Street in Front of the Courthouse Keener Street in Sylva NC...
The Keener Cemetery is located on a hill right above the town of Sylva. There you will find the gravestones of Ancestors, Peggy and Joseph Keener. Gravestone of Great Great Grandmother Margaret (Peggy) Cunningham Keener. Margaret was the daughter of Margaret "Peggy Hughes" and George Cunningham..and George Cunningham was the son of George Cunningham
the revolutionary war soldier.
Gravestone of Ancestor Joseph "Joe" Keener.. 
This photo shows our Daughter Toni and Me visiting Ancestral Graves at the Keener Cemetery above Sylva some years ago..
Another interesting Keener relative was Joseph's Brother Ulrich. Ulrich was an educated man and he chose to spend his life as a missionary to the Cherokee Indians. click here John Parris ( author of "These Storied Mountains") wrote the following about Ulrich,
"The first Methodist missionary to the Cherokee Indians came this way more than a hundred years ago. He was the Rev. Ulrich Keener.
The only memorial he got is one he helped shape with his own hands.
It is a two- story cabin of hewn logs that stands here in the valley of Soco Creek only a stone's throw from the modern brick Cherokee Methodist Center.Keener helped groove together the cabin when he came among the Cherokee in 1844 to serve as preacher and teacher at the newly established Echota Mission.
Long abandoned and crumbling, the historic old cabin was snatched from oblivion by Indian church workers and their white friends about a dozen years ago and restored to its former appearance.*( written October 8, 1971 for the Asheville Newspaper by John Parris)
It now houses a church-sponsored cooperative craft center featuring native Indian arts and crafts.
A sign hanging above the porch carries the legend that the cabin was the original Keener parsonage.
But a bronze plaque errected by the N.C. Department of Archives and History just down the road does not mention his name .
It reads;
" Echota Misssion, Methodist maintained by Holston Conference for Cherokee--1840-1885. School established 1850. Missionary's house stands half mile south."
Nowhere is there anything to tell of the pioneer preacher the cabin sheltered while he labored among the Cherokee.
And that's a shame, for the Rev. Ulrich Keener was one of Methodism's truly great missionaries on horseback.
He not only was the first Methodist missionary to the Cherokee but the first Methodist circuit-riding preacher west of the Balsams,
He first came this way in 1829, a young man of twenty assigned to preach to the white settlers in the far flung valley of the Tuskaseegee.
It was not until shortly after 1839 when all but a handful of Cherokee were uprooted and sent west on the infamous Trail of Tears that he began to preach to the Indians at regular meetings.
He was named pastor of the Waynesville Circuit and Echota Mission in 1847. Two years later he moved to the Catawba Circuit ;but returned in 1850 to direct the Echota Mission until his death seven years later.
During his early years as a preacher, he taught school in Macon County. And for awhile he lived in Buncombe County, where he had married Miss Sarah Duckett in1829.
Unlike some of his fellow missionaries, Keener was an educated man. He was an extensive reader, and he left behind a considerable library of standard books, especially on the subject of theology.
As a speaker, he was argumentative, but at the same time fluent,
He was a staunch defender of the doctrines of his church.
He had a talent for music and a fine and well- cultivated voice.
There were times when he rose to the limits of pathos and eloquence in his sermons,
That he had the great ability as a preacher is not surprising, for he was a kinsman of the famed Bishop Keener on his father's side and a first cousin of the distinguished Isham G. Harris of Tennessee on his mother's side.
When his health began failing in 1855, he was forced to give up teaching at Echota Mission as well as his regular preaching.
He and his family moved just across the ridge to Quallatown. And there he died. He is buried in the Campground Cemetery.
He was the father of five sons and six daughters , all of whom lived to be grown. All except one daughter married and reared families.
His descendants still live in the mountains, where he worked so long and so faithfully,
And though his name has been kept alive all these years, the only memorial he ever got is the cabin of handhewn logs, which has been preserved.
Maybe in time there will be a memorial in bronze or marble to him here or at least an appropriate plaque to tell even a little bit about this great man.
But until then there is the Keener Parsonage to keep alive his memory.
And somehow, I have a feeling that the preservation of his old log cabin is the kind of monument he would have chosen.
After all it speaks more eloquently of him and his dedicated work than all the bronze and marble in the world.
For it seems alive with his spirit when you walk inside and go from room to room. "
The Story of Joseph Keener (great great grandfather) by Ed Bain click here
Joseph Keener was my Great Great Grandfather.
Seen above are pictures of his grave stone and the grave stone of his wife
Margaret "Peggy" Cunningham Keener. Margaret was the grand daughter
of Revolutionary War Soldier George Cunningham.
If you visit this website you can see the story about Margaret Isham "Peggy" Keener Miller, my great grandmother. click here
In case you get lost looking for a Keener
click here
"Today I visited yesterday, And walked among the graves Of family and friends from long ago.
Whose memory had begun to fade.
The graves were unattended
As were my thoughts of them
When a vision of the ages past
Brought back my sense of kin.
The vision showed the church lawn
On a crisp summer day
The table spread, the food prepared
And friends who would break bread
All my relatives were there.
Both young and old
Grandma and I walked hand and hand
Sharing stories never told
We laughed and cried and Shared our thoughts.
And I found the friend I thought I lost.
As the sun began to fade
The church bell rang out clear
Grandma and the others slowly disappeared
Today I visited yesterday
And now the memory is strong
Of the family from which I came
AND NOW BELONG "..anonymous
No comments:
Post a Comment