Massacre at Cavett's Station: Frontier Tennessee during the Cherokee Wars

Epilogue

Epilogue As historic events are recalled from generation to generation, the causes, effects, places, and persons are transformed as each generational curtain rises. Even more than the written or oral dialogue, the landscape on which the historic drama unfolded often becomes unrecognizable from the original setting. I find it difficult to comprehend that a war over 200 years ago, which lasted approximately 20 years and cost thousands of lives, left no lasting memorial on the landscape. One has to search hard to find the places where this terrible tragedy struck in the late eighteenth century. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the location of Cavett’s Station was only vaguely recalled. Three houses had already stood on the presumed site of the doomed station, above what was locally called Cavett’s Spring. One of the rivulets remaining in Grassy Valley, it still trickles from the edge of the terrace, and would be difficult to find if one did not know precisely where to look. It is hard to imagine that a pioneer family depended on this water source. Above the spring was a large oak tree when I first visited the site in 1981. I pondered if it had stood a silent vigil over the melancholy scene of the massacre. The only living witness? On September 25, 2009, I drove out to the Cavett Station subdivision and the Mars Hill Cemetery. I had not been back for almost a quarter century. When we excavated the possible site of the station in 1984, except for scattered trees and shrubs along the brook that flows from the spring, most of the subdivision acreage was an open field of weeds and high grass. Neat houses and manicured lawns of a modern subdivision now cover these fields. Unlike the spring, however, the site of our excavation was easy to find. The entrance on Broome Road boasts a large sign that reads Cavett Station Subdivision. As one drives along the serpentine street named Alexander Cavett Drive, this historic theme is perpetuated by a side street named Doublehead Lane (figure 16). I am sure that the old war chief would be surprised that a street is named after him; I certainly was. As I drove north from the subdivision on Broome Road 216 years after the terrible events in this now peaceful rural area of Knox County, I recalled 146 Epilogue the little graveyard on a low ridge behind the Cain house, surrounded by the open pastureland. I drove right past it. The ridge, largely open 25 years ago, is now covered with houses and large trees, the little valley, the small stream, and Cavett’s Spring are now hidden from view from the cemetery. After receiving permission from the property owner, I walked through their rear yard and entered the west end of the cemetery, immediately behind the house. The cemetery, too, had changed since my first visit when it was overgrown with vegetation, and Kincer Fox was hacking his way through the underbrush. Small trees around the periphery of the graveyard have gotten tall, and the grass is regularly mowed courtesy of the Cain family and the Sons of the Revolution. Largely hidden by underbrush in 1985, the memorial stone to the Cavetts now prominently stands in the center of the cemetery. There is no evidence of the two field stone markers; perhaps they were removed when the site was cleared and mowed. The black granite marker is an appropriate tribute to the slain Cavett family although only a few people know that it exists. Like many historic markers, the inscription contains errors; primarily that it does not mark the location of the station. There is something about the solemnity of the large stone, however, that enshrines where the Cavetts were laid to rest. Figure 16. Doublehead Lane street sign in Cavett Station subdivision. Ironically, the intersecting street and corresponding street sign reads Alexander Cavett Drive. Photo by Terry Faulkner. Epilogue 147 Unlike Cavett’s Station, the presence of the Cherokee here in their former homeland is celebrated all around us. One cannot drive or walk anywhere in Knoxville without seeing a Cherokee street name or business named after this tribe. There is a Cherokee Country Club and a Cherokee bluff along the Tennessee River and a park named after the immortal Sequoyah. Ironically, however, it was in Knoxville that this Indian Nation lost a major portion of their homeland in...