Marshall McClung
I receive requests for information on the early settlers of Graham County or some other item relating to our local history.
Often, these requests are forwarded to me by the Graham County Historical Association or Graham County Travel & Tourism. Such was the case of a person whose ancestors were the Stratton’s.
The Stratton’s are of English descent and left England around 1660 because of religious persecution. They first settled in Massachusetts, Delaware, and Virginia. The Aboslum Stratton clan then moved to North Carolina.
The original John Stratton was born in North Carolina in 1799 and was around 40 years old when he moved to an area now known as Stratton Meadows on the Cherohala Skyway.
When he decided to move here in the late 1830s, he just picked up his rifle, axe, and frying pan, called his dog and set out on foot into what was then an uncharted, untamed wilderness. After crawling on hands and knees through dense thickets, he came upon a grassy meadow lying along a ridge top with a good spring nearby. He decided this was the place to build a home, not knowing that he was settling on what would be the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee.
John began building a crude log cabin with timber he split with his axe. As to the origin of the meadow, some thought John had cleared it, but according to a grandson, William Parker Stratton who was born in 1856, the area was a natural meadow.
After moving his family to Stratton Meadows, John and his sons began building a two-story house. The house had a large chimney in the center with a fireplace in each room, upstairs and downstairs. The structure was quite elaborate for its day. It was burned by outlaws just before the end of the Civil War in 1865. The Stratton’s had moved around 1858 before this occurred.
At this time, only John, his wife and a daughter, Sally Ann was still at home. John had moved the family a few miles down Big Santeetlah Creek and cleared some fields for his livestock.
John died on July 9, 1862. He and his wife are buried in Ball Play Cemetery in Tennessee.
Little remains of Stratton Meadows today, called John Meadows by locals. The forest has reclaimed most of the meadow. An overpass on the Cherohala Skyway covers most of what was left and passes very near a Stratton grave.
Lying partly in North Carolina and Tennessee, John Stratton Meadows is administered by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Nantahala National Forest and the Cherokee National Forest.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.