Appendix
I. How We Got Started on This Project
“I’ve always known that my great-grandmother was a slave in the Wheat community, and that her name, prior to marrying W. P. Ellis, was Gallaher,” says Rufus Smith. “I was aware of the existence of the cemetery before this. I just didn’t know where it was.”
Oak Ridge City Councilman Will Minter says that several years ago he heard there was a slave grave site on the DOE property. “I just never could find it,” he says.
I was ecstatic when Mr. Eugene Pickel, author of A History of Roane County to 1860, agreed to speak with me at his home. When he told me there was a slave cemetery near K-25 which he’d always wanted to visit, something told me I had to go there.
These
three paths were destined to cross in January of 2000.
“Something very interesting happened to me on the way to the cemetery the first time,” remembers Rufus Smith. “ I knew of the general location of the cemetery from about 1984 because it is clearly marked on the DOE map of the reservation.” Knowing about it was one thing, “dealing with it was what hadn’t happened,” says Mr. Smith. “On the way out someone had a copy of a 1930 something edition of the Knoxville News- Sentinel (Tuesday, 11-27-1934) that had an Anderson County/Clinton section. It included a story on Mattie Gallaher (Mrs. David Houston Gallaher) who at the time was ninety five (95) years old. It hit me real hard that my grandmother (Mattie Ellis Hardin) probably got her name (Mattie) from this woman.
“While at the cemetery I began to wonder if some of my ancestors were buried there, and I really wanted to do something to clean up the cemetery and maintain it,” continues Mr. Smith. Many other thoughts began to occur to him in the solemn presence of that burial ground. He began to wonder about his own ancestry, and how differently his grandmother’s siblings looked from each other. In the midst of the overwhelming emotion, he began to think of the lost heritage of so many African-Americans. “You probably know that the presence of Africans and African-Americans really has been overlooked in the Oak Ridge story,” he says. “I also started thinking about a marker to memorialize the site and acknowledge the presence of Africans in the community...we need to find a way to begin to understand something about the area in a more specific way than what we’ve been told
in the past.”Mr. Will Minter says it was a pretty Sunday when he and Horace Miller went up the hill for the first time and walked the site. “All of a sudden,” says Mr. Minter, “the wind put up speed and it started getting dark. The rain started coming and we both felt the feeling of something present. I knew then that I had to know more.”
Mr. Minter says he frequently visited the Oak Ridge Library; he read Mrs. Moneymaker’s book, We’ll Call It Wheat ; he studied census records, and “ began talking to anyone that would listen.” The Director of the Roane County Heritage Commission, Mr. Robert Bailey, told him about a teacher in the Oak Ridge Schools named David who also was interested and doing research on this slave grave site. “I only had David’s first name, but I found him, and we were instant friends.” When Will Minter and Rufus
Smith shared stories, wheels really started turning!“If you want to learn about Roane County history,” said my friend and co-worker Marion Malone, “then you need to talk to Gene Pickel.” She told me that he used to teach at Oak Ridge High School, and that he has a magical ability to make history come alive!
I have always nurtured a love of history, and as a 4th grade teacher of not only the 3 Rs, but also Tennessee history, I always keep one eye open for new opportunities to learn. The scarcity of heritage for my African-American students has always been a source of sadness with me, and a challenge. I was visiting the museum at the Old Roane County Courthouse and was thrilled to discover A History of Roane County to 1860 by Eugene Pickel! In addition to the wealth of information on antebellum Roane
County, it contains the largest single body of research on slavery in Roane County that I have yet found. If I was thrilled to discover Mr. Pickel’s book, I was ecstatic when he agreed to meet with me at his home. His gentle presence and exciting stories captivated me far longer than he may have intended. One item would prove to be of particular interest. He told me there was a slave cemetery on the way to Oak Ridge. That was in December of 1997.I have already described my first visit to Slave Cemetery AEC #2. I heard no voices, saw no apparitions, yet I felt in my heart there was something I must do. It occurred to me that, in addition to providing a channel for the voices of the forgotten disenfranchised members of our human community, there seemed to be enormous potential for racial healing in a society that desperately needs unity between the sons and daughters of diverse heritage. I was aware of an inter-denominational project of a similar nature which had been done in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Perhaps it could work here as well? But there was still far too much I needed to know before presenting any ideas to local churches.
My search led me to fireball of energy Mrs. Dorathy Moneymaker and her wonderful book We’ll Call It Wheat; to Robert Bailey, an inexhaustible wealth of information and Roane County’s resident historian; to Mrs. Lucille Gallaher, who at 95 years was more lucid than I was at 25; and to many other priceless human treasures of knowledge. I poured through many books, web sites, diaries and narratives by those who had experienced slavery and/or slave owning 1st hand. I was especially on the lookout for items related to Roane County, and in particular, the Wheat area. Newspapers from the 1st half of the 19th century, microfilm military records, and lots and lots of wonderful books have helped unlock many doors and show me just how little I know.
I was extremely curious on that day in January (this year) when I was called from my classroom in Oak Ridge to answer a phone call from Oak Ridge City Councilman Will Minter. I was even more perplexed when he said, ”You and I are going to become good friends!” I began to discover that I was not the only one on this quest for information regarding slavery in the Wheat area and AEC #2. Will and I had been haunting the same libraries, reading some of the same books, talking to some of the same people, and
following some of the same leads trying to discover who were those nameless martyrs to a myth who were lain to rest at AEC #2.And then, Will introduced me to Rufus Smith. When Rufus told me that his great-grandmother had been owned by the Gallahers, I knew that our steps had been guided. I looked at Will; I looked at Rufus; and everyone seemed to know: it had been only a matter of time until our paths should cross.