted as the Scott County seat of government in 1850, one year after Scott County was created. A committee was responsible for choosing Huntsville as the county seat, and selected the location out of three options. The other options included a farm on Buffalo Creek and a farm on Paint Rock Creek.
Twenty-five acres of land were purchased from George McDonald and Emanuel Phillips to establish the town, which was laid out in 47 lots by surveyor Wayne White-Cotton.
As for the name, it’s for the long hunters who once camped there before the town was established. More specifically, oral tradition has it that a long hunter named “Hunt” once camped there.
Jellico Creek
While most of Scott County is drained by the Big South Fork River, a tiny part of northeastern Scott County is an exception. It is drained by the Cumberland River, via Jellico Creek — a stream that originates in the mountains north of Pine Hill and eventually empties into the Cumberland River near Williamsburg, Ky. The portion of Jellico Creek that snakes through Scott County is often referred to as Upper Jellico Creek. The name “Jellico” comes from a species of angelica, a flowering herb that once grew in abundance in the mountains. When coal was discovered in the mountains in the early 1880s, it was called the Jellico coal. A mining camp was established further down Jellico Creek, in Whitley County, Ky., that was called “Bon Jellico,” meaning “Good Jellico.” The town of Jellico, which is in Campbell County, across the mountain from Jellico Creek, was Smithburg before changing its name to Jellico in 1883 to capitalize on the growing mining industry.
Marcum Creek
Marcum Creek, which flows into Smith Creek and then into Buffalo Creek in eastern Scott County, is uninhabited today, but was once populated by several different families. One of the families who lived there was the Marcum family, including Civil War heroine Julia Marcum. Her parents were Hiram C. Marcum and Permelia Huff. Hiram’s parents were Arthur Marcum and Anna Bransgrove, who migrated to present-day Scott County from Virginia and settled on what is now known as Marcum Creek. It isn’t known where Arthur Marcum and Anna Bransgrove are buried, but it is possibly at one of the cemeteries on Marcum Creek.
No Business
No Business Creek, which empties into the Big South Fork River northwest of Oneida, was home to the largest community during the settlement era of the river. The origin of the name remains a mystery, although it’s been suggested that one early settler of the creek valley told an intruding outsider that they had “no business” being there. Another story suggests that an adventurous couple happened upon a Native American along the creek and told his wife they should turn back because they had “no business” being there. Other streams and settlements just north of No Business, in southern Kentucky, have somewhat similar names, including Difficulty (pronounced Diff-ICK-ulty) and Troublesome.
The first settler of No Business was Richard Harve Slaven. He originally owned a large land grant along the Big South Fork River, stretching from near Bear Creek to near No Business Creek. It is believed that he later lived at the mouth of Tackett Creek, which is a tributary of No Business Creek. The last settler of No Business Creek was Richard Harve Slaven’s great-grandson, Dewey Slaven.
Norma
Prior to 1887, Norma was known as Skull Bone. Its name changed to Norma in 1887, then changed to Norcross in 1915, before changing back to Norma in 1919.
The name Norcross is easy to figure out. It comes from Frank Norcross, who was the general manger of the New River Lumber Company, which was the primary reason Norma became a town to start with. But the origin of Norma as a name isn’t known.
Oneida
Oneida was named after the building of the Cincinnati-Southern Railroad in the late 1880s. Oneida was the name given to the depot, and later the town that sprung up around the depot. It is said that railroad executives who were from Oneida, N.Y. chose the name because it reminded them of their hometown.
An alternative, though similar, story was told by historian G. Allen Storey: Railroad attorney Charles G. McDuffey named Oneida after his hometown of Oneida, Oh. (which was actually his wife’s hometown; McDuffey was from Cincinnati). The Ohio community is unincorporated, and was named after Oneida County, N.Y. by George Hull and Patrick Clark Hull (McDuffey’s father-in-law), who built a grist mill in Oneida, Oh. in 1840 and were originally from Oneida, N.Y.
Given the town’s name, it was natural for its high school to adopt the “Indians” nickname. Oneida County, N.Y. was named after the Oneida Indian Nation, one of the original tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy. Their name, “Onyota’a:ka” in their own language, translates to “People of the Standing Stone.” The name was born of a legend that these native people had the ability to shapeshift into stones.
Pleasant Grove
Pleasant Grove, a community in Winfield, was named for Pleasant Chitwood Sr., the son of Revolutionary War veteran James Chitwood, who first settled Winfield. James Chitwood settled what is now known as Pine Grove on the other end of the town, where he was a postmaster. (Winfield was for many years known as Chitwood.) Pleasant Chitwood’s son, Pleasant Chitwood Jr., moved further into the mountains and settled on Jellico Creek.
Robbins
Like Helenwood, Robbins was once a thriving railroad town. It was originally called Ernie in the late 1800s, and then Bianco. Eventually, though, the town took on the name of its post office. That was the case with many Scott County communities. And many of those communities’ post offices were named after their postmasters. In Robbins’ case, the postmaster was Andrew J. Robbins.
The Robbins family was very prominent in Robbins. Melton James “Mitt” Robbins served as a Scott County Judge. Horace M. Robbins was a physician who served as a Scott County Superintendent of Schools (and later moved to Oregon and served as mayor of a town there).
A.J. Robbins was not closely related to Mitt Robbins. His sister married Jasper Hughett, who was also a superintendent of schools and was a prominent merchant in Robbins. Jasper Hughett’s half-brother was Dr. Horace Robbins. Later, Ora Shoemaker Robbins, who married Jasper Robbins, was the first and only woman elected to the position of Scott County School Superintendent.
Rugby
In 1880, English author and reformer Thomas Hughes founded Rugby, which he envisioned as a utopia for the younger sons of English gentry who, under British primogeniture, did not inherit land. It was located along the Scott-Morgan county line. Hughes, the author of Tom Brown’s School Days, named the new settlement Rugby, in honor of the famous Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, which was Hughes’ alma mater.
The settlement enjoyed modest success in its early days, but a string of setbacks — including fires and illness — eventually spelled its doom, and most of the settlers left. Many of the original buildings have been preserved by historians and conservationists who eventually established a non-profit, Historic Rugby, and the village remains today as not only a throwback to the 1890s but a tourist attraction on the edge of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.
Smith Creek
Traditionally, “Buffalo” was the general term used to describe the expansive creek valleys of eastern Scott County, which also included Buffalo Creek’s main tributaries. With time, though, these tributaries took on names of their own: Smith Creek, Stanley Creek and Sugar Grove.
Smith Creek was named for Drewry (or Drewery) Smith, who lived there. Born August. 18, 1794, he was the son of William Smith and Suzan Lampkin. He married Polly Tye of South Carolina. Their children were Drewery Smith Jr., Kisiah Smith, Jane Smith, Jackson G. Smith, William F. Smith, Henry C. Smith, and John Smith. According to H. Clay Smith, in Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past, Drewry Smith and another Scott Countian — Sam Walker — participated in the movement of Cherokee to Oklahoma, known as the “Trail of Tears.” At some point along the route, Smith and Walker became disgusted with the treatment of the Indians and began helping some of them escape.
Smith was baptized late in life and joined New Salem United Baptist Church at Smith Creek at the age of 80.
Later, a Civil War soldier who had marched through Scott County with Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Ohio in 1863, returned to the local area and settled on Smith Creek. His name was John Fetterman, a Dutchman from Pennsylvania. He built a bowl factory just east of New Salem United Baptist Church, called the Fetterman Bowl Company. When a post office opened there in 1891, he served as the postmaster, and because of his factory, the area became known as Bowl, Tenn. until 1907, when the post office closed and moved to Oneida.
Stanley Creek
Located just north of Smith Creek, Stanley Creek is another tributary of Buffalo Creek. Like Smith Creek, it is named for one of the early families who settled here: the Stanley family.
Rhodes Stanley (born 1772) was the son of Zachariah Stanley and Susannah Mendenhall. He married Rutha Sartain (1775-1875) and moved from North Carolina to Tennessee. He had settled in the Stanley Creek area by 1802, when his name appears on an Anderson County tax list. Present-day Scott County was part of Anderson County at the time, and four years later became part of Campbell County, until Scott County was created in 1849.
As a side note: Rhodes’ sister, Henrietta Stanley (1780-1806), married William David Sartain (1778-1806) — Rutha Sartain’s brother. Their daughter, Rosa (Rosey) Sartain, married Joshua Duncan of Buffalo Creek.
Station Camp
Station Camp is named for the longhunters’ camp that was once established along Station Camp Creek, which empties into the Big South Fork River. The camp was located at the confluence of Station Camp Creek and Charit Creek, where Charit Creek Lodge is now located. The long hunters often referred to their base camps as a “station.” The Station Camp that we know was established by a group of long hunters named Phillips, Bledsoe and Russell. Their full identity isn’t known.