Sevier County, Tennessee, is dotted with more cemeteries than you can count. Each one seems tucked away in a bend of the road or hidden high on a hill! I didn’t bother with some of the bigger burial grounds when I was there, but what I found instead were the small, timeworn family plots scattered across the rolling countryside. Just before we left for home, my mom came across something intriguing: a driving tour that told the story of a local character known as Bachelor Archibald Rolen. Naturally, we couldn’t resist! We loaded up the truck and followed the winding directions into the hills. Were we successful in finding him? Well… it’s like this.
Archibald Rolen was born on July 4, 1832, to Joab and Anna McMahan Rolen. A schoolteacher and horse trader in his younger years, Rolen eventually became a recluse. Never married, he became known as Bachelor Rolen for the rest of his life. Local lore paints a vivid picture of Rolen’s later years: a solitary figure living deep in Jones Cove, where he carved a camp into the side of a hill. There, he cooked his meals in the earthen shelter and retreated each night to a rough-hewn log cabin nearby1.
Rumor had it that Bachelor Rolen kept a small fortune stashed somewhere on his property. It was an open secret that made him both a legend and a target. One night, bandits broke in, robbing and beating the old recluse in a brutal search for his hidden treasure. When Rolen passed away in 1914 at the age of eighty-two, folks discovered that the stories weren’t just tall tales after all: money really was tucked away around his place- in the walls, in a churn, and in his feather bed2.
Rolen was buried in a cemetery that took his name with some of his hidden fortune, but the story didn’t end there. Not long after his internment, family members made a disturbing discovery: Rolen’s grave had been tampered with! An old iron kettle sat nearby, marking the spot where someone had clearly been digging. Whether it was treasure hunters chasing rumors or someone who knew more than they let on, no one ever confessed. To this day, the mystery of who unearthed Bachelor Rolen’s fortune remains buried right alongside him3.
That story was enough to trip my trigger when Mom presented the driving tour. Off we went! From the old Cedar Bluff United Methodist Church, we wound to Jones Cove Road and hung a left. We passed Bethany Baptist Church and Eledge Cemetery after three and a half miles, then went another three miles and found the sign for Breeden-Rolen Cemetery. We turned sharply onto a gravel driveway, twisted left, and headed up the hill. The cemetery was surrounded by a fence and topped with an American flag.
We got out, unlatched the gate, and stepped into the quiet hilltop burial ground. Among roughly thirty graves, I found plenty of Rolens, along with a scattering of Breedens, Campbells, Hursts, and a few Williamses for good measure. The oldest stone belonged to Sheldon Sullivan Vess, who died in 1910; the newest marked the resting place of Iva Breeden Hurst, who passed earlier this year.
Mom and I scanned every row, hoping one marker might stand out turned ninety degrees from the rest, just like the stories said of Bachelor Rolen’s. Unfortunately, none did. After ten minutes of circling the small plot, we admitted defeat. Bachelor Rolen, it seemed, was still hiding even in death.
It wasn’t until I got home that I decided to do some detective work of my own. As it turns out, we’d turned right when we should’ve gone left. Enchanted by the first hillside cemetery with Rolen in its name, I directed us to wander into the wrong place entirely! The real Bachelor Rolen Cemetery sat about a mile farther east along Jones Cove Road, atop a small pull-off near Mossy Cove Way. We’d missed it completely! I couldn’t help but laugh- after chasing a ghost, we’d managed to lose him all over again.
At the very least, I got the chance to take some pictures of the old Breeden-Rolen Cemetery. Honestly, maybe that was enough. The wrong turn, the mix-up, and the quiet hilltop felt perfectly fitting for a story like Bachelor Rolen’s. After all, his life was built on mystery: hidden money, a secretive home in the hills, and a grave that may or may not still hold a fortune. It only seems right that even in trying to find him, he managed to slip through our fingers.
Maybe someday I’ll go back and take the right turn toward Mossy Cove Way to find the real Bachelor Rolen Cemetery. Better yet, maybe I’ll let the legend rest where it lies somewhere between the truth and the tall tales that keep rural Sevier County’s hills humming with secrets.
Sources Cited
1 McMahan, C. (2020, May 16). Sevier County’s cemeteries tell interesting stories. The Sevierville Mountain Press. p. A3.
2 Off the Beaten Path Driving Tour (n.d.). Sevierville Chamber of Commerce [Sevierville]. Web. Retrieved October 24, 2025.
3 (See footnote 1).
