At 2:40 on Saturday, February 22, 2020, The last Challenge Coin (#100) for the 2020 African American History Month Heritage Geocache Challenge was given out. Congratulations to all the Geocachers. The geocaches will remain in place for a few months for public education. Thank you for participating.
This Geocache is part of an annual Geocache Challenge put on by the Heritage Program at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area as part of our outreach to the public, to get people to explore their forest and their history, and to share the unique heritage of the families from Between the Rivers.
This Geocache is part of the “2020 Land Between the Lakes Heritage Geocache Challenge: African American History of Lyon County”. There are 7 geocaches placed in Lyon County in Land Between the Lakes related to the African American Heritage of the area. If you locate each geocache, and collect a numbered aluminum tree tag from each cache, you can turn them in at the Golden Pond Visitor Center for one of 100 Challenge Coins created for this event.
The Geocache is a 6.” x 6” clear watertight plastic box marked “Heritage Geocache” on the top. The geocache is placed in the woods on a hilltop where a historic barn was once located.
The John Young Property Geocache
This location is the oldest known farmstead on the plat of land once owned by John Young Sr., an early white settler along the Tennessee River. In 1810, Young was living in Caldwell County with a white wife and 4 white sons. Around 1820, John Young Sr. may have also had an African American son named Joseph Young.
In 1836, John young Sr. and John Young Jr. made an agreement that if Jr. cared for Sr. till the end of his life, Jr. would inherit the estate.
Upon John Young Sr.’s death in 1841. John Young Sr. freed his adult female slave named Jenny, but her three young daughters (Malinda, Phyllis, and Margaret Jane) were deeded to John Young Jr. and may have been his mixed-race children. In 1850, John Young Jr. and his family are living in in a mixed-race household with both free and enslaved family members.
The African American Children of John Young Sr. and John Young Jr.
Joseph Young – after his father’s death, Joseph married a free woman named Rebecca Whitesides in the 1840s and eventually founded the Young’s Grove Community.
Andrew Young – married a free woman named Catherine McRacken in the 1850s and lived in the John Young Jr. Household.
Malinda Young – married a free man named Randal McRacken and had 9 children. Their oldest son, Hugh, died in the Civil War.
Phyllis Young – married a free man named Shandy Cork in the 1850s and they lived in the John Young Jr. Household. Shandy became a U.S.C.T. Vet.
Margaret Jane (Hannah) Young – married a free man named Richard McRacken. Richard became a U.S.C.T Vet.
Amanda Jane Young – married a U.S.C.T. Vet. named Andrew Jackson Smith in 1867.
Catherine (Kitty) Young – married a U.S.C.T. Vet. Owen Benberry in 1867.