The William Dale Family

In the very early eighteen hundreds, Mr. William Dale was a land surveyor, working on county boundary lines in what would become Clay County. He and his wife, Rachel Irons Dale (Irons Creek), raised a family on a 449 acre tract of land near Celina, Tennessee. Their large valley of farmland became known as the Dale Hollow.

One of their sons, also named William, married Martha Goodpasture, and raised a family of their own just a mile or two upstream (Goodpasture Bend, Obey River).

Eventually, over a period of years, the Dale family had secured many of the acres that existed along the banks of the Obey. At the site of what is now Cedar Hill Marina, the grandson of William and Rachel, Captain James K. P. Davis, operated a steam boat landing. He eventually inherited the 449 acre family farm. His descendents owned the land up until 1942, when it was purchased to build what is now Dale Hollow Dam. The waters of the Obey river flooded the old home places and farms of the Dale family. Their family cemeteries were moved to other locations around the lake. For those wishing to see the graves of Mr. William and Mrs. Rachel Dale, they can be found at the juncture of Hwy 52 and the Dale Hollow Dam Road. There is a small cemetery where William and many of his descendents' remains were re-entered, known as the Dale/Davis Cemetery. Every lake lover should make a short visit there to pay their respects.