Walnut Mountain Cemetery annual Memorial Day dinner set May 29

Published 11:29 am Friday, May 19, 2023

The maintenance and care of cemeteries are expensive and time consuming. Traditional funeral expenses and burials are beyond the reach of some folks. Many families are choosing cremation for loved ones who have died and some pre-plan their own funeral with the choice of cremation. However, there will always be a place for the traditional cemetery.

The local cemetery is more than a place where dead bones are buried. It is a place of remembrance..a place to visit and to remember the love and sacrifice made of wonderful parents…a place to remember the strength, courage, convictions, and hard work of simple, common-sense folks who brought stability, peace and love to those around them. The cemetery provides the proper environment to mourn the passing of a spouse who made you complete for decades, but now leaves you with a void that only time and God can heal.

David Irick, who has family and friends buried in the Walnut Mountain Cemetery, shared: “It does the soul well to purposefully make the trip to the cemetery to show respect and reminisce about those who earned our love. The cemetery becomes a physical aid to teach our children about the reality of life and death as well as the spiritual lessons that come with it. The cemetery is the only place where one can respectfully walk, read names written on stones and recall a friend or acquaintance that hadn’t been thought of in years. Ashes in an urn cannot do these things. Yes, there is a need for cemeteries. ”It does the soul well to purposefully make the trip to the cemetery to show respect and reminisce about those who earned our love. The cemetery becomes a physical aid to teach our children about the reality of life and death as well as the spiritual lessons that come with it. The cemetery is the only place where one can respectfully walk, read names written on stones and recall a friend or acquaintance that hadn’t been thought of in years. Ashes in an urn cannot do these things. Yes, there is a need for cemeteries.”

Memorial Day is a national day of remembering those gone before us. Many will make the annual trip to the cemetery to cry, grieve, and in some cases smile and rejoice from over-whelming memories etched within the mind.

One such group will be families and friends of those buried in the Walnut Mountain Cemetery. The Walnut Mountain Cemetery Association will have its annual dinner on the grounds Sunday, May 28 at 1 p.m. It is a covered dish dinner, so those attending are asked to bring a favorite food and enjoy the fellowship of the living as families and friends assembled remember those whose lives have been touched by those buried in the cemetery.

The Walnut Mountain Cemetery is located on Heaton Branch Road of the Elk Mills Road. Driving across Walnut Mountain might suggest to the casual observer that it was almost never inhabited. But that thinking would change when you see an old abandoned church building (Walnut Mountain Church of Christ) and see a well-kept cemetery.

In December 1880, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Banner buried their six-year-old son on that peaceful tract of land. The following year on May 23, 1881, Henry Banner deeded this plot of land to the community for the purpose of “educational and burial purposes.” Many families over the year would be grateful for the Banners’ generosity as the plot of land would, too, become their final resting place. For over 140 years the small piece of land has continued to absorb the tears of the living with the bodies of the mountain people who found their rooms on Walnut Mountain. Surprising to some, during its peak, Walnut Mountain was home to some 100 families. The growth came in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The boom came after the Pittsburg Lumber Co. purchased 1,200 acres of virgin timber in the Laurel Fork area of Carter County in 1909. The call for labor and the dream of land and the opportunities it promised brought families with strong backs and calloused hands to call these rugged mountains home. Within 15-20 years the virgin timber was gone and so was the lumber company. Without work, some families left the area completely. But others put down roots continuing to live off what the mountains would yield. After WWII, America was rebuilding and growing its wealth. By the 1950s and ’60s the call for workers in far-away places like Ohio, Michigan, and New York and elsewhere promising unheard of wages began to siphon off the families of Walnut Mountain with hopes of better and easier living. Gradually, these rugged people moved away leaving the land idle. Today, roads and sometimes, mere paths lead to stone foundations of houses, barns, and other buildings where folks once called home. However, even to this day, families who found their origins on Walnut Mountain carry back their loved ones to be buried on the land they once called home. For over 100 years, the care of the cemetery has fallen on those with loved ones buried there. But, it was not always a well-kept cemetery. In the ’50s and ’60s after most people had left the mountain, the cemetery became overgrown with briars that towered over the tombstones. During this time different folks would volunteer to work for a day to take care of the neglect, but there was only one to provide constant care. That changed 40 years ago. In 1982, a dozen men and women who were raised on the mountain had the foresight to develop a cemetery association. Due to their efforts the Walnut Mountain Cemetery is one of the better kept cemeteries in the area.

Today, all 12 of the original members of the cemetery association have died. Yet, the cemetery association continues with the descendants of those buried there. If you have someone buried in the Walnut Mountain Cemetery and would like to get involved with its care, you have a special invitation to the annual covered dish dinner on the grounds of the cemetery at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 28.

Also, a donation for the upkeep of the cemetery can be sent to Walnut Mountain Cemetery, c/o Donna Heaton, 104 Pritchard St., Roan Mountain, TN 37687.