Samuel Cleage House and History

Above: some sort of insulator with porcelain insert and metal housing. Not sure what it was from.  It was laying along the bank of Little North Mouse Creek across from the Cleage house  half buried in mud. 

Samuel Cleage House and History

Saturday Feb. 6, 2021 and Tuesday Feb. 23, 2021

Dana & Kenny Koogler 

Pictures are here: Samuel Cleage Historic Photos

Information for the Samuel Cleage House

 and The Scream Chamber Haunted Attraction

(click link to go to their website) 

Address is : Highway 11, 1163 North, Athens, TN 37303

Waypoint is 35.490141, -84.57979

Cleage Cemetery is located at 35.482684,-84.593630

  I am very interested in history.   I am interested in old buildings and abandoned places.   I am thrilled with a spooky story that can give me the shivers.  I'm not a believer in ghosts.  I'm a skeptic, but I've had friends who told me stories that are unexplainable and I believe them.   I am not at all a fan of gory, bloody, slasher films or what I call 'booger movies" like The Walking Dead and its Zombie Apocktaclipse.    I hate all that mess.  I figure over the years at work I have filled my head up with enough negative and scary.    

    I got to reading Amanda Gamble's stories and histories.  Checking out her documentation of the Samuel Cleage house.  I wanted to see it for myself.  I had a list of stuff I wanted to see and do in the Athens vicinity.  It was a back burner project.    We had a death in the family when Lydia's sweet sister, Liz passed away unexpectedly a couple weeks ago.   

     I was upset over it.   I was down and all the plans I'd had just did not matter anymore.   I was crying off and on all day and not sleeping the best.   I got up Saturday morning and kind of moped around.   Kenny finally said "You can't let this destroy you.  You need to get out of the house for a little while.  Think of something.. anything you want to do for a couple hours and we need to go get your mind off this."  I knew he was right.   I browsed through my lists and ideas and finally the only thing that struck me as interesting was a drive to Athens. 

    I told him I wanted to go down there and see the Cleage House.  I knew where it was. I knew that it had long sat abandoned, but had more recently been turned into a haunted attraction.  I wrongly thought that it was an operation that ran only during the Halloween season.   Oh no... it runs year round.   I'm not a big fan of that sort of thing anyhow, but I knew that as raw as my nerves were I was in no condition to put up with something like that.   I figured that would be the last straw for me.   So I had to settle for getting some shots of the house from outside.

     It was not a very satisfactory experience.  They have modified this historic home in ways that are unappealing and to me inappropriate.  I kept telling myself that I should be grateful the old place was still standing and being given a second chance at life.    I might not love the next incarnation of it, but it has helped it survive.   The Cleage house is now known as The Scream Chamber. 

    Here is a little bit of the history of the man and his family as I have been able to gather from various sources.

Above: photo of the Cleage house in its current incarnation as The Scream Chamber. Of course all the advertising logos and that big long, black wooden part were built on by the new outfit. Including the wooden steps on the side. 

Above: another view of the Cleage house and from this angle you can see the "Flemish Gables" the highlighted circle at the top left corner of the photo.... on the roof of the house illustrates how the gable end extends past the roof line.   It seems to be like that on both ends.  

   Samuel Cleage was born Pennsylvania and moved around to Botetourt County, Virginia. He moved to Tennessee in the years 1823-1825. I have found two differing accounts.  He was a businessman, brick mason, and contractor.  He arrived in Tennessee around age 42 and brought with him his family.  The moved to the area around Athens and settled on a farm.   It was land that had been seized by the government from the Cherokees.  He was a slave holder and moved them with him to Tennessee.  It seems from what I've read he treated his slaves pretty well. He educated them in masonry and most of them took the Cleage name willingly because of his fair treatment. I did read that once many of his slaves obtained freedom they did not cut ties with the family, but remained close. To this day many of them still trace their lineage back to the man and his family.     I highly object to the whole slavery thing, but I have to remind myself it was a different time.  I can't change it.   By the time he would have moved around forty plus years of age I expect his children were possibly even adults and may have begun families of their own back in those times.  

   It was a long trip to make back then by road especially with all those people and animals and furnishings, equipment to tote along.   It appears he was an itinerant worker along the way. Building houses and such as he made his way down south from Virginia.  They not only had to build the houses by hand of brick, but MAKE the brick!   It is no telling how long the trip actually took.   I'm guessing a couple years.  Depending upon the route chosen the trip would be either longer or shorter.  It could have been as short as 340 miles or as long as 370 miles.  

           The house he constructed on the "Mouse Creek Farm" parcel he bought which ended up being around 3000 acres of ceded land, was a fine looking brick home.  He was a master mason and it had all kinds of special architectural touches not usually seen. He used Flemish bonding which I have learned means that alternating bricks have their short sides showing.  You can check out the photo below as an example of this.  I imagine it was stronger than most typical brick construction. The type house he built was popular at the time with more well to do persons.  It is an old Federal style house. It also has "Flemish Gables" which are the gables that extend above the main structure of the house or roof for aesthetics.

He must have been quite talented as the house still stands to this day, and while aging is basically sound. 

     

Above: an enlarged photo trimmed out of the house image.  It illustrates the Flemish bond of the brick. Alternating short bricks with lengthwise ones.  Pretty and strong!

   I am considering what drew him to Tennessee?  I am betting it was the newly acquired large tracts of land that the government wanted resettled by whites.  I have read varying reports over how much land he owned exactly.  I read 1800 acres, then I read 3000 acres.  I sat down with the deeds and added it all up and came up with 4, 044 acres of land all told.  I expect that the amount of Tennessee red clay soil was a draw also.  It would have been excellent for brick making.   Tennessee also has lots of sandstone and sand was needed in brick making.  It was used as a sort of flour or no stick agent when molding bricks.   You know when you make biscuits or rolls a baker will flour the dough to be able to handle it?  Brick making from clay was done sort of like this.  The sand was like the flour in order to be able to handle the clay and form it into bricks in molds without having it adhere to the mold!   

Above:  When we pulled over on the side of the road for me to photograph the house in the distance... I looked to my right and saw this very decayed old bridge.  It crosses Little North Mouse Creek to what would have been the remainder of the Cleage Farm.   From a satellite view you can see the ruins of a barn, two silos and several sheds buried within the trees and weeds.  

    I walked down the embankment to get a closer look at it.

Here is a view down the creek from the bridge. It is rather pretty. 

Above: a better look at the bridge from the stream bank.  The under pinning and frame is metal and still pretty sound!  

Above: I could look across the creek and see this one building in the weeds.  I could see the tops of the silos , but that was it.  

        Samuel Cleage was married to Mary Stanback Cleage. Together they had three children Alexander, David, and Sarah.   He became a very wealthy, successful man with a nice family.       Today some say the Cleage house is haunted.   It turned out that Samuel Cleage was murdered and died there in the house.   He got into some sort of disagreement between himself and a man named Ambrose Griffith.  No one to this day knows the exact nature of the argument, but it escalated to the point Griffith stabbed Mr. Cleage.   On July 17, 1850 he was stabbed by Griffith.  He was taken to the house and tended and lingered. aware of his condition and likely demise.   He was a good man and forgave his killer before his passing.   I cannot even imagine the horror.

He passed away on July 20, 1850 upon hearing this Mr. Griffith fled the area. Far as I know he was never seen or heard from again.   I do not think he was ever punished for his crimes.   Samuel Cleage, his wife, his children, and some of the slaves are interred in the Cleage Cemetery out along Mt. Verd Road in Athens, TN.

  I visited and found it with the help of Mark Gilreath who is a friend who lives and works in the area.   At the time of my visit I found the cemetery in rather poor repair, but someone had visited and had marked graves. Even burials with no visible memorial stone.   They probably went by the depressions in the ground of which I found plenty.  I am estimating there were around 20 burials in that cemetery that I was able to discern by the flags, stones or depressions in the ground.    There could easily be more.   

       Another reason why folks say the place is haunted is because one of the slave women split a man's head open with a meat cleaver.   It was a Union soldier back during the Civil War.  The tale was told of a Union soldier bursting into the house suddenly.  Food raids were common in those times because people were starving.  He saw nothing valuable so instead he spat into the freshly baked pan of Mamie's cornbread which was all the family had to eat.  She was enraged and split his head open upon the spot killing him.   I have read one horrible but brief account of an infant being killed by a crazed nanny in the Cleage house, but I cannot verify that by another source.  All the tales above have been confirmed from two sources.

      I am not a believer in ghosts, but then I've never seen one.  I will watch spooky things on t.v. and be like "Oh Lord! that is so scary! I bet I won't be able to sleep tonight!" Later that night I'll catch myself getting up to pee or get a drink of water in the kitchen with no lights on.  I will think back to the day and what I saw on tv and I laugh like crazy.  I am too dense to see ghosts I imagine.  I must be too dumb to get scared.  Long as the ghost would let me sleep I'd not care. Just let me go back to bed and let me alone.  Anyone or anything messing with my sleep is apt to cause a fight. 

    I will update this entry if and when I get to tour Cleage House on March 27th. 

 Below are some photos of the graves in the Cleage Cemetery. 

It is interesting to note that the McMinn County Historical Society is kept busy periodically assisting people to find out more about this interesting family.  Many of the relatives come seeking info from all around.  That is a fine legacy just by itself not to mention the many stout, attractive buildings in Tennessee and Virginia that owe their existence to Cleage and Crutchfield Construction! 

It pleases me especially to know that the slaves who trace their family history back to him have descendants who come looking just the same and still have a bond with this family.  

   Below: another infant burial only around six weeks old.  Poor little thing. 

This with the flag, the slight depression in the ground and the stone is a burial, but I don't know who. 

Above: wrought iron enclosure at the beginning of the cemetery. all it surrounds is two trees. I am guess it was protection for newly planted trees and ornamental as well. 

Above: Jacob Malone marker. 

Above: Cassius Smithson another infant burial 7 months old. 

Above: the Samuel and Mary Cleage monument was the largest in the cemetery. 

I could not make out the writing on this headstone.  

Periwinkle beginning to bloom in the cemetery. 

  I have learned from my reading that a new friend, Dennis Stewart, a talented and dedicated historian in the area is responsible for the Cleage Cemetery being in as good a condition as it is!   Many thanks for the upkeep of this remarkable historic site.   

Again I will add information to this blog and repost it if I get additional relevant material.  

For now I leave you with a peaceful scene of emerging Spring along Little North Mouse Creek.    It has been a crazy and rough year, but you have to take those little snippets of beauty and solace where you can find them.

Scroll to the very bottom of the page for a map and directions to Cleage Cemetery which is not easy to spot if you don't know it is there. 

Below: the google map of the location of Cleage Cemetery with the spot marked.

Directions to Cleage Cemetery from Cleage House aka The Scream Chamber:

From Scream Chamber along Hwy 11 head south for 1 mile and turn RIGHT onto Mt. Verd Road (Road #305) Drive 0.10 miles on Mt. Verd Road and turn RIGHT into a driveway to a multiplex apartment building just past Subway.

It goes to a round parking lot for the apartments.   Pull to the far end of the circle and watch on your right--same side as the apartment building for a faint path leading into the clump of trees.   This is Cleage Cemetery.   In Winter or early Spring when the trees are not leafed out you will be able to see the tops of grave monuments from the parking area.   I would not do this in Summer as it is very snaky and weedy.   During any other season just go, but be careful.  The ground is full of depressions from sunken graves and footstones that are hard to see thanks to the snarl of grass.  Someone has placed survey flags at the known burials.   Please be respectful to  the deceased, mindful how you'd feel if it were your relatives burial place.  

Also do not litter or be disruptive to the folks living in the apartments.