The owner of a Elk Horn walking cane has graciously agreed to share their treasure with the Babb Family at large. The cane is attributed to a Phillip Babb of Greene County, TN. We aren’t precisely sure of which Phillip Babb it would have belonged to, but believe it to be that of the progenitor of the Babb line in Greene County, Phillip Babb (1-2-2-1) who founded the Babb’s Mill and is also the father of Seth Babb.

How it came into the possession of the owners is unclear. What we do know is that it was handed down from Lloyd B. White to his son James D. White who in turn passed it on to a nephew who is its current owner. The owner wishes to keep it in their family, but is giving us a peek at it and the known history.

Olive, whose Last Will and Testament is attached, was born in neighboring Sullivan County, TN, which is less than 20 miles up Highway 93 from Babb’s Mill and even closer to the original location of Seth’s Homestead. Lloyd’s family tree is awash in Greene County births, death and marriages as well. So, it isn’t a stretch to imagine a connection either through proximity or marriage or both. I wasn’t able to find an exact link, due to the large target area of all 1694 of Phillip’s known descendants in Greene County.

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There are still many questions about the inscriptions, which may or may not be dates, military companies or that of a fraternal order. If they are dates they don’t line up with anything we know of Phillip or any other of his descendants. But the family legend likely has some truth to it and in the vein of honoring that legend I present it to you hoping that someone closer to that branch of the family will be able to shed some light on its history.

My initial theory that it is among the artifacts still in Seth’s Homestead at the time is was lost to foreclosure. But the dates don’t really line up for that as it appears to have already been in the White family at that time.

Until then, imagine Phillip as he approached his 81st birthday walking up and down the hillside near his mill to visit the growing number of relatives buried at the top of the hill.

It gives me warm fuzzys!