My tour of dad’s childhood area Part 2
Link to slide show of photos and maps of the tour
Lick Fork at dad’s address in 1940
Dad’s address in 1940
There is a mine located across the street from319 Lick Fork Rd.and nothing on the 319 side of the road. I found out the mine is no longer in operation. I suspect the mine had housing across the street for the miners who worked for them and that’s why my dad’s family had lived there.
I had read an article at the historical society that mining companies would pay the miners with tokens that could only be spent at their company store. They provided housing that the miners had to pay them to rent. It was a closed economy with the mine in complete control of almost every aspect of the workers lives. I suspected the housing was not very nice.
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If you follow Lick Fork Rd.out a bit further than I went it turns into Capuchin Creek Rd.which where the Honeycutt farm was. That explains how John Smith and Eliza Jane Honeycutt may have met.
After pictures I drove out to where Lick Fork, Elk Fork and 297 intersected to followed Elk Fork to the correct church and cemetery.
Valley View Cemetery
Valley View Cemetery is just that – a cemetery nestled in a narrow valley. It was a much larger cemetery – large enough I was worried about finding the grave makers I was looking for. After getting yelled at when taking pictures at the previous cemetery I immediately walked to the back where I heard men working and asked if it was okay for me to walk around and take pictures. I could tell they thought it was weird I even asked. Go figure.
I started at one side walking the full length of the cemetery row by row. I finally found Clay Smith on the next to last row. Next to him was his father John F. Smith. I have nothing against Clay Smith but when I looked at the marker for John Smith I thought this is the man who must have been so awful to my father that he would grow up and never utter a word about his step-father to his own children. I resisted the impulse to spit on his grave and took pictures instead.
Elk Valley
I left the cemetery and took 297 north toward Jellico. I passed through Elk Valley shortly after getting back on 297. The population is supposed to be 4000 but it was barely a wide spot in the road, so I don’t know if they include a large part of the rural area.
Jellico is the town I remember my dad talking about, telling people it was where he was from. I got Oneida from the ship passenger list when dad returned from Germany since he stated that as his birth place and the funeral book when dad died also said he was born in Oneida. Elk Valley is what dad listed as his home town when he enlisted in the army. I have no recollection of him mentioning either one.
Rector Cemetery
I still hadn’t found the cemetery where the Honeycutts were buried so I went back to the motel to see if I could get a better idea of where it was located and went back toward Huntsville that evening to find it. I had no idea who these people were or what, if any, part they had played in my dad’s life, but I wanted to get pictures for the sake of genealogy.
I had to take Norma Road south from Norma on Rt 63 and find Straight Fork Rd. Whoever named Straight Fork had a sense of humor since it twisted and turned all over the place.
I found Cemetery Rd and Rector Cemetery with the help of the GPS. It was such a little road I would not have realized I’d missed it without seeing it go by on the GPS.
This cemetery was a little scary to me since I was alone way out in a rural area where the houses reflected abject poverty. I quickly found the graves, took pictures, and got back in the car to head back to civilization. It surprised me how nervous it made me. I have traveled extremely remote areas alone and not been spooked, but this place did. Maybe it was some of the scruffy men I had seen outside of houses on the way there. Maybe it was the stories my dad had told me and the impression I had of the area. Who knows, but I was so glad when I was back on 63 and headed toward I-75.
I would go back to the historical society the next day to see what more I could find out before heading home.