As we leave Key Town, I wanted to share a few, final thoughts. I’ve said many times that I’m leaving with more questions than answers, and that’s certainly true after assembling these articles on Key Town. As I write about people and places that appear as familiar as my own life story, I often find that there are unknown layers to the stories and my research seems to never be finished. I suppose that’s the nature of history and the reason we can spend a lifetime studying it.

I’m always asking what brought people to this place and I certainly long to find an answer to that question for Stephen Key. I was shocked to learn the size of the original Key family lands – was that why he left his father’s Overton County home? I have found deeds where he passed land to his sons but have yet to find when and from whom he actually acquired it.

One interesting transaction I found was an 1890 deed to the school district. There is a story about a school that stood between the well-known Campground and Martha Washington Schools. It may have been called Crooked Hickory, but the details are very sketchy. Finding that deed, and having a general understanding of the lay of Key’s lands seems to validate the story.

However, Stephen Key’s grandson Billy would have been in school about the years 1891 – 1898 and there are no stories of him attending Crooked Hickory as he grew up in Key Town. Still, Stephen’s willingness to share a part of his land with the school board would seem to give some indication to the man’s priorities.

Rest assured, I will continue to work on this subject and we’ll revisit it when I have more to share!

John Wesley Key was number six of seven children to grow up in the Stephen Key home in Key Town. There were only two boys and John Wesley’s older brother was fully 13 years his senior. They lived a remote and probably somewhat isolated life near the Hurricane Creek – it was the only life John Wesley would ever know as he was born, grew to adulthood and then raised his own family of nine just East of the family homestead, right there in Key Town.

In the early 1880’s, John Wesley would marry Kentucky-born Sarah Ann Miller. I’m a little unsure where Sarah’s father was born as one census reports him hailing from Kentucky then another from North Carolina. Either way, the couple spent several years in Neatsville, Kentucky where all of their eleven children were born. Since the 1890 census records are lost to us, it’s also unclear exactly when they moved to Tennessee, but FindAGrave.com reports Matilda is buried at Campground Cemetery. (You can bet I’ll be checking on that to ascertain whether her husband William James is there as well – I’ll update when I know more.)

John Wesley and Sarah’s children would all settle close to Key Town, with both the oldest and youngest sons living on the outskirts of Key Town. In researching the Stephen Key article a few weeks ago, and learning the extent of his property, I actually came to understand that daughters Ermine and Elizabeth lived on parts of the original Stephen Key land.

While this information is outside the scope of our Key Town survey, Ermine and Elizabeth (Aunt Lizzy as we all remember her), married brothers Leonard and Gibson (Uncle Gip) Norris. Their father, Tom Norris, moved from Roslin and purchased enough land that he gave 50 acres to each of his sons. Both built homes on the land and lived there for a number of years with Stephen Key’s granddaughters. I suppose at one time that would have been part of Key Town too.