Echoes in Time: Tracing Scott County's first settlers
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Tracing Scott County’s earliest settlers
Who was the first permanent settler of Scott County? When did they arrive?
It would be extremely difficult — perhaps even impossible — to determine with exact certainty the earliest settler of Scott County, because Scott County wasn’t formed until 1849. By that time, or by the time the next census was taken in 1850, there were 1,905 residents of Scott County. Prior to 1849, these people were residents of Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Fentress counties.
Traditionally, Mikel “Grand Mikey” Low of Smokey Creek has been credited with being the first settler of Scott County. Richard Harve Slaven of No Business Creek is usually credited with being the first settler of the Big South Fork region on the opposite side of Scott County. But no one knows for sure when these men arrived.
Timeline of settlement
The historian Esther Sharp Sanderson traced Scott County’s first settlers back to the Revolutionary War era. That seems unlikely to be completely accurate, though there’s no way to absolutely disprove it.
One of the earliest forays into this region by European settlers was in 1750, when Dr. Thomas Walker of Virginia led a surveying party to extend the boundary between the colonies of Virginia and North Carolina. This line, called the “Walker Line,” would eventually serve as the boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky.
King George III issued a decree on Oct. 7, 1763, declaring all lands west of the Appalachian Divide off-limits to colonial settlers. This would have included all of what is now Tennessee. Exploration of the western frontier continued, primarily in the form of long hunting. Daniel Boone first ventured through the Cumberland Gap in 1767, and blazed a trail through the Gap for white settlers in 1775. Historians estimate that as many as 300,000 settlers traveled the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap between 1775 and 1810, by which point settlement in Tennessee and Kentucky had begun in earnest.
History records Tennessee’s first settler as a long hunter named William Bean, who built a cabin near what is now Johnson City, Tenn. in 1769. In 1786, James White was granted 1,000 acres near the Tennessee River for his service in the Revolutionary War and became the first settler of what would become Knoxville, Tenn.
Meanwhile, in 1772, a group of long hunters named Phillips, Bledsoe and Russell established a camp at the present-day site of Charit Creek Lodge in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, which led to the area being called Station Camp. In general, it is believed that long hunters visited the Cumberland Plateau region until the Revolutionary War began, at which point they returned to the colonies to take up the fight against the British. After the war ended, they began to return to the frontier lands west of the Appalachian Divide to settle down permanently. Many of Scott County’s earliest settlers were Revolutionary War veterans.
In 1805, the Third Treaty of Tellico was signed. The treaty resulted in the Cherokee tribe ceding ownership of the Cumberland Plateau to the U.S. government.
Did anyone settle permanently in Indian territory prior to the signing of the Third Treaty of Tellico? That’s uncertain. In 1807, Samuel Hall built a home on the Emory River near present-day Wartburg and is credited with being the first settler of Morgan County. It wasn’t until 1819 that Peter Reagan Jr. received a land grant in the Little Crab area of Fentress County and became that county’s first settler. Just off the plateau, Thomas Frost became the first person to settle Anderson County in 1795.
The absolute earliest that settlement can be traced conclusively to present-day Scott County is 1810. It was that year that a survey was entered for Archibald Angel showing ownership of 298 acres of land on Pine Creek near present-day Oneida. That same year, a separate survey showed that Dennis Trammell owned 216 acres of land on Pine Creek. Both Angel and Trammell appeared on tax lists in Knox County, Ky. in 1807, placing their move from Kentucky to present-day Scott County sometime between 1807 and 1810.
However, there is evidence to suggest that settlement of Scott County began prior to 1807. In 1804, Tennessee’s Cherokee Indian agent, Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, wrote to settlers in both Tennessee and Kentucky, accusing them of being “intruders on Indian Lands on the West Side of Cumberland Mountain,” and ordering them to remove themselves or be forcibly removed by the U.S. military. Several areas were mentioned specifically by Meigs, including “Mouth of Buffaloe,” which may have been Buffalo Creek that flows into New River near present-day Huntsville.
There is a grave at the Laxton Cemetery in the Buffalo community that is marked by an uninscribed field stone and also includes a metal funeral home marker identifying it as the grave of John Goad. Genealogy websites typically identify him as the brother of Revolutionary War veteran Abraham Goad, who died in 1795. If verified, that would place the first settler in modern-day Scott County as early as 1795. However, it is unlikely to be true. John Goad, brother of Abraham Goad, is believed to have died in Sullivan County in upper East Tennessee. Additionally, funeral home markers were not in practice as early as 1795. The oldest grave in Scott County that can be conclusively proven is a broken stone in the Davis Cemetery in Winfield that is dated 1812.
So who was first?
As has already been mentioned, the earliest settler of present-day Scott County is generally thought to be Mikel Low. There’s nothing to disprove this assertion. Other candidates for the distinction would include Richard Harve Slaven, Archibald Angel, or any of the Revolutionary War veterans who settled in Scott County. That list includes:
• Daniel Blevins
• William Chambers
• James Chitwood
• Abraham Goad
• Joseph Griffith
• Joseph Hatfield
• David Lawson
• John Lawson
• Randolph Lawson
• James McDonald
• Joseph McPeters
• Abel Peak
• John Reed
• Timothy Sexton
• Dennis Trammell
Sanderson, the schoolteacher-historian who wrote County Scott and Its Mountain Folk and several other books, placed Mikel Low’s arrival in Scott County during the Revolutionary War timeframe. However, Low wasn’t born until 1771, and he married Maria Elizabeth Bortner in Pennsylvania in 1794. The earliest record of Low at Smokey Creek isn’t found until 1830. However, he likely made the move from Pennsylvania to present-day Scott County much earlier than that. In fact, records show that he served in the 5th Regiment of the East Tennessee Militia during the War of 1812, making it almost certain that he was living at Smokey Creek at that time. That would date his arrival sometime between 1794 and 1812.
Richard Harve Slaven is commonly believed to have been a Revolutionary War veteran. That’s extremely unlikely, as he was not born until about 1775. He married Susanna Mabel Mounts in Garrard, Ky. in 1798. He entered a land grant on the Big South Fork River, extending from Bear Creek to Parch Corn Creek, in 1817. This dates his arrival sometime between 1798 and 1817.
As mentioned earlier, Archibald Angel and his father-in-law — Revolutionary War veteran Dennis Trammell — are found in land records on Pine Creek at present-day Oneida in 1810. Both are also found on a tax list in Knox County, Ky. in 1807. This dates their arrival sometime between 1807 and 1810.
It should be noted that Angel was one of the settlers who received the letter from Col. Meigs in February 1804, ordering him off Cherokee lands. However, the letter did not specify where Angel lived at the time. Areas mentioned included Little South Fork (present day McCreary County), Clear Fork (present day Campbell County), Mouth of Buffaloe, Poplar Creek, Tattersons Creek, Elk Ford and the Cumberland River. There are various court records indicating that Trammell moved to Claiborne County by 1797, then to Knox County, Ky. by 1805.
Among the Revolutionary War veterans (besides Trammell), one of the first to arrive is believed to have been Abraham Goad, who settled what would later be called the Vanderpool Farm on New River south of Huntsville. His move to Tennessee is written to have been around 1803. He made the move with his son, Joshua Goad, daughter, Anna Elizabeth Lawson and husband Robert, daughter Mary Phillips and husband Thomas, and Thomas Phillips’ 15-year-old brother, Joseph Phillips. Dating their arrival is difficult, but it is known that he received a 55-acre land grant in Grayson County, Va. in 1800. He died in 1816 and was buried at the Vanderpool Farm. So this dates his arrival between 1800 and 1816.
One name not yet mentioned is Josiah Terry, who is credited with being the first settler of Oneida. A plaque at the Oneida Municipal Services Building recognizes his status as the town’s first settler. He was born 1780 in Botetourt County, Va. He married Nancy Thomas in 1806, reportedly in Anderson County, Tenn. The Oneida area would have been a part of Anderson County at that time (Campbell County was created that same year and included the Oneida area). Additionally, Terry’s name appears on a tax list from Anderson County in 1805. This would date his arrival to 1805, at the latest.
Regardless of who was the first, it seems apparent that settlement of present-day Scott County began in earnest in the first decade of the 19th century, with homes being built in the areas of Smokey Creek, Buffalo Creek, Paint Rock Creek, Pine Creek and No Business Creek.
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◼️ Tuesday: Echoes from the Past (stories of our history)
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