Great Smoky Mountains National Park: July 2016

Combining five blogs originally Posted on GoSmokies December 31, 2012 through January 4, 2013, and April 2013 about the area in Little Greenbrier where the famous Walker Sisters once lived.

Magical Historical Tour of Walker Country

I had the pleasure recently of doing another hike with the Ledbetter father/son duo this time in Walker Country. Now several people a year hike back to the Walker Sisters Place via a nice park trail. It is a pretty easy 1.1 mile hike back to the Sister’s homestead, but where did that family come from? I have seen pictures of John N. Walker the father of the Walker sister’s but who was their mother? And just how many sisters were there? And…now hold on my faithful GoSmokies readers… let’s answer some questions and take a hike with the Ledbetter’s and imagine ourselves on the Magical Historical Tour of Walker Country.

John N. Walker was born March 3, 1841 to Thomas and Eliza Walker. He was not born with the beard that later gave him the nickname: “Hairy John,” and he did not always live in Little Greenbrier. Here is a picture courtesy of the national park and taken by Jim Shelton.

He married Margaret Jane King, born July 18, 1846, who was the daughter of Wylie and Mary Jane (Adair) King. Initially he settled his family on his father's place in Buckeye at the foot of Cove Mountain in Wear's Valley.

Before he married John was in the Civil War and was an ardent Unionist. After the war he married Margaret Jane on March 29, 1866. The exact date they moved to Little Greenbrier is not known but was in the late 1860s or early 1870s.

John N. Walker was also a Republican and Primitive Baptist. His wife was a Methodist but converted to Baptist after her marriage.

John and Margaret Jane Walker had eleven children with four sons and seven girls. The first two were born in Wears Valley and the rest in Little Greenbrier. In order of their birth they were: James Thomas, William Wylie, Margaret Jane, John Henry, Mary Elizabeth (called "Polly"), Martha Ann, Nancy Melinda, Louisa Susan, Sarah Caroline, Hettie Rebecca, and Giles Daniel.

Now that we have a little background let’s hop in our boots and start the tour! First a map:

I have reorganized my GPS so you will no longer see names on the maps. And since we have names for most things on the map today I will just list them for you:

0131 Bill Cole Home Site

0293 Grayback Branch Falls

0356 Bridge on Indian Camp Branch

0607 William Wiley Walker Home Site

0608 S C Walker Shelton Home Site

0609 John H Walker Home Site

0610 James Shelton Home Site

0965 Dave Moore Home Site

0966 Mack Maples Home Site

0967 Home Site

0968 Dan Walker Home Site

0969 Dan Stinnett Home Site

0970 James T Walker Home Site

0971 John Maples Home Site

0972 Otha Russell Home Site

0973 Home Site

0974 Home Site

0975 John Davis Home Site

We began our hike from Metcalf Bottoms picnic area, crossing the bridge and spending a brief minute on the park trail. Just past where the park trail heads up toward the Little Greenbrier School we started up an old road that follows Little Brier Branch in the same direction. Soon you see some old car parts and then the very small remains of Dave Moore’s chimney. A little farther up and we come to the second oldest of the Walker sons, William Wylie’s chimney. This is just above where the creek crossing to the school is. Garmin has the cemetery WAY OFF just in case you noticed the map. I need to remark that waypoint next time I am up there.
We came out at the school all of us noticing how much darker it was in color. Still waiting to find out what happened there. Now the park trail to the Walker Sisters follows a nice road bed just a little over a mile back to their old home. But if you look as you are walking up toward the trail you will see an old trail heading off just below it. You will quickly have to cross back over Little Brier branch to find the old road but you will also find many home sites and a lot of history.
We headed up the old road that follows Grayback branch where Mack Maples and John Henry Walker lived. John Henry was the third Walker boy and there is another home site close to his that we were uncertain of. Had it not been for Dave’s dad I would have never known it was a second home site. I thought it was just part of the Walker place. Dave had a Henry Stinnett as possibly living at the Walker place so it may have been his home. A lot of cool stuff back at these home places and like I told Nick when we visited the area – “we need to preserve it so you can bring your children here.” In other words – leave it!

I was looking forward to seeing the waterfall on Grayback branch that Dave had told me about – I was not disappointed. I made a collage of pictures that includes the waterfall toward the end of the blog.
Just before we came out to the Walker Sisters place we came to the youngest male Walkers home site. Lots of cool stuff on the rock remains of Dan Walker’s old home. As he had been doing all day, Mr. Ledbetter described some of the objects and told us what they were for and how they were used.

We stopped for lunch at the Walker Sisters Place so let’s have a little history on the sisters. We know there were seven sisters. Did they all live here? Only one of the sisters, Sarah Caroline ever married. Two other sisters, Martha and "Polly" were engaged, but both men died accidental deaths. "Polly" apparently had the harder time dealing with the loss so much that she developed an illness that affected her brain. She remained troubled for the rest of her life. The oldest sister, Margaret Jane, never courted and selected spinsterhood early in her life. It would appear that many of her fellow sisters would follow a similar path.
So we have six sisters that lived in this house until one by one they died. Nancy died first on July 2, 1931. Louisa Susan was the last on July 3, 1964. Sarah Caroline lived until February 5, 1966, but did not reside in the Little Greenbrier House.
OK, back to our hike. We returned back to the school after visiting a couple more home places. We saw so many today that you could write multiple blogs on them all. Today, I am mainly touching on the Walker history.

Dave wanted to take the man way up Indian Camp Branch and with an affirmative nod from Dad we went on our way. I certainly wasn’t going to argue about an extended tour!
As you can see we saw many more home sites including another relative of that Maple’s guy whom a couple of you may know. But more importantly we found the home site of the oldest Walker boy, James Thomas. So now we have not only seen the Walker Sisters place but all four of the Walker boy’s homes too.
A lot more could be written about the history of this area which is why you can find several books on the subject. Hope you have enjoyed the tour and we already talked along the way back of what a good hike some of this would be for a future GoSmokies event. We are fortunate to have some very knowledgeable and kind folks who are willing to share the history of the Great Smoky Mountains with us. Many thanks to Dad and son for another great historical adventure.

Where are they Now

After my hike with the Ledbetter’s and delving into the history of the Walker’s in Little Greenbrier, I decided to look into where they are now. I knew that the Walker Sisters were buried at the Mattox Cemetery in Wears Valley. I actually discovered this by accident in 2009 when I visited the cemetery with my wife. It was one of those unplanned drive in the country sort of days. But today I wanted to know where all of the Walker family was. You might think that all of them are in the Mattox Cemetery but this is not so. Two of the Walker boys are buried at the Headrick Cemetery in Wears Valley. I do not know why so maybe someone can add to the blog. Here are their graves.

Returning to the Mattox Cemetery we have the graves of Mother and Father:

The six sisters who remained at the Walker Cabin:

And in the last blog I do not believe I mentioned who Sarah Caroline married but it was James B. Shelton and we did find that home place on our hike too. If you clicked on the link in my last blog you saw that many of the pictures were taken by Jim (James) Shelton. So while Sarah Caroline did not remain at the house she was very close by with her husband. Here are their graves:

William Wylie Walker and his wife are also buried in the same area but what struck me odd was that Dan Walkers grave was no where near the rest of the family. I walked all over the cemetery before finding his grave at the far end over 100 feet from the rest of the family. If anyone knows why I would really like to know.

There are many other Little Greenbrier residents buried here so another visit is certainly in order. So next time you want to hike to the Walker Sisters cabin you might want to visit them at the cemetery first and pay your respects. It is easy to find just look for Mattox cemetery rd as you are driving through Wears Valley.

Maples in Little Greenbrier

With the picture limitations imposed on the blogs I decided to extend my latest blog to include some pictures of the Mattox Cemetery. It really is a beautiful place with Cove Mountain as the back drop.

A picture of the section with the Walker family and Cove Mountain in the background.

Another picture of the Walker family. But look close for another familiar name in the background.

If you remember our hike in Walker Country there was two Maples home places.

Here we have Mack Maples grave.

And then we have John Maples.

Now I have deliberately opened up the floor for either a comment or maybe even a blog from someone who just might be related and could provide us with some more information. So get a cup of hot chocolate or a Mocha latte and sit in quiet anticipation.

Days of Old in Little Greenbrier

Just a little something to put folks in the mood for the GoSmokies hike on Sunday.

All pictures courtesy of the National Park.

Let Them Not Be Forgotten

A new tradition continues and I now put to words the reflections of another wonderful day spent with my GoSmokies friends. It was overflow parking at Metcalf Bottoms as more than 40 hikers gathered for a history hike to the Walker Sisters Place in Little Greenbrier. Perhaps in another 50 years a new generation of GoSmokies members will embark on this same path through the portals of time and imagine what it was like to once live in the Great Smoky Mountains. We who have traversed these old roads today should be grateful to live in a time when there remain some remnants of this historical place. For those who make this journey 50 years from now will likely only see small traces of what were once majestic chimneys and fruitful homesteads. By that time, most of the artifacts will have disappeared into Mother Earth and what remains of the once towering chimneys will be a mere pile of scattered stones. Many of those chimneys have already reached this state and are only remembered by those relatives who care enough to remember and share this information freely. One day the rhododendron and Laurel will have reclaimed the old roads and trails that we are still fortunate to locate and follow. Surely, these are good times and should not be taken for granted. More importantly, it is our task to document to the best of our ability that which remains so that future generations may at least know what was once present in these most sacred of mountains. The people who lived and worked to make their home in the rugged Smoky Mountains should never be forgotten.

Each year, thousands of visitors embark on a hike to the Walker Sisters place. Nevertheless, few of them know of the community that lived on the other side of the creek. They know of five sisters who remained in the park until the very last one was laid to rest. It is likely that they do not know their Father John N. Walker, their Mother Margaret Jane Walker or that there were actually seven sisters. Unlikely that these visitors know that the sisters had four brothers who all lived nearby. Moreover, so close to the trail is the home of James Shelton who married one of the sisters. A few steps away from the trail and they would find his place and part of a car not far from the chimney remains. Many of the pictures of the Walker family were photographed by Mr. Shelton. If we could travel back 50 years we could have stopped by the Walker place and had some friendly conversation with the sisters. But at least today, we can walk their roads and visit the old home places. 50 years from now, there may only be a faint trace of those places. 100 years from now, it is likely that the forest will have completely removed any trace of these old home places. All that will remain are the memories and what those of us who are lucky enough to visit these places today share.

Furthermore, we must share our knowledge with the young people less all the information that we have gathered will die with us. It gives me great joy to see young ones out in the woods. As I watched Nick and his new friend keeping the rest of us safe with their stick guns, it made me happy to know that a seed was being planted. Would they care about the names of home places? Would they sit in awe of the great stories being shared by Mark concerning the Walker family? Were they considering the great sacrifices these mountain folk made so that we could be here today enjoying a National Park? Of course, the answer to all questions is NO. Today, it was all about fun and playing in the woods. Yet, it is the beginning of a love for the mountains that hopefully will last an eternity. I did not care about such things when I was their age either. I played in creeks and hiked off trail all the time when I was their age. However, I never thought about it as off trail or hiking. I was just a kid having fun in the woods. That love never went away and today I am still having fun in the woods. And today, I do care about the history and the names of the people who once lived in these mountains. I had to smile when we came to John H Walker’s old home place and Nick said, “Hey, we’ve been here before.” So the seed is planted and he does remember something a little more substantial than Sponge Bob. He told me at this very chimney that he would one day bring his son to this place. I am going to hold him to that. And just to give him a little help in that endeavor, I leave him this map:

It was a great day in Walker Country. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen and thanks to everyone who came out and hiked on this beautiful day. You may notice two tracks on the map. The upper track is a hike I did after the GoSmokies hike. I will blog it separately.