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Madisonville Democrat, (Monroe Co. TN) Wednesday, March 18, 1942:
“About Reconstruction Days Following the Civil War---In one of Mr. Stickley’s interesting articles a few weeks ago, he referred to the slaying at the close of the Civil War of one of the Montgomery brothers whose given name he could not recall. His name was George Montgomery and he lived in Sweetwater. He was accustomed to accommodate for hire those in need of livery service.
I was told by the late James A. Johnston that Mr. Montgomery, at the time he met his death, was on his return in a buggy from Madisonville. He had brought Major Mose Clift of Chattanooga, who at that time was paying court to, and later married, Miss Addie Cook, daughter of Dr. Cook and an aunt of our townsman, R.C. Kefauver.
The woods to the right of the road just beyond the old Bill Sneed home was the scene of the slaying, the motive for which was supposedly to be robbery.
A man by the name of Baker---Jack, I think was his given name---was the slayer. On State Highway 68, formerly the old turnpike some two or three miles from Tellico Plains, at the top of the right bank of what is now a cut, just before turning down to Laurel Branch, there is a grave---Baker’s grave.
Before the grade of the old turnpike was changed, the grave, enclosed with rails, was within a few feet of the edge of the road and almost level with it.
Many years ago my law partner, Co. T.E.H. McCroskey, called me into his office and said he wanted me to meet “Red” John Duncan or “Rebel” John---I’m not sure now which it was---but either designation was suitable; he was red complexioned and had been in the Confederate Army. I got the impression that at the close of the Civil War he had been at the head of some organization made necessary in the then existing, unsettled condition for the restoration of order. He said that he was somewhere in Alabama or Georgia when he got word of Montgomery’s slaying---with a request that he come at once to Sweetwater. He did this and, with a band of horsemen, set out to hunt for Baker, whose location seemed to be pretty well understood.
As he and his men were going up Tellico Mountain, they met a company of horsemen coming down the mountain, whom they stopped---one behind another in single file. He mentioned several names as being among these---men of whom I had heard a great deal. He described how the hat brim of each man was raised for identification, but Baker was not one of them; and they were permitted to pass on.
Further on, Duncan’s men met Baker and took him into custody. He confessed to the killing of Montgomery, whereupon summary justice declared that he should pay with his life. The option was given him of making a trial to escape or being shot down where he was. Baker, recognizing the futility of attempt to escape, asked that he be permitted to pray, and at the close of his prayer was shot to death. Duncan’s narrative was given with no sign of emotion on his part.
Before reaching the Baker grave there is another grave on the mountainside off down to the right, where a man by the name of Crane was buried during the war. The story as I heard it, was that he had slipped in to visit with his family and as he and his wife were sitting side by side on a log, was shot from ambush. His wife procured help from neighbor women and buried him in a grave dug with fire shovels and covered with loose rock. My old friend, Joe Parks, gave a different account of this killing---that the woman was not his wife.
It is said that late one night, Uncle Jim Graves, on horseback and passing the Baker grave, saw a light on the mound which scared the mule and it ran off with him. That may have been the same night when old man Archie Stuart, after eating supper at L.E.M. Payne’s on the other side of the mountain, walked across to Tellico Plains---stopping at the Baker grave to light his pipe. At least he said something of the kind happened at that time.
It was in November 1881, that I saw these graves---getting out of a wagon and going down to the Crane grave, then plainly distinguishable by the rock mound. I could not locate it now. It was on my first trip to and through the mountains, going with Mr. A.C. Berry in a covered wagon to Murphy---four days in going, camping out some of the nights and spending others in the homes of his friends.
“Uncle Tobe,” as he was called, was a kind-hearted man and had friends all along the way who were glad to entertain him.
I recall that there was some uneasiness and lots of talk about time being up for the fulfillment of the two lines that had been by someone added to Mother Shipton’s prophecy: “And the world, it to an end shall come, in eighteen hundred and eighty one.” ---T.W. Peace.
Madisonville Democrat, (Monroe Co. TN) Wednesday, March 25, 1942:
“Rafter---Uncle Nobe Peace, your letter in the Democrat last week was most interesting. Events of which you wrote concerning the Baker grave on the Tellico Mountain which occurred during the Civil War transpired two miles from my place on the headwaters of Laurel Creek. Seven men were killed in that vicinity during the Civil War---six on the hill beyond where Sam Lethcoe loves and one below where his house now stands, this one killed at the same time the others were. At another time, George Poplin was killed over on Cane Creek Mountain. The last trip I made over the mountain, my brother showed me where he was killed, then dragged down into the gap which was known as the Poplin Cove. One of my uncles, Jim Shaw, was killed somewhere on Turkey Creek by bushwhackers during the war. Mr. Dolphus Duckett has told me about when he and Larkin Mitchell’s boys were out at play when only small boys, found some supposedly human bones. They think that was where Jim Shaw was killed. Two other men were killed out in White Oak Flats at another time. My mother told me these two men stopped at her house, got their dinner and were killed on their way across the mountain. I have seen the skull of one of these men at Dr. Shearer’s office.” ---Columbus Shaw.
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