Revolutionary War veteran William Sentell moved into Henderson County about 1800. His grave site, along with about 73 descendants, can be found on the top of a mountain in the Big Willow community.
He and his wife had eight children when they settled on today’s Jeter Mountain (Underwood Mountain) near Big Willow Creek.
William Sentell (1756-1837) served in the 1st N.C. Militia, fought in battles at Sullivan’s Island, S.C., and outside Savannah, Ga., and was captured and held prisoner on an English ship. He was part of a prisoner exchange, rejoined the Patriot forces, and fought at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. His Revolutionary War stone has the surname spelled “Senter.”
The couple’s youngest son, Richard, was 15 when he joined American forces led by Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. He was a drummer boy at the Battle of New Orleans. On his gravestone is carved, Richard Sentell, drummer Ewing Regt. N.C. Militia War of 1812.
Immediate family members were buried in a circle with the heads of the graves at the base of a large cedar tree. Family tradition says that Samuel Sentell (1820-1912) believed in a close knit family circle and even in death he did not want the family circle broken.
The Sentell children and grandchildren married into families with the surnames Barnett, Cantrell, Hamilton, Henry, Huggins, Johnson, Osteen, Pruitt, Robinson and Shipman.
Four men who joined the Union Army in the last two years of the Civil War have grave sites within the cemetery: John C. Osteen (1864), Luke Osteen (1899), Jesse B. Sentell (1910), and John E. Sentell (1864).
The cemetery is located on private property.