Seven Islands Church
Seven Islands Church is located in rural South Knoxville, near the French Broad River. Founded in 1802, the church certainly has a great deal of history and, some suggest, some ghosts as well.
Brittney, a contributer to this blog, informed me "there are supposed to be roaming shadows in the cemetery and mysterious lights in the bell tower. Satanic worshippers have been seen in the cemetery and witches are rumored to be buried there." She has visited there, despite her father's objections, though she has not personally experienced anything there.
Last night (2/17/2005) Nathan Fortner, Todd Yarbrough, Stefanie Bowen, and myself decided to investigate. We arrived around 10 PM, well after dark. The church definately appears creepy. We got out, and ventured into the cemetery, where we felt some chills. There seemed to be cold spots in various placed. Stefanie thought that one followed her around. We spent about 20 minutes there, but, alas nothing really happened other than the cold spots except for one thing - in the back, left corner of the cemetery, we could hear bells. They sounded very faint and small, sort of like jingle bells. What they were, I do not know. There is likely a natural explaination, but it did succeed in creeping us out.
During the trip, I took the following photos:
Brittney, a contributer to this blog, informed me "there are supposed to be roaming shadows in the cemetery and mysterious lights in the bell tower. Satanic worshippers have been seen in the cemetery and witches are rumored to be buried there." She has visited there, despite her father's objections, though she has not personally experienced anything there.
Last night (2/17/2005) Nathan Fortner, Todd Yarbrough, Stefanie Bowen, and myself decided to investigate. We arrived around 10 PM, well after dark. The church definately appears creepy. We got out, and ventured into the cemetery, where we felt some chills. There seemed to be cold spots in various placed. Stefanie thought that one followed her around. We spent about 20 minutes there, but, alas nothing really happened other than the cold spots except for one thing - in the back, left corner of the cemetery, we could hear bells. They sounded very faint and small, sort of like jingle bells. What they were, I do not know. There is likely a natural explaination, but it did succeed in creeping us out.
During the trip, I took the following photos:
posted by John Norris Brown at 11:18 AM
20 Comments:
John,
I recently did a genealogy on the Newman-Hodges-Wrinkle families. All have relatives buried at Seven Islands. I visited the cemetery in April, alone, one day to take pictures. Enjoyed the quietness and history there. Didn't see any ghosts or such. Thank you for this site of interest. Your Pictures are interesting.
Martha
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I'm Brittany! Seven Islands is creepy & so many of my family have stories about it. The Wrinkle-Hodges families are friends of mine. How neat.
Can anyone share information on the Wrinkle,Brown,Hines families?
I would love to get a list of people buried at seven islands.
Hello John, I would like to know who you are and where you live, because my Pawpaw ( John Brown ) is buried and Nanny Brown my Mawmaw, also an uncle James Wesley Brown. Frank Brown & Laurie Brown. My daddy was Arnold Brown the son of John Brown and I am his Daughter (Marie Brown Amos) please contact me at my web,(maoms93@aol.com). THANKS
I have to say I have done some investgating of my own at seven Islands and i have to say I have alot pictures that prove paranomal excist there I have apparision forming on a head stone looks almost zombied I have been there several times at dark and in the daytime I never leave there without an evp
I visited the cemetery yesterday because some of my Keener relatives are buried there. Seemed perfectly normal to me, but HOT. It is located on a very pretty knoll with views of rolling hills.
Mollie Warlick, July 2006
on the 3rd pic...was that a flash light or back flash.... when u took it...(the strang light in the right hand coner)
John, i have many family members buried at seven islands including my mother,dad and a brother.ive visited there many times,some of those times were at night. ive always found it to be a very beautiful and peaceful place. Steve
I am Tina Perry and my Family has been in 7 islands all my life and most of theres I am kin to the Lovedays my grandfather was a decan at that church I was verry small and grew up there just around the bend is where my Grandparents lived and I have to say that its rite creepy was when I was little and still is
In late October of 2005 my fiance, his best friend, and his girlfriend all went up to the church around 11 or 12 at night. We drove past and I looked at the belltower. I got a strange cold chill down my spine and started crying uncontrollably for no reason. All of us in the car felt like a dark and evil presence was around us. Something is definately going on there and a strange fog appeared all around the graveyard. I have never felt that way and been so scared before. I doubt I will ever go back.
We went to the church last night between 1 and 2 am, and from the moment I walked in I thought I saw shadows but who knows. Regardless I felt like we were being follwed and often heard the swishing sound of wet grass like someone was wlaking around in there. Two guys with us saw a light go up in a tree on the right side of the cemetary. Under the tree is one grave from the 1800's. As we walked up to stand under the tree we walked over dried leaves that made a loud crunching sound. As we stood there for a while with our backs to the entrance, I began to grow bored with the place and about that the havy crunching sound of walking on leaves quickly came up behind us. When we turned nothing was there and we sprinted back to the car. We we got back we looked at some pictures we had taken and in one picture you can clearly see a face of some sort. I don't know if it was our minds playing trick, but I had a hard time sleeping last night.
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Funny thing. I was raised in Seymour and have frequently visited Seven Islands for entertainment purposes in high school and after. My aunt was married there as well. I have seen video that a few friends have taken that came out strange. One of which had a faint light spot appearing and disappearing for no reason in the cemetary. I myself have never heard bells or seen spirits although My great grandmother who recently passed at the age of 92 use to tell stories about Seven Islands. I am from the Franklin Family (Franklin, Helton, Houser, Johnson) and there are reportedly things that went on at Sevn Islands in the early years that have faded throughout the generations. If anyone knowns anything about these instances please contact me as well. InsanityLivz@gmail.com (InsanityLivz@hotmail.com as well)
Thanks for the information and the
photos. Some years ago I started a
genealogy project and found a number of my Huffaker relatives
were buried at Seven Islands. My
plans are to visit this beautiful area and learn more. It was great
to find your photos online. Thanks!
Hi! My family is the Huffakers, who supposedly donated the land for the church and cemetary. It is a beautiful and historic place; if there ARE ghosts, I sure would love to talk to them! I'm sure the stories would be spectacular!
HI I AM THE OLDEST DAUGHTER OF ALMA
BROWN WRINKLE TALIAFERRO..MY GRAND
MOTHER WAS WILLIE LOUISE BROWN WRINKLE..AND ROBERT JOSESHP WRINKLE..THEY ARE BOTH BURIED IN THAT CEMETURY..IT IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE..AT MY GRANDFATER GRAVE IT WAS FOGGY THAT DAY AND A MISTERTIUOS LADY IN BACK WAS THER DOES ANY ONE KNOW WHO SHE WAS...
Hello, i know this was posted quite a while ago, but...
This past summer (2007), we took a camping trip in this area. We vistited this church, mainly because parts of my Aunt's family is burried there.
We toured the cemetary, and i DID hear bells, as did my cousin. She asked my Aunt, and she didn't answer.
We went into the church to pose for pictures, and, yes, there was a very strong negative vibe.
Creepy, eh?
I really enjoy reading things on your website.
Thanks.
I have been there many of times and yes, I have seen alot of things go on there, like shadow peole run right by me, me and 3 friends took pictures and there is a bloody face on one on the church, there are 2 nooses hanging inside of the church. last time i was there, there was a dug up grave, you could see the coffin, but the coffin was empty, my friend bent down to see a grave and was cut, once we was so afraid that we jumped in the car and sped out of there and saw a bloody sign, also, the first time going there, we smelt rasin cinnomon cookies and tahoe ciggarettes.. creepy place, i plan to do somemore investigation before i offically..proclaim haunted on it
Some of my friends and myself are actually make plans to do an investigation out there in the next couple of weeks. One thing we like to do before we conduct the investigation is to go out during the day and take a look around and get a good look at everything. We had heard the reports of the sound of bells in the back corner, so that was the first thing I wanted to check out. We soon found that over one of the graves in that corner, along with other parts of the cemetery, is a windchime on a pole. If there was any wind at all that would sound much like jingle bells. We also looked through the window of the church and saw the rope that hangs from the bell tower that was used to ring the bell. We did notice it was tied curiously like a noose, but we guessed it was only to keep out of reach and from dragging on the ground, as was the case at my old church. I'm not saying that it isn't haunted, I just like to keep my head about me and find natural causes for possible "paranormal" activity. I'm very excited about doing the actual investigation.
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