We went up to Estatoe.
Estatoe is a tiny community just outside of Spruce Pine, before you reach Burnsville.
It is located along Hwy. 19E.
The name Estatoe has two different Indian legends surrounding it.
One legend relates that Estatoe, the daughter of one of two rival Cherokee Indian chiefs, fell in love with the son of the other; but her father refused his consent, which caused a bloody war between the two tribes.
But Estatoe had a "peace pipe" made with two stems, so that two people could smoke it at once. The two rival chiefs assembled their respective followers on the bank of the river, and smoked until peace was made and Estatoe married her lover.
Another legend states that around the area of Grandfather*s Mountain, Estatoe drowned herself because of her father's strong objections to her marrying her lover.
Whatever is actual truth, we do not know. But the fact remains that there was an Estatoe Cherokee maiden and the area was named after her.
The Toe River is named by a shortening of the word 'Estatoe'.
Country folks have a way of doing that.
We were searching for our Correll family.
I had been told that there were two Corrells buried in a church cemetery there in Estatoe.
Trying to link David Correll, father of Isabell Correll has proved difficult.
Some of the census records were sadly lost in fires through the years and I cannot locate David on a census record with his family , prior to marrying Nancy Harrington.
Locating his family would determine our Correll line back another generation and perhaps open the gate, so to speak, to finding our complete line.
There were, of course, no death certificates or birth certificates in the very early years of Tennessee, so census records and 'last wills and testaments' are just about all you have to go on.
There were several families of Corrells, one large branch in particular, that resided in Rowan County, North Carolina. The Corrells located in the cemetery there in Estatoe tie into this line of Corrells, so it was too interesting, not to try and find them.
We set out looking for a road off of 19E, called 'Rabbit Hop Road'. The directions did not include a turn BEFORE you met up with Rabbit Hop, but quite by accident we found ourself on the right road. The small country church set across the road from the cemetery and on a small rise. The cemetery was fenced in and quiet, with a lovely view of distant mountains.
I photographed many of the headstones in that cemetery, and some that I took were of the 'Boone' surname. I try to take as many pictures as I can, tombstones are being "swallowed" up by the earth quickly, and are in danger of being lost forever. So we need to take pictures!
I came home and uploaded the pictures and it turns out that I had fulfilled a request that a man in Florida had made. He is related to that same Boone family there in Estatoe, and is himself, a Boone. Yes, a direct descendant of the Daniel Boone! I was so glad to be able to give the man a glimpse of the tombstones of his ancestors, that he may otherwise never have seen.
I have yet to pinpoint the actual father of our David Correll, but the search will continue for sure.
The adventure of finding the small church was well worth the time and effort , and I was also able to make another person very happy. Big Smile on that one.
Who knows? Maybe one day, I will be able to link these Corrells into our family~
Until then, I just love a sunny, beautiful day up in the mountains.
