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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.
Scott County’s Communities: Foster Crossroads
This week, the “Echoes in Time” series continues its tour of Scott County communities with a visit to Foster Crossroads — sometimes called Foster Cross Road or Foster’s Crossroads. Located northwest of Oneida, just outside the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, Foster Crossroads is near Grave Hill and Big Ridge.
Although it is referred to as part of West Oneida, Foster Crossroads is actually due west of Winfield. It is located between Bear Creek and the Big South Fork River, just south of the Tennessee-Kentucky border.
POST OFFICE: There has never been a post office in the Foster Crossroads community. Today, the community is served by the Oneida post office and is part of the 37841 zip code.
SCHOOLS: There was originally a school at Foster Crossroads, though it closed circa 1935. After that, students attended school at Grave Hill. (Interestingly, there was also a school in Scott County called “Foster,” but it was located in the Litton area of Oneida, near Brewster Mountain.) Today, students from Foster Crossroads are zoned for Burchfield School.
BUSINESS & COMMERCE: The Foster Crossroads community was never a significant center of commerce in Scott County, consisting mostly of small farms and private residences. There have been a few businesses located in the community through the years, including current businesses like Ralph Boyatt Logging and Puncheon Camp Knob Horse Camp.
CHURCHES: Foster Crossroads United Baptist Church is located in the Foster Crossroads community. It was established in 1940. Next-door to the church is the Foster Crossroads Cemetery, which dates back to the 1860s. Churches further east include Grave Hill United Baptist Church and Big Ridge Missionary Baptist Church. The church at Grave Hill was organized in 1908 as a branch of Pine Creek United Baptist Church.
FIRST FAMILIES: The first people to settle in the Foster Crossroads area were the Boyatts — specifically, Thomas Boyatt (1805-1864) and Susannah Maxwell (1806-1863). All these years later, the Boyatt family remains the most prominent family in this small community, though others have come and gone (and, sometimes, stayed).
The Boyatts: Thomas Boyatt was born in Kentucky, the son of Jordan Boyatt (1770-1815) and Elizabeth Gregory (1780-1810). The Boyatt family first came to America in the mid 1600s with Edward Boyett (1630-1670). The family can be traced all the way back to 12th century Scotland (spelled Boyd). After the migration to America, they lived in Virginia and North Carolina colonies before Jordan Boyatt moved to Wayne County, Ky., and married Elizabeth Gregory.
Thomas and Susannah were married on May 11, 1827, in Wayne County. It is not clear whether they lived at Foster Crossroads at the time of their marriage, but it is generally thought that they moved to the community after they were married. They had at least nine children: Jordan Boyatt (1828-1900), William Boyatt (1830-1831), Henderson Boyatt (born 1832), Granville Boyatt (1834-1880), David Boyatt (1836-1899), Margaret Slaven (1842-1920), Sarah Jane Boyatt (1844-1851), John Dallas Boyatt (born 1846) and Elizabeth Watters (1846-1904).
Jordan Boyatt moved to the headwaters of No Business Creek in the present-day Big South Fork NRRA. Several other Boyatts remained in the Foster Crossroads area. Jordan’s son, Ransom (or Ranson) Boyatt, who also lived at No Business, was murdered in the 1930s, amid a manhunt for his son, Jerome Boyatt, who was accused of murdering two Pickett County lawmen. After his father’s death, Jerome Boyatt turned himself in, and was later lynched by a mob. He was buried at Foster Crossroads Cemetery.
Thomas and Susannah Boyatt are also believed to be buried at the Foster Crossroads Cemetery, though their graves are unmarked.
Today, the Foster Crossroads area remains settled by the Boyatts. One of the roads in the community is Willie Boyatt Road, named after Willie Everett Boyatt (1894-1975). One of the community’s current residents is Tiffany Boyatt Jeffers, a descendant of Thomas and Susannah Boyatt who serves as Scott County Assessor of Property.
The Slavens: Another early family of the Foster Crossroads community were the Slavens. Today, an abandoned Tennessee Division of Forestry fire lookout tower there is called the Slaven’s Knob Fire Tower. Andrew Charlie Slaven (1915-1974) married into the Boyatt family. His father, Ed Slaven (1882-1959), was a great-grandson of Richard Harve Slaven, the first settler of No Business, and married into the Thomas family at Grave Hill, marrying Sally Thomas (1880-1959) in 1814.
Andrew Slaven married Lola Boyatt (1907-1986), the daughter of Lewis Boyatt (1872-1953) and Rachel Foster (1876-1953). They had nine children: daughters Jo, Anna Lou, Veda, Helen, Katheryn and Beatrice, and sons Kenneth, Lonnie, and Cletus.
The Watsons: The Watson family of the Foster Crossroads community is descended from the Boyatts and the Slavens. Robert Lee Watson (1936-2008) was the son of Cress Boyatt (1913-1998) and Wilda Mae Watson (1922-2002). He married Veda Carol Slaven (1941-2015), the daughter of Andrew Slaven and Lola Boyatt. They had 15 children: a son who died in infancy, Darlene Watson, Flonnie Marie Watson, Lucille Watson Webb, Flora Evelyn Watson, Jessica Louise Watson Jeffers, Lena Mae Watson Crowley, Michael Eugene “Booger” Watson, Marshall Wayne Watson, Rocky Lee Watson, Jason Watson, Mickey Watson, Donald Ray Watson, Scott Allen Watson, Derek Watson, and Jeffery Cress Watson. The road that Robert and Veda Watson lived on is called Rob Watson Road. They are buried at a small family cemetery near their home.
The Fosters: The Foster family that Foster Crossroads is named for dates back to Charles Foster (1824-1893). He married Lurany Marcum (1842-1881) late in life. It isn’t clear who his first wife was. Charles had a son, John Foster, who married Emaline Phillips and later married Sallie Slaven. He had at least five children: William Esau Foster, Arlenia Foster, Syrinda Jeffers, John Sherman Foster, and Jamie Privett. Esau Foster married Mary Alice Simpson and was a veteran of the Spanish American War. They had five children: Mabel Thomas, Homer Foster, Mattie Evelyn Koger, Mildred Foster, and Earl Foster.
The Terrys: The Terry family at Foster Crossroads is descended from both the Boyatt and Foster families there, although the family has deep roots in the nearby Grave Hill community. Cliff Terry, who recently died at age 88 and was buried at Foster Crossroads, is the namesake of Cliff Terry Road there. He and his wife, Shirley Whaley, had four children: Bernard, DeNeil, Marlisa, and Chanda.
Cliff was the son of Homer Terry (1914-1982) and Geneva Foster (1907-2001). The Terry family was originally from Grave Hill. Homer’s second-great-grandfather was Josiah Terry (1780-1868), the first settler of Oneida. One of Josiah’s sons, James Terry, married Mary “Polly” Smith, the daughter of the Methodist circuit rider Rev. Isaac Smith, who settled the area that is now Ponderosa Estates. They had six children, including Leonard Terry (1861-1955), who was Homer Terry’s grandfather. He married Luca “Lilley” West and they settled at Grave Hill. There, one of their children, Burdow “B.D.” Terry (1889-1985) married into the Thomas family that also lived at Grave Hill. B.D. married Lilie Thomas, daughter of William “Harris” Thomas and Martha Marcum. Among their eight children was Homer Terry.
Homer Terry married Geneva Foster (1907-2001) in 1936, and they settled in the Foster Crossroads community. Geneva was the daughter of Ephraim Foster and Margaret Boyatt.
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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
• Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)