Happy Holidays all and welcome back to The Hogue Connection! On this post we will visit our BGT Stop #4, or the next stop The Braves and Graves Tour we took this summer. Go here for a look at the entire route. On Saturday, August 19th we stopped first at Panther Creek Cemetery, which we talked about in my last post. Then we proceeded up Highway 28 to the town of Stecoah.
I was hoping to find the Crisp Family Cemetery here but was unable to. We visited the Hazie Brown Cemetery instead and took a drive up Lower Stecoah road to get as close as we could to the property owned by William G. Hogue back in 1865. This sleepy little town was in beautiful surroundings on this sunny day. By the way, The old property of William G’s is located just above the “1236” markers (county road number) on the maps below.
The Hazie Brown Cemetery
There was a road sign pointing the way to this cemetery. It was a bit strange. The road to it is a one lane dirt road that ran in between two houses. A big, leafy tree blocked our path, but we got through it without a problem. We drove up a small hill and stopped in a small parking area. The cemetery was pretty big; it covered a hill that was under a forest of shade trees and extended back down towards town.
According to FindAGrave, there are 231 memorials listed here. The cemetery is named after Haseltine Aveline “Hazie” Crisp Brown (1830-1920) who is buried here in an unmarked grave next to her daughter. The land was previously owned by Hazie’s parents. It is very well taken care of; these North Carolinians are dedicated to their cemeteries!
Josephine and John Harvey Jenkins
Graham County records (Graham County was created from Cherokee County in 1872) indicate that John Harvey Jenkins married Aldamanda J. Hogue at William Hogue’s house on 4 Aug 1878. Known as Josie for most of her life, she is the oldest daughter of William M. and Mary Jane Hogue, and Charley S. Hogue’s sister. Josephine is carved into her tombstone and Josie is her name listed on her death certificate. The informant on that certificate was Pat Crisp of Stecoah, who I believe is a son-in-law.
Josie and John Jenkins had ten children and lived in Stecoah their entire married life. She passed away on 11 Mar 1929 of paralysis (of some kind) and is buried in Hazie Brown Cemetery. John died in 1944 (oddly, also of paralysis) and is buried next to her. There are several Jenkins, Crisps, and Carringers buried here. It would take many hours of forensic research to figure out who is related to whom! I know that some of Josie and John’s kids, about 5 of them, are buried here, including their daughter Arizona who married a Carringer.
The graves of Josie and John Jenkins
William And Mary Hogue moved their family to the Indian Territory in 1880, leaving the newlywed Josie behind. I’m sure It was the last time she ever saw anyone in her family.
Lower Stecoah Road
After Hazie Brown, we drove south on Lower Stecoah Road to the approximate location of the old William G. Hogue property he received in a land grant in 1853. William took possession of the property in 1863. My theory is he couldn’t come up with the cash any sooner than that. The land grant warrant entered by William G. Hogue (actually Hogge on this document) on 1 June 1853, was for about 50 acres (the warrant description of the land was measured in “poles” which were equal to 16.5 feet) on Stecoah Creek, about one mile southwest of the Little Tennessee River.
The Little Tennessee River was dammed up in 1944 to create Fontana Lake. Therefore, the land in this area has changed quite a bit. I believe most of the 50 acres is now under water, as previously mentioned. We got to the road, pictured below, which I think was the road that followed the creek to the river at one point. Unfortunately, it is now private and has “No Trespassing” signs posted on it. I think we got as close as we could without digging into current land ownership records.
Stecoah Creek
Private Road to the approximate area of the old Hogue property
Looking South towards Stecoah.
The Tail Of The Dragon
We ended our short tour of the Stecoah, Graham County, North Carolina area with enough time to get back to Bill and Shauna’s house for dinner. To get there, as I mentioned in a previous post, we had to navigate our way through The Tail of the Dragon, which has 318 turns in just 11 miles. Motorcyclists love this road and it is internationally known. You can check it out here. We survived it just fine. Lawson only had to pull over twice to let speeding cycles by.
Thanks for reading my blog at The Hogue Connection. I have one more installment in the BGT Tour left, about our very quick visit to Brick Mill, TN. See you next time! You can return to the Home page here.