Honoring Our Heritage and Legacy
White Oak Flats Cemetery preserves the stories of Gatlinburg’s founding families and pioneers, connecting generations through the rich history of the Smoky Mountains and honoring those who came before us.
Historical Reverence
Preserving legacies of Gatlinburg’s founding families in sacred grounds.
Martha Jane Huskey Ogle — First Woman of White Oak Flats
Before the cabins, before the town, and before the name Gatlinburg ever echoed through these hills, there was one woman who came first — Martha Jane Huskey Ogle.
Born on December 9, 1756, in Wake County, North Carolina, Martha was raised on the edge of the early American frontier. Family tradition holds that she was part Native, a heritage reflected in her strength, independence, and quiet resilience — traits that would come to define her role in Smoky Mountain history.
Her husband, William Ogle, was a farmer and Indian trader who scouted new land in East Tennessee around 1802. He found a place thick with white oak trees and called it White Oak Flats. There, he began preparing logs for a cabin and returned to South Carolina with plans to bring Martha and their children back with him. But fate intervened. William died of illness in Edgefield County in 1803 before he could lead them north.
Martha did not let the dream die. A few years later, she gathered her five sons, two daughters, and her brother Peter Huskey, and set out on a long and rugged journey over the mountains to the land William had chosen. They arrived by 1805 or 1806 and finished building the cabin William had begun — the first permanent home in what would later become Gatlinburg.
She also helped shape the spiritual life of the new settlement. In December 1817, Martha was part of a group from White Oak Flats that petitioned Fork of Little Pigeon Church in Sevierville to establish a branch closer to their mountain home. She helped lay the foundation not just for the town’s physical presence — but for its soul.
Martha Jane Huskey Ogle was buried in 1827 at White Oak Flats Cemetery. And even though the First Baptist Church has been moved out Highway 321, the cemetery still overlooks the town we know today as Gatlinburg.
She didn’t just come here.
She built this place.
She is the founding matriarch of Gatlinburg.
