Wheat Community

Wheat Community. . John Henry and Elizabeth Inman Welcker owned and operated a plantation named Laurel Banks as early as 1810, and possibly 1805. This plantation was located along the banks of the Clinch River, where the East Tennessee Technology Park (formerly the K-25) Plant now stands. John Henry died in 1838 and Elizabeth died in 1840. In 1847, George Hamilton Gallaher, Sr. bought Laurel Banks. According to the 1860 Roane County Census George Gallaher, Sr.'s personal estate was valued at $36,000. This includes $25,000 worth of real estate and at least 19 slaves. This cemetery, now named The Wheat Community African American Burial Ground, was formerly known as Atomic Energy Commission Cemetery #2 - Slave Cemetery and was sometimes referred to as the Gallaher - Stone Cemetery. In 1979, Dorothy Moneymaker, a resident of the Wheat Community, counted between 90 and 100 graves with no inscribed markers located within the cemetery. It is presumed that slaves who once belonged to the Welckers and Gallahers and some of their descendants are buried here. It is also possible that slaves and their descendants who lived on other farms in the area are buried here. Some of the other families that owned slaves and lived in the vicinity were the Burums, Carmichaels, Staples, Henleys, Ellis, and Rathers. We will never know the names of those buried here.