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Sacred Ground: The John S. Adkins Grave
On the side of a long driveway along Upper Jellico Creek is a single, solitary grave — that of John S. Adkins, who died in 1894 at the age of 25.
This is “Adkins Country.” John’s father, Sterling Adkins, founded the church at Upper Jellico Creek in 1885, and the Adkins family lived here for many years. Today, many of the place names in the area bear witness to the Adkins family’s influence. There is the “Henry Adkins Hollow” and the “Phillips Adkins Hollow,” both named for the people who once made their homes here.
What makes the John S. Adkins grave unique is that a family cemetery is located just a stone’s throw away. The Adkins Cemetery, in fact, is accessed by the same driveway that accesses John’s grave. If you’re wondering why John Adkins wasn’t buried with the rest of his family – well, the larger cemetery did not exist when he died in 1894. It was not started until his father’s death 11 years later. For whatever reason, the family chose to lay Sterling Adkins to rest a couple hundred yards away from John, and that’s where the family cemetery grew.
The Adkins Family
As detailed when the Sacred Ground series visited the nearby Adkins Cemetery, Sterling Adkins was a prominent preacher in 19th century Scott County. Born Nov. 16, 1833, he was the son of John Adkins and Mary “Polly” Saunders. (The elder John Adkins was buried on the Conrad Laxton farm a short distance from the other family cemeteries when he died in 1882.)
John Adkins moved from North Carolina to Tennessee after marrying Polly Saunders, and they had eight children. Sterling was the fifth of those children.
In December 1857, about a week before Christmas and exactly one month before his 24th birthday, Sterling married Motlany Lowe, the daughter of Phillip Low and Sarah Nancy Carroll, and a granddaughter of Mikel Low, Scott County’s first settler.
The Adkins family was already a large one in Scott, Campbell, and Anderson counties, and Sterling and Motlany would have a large family in their own right. They had eight children and at least 68 grandchildren.
Sterling Adkins traveled by foot to churches throughout Scott and Campbell counties to preach. In 1873, he founded the Baptist church at Smokey Creek. Twelve years later, he started the Baptist church at Jellico Creek.
By that time, 1885, the Adkins family had moved from the Straight Fork area to Upper Jellico Creek. On the fourth Saturday in May 1885, a group of members from Sugar Grove Missionary Baptist Church met to start a new church. Adkins was appointed the group’s moderator. They founded the Upper Jellico Creek Baptist Church of Christ. The Baptist Church of Christ was a new denomination at the time that had started in Tennessee, intended to counter the teachings of Christian reformer John Calvin that were taking root in Baptist churches across the state.
Adkins served as pastor of Upper Jellico Creek for a total of eight years. His son, Gallant Lee Adkins, pastored the church on two occasions, and a grandson, Harvey Adkins, was pastor in the 1940s.
In addition to the churches at Smokey Creek and Jellico Creek, Sterling Adkins played a role in the formation of First Baptist Church of Oneida. He was one of seven men who met in Oneida in November 1887 for the purpose of starting a new church, and was appointed moderator of the meeting.
Among the children of Sterling and Motlany: Nancy Rene Adkins Lowe, Sarah Jane Adkins Low, Gallent Lee Adkins, Phillip Adkins, Cordelia Adkins Cross, Floranzo Adkins, John S. Adkins, and Henry Sherwood Adkins.
John, born in 1869, was the next-to-youngest of the Adkins children. He was born after Floranzo and before Henry. There is some debate over his middle name. Some sources say it was “Sterling,” after his father. But it’s most commonly believed to be “Stanton.”
John S. Adkins died on Sept. 9, 1894.
In an era when it was common for children to die young, John was the only of the eight Adkins children to die young. The rest lived relatively long lives, Nancy Rene (the oldest) dying in 1930, Floranzo dying in 1933, Phillip in 1938, Cordelia in 1939, Sarah Jane in 1942, Gallent Lee in 1945, and Henry in 1955. All were in their 70s or 80s when they died.
John was the exception. He was only 25 at the time of his death. He never married or had children. It is not clear how he died. His hand-chiseled stone simply includes his name, “John S. Adkins,” and his dates of birth and death: July 26, 1869 – September 9, 1894.
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Our Newsletters:
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• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
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