A few years back while we were building the cabin, we complained to the contractor about evidence that some of his workers were smoking in the cabin. One of the workers was apparently chastised, and the next time we were up at the cabin we found this book was left for us with an interesting apology note. Turns out the author of this book was an uncle of the worker. It provides some interesting history of the area and background on the Hooper-Watson feud of Jackson County.
Meanwhile, fast-forward and you have us exploring other parts of "our" mountain, most notably an old cemetery that is found if you turn left at the Shady Grove sign off Platinum Road. It suddenly dawned on me one day that this cemetery name could be related to the Watsons in the book....and voila. They are mentioned and these are the descendants, either he was the little boy survivor or he is the son of that young boy.... will have to check the book again for the details. I can barely keep up with the facts and dates of our own family tree so it's even more difficult to manage someone else's....
Somebody had the thought to "repair" the sign....
Overgrown vegetation includes some lilies.
This headstone appears to be handmade.
Don't know much about headstone manufacturing, but this headstone
seems to have been replaced in "modern times" or sometime after 1902....
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So many questions come to mind: who are the current relations?...When was the cemetery last cared for? Are there any caretakers? Research to be continued......
