Center of town, Gatlinburg 1920s. Baskins Creek flows over the main road not under it. Ephraim E. Ogle's Store in background. © Arrowmont archives |
Dad would have described Gatlinburg in the early 1900s as being merely "a wide place in the road." And it was a muddy, sometimes flooded road at that.
Historians have recorded it in much harsher terms: inaccessible, remote, cut off. And the mountain folk that lived up the headwaters of Baskins Creek and Roaring Fork were even more isolated. They were almost unreachable. As sequestered as an aboriginal tribe hidden in the dense jungle.
A trip to Knoxville and back could take three days by wagon. And it could be hazardous. Great great grandfather Caleb Bales died in 1914 after he fell out of the back of a wagon. He was visiting family in the vicinity of Gists Creek east of Sevierville and was buried there in an unknown grave. Getting his body back to his home on Roaring Fork would have been too arduous and it was customary to bury the deceased the next day.
Caleb Bales (1839-1914) © Bales family archive |
Caleb's visit to Gists Creek was perhaps to find solace with him still grieving. He had out survived his wife Elizabeth Margaret Reagan by two years. It's one of the tender mercies when the husband dies first, they do not do well alone, every day in mourning, every day the long hours, the loneliness. Lost to the world. Keeping the fire going for you and you alone. The clock ticking in the silent cabin. Why was it so loud? And what was the point of even winding it? What does time really mean?
Elizabeth Bales (1837-1912) © Bales family archive |
Not knowing where his grandfather was buried, Homer Bales erected a memorial stone for Caleb beside Elizabeth's grave.
Caleb begot Jim who begot Homer who begot Russell who begot me, with enormous help from Elizabeth, Emma, Pearl and Mary Helen.
Elizabeth, Martha Ann, Ephraim and Daniel are all buried at the Bales Cemetery. The firestorm of Monday, November 28 did not burn over this site.
© 2016 From the upcoming book,
"Vintage Gatlinburg:
The Transformation of a Small Timber Town to a Mountain Resort
Family Remembrances 1899-1974"
The Transformation of a Small Timber Town to a Mountain Resort
Family Remembrances 1899-1974"
by University of Tennessee Press author and native son
Stephen Lyn Bales
Homer Bales with memorial stone he placed in Bales Cemetery in honor of his grandfather. 1983 © Bales Family archive |
Caleb Bales Memorial stone erected by his grandson Homer. © Photo by Rex McDaniel. |
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