About

Turkey Foot Hollow, also historically known as Shot Hollow, and more recently known as Johnson Cemetery. When we speak about Turkey Foot Hollow, we are not speaking about a small, isolated cemetery. We are speaking about an ancestral burial landscape encompassing approximately 38.1 acres of land, situated within a much larger historic community whose history extended across this portion of Hamilton County and, according to our family and community history, all the way toward Summit, Tennessee.

 

For the Washington Hills community, this history is especially close to home. What we know today as Oakwood Drive was once known as Turkey Foot Hollow, also known as Shot Hollow. Those old names are important because they help us reconstruct a landscape that existed before modern roads, parks, subdivisions, and property boundaries changed the way this area is understood. The names changed. The roads changed. The landscape changed. But the history remained.

 

Before Colonial Settlement

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The history of Turkey Foot Hollow does not begin with Johnson Cemetery. It does not begin in 1878. It does not begin with the State of Tennessee. And it does not begin with European colonial settlement. Our ancestral and community history holds that burial activity within the Turkey Foot Hollow landscape reaches back to the early 14th century - the 1300s - centuries before colonial settlement in Tennessee. That history is one of the reasons we continue to advocate for comprehensive archaeological and historical investigation of the entire 38.1-acre cemetery landscape.

Long before Tennessee became a state, Indigenous people occupied this river valley. The Tennessee River, natural springs, valleys, forests, and surrounding ridges supported communities for generations. People lived, traveled, hunted, cultivated food, gathered medicines, raised families, practiced their traditions, and laid their loved ones to rest throughout this landscape. Turkey Foot Hollow therefore must be understood within that much older Indigenous landscape.

 

An Ancient Burial Landscape

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As generations passed, Turkey Foot Hollow became home to Indigenous, Black, Brown, and mixed-ancestry families whose lives and histories became inseparable from this land. Some of those individuals can now be identified through documentary and genealogical records. Among those laid to rest within this historic cemetery is Harriette Swan, who was born in 1803. Her birth places her life within an extraordinary period of Tennessee history - before the forced removal of the Cherokee and decades before the Civil War. We also have an early documented burial associated with Sarah Batcher in 1816. These dates are critically important because they demonstrate that the burial ground existed generations before the property became known as Johnson Cemetery.

Civil War veteran Owen Gideon is also connected to this historic burial landscape. These individuals represent different generations of people whose lives crossed some of the most consequential periods in Tennessee and American history. But the people whose names survive in written records or on markers represent only part of the story. There are generations whose markers may have disappeared and individuals whose names may not yet have been recovered. They are still part of Turkey Foot Hollow.

 

Willis and Eliza Johnson

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Following the Civil War, another important chapter in the history of Turkey Foot Hollow began. In 1867, Willis and Eliza Johnson acquired land in Turkey Foot Hollow from the estate of Colonel Lewis Shepherd Sr. Willis and Eliza became deeply rooted in the Indigenous, Black and Brown history of this community. Their acquisition of land only two years after the Civil War carried tremendous significance. It represented land ownership. It represented independence. It represented self-determination. It represented permanence. And it represented the ability of a family to establish a place where generations could live and where those who were laid to rest could remain connected to their descendants.

In 1878, Willis and Eliza Johnson reestablished the historic burial ground as Johnson Cemetery. 1878 is not the beginning of the cemetery. It represents a later chapter in the history of an already-existing ancestral burial landscape. The burial ground existed before the Johnson family acquired the property.

That is why we describe this place historically as Turkey Foot Hollow, Shot Hollow, and, more recently, Johnson Cemetery. Samuel Shepherd is also among those laid to rest within this historic landscape, further connecting generations of Hamilton County families to Turkey Foot Hollow.

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Turkey Foot Hollow Was More Than a Cemetery

 

We must also understand that Turkey Foot Hollow was not simply a place where people buried their loved ones. Turkey Foot Hollow was a community. Families lived here. Children were born and raised here. People worked the land. Families gathered here. People worshipped here. Communities were built here. And generation after generation was laid to rest here. The historic Turkey Foot Hollow community extended beyond the cemetery itself. Its history reaches through the landscape surrounding what we now know as Highway 58, Old Champion Road, Washington Hills, Harrison Bay, Booker T. Washington State Park, and the Tennessee River corridor.

Our family and community history further traces Turkey Foot Hollow all the way toward Summit, Tennessee. And here in Washington Hills, one of the strongest reminders of that forgotten geography remains directly beneath a road traveled every day. What is now Oakwood Drive was once known as Turkey Foot Hollow, also known as Shot Hollow. This means Washington Hills is not simply neighboring this history. Washington Hills occupies part of the broader historic landscape connected to it. Changing the names of roads and places does not erase the communities that existed before them.

 

A Landscape Transformed

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During the twentieth century, this part of Hamilton County underwent enormous transformation. The development of the Tennessee River system and TVA's Chickamauga Dam and Reservoir changed communities throughout the river valley. Land was acquired. Families were displaced. Roads disappeared or were rerouted. Waterways changed. Communities became fragmented.

Government acquisitions and the development of areas including Booker T. Washington State Park further altered the physical landscape surrounding Turkey Foot Hollow. Over time, homes disappeared. Old roads disappeared. Property boundaries changed. Vegetation reclaimed former community spaces. New names replaced old ones.

Eventually, someone could travel through this area without realizing that an older community had ever existed there. But the burial ground remained. And our ancestors remained.

 

The 38.1-Acre Cemetery

 

Today, one of the most important issues before us is recognition of the true scale of this ancestral burial ground. Turkey Foot Hollow-Shot Hollow, more recently known as Johnson Cemetery, encompasses approximately 38.1 acres of land. This is not simply a 1.6-acre cemetery surrounded by land without historical significance. Our position is that the 38.1 acres constitute the historic cemetery and ancestral burial landscape that must be recognized, investigated, documented, protected, and preserved. State property records document approximately 38.1 acres associated with this property, including land recorded in Deed Book 12192, Page 951, with a survey dated November 1, 2019, prepared under Tennessee Registered Land Surveyor No. 2776.

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Yet only approximately 1.6 acres have been formally recognized or treated as cemetery grounds. That difference is at the heart of our preservation effort. The boundaries of an ancestral cemetery cannot be determined solely by where headstones remain visible today. A visible headstone is evidence of a grave. But the absence of a headstone is not evidence that a grave does not exist.

Over centuries, markers deteriorate. Wooden markers disappear. Fieldstones become displaced. Vegetation overtakes burial areas. Land is disturbed. Roads are constructed. Property boundaries change. And memories of exact burial locations can be lost as families are displaced.

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When we are dealing with a burial landscape whose history extends for generations - and whose ancestral history may extend for centuries - modern maintenance boundaries cannot automatically be treated as the historic boundaries of the cemetery.

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That is why the entire 38.1 acres deserve comprehensive archaeological, historical, genealogical, and appropriate non-invasive geophysical investigation. Until that work is completed, the entire area should be approached with the dignity and caution appropriate to a historic ancestral burial landscape.

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We are not asking for Johnson Cemetery to be expanded to 38.1 acres. We are asking for recognition that the historic Turkey Foot Hollow-Shot Hollow cemetery encompasses approximately 38.1 acres and for those acres to receive the investigation and protection they deserve.

 

Why Preservation Matters

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We are not asking anyone to create history for us. The history is already here. It is beneath the roads. It is within the forest. It survives in deeds and surveys. It survives in old place names. It survives in family records. It survives in genealogical records. It survives in oral history. It survives in the cemetery. And most importantly, it survives through descendants and community members who continue to remember.

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When Washington Hills residents travel Oakwood Drive, they are traveling through a landscape historically associated with Turkey Foot Hollow and Shot Hollow.

When someone enters the portion presently recognized as Johnson Cemetery, they are entering part of a much larger ancestral burial landscape.

And when we speak the names of Harriette Swan, Sarah Batcher, Willis Johnson, Eliza Johnson, Owen Gideon, Samuel Shepherd, and the countless others whose names may no longer appear on visible stones, we return people to a history from which they were in danger of being forgotten.

 

This Is More Than Cemetery Preservation

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This preservation effort is not simply about protecting gravestones. It is about protecting 38.1 acres of ancestral landscape. It is about identifying and protecting possible unmarked graves. It is about protecting archaeological evidence. It is about preserving Indigenous history. It is about preserving Black and Brown history. It is about preserving the history of Washington Hills and the Highway 58 corridor. It is about preserving the history of Hamilton County.

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And above everything else, it is about respecting the people who were laid to rest here.

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Turkey Foot Hollow existed before the modern roads.

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Turkey Foot Hollow existed before the name Johnson Cemetery.

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Turkey Foot Hollow existed before the parks and government acquisitions that transformed this landscape.

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Our ancestral history tells us that its burial tradition reaches back centuries before colonial settlement. The historic community stretched across this landscape toward Summit, Tennessee. Oakwood Drive itself once carried the Turkey Foot Hollow and Shot Hollow name. And the cemetery we are fighting to preserve encompasses approximately 38.1 acres.

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The landscape changed. The names changed. Governments changed. Property lines changed. But history did not disappear simply because a map changed.

Turkey Foot Hollow is still here. The ancestors are still here. Their descendants are still here.

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And it is now our responsibility to make certain that the entire 38.1-acre Turkey Foot Hollow-Shot Hollow ancestral cemetery landscape is properly investigated, documented, recognized, protected, and preserved so that no future generation has to fight to prove that this community ever existed.

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We remember them. We speak their names. And we will preserve their history.