Willis Greene

Willis Greene was a man murdered on Big Ridge Road west of Oneida in 1923. Very little is known about him.

According to local history, Greene — who was black — was walking alone on Big Ridge Road on July 12, 1923, when he encountered Daley Musgrove, a resident of the Foster Crossroads community and a veteran of World War I. Allegedly, Greene had been warned by a farmer along the route — Sherman Marcum — not to be walking alone on the road. Scott County was not friendly to black people in the 1920s. According to historian Esther Sharp Sanderson, black people had been “run out” of Scott County after a black man murdered a white man.

Musgrove would later say that he believed Greene was wanted on criminal charges and that there was a reward for his arrest. He drove Greene toward town, Greene on foot and Marcum on horseback, beating Greene along the way. When the men reached a spot called “The Narrows” just west of what is now Atomic Lane, Greene collapsed. That caused Musgrove to take out his gun and shoot him.

Hillery Marcum and Esau Foster — two more residents of the area — discovered Greene’s body when they returned from Oneida on a trip to sell lumber. They remained with the body overnight to guard it from wild animals. The next morning, the Marcum family buried Greene beside the road. His grave remains there today, marked by a concrete slab that is engraved “Negro Willis Greene.” For many years, Marcum’s children — Wallace Marcum and Charlie Marcum — cared for the grave site. Much of what we know about Willis Greene’s death was related by the Marcum brothers to the Knoxville News Sentinel in 2006.

Dale Musgrove was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of first degree murder. He was later released, and was shot to death by persons unknown on July 2, 1932.

There is no information available about Willis Greene’s identity. There were nine Willis Greenes who were black listed in the 1920 census. Three of them were children. None were living in Tennessee. Another was a 17-year-old prison inmate in Virginia.

See Also: He Walked the Wrong Road Alone — Murders in the Heartland
See Also: The story of the Willis Greene burial site — Sacred Ground