While Henry and George Grooms were in their fields working, they were spied upon by Captain Albert
Teague's home guards and captured when their families were threatened. Along with Mitchell
Coldwell, their brother-in-law, who was captured near the Tennessee state line, they were marched
across Stirling Gap to the Cataloochee side of Mt. Stirling, a distance of about eight miles. They
stopped and there on the spot a Civil War tragedy occurred that has long since been remembered.

As the story goes, Mitchell Coldwell was said to be a very simple-minded man. Before they shot him,
the scouts made him pull his hat down over his face, saying they did not want to shoot anyone facing
them with a grin on his face.

George Grooms died cursing while Henry asked to be allowed to pray. When Henry's time came he
was told that he must first play them a tune on his fiddle. So he played his favorite tune "Bonapart's
Retreat", which has since been known in this mountain region as the "Grooms Tune".

Played on the fiddle in a minor key it is a sad tune. Dogs howl whenever it is being played. The treble
notes seem to cry out, "Fare you well. Farewell".

All three bodies were left lying in the road, near a bullet scarred tree. House later, HenryÕs wife,
Eliza, a Sutton boy and others came with an ox hitched to a sled and carried them back across the
mountain.

They were buried in the same common grave in a single pine coffin in a cemetery known as "Sutton
Family Cemetery Number One". It is located on the waters of Big Creek in the Cataloochee Section of
Mt. Stirling.

L. A. Sies, USN (Ret), 2220 East 10th St., National City, CA 92050.

The name Grooms came from England in the form of Groom, Groome, and Grooms. The root word Groome is Old English, meaning servant to a nobleman. The New Dictionary of American Family Names, by Elsdon C. Smith, gives the name Grooms, Groom and Groomes (English), as a serving
man, a man servant, sometimes a boy servant; one who took care of sheep; a shepherd.

The Grooms shield has silver background with three red triangles, meaning unity, below a blue cross stripe, meaning a belt of honor.

Research thus far (1985) indicates the Grooms family migrated from England and Ireland in early 1700. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index indicates they landed in the new world between 1739 and 1868. First traceable proof indicates they landed in Maryland and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Many were descendants of the yeoman class in England who migrated from Virginia to North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Some of their parents had been indentured servants, convicts or felons transported to Maryland as objectionable British subjects. They were known as "Seven-Year" criminals. Having served their indenture they were free to work for themselves, and in order to avoid any reference to
their past status, they often changed their names, which makes it almost impossible to trace their ancestors.

The name Grooms has been found in Gunpowder Falls, Maryland as early as 1739; in Harrison County, West Virginia in 1792, in Haywood County, Caswell County, and Swain County, N.C. in 1760; Cocke, Sevier, Washington, Lawrence, Bedford, Wilson and Williamson counties, Tennessee
in 1800; Edgefield, Pickens, Oconee, Anderson, Cherokee, and Spartanburg counties, S.C., in 1785.

Census reports, marriage licenses, deeds, wills, family records, etc., indicate there were many Grooms in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee in the late 1700's and early 1800's which are not included because of the distant blood line from the family line being traced.

In the early to mid-1800's some of the Grooms, both male and female, inter-married with the Cherokee Indians in Haywood and Buncombe Counties of North Carolina, and the northern part of South Carolina in the Smoky Mountain area, according to information obtained from Grooms family
relatives, marriage records, census reports, and the book Song of Life in the Smokies, by Ella V. Costner, pp. 304-06.

George Grooms, Sr., born 1800 in South Carolina, married about 1819/20 to Anera (refer to Haywood County Court records, Microfilm Roll # MF 26, Reel 2, Superior Court Minutes 1861, 1865), born 1801 in North Carolina.  Anera is said to have been a Cherokee Indian.

Children born to this union:

1. John Grooms, born 1820.
2. George Grooms, Jr., born 1822 in Cocke County, Tennessee (Cocke County, TN Federal Census, district #11, DTD 10/Oct, 1850), was murdered Monday, April 10, 1865, by Captain Albert Teagues' Confederate scouts.  Also killed were his brother, Henry Grooms, and brother-in-law, Mitchell
Coldwell.
3. Solomon Grooms, born late 1823 in Cocke County, TN. Solomon was arraigned at Waynesville, NC for the ax murder of Oscar L. Townsend, Monday, May 12, 1862, and tried in Superior Court, Ashville, Buncombe County, NC on Monday, October 20, 1862. He was convicted and hanged
Friday, January 15, 1863 in Waynesville, Haywood County, NC at what later became known as "Cobb Hill", above Dellroad Road, Bandmill section, and was buried in Waynesville, Haywood County, NC. (Refer to The Earl  History of Haywood County, by W. Clark Medford, 1961, p. 138).
4. Daughter, said to be named Sallie Grooms, born 1829 in Cocke County, TN.
5. Henry Grooms, born 1832 in Cocke County, TN, murdered Monday, April 10, 1865. (Refer to #2, George Grooms, Jr., above, and the story of the "Grooms Tune".
6. Anderson Grooms, born 1836 in Cocke County, TN, died between 1860-70, buried in Cosby Creek area, behind Wal Large General Store (Tennessee State Highway 32 and Cocke County Highway 339).
7. Dorcas Grooms, born 1838 in Cocke County, TN.
8. Emaline Grooms, born 1841 in Cocke County, TN, died December 14, 1882, buried in the Sutton Family Cemetery #1, near Waterville, TN.
9. Ernestine Grooms, born 1842 in Cocke County, TN.