By Jackie Layne Partin
Submitted by: Janelle Taylor

How many times has the reader driven or walked by a small cemetery in your community and not recognized the names on the headstones?  Maybe you wondered who they were and what brought them to this particular area. Well, this is just what happened to me when I first saw the White Cemetery on Partins’ Farm Road outside Tracy City. This cemetery was surrounded by a four-foot high, cement block wall, and the headstones were well kept throughout the years. It was obviously a caring heart, who had built this wall. This article is a condensed version of my research on this family.

William, Sr. and Katherine White were born in 1817 and 1824 in Ohio and Pennsylvania respectively. Their first five children, Armenia, Franklin, Libby, Charles and Ellen were born in Russell County Virginia between the years 1844 and 1855. The next three children, Allice, William, Jr and Fannie were born in Hawkins County, TN, between 1858 and 1861. Mr. White supported his family doing carpentry work. We see here that they moved from Ohio/ Pennsylvania to Virginia then over into Tennessee.

Sometime between 1861, Fannie’s birth, and 1867, Mr. White’s death, the family moved outside of Tracy City near the Ben Wooten home place. In February 1867 the first of the family to die, Mr. White, was buried in what was to become the family plot. Throughout the years, seven more of his family members were interred beside him. They were his wife Katherine, his son Charles, his daughters, Ellen, Allice, Armenia and Fannie. There is a grave for an “Annie” that I am not certain about at this time. Ironically, the son who was responsible for the four-foot wall and the gravestones was not buried with his family. William, Jr., the last of the children to die, was buried at the Fall Creek Falls Cemetery.

Around 1920, William, Jr. built a hotel on the family acreage, which is owned by the James Bell family now. The hotel boasted a large cistern, an outdoor furnace, and outdoor dance floor, plenty of card games, sulfur baths and plenty of cold spring and well water. The Haynes depot stop delivered patrons by train and then by wagon to the site. Battle Creek Road as it was called in those days, came up from the valley below and brought in guests. The local stories tell that William, Jr. went to Alaska where he acquired a gold mine. This may be supported by the census record in 1920 where his occupation is listed as “owns a mine”. It appears that maybe the “Great Depression”, the opening of Highway 41 up and over Monteagle Mountain, and a fire brought an end to the hotel business.

Libby White grew up, married William Barlew and had eight children born in Tracy City. Libby was not buried in the family plot near the hotel; instead, she, her husband William and some of their children are buried in the Tracy City Cemetery. Records show that some of the Barlew children were still in Tracy City around the 1940’s.

Franklin White married Clara Law and had three daughters and one son. Franklin supported his family working as a boss over the coke oven operations. Their son Alfred James L. White served in the U.S. Navy for several years. He was living in Detroit, Michigan, when I last found him on record. Franklin, Clara and at least one of the children are buried in the Tracy City Cemetery. Records lead me to believe that the Law and White families knew each other from the Ohio/Pennsylvania area. Since the Law family first settled in Marion County below the plateau, this may have been the reason the White family came our way.

For more information on this family or to add to/or correct this record, please contact Jackie Layne Partin; P.O. Box 295; Monteagle, TN 37356.