You’re reading “Echoes in Time,” a weekly newsletter by the Independent Herald that focuses on stories of years gone by in order to paint a portrait of Scott County and its people. “Echoes in Time” is one of six weekly newsletters published by the IH. You can adjust your subscription settings to include as many or as few of these newsletters as you want. If you aren’t a subscriber, please consider doing so. It’s free!

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

The dynamite blast that rattled Helenwood in 1935

On April 16, 1935, the peaceful town of Helenwood was rattled by a dynamite blast that destroyed several buildings, damaged others, but miraculously killed no one. It is an event that is still remembered today, more than 90 years later.

To set the scene: Helenwood sprang up as a railroad town, thanks in large part to the coal mines along Sulpher Creek to the east. Helenwood dates back as far as the late 1850s. On July 27, 1859, the town of Homestead was surveyed and laid out in 50-ft. by 200-ft. lots, according to Kathleen West Robbins. Ninety of those spots were sold. Among the plots were designated locations for a school, a church, and a town square.

For one reason or another, the town of Homestead never took off as it was envisioned. But things changed when the railroad was built in the late 1870s. Helenwood became an important depot on the Cincinnati & Southern Railroad.

It started merely as a siding when the railroad was built. But then coal was discovered along Sulpher Creek, and a new town was born. A rail spur was built across from about where Cumberland Wood Products is located today, traveling along the old Paint Rock Road (which is today Sulpher Creek Road) and up Sulpher Creek itself to the mines.

The Helenwood post office opened in 1880, and the town’s first store — owned by Ike Shoemaker — opened that same year. The town was the site of Scott County’s first newspaper, The Scott County Call, and was connected to the county seat at Huntsville by a narrow pike that was Scott County’s best road at that time. We know it today as Monticello Pike. A Presbyterian church was established in 1883, and the Baptist church that remains in the center of town soon followed.

As buildings sprang up around the railroad depot, several saloons opened, and Helenwood gained a reputation as a wild and woolly barroom town. A number of murders took place there — more than in any other location in Scott County, though several of them were considered justified killings for one reason or another and were never prosected.

In time, the coal played out and things quietened down around Helenwood. The mines closed for a period of time, and the old Campbell Coal Company buildings were used to start the Treat School for Boys in 1910. However, the mines were reopened by Church Pemberton and James Baker, who founded the Ridgeway Sprinkle Co. But in the 1920s, the mines closed for good.

The old dynamite, though, continued to be stored in an abandoned warehouse building in town. The commissary had closed, with the top story of the building being used as a Masonic hall for Helenwood Lodge 570 F & AM.

“Most of the people living in this small town knew that (the warehouse) was being used for storing ‘bootleg’ powder and dynamite,” Kathleen West Robbins wrote for the FNB Chronicle in 1989. “Some of the townspeople had brought charges against the man, George T. Webb, who had been selling this powder and dynamite and he had been ordered to move it out of town on several occasions. But the ones who lived nearby had seen and heard him unloading more of it into the building at night sometime in the early part of the Spring of 1935. They knew it now contained more of this material. They were aware that it was a dangerous situation but they had not gotten around to doing anything about it.”

Robbins, the daughter of Lawrence and Florence West, lived in a home about 500 feet from the warehouse. On the morning of April 16, 1935, Lawrence West left for the rock quarry in Glenmary, where he worked, and Kathleen and her brother, Kenneth, left for school. Florence West was home alone when the explosion occurred.

“She heard several shorts fired from a gun, some loud hollering, etc.,” Robbins wrote. “When she went to the window to see what was happening she saw the smoke.”

A fire had broken out in the warehouse. Reason Cecil, who owned a store nearby, had fired the gun to warn the townspeople. He was yelling for everyone to get as far out of town as possible.

It was later determined that a child who lived next to the warehouse had climbed onto a cabinet in his home — the Burdette Keeton residence — and pulled it over. It fell onto a wood-burning stove, knocking the pipe down and setting fire to the kitchen.

Burdette Keeton’s widow, Sarah, lived with her five children. She had left to go to Oneida for a job, leaving the five children at home alone. According to an article written at the time by Anna O’Connor, wife of the railroad agent, James O’Connor, one of the children — Anvilee Keeton — ran to her home to let her know the fire was spreading to the nearby mine supply store operated by Webb. It was O’Connor who alerted Reason Cecil, who in turn alerted the rest of the townspeople. Together, they likely saved many lives that day.

“I yelled to him to get his gun and shoot it, to attract people’s attention,” O’Connor told the Knoxville newspaper. “And took out across the road, shouting to everyone to run for their lives.”

O’Connor’s last stop was her own home, where she rounded up her five children and sent them out of town.

“All that running nearly finished me,” she said. “I don’t know how I did it. I have not been well since January, when I had the flu and pneumonia right after my baby was born. But somehow I kept going, and I’m sure glad I could. These people would have been killed if they hadn’t got out of town before that explosion, and I knew it.”

Cecil herded his family, including nine children, into a storm cellar to escape the blast.

“The debris could be seen in the air for miles around — and such a loud noise and concussion!” Robbins wrote. “After everything had settled down and an inventory taken, it was found that no one was killed, a few were injured but lots of damage was done to surrounding buildings.”

Most buildings within a half-mile radius were damaged or destroyed. Among the buildings damaged beyond repair was the commissary and the Masonic hall above it.

“I don’t know what the people are going to do,” O’Connor wrote. “I have my little child in the car, outside the depot, now. And we may spend the night in it. The town is wrecked.”

The American Red Cross sent a team of volunteers to Helenwood and set up a command post for residents who had lost everything they owned in the blast. For the next few weeks, the townspeople cleaned up the mess and repaired the buildings that weren’t too badly damaged. The West home was able to be repaired, and Lawrence and his family continued living in Helenwood. However, Kathleen wrote that one of the walls in her bedroom had been knocked down onto her bed. “Had it happened in the night and not been discovered in time, I probably wouldn’t have been here to write this story,” she said.

The blast made headlines throughout the South. The Chattanooga Daily Times wrote that the explosion “all but destroyed the mountain town of Helenwood.”

One man, John Young Phillips, led his family out of town and then realized he had forgotten his cow. He rushed back to save the cow, but the blast occurred, and both Phillips and the cow were “thrown violently to the street,” according to the Chattanooga newspaper. Phillips suffered broken ribs. As the cow fled the scene, “just in the nick of time, Phillips grabbed onto her tail and both ‘took to the woods',” the newspaper wrote.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that 250 kegs of blasting powder and 20 cases of dynamite were stored in the building at the time of the blast. The newspaper quoted Ed M. Gillenwaters, as saying former state fire prevention commissioner, as saying that the explosives were illegally stored.

For many years, the dynamite blast was referred to as “The Webb Explosion,” after the man who purportedly stored the explosives in the old warehouse. Today, though, it is generally known as “The Helenwood Explosion.”

On the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area’s website, the National Park Service says that it was this dynamite blast that gave Helenwood its name, for “Hell in the Woods.” However, the town was called Helenwood long before the dynamite blast. No one is sure where the name came from — it is said by some that a “Captain Wood” had a daughter named Helen, while Robbins theorized in a separate article for the FNB Chronicle that it came from the saloon days (“Hell in the Woods”). Either way, newspaper records show that the town was called Helenwood as far back as Dec. 25, 1881, when the Chattanooga Daily Times reported on the opening salvo of the Cecil-West-Smith Feud that occurred there.

George Webb, the man who owned the mine supply store, was killed in an airplane crash at the Glenmary landing strip in 1941. The Keeton family moved to Ohio. The O’Connors moved first to Robbins, then to Rockwood. Reason Cecil remained in Helenwood. His nephew and great-nephews, Virgil Cecil and Virgil’s sons, Milford and Roger, were long-time pastors of Helenwood Baptist Church.

Read More: The Helenwood Explosion of 1935 — Encyclopedia of Scott County

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!

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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
• Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

Subscribe now

You’re reading “Echoes in Time,” a weekly newsletter by the Independent Herald that focuses on stories of years gone by in order to paint a portrait of Scott County and its people. “Echoes in Time” is one of six weekly newsletters published by the IH. You can adjust your subscription settings to include as many or as few of these newsletters as you want. If you aren’t a subscriber, please consider doing so. It’s free!

Subscribe now

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

The slow formation of Scott County, Tennessee

Scott County was created in 1849 from portions of Campbell, Anderson, Morgan, and Fentress counties. Prior to that, residents of areas like Oneida and Huntsville were part of Campbell County, Robbins and Glenmary were part of Morgan County, and Norma and Smokey Creek were part of Anderson County. But there was a time when there was no Morgan County, no Fentress County, no Campbell County, and — while it’s debatable whether any permanent settlers lived here at the time — even no Anderson County.

Here’s a look at how it all came about.

Prior to the signing of the Third Treaty of Tellico in 1805, the lands of the Cumberland Plateau belonged to the Cherokee. With the Third Treaty of Tellico, the Indians ceded ownership of the region to the U.S. government, and it was then that settlement in this area began in earnest. Were white people already living here, in Indian territory, prior to the treaty in 1805? Perhaps. It has been written that John Reed moved to New River in 1796, and there’s nothing to dispute that. The historian Esther Sharp Sanderson wrote that Mikel Low moved to Smokey Creek in 1776, but that’s almost certainly untrue (he was still living in his native Pennsylvania when he married his wife, Maria Elizabeth Bortner, in 1794).

If white people lived in the area that is now Scott County prior to 1805, settlement would have been very sparse, simply because it was not permitted by the U.S. government. In February 1804, Col. Return Jonathan Meigs — a Cherokee agent acting on behalf of the state — sent a letter to Archibald Angel and others telling them that they were “intruders on Indian Lands on the West Side of the Cumberland Mountain,” and giving them 30 days before being forcibly removed. Angel and his father-in-law — Dennis Trammell — probably hadn’t moved to the Gum Fork area east of modern-day Winfield by that time; it’s more likely that they still lived in southeastern Kentucky, where they last appeared on a tax list in 1807. Nevertheless, Col. Meigs’ letter indicates that the U.S. government was not prepared to let wholesale settlement occur on the Cumberland Plateau prior to the signing of the Third Treaty of Tellico.

In 1763, prior to the United States’ existence, when the American colonies were still part of Great Britain, King George III issued a decree declaring all lands west of the Appalachian Divide off-limits to colonial settlers. However, that didn’t mean that white folks didn’t wander here. Daniel Boone first ventured through the Cumberland Gap in 1767, and in 1772, a group of longhunters established a base camp where Charit Creek Lodge is now located in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area — which is now Station Camp Creek got its name. In general, the civilization pattern in this area was extended visits by longhunters in the 1760s and 1770s, before they returned to the colonies to fight in the Revolutionary War. After the war, they returned to the frontierlands west of the Appalachian Divide — this time to stay.

In 1776, the same year the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Washington District of North Carolina was created. It included all the area of present-day Tennessee. It was referred to as “Washington County” beginning in 1777. Two years later, in 1779, Virginia sent Dr. Thomas Walker and his team of surveyors to mark the latitude line of 36 degrees and 30 minutes north, which was supposed to serve as the dividing line between western North Carolina and western Virginia, west of the Appalachian Divide — areas that would eventually become Tennessee and Kentucky. When the Walker team reached the Cumberland Plateau, the terrain was so rough that they took an easier route west and guessed at where the line was supposed to go until they reached the Tennessee River near what is now Clarksville, Tennessee. As a result, part of what was supposed to be Kentucky wound up in Tennessee. If the Walker Line had been correct, the TN/KY border would be about where the Oak Grove intersection is now located in Oneida. The “Four Lane” area of Oneida would actually be in Kentucky! For much of the early 19th century, northern parts of Scott County — particularly the Big South Fork River settlements of Station Camp and No Business — were often mistakenly referred to as being part of Wayne County, Kentucky.

In 1779, Sullivan County was created from part of Washington County, as settlement began to extend into what is now East Tennessee, east of the Cumberland Plateau. In 1783, Davidson County was created in the Tennessee River basin, encompassing all of what is now the Nashville area. It was named for North Carolina General William Lee Davidson, who had been killed in the Revolutionary War in 1781. Lands to the east and west of Davidson County — including the Cumberland Plateau — were still known as Indian lands.

In 1783, Greene County was created. There were now three counties in what is now East Tennessee: Washington, Sullivan, and Greene. The Cumberland Plateau, including present-day Scott County, was still Indian land.

The year after that, in 1784, North Carolina ceded its territory west of the Appalachian Divide to the federal government as payment for Revolutionary War debts. This territory was called “The State of Franklin,” which would have been the 14th state, but it was never formally admitted into the union. It consisted of several growing white settlements in what is now East Tennessee, which were referred to as the “Overmountain Towns.” While settlement on the Cumberland Plateau did not occur prior to the Revolutionary War, it did occur in the area that became Franklin. The militiamen who won the Battle of Kings Mountain and turned the tide of the war were referred to as “Overmountain Men” because they lived “over the mountain” from North Carolina.

It was in 1785 that several new counties were created by the State of Franklin: Caswell, Sevier, Spencer, and Wilkes counties joined Washington, Sullivan, and Greene counties. Blount County was created the following year, and Hawkins was created the year after that, in 1787. That same year, Davidson County was divided in half, creating Sumner County. The Cumberland Plateau region was still Indian land.

In 1788, the State of Franklin ceased to function. As a result, all of the East Tennessee counties except Washington, Sullivan, Greene, and Hawkins went away. Davidson County was divided again, creating Tennessee County.

In 1790, North Carolina — which had reclaimed its western territory — ceded it to the federal government once and for all, and it was called the Territory South of the Ohio River, or the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was still not a state, but the territory took on the shape of the state that would soon be created. The upper east corner was divided into four counties, and the north-middle section was divided into three counties. In between, still considered Indian land, was the Cumberland Plateau.

Knox County was created, along with Jefferson County, in 1792. Two years after that, Sevier County returned, then Blount County in 1795. In 1796, Tennessee was admitted to the union as the 16th state, and Grainger and Carter counties were created, while Tennessee County west of Nashville became Montgomery and Robertson counties. Cocke County would be created the following year. The Cumberland Plateau was still Indian land.

It was in 1798 that the First Treaty of Tellico was signed and settlement began to encroach on the Cumberland Plateau. Knox, Grainger, and Blount counties were all expanded westward, and Grainger County included part of present-day Campbell County.

Anderson, Roane, and Claiborne counties were created in 1801. Anderson County included part of what is now Campbell County, but still did not include present-day Scott County, which remained Indian land.

In 1803, although the Cumberland Plateau was still considered Indian lands, the entire region was divided into counties. Anderson County and Roane County were greatly expanded, with Anderson County extending all the way to the TN-KY border and including what is now Campbell County. Present-day Scott County fell partially into Anderson County and partially into Jackson County. To the south was Roane County.

In 1805, the Third Treaty of Tellico was negotiated by Col. Meigs. It was signed on Oct. 25, 1805, and included 7,000 square miles of land between the Cumberland and Duck Rivers in Tennessee and Kentucky. Its purpose was to create East Tennessee with Nashville, the two areas where settlement was rapidly growing. The following year, Campbell County was created from parts of Anderson and Claiborne counties and included most of present-day Scott County. Overton County was created from Jackson County, and included the northwest part of present-day Scott County. A portion also fell into Anderson County.

Counties continued to be created in Middle Tennessee over the next several years, but it wasn’t until 1817 that change came to the northern plateau region. That was the year that Morgan County. It extended all the way to the TN-KY border. At this point, none of present-day Scott County was included in Overton County. It either fell into Campbell, Morgan, or Anderson counties — mostly in Campbell County.

Regardless of when the first settlers put down roots in present-day Scott County, we know that settlement had started by 1807, two years after the signing of the Third Treaty of Tellico and a year after Campbell County was created. It was that year that a land record was entered on New River (though it was mistakenly referred to as the Cumberland River) for Abraham Goad. He lived where the Vanderpool Farm is now located along River Road. His next-door neighbor, Randolph Lawson, had moved to the mouth of Paint Rock Creek by the following year, 1808, when he was listed as a chainman for Goad’s property survey.

The exact timing of Goad’s move to present-day Scott County has been written as 1803. There is no way to dispute that, and he last appeared on a tax list in Virginia in 1802. Meanwhile, Josiah Terry — the first settler of Oneida, along with his brother, Elijah Terry — first appeared on an Anderson County tax list in 1805. Remember that Campbell County was not created until 1806, so it’s possible — if not likely — that Josiah Terry was living in present-day Scott County by this time. He eventually built a home about where Hardee’s is located today, while his brother Elijah lived near what is now Burchfield School.

Over the next several years, between this period of 1803 to 1808 and when Morgan County was created in 1817, settlement was well underway in what is now Scott County. If they hadn’t already moved here by then, Mikel Low and Richard Harve Slaven settled Smokey Creek and No Business Creek at some point in those very early years, and Michael Robbins moved to Brimstone Creek. There were several other families arriving, as well. (See the developing narrative, The Scott County Lineage Project, on the Encyclopedia of Scott County.)

When Morgan County was created in 1817, it began to become easier to pick out where these early settlers were living. At the time, Morgan County included the western part of Scott County, including areas like Glenmary, Elgin, Robbins, and parts of West Oneida, while Campbell County included the Oneida, Buffalo and Huntsville areas, and Anderson County included the Norma and Smokey Creek areas. Parts of the Big South Fork region, like Station Camp and No Business, were sometimes considered to be part of Wayne County, Kentucky.

In 1820, the states of Tennessee and Kentucky finally reached an agreement, and the Walker Line was no longer disputed. Places like No Business, Station Camp, and Winfield were now formally part of Morgan and Campbell counties, though some confusion would remain for several more years.

Fentress County was created in 1823 from parts of Morgan and Overton counties. It now included the western part of present-day Scott County, including the Big South Fork region, while Robbins and Glenmary still fell into Morgan County.

Things remained stable for many years after that. Putnam County was created — then abolished — but that didn’t impact the areas that are now in Scott County. It wasn’t until 1849 that another change came to the northern plateau. That’s the year the legislature created Scott County from parts of Campbell, Anderson, Morgan and Fentress counties. It didn’t look quite like it does today, however. Many changes to the boundary lines would be made over the next 50 years before Scott County’s current lines were finalized.

The first of those changes came in 1855, when parts of Morgan and Anderson counties were added to Scott County, and part of Scott County was added to Campbell County. It was that year that Scott County began to take on its current shape.

The last change occurred in 1920, when a portion of Scott County was added to Morgan County.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!

◼️ About the IH • IH Sports Network • The Encyclopedia of Scott County
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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
• Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

Subscribe now

You’re reading “Echoes in Time,” a weekly newsletter by the Independent Herald that focuses on stories of years gone by in order to paint a portrait of Scott County and its people. “Echoes in Time” is one of six weekly newsletters published by the IH. You can adjust your subscription settings to include as many or as few of these newsletters as you want. If you aren’t a subscriber, please consider doing so. It’s free!

Subscribe now

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Scott County’s fourth Lawson brother?

Some months back, Echoes in Time featured a series of articles about Scott County’s three “forgotten” Revolutionary War veterans — Abraham Goad, Randolph Lawson, and Abel Peak. By “forgotten,” Echoes in Time simply meant that they were not included on Scott County’s Revolutionary War plaque when it was placed at the old county courthouse in Huntsville in 1976 as part of the nation’s bicentennial celebration. Twelve other men are. (See the list here.)

As America’s semibicentennial (250th anniversary of the nation’s founding) is celebrated this year, 50 years later, a new Revolutionary War memorial is being built at the John John Yancey Memorial Park in Huntsville. It will include the missing names that aren’t included on the original plaque at the courthouse.

But it turns out that there might be yet another missing Revolutionary War veteran not yet discussed. This week, we explore the possibility. Settle in, because all the dates and names tend to get a little tangled up.

The move to Tennessee

Randolph Lawson, one of those three Revolutionary War veterans whose name was left off the plaque in Huntsville, was actually one of three brothers who fought in the war and then moved to Scott County. Joining Randolph here were brothers David Lawson (1758-1852) and John Lawson (1755-1838). They were all the sons of Bartholomew Lawson and Susannah Simpkins, who lived in Bedford County, Va., and had around 15 children. Two other brothers, Morman Lawson and William Lawson, also fought in the war but did not move to Scott County.

Fast-forward a few years, to the early 1800s.

Sometime around 1803, give or take a year or two, Abraham Goad led a caravan to New River, setting up a farm at what we now know as the Vanderpool Place, south of Huntsville. Born in 1740, Goad was the son of John Goad and Catherine Jennings of Virginia. He was the Joannah Sevier — whose son, John, was Tennessee’s first governor, and the man for whom both Sevierville and Sevier County are named.

Goad was an old man by the time he moved to Scott County. He was in his 30s when he served in the Virginia militia during the Revolutionary War. His wife, Ann Ayers, had died in 1788. Their children were all grown by the time Abraham loaded up his possessions and made the move to Tennessee.

We know that Goad settled on the Vanderpool Place for two reasons. One, he was buried at Vanderpool Cemetery in 1816. His grave is the oldest identifiable grave in Scott County. Two, his 100-acre plot was surveyed in 1808, and the document noted that it was located on the north side of New River, “including the bend.” This was a reference to the unique U-shape that New River makes as it curves around the Vanderpool Farm — land that is today owned by Huntsville’s Steve and Marla Howard.

Listed as a chainman on that survey record was Randolph Lawson — another of the forgotten Revolutionary War veterans. Lawson had served in the North Carolina militia and later married Susannah Cross. When he moved to present-day Scott County, he purchased a small parcel of land near the mouth of Paint Rock Creek. He was Goad’s next-door neighbor, so to speak.

Making the journey

What we don’t know is whether Randolph Lawson made the move to New River with Abraham Goad. What we do know is that Lawson had two brothers, David and John, who served in the war and also wound up in Scott County. Their names were both included on the 1976 courthouse plaque.

Also making the trip to Tennessee with Abraham Goad were several people: his son, Joshua Goad, and two of his daughters, Mary and Ann, along with all their spouses.

Joshua Goad was married to Sarah Smiddy (or Smithers). They had a huge family, including son Joshua Goad Jr., who married Elizabeth Emily Robbins and moved to Brimstone Creek, where the Walker farm is located today. (Their daughter was Almira Goad, who married Daniel Walker in 1866. Almira’s brother, John Goad, served as a sheriff of Scott County in the 1890s, and their sister, Etta Tennessee Goad, married school superintendent William Lee and was the grandmother of U.S. Congressman and Knoxville Mayor John J. Duncan Sr.)

Mary Goad was married to Thomas Phillips (1768-1841). Making the move to Tennessee with them was Thomas’s 15-year-old brother, Joseph Phillips (1787-1881). Thomas and Joseph were the sons of Revolutionary War veteran Tobias Phillips (1750-1808), of Grayson, Va. Their maternal grandmother, Hannah Goad (wife of George Phillips), was Abraham Goad’s first cousin. Shortly after they arrived in Tennessee, Joseph married Elizabeth “Millie” Lawson (1786-1838), the daughter of Randolph Lawson. Joseph and Millie settled at Little Bull Creek, and so established the expansive Phillips family there. One of their children was Jehu Phillips, who served as Scott County Trustee in the 1860s and later wrote a series of articles for the Cumberland Chronicle in 1904 that provide valuable insight into early Scott County. In Jehu Phillips’ writings, he made reference to a “Reynold Lawson” building Scott County’s first grist mill on Paint Rock Creek. This was likely a reference to Randolph Lawson, his maternal grandfather. The mill was probably located about where Paint Rock Falls is.

Finally, Ann Goad was married to Robert Lawson in Montgomery, Va., on Aug. 1, 1793. The coincidence — Robert Lawson had the same last name as Randolph Lawson, who was Goad’s next-door neighbor on New River — was always striking, but it was always believed to be just that: a coincidence. Robert Lawson has traditionally been believed to be the son of William Lawson (1731-1826) and Anne Harvey (1715-1775), and not closely related to Randolph and his two brothers.

A fourth Lawson brother?

William Lawson migrated from Scotland to Virginia and is referred to by genealogists as “The Scottish Rebel.” However, modern DNA testing is casting doubt on whether he is truly the father of Scott County’s Robert Lawson.

DNA testing shows little evidence of a connection between Robert Lawson, husband of Anna Goad, and William Lawson, the man long presumed to be his father. Genealogical researchers now suspect that Robert Lawson was connected to the group of Lawsons from Virginia that they refer to as “The Falling River Lawsons” — a group that includes brothers Randolph, David, and John.

Some genealogical records list Robert Lawson as the son of Jonas Lawson (1707-1771) and Millie Lawson (born about 1710). Jonas Lawson was a brother of Bartholomew Lawson, who was the father of Randolph, David, and John. If this were true, it would make Robert and the other three Lawsons first cousins.

However, other genealogists take the connection a step further. They list Robert Lawson as the son of Bartholomew Lawson and Susannah Simpkins — a brother to Randolph, David, and John.

These assumptions are supported by tax records from Henry County, Va., dated 1789 and 1790. Those tax records place Robert Lawson with the other “Falling River” Lawsons. The records list Mormon Lawson (a brother to Randolph, David, and John) and David Lawson, in addition to Robert. Additional records list Bartholomew and his wife, Susannah, along with David, Thomas, Jacob, and Robert.

Taken at face value, these records strongly suggest that Robert Lawson was a brother to Randolph, David, and John Lawson.

Meanwhile, there are court records from Montgomery, Va., that reference a council meeting that took place on April 28, 1778. The records discuss Capt. Johnathan Isom’s company from the Revolutionary War. Among the men in the company are Abram Goad, Randolph Lawson, Robert Lawson, Robert Lawson Jr., James Goad, and James Goad Sr.

This is not confirmation that Robert Lawson served in the Revolutionary War, but with DNA evidence that he was not the son of William “The Scottish Rebel” Lawson, it’s reasonable to suspect that he was part of the Bartholomew Lawson family and served in the Revolutionary War alongside Randolph Lawson and Abraham Goad.

This record also explains how Abraham Goad and Randolph Goad wound up being next-door neighbors on New River: they knew each other from their Revolutionary War service. Given that Randolph Lawson was in Scott County by 1808, when Abraham Goad’s land was surveyed, it makes sense to assume that he was part of the Goad caravan — especially if Robert, who was married to Abraham’s daughter, Ann, and was part of the caravan — was also part of the journey.

Life in Tennessee

Robert Lawson died in 1837, some 12 years before Scott County was formed. His wife, Anna, died in 1850. It isn’t known where either of them are buried.

Robert Lawson was listed in Campbell County when the 1830 census was taken. The Huntsville area was a part of Campbell County prior to 1849. Anna Lawson doesn’t appear in the 1850 census — she may have died before it was taken — so we do not know for sure that they actually lived in Scott County.

However, there are some records to support the assumption that they did. One is an 1810 land grant for 100 acres on New River, adjacent to Randolph Lawson and “the Goads.” There was also an 1836 land entry referring to a tract of land along the “Montgomery Fork of New River.” This area would have been in Scott County when it was formed in 1849. Most conclusive of all is Anna Lawson’s court petition to request a dower of her late husband’s real estate, which was filed on April 3, 1837, in Campbell County. The court appointed a commission that included Allen McDonald and Blackburn Thompson. Both McDonald and Thompson lived in the Huntsville area, suggesting that Robert and Anna’s property was also located in the Huntsville area.

All of the evidence is circumstantial, but it supports the idea that there was a fourth Lawson brother in Scott County: Randolph, David, John, and Robert. And, if that much is true, it must also support the idea that there is a fourth Revolutionary War veteran who was “forgotten” when the courthouse plaque was placed in 1976: Robert Lawson, brother of Randolph, David, and John Lawson, husband of Anna Goad, son-in-law of Abraham Goad.

Robert and Anna had at least four children: Sophronia Jane Lawson, Lucretia Lawson, James Robert Lawson, and David Lawson. Sophia (1794-1880) married Richard Griffith, a son of Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Griffith of Brimstone Creek.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!

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You’re reading “Echoes in Time,” a weekly newsletter by the Independent Herald that focuses on stories of years gone by in order to paint a portrait of Scott County and its people. “Echoes in Time” is one of six weekly newsletters published by the IH. You can adjust your subscription settings to include as many or as few of these newsletters as you want. If you aren’t a subscriber, please consider doing so. It’s free!

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

The Goads of Buffalo

At the Laxton Cemetery in the Buffalo community, there are several Goads buried — 12 in all, nearly all of them with an uninscribed field stone marking their grave, and a plain funeral home marker that was added later.

Who were they?

The easiest answer is that they were tied to the Laxton family. Thomas Laxton, the forefather of all Laxtons in Scott County today, and one of the earliest settlers of Buffalo, married Elizabeth Goad. But who was she beyond that? And does her family tie to Scott County’s other Goad family, that of Revolutionary War veteran Abraham Goad, who settled on New River south of Huntsville?

Because the original stones at Laxton Cemetery were uninscribed, they provide no information on when these Goads lived and died. The funeral home markers, which came later (there was no such thing as funeral home markers in Scott County back in the 1800s), provide us with names but no dates.

One of the funeral home markers at Laxton Cemetery identifies its grave as being that of John Goad. Some genealogy websites — including the FindAGrave website — identify him as John Goad, wife of Margaret Chiles, who was born in 1729 and died in 1795.

If this were true, it would force us to revisit what we know about Scott County’s first settlers. Mikel Low, of Smokey Creek, is commonly credited with being the first settler of what would become Scott County, but he didn’t arrive until sometime after his wife, Maria Bortner, in Pennsylvania in 1794. It’s generally assumed that he didn’t arrive at Smokey Creek until just after 1800. The rest of Scott County’s first settlers — men like James Chitwood, Richard Harve Slaven, Drewry Carroll, Randolph Lawson, Archibald Angel, Dennis Trammell, Abraham Goad, and others — aren’t believed to have arrived until the 1800s — after the Treaty of Tellico opened the northern Cumberland Plateau to white settlement.

Further, the earliest identifiable grave in Scott County is currently known to be that of Abraham Goad, who died in 1816 and is buried at the Vanderpool Cemetery on New River. (The earliest identifiable stone is that of James Trammell, who died in 1826 and is buried at Angel-Wright Cemetery in the Gum Fork community east of Winfield.) If John Laxton who is buried at Laxton Cemetery did indeed die in 1795, that would pre-date Abraham Goad’s death by more than 20 years. And it would make Laxton Cemetery — not Davis Cemetery in Winfield, where the historian Robert Bailey found a broken stone dating to 1812 — Scott County’s oldest cemetery.

But is this the correct John Goad?

The answer is: probably not.

Exploring the identity of John Goad

The John Goad who died in 1795 was actually a brother of Abraham Goad. They were the uncles of John Sevier — Tennessee’s first governor, and the man for whom Sevier County and Sevierville are named; the sons of John Goad (1700-1771) and Catherine Jennings (1703-1741) of Virginia. It makes sense, then, that this John Goad would have migrated to present-day Scott County with Abraham. When Abraham Goad made the trip, he was part of a large caravan that included his son, Joshua Goad (1786-1880), daughter Mary and her husband, Thomas Phillips, and Thomas’s brother, Joseph Phillips, among others.

There is a problem with this story, however: The John Goad who died in 1795, brother to Abraham Goad and husband to Margaret Chiles, actually moved to Sullivan County in upper East Tennessee in the 1780s. He was granted 33 acres there by North Carolina in 1782, and signed a petition in 1787 requesting statehood for Franklin (as East Tennessee was then known). One of his children, Agnes, and two of his grandchildren were killed in an Indian massacre in Sullivan County in 1790.

There’s nothing to disprove that John Goad didn’t move to Buffalo in the last years of his life, but there’s nothing to suggest he did, either.

Complicating matters is that Tennessee was not granted statehood until 1796. In 1795, when John Goad died, the area that would become Tennessee was still referred to as the Southwest Territory. And with the exception of counties within the Provisional State of Franklin to the east, and Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee counties around Nashville to the west, no counties had been formed. The area of the northern Cumberland Plateau was still Indian territory, belonging to the Cherokee. However, this area would have almost certainly not been referred to — even mistakenly — in any records as “Sullivan County,” because Hawkins and Greene counties had already been formed west of Sullivan County.

Still, because there is no documented grave location for John Goad (1729-1795), there’s no way to conclusively prove that he wasn’t buried at Laxton Cemetery.

Ties to the Laxton family

Clearly, the answer in determining who the Goads of Buffalo truly were lies in determining the ancestry of Elizabeth Goad (1800-1881), wife of Thomas Laxton (1795-1862), since she and John, and the rest of the Goads of Buffalo, would have certainly been from the same family.

In her book, County Scott and Its Mountain Folk, historian Esther Sharp Sanderson describes Thomas Laxton’s move to Scott County thusly:

“Thomas Laxton, with all his worldly possessions on his back, trudged on foot carrying two hound pups and some fruit trees to Smoky, from North Carolina. He later moved to Buffalo, where he married and reared a large family…”

Assuming Sanderson was correct, and Laxton married after he moved to Buffalo, that would substantiate the idea that the Goads predated the Laxtons at Buffalo. The marriage of Thomas and Elizabeth is usually placed in 1820, in Campbell County. Buffalo was part of Campbell County at that time (Scott County was not created until 1849).

Elizabeth Goad is usually listed in genealogical records as the daughter of William Goad (1754-1843) and Betsy Morrison (1757-1820). This only adds intrigue to the story, because William Goad was the son of John Goad (1729-1795) and Margaret Chiles — the very man purported by some websites to have been buried at Buffalo in 1795.

However, William Goad does not appear to have moved to present-day Scott County — not prior to 1800, nor at any other time in his life. He appears on a Sullivan County tax list in 1796, was still living in Sullivan County when the last census of his life was taken in 1840, and applied for a Revolutionary War pension in Sullivan County in 1831.

The search is complicated by the fact that the marriage record for Thomas Laxton and Elizabeth Goad does not exist — at least not in the public domain — and so it is impossible to determine whether they were actually married in Campbell County or somewhere else.

Thomas Laxton’s parents are sometimes listed as Thomas Laxton IV (1764-1830) and Ruth Greer (1774-1850). Latter census records, in 1850 and 1860, state that he was born in South Carolina.

The only Thomas Laxton found in the 1820 census is listed in Grayson, Va. There were three people in the household under the age of 10, two people between the ages of 10 and 15, and two people between the ages of 26 and 44. This does not match Scott County’s Thomas Laxton (who wasn’t old enough to have teenage children) or his father (who was older than age 44).

Thomas Laxton is found in the 1840 census for Campbell County, and the 1850 and 1860 censuses for Scott County.

Clearly, there are too many holes in the genealogical record to draw any conclusions.

The Goad graves

Perhaps the other Goad graves at Laxton Cemetery hold a clue. The other graves marked by uninscribed field stones and later marked with a funeral home marker include: Arlena Goad, Berry Goad, Cindy Goad, Emily Goad, Flora Goad, Mary Goad, Tilmon Goad, Virginia Goad, and Wilma Goad. The only one who has dates recorded by any online source is Berry Goad, who was purportedly born in 1833 and died in 1901.

There is also a Sarah Goad at the cemetery who has a commercial stone. Her dates are listed as 1827-1905. Her stone is inscribed “Grandmother.”

The Berry Goad dates that are reported on the FindAGrave website (1833-1901) appear to be a mistake. A Little Berry Goad lived in Scott County, born 1833 and died 1901. However, he is buried at the Goad Cemetery in West Robbins. Whoever the Berry Goad is buried at Laxton Cemetery, he does not appear to have been born and died in 1833 and 1901.

Sorting through the records

There was a Tilmon Goad who lived in Scott County when the 1850 census was taken, and this is where concrete evidence finally begins to appear for the Goad graves at Laxton Cemetery. Tilmon was four years old when that 1850 census was taken, and living in the home of Sary Goad, along with 8-year-old William J. Goad, 7-year-old Pheby Goad, and 1-year-old N.J. Goad. When the 1860 census was taken 10 years later, Sarah Goad was listed with a 17-year-old Jonston Goad, a Phebe Goad, 12-year-old Tilmon Goad, and 5-year-old John F. Goad.

Based on these records, Sarah Goad appears to be the Sarah Goad who has a commercial headstone at Laxton Cemetery, and Johnson Goad was her oldest son, who died in the Civil War in April 1865 and was buried in Knoxville. He served in Co. H of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry, a Union regiment, and died of inflammation of the kidneys.

When the 1870 census was taken, only Tilmon, age 22, lived with Sarah. When the 1880 census was taken, Sarah was living with 40-year-old Thomas Laxton and his children, and was identified as his mother-in-law. She lived with 33-year-old Lewis Laxton in 1900, and was identified as his grandmother.

When Johnson Goad died, a pension request declared that his mother, Sarah, who had never married, was “nearly destitute.” It makes sense, then, that she could not afford commercial headstones when her children died. Tilmon Goad appears to have been buried at Laxton Cemetery with a fieldstone to mark his grave sometime between 1870 and 1880. If Tilmon was buried with a simple fieldstone to mark his grave, it makes sense that the John Goad who is found at Laxton Cemetery was not a John Goad who died in 1795, but John Goad, son of Sarah and brother of Tilmon, who died sometime between when the 1860 was taken and when the 1870 census was taken. He was five years old in 1860, and does not appear in subsequent census records.

This does not answer the question of who the other stones at the cemetery belong to: Arlena Goad, Berry Goad, Cindy Goad, Emily Goad, Flora Goad, Mary Goad, Virginia Goad, and Wilma Goad. Perhaps some of them are Sarah Goad’s children who died very young, between census records. Or, perhaps, they were other people entirely.

And who were Sarah Goad’s parents? What relation was she to Elizabeth Goad Laxton? These are questions that don’t have readily apparent answers. Some sources suggest that Sarah was the daughter of Joshua Goad and Sallie Smiddy, the granddaughter of Abraham Goad. (There was a second Sarah Goad who lived in Scott County when the 1900 census was taken. She was the widow of Aaron Goad, son of Joshua and Sallie Smiddy Goad. Her maiden name was either Hicks or Newport.)

Joshua and Sallie Smiddy Goad had a daughter named Elizabeth, but she was not born until 1827, and she married Benjamin S. Newport. Joshua also had a sister named Elizabeth, but she was born in 1767, and married William Hughett. They never moved from Virginia to Tennessee.

Sadly, there are way more questions than answers, and that’s the way it sometimes goes with genealogy. Chances are, someone in Scott County who is descended from the Laxtons and the Goads has the answers that would complete this story. In the meantime, the best guesses — and they’re only that, guesses — is that Sarah Goad was related to Elizabeth Goad Laxton, and both were tied to Abraham Goad in some way … but John Goad who is buried at Laxton Cemetery was not the brother of Abraham Goad who died in 1795, but the son of Sarah Goad who died sometime in the 1860s.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!

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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
• Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Poll-Parrot shoes were extremely popular … and tied to Scott County

Today, kids in America beg their parents for shoes made by the likes of Nike and marketed by major basketball stars.

But there was a time when shoes called Poll-Parrots were all the rage.

Poll-Parrots were manufactured in St. Louis, Mo. — as were most other popular shoes in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Drawn by cheap immigrant labor (particularly from Germany), the nation’s top shoemakers set up shop in St. Louis. By 1905, St. Louis was producing one-sixth of all shoes made in the United States.

One of the names making it big in the shoemaking industry was Paul Parrott, who owned a shoe shop in Knoxville and played on his own name by keeping a parrot in the shop.

Eventually, Paul Parrott made began making his own brand of children’s shoes. He called them Poll-Parrots. By the late 1920s, Poll-Parrots were just as big as Air Jordans are today. The International Shoe Co. — which was that era’s equivalent of Nike — purchased the brand in 1928 and added it to its Roberts, Johnson & Rand shoe line that also manufactured the popular kids’ shoes called Star Brand.

By 1929, Poll-Parrot shoes were being advertised in newspapers throughout the country. One such advertisement, featuring the trademark brightly-colored parrot, boasted that “Properly fitted Poll-Parrot shoes will keep youngsters on their toes with pep every minute. Easily cleaned or polished, well made of fine leather and plenty flexible for growing little bones and muscles.”

In acquiring the Poll-Parrot brand, ISC was copying the marketing strategy of another shoemaking giant, Brown Shoe Co., which used a cartoon character (Buster Brown) as a mascot for its own children’s shoes. Other manufacturers were doing the same thing. Giesecke-D’Oench-Hays Shoe co. had Red Goose. Peters Shoe Co. had Weatherbird. And now, ISC had Poll Parrot.

In 1933, ISC began using Poll-Parrot Shoe Money, blanketing small towns across the country with currency-like coupons. They were targeting now just the adults who paid for the shoes, but the children who wore them. The concept was simple: Get free “money” with the purchase of Pol-Parrot shoes, and trade it in for prizes, like a baseball glove, roller skates, a pocketknife, or a watch.

For the next 25 years, Poll-Parrot Shoe Money was a marketing strategy throughout the United States. Kids were encouraged to save their vouchers and encourage others to save theirs, too. A kid could trade in $35 worth of scrip, for example, and get a baseball glove.

The marketing efforts didn’t stop there. Pol-Parrot began its own syndicated radio show — “The Cruise of the Poll Parrot” — which can still be found today on YouTube. And, in the 1950s, Poll-Parrot reached its greatest level of fame by sponsoring The Howdy Doody Show on NBC — the mega-popular series featuring the freckle-faced Howdy Doody and host Buffalo Bob Smith in the Western-themed town of Doodyville.

In time, the Poll-Parrot Shoe Money faded from the scene, but Poll-Parrot shoes remained throughout the 1960s, 1970s and even into the 1980s.

By now, you may be wondering what this story has to do with Scott County, Tenn.

Well, you remember Paul Parrott, who opened a shoe store in St. Louis and developed the Poll-Parrot line of shoes that became immensely popular among kids throughout the nation?

Paul’s father, William Nelson Parrott, owned Oneida’s first motel — The Oneida House, a three-story building that also housed Oneida’s first restaurant. And it was there, in The Oneida House, that Paul Parrott, the famous shoe store owner, was born in 1898.

William Nelson Parrott died in 1901, at the age of just 35. When he did, The Oneida House was purchased by Eli Cooper — father of Oneida’s hugely successful early businessman, H.F. Cooper, the man who built downtown Oneida. Eli moved from McCreary County to Oneida — along with 13-year-old H.F. — to purchase the motel, which he changed the name of to City Hotel.

William Parrott was buried at Marcum Cemetery, just outside of town. He had a baby girl, Pauline Parrott, who had been buried there in 1897.

Paul’s mother — William’s wife — was Lucy Katherine “Cassie” Byrd, a native Scott Countian. Born about 1878, she was the daughter of Milton Asbury Byrd and Nancy Chitwood of Helenwood. She and William were married in Roane County in 1896, and made their home in Oneida. Following William’s death, she remarried to William B. Flenniken in 1903 and moved to Knoxville. She lived until 1961, when she died of a heart attack.

As for Paul Parrott, he lived until 1986, when he died and was buried at Knoxville’s Woodlawn Cemetery, where his wife (Neel Reynolds), mother, stepfather, and other members of his family are also buried.

And that’s the story of how one of the 1900s’ most popular brands of shoes were literally born in Scott County, Tennessee.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!

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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
• Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Glenmary is an unincorporated community in southern Scott County, the southernmost community along the U.S. Highway 27 corridor in Scott County. It was once a bustling coal-mining town along the Southern Railroad in the late 19th century and early 20th century. In fact, it was once Scott County’s largest town.

Geography

Glenmary is located along Davis Creek in southern Scott County, near where it empties into Black Wolf Creek. The name “Glenmary” was used to describe the entire settlement south of Elgin along Black Wolf Creek and its tributaries, including the Coal Hill and Campground areas.

The hills to the east of the U.S. Highway 27 corridor were once rich with seams of coal, which led to the fledgling coal and coke industry here in the late 1800s. This is what led to the area being known as “Coal Hill.” To the west of the U.S. 27 corridor, the fertile bottomlands around Black Wolf Creek (today, Nydeck Road) were highly-desired farmlands.

Today, Glenmary is an unincorporated community that is little more than a nameplace on maps, and is considered part of the larger, unincorporated community of Robbins.

Commerce and Business

There are no businesses in the Glenmary community today.

Historically, business activities at Glenmary centered around the coal and coke industry, as well as the timber industry. This began in the 1880s, after the construction of the Cincinnati & Southern Railroad opened Scott County’s natural resources reserves to outside exploration.

The Crooke Coal Company began in 1880. The Glenmary Coal & Coke Company was established in 1884, and the first lumber mill was the Tennessee Coal & Lumber Company. It was used to process poplar, pine, and hemlock.

In 1906, the lumber mill was transformed into a hardwood flooring mill.

At the peak of business activity in Glenmary, a new railroad was proposed that would connect the Southern Railroad to the city of Jamestown west of Glenmary. The route would have roughly followed present-day Nydeck Road. The railroad was never constructed. The lumber company eventually moved to Verdun near Hazel Valley, outside Oneida, and the Oneida & Western Railroadwas instead constructed.

At the peak of the coal and lumber era in Glenmary, there were 400 people living in the town, and many more living at Coal Hill, where the mining industry was centered. The lumber company built workers’ houses on what became known as Red Hill, just west of U.S. Highway 27. There was a separate housing project located on Nydeck Road.

As for the town, an assortment of stores, saloons and boarding houses were located along Davis Creek, near the Glenmary railroad depot.

Post Offices

The first post office at Glenmary opened in 1875 and was called Black Wolf. It was located to the north of where the town would eventually be located, between Glenmary and Elgin. The first postmaster was Newell H. Goff.

In June 1878, the Redmond (Redman) Post Office opened at Glenmary. It was named for its first postmaster, James R.T. Redman. The name changed to Glenmary in May 1880. The post office continued in operation until February 1972, when it closed and moved to Robbins. The last postmaster was Bobby Lee Burton.

The Black Wolf Post Office closed in 1898. The last postmaster was James C. Hamby.

Schools

According to Maggie Barger’s history of Glenmary, which was published by the FNB Chronicle in 1989, the first school at Glenmary was also used by the community’s Baptist church. Later, a secondary academy was chartered at Glenmary in the early 1880s. A “colored school” was open from 1894 to 1908.

After the Glenmary Presbyterian Church was built in 1907, it founded a private school. That same year, a school was built at Halfway, which was located between Glenmary and Coal Hill.

In 1922, the town’s last school was built on the hill to the west of U.S. 27, adjacent to Red Hill. It was a four-room school that was used until the 1960s, when it was consolidated with Robbins. The area where the school once stood is a privately-maintained park known as the Glenmary School Park.

Origins

In its earliest days, before it was known as Glenmary, this community was part of Morgan County. It was not until 1849 that Scott County was established by the Tennessee General Assembly, and the areas of Glenmary, Coal Hill, and Campground became part of Scott County.

By that time, several families lived in the greater Glenmary area, such as the Lewallen family that included Scott County’s first sheriff, John Lewallen.

Glenmary’s real growth came with the construction of the Southern Railroad, which opened for business in 1880. The first coal mine at Coal Hill opened in 1878, founded by Jabe Crooke of Ohio and an immigrant from Great Britain named John Heaps.

When the railroad was completed in 1880, a side track was built to the tipple at Glenmary. Four years later, in 1884, Crook sold his business interests in the mine to a group of businessmen from Lexington, Ky., and the Glenmary Coal & Coke Company was born. Coal production continued until 1904.

According to Barger, Glenmary got its name from a railroad official who had two daughters, Glenman and Mary.

Many of the early residents of Glenmary proper were immigrants from Europe who were working in the fledgling coal and coke industry. Their headstones can be found at the Coal Hill Cemetery.

First Families

The first families at Black Wolf Creek — before the area was known as Glenmary or Coal Hill — were the Lewallens, Davises, Hambys, Youngs, Pembertons and Peaks. The Redmans, McCartts and Webbs came later.

The first permanent settler of the area may have been Anderson Grant Lewallen (1764-1829). He was the son of Daniel Alexander Lewallen (1742-1785) and Mary Burkes (1743-1785) from Virginia. He married Lydia “Lucy” Rice (1766-1832) in 1784. They moved to present-day Glenmary sometime after that, settling along the headwaters of Black Wolf Creek, near the Campground community. They had a total of 16 children.

One of those children was John Columbus Lewallen (1812-1896), who served as Scott County’s first sheriff.

Anderson Lewallen and his wife are buried at the Old Lewallen Cemetery.

The Hamby family came to the region in the early 1800s, with John Hamby (~1775-1852) and his wife, Edy Webb (~1785-1860), who were from North Carolina. They were married in North Carolina in 1803 and moved to the area sometime after that.

Some of John Hamby’s siblings also made the move to the area, including Reuben Hamby (1779-1872) and Henry Hamby (~1785-1848).

The Peak family included Revolutionary War veteran Abel Peak (1756-1852) of Virginia, who moved to the Glenmary area and was one of more than a dozen Revolutionary War veterans to move to present-day Scott County. In an 1853 application for a widow’s pension, Peak’s wife, Lydia Jones, said that she had 17 children.

Abel Peak’s brother, Jacob Peak, married Lydia Jones’ sister, Polly. Jacob and Polly, along with Polly’s and Lydia’s parents, moved to present-day Oak Ridge, settling at Gamble Valley. Abel and Lydia may have initially lived there, as well. In her 1853 pension application, Lydia stated that she had lived in Anderson County for six years before moving to Morgan County. However, in his 1832 pension application, Abel Peak stated that he lived in Anderson County for six years before being “cut off” into Morgan County. Morgan County was created in 1817 from part of Anderson County.

Peak’s son, Lewis Peak, married Matilda Griffith, the granddaughter of Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Griffith.

Matthew Young (1815-1893) moved from Roane County to the Glenmary area and became one of the community’s most prominent residents. He married Elizabeth Lewallen, a granddaughter of Anderson Grant Lewallen. When she died, he married her sister, Rhoda Ann Lewallen.

The Young family actually came to the area in Matthew’s childhood. His parents, John Young (1779-1826) and Mary “Polly” Smith (1782-1820) made the move to present-day Fentress County, settling in Poplar Cove, about 1808. They had 12 children, and later moved to the Black Wolf Creek area.

George Washington Pemberton (1824-1895) moved to the area from Wayne County, Ky. However, this may not have happened until late in life. His first wife, Selva Pheobe Gregory, died in 1854 and is believed to be buried in Wayne County. Pemberton then married Mary Jane Davis in 1848. Among their children were several well-known residents of the community, including Churchwell Pemberton(1860-1940), Gatewood Pemberton (1863-1959) and Heywood Kingston Pemberton (1870-1954). Heywood Pemberton was a Scott County school superintendent in the 1890s.

George W. Pemberton’s second wife, Mary Jane Davis, was part of the Davis family that lived at Glenmary, and it was for this family that Davis Creek was named. Her parents were Matthew P. Davis and Sarah Bowman. Less is known about this family.

The Redman family originally owned the farm along Nydeck Road that is now owned by the Kline family. The family dates back to Hinchea Gillum Redman (1809-1891) and his wife, Caroline Minor Fields (1829-1903). H.G. Redman was originally from North Carolina. His first marriage, to Lucinda Sallee, occurred in Wayne County, Ky. He then married Caroline Fields of the Burrville community in 1858.

According to Barger, the land the Glenmary Presbyterian Church was built on was donated by Lindsey Redman, a descendant of H.G. Redman.

The first postmaster at the Redman Post Office, which became the Glenmary Post Office, was James Rowsey Thomas Redman (1854-1937), one of the sons of H.G. Redman.

The McCartt family came to Glenmary with Pleasant McCartt (1822-1863). He was the only son of Elizabeth McCartt (1800-1880) and married Adaline Elizabeth Hamby (born 1823), the daughter of Henry Hamby and Sarah Cross. Elizabeth McCartt was originally from Kentucky, but her family moved to the Emory River area near Wartburg in the early 1800s. She was blind and never married. It was her son, Pleasant, who moved to the Glenmary area sometime after his marriage to Adaline Hamby. They had eight children. One of them, daughter Lydia Clementine, married into the Pemberton family.

Alice Cooper, the rock-n-roll legend, is descended from Glenmary’s McCartt family. Samuel Wesley McCartt (1885-1968), a lifelong resident of Scott County, is Cooper’s grandfather. Ella McCartt, who was born in Glenmary, was Alice Cooper’s mother. Sam W. McCartt was a grandson of Pleasant McCartt, making Pleasant McCartt Alice Cooper’s second-great-grandfather.

Finally, the Webb family dates back to Willis W. Webb (1819-1890). His parents, John Webb (1785-1848) and Nancy Hall (1787-1857), moved from North Carolina to the Emory River near Wartburg in the early 1800s. From there, Willis Webb married Margarette Ann Stewart (1828-1912) in 1841 and moved to present-day Scott County. They had 12 children.

Decline

The coal played out at Coal Hill in 1904. The virgin timber had mostly been cut by the same time, and the lumber mill was transformed into a hardwood flooring mill. However, the Hagemeyer brothers who ran the mill later sold the operation and moved to the Verdun area outside Oneida, where they were instrumental in the building of the O&W Railroad.

The lumber mill was destroyed by fire in 1927. It was not rebuilt. Two years later, the great flood of 1929 destroyed some of the remaining buildings along Davis Creek, along with the pond that had been created by damming Davis Creek to provide water for coke production. The stock market crash occurred soon thereafter, leading to the Great Depression. Glenmary never recovered.

Long after other businesses at Glenmary had faded, Glenmary remained a watering hole for the steam engines traveling the rails of the Southern Railroad. However, those steam engines were replaced by the diesel engines in 1953, and the water tank was torn down after that.

Mariston Chapman’s The Happy Mountain, published in 1928, described Glenmary like this:

“Sunk between Craig (Coal Hill) and Red Hill, Glen Hazard (Glenmary) had the look of being dropped in the hollow by four winds. The General Store, The Company Store, the Hotel and two or three sagging warehouses made up the town, but it seemed crowded owing to the stacked lumber surrounding it on all sides and bounding its black cinder streets. The trains had but just room to get through it and the Hardwood Lumber Mill, belching smoke and steam beyond the depot and covering the town with grime almost equal to a city’s blocked the low valley to the north. The bridge over the creek narrowed down traffic to the company store and the four legs of the water tank took up some space. The townsmen lived in box huts hung up on the sides of the two big hills that shut in the town from east and west; while on the south, where the railroad tracks snaked through the gap to the outland places, the deserted trestles and dumps of a worked-out coal mine spread their black skeletons. By the time saddle horses had been hitched in the town’s center and wagon teams slung to trees up the slopes, there was no more than free walking space in Glen Hazard.”

Glenmary Today

Most of original Glenmary is gone. The area north of town that was known as Todd’s Bottom — where a great spectacle was created when a plane landed there in the 1920s — is still cleared farmland, though much of it has been purchased by the State of Tennessee and will be used for wetland mitigation. The old Kline farm on Nydeck, which was originally owned by the Redmans and then the Pembertons, is still cleared farmland, as well.

Two church buildings still stand at the base of Red Hill — the Glenmary Baptist Church along the highway, and the old congregational church on the hill behind it. The former was built in the 1930s on property purchased from Gatewood Pemberton, where the lumber company barn once stood. The latter was built in 1907 as the Presbyterian church, on property donated by Lindsey Redman. It became the congregational church in 1929.

At the top of the hill, the former Glenmary School site is today the Glenmary School Park, a well-maintained picnic area owned by Roger Russell and Dale Webb.

The old side rail along Davis Creek to Coal Hill can still be traced. A short section of it is Coal Hill Road near the old Glenmary depot, then the remainder of it is Goose Creek Private Run, a private drive. The old coke ovens are still there, as well.

Besides the two churches, the only remaining buildings from old Glenmary are the homes in the immediate vicinity of the churches. One is the two-story, white home along U.S. Highway 27 that was built in 1905. Across the road are homes built in 1900 and 1915. Finally, is the two-story brick structure on the highway at the Coal Hill Road intersection that was built in 1931.

The brick structure was built in 1931 by George Watts. This building housed a general store and the Glenmary Post Office on the first floor, while the second floor provided living quarters for the Watts family.

George Renaugh Watts (1882-1958) was the son of Daniel “Renaugh” Watts and Cynthia Freeland. The Watts family moved to Morgan County from Georgia with George’s grandfather, Joseph Watts (1805-1871), after the Civil War. Renaugh, the youngest of eight children, and his wife, Cynthia, purchased 170 acres in the Glenmary area in 1887 and moved there. They had seven children, the youngest of whom was George Renaugh Watts. He married Florence Walker, the daughter of Joe Walker and Almira Robbins of Glenmary, and their only surviving son was Wilbur Watts, the longtime Plateau Electric Cooperative board member who died last year. Wilbur’s children were educators Garry Watts and Janet Shoemaker, who own the nearby homes that were built in 1900, 1905, and 1915.

Together, these buildings and the churches beside them are all that remains of old Glenmary.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!

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• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

The history of Scott County’s school superintendents

At its monthly work session on Tuesday, the Scott County Board of Education is expected to begin the process of determining how it will choose its next director of schools from the six men who have applied for the position. The board will have the option of interviewing each of the six, or narrowing the list to a group of finalists who will be interviewed.

The six applicants include Fairview School Principal Scott Cash, Campbell County school principal Kenny Chadwell, Texas director of schools Jerry Gibson, Campbell County school principal Daniel Sexton, Scott High School Principal Marc Taylor, and Morgan County Career & Technical Center Director Keith Shannon. The person ultimately chosen by the school board will become the 34th school superintendent in Scott County’s history — and the 33rd person to serve in that position (one served on two separate occasions).

Here are a few facts about this position through the years:

• Prior to the organization of the Scott County School System in 1867, there were actually several different individual school systems in Scott County, with each electing three commissioners who were responsible for hiring the teachers to serve in their schools.

• From 1867 to 1924, the superintendent of schools was appointed by the Scott County Quarterly Court (a precursor to what we know today as Scott County Commission) to serve two-year terms. Beginning in 1924, the position was elected by the voters in a general election. Beginning in 2000, state law required the position to be appointed by the board of education.

• Scott County’s first school superintendent was John C. Parker, an attorney from Helenwood who would later serve as county judge and in the state legislature. He served from 1867 to 1869.

• The first elected school superintendent was Ovia Cross, an educator who organized the first four-year high schools in Scott County (at Huntsville, Norma, and Robbins) and also coached the first basketball team at Oneida High School.

• Cross was also the only person to serve as school superintendent on two separate occasions. He served from 1924 to 1926 and again from 1928 to 1931.

• The first woman to serve as school superintendent was Ora Shoemaker Robbins, who was elected in 1952 and served until 1956. While Robbins was the only woman elected to the position, Sharon Wilson later became the first woman appointed to the role by the board of education, serving from 2006 to 2011.

• John Lee West and Bill Hall are the longest-tenured school superintendents, with West serving from 1933 to 1948 and Hall from 2011 to 2026.

• Jerry Willard Thompson was the last elected school superintendent, serving until 2000.

• James “Mike” Davis was the first school superintendent appointed by the board of education, serving from 2000 to 2006.

Here is the complete list of Scott County school superintendents through the years. There are a number of interesting stories among them, from Parker, whose son, Sam, was one of the best athletes in University of Tennessee history; Dr. Lafayette Sproule, who married the sister of Civil War heroine Julia Marcum; and Laban Riseden, whose daughter, Maude Riseden Hughett, served as the first woman school superintendent in Morgan County, was the first woman in the South to graduate law school and the first admitted to the Tennessee Bar, and the first Southern woman admitted to practice law in federal court.

J.C. Parker, 1867-1869
Lafayette Sproule, 1869-1871
Laban Riseden, 1871-1873
Alvin Parker, 1873-1875
Jasper Q. Cross, 1875-1879
Jasper Hughett, 1879-1883
James H. Jeffers, 1883-1887
W.F. Lee, 1887-1889
J.J. Newport, 1889-1891
C.C. Cross, 1891-1893
H.K. Pemberton, 1893-1895
Dr. Horace M. Robbins, 1895-1897
George W. Cross, 1897-1901
S. Marion Foster, 1901-1909
M.L. McDonald, 1909-1917
Willard W. Walker, 1917-1919
W.J. Jeffers, 1919-1924
Ovia Cross, 1924-1926
O.E. Jeffers, 1926-1928
Ovia Cross, 1928-1931
O. Earl Byrd, 1931-1933
John Lee West, 1933-1948
A.V. Ellis, 1948-1952
Ora S. Robbins, 1952-1956
Malvin C. Sexton, 1956-1964
Raymond Jeffers, 1968-1972
Bailey B. Cross, 1972-1980
Eddie C. Culver, 1980-1988
Amon L. Lay, 1988-1995
Jerry W. Thompson, 1995-2000
James Mike Davis, 2000-2006
Sharon Wilson, 2006-2011
Billy M. Hall, 2011-Present

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!

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• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
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• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

The election controversy of 1942

As World War II raged across much of the globe in 1942, life continued as best it could in the small American towns that was sending its sons off to fight in the conflict. And, in Scott County, an election controversy erupted in 1942 that would ultimately be decided by a court — but not before the man who, in the opinion of the court, actually lost the election had served as Scott County Judge for more than a year and a half.

The race for County Judge in 1942 pitted newspaper editor C.W. Wright — a former mayor of Oneida — against longtime County Trustee Roscoe Byrd.

County Judge, in those days, was the same office we refer to as County Mayor today. It was called County Judge from the 1860s all the way up until Verda “Buddy” Cope’s tenure in office neared an end at the beginning of the 1980s.

Born Feb. 14, 1886 in Kentucky, Clifford Winfield Wright was an attorney and businessman who had served as publisher of the Scott County News and had even run for governor of Tennessee as a Democrat in 1936. He only received 1.5% of the vote across the state, losing to former Congressman Gordon Browning.

The next year, 1937, Wright was elected mayor of Oneida, succeeding Sam Blair. He resigned the office after one year, and was replaced by Arnold Colditz. Wright continued his work as a newspaper publisher, writing editorials in support of damming the Big South Fork River to create a lake in Scott County. The federal government considered a dam at the site of Devils Jump in Kentucky or at the confluence of New River and Clear Fork near Helenwood, and Wright wrote in a January 1942 editorial that “the people of Scott County, we believe, are practically 100 percent in favor of the proposition.”

Roscoe Byrd, born Feb. 28, 1893, was a fourth-generation Scott Countian, the son of George Washington Byrd and Nancy Phillips of the Straight Fork community in eastern Scott County. He received a Purple Heart in World War I, and then was elected Scott County Trustee in 1922, at the age of 29. He would serve in that capacity for 18 years before leaving the office in 1940.

In 1942, Wright and Byrd squared off in the Scott County Judge’s race. They were both competing against William A. Terry, who had been elected county judge in 1934 and had served two terms in that capacity. J.F. Ellis, who was a squire (what we call county commissioner today) was also a candidate.

Wright was a well-known man about town. Just a few days before the election, he had introduced Tennessee Gov. Prentice Cooper when the governor spoke to a crowd outside Duncan Department Store in Oneida. But Byrd was also popular, having won county-wide election five times as a candidate for the trustee’s office.

The election was held on Aug. 6, 1942, and it was a close one. When the final vote was tallied, Wright had won by just 16 votes — or so the Scott County Election Commission said. Ten days later, Byrd filed a lawsuit in Scott County Chancery Court with a damning allegation: he claimed election officials had deliberately changed the vote count in favor of Wright.

Those were the days of paper ballots, and after noticing a 32-vote difference between the preliminary tabulations of the precincts immediately after the polls closed and the recount of the tally sheets on the following Monday by the Election Commission, Byrd formally lodged charges of tampering, saying that the ballots had been re-marked after they were polled.

Byrd further claimed that Scott County election authorities had violated the federal Hatch Act by giving citizens “priority ratings” for automobile and truck tires to persuade them to vote for Wright. He notified the FBI of his allegations.

Byrd was represented in his court case by the Knoxville law firm Jennings, O’Neill and Jarvis, and by Huntsville attorney William York.

Meanwhile, a high-profile name went to battle for Byrd. Congressman John Jennings Jr., a native of Campbell County, waded into the court battle on Byrd’s behalf. He told a crowd in Maryville on October 1942 that he had no choice but to fight for Byrd.

“Roscoe Byrd, former trustee of Scott County, ran for the office of county judge,” Jennings said. “He came to me and told as how he had been robbed of the election. Votes were stolen from him and the returns had been altered.

“Back in 1917 this boy’s father, on his death bed, told me to take care of his four sons. Roscoe then was serving in the Army in France and had one of his legs shot away. I had no alternative but to help him when he came to me and asked my help. If it costs me my seat in Congress, I will do it again, again and again. I uncovered the election fraud and I won’t apologize to any of the election thieves for having helped Roscoe Byrd.”

With the case unresolved when Sept. 1, 1942, rolled around, C.W. Wright was sworn into office as the winner of the election. He took over the duties of county judge from Terry.

More than five months later, in February 1943, Chancellor J.H. Wallace of Clinton ruled in Byrd’s behalf. Byrd’s attorneys had argued that the voting results were changed in five precincts — Robbins, Brimstone, New River, Paint Rock, and Buffalo — after the polls closed, causing him to go from 100 votes up to 16 votes down. More than 200 witnesses were called to testify in the packed courtroom. In the end, Wallace ruled that Byrd had been elected by a 61-vote margin.

Wright appealed the decision to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which slowed the transition of power and kept him in office.

On Feb. 5, 1944, the Tennessee Supreme Court initially ordered the earlier finding of the local Chancery Court upheld due to a technicality. Finally, on April 7, 1944, the Supreme Court issued its final ruling, dening a rehearing requested by Wright’s attorneys and demanding that Wright turn over the office of county judge to Byrd. Four days later, on April 11, 1944, Byrd took the oath of office and began his duties as judge.

The court battles weren’t finished, though. Byrd almost immediately filed another lawsuit in Scott County Chancery Court, contending that he was owed the salary of county judge from Sept. 1, 1942 to April 1944 — an amount of $3,373 (the equivalent of about $60,000 today). The court ruled in Byrd’s favor, and that decision was also appealed to the Supreme Court. The state’s high court sustained the lower court’s decision, saying that Scott County owed both men the salary of $3,373 — Byrd because he had been duly elected, and Wright because he had actually performed the duties of the county judge for 19 months.

Byrd was re-elected in 1946 and served another four year term as county judge before being defeated by Charles T. Marcum in 1950. Marcum won by a vote count of 2,832 to 2,678.

Byrd was appointed postmaster in Huntsville in 1952 and served in that capacity until 1966. He died at his home in Huntsville on Nov. 28, 1983, at the age of 90. His funeral service was officiated by Rev. Dale Smith, and he was buried at Byrd Cemetery.

As for C.W. Wright, he has the distinction of being the only person in Scott County’s history to serve as county judge (or mayor) without having been elected by the people or at least appointed by the county legislative body to fill an unexpired term.

Wright died on Feb. 20, 1961, at the age of 75. He was buried at Hazel Valley Memorial Cemetery. The U.S. Highway 27 bridge over Roaring Paunch Creek in Winfield was later named the C.W. Wright Memorial Bridge in his honor.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Threads of Life tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!

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Our Newsletters:
• Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
• Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
• Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
• Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
• Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
• Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

The day they formed the home guard

December 28, 1861. It was three days after Christmas — almost six months since Tennessee voted to secede from the Union, a little more than three since a Confederate regiment had attacked the Smith Creek home of Unionist Hiram Marcum and gravely wounded his 16-year-old daughter, Julia — and Scott Countians were riled up.

America’s Civil War was still young. But, already, guerrilla raids were taking place in Scott County. And it was becoming apparent that this war would not end quickly, as many politicians and military officers had hoped.

So, on Dec. 28, several dozen men from Scott County met at the county courthouse in Huntsville to form a body that would protect the people and farms of this remote part of the Cumberland Plateau. For months — since the war had begun with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor — Unionists had been forming what they referred to as “home guards,” which were basically local militias intent on protecting these federally-loyal communities from secessionist troops.

On that day in Huntsville, some 71 men placed their pen to paper and signed an oath forming their own militia — the Scott County Home Guard.

The oath read: “We the undersigned agree and pledge ourselves to each other in a covenant and by our oaths to unite together in a company by the name of a home guard to protect our homes, family, property, and liberties and our neighbors and their property and liberties and also to protect the constitution and the union and not to interfere with any person or persons or their property or liberties that we do not consider interfering with us or ours and for our government we bind ourselves to be controlled and governed by any person who a majority of our company may select for a captain.”

It may have been at this same meeting that Scott County Court voted to declare itself the Free and Independent State of Scott. Newspaper publisher and historian Paul Roy speculated in his 2001 book, Scott County in the Civil War, that this action may have been carried out at the meeting. No one is exactly sure when it happened because courthouse records were lost or stolen during the war — presumably when Confederate troops raided the county courthouse after routing Union forces at the Battle of Huntsville along River Road in 1862.

But this particular document, the oath of the Scott County Home Guard, survived and made its way into the history books.

Among the men who signed it:

George Anderson
Berry Bowling
E. Chaney
John Choate
Pleasant Davis
Thomas Dyer
William A. Edwards
John Gabin
Jonathan Garrett
G.A. Garrett
E.J. Garrett
Hugh H. Garrett
James Goad
W.M. Goad
John Goad
Little B. Goad
Aaron Goad
James Goad Jr.
Joseph Griffith
Andrew Griffith Sr.
Joseph Griffith Sr.
J.M. Hamby
Jury Hamby
Andrew Jackson
John Jeffers
Andrew Lawson
A.R. Lewallen
Michall Lewallen
E. Lewallen
Granville Looper
W.M. Looper
Thomas Looper
Michael Low
James McCartt
Sterling McDonald
Benjamin Solomon Newport
W.M. Newport
Calvin Newport
Ezekiel Newport
James Newport
James Newport Jr.
E.J. Newport Sr.
George Pennington
William Phillips
John Phillips Jr.
Julius Reed
William Robbins
John Sandusky
Hiram Sexton
Fountain Sexton
Julian Sexton
James Sexton
Fielding Sexton
Solomon Sexton
John Stringfield
James J. Stringfield
W.M. Stringfield
James Stringfield
W.M. Todd
Samuel Walker
John M. Webb
Lewis Webb
James Wilson
W.M. Wilson
Elihu Wilson
Solomon Young
Matthew Young
Andrew Young
W.M. Young
W.M. Young Sr.

Several of those men would not survive the war. Joseph Griffith, a member of the 7th Tennessee Infantry, died of illness at a home on Brimstone Creek in March 1863. His brother, Allen Griffith, also died during the war after being taken captive at Wierman’s Mill in Virginia in 1864 and imprisoned at Belle Isle.

Calvin Newport was also a member of the 7th Tennessee, and was killed in a skirmish at Warm Springs, N.C., in October 1863. His father, Richard, died of illness during the war after being imprisoned at Andersonville. An uncle, John Newport, was also killed during the war.

Hiram Sexton died at Belle Isle after being captured at the Battle of Rogersville in February 1864.

James Wilson died of typhoid fever in Williamsburg, Ky., while serving in the 2nd Tennessee Infantry in February 1862.

And then there was Capt. William Robbins.

Raised on Brimstone Creek, about where Gib Griffith Road is located between Slick Rock and Lone Mountain, William Griffith’s home was attacked by Confederate forces on April 1, 1862, in what would become the Battle of Brimstone, which was fought as retribution for him signing the oath of loyalty to the Scott County Home Guard.

William Robbins was 18-years-old and living with Michael Robbins (1781-1870) and Mary “Polly” Lewallen (1802-1880) when the 1850 census was taken. However, they may not have been his parents. In his book, Roy recounted a history of the Robbins family compiled by Mildred Troxel, which stated “William’s mother brought him to Michael Robbins and his wife with the agreement that he could live with the family for two years and if the mother had not returned for him at the end of that period, then they could keep him as their own. When the mother returned to claim her child at the end of the two years, Michael and his wife were too attached to give him up.”

William married Lucinda Lewallen (1835-1913), who was a niece to Mary “Polly” Robbins. They had four children.

Because he was the first person to sign the oath of allegiance to the Home Guard, Robbins’ home was targeted by Confederate troops in the spring of 1862.

That day, a regiment of rebels from Alabama, led by Col. John C. Vaughn, showed up at Brimstone Creek looking for Robbins. Vaughn was himself from East Tennessee, born near Sweetwater and serving as sheriff of Monroe County at the time of Tennessee’s secession. He had raised the Volunteer State’s first regiment of Confederate soldiers, and played a key role at Bull Run, the first major battle of the war.

Fortunately for Robbins, he was not at home that day. He and other members of the Home Guard were encamped on the ridge top — a strategic move that allowed them to be in either Brimstone or Huntsville on the other side of the mountain in just a few minutes’ time if trouble presented itself.

In his book, Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past, historian H. Clay Smith wrote that the rebel soldiers surrounded the Robbins home, waking up Lucinda.

“The raiders took everything the lady had to eat and began to make fires and prepare breakfast for themselves,” Smith wrote. After eating, they sent scouting parties out to forage and to search for Robbins.

Meanwhile, Robbins and the rest of the Home Guard were formulating a plan of attack. During the predawn hours of April 2, the Home Guard a ttacked, flanking the cabin on both sides while also mounting a frontal attack. A McCreary County man, Ambers Strunk, was killed in the fighting.

Others were killed, too, though no one agrees on how many. Smith wrote that the rebels were confused, firing on each other. By daylight, “they had dead and wounded all over the mountainside,” he wrote.

The Confederates told a much different story. John Offield, one of the rebel soldiers, who penned a letter to his father stating that Scott Countians were more pro-Union than any other community he had traveled through after leaving Virginia, wrote that he and his comrades killed 15 Scott Countians and wounded 20 more — despite the Yanks outnumbering the Rebs 120 to 27. Confederate Lt. Crockett R. Millard, who was wounded in the fight, wrote that the rebels had four men killed and 11 wounded, one mortally, while Scott County had 30 people killed and 18 taken prisoners. Still another account came from the Knoxville Register newspaper, which claimed that four rebels were killed and 10 wounded, while 30 to 40 of the “jayhawkers” were killed and another 18 were taken prisoner — some of whom were killed during an escape attempt. The Knoxville newspaper’s story was likely based on the account of Millard. The Register wrote: “The victory seems to have been a most complete one and as usual the Federals greatly outnumbered our forces. If the reports of this affair are confirmed by the official accounts, the gallant Vaughn has added new laurels to those he achieved at Manases (sic).”

The rebel accounts were almost certainly exaggerated — and probably drastically so. There is no record of anyone from the Home Guard being killed except Ambers Strunk. But Smith’s version was perhaps also exaggerated, especially a claim that the Confederates stacked their dead into abandoned outbuildings and set fire to them.

In truth, though, the Home Guard appears to have won the battle, as Vaughn’s regiment was forced to retreat from the Robbins home.

Meanwhile, Robbins decided to enlist in the regular army. He joined Col. William Clift’s 7th Tennessee Infantry at Huntsville on July 1, 1862, and was appointed captain. Several weeks later, after the 7th Tennessee was routed at the Battle of Huntsville and departed Scott County to serve elsewhere, Robbins wrote out his will, stating that he was leaving with the army and feared he would not return.

Sadly, that proved to be true. He died of typhoid fever at Lexington, Ky., on April 16, 1863. He is buried at Lexington National Cemetery.

Read More: A Marked Man: The Battle of Brimstone

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

The 1998 dynamic cooling snowstorm

On Feb. 3 in 1998, snow started falling in Scott County. And it fell. And it fell. By the time it stopped late in the day on Feb. 4, it made even the Blizzard of ‘93 from five years earlier pale in comparison. It would go down as the most devastating winter storm in this community’s history. And absolutely nobody saw it coming.

A forecasting surprise

By the 1990s, the use of numerical computer models was widespread in meteorology, making weather forecasts more accurate than ever before. The massive Blizzard of ‘93 that occurred in March 1993 had been forecasted well in advance, with weathermen predicting significant snow days in advance, even though spring-like temperatures were in place with severe thunderstorms across the region. But in February 1998, some five years later, an even more impactful winter storm occurred that caught everyone off-guard.

A large, slow-moving storm system developed along the Gulf Coast and moved up the eastern seaboard. In addition to the storm’s slow movement, it pulled in moisture from the Atlantic Ocean — a rare source of moisture for storm systems that impact East Tennessee. The weather forecast for that Tuesday was rain. A cold rain, with temperatures in the 30s, but rain nevertheless. Rain might change to snow as it ended the next day, forecasters said, but little accumulation was expected. No watches, warnings, or advisories were issued by the National Weather Service.

When rain began to fall that Tuesday afternoon, the forecast appeared to be right on track. But almost immediately, the rain changed to snow. Not just any snow, but huge snow, with flakes the size of half-dollars. The snow fell heavily and furiously, beginning to accumulate almost immediately despite surface temperatures that were above freezing.

Even as snow was accumulating in Scott County, and in parts of Campbell and Morgan counties, meteorologists at Knoxville TV stations were forecasting rain on the 6 p.m. news that evening.

What happened? A meteorological phenomenon known as “dynamic cooling.” It occurs when a strengthening low pressure system has enough vertical motion to produce heavy precipitation. As the air rises, it cools within the atmosphere. This can cause rain to change over to wet snow as it falls through the atmosphere, even if temperatures are above 32°. The snowstorm impacted much of the Ohio Valley, including eastern Kentucky. But in Tennessee, only a small swath was impacted, which is why Knoxville meteorologists were still talking about rain as heavy snow fell. in most locations, outside Scott County, rain was falling.

By the time snow tapered off completely on Feb. 5, at least 18 inches had accumulated. Unfortunately, National Weather Service records for Oneida are missing for that time frame, so we don’t know exactly how much snow fell. However, it has been estimated in hindsight that as much as two feet of snow actually fell across Scott County, though the snow depth was never quite that significant due to melting and compaction. If records were available, it would go down as the largest snowfall in Scott County’s history.

In Louisville, Ky., 22 inches of snow fell and it is still regarded as the largest three-day snow total in that city’s history.

A devastating aftermath

Most folks who recall days-long power outages in the ‘90s mistakenly attribute them to the Blizzard of ‘93. In reality, Plateau Electric Cooperative crews — and outside agencies that traveled into Scott County to assist — restored power relatively quickly in the aftermath of the 1993 blizzard. The long-lived power outages actually occurred during the surprise snowstorm of 1998.

The weight of the heavy snow collapsed awning and caused widespread power outages. Loblolly pines that could not withstand the weight of the snow were especially impacted, collapsing power lines and blocking roads throughout the county. Residents reported hearing what sounded like gunshots when they stepped outside in the silence of the snowfall, as trees snapped under the weight of the snow. Trees continued to fall for many hours after the snow stopped. In some instances, workers used chainsaws to cut their way out from their home so they could go to work, then used saws to cut their way back home again because more trees had fallen in their absence.

On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Plateau Electric Cooperative reported that 14,400 homes and businesses in Scott and Morgan counties were without power. This dwarfed the number of power outages during the Blizzard of ‘93, when no more than 5% of PEC’s customers were without power at the same time. Thousands remained without power when the weekend arrived. On Tuesday, Feb. 11 — one week after the surprise snowstorm began — 444 homes and businesses remained without power, with the largest number of those being in the Brimstone area of southern Scott County.

Crews from Plateau Electric worked around the clock for more than a week to restore power, and were joined by utility crews from surrounding areas. As many as 150 workers combatted the outages in 16-hour and 18-hour shifts. It still stands as the worst power outage in PEC’s history.

The Scott County Sheriff’s Department, Scott County Rescue Squad, and other volunteer organizations responded to numerous emergency calls, including delivering food, oxygen, and medicine to stranded residents, as well as transporting sick residents to the hospital. In some cases, deputies were forced to walk to homes on foot because they could not reach them in four-wheel-drive vehicles due to fallen trees.

Every road in Scott County, including the major highways, were closed for a period of time by fallen trees. S.R. 297 through Paint Rock (now S.R. 456) was still closed on Monday, Feb. 9, nearly a week later — unthinkable by today’s standards. As roadds were reopened, they were usually limited to a single lane of traffic due to the fallen trees.

Ambulances had a difficult time responding to calls. The LifeCare Medical Transport of Helenwood reported that it took six hours to respond to an emergency call at Paint Rock, and 12 hours to respond to a call at Smith Creek.

The few people who ventured out in four-wheel-drive vehicles found that power outages were so widespread that gas stations and other businesses were unable to operate.

Hundreds of volunteers from across Scott County joined rescue and recovery efforts, providing manpower, four-wheel-drive and off-road vehicles, and equipment like chainsaws. The Tennessee Division of Forestry assisted the Scott County Road Department with clearing downed trees from roadways. The American Red Cross established an emergency shelter at Higher Life Assembly of God in Helenwood, which was later moved to the Huntsville Community Center to make hot showers and hot meals available to emergency workers in the field and residents who remained without power. The Tennessee National Guard was mobilized to assist the Scott County Sheriff’s Department as it responded to emergency calls.

Aftermath

Despite the devastating results, the 1998 Dynamic Cooling Storm isn’t well remembered — perhaps because it was not forecasted. By contrast, the Blizzard of ‘93 was forecasted days in advance and dominated the airwaves of regional and national news broadcasts.

With the passage of time, many Scott Countians conflict the Blizzard of ‘93 with the Dynamic Cooling Storm of ‘98. When residents recall being without power for days or weeks at a time, they usually remember it as the Blizzard of ‘93, when they’re actually remembering the 1998 storm. PEC reported in 1993 that no more than 5% of its customers were without power at any one time, and the longest power outage was 36 hours, in the Adams Hill area of Morgan County. By contrast, virtually everyone was without power for hours or days in the aftermath of the 1998 storm. Thousands were without power for at least five days, and hundreds were without power for more than a week.

Additionally, students returned to class soon after the Blizzard of ‘93, due to warm temperatures and quick melting. The blizzard began on Friday, March 12, and students in the Oneida Special School District were back in class by Wednesday, March 17. Following the 1998 snowstorm, on the other hand, schools were closed the remainder of the week of Tuesday, Feb. 3, and all of the next week, before finally reopening in the middle of February, after Valentines Day.

In 2026, more than a quarter of a century later, you can take a walk on exposed ridge tops with shallow soil in Scott County that were once dominated by loblolly and longleaf pines and find walking difficult due to deadfall that has not completely rotted away and the thickets of briars and brambles that resulted from the deforestation. This is largely due to the 1998 snowstorm, although the Southern Pine Beetle Infestation that followed in 1999 also played a role. In the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, roads entering the gorge area had been closed by the National Park Service but almost all roads outside the gorge area remained open. Most of those roads — originally used to access oil wells, for timber-cutting operations, and other purposes years before the national park was established — were closed by fallen trees during the ‘98 snowstorm and were never reopened.

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Our Newsletters:
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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Frank Hughett: Scott County’s ninth sheriff

We often think of our present day as being more lawless and dangerous than times past, reminiscing about the days when we could leave our doors unlocked without worrying about intruders entering our home to cart off everything we own, or predators targeting our children. But the past isn’t always as rosy as we remember it, and the late 19th and early 20th centuries were actually quite violent compared to the relatively peaceful times we live in now.

In this modern day, few people would dare try to gun down the high sheriff in public. But there was a time when attempts on the life of whoever held that office in Scott County were not just commonplace but even expected. None of those incidents was more brazen or shocking than the 1926 assassination of Sheriff Richard D. Ellis in the front door of the county jail in Huntsville.

But Richard Ellis wasn’t the only sheriff in Scott County’s history who had crosshairs on his chest. Another one who did was one who preceded him in office, Frank Hughett. Several attempts were made to kill Hughett after he killed a man during an arrest attempt, before he was finally gunned down in September 1910, at the age of 59.

Life and Times

John Frank Hughett was born in March 1851, the son of John Hughett (1824-1908) and Christena Lewallen (1829-1875) of Robbins. The Hughett family was very prominent in the Brimstone and Robbins areas in those times, and Frank Hughett’s father, John Hughett, was a long-time justice of the peace from the area. He was commonly called “Squire Hughett,” as justices of the peace (forerunners of today’s county commissioners) were known as squires.

Frank Hughett was one of 10 children. His siblings included Lucinda Hughett Sexton, Jasper Hughett, Rachel Hughett Newport, Amanda Hughett Newport, Mary Hughett Walker, Bettie Hughett Robbins, Dr. Horace Maynard Robbins, Joe L. Robbins, and Etta Robbins.

Jasper Hughett was the first postmaster at the Hughett post office, which was located about where Huntsville Branch empties into Brimstone Creek. He later moved to Robbins and helped establish the town’s bank and Robbins High School, and was also a prominent merchant there.

Frank and Jasper’s mother, Christena, died in 1875, when she was in her 40s. She was buried at the Hughett Cemetery on Brimstone, and John Hughett later lived with her sister, Lucinda Lewallen Robbins. Lucinda’s first husband, Capt. William Robbins, was one of the men who helped establish the Scott County Home Guard during the Civil War. Confederate soldiers attacked his home — which was located in the Slick Rock area on Brimstone Creek — in what became known as the Battle of Brimstone. He died later in the war of typhoid fever at Lexington, Ky.

Although most sources state that John and Lucinda were married, Edward East Barthell wrote in Mountain Stories, published in 1933, that they did not marry: “After Squire’s first wife died him and Lucinda got married, that is not exactly married because they couldn’t get married because Lucinda’s first husband was a captain in the Army and she was getting a pension of $25 a month which she would lose if she ever married again, so they just couldn’t get married, but they lived together the rest of her life…”

Frank and Jasper both married daughters of William and Lucinda: Frank married Amanda on March 23, 1871, and Jasper married Vicie.

Frank and Amanda had six children: William, Vicie, Andrew, John Wesley, Reuben, and Etta. Mandy died around 1891, and Frank Hughett remarried to Abigail Cecil. Her first husband, Millard F. Rosser, died in 1893. Frank later married a third time to Rhoda Shoopman. They had a child together in 1908.

Sheriff of Scott County

Frank Hughett was elected Scott County’s ninth sheriff in 1888, succeeding Beaty Cecil of New River. He was re-elected in 1890 and 1892 before leaving office due to term limits. In those days, sheriffs were limited to three terms of two years each, and it was not uncommon for sheriffs to serve all three terms.

Hughett was succeeded by John Goad, who also had ties to the Robbins area. His parents, Joshua and Elizabeth Robbins Goad, lived in the Hughett community on Brimstone Creek. Elizabeth Robbins, Sheriff Goad’s mother, was a sister to Capt. William Robbins.

During Sheriff Goad’s tenure, he was charged with hanging a man. Mike King, a Winfield resident, had been convicted of murdering a school teacher who was staying at his home, and the jury sentenced him to hang. As sheriff, it was Goad’s duty to carry out the sentence. He considered resigning, but a repentant King told him he must fulfill his duty. He did, but it bothered him so deeply that he opted not to run for sheriff again. Instead, he ran for county trustee.

So, Hughett ran for sheriff again in 1896, and was elected again. He became the first sheriff in Scott County to serve on two different occasions. He served in that capacity the second time around until 1900, when he was succeeded by Thomas Jeffers.

Death

Frank Hughett died on Sept. 19, 1910, at the age of 59. He was working as a foreman on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad at the time. His death certificate lists the cause of death as “gun shot.” He was buried at Robbins Cemetery.

A newspaper called it “cold-blooded murder in a railroad camp.” According to The Journal & Tribune, Hughett was shot from ambush at Cook’s Camp on Smokey Creek, while working on the Tennessee Railroad. The newspaper reported that the shooting occurred at around 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, with Hughett’s wife and two-year-old baby present. Hughett was sweeping the steps in front of the commissary when he was shot. He died 10 minutes later. Another person in the camp saw a man run from a cluster of bushes on the mountainside after the shooting. Hughett was shot twice under his right arm.

Bloodhounds were brought to the scene from Somerset, Ky. and followed a track that led to the arrest of Joe Low, Nelson Low, Shack Low, John Bunch, and Jeff Bunch, the newspaper reported. The possible motive for the shooting: Joe Low’s brother, Riley Low, had been killed several months earlier by a posse that included Frank Hughett. In fact, Hughett was identified as the man who killed Low, who was wanted on a charge of larceny for allegedly stealing a moonshine still.

The September shooting at Smokey Creek wasn’t the first time an attempt was made on Frank Hughett’s life in 1910. Three months earlier, in June 1910, he was shot and wounded in Oneida. When he fell, the would-be assassin fled the scene, believing he was dead. However, Hughett regained consciousness shortly thereafter and gave chase, though no one was ever arrested.

Just days after he was shot and wounded, Hughett was poisoned with whiskey. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported at the time that Hughett “suffered much” in the second assassination attempt, but that he “is a man of great bravery and refuses to move away.”

Twenty years later, in June 1930, Sheriff Hughett’s son was also murdered. Reuben Lafayette Hughett was gunned down at Copper Ridge in Knoxville at age 43. He was a deputy U.S. Marshall. The suspect was named as Harrison Welch, who shot Hughett as he and other federal officers were serving a warrant that accused Welch of selling liquor. When they arrested Welch, the suspect asked permission to tell his wife he was being arrested. Hughett agreed and followed him into the house, where he was shot.

Reuben Hughett was also buried at Robbins Cemetery.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

The 1915 train wreck at Winona

On March 28, 1915, quite a ruckus occurred at Winona when a trestle over Buffalo Creek failed and dumped a train into the water, killing one person and injuring four more.

The accident occurred on the Tennessee Railroad, which had originally been the Paint Rock Coal & Coke Co. Railroad and extended only from Oneida to Morning Glory, near the headwaters of Paint Rock Creek. The railroad had only come to Winona a few years earlier. It had been purchased by railroad magnate Samuel Spencer in 1905. He reorganized it as the Tennessee Railroad and began extending it to New River. By 1906, it reached New River at Winona and continued up the river to Norma. By 1912, it had reached Campbell County just beyond Smokey Junction. By 1925, it reached its terminus at Fork Mountain in Anderson County, where the Devonia depot served as the end of the line.

Three Shay steam locomotives operated on the Tennessee Railroad, one of them owned by the New River Lumber Company and the other two leased. On March 28, 1915, one of those Shay locomotives was pulling a load across Buffalo Creek when the 50-foot-tall wooden trestle collapsed. As a result, Engine #24 and Caboose #201 plunged into the creek, killing one person and injuring four others.

It was the first of four fatal train wrecks to occur in Scott County between 1915 and 1931. The others occurred in 1925, 1929, and 1931.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Archibald Angel: Early settler of the Winfield area

Archibald Andrew “Arch” Angel (1775-1847) was one of the first settlers of present-day Scott County, building his home in the Gum Fork area of Scott County east of Winfield.

Born around 1775 in North Carolina, Angel was the son of William Angel II (1752-1852) and Mary Rachel Godwin (1752-1841).

He was a second-generation American. His father, William Angel II, was born in Shropshire, England, and immigrated to the American colonies as a young man.

The Angel family was one of the Winfield area’s first families, along with the Chitwoods and the Trammells.

The Angels and the Trammells settled down in Winfield together, thanks to their marriage connection. Arch Angel married Nancy Ann Trammell. She was the daughter of Revolutionary War veteran Dennis Trammell and his wife, Elizabeth Brassfield.

Arch and Nancy Angel had at least six children: James Angel (born 1806), Thomas Angel (1814), Millie Angel (1816), Dennis Angel (1819), Nancy Ann Angel (1820), and Elizabeth Jane Angel (1824).

Nancy Trammell Angel died in 1829, and Arch married a second time to Charlotte Trammell in November 1832. She is believed to have been a niece of Nancy Trammell. They had at least five children together: Malinda Angel (1834), Lucinda Angel (1835), John Angel (1838), Mahulda Ann Angel (1841) and Helen Mary Angel (1843).

The move to Scott County

It is not known exactly when Arch Angel and his father-in-law, Dennis Trammell, arrived in the area that would become Scott County. However, this likely occurred sometime between 1807 and 1810.

There are various court records indicating that Dennis Trammell moved his family to Claiborne County by 1797, then to Knox County, Ky. by 1805. That was one year after the marriage of his daughter to Arch Angel, though it’s not clear exactly where they were married.

In February 1804, Col. Return Jonathan Meigs — a hero of the Revolutionary War who was serving as a Cherokee agent in East Tennessee — sent a letter naming Arch Angel and others as “intruders on Indian Lands on the West Side of the Cumberland Mountain.” The letter did not specify where Angel would have been living at the time, but mentions Little South Fork, Clear Fork, Mouth of Buffaloe, Poplar Creek, Tattersons Creek, Elk Ford, and the Cumberland River. Based on those locations, he was likely living in present-day Campbell County or southeastern Kentucky.

The reason for Meigs’ letter: the Cumberland Plateau was still considered Indian territory at the time. The Cherokee did not cede ownership of the lands to the United States until the Third Treaty of Tellico shortly thereafter. It was that treaty that opened the Cumberland Plateau to white settlement.

Meigs’ letter ordered all of those living on Indian lands to remove themselves and their property or be forcibly removed by the U.S. military.

Angel appeared — along with Trammell — on a tax list in Knox County, Ky. in 1807. By 1810, both of them had arrived in present-day Scott County. Survey records indicate that Angel owned 298 acres on Pine Creek, while Trammell owned 216 acres on Pine Creek. At that time, the entire Oneida area was considered Pine Creek. What isn’t clear is whether these large land holdings were located on Jellico Creek, or if the Angel and Trammell families pulled up stakes and moved to Jellico Creek later. Either way, their final destination was the Ketchen area between Gum Fork and Capachene. Their farm there came to be known as Angel Valley, and it remains one of the most picturesque farms in Scott County.

In 1826, James Trammell — Dennis’s son; Nancy Ann’s brother — died and was buried on a small knoll on the family farm at Angel Valley. The grave was located just a few steps from Arch and Nancy’s home. Angel-Wright Cemetery, as it came to be known, grew to contain more than 150 graves, although most of them are unidentifiable. While there may have been burials at the cemetery prior to 1826, James Trammell has the oldest identifiable original headstone in all of Scott County. (Abraham Goad, a Revolutionary War veteran, died at New River a decade earlier, in 1816. However, his original grave stone is unidentifiable; a modern military stone was placed many years later. Additionally, there is a broken stone in the Davis Cemetery off Alderville Road in Winfield that is dated 1812. However, a name is not included on the stone.

Arch Angel was a slave-owner. According to census records, he owned five slaves in 1830 and seven slaves in 1840.

Arch Angel died on July 14, 1847, at the age of about 72. He is believed to be buried at the Angel-Wright Cemetery, though an identifiable stone cannot be found to designate his grave. His first wife was also believed to be buried there.

Following Arch’s death, Charlotte remarried to Jacob Lefever (1785-1858). He was a 63-year-old widower. He was listed as the guardian for Charlotte’s three minor children, John, Hulda, and Helen, in 1853. When he died five years later, Charlotte did not remarry. She died sometime after 1880.

While the Trammell family would become one of the most prominent families in the Winfield area — along with the Chitwoods — the Angel family name slowly faded from the scene. However, their descendants live on. Three of Arch’s daughters married into the King family that became prominent in southern McCreary County. Millie, the oldest, married William “Billy” King II. Her younger sisters married brothers from the King family. The King family lived at Ketchen at the time, but would later move to McCreary County. Another daughter, Elizabeth, moved into the Sharp family and settled at Buffalo. Still another, Malinda, married into the Watters family and moved to Kentucky.

The Angel boys from Arch’s first marriage — James, Thomas and Dennis — all married, had children, and remained at Angel Valley. All are buried at Angel-Wright Cemetery on the old farm. Two of them — Dennis and Thomas — married into the same King family as their sisters.

Thomas Angel, the great-grandson of Arch and Nancy, was one of the last people to be buried at the cemetery on the old family farm when he died in 1924. His wife, Isabell King Angel, was buried there in 1943, after which the cemetery became inactive. Thomas and Isabell had 10 children — three sons and seven daughters. However, they drifted away from Angel Valley. Several moved “up north,” to the Midwest. A couple moved to the Somerset area. Another moved to McCreary County, and one to Oneida. Several died young and are buried in the family cemetery at Angel Valley — including 13-year-old Albert, who died of a brain hemorrhage in 1910, Martha Neal, who died in 1921 in her 30s, and Alford, who died in infancy.

Today, all that remains of the old Angel homeplace is a rock chimney that rises above the fields that are still cleared but no longer actively farmed. The bulk of the farm recently sold, and remains undeveloped. Other parts of the original farm are owned by the Braden family. The road along the edge of the old farm is still called Angel Valley Road, but most of the references to the original owners of this fertile valley along Jellico Creek have faded away.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

She was the first woman to serve as superintendent of Scott County Schools

For more than 80 years, only men served as Scott County School Superintendent. The county school system, organized just after the Civil War in 1867, had been led by 22 different men, but never by a woman. That changed in 1952, when Ora Shoemaker Robbins was elected to the post — becoming the first, and only, woman popularly elected to that position.

Born Oct. 4, 1913, Ora Shoemaker was the daughter of George Alvin Shoemaker (1887-1961) and Moda A. Ellis (1887-1961) of Robbins. She was one of eight children.

Shoemaker married Jasper Robbins (1906-1974) and they had two children: Jasper Jr. and JoAnn.

Ora Robbins was a career educator. She began her teaching career in 1932, when she was just 18, and taught for over 50 years in both the Scott County School System and the Oneida Special School District, as well as a school system in Lorain, Oh.

It was in 1952 that Robbins was elected Scott County School Superintendent, replacing A.V. Ellis. Scott County school superintendents had been appointed by the county’s quarterly court — a forerunner to what we know today as County Commission — from 1867 to 1924. Ovia Cross had been the first person elected school superintendent in 1924, followed by O.E. Jeffers, Earl Byrd, John Lee West, and Ellis.

Robbins was not only the first woman popularly elected to the office of school superintendent, but also the first woman to ever serve in that position in Scott County. There’s only been one other woman since that time who served as school superintendent — Sharon Wilson, but she was appointed to the position by the Scott County Board of Education; Tennessee stopped electing school superintendents in the late 1990s.

Robbins was the first woman to serve as Scott County School Superintendent, but she was hardly the first person from Robbins to serve in that role. Southern Scott County produced a number of Scott County’s school superintendents in the early 20th century. In fact, Ellis had also been from Robbins, the son of Berbin Ellis and Pernie Robbins. (He was a grandson of Mitt Robbins, who served as Scott County Judge in the 1920s.) He served as principal at Robbins High School for several years before being elected school superintendent in 1948.

The first person from Robbins to serve as school superintendent was Jasper Hughett, the prominent businessman and postmaster who served in that role in the early 1880s. Hughett’s half brother, Dr. Horace Maynard Robbins, served as school superintendent in the late 1890s. William F. Lee served as school superintendent in the late 1880s, and H.K. Pemberton served in that role in the mid 1890s.

Nor was Robbins the last person from Robbins to serve as school superintendent. Her daughter, JoAnn, married Eddie Culver, who would be elected to the school superintendent post in 1980 and serve two four-year terms in that position.

Robbins died on Aug. 27, 1995 and was buried at Black Creek Crossroads Cemetery in Robbins, where her husband is also buried.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Tracing the beginnings of Cortland, Tenn.

Today, most folks know the area near the head of Brimstone, where Mill Creek empties into the main stream that flows through this fertile valley and lends its namesake to the community surrounding it, as “Lone Mountain.” That is the name of the church that sits on the knoll overlooking the valley pasturelands, and the name of the cemetery adjacent to the church. Lone Mountain itself is the solo knoll (elevation 1,493 ft.) just northwest of the church and cemetery.

But for several decades, this area was known as Cortland. Like many other Scott County communities, it took its name from the post office that served it.

It isn’t clear how the post office got its name, but it opened in December 1892 and remained open until December 1936, making it one of Scott County’s longest-lasting “backwoods” post offices before it finally consolidated with the postal operations at nearby Robbins.

For a period of time, Brimstone actually had two post offices. There was another post office just down the valley where Huntsville Branch empties into Brimstone Creek, called Hughett. It was named for Jasper Hughett, who served as the first postmaster there, and was in operation from January 1887 until September 1935. When Hughett closed, its operations moved to Cortland.

Interestingly, the name “Hughett” can still be found on maps of the Brimstone area, but Cortland cannot, even though Cortland outlasted Hughett. But if you were to go back to about 1920 and travel up Brimstone Creek, you’d progress through the individually-named communities in this order: Mt. Pleasant, Hughett, Slick Rock, Cortland.

The first postmaster at Cortland when it opened in 1887 was Eldridge Shannon. The Shannon family was well-known in the Lone Mountain area at the time. In fact, the old school that served the area was called Shannon. It was one of four schools located up and down Brimstone Creek. The others were Gilbert (between Lone Mountain and Slick Rock), Slick Rock, and Pemberton (at Mt. Pleasant). There was also the Griffith School, which was across the mountain, closer to Indian Fork Creek.

Born May 1835, Eldridge Shannon was the son of James Shannon and Mary Hamby. The Shannon family migrated from Pennsylvania to the present-day Oak Ridge area with Eldridge’s great-grandfather, William Shannon. From there, Eldridge’s grandfather, Andrew Shannon, moved to present-day Morgan County. He arrived about 1815 and was one of that county’s earliest settlers. The Hamby family, meanwhile, settled on the Emory River outside present-day Wartburg.

James and Mary had a large family. When the 1850 census was taken, they had nine children living at home, including 15-year-old Eldridge, the third-oldest of the group.

Eldridge Shannon married Eliza Rich (1839-1925), the daughter of William Rich and Lucinda Lively, and they had 10 children: Orlena, Minerva, William, James, Mary, Julia, Parthena, Nancy, John, and Ernestine. (Eldridge had a brother, John, who married Eliza’s sister, Clarissa.)

The Shannon heritage is rich in northern Morgan County, and remains so today (one of James and Mary’s descendants, Keith Shannon, is a former high school football coach at both Scott High School and Sunbright High School). At some point, though, Eldridge and Eliza moved their family across the mountain and settled on Brimstone Creek near Lone Mountain, in Scott County. The move didn’t happen right away, though. In 1870, Eldridge and Eliza were still living in Morgan County with their five children that were born at the time: 8-year-old Orlena, 6-year-old Minerva, 5-year-old William, 2-year-old James, and baby Mary.

El and Lizey, as they were commonly known, moved their family to Brimstone Creek between 1870 and 1880.

It was on Dec. 6, 1892 that Shannon was appointed postmaster at Cortland, Tenn., and the new post office was born.

In those days, post offices were more than a place to send letters. They were lifelines that connected isolated communities to the rest of the world. They were tiny operations, usually located inside a general store, a blacksmith shop, a mill, or even a private home. In addition to farming, El Shannon was a merchant who had a small store at Lone Mountain, which is probably why he was the community’s postmaster.

The post office in those days was nothing like the post offices of today. The entire operation might consist of a single room or a corner of a room, with wooden pigeonhole mail slots, a counter with a ledger and ink pen, and perhaps a scale for weighing letters and parcels if it were particularly high tech. The postmaster was not a full-time job; they were paid a few dollars a year and ran the post office alongside their main business.

Those were the days before rural free delivery. The mail would be carried by train to the nearest rail town — Robbins, in this case — and from there would be hauled to the post offices by horseback riders. Bad weather could delay the mail by days or even weeks. Once it arrived at the post office, residents would travel to get the mail in person. The postmaster was responsible for sorting the mail, handing it out across the counter, and keeping detailed handwritten records. He (or she) often knew each resident personally.

These rural post offices, like the ones at Hughett and Cortland, were often the first official recognition of a settlement, and sometimes the last trace of it after the community disappeared. They help tell the story of rural communities, like Scott County.

In time, more Shannons came to Brimstone Creek. Joe (or J.P.) Shannon and his wife, Elizabeth Clowers, moved their large family to Brimstone in the early 1900s. Joe was El’s nephew, the son of El’s brother Andrew. Joe’s brother, Jim, also moved to Lone Mountain.

By 1910, El and Lizey lived with their youngest daughter, Ernestine, and a 10-year-old granddaughter, Bertie. El, by then in his mid 70s, still owned his dry goods store there, and Ernestine worked alongside him in the store. (She later married Fred Webb and moved to Oneida.)

El died in 1917. Lizey moved in with her daughter Julia and her husband, John Henderson Webb, and their children, who still lived at Lone Mountain. She died in 1925.

By the 1930s, post offices were consolidating across Scott County. The post office down the creek at Huntsville Branch had closed in September 1935. And just about 14 months later, in December 1936, the Cortland post office at Lone Mountain closed, leaving Robbins as the nearest post office.

The last postmaster at Cortland was Cassie Griffith (1895-1978), appointed on July 12, 1936. She was born Cassie Hamby, the daughter of James Hamby and Sylvania Griffith. Cassie married Earl Griffith (1892-1946), the son of Andrew Griffith and Martha Massengale and a descendant of Joseph Griffith, the Revolutionary War veteran who was the first settler of Brimstone Creek. Cassie had a sister, Carrie, who married Earl’s brother, Mitchell.

Like the rest of the Hambys, Cassie was originally from the Emory River area of Morgan County. She and Earl lived in Morgan County for several years after their marriage, but moved to Lone Mountain in the 1930s and remained there the remainder of their lives.

Today, Eldridge Shannon and his wife, and Cassie Griffith and her husband, are all buried at Lone Mountain Cemetery, just a stone’s throw from what was once the community’s post office. And the name, Cortland, has faded into the dustbin of Scott County’s history.

Much like the Cortland name, the Shannon name has largely faded from the Lone Mountain area. If not for the family’s partition at Lone Mountain Cemetery, enclosed by wrought iron fence, there would be little record of the once-thriving family that lived here and operated the community’s general store. Most of El and Lizey’s children moved off Brimstone after reaching adulthood, including Ernestine once she married. Julia was the last one that remained, and she and her husband moved to Oneida a few years after her mother’s death. As for El’s nephews who made the move to Brimstone a little later, they moved away in the late 1920s and 1930s, returning to northern Morgan County and the Campground area of southern Scott County, where the Shannon name would remain prominent throughout the remainder of the 20^th century.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Civil War days: The strategic importance of Camp Dick Robinson

By the summer of 1861, sides had been chosen in America’s greatest internal conflict. Beginning with South Carolina on Dec. 20, 1860 and ending with Tennessee on June 8, 1861, eleven Southern states broke away from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, sparking the Civil War. And once Tennessee had become the final state to secede, thousands of men from across East Tennessee picked up their guns and headed north into Kentucky to join the fight. Many of these men — including dozens from Scott County — would train at Camp Dick Robinson.

Understanding the battle lines

When Tennessee’s first secession referendum was held in February 1861, the state’s voters rejected a call to join the Confederacy. But Gov. Isham Harris, the fiercely anti-Lincoln Democrat refused to take “no” for an answer, and when the Battle of Fort Sumter occurred and Lincoln called for all states — including Tennessee — to furnish troops in order to squash the Southern rebellion, the mood shifted.

Tennessee’s second secession referendum, on June 8, 1861, saw the state’s voters give a nod of approval to leaving the Union. But they did so despite objections in East Tennessee. The entire eastern third of the state was opposed to secession, none moreso than Scott County. Here, the vote was 541-19 in favor of remaining loyal to the Union — the most lopsided margin of any county in the state.

It’s often said that Scott Countians didn’t want a part in the fight; that they simply wanted to be left alone. That’s not entirely true. Scott Countians did not remain neutral in the fight. Hundreds of them joined the federal army, and a few dozen more joined the Confederate army. Paul Roy, who became Scott County’s preeminent Civil War historian when he compiled Scott County in the Civil War (which is available for purchase through the Scott County Historical Society), counted more than 600 Scott Countians who fought for the Union.

The role of Camp Dick Robinson

Eventually, some Union regiments would be raised in Tennessee — including right here in Scott County, where a Chattanooga man named William Clift formed the 7th Tennessee Infantry. But initially, any man from East Tennessee wanting to fight for the Union — and there were a lot of them — had to slip north into Kentucky to do so. Some Scott Countians served as pilots to help these pilgriming recruits find their way through the rugged terrain of the Cumberland Mountains and into the Bluegrass State. One of them who did so was Hiram Marcum of Buffalo, and it cost him greatly.

Kentucky had been viewed as neutral as the secession crisis unfolded in 1860 and 1861. However, local leaders obtained 700 muskets from U.S. Navy Lt. William “Bull” Nelson and distributed them to Home Guard troops who were loyal to the Union. The Home Guard countered the State Guard, which was a loosely organized group of Kentuckians that favored secession. Slowly, sides were being chosen in Kentucky, as well.

Garrard County Judge Allen A. Burton traveled to Washington, D.C. to urge President Abraham Lincoln to organize Union loyalists from Kentucky into regiments. There, he encountered Lt. Nelson and recommended him for the mission. Nelson met with U.S. Sen. Andrew Johnson from Tennessee — the man who had traveled to Huntsville and helped convince Scott Countians to vote against secession — and Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase. Together, the three men began to formulate a plan of support for loyalists in East Tennessee.

Throughout the early days of the war, Sen. Johnson and his counterpart, U.S. Rep. Horace Maynard, urged Lincoln to help the Union loyalists in East Tennessee — including those in Scott County, aware that their loyalty to the Union would cause them to be targeted by the rebels. And by July 1, 1861, plans were being formulated to do just that.

It was on that date that Lt. Nelson was detached from the Navy with instructions to organize a force of 10,000 troops. Their purpose would be to march into East Tennessee and root out the Confederate faction here. In order to raise the army, Nelson needed a training facility. He spoke with Union leaders in southeastern Kentucky at Lancaster and Crab Orchard, and ultimately chose an old inn at Bryant Springs as his headquarters. He had an agreement to raise 30 companies of infantry and five companies of cavalry.

Lt. Nelson ultimately determined that a 425-acre farm owned by Richard M. “Dick” Robinson at Hoskins Crossroads — seven miles north of Lancaster — was a better site for a training base. He convinced Robinson to lease the farm to him. The main house was a tavern with a storehouse. There was also a blacksmith shop, a barn, mule shed, and several other outbuildings. The farm extended half a mile along Danville Pike, and another half a mile along Lancaster Pike.

The first company arrived at Camp Dick Robinson on July 20, 1861, followed closely by a second company on July 24, 1861. Camp Dick Robinson became the first federal military base south of the Ohio River.

On Aug. 5, 1861, Union loyalists in Kentucky won a majority of seats in the state’s House of Representatives (76 to 24) and Senate (27 to 11). That cemented Kentucky’s stance as a Union state. And it led to renewed calls for recruits to encamp at Camp Dick Robinson. The base was officially designated on Aug. 10, 1861.

Kentucky Gov. Beriah Magoffin sent a request to Lincoln, urging the president to remove federal troops from Camp Dick Robinson. Lincoln declined, saying the base had been “established at the request of many Kentuckians,” and that the men encamped there was an “indigenous force.”

Raising the army

By the end of August 1861, Nelson had 3,200 troops, 7,000 arms and six pieces of artillery at Camp Dick Robinson. The 1st Tennessee Infantry and 2nd Tennessee Infantry, led by Col. Robert K. Byrd and Col. James P.T. Carter, respectively, each had 1,000 men.

Many of the new recruits were Union loyalists from East Tennessee who slipped northward into Kentucky to join the federal army. Of the men from Scott County who enlisted at Camp Dick Robinson, many were assigned to the 2nd Tennessee Infantry, which would later be involved in the fateful Battle of Rogersville in Hawkins County, Tenn.

Among those from Scott County who trained at Camp Dick Robinson were Brimstone brothers Hamilton Griffith and Fielding Griffith. In October 1861, a woman visited the base selling pies — which were apparently poisoned. Fortunately, Hamilton Griffith had fed part of his pie to a dog, and realized something was wrong when the dog immediately became sick and died. His brother was not as fortunate. Fielding Griffith ate his pie, and became ill and died soon thereafter. He was the first known casualty of the war from Scott County.

The Confederates respond

Confederate Gen. Felix Zollicoffer, who was in command of Rebel forces in East Tennessee, learned that Nelson was adding as many as 400 to 500 men per day to his ranks at Camp Dick Robinson. He began formulating a plan to stop the raising of the army in southeastern Kentucky.

To the north, concerns mounted that Zollicoffer would help lead a two-pronged advance on Kentucky from Knoxville and Nashville in an attempt to seize Frankford and force the state into the Confederacy. U.S. Sen. Garrett Davis of Kentucky said that Camp Dick Robinson “must not be removed, even if it be the cause of civil war.” Indiana Gov. Oliver P. Morton added, “if we lose Kentucky now, God help us.”

On Sept. 3, 1861, Confederate forces moved into western Kentucky and occupied the town of Columbus. The Kentucky General Assembly responded by requesting Gov. Magoffin to “call out the military force of the state to expel and drive out the invaders.”

Nelson was relieved of his command at Camp Dick Robinson and ordered to raise a brigade to stop the Confederate advance toward Lexington. He was replaced by Brig. Gen. George H. Thomas, who assumed command at Camp Dick Robinson on Sept. 15, 1861.

Four days later, Zollicoffer’s advancing forces seized the town of Barbourville, making the town a base of operations for its march on Lexington and Richmond. There were as many as 8,000 Confederate soldiers at Barbourville, leading Lincoln to issue a memorandum stating that Union forces seize the railroad that connected Virginia and Tennessee near the Cumberland Gap.

On Oct. 21, 1861, Union forces defeated Confederates at the Battle of Camp Wildcat. From there, Thomas pursued Zollicoffer near Somerset in November 1861. His initial army was joined by new recruits who had trained at Camp Dick Robinson — including some from Scott County — and the Battle of Mill Springs was fought on Jan. 19, 1862. It was there that Zollicoffer was killed, and the outlook of the war in East Tennessee changed completely.

With Zollicoffer dead and his rebel forces in tatters, the Army of the Ohio was able to march into Middle Tennessee and occupy Nashville in February 1862. Tennessee Gov. Isham Harris was forced to flee the state capitol. In Scott County, the occupying Confederate force was in disarray, which gave rise to a period of lawlessness that persisted through 1863.

Best laid plans

The primary mission that the men of Camp Dick Robinson were training for — an invasion of East Tennessee to free Scott County and the rest of the region — never happened.

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who would later rise to fame by leading the Union army’s backbreaking march through Georgia, became concerned that Confederate forces amassed at the Cumberland Gap were too many. East Tennessee loyalists had undertaken preemptive missions to destroy railroad bridges throughout the region in an attempt to hinder the Confederate army’s movement. When the Union backed off its plans to invade, loyalists in East Tennessee were left to the mercy of enraged Confederates — including Gov. Harris, before he was forced out of Tennessee by the Union takeover of Nashville. It wasn’t until September 1863 that Union soldiers, under the command of Gen. Ambrose Burnside, finally marched into East Tennessee — passing through Scott County in the process — and seized control of Knoxville from the Confederacy.

The downfall of Camp Dick Robinson

In August 1862, Confederate Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smart entered Kentucky with 12,000 forces and seized Camp Dick Robinson. Later, Confederate Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg ordered a new Confederate camp to be established on Dick Robinson’s farm. It was called Camp Breckinridge.

Confederate control was short-lived. The Army of the Ohio defeated Bragg’s army at the Battle of Perryville, forcing Bragg to withdraw from Kentucky on Oct. 13, 1862. The rebel soldiers abandoned stores at Camp Dick Robinson, which were seized by the Union army.

On Aug. 21, 1863, as Gen. Burnside’s 12,000-man-strong army marched southward towards Scott County, they paused at Camp Dick Robinson to reinter the remains of Lt. Bull Nelson — who had been killed in a dispute with a fellow officer — behind the original headquarters home. From there, Burnside’s men entered Scott County at Winfield and No Business, the two columns joining at New River and traveling up Brimstone Creek before crossing the mountains and marching on Knoxville.

The federal government’s lease of Dick Robinson’s farm ended on June 1, 1865. Robinson sued the government for the money owed him for use of his home and land. He died bankrupt in June 1869, having never been paid the money owed him. The money was eventually paid to his widow, Margaret P. Robinson, following action by Congress.

Margaret Robinson sold part of the farm in 1884, and Lynn Hudson sold the home and 335 acres in 1895. In 1905, the final parcel of land associated with Camp Dick Robinson was sold.

In 1990, the National Register of Historic Places added the Robinson house to the listings for Garrard County. However, its owners at the time added a brick facade that caused the building to be removed from the register. The original appearance of the farm was also altered when U.S. Highway 27 was built in the 1920s.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

A long-forgotten post office in the Big South Fork?

Scott County has had as many as 58 post offices through the years. The ones that are in operation today, of course — Oneida, Huntsville, Helenwood, Robbins, Winfield and Elgin — in addition to many that are no longer around because of consolidation through the years.

Most of those post offices are self-expanatory. There was a post office at Alderville, for example, that was established in 1901 and operated until 1914. And one at Wolf Creek that opened in 1869 and operated until 1875.

But some of those post offices are a little more obscure. For example, there was once a post office in Scott County named Walnut Springs. It operated for just two years, from 1866 to 1868. And another Goodwater. And Fogal. And the list goes on.

We recently examined one of those post offices in this space — “Fort Brandon” in the Glenmary area, which was actually named Fort Brandau, and operated by a doctor who later served as a surgeon for the Union army during the Civil War.

But there’s still more about Scott County’s long-past post offices that is unknown ... including, perhaps, a post office located in what is now the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area that’s been mostly forgotten by time.

Much of what we know about Scott County’s post offices comes from handwritten records of the Post Office Department that are maintained by the National Archives in Washington, D.C. These records list a Frona post office, which began operation in July 1892 and was open until September 1895, when it moved to Oneida.

It’s fairly well-known that there was a post office in the Big South Fork called Elva. It was located first at No Business Creek, with Lewis Burke serving as postmaster when it opened in 1904. It later moved to Station Camp Creek, with Ike King serving as postmaster, and didn’t close until 1935. It was one of the last of Scott County’s backwater post offices to close, and the No Business and Station Camp areas were officially known for years as Elva due to the post office designation.

But, it seems, Elva wasn’t the only post office located in the river settlements. There was Zena Post Office, which was located on No Business Creek with Lewis Burk Jr. serving as postmaster. It was only open for two months, from November 1897 to January 1898. It appears, though, that a third post office can be added to the list: Frona.

Unfortunately, the records don’t list the locations of post offices; only their names and the appointments of postmasters. So we’re left to guess the location of some of the post offices that aren’t well-documented historically, including Frona. And not all of the locations are clear. For example, there was a Parch Corn Post Office that operated in Scott County from March 1877 to January 1892, but it does not appear to have been located on Parch Corn Creek in the Big South Fork, but near Helenwood.

As for Frona, our clues about its location come from its postmasters. When it opened in July 1892, William H. Blevins was serving as postmaster. When it closed in September 1895 and moved to Oneida, William W. Owens was serving as postmaster.

These men were likely William Huston “Huse” Blevins and William “Wesley” Owens; census records from that era don’t offer any other possibilities.

Huse and Wesley both lived at the Big South Fork during that time. Huse’s family lived on Parch Corn Creek, and Wesley’s family lived just up the river at Station Camp Creek.

Huse Blevins would go on to become a very well-known Scott Countian. The son of Armstead Blevins and Hellen Terry, he was a product of Big South Fork’s pioneer families. His paternal grandfather was Jonathan Blevins, often referred to (most likely incorrectly) as the first settler of Station Camp Creek. His maternal grandfather was Elijah Terry, the first settler of Parch Corn Creek. It was on Elijah Terry’s farm that the Blevins family lived after Armstead married Hellen, who was Elijah’s daughter. (Elijah’s brother, Josiah Terry, was the first settler of Oneida; they moved here together from Virginia.)

Blevins left the Big South Fork at the age of 20 to enroll at Huntsville Academy, where he fed livestock and did other odd jobs to pay for his room and board. He went on to teach school and held many other positions, including justice of the peace (a forerunner to what we know as county commissioner today), was a deputy sheriff, a constable, and superintendent of a lumber company. One of his last positions in education was as principal of Rock Creek School near Oneida. He was also a noted politician, fiercely loyal to the Republican Party. He campaigned for every Republican candidate for president from 1896 until he retired in the 1960s.

In 1892, Blevins would have been only 23 years old. But, according to records, he still lived with his mother and some of his siblings on Parch Corn Creek. (He would later marry into the Marcum family and move to Pine Creek just outside Oneida.)

Twenty-three would have been young to be a postmaster, by Scott County’s historical standards. But there was little that was ordinary about Huse Blevins, who traded a catfish for a math book at the age of 10 so that he could learn to decipher.

Wesley Owens is one of the Big South Fork’s most tragic stories. He was not from Big South Fork pioneer stock; rather, he married into it. His second wife was Susannah Slaven, the granddaughter of Richard Harve Slaven, who was the first settler at No Business Creek. (Owens appears to have first been married to Elizabeth Roysden and had several children with her, though it’s not apparent what became of his first family.)

Owens and Slaven married in 1877, and moved to Station Camp Creek, settling on a wide spot in the creek valley about 1.5 miles west of the Big South Fork River. There, he operated a grist mill and a blacksmith shop. What really made Wesley Owens notable is the cemetery on a small ridge overlooking his fields, where he buried many of his children.

The Owens Cemetery is quite a story of tragedy. Over a period of 12 years, Wesley Owens buried seven of his children in a single row of graves on the rocky hillside — and then he was buried there himself when he died in 1903.

It’s not completely clear what claimed the lives of all the Owens children. The late archaeologist Tom Des Jean, who worked for the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area for many years, speculated that they lost their lives during waves of virus that spread throughout the Big South Fork river settlements in the 1880s and 1890s. The first to die was 13-year-old Samantha in 1888, followed by 11-year-old James just a few months later, 4-year-old Sarah in 1889, 9-year-old Lawrence in 1892, 7-year-old Electa in 1896, and 7-year-old George in 1900. At some point prior to 1900, Ebbin, the second-oldest child of the family, also died.

Following Wesley’s death in 1903, Susannah — whose first husband, Dan Pennington, had been shot and killed by her brothers during a dispute — left the Big South Fork and moved to Wayne County, Ky. Her three surviving children — Willis, Cordelia and Baily — are all buried at Possum Rock Cemetery in the Black Oak community.

Wesley Owens would have been 70 in September 1895, when the Frona Post Office closed.

There’s no solid evidence to indicate that Frona was located in the Big South Fork. But the names fit. William H. Blevins and William W. Owens were neighbors on the river in those days. And they were close acquaintances. When Owens wrote his will shortly before his death in 1903, Blevins signed it as one of the witnesses.

What’s less clear is where the name Frona would’ve come from. Traditionally, post offices took their name from their location (such as Alderville and Wolf Creek) or the person who established them (such as Fort Brandau). But the Station Camp/Parch Corn Creek area was not known as Frona, and Blevins didn’t have any children named Frona (he didn’t have any children at all in 1892).

By 1895, things were beginning to change in the river settlements, as coal and timber operations slowly eroded the subsistence lifestyle that had dominated the region for nearly 100 years. Within another generation, families would begin leaving the river settlements once and for all. In 1901, Huse Blevins married Rosa Marcum and became one of the first among his family to leave, moving to Pine Creek. Wesley Owens died in 1903 and Susannah left for Mt. Pisgah, Ky. Jacob Blevins Jr., who lived up the creek a little further and was one of Huse’s first cousins, operated the mill on the Owens farm for a while, but it eventually closed.

It isn’t clear how the postal needs of the communities along the river were served between 1895 and when the Elva Post Office was established downriver at No Business a decade later. But it does appear that Frona was the Big South Fork region’s first post office.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

He was the first man elected county judge on two separate occasions

There have been several different men who have served as Scott County’s chief executive on more than one occasion — most recently Jeff Tibbals, the current Oneida alderman who served as county mayor from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. Prior to 1910, however, no one had ever served two separate tenures in office. The first to do so was William Henry “W.H.” Potter.

The title of Scott County’s chief executive has changed a number of times through the years, following state law. Prior to 1869, Tennessee counties did not elect a county leader. Instead, the county quarterly court — a forerunner of today’s county commission — appointed a chairman from among themselves. Beginning in 1869, counties elected a county judge. Scott County’s first county judge was Joshua J. Duncan, of Buffalo. In the late 1970s, a state statute changed the title to county executive. And in the early 2000s, the title changed again, to county mayor.

W.H. Potter was born July 22, 1851, the son of John Potter (1821-1914) and Jane Buttram (1831-1916). He married Charnatty Chambers in 1874. Following her death in 1914, he married Bettie Ross. He had five children.

Potter was a farmer, businessman, teacher, justice of the peace (which we know as county commissioner today) and a lawyer. His first elected office was county court clerk. Late in life he was elected to the Tennessee Senate and represented Scott County in Nashville.

Before politics, however, Potter served as a school teacher for three years, then owned a general store in Huntsville. He served on the building committee for both the Scott County Courthouse and the Scott County Jail, the stone structures that were built in Huntsville in the early 1900s. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Huntsville High School.

Potter was first elected Scott County Judge in 1894, replacing Bransford L. Riseden. He was re-elected in 1898, then lost the 1902 election to Beaty Cecil of New River. The two men were fierce political rivals, and delivered fiery stump speeches against each other throughout Scott County. Those contests attracted large audiences.

After Cecil won re-election in 1906, Potter was elected again in 1910, and won re-election in 1914. He left office in 1918 as the only judge at the time to serve on two separate occasions. No one else would serve two different stints until Dwight Murphy did it from 1982 to 1990 and again from 1998 to 2006.

Potter’s last bid for county judge came in 1926. He narrowly lost a three-way race to Mitt J. Robbins, 1,065 to 1,001. He contested the results of the election in court, but the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled against him.

Potter fell sick in the spring of 1935 and died at his home in Huntsville on May 30, 1935, at the age of 83. He was buried at Potter Cemetery in Huntsville.

Judge Potter’s five children included four daughters and a son. His only son was Benjamin Potter (1888-1956).

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Esau Laxton was the first of the Laxton lawmen

Through the years, there has perhaps been no name more synonymous with law and order in Scott County than Laxton. Darryl Laxton is the current chief of police in Oneida, and Jack O. Laxton served as sheriff of Scott County on different occasions that spanned parts of three decades: the 1960s, the 1980s and the 1990s.

But it all began with Esau Laxton, Jack O. Laxton’s father, when he was appointed sheriff of Scott County in 1929.

Born June 6, 1884, William Esau Laxton was the son of Isham Laxton (1865-1941) and Paralee Trammell (1866-1932) of the Buffalo community in eastern Scott County.

By Esau’s time, the Laxton family had become well entrenched in Scott County. His great-grandfather, Thomas Laxton (1795-1862), was the first Laxton to move to present-day Scott County, settling on Buffalo Creek. He married his wife, Elizabeth Goad, in 1820, after making the move to Tennessee, and they had seven children.

The Laxton family were heavily involved in military service. Thomas Laxton served in Cpt. James Tunnell’s East Tennessee Militia during the War of 1812. He had sons who fought for both the North and the South during the Civil War. Brothers Thomas Laxton Jr., Alfred and Levi all served in the Union army, while Jesse Laxton served in the Confederate army.

Esau Laxton’s paternal grandfather was John Jackson Laxton, who married Amanda “Milly” Sharp, daughter of Isham Sharp and Sarah Joyce. Like so many of his ancestors, Esau served in the military, enlisting in the U.S. Army and obtaining the rank of sergeant.

Laxton married Laura B. West, daughter of William Wesley West and Cynthia Reynolds, and they had four children: Virgil, Wilbert, Lester, and Nesby. Nesby, who married Ira Carr Pemberton, would later serve as mayor of Sunbright.

Following Laura’s death in 1917, Esau remarried to her sister, Mertie Mae West. They had a number of additional children, including Evelyn, Dilbert, Thurman, Jack, Doris, Mary, William and Verlie Jo, born between the years 1918 and 1938.

Sheriff of Scott County

In 1928, Sheriff Isham Chambers fell ill, first with measles, then flu, which progressed to pneumonia. He died on April 4, 1928, at age 44, and was the second consecutive Scott County sheriff to die in office. Sheriff Richard Ellis had been assassinated three years earlier.

Like Laxton, Chambers was from the Buffalo community in eastern Scott County, the second-great-grandson of Revolutionary War veteran William Chambers. In fact, Chambers was married into the Laxton family. He married Nancy Jane Laxton (1887-1969), who was Esau Laxton’s sister.

After Chambers’ death, Esau Laxton was appointed by the Scott County Court — a precursor to what is now Scott County Commission – to fulfill the vacant office of sheriff. He served until the 1930 election, when he was formally placed in office by the voters of Scott County. He was subsequently re-elected in 1932, serving a total of five years before being replaced by Herbert Bilbrey in 1934. He was elected again in 1936, serving two more years as sheriff before being replaced by Frank Butler in 1938.

The Boyatt lynching

Laxton was sheriff when Jerome Boyatt and another man, Harvey Winchester, were lynched in 1933. Both were accused of killings in unrelated incidents.

Jerome Boyatt had shot and killed Pickett County Sheriff George Winningham and his son, deputy Floyd Winningham, during a confrontation at a logging camp on Rock Creek earlier that year. An all-out manhunt had ensued in the No Business community where the Boyatt family lived. Although No Business was located in Scott County, the manhunt was led by George Winningham’s son, Kentucky lawman Willie Winningham, who did not have jurisdiction in Scott County. During that manhunt, Jerome’s father, Ransom Boyatt, was found dead at the family farm and an inquest ruled his death a homicide. No one was ever charged, but the murder of his father was enough to convince Jerome to turn himself in to Scott County authorities.

On June 9, 1933, a mob of 25 masked men arrived at the Scott County Jail in Huntsville, where they beat the jailer and kidnapped Boyatt and Winchester, a 19-year-old from Kentucky who had been charged with killing Esker Thompson and Namon Perry in Winfield. The next day, the two men’s tortured and bullet-ridden bodies were discovered in the woods off Highway 27 in Helenwood. According to reports, Boyatt had been stripped of his clothing and forced to run as the mob fired at him. He was shot twice in the back, and once in the back of the head at close range, execution-style.

Laxton was not in town when Boyatt and Winchester were kidnapped from the jail and murdered. The jailer who was beaten by the mob was his cousin, E.N. Laxton. In a June 12, 1933 article in the Knoxville Journal, Laxton told reporters that he was “making progress” in an investigation into the identity of the vigilante mob, and predicted that action would be taken within a couple of days.

No arrests were ever made, though it has long been suspected that the slain sheriff’s son, Willie Winningham, was responsible.

A lawman’s legacy

Esau Laxton died on Oct. 15, 1956 at age 72 and was buried at the Laxton family cemetery on Buffalo Road. His service was just the start of the family’s legacy in Scott County law enforcement. His son, World War II veteran Jack Oran Laxton, served as Scott County’s sheriff from 1962 to 1968, leaving office after three two-year terms due to term limits that were in place at the time, and later returning to office in 1986, serving two four-year terms before leaving office for good in 1994. Jack Laxton was credited with being the first sheriff to place markings on patrol cars, and the first to require deputies to wear standardized uniforms.

Another of Esau’s sons, William Esau “Bill” Laxton Jr., served as chief of police in Oneida. And his grandson, Darryl Laxton — Jack Laxton’s son — is the current chief of police in Oneida, a post he has held for the past 15 years.

Several of Esau’s other grandsons also served in Scott County law enforcement — including Jeff Laxton, who served as his father’s chief deputy. The late Mike Cross, who was elected sheriff in 2010, got his start in law enforcement as a deputy under Jack Laxton. He served as chief of police in Oneida from 1995 to 2010.

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◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.

Taskel Welch was first principal at Scott High School

When Scott County’s new consolidated high school opened in 1971, the first principal at the new school was also the last principal at one of the high schools it replaced: Taskel Welch.

Scott High School consolidated Huntsville High School, Norma High School and Robbins High School. When it opened in 1971, long-time Robbins educator Taskel Welch transferred to be the first principal of the new school.

The Robbins native taught school and served as principal for many years in his hometown. He was principal at Robbins High School during the 1956-1957 school year, and again from 1962 to 1971. He served as principal at Scott High from 1971 until his retirement in 1981.

Born July 17, 1918, Taskel W. Welch was the second-oldest son of Freeman Welch and Bertha May Tompkins of New River. His ancestors lived in southern Scott County for several generations. His maternal grandfather, Ellsworth Tompkins, was a first cousin to Cordell Hull, U.S. Secretary of State and the man often regarded as the father of the United Nations. Ellsworth’s mother, Nancy Artimus Hull, was a sister to Cordell’s father, William Paschal Hull. Another of Welch’s ancestors, great-grandfather James George Jr., was one of the original settlers at Rugby. He migrated from England to Rugby. James’ daughter, Carrie Iona, married Ellsworth Tompkins.

Prior to serving in World War II, Welch married Opal Ross, the daughter of John Lewis Ross and Martha Cox of Robbins. Like him, she was an educator, teaching history and English at Robbins High School. They were married at the Christ Church in Rugby in 1940. Following her death in 1970, he remarried to Violet Simpson, the daughter of Edward Simpson and Teemy Etta Wilson.

Welch did not have any biological children, though he did have three stepchildren: Jack L. Phillips, Linda Hatter and Diane Ueckert.

Welch served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then entered the field of education. He served as principal at Robbins High School during the 1956-1957 school year, when A.V. Ellis took a one-year leave of absence. Later, he was named the school’s permanent principal in 1962. He served in that role until 1971, when the high school at Robbins closed with the opening of Scott High School.

When Scott High School opened, Welch transferred and became the first principal there. He served as the principal at Scott High until his retirement in 1981. He then served as supervisor of Scott County’s Adult Education program until his death.

In addition to his career in education, Welch was a charter member of Highland Telephone Cooperative, and served as the cooperative’s secretary and treasurer. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Robbins, and of Scott County Masonic Lodge No. 670.

Welch died unexpectedly of a heart attack on Dec. 4, 1983, at the age of 65. A funeral service was conducted on Dec. 6, 1983 at Scott County Funeral Home in Oneida with Rev. Philip Kazee and Rev. Hubert Terry officiating. He was buried at Carson Memorial Park in Oneida, where his second wife would later be buried. His first wife was buried at Baptist Memorial Cemetery in Robbins.

Following Welch’s stint as principal at Scott High, Les Winningham served as principal from 1982 to 1994, followed by Gary Cross.

Thank you for reading. Our next newsletters will be Threads of Life on Wednesday and The Weekender Thursday evening. Want to update your subscription to add or subtract these newsletters? Do so here. Need to subscribe? Enter your email address below!

◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)

Subscribe now