Recently, Hoot Gibbs and I visited some old homesites in the Frank’s Creek area.
Looking for old homesites in the woods is one of our favorite things to do. Much research of old land papers by Hoot – with the assistance of the Graham County Register of Deeds – helps greatly.
We visited two old homesites on the upper section of Frank’s Creek, the T.A. Rich and John Whisenhunt home sites. Rich is a common name in Graham County; Whisenhunt, not so much.
Rich owned 118.25 acres of land that lay between two forks of Frank’s Creek. Not much is left of the Rich place, except some piles of stones. Whisenhunt and his wife Barbara owned 90.6 acres about 1/2 a mile or so upstream from the Rich property. They had purchased the land from John L. Ammons and his wife Mary E. Ammons for $35 on Nov. 18, 1878.
Whisenhunt also owned other tracts of property, further downstream on Frank’s Creek. Their home was likely built in the late 1800s, at an elevation of 3,400 feet. Other persons owning land in the general area were: Lee Waldroup, Bill Phillips, D.C. Phillips, David Phillips and wife, Nancy Jane Phillips, and Van Marcus.
Whiting Lumber and Manufacturing Company also owned large tracts of land in the area. The Waldroup family ranged cattle in the area up around Bell Collar Gap and Cheoah Bald, elevation 5,062 feet. Gladys Anderson Wiggins recalled that when she was a girl – about 10 years of age, which would have been around 1935 – she recalled seeing the Whisenhunt homesite, which was in ruins by then.
The 1880 census lists Whisenhunt, 57, wife Barbara, age 40 and daughter Barbara A., 10, as living in Graham County. It is unclear what brought the Whisenhunt family to Graham County, or when they left. Mrs. Whisenhunt sold the Frank’s Creek property to John H. Rogers for $300 on Nov. 21, 1919. Mrs. Whisenhunt was living in Colquitt County, Ga. at the time of the sale.
Her husband was not named in the transaction, leading one to wonder if he was deceased.
Eventually the Rich, Whisenhunt and Whiting properties were purchased by the U.S. Forest Service, which paid $288 for the 118.25 Rich property on Dec. 12, 1939.
The winter sun was low on the horizon, so it was time to leave the woods until another day, maybe searching again for another old homesite or a forgotten grave, deep in the woods.
Marshall McClung is a columnist for The Graham Star.