| Sources |
- [S74] Atchley Funeral Home Records, Volume IV, 1987-1999, Larry D. Fox, (Smoky Mountain Historical Society), 3 Sep 1989.
John Andrew Shelton obituary
- [S9] Smoky Mountain Historical Society Newsletter, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, Vol. XXX, No. 4, Page 2-5, Winter 2005.
The Autobiagraphy of James Shelton, Part II
- [S9] Smoky Mountain Historical Society Newsletter, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, Vol. XXX, No. 2, Page 4-8, Summer 2005.
The Autobiagraphy of James Shelton
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 16 Apr 2012.
Upland Chronicles: Shelton's photos chronicle events, places in Smokies
by CARROLL McMAHAN
Jim Shelton pictured in the later years of his life.
At the mouth of Meigs Creek once swung this railroad bridge across Little River.
This photo was taken by Jim Shelton in 1918. This photo was taken by Jim Shelton of his family posing beside an American chestnut tree. From left are Caroline Walker Shelton (his wife), John Shelton (his son, sitting inside the tree), Leona Shelton Cotter (his daughter) and Effie Shelton Phipps (his daughter).
Out of the seven Walker sisters, only Sarah Caroline Walker married. On Dec. 27, 1907, she wed Jim Shelton who often said the other sisters remained spinsters because he was the only man who had enough courage to bust up the family.
Born April 24, 1886, James Baldwin Shelton grew up in the Smoky Mountains. While an infant, he was stricken with infantile paralysis causing him to lose sight in one eye.
As a teenager, Jim worked for Granville Calhoun herding cattle on grassy balds such as Spence Field and Russell Field above Cade’s Cove. Along with Calhoun’s brother-in-law, Jim Russell, they herded around fifty head of cattle up the mountain in early spring and back down in the fall.
To prevent the livestock from eating poisonous plants along the way, the boys muzzled the cattle using wire. Throughout the summer they hiked once a week up to Russell Field to check on the herd, carrying bag of salt to feed them.
Once Jim Shelton considered himself a grown man, he began working on a farm for John N. Walker of Little Greenbrier Cove for $10.00 per month plus room and board.
Jim soon met Walker’s daughter Caroline and they fell in love, married and started a family. They were parents of Leona (Cotter), Effie (Phipps), Hazel (Hembree) and John. Three others; Charles, Edith and Stella died as infants.
Before he and Caroline married, Jim became interested in photography. His equipment was a bulky bellows camera with rectilinear lens. The camera made negatives on glass plates five by eleven inches in size.
Jim often boasted that his camera was one of the best ever made, had the best set of shutters on it that squeezed the bulb to make an exposure and it had three track bellows that focused on whatever he wanted to shoot.
Carrying his heavy equipment, Jim climbed knobs and leaped from boulder to boulder to cross creeks to record a picture history of the Smoky Mountains. While the Little River Lumber Company was in its heyday at Elkmont, he lived nearby and sometimes worked for the company.
Scenes of the camp, log skids and its machinery dominated Jim’s considerable collection of photographs. He developed his pictures in a crude darkroom he built that included a spring fed trough which he used to process his images.
Although he never achieved as much notoriety as Jim Thompson and Albert “Dutch” Roth, Jim Shelton’s photographs have been widely used to chronicle events and places in the mountains before the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
One Sunday afternoon Jim was out with his family walking the main railroad down Little River Gorge where he decided he would get a picture of the “swinging railroad bridge” across Little River at the mouth of Meigs Creek.
This railroad bridge was built somewhat on the order of a foot bridge. It had very little visible means of support. Most of the support came from the steel cables suspended across the river under the ties that held the rails. They were guy cables to keep the bridge from swinging from side to side.
The engine that operated on the short stretch of railroad above this was not a locomotive. It was more of a flatcar with an engine mounted on it. The engine did not power the wheels, but rather it powered a big drum or winch.
To get the rig up and across the incline bridge from the main railroad, the engineer would allow the drum to unwind while a crew of men took hold of the end of a big steel rope and dragged it up the bridge to a large stump on top of the hill.
They would anchor the cable to the stump and then the engineer would start the drum rolling. As the cable wound around the drum, it would pull the car across the bridge and up the incline toward the ramp.
The image he captured that day has become one of the legendary photographs of the logging industry in the Smoky Mountains.
On another occasion, Jim seized a moment in time in an iconic image of his family posing beside an ancient American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) beforethe species was devastated by a pathogenic fungus
When the Little River Company made a notch on the tree for cutting, it was found to be hollow. Jim cut down the tree, rolled it down the bank and used it to retain dirt fill when the railroad was built above Tremont.
While many of the photographs in Jim Shelton’s collection are scenes associated with the Little River Lumber Company, most of the existing pictures of his famous sisters-in-law and their cabin were taken by Jim as well.
“Jim later recalled, “ I would go out over the country and take that big camera on my back making pictures and Eastern Kodak Company come in and went to making Kodaks, filled Sears Roebuck Stores full with Kodaks and put me out of business.”
Jim Shelton lived a long, eventful life. He and Caroline raised their family and lived together for a half century before she passed away in 1966, one day before her 80th birthday. He lived alone the remainder of his life.
At age 91, Jim Shelton died September 7, 1977. He is buried beside his wife and her six sisters in the Mattox Cemetery in Wear’s Valley.
— Carroll McMahan is the special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for future topics, would like to submit a column or have comments; please contact Carroll McMahan at 453-6411 or email to cmcmahan@scoc.org; or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or email to ron@ronraderproperties.com.
- [S112] Census, 1910.
Name: James B Shelton
Birthplace: Tennessee
Relationship to Head of Household: Self
Residence: Civil District 6, Sevier, Tennessee
Marital Status: Married
Race : White
Gender: Male
Immigration Year:
Father's Birthplace: North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Family Number: 26
Page Number: 2
Household Gender Age
James B Shelton M 23y
Spouse Sarah C Shelton F 21y
Child Margeret L Shelton F 1y 6m
- [S112] Census, 1920.
Name: James B Shelton
Residence: , Sevier, Tennessee
Estimated Birth Year: 1887
Age: 33
Birthplace: Tennessee
Relationship to Head of Household: Self
Gender: Male
Race: White
Marital Status: Married
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Film Number: 1821762
Digital Folder Number: 4390948
Image Number: 00283
Sheet Number: 2
Household Gender Age
James B Shelton M 33y
Spouse Caroline Shelton F 33y
Leona Shelton F 11y
Ellie Shelton F 9y
Hazle Shelton F 7y
John Shelton M 5y
- [S73] Rawlings Funeral Home, Book 2, 7 Sep 1977.
Shelton, James Baldwin April 24, 1886 Tn Sept 7, 1977
Spouse: Walker, Caroline
Father: Shelton, Andrew
Mother: Gilbert, Margaret
Sons: John
Daughters: Mrs. Leona Cotter, Mrs. E.V. Phipps [Effie], Amrs. Alfred Hembree [Hazel]
Cemetery: Maddox
Brothers: Otes
Sisters: Mrs. Willie Stinnett [Blan], Mrs. Rose Jenkins
- [S87] Death Certificate.
Name Date of Death / Age County of Death County / State of Residence Marital Status Gender Race File #
SHELTON JAMES B 09-07-1977 / 91 SEVIER SEVIER / TN WIDOWER M WHITE 28938
- [S34] In the Shadow of the Smokies, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, (1993), 667.
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name: A. J. Shelton
Groom's Birth Date: 1851
Groom's Birthplace:
Groom's Age: 31
Bride's Name: Margaret Gilbert
Bride's Birth Date: 1855
Bride's Birthplace:
Bride's Age: 27
Marriage Date: 30 May 1882
Marriage Place: Tennessee
Groom's Father's Name:
Groom's Mother's Name:
Bride's Father's Name:
Bride's Mother's Name:
Groom's Race:
Groom's Marital Status:
Groom's Previous Wife's Name:
Bride's Race:
Bride's Marital Status:
Bride's Previous Husband's Name:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I03274-0
System Origin: Tennessee-EASy
Source Film Number: 1928642
Reference Number: 14
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