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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 7 Mar 2011.
Upland Chronicles: Lee Higdon has close connection to national park
by CARROLL McMAHAN
The cabin in the Daisy Town section of Elkmont, where Lee Higdon lived while working as caretaker for the Appalachian Club.
Lee Higdon (sic), left, with his brother-in-law, Lem Ownby.
Several relatives of Lee Higdon on Lem Ownby’s porch in the 1940’s. From left are J.T. Higdon (son), Fay Higdon (daughter), Lem Ownby (brother-n-law), Burt Ownby (brother-in-law), Ollie Mae Higdon Hill (daughter) and Lem “Mimmie” Ownby (sister-in law).
Lee Jackson Higdon was born in the area of North Carolina that was later flooded by Fontana Lake on Nov. 19, 1883.
When he walked across the mountains from his home near Proctor to Elkmont, Tenn., his intention was to stay only long enough to help the logging company he worked for in North Carolina set up camps for the Little River Lumber Co.
About two weeks later, he changed his mind when he met a young lady named Julia Mae Ownby. Julia was a daughter of Thomas D. Ownby and Sara Watson Ownby and a sister of Lem Ownby, who remained in Elmont longer than any other permanent resident.
The young couple began courting and was married on April 10, 1909. Since he previously worked in saw mills, Lee had no problem landing a job with Little River Lumber. When finances allowed, the young couple purchased a 25-acre farm.
The property was along Jake’s Creek and adjacent to a farm owned by Sara’s family.
With contentment in both marriage and life, Sara and Lee raised their two daughters, Ollie Mae and Myrtle Fay, and a son named J.T. They witnessed Elmont grow from an isolated mountain settlement consisting of nothing more than a store, post office and church to a thriving community which included a commissary, boarding houses, hotel, theater, store, infirmary and the vibrant Appalachian Club for seasonal residents.
When the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established, Lee and Sara Higdon received $1,000 for their 25 acres. According to the deed issued March 15, 1930, the assets included 94 bearing apple and plum trees, unimproved road, wire fence, log house of three rooms in fair condition and a four pen barn in fair condition.
Contemplating a move from Elkmont, Lee bid on a farm in Gatlinburg but stubbornly refused to budge over a few dollars difference between his offer and the owner’s final asking price.
Instead, that property would be where Dick Whaley built the Greystone Hotel. Today, however, Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies is located on the property.
Instead of relocating in nearby Gatlinburg, the Higdon family moved to Granite Station in Anderson County, near Clinton.
Being homesick for the mountains which they still called home, the family returned to Elkmont in 1935 to the very same home that they had vacated in 1930.
This time they were allowed to reside on the property through a lease agreement with the park service.
With the majority of the family back in Elkmont (the eldest daughter, Ollie Mae, married Willie Hill and decided not to relocate) the homesickness was finally gone.
Lee worked on the CCC crew that built the road connecting Gatlinburg and Cherokee by way of Newfound Gap.
While working on the road project, one day he stepped out of a tunnel to get a tool seconds before the tunnel collapsed killing a fellow crew member.
At one time, Lee managed the Chimney Campgrounds and, at another time, he operated a commissary and post office which was located where the Elkmont campgrounds were built.
Later, Lee worked for the National Park Service as a fire tower watchman.
One day in the late 1940s, he spotted a fire at what appeared to be his residence. Lee headed down the mountain as fast as he could go and found his home totally engulfed in flames. Fearing his family was in the house, relief washed over him as he saw them on the path to Lem Ownby’s place.
After the house burned to the ground, Lee was able to acquire a lifetime lease on an Appalachian Club cabin with the agreement that he would be the caretaker. Julia, J.T. and Fay pitched in to help Lee with the caretaker responsibilities such as routine maintenance, plumbing problems, winterizing the cabins and preparing them for the owner’s visits.
All of his life, Lee was a very hard working and capable man. However, he was a notoriously bad driver. So bad in fact, his family did not allow him to drive the last 15 years of his life.
His daughter, Ollie Mae Higdon Hill, often commented that on a two-lane road her father had a hard time keeping the car between the ditches.
For a while, the family had to depend on others for transportation. Julia never drove a car and neither did their son, J.T., who was partially blind. He suffered from the same affliction as his Uncle Lem Ownby. Therefore, Fay decided to get her driver’s license. Fay, who was often called Midge, was a sight to see driving an automobile. Due to her short stature, she had to sit on a pillow in order to look out the window through the steering wheel.
One of Lee and Julia Higdon’s grandsons, Claude Hill, recalled: “I realized my grandfather had witnessed a lot of history when I watched the news with him, of an expedition into outer space on his fuzzy little black and white TV. He made the comment that he remembered when the Wright Brothers made the first airplane flight in 1903. He seemed particularly proud that it had taken place in his native North Carolina.”
Lee Higdon, who was born before the invention of the automobile, died at the age of 85 in 1969, the same year a man first walked on the moon. During his lifetime, he saw Elkmont evolve from a mountain settlement to a thriving logging community and, finally, a treasured component of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
J.T. and Fay, the unmarried son and daughter of Lee and Julia, who preceded her husband in death in 1963, continued to live in the Elkmont cabin until 1994 when the lease expired and they had no choice but to move away. They lived out their lives in Kodak.
— Carroll McMahan is the Sspecial projects coordinator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. This is part of the Upland Chronicles series, celebrating 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.
- [S73] Rawlings Funeral Home, Book 2, 21 Apr 1969.
Higdon, Lee Jackson Nov 19, 1883 N.C. April 21, 1969
Father: Higdon, John Calvin
Mother: Bailey, Dorothy
Sons: J.T.
Daughters: Mrs. Ollie Mae Hill, Myrtle Fay
Cemetery: Elkmont
- [S34] In the Shadow of the Smokies, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, (1993), 720.
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