John Wesley Key was number six of seven children to grow up in the Stephen Key home in Key Town. There were only two boys and John Wesley’s older brother was fully 13 years his senior. They lived a remote and probably somewhat isolated life near the Hurricane Creek – it was the only life John Wesley would ever know as he was born, grew to adulthood and then raised his own family of nine just East of the family homestead, right there in Key Town.

In the early 1880’s, John Wesley would marry Kentucky-born Sarah Ann Miller. I’m a little unsure where Sarah’s father was born as one census reports him hailing from Kentucky then another from North Carolina. Either way, the couple spent several years in Neatsville, Kentucky where all of their eleven children were born. Since the 1890 census records are lost to us, it’s also unclear exactly when they moved to Tennessee, but FindAGrave.com reports Matilda is buried at Campground Cemetery. (You can bet I’ll be checking on that to ascertain whether her husband William James is there as well – I’ll update when I know more.)

John Wesley and Sarah’s children would all settle close to Key Town, with both the oldest and youngest sons living on the outskirts of Key Town. In researching the Stephen Key article a few weeks ago, and learning the extent of his property, I actually came to understand that daughters Ermine and Elizabeth lived on parts of the original Stephen Key land.

While this information is outside the scope of our Key Town survey, Ermine and Elizabeth (Aunt Lizzy as we all remember her), married brothers Leonard and Gibson (Uncle Gip) Norris. Their father, Tom Norris, moved from Roslin and purchased enough land that he gave 50 acres to each of his sons. Both built homes on the land and lived there for a number of years with Stephen Key’s granddaughters. I suppose at one time that would have been part of Key Town too.