gatlinburg's bicentennial celebration continues with cemetery ceremony

GATLINBURG - The City's Bicentennial Celebration continues with a historic memorial sign dedication at the White Oak Flats Cemetery at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 20.

The public observance to unveil a commemorative sign for the historic site is sponsored by Gatlinburg's Bicentennial Committee. Included in the program, interpreters in period attire will tell stories of people now buried in White Oak Flats Cemetery, including merchants E.E. and Noah Ogle, furniture crafter E.L. Reagan, and renowned Gatlinburg mountain man Wiley Oakley.

Originally called the White Oak Flats settlement due to the abundant white oak trees in the valley, Gatlinburg was settled by English, Scotch, Irish, and Scotch-Irish immigrants in the early 1800s, with the cemetery dating to about 1830.

The serene, tree lined graveyard nestled above the bustling Parkway in downtown Gatlinburg contains the gravesites of many of Gatlinburg's earliest settlers and prominent citizens, with names including Ogle, Huskey, McCarter, Maples, Reagan and Whaley particularly obvious because their families were the first to settle the valley of the Little Pigeon River and its tributaries.

Most heads of households during the early 1800s were Revolutionary War veterans. They came here to claim title to 50-acre tracts of land allotted to each for their patriotic service. A middle-aged widow, Martha Jane Huskey Ogle, was the first official settler here, settling on the land earned by her husband, who died before he could move here with his family. Nonetheless, Martha Jane led her family across the Smoky Mountains to start a new life in what Billy Ogle had described as a "Land of Paradise" in what is now East Tennessee. She is buried in White Oak Flats Cemetery.

The first homesteads were located at the mouths of Baskins Creek, LeConte Creek (then called Mill Creek for its numerous grist mills), and Roaring Fork Creek, where each joined the Little Pigeon River. In the decades following, Maples, Trenthams, Ownbys, Clabos, Oakleys, Kings, Cardwells, Bohannons, and other families took up residence along streams, in hollows, and up mountainsides. These names are also prominent at White Oak Flats Cemetery.

The oldest section of the graveyard is located on the east side. Some of the tombstones are hand-carved, and still others are simple field stones marking the grave locations. Old moss- and lichen-covered stones were called "graybacks" by the mountain people. When no stone carver was available or affordable, the dearly departed were sometimes buried with a glass jar sealed with beeswax and containing the name, dates of birth and death, and perhaps a picture of the person buried there. There are about 600 marked and 300 unmarked graves in the cemetery.

To find White Oak Flats Cemetery, enter The Village Mall from the Cherokee Orchard Road entrance and walk up the hill.

As Gatlinburg continues its Bicentennial Celebration, the placement of its oldest cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places will help to preserve its place in history and extend the legacy of Gatlinburg's founding families and citizens.

For more information on Gatlinburg's Bicentennial Celebration events, visit http://www.gatlinburg-tennessee.com/events/bicentennial.html, or call 436-0519.