| Sources |
- [S47] Sevier County, Tennessee and its Heritage, Sevier County Heritage Book Committee, (1994, Don Mills, Inc.), 146.
- [S112] Census, 1860.
Name Clarinda Miller
Residence , Sevier, Tennessee
Ward District No 6
Age 22 years
Estimated Birth Year 1838
Birthplace Tennessee
Gender Female
Page 14
Family Number 97
Film Number 805270
DGS Number 4297412
Image Number 00156
NARA Number M653
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 3 Oct 2010.
Upland Chronicles: Rindy Bailey known for her rambling
by CARROLL McMAHAN The Mountain Press
The interior of Historic Bethel United Methodist Church, where Bruce Underwood encountered Rindy Bailey on a stormy night. Rindy Bailey was a legendary homeless figure in the last half of the 1800s around the Kodak community.
On a cold February morning in 1894, Boliver Douglas discovered a dead woman lying in a shed beneath a cluster of white oak trees on the John Underwood farm located in the Kodak community near the road now known as Douglas Dam Road or Highway 139.
Boliver Douglas was the son-in-law of John Underwood.
The remains were immediately identified as Clarinda Miller Bailey, a homeless woman about 50 years old, who for several years had wandered aimlessly throughout the area north of the French Broad River in Sevier County and several surrounding counties as well. Her tattered clothes were frozen to the ground. At her side, all her possessions were wrapped in a sack and tied to a stick.
Sevier County marriage records indicate John Bailey and Clarinda Miller applied for a marriage license on Aug. 18, 1861. However, Justice of the Peace Samuel Mount recorded the wedding date as Aug. 22.
Clarinda, known as Rindy, was a daughter of John and Temperance Miller. Little is known about her childhood. The 1870 U.S. Census recorded John Bailey living with two children, Sarah E., age 4 and Lucy, 1. Rindy, however, was not mentioned.
Apparently, she had left her family and begun rambling.
No one knows for sure why Rindy abandoned her husband and children. Some thought she lost her senses after suffering the loss of a child; others believed the Miller and Bailey families chose opposite sides in the Civil War creating a marital discord. The possibility of domestic abuse has also been queried.
“Do you have a nickel or copper for me?” was the question Rindy often called out when she stopped in a yard. Covered in layers of clothing, she was known to sleep in barns and stables, in woodsheds, fence corners and straw stacks. Residents in farm communities were suspicious of the vagrant and never invited her to spend the night.
Once, a young man named Bruce Underwood was riding through an area called Dug Hollow, near the Sevier-Knox County line, when a storm with heavy rain and lightning caught him. Dug Hollow was said to be haunted due to the shapes of the rocky outcrops and the silhouettes they cast in the dark.
He rode fast as possible to nearby Bethel Methodist Church to get out of the downpour. He climbed in through a window and then closed it on the reins of his horse to tether him there.
As the lightning lit the inside of the church, an alarmed Bruce observed a scary looking, ragged figure ambling toward him.
As she came closer, to his great relief, he recognized Rindy Bailey.
The church was probably the most elegant accommodations Rindy ever found to pass an inclement night.
Several years hence, Rindy stopped at the home of Bill Hickman and ate what was probably her last hot meal and slept on an unheated porch. The next day, she warmed herself by the stove in Elihue Shepherd’s Store at Henry’s Crossroads. As usual, Elihue gave her a box of snuff as she left.
That was the last time Rindy Bailey was seen alive.
John Underwood provided the place for her to be buried in the Underwood Cemetery. Enoch Huffaker made her coffin while Jess Romines and another man dug the grave which was marked by a simple field stone.
Years later, a well dressed stranger came looking for Rindy’s grave. He did not identify himself but said he wanted to purchase a monument to mark her burialplace. Sadly, he could not find the grave because the crude stone was missing and no one could remember the exact location.
Much like the circumstances of her life, Rindy Bailey’s final resting place remains a mystery.
— Carroll McMahan is the special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for future topics, would like to submit a column or have comments; contact McMahan at 453-6411 or e-mail to cmcmahan@scoc.org; or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or e-mail to ron@ronraderproperties.com.
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name John Bailey
Groom's Birth Date
Groom's Birthplace
Groom's Age
Bride's Name Clarinda Miller
Bride's Birth Date
Bride's Birthplace
Bride's Age
Marriage Date 18 Aug 1861
Marriage Place , Sevier, Tennessee
Groom's Father's Name
Groom's Mother's Name
Bride's Father's Name
Bride's Mother's Name
Groom's Race
Groom's Marital Status
Groom's Previous Wife's Name
Bride's Race
Bride's Marital Status
Bride's Previous Husband's Name
Indexing Project (Batch) Number M51968-1
System Origin Tennessee-ODM
Source Film Number 969965
Reference Number
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