2024 Cemetery Quest

This event is designed to connect each participant to a small part of the human history of the Cumberland Plateau. During this quest you will embark on a virtual visit of several historic communities within the Tennessee and Kentucky region of Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. Within these places are cemeteries where the people who called these places home are laid to rest. While completing the 2024 Cemetery Quest, take advantage of the opportunity to collect points toward the GO BIG 2024 Challenge. Earn 10 points for completing the quest and learn some history along the way. 

How to complete this quest: 

Virtually explore the cemeteries listed in the map below, then follow along to the section below the map to fill in the blanks and answer questions on specific aspects of each cemetery. Photographs are provided for each cemetery to assist with the quest. All answers can be found in the photographs of the tombstones. The virtual 2024 Cemetery Quest may be completed by recording your answers on the  worksheet  and submitting via email or mail to Attn: Cemetery Quest Coordinator 4564 Leatherwood Road, Oneida TN. 

Cemeteries contain stories hidden behind tablets of stone. In Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, cemeteries serve as a reminder of the people who called this rugged and beautiful land home. Beginning in late spring, people journey to cemeteries throughout the mountains to celebrate Decoration Day. Annie Troxell, who was interviewed as part of the Big South Fork Oral History Project in the 1970s, gave vivid descriptions of Decoration Day services around 1900 that are still carried on today.

“Generally, they’d go to the graveyards, and most times they’d have preaching and singing and decorate the graves (with flowers). We used to buy this crepe paper to make our flowers but now here of late years they buy these other flowers. Then we’d come back to the house to set the tables to have dinner. Made a big long table out in the yard (a)nd I saw that settin’ full…(with) all kinds of food. I have knowed of as high as almost a hundred people being there. They’d come almost all the relatives that could get there and other people besides.”

This combination of memorial service and family reunion takes place in many cultures. Decoration Day in Appalachia traces its roots back to traditions in the British Isles. Flowering Sunday is a Welsh holiday that took place on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. This was a time when graves were cleaned and white-washed before they were decorated with fresh flowers. Decoration Day as an Appalachian tradition was solidified in the aftermath of the American Civil War. As the United States struggled to patch itself back together, veteran and civic organizations in both the north and south began holding memorial services to honor the soldiers who perished. After WWII, the newly renamed Memorial Day was designated a federal holiday to remember all of the people killed in the United States Armed Forces. Yet across Appalachia, people still hold Decoration Day services to remember and honor their ancestors and to keep an ancient tradition alive. Remember as you walk through these cemeteries that each stone represents a life that lived on earth and was cherished by someone.

1. Oscar Blevins was the son of Jack and Louise Slaven Blevins, who are also buried here. His family moved around the area several times when he was a child. As a young man he met Martha (Ermon) Smith at a church meeting near Mount Pisgah, Kentucky. They courted for three years, three months, and three days until they were married. Reflecting on the amount of walking that he did while wooing her, Oscar said, “I wore out a lot of shoes.” They were married on______________. He brought his new bride to the farm where he was born and the family would expand with the addition of two children, one of whom died in infancy.

Oscar and Ermon Blevins clung to a traditional way of life, even more so than their neighbors did. The savory smell of oak and hickory smoke from the wood burning cookstove perfumed the home. Water was carried from a spring nearby and all light was provided by kerosene lamps when the sun faded away. Yet this simple life would change completely on March 7, 1974 with the creation of Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. As the U.S. Government worked out the details on the new National Park Service unit, the Blevins family lived with the anxiety of leaving the home that they had occupied for four decades. Oscar’s frustration showed when he told a friend that, “one of them government men will tell me I’ll have to go, and the next week another one will say they’ve changed their minds. I never know whether to put out a crop (or)... whether they’ll let me stay to gather it.” Ultimately the Blevins family moved to nearby Allardt and sold their farm to the National Park Service. Oscar passed away on ________________ and Ermon followed him on ________________. The Oscar Blevins farmstead remains as a reminder of the people who struggled to carve a life for themselves out of the Big South Fork Area.

2. Lindsay Phillips was born in 1880 and was a logger, farmer, and game warden for Scott County. On a hot July day, he entered a tavern south of Helenwood to serve a warrant on Sheriff Herbert Bilbrey and Deputy Dorsey Rosser for breaking game laws. An argument ensued, the cause of which is lost to history, and Lindsay Phillips was shot 16 times by Deputy Rosser and tavern owner Ralph Harralson. Phillips never cleared his holster before being shot. Sheriff Bilbrey promptly arrested Rosser and Harralson and transported them to the Scott County Jail. The Scott County News reported that when, “asked who actually fired the shots which killed Phillips, Sheriff Bilbrey declined to answer, saying only that he would ‘tell who did it’ when court convenes.” Deputy Rosser and Ralph Harralson were later acquitted of wrongdoing at trial. Sheriff Herbert Bilbrey was defeated in the next election. Deputy Dorsey Rosser would later be elected as sheriff of Scott County in 1944. Lindsay Phillips is the only game warden in Tennessee history that perished in the line of duty. In what year did he die? _________________

3. Nancy Thompson Phillips was born on December 27, 1883 and married Lindsay Phillips in 1899. Nancy Phillips died on February 21, 1908 from complications of childbirth a few days after her daughter Charnettie was born. She was twenty-four years old. In an age before modern medicine, childbirth was one of the most dangerous things for a woman to endure. What symbols are present on her tombstone? __________________________________________

4. James Elmer Phillips was the son of Lindsay and Nancy Phillips. At 22, he was finishing his degree at Knoxville Business College and was scheduled to graduate in January of 1927. While home for the Christmas holdiay, he and Martin Luther West drowned on December 15, 1926 after their canoe capsized in New River while duck hunting. It took search crews almost two weeks to retrieve his body. What does his epitaph say about him? ______________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________

5. Howard H. Baker Jr. was born on November 15, 1925 in Huntsville. After serving on a P.T (patrol torpedo) boat in World War II, he received his law degree from the University of Tennessee and returned home to practice law with his father. In 1966, he was elected as the first Republican senator from Tennessee since Reconstruction after the Civil War. He served 18 years in the Senate and rose to prominence during the Watergate hearings when he asked the question, “What did the president know and when did he know it?” He was instrumental in passing legislation which created the Big South Fork NRRA in 1974. Afterwards he said, “The Big South Fork Project will…preserve and protect the natural beauty of one of the most outstanding river gorges in the United States.” Baker was known to call Big South Fork “the center of the universe.” After an unsuccessful bid for President in 1980, he served as Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan and was appointed as ambassador to Japan under the Bush administration. He was known as “the great conciliator” for his ability to broker compromises and passed away on June 26, 2014, at the age of 88. How old was he when Big South Fork NRRA was created? ________________

6. Joy Dirksen Baker was born in Pekin, Illinois where her father was elected as congressman when she was 3 years old. She received a degree in history from Bradley University and was working for her father on Capitol Hill when she met young Howard Baker in 1951. At a wedding in Johnson City, Tennessee young Joy offered a cigar to Baker’s younger sister. After Howard Baker caught the young ladies smoking, he took the cigar from them. In the scuffle, Joy Dirksen fell backwards into a rosebush and was scratched considerably. Baker apologized and they were engaged shortly afterwards, marrying on December 22, 1951. When Howard Baker was being considered by President Gerald Ford as his running mate in 1976, he was asked if there was anything in his personal or family life that might come out in the election. With his wife’s blessing, he disclosed that she was a recovering alcoholic. Although she had been sober for six months, Joy Baker blamed herself as the reason that her husband was passed over for the position. After being hospitalized and going to Alcoholics Anonymous, she was able to stay sober. When she went public about her struggle, Sen. Harold Hughes stated that, “It will give other women hope for recovery.” She reentered public life and proudly served on boards for Knoxville College, Bradley University, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and Ford’s Theater, for which she received a Lincoln Medal in 1985. She also assisted in redesigning U.S. Foreign Embassies as a consultant for the State Department. Joy Baker courageously addressed her struggles with addiction in the public eye. She passed away at home on __________________________ after an eleven-year battle with cancer.

7. Wesley Valentour was born October 2, 1918, to Joseph and Selene Meece Valentour. His father was a coal miner that was fortunate enough to have his family live in Stearns. On August 25, 1934, his mother took his siblings to visit relatives near Cumberland Falls, leaving Wesley home alone. Before leaving, his mother hid his father’s rifle and instructed him to not touch it. One of his friends came over and the boys began searching for the firearm. They were looking at the gun when it went off, and the bullet struck Wesley in the side. Wesley died a few minutes later. How old was he? _________

8. Ross Martin passed away on ___________________ after he was injured in a mining accident. He was riding in a commuter car that collided with an engine. None of the other passengers were injured. He was taken to the hospital where he died shortly afterwards. He left behind a wife and young child.

9. Mary (Strunk) Brown was born ________________, 1935 and was the daughter of James and Flossie Strunk of Burnside, where her father was a policeman. She married Albert Jacob Brown and they had two children, one of which would live to adulthood. Mary Brown and daughter Faye passed on May 28, 1956, and were buried here in the same grave. What does their epitaph say?________________________________

10. Edward Couch was a well known employee at the Stearns Company Sawmill which was located in town. He passed away on _____________________ from pneumonia and typhoid. The Stearns Sawmill was closed for one hour during his funeral services in reverence to him.

11. In May of 1934, Maggie Boyatt left the home of Clabe Daughtery in Worley to go to a Decoration Day service in Scott County, Tennessee. Friends became worried when she never made it to the service and began looking through the wilderness for her. A week later her body was found floating in the river around the Devils Jump rapid. A coroner’s inquest deemed that she drowned in the river, and she was buried here immediately after she was found. Many people suspected that foul play was involved, but no further investigation was pursued. If someone murdered Maggie Boyatt, it was a secret taken to the grave. How old was she when she passed? ________

12. Millard Waters was a coal miner at Blue Heron. He married Mae Spradlin in 1933 and they had thirteen children, three of which passed away in childhood. He passed away on ______________________ in a roof collapse while working the late shift at one of the Blue Heron Mines. He was the first fatality to happen in the Stearns Mine in five years. He left behind a wife and six children who were still living at home, along with other friends and family. His funeral was held at the Ross Grove Cemetery where he and his family attended church before he was buried here. Mae Waters never remarried and was buried beside her husband after she passed on August 25, 2005.

13. William Houston (W.H.) Blevins was born on ________________________, the 16th child of Armpsted Blevins and Helen Terry Blevins on Parch Corn Creek in Big South Fork. He was delivered at home by a midwife who was paid half a bushel of dried apples for her services. As a child he worked on the farm and ran his father’s gristmill. He first attended school under a rock shelter on Parch Corn Creek and traded a catfish for an arithmetic book, the first book that he ever owned. This experience whetted his thirst for knowledge and he began attending the Presbyterian Academy in Huntsville in 1889 to train as a teacher. He boarded with families in town and worked odd jobs to pay for his education. In 1890, he began teaching in one room schools at a salary of $35 a month and taught for 27 years. Houston Blevins got into politics during this time and cast his first vote for William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt in 1896. He served as justice of the peace, census enumerator, and deputy sheriff for Scott County. At the age of 84, he attended the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower wearing a bowler hat and coat with his “IKE” campaign button alongside the ones for McKinley and Roosevelt. Completing this outfit was a handmade walking cane with a ram’s horn as a handle. This ram’s horn had been the “dinner horn” that his mother would blow to signal everyone from the farm fields for the noon meal. Ever the eccentric, he carried this horn with him while campaigning for political office and was known as the “Ram’s Horn Orator.” He passed away on November 20, 1964, at the age of 95.

14. Rosa Marcum Blevins married William Houston Blevins in April of 1901 and was the mother of 10 children. She always grew a large garden even when she was in her 80s and supplied her neighbors with vegetables. She was a lifelong member of Pine Creek United Baptist Church and at her death she had 13 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandchild. While her husband’s life focused around teaching and politics, her life was focused around her home and community. She passed away on _____________________.

15. Both she and her husband have epitaphs that relate to plants. What do they say?

His: _______________________________________

Hers: _____________________________________

16. Of Houston and Rosa Blevins’ 10 children, six would precede them in death. Two who died in infancy are buried in another cemetery near the park. Tragically, they would lose three of their children in a 16 month span. Willie Blevins was killed by his first cousin Whitney Marcum on February 25, 1932. Marcum had arrived at the Blevins home to confront Emmett Blevins, Willie’s brother, about the theft of some barrels from his whiskey still. An argument ensued and Whitney Marcum shot at Emmett, missing him. The stray bullet struck Willie in the stomach. Another bullet struck brother Ralph Blevins in the foot. Emmett Blevins fired a shotgun while Marcum was fleeing but missed. Whitney Marcum was killed the next year during an argument outside the Hazel Valley Baptist Church. How old was Willie when he died? _________________

17. Emmett Blevins passed away on _________________ from complications from burns after he fell into a fire.

18. Ralph Blevins survived being shot in the foot but died on_______________________.

What do all three brothers have in common? _______________________

19. Lue Maude Blevins was the daughter of W.H. and Rosa Blevins. She never married and died on February 14, 1958 of heart trouble. When was she born? ____________

20. Andrew J. Watson was the son of Elisha and Nancy C. Watson. During the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa attacked and burned Columbus, New Mexico and the United States stepped into the war south of the border. Andrew joined the United States Army and drove a supply wagon for the 5th Cavalry Regiment. On September 22, 1916, Watson and a few of his comrades left their camp and went to a cantina near Chihuahua, Mexico. They met some loyal Mexican soldiers drinking there and the Mexican troops proposed a toast to Mexico. The American soldiers refused the toast and the conversation erupted into an argument. Guns were drawn and after the smoke cleared young Andrew Watson and a Mexican sergeant were dead and another U.S. soldier was wounded. The American soldier who shot the Mexican sergeant was taken into custody by the Mexican military and General John J. Pershing (who later commanded all American troops in WWI) personally investigated the matter. Watson’s body was returned home and buried here in the family cemetery. How old was Andrew Watson when he died? _______________________________

21. Elisha and Nancy Watson were married in 1884 and had twelve children, at least two of which are buried here with them. What symbol is featured on both tombstones?__________________ This animal symbolizes peace.

Thank you for completing the 2024 Cemetery Quest. Cemeteries are a physical connection to the past and Decoration Day is a time to honor the lives of those who rest there.

There are three ways to receive the 2024 Cemetery Quest Coin.

Return this worksheet to Bandy Creek Visitor Center at 151 Stable Road, Oneida, TN 37841 before 4 pm EST on May 31.

Mail to Attn: Cemetery Quest Coordinator 4564 Leatherwood Road, Oneida TN

Email completed worksheet to biso_information@nps.gov

Please include a return address to receive the 2024 Cemetery Quest Coin.

This completed worksheet can potentially count 10 points toward the GO BIG 2024 Challenge.

For more information about cemeteries in Big South Fork NRRA, visit www.nps.gov/biso/learn/historyculture/cemeteries