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One section of
Bon at the head of the “holler” above
the coal tipple was called “colored camp”. There were about 15
families of colored people who lived there from 1912 to 1916. The houses
were four rooms, “boxed houses”, which were not weather-boarded
as the other Bon houses were. Gambling games were held at one of the “colored
houses”—usually on Saturday night after payday. On one such night
a colored man thought that he was being cheated; so he shot and killed two
white men. The colored man ran away into the hills and into the night; he
was later arrested. The colored people were all sent away from Bon and that
house was burned down. Never again for 22 years were any colored people allowed
anywhere anytime at Bon.
The Colored Camp then became Camp #3 and was filled with white families.
Some of the families who lived there included Will (Bumper) Jones, Falis
Parks, Bull Dog Reed, Robert Reed, Paris Owens, Roscoe Wilson, and Charlie
Morgan.
This information was largely taken from interviews with Earl Lovitt by Williamsburg
Grade School project, circa 1984.
Bon Jellico Doctors
The first
doctor at Bon was Dr. Ancil A. Richardson. He built an office on his dad’s
(Mike Richardson’s) farm. It had two rooms, one for a waiting room
and one for the treatment room with a grate for coal heating. Dr. Richardson
never lived in the Bon camp.
About 1914
Dr. Edgar (Baine?) Stonecipher came to Bon Jellico; he was there through
1937. Dr. and Mrs. Stonecipher lived in the big house,
near the store that was
built for the Bon Jellico General Manager, Mr. E.B. (Jack?) Taylor. Dr. Stonecipher’s
office was housed in the same building as the commissary.
Each family paid $2.00 per month for the doctor’s care. Each morning the
doctor walked thru the camp to visit patients.
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