Old Stones Undeciphered: Exploring Kyles Ford Along The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Exploring Kyles Ford Along The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine - Part III

Part III - the rest of the pictures:

the iron bridge, a couple more buildings, my very first EVER gravestone photos, a roadside "fountain", and some interesting road signs....

No set of photos from Kyles Ford would be complete without a picture of the Edward R. Talley iron bridge. It's probably the most photographed item in the area and mine does not do it justice.

This building below has since been bought and made into a rather quaint little diner and mercantile of sorts. I'm not too sure I like the paint job they gave it but at least it didn't get torn down or remodeled past recognition. It is now called

River Place Market
For the past couple of years this has been the home of the annual Wallen reunion held in June.

A really old ramshackle barn. I can't imagine that could still be standing, but you never know!

Gravestone photos, my first! These three stones below were just south of Kyles Ford in Hawkins county just off the Lonesome Pine Trail. We took a tiny road up the side of a wooded hill and back into the interior we spotted these stones in a lovely little meadow across the road from an old (but occupied) farmhouse. Using Google Maps I'm pretty sure I located the exact spot as being Gravely Valley Rd. I didn't know the two Wallens (father and daughter) buried here at the time but I knew they would be relations. And of course, after doing some research I proved myself correct. We do indeed share a common ancestor. The man buried here was the nephew of my Revolutionary War Veteran and as one of his two gravestones shows, he was a veteran of the Civil War: Company L, 8th Tennessee Calvary. A few days ago I named this little cemetery "Aaron V. Wallen Cemetery" after him and entered the information accordingly at Find A Grave