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Sevier County's Present Courthouse |
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The text contained in this article is from a Web document that was formerly available at the Sevier County Library's Web site. The document is no longer on-line, but it was located in an Internet Archive. The actual source and transcriber were not identified in the document, nor was there any indication of whether the extraction was complete. Some minor, obvious corrections were made to the text because it appeared to have been mechanically converted (OCR).
No copyright infringement is intended by posting the information here for the benefit of researchers.
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By J. A. Sharp
Sevier County's courthouse, with its imposing tower and clock, was the fifth in the long history of the County, and it replaced the old courthouse that stood in the town square. It was built near the turn of the last century at an unbelievable low cost, based on present day high building costs.
Court minutes of January 9, 1895 show that the court voted on that date to build the new court house "on the new site," and Chairman J. R. Houk appointed the following committee to contact builders and architects: G. L. Zirkle, Robert Irwin, P. Maples, T. D. W. McMahan and A. T. Marshall. The next court, April 2, 1895, voted to issue bonds "not to exceed $20,000, after hearing the committee's report that the cost would be between $20,000 and $25,000.
On May 6, 1895, the committee made majority and minority reports regarding architectural plans. The majority of Zirkle, Maples and Irwin recommended plans of Bowman Brothers, Knoxville architects, but the minority of McMahan and Marshall favored the plans of McDonald Brothers, architects of Louisville, Kentucky; the court accepted the minority report "with steam heater left out, but clock and seats included.
However, this Sevier County court proved its foresight, and perhaps looked forward to the day of Andrew Hays and Sevierville's modern water system, by voting that the "basement be so arranged and constructed that a 'Steam Heater' may be put in the building any time the county may see proper."
Later another modern convenience, a "water closet," was postponed, but only
until sufficient water could be provided to "keep it clean." July 7, 1896, the court attempted to solve the water problem by voting to "erect a Wind Mill as a power to supply the Court House with sufficient water." The outcome of this windmill is unknown to this writer.
On July 31, 1895, the building committee of A. T. Marshall, G. L. Zirkle and T. W. D. McMahan let the bid to one C. W. Brown for $17,850. Work was started soon afterwards and was completed November 10, 1896, when the supervising architect, McDonald, accepted the building.
Some changes in plans were made, at increased costs, while the building was under construction. For instance, instead of using "Ruble Masonry," in the foundation, it was decided to use "first class out stone masonry." Also the first story's height was increased by two feet; nine inch brick walls were increased to thirteen inches; and inside wood work was to be finished in "bright pine lumber with hard oil finish" instead of paint.
The large out lime stone blocks, used in the foundation, were obtained from the John McCown place, where the Lambert Quarry in located today, and the blocks were hauled to the courthouse site by horse drawn wagons. Because of the revised plans and the necessity of buying fixtures for the new courthouse, the court, on October 5, 1896 issued $3000.00 in interest bearing warrants. Total receipts from the sale of bonds and warrants and the $300.00 obtained for the old courthouse amounted to $22,341.43 And in January, 1897, the building committee reported to total expenditures of $21,041.93.
But the last figure did not include $655.45, still due the Seth Thomas Clock Company for the courthouse clock. Total cost of the clock was $1353.45, plus $42.55 freight on same.
It has been said that Brown, the contractor, lost so much money on the job that he was forced into bankruptcy. The court may have shown some concern about this when it voted in January 1896, to sell the old courthouse to Brown for $300.00, subject to its removal. At the same time offers of $700.00 from Dr. Z. D. Massey and J. R. Houk for the old court house and grounds (square) were refused. |
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John Sevier and Sevier County |
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The text contained in this article is from a Web document that was formerly available at the Sevier County Library's Web site. The document is no longer on-line, but it was located in an Internet Archive. The actual source and transcriber were not identified in the document, nor was there any indication of whether the extraction was complete. Some minor, obvious corrections were made to the text because it appeared to have been mechanically converted (OCR).
No copyright infringement is intended by posting the information here for the benefit of researchers.
If you have information to add-to or correct this document, please follow the links on this page to Contact Us.
by J. A. Sharp
Kermit Hunter's outdoor drama, Unto Theme Hills, has shown to thousands during the last five summer seasons. It is expected that his forthcoming Chucky Jack, about John Sevier and early Tennessee, will repeat and perhaps excel the phenomenal success of Unto Theme Hills. The premiere showing of Chucky Jack will be at Hunter Hills Theatre, four miles east of Gatlinburg on the night of June 22 and nightly thereafter through August except on Sundays.
Sevier Countians will have a special interest in Chucky Jack because our county and county seat both were named for Sevier. It in true that two other counties in the United States, one in Arkansas and one in Utah, bear the same name, but a careful search of Rand McNally's Atlas does not reveal another "Sevierville."
Although Sevier never lived in Sevier County, his associations with the county were close from the time he and his army of frontiersmen crossed the French Broad just below Ben Brabson's place in 1780 and defeated the Cherokee Indians on Boyds Creek -- the first of his thirty-five Indian battles and victories. Then in 1786 he received his first North Carolina land grant for 357-1/2 acres. This was the "Big Island" in the French Broad, all of which is in Sevier County and is owned today by five Sevier County families: Brabson, King, Trundle, Henderson and Catlett.
During the State of Franklin movement, which is covered by Chucky Jack, Sevier's strongest support came from Sevier County because our first settlers hold their lands under session treaties with the Cherokees made by Sevier as the Franklin governor. Therefore, in 1789, when the Franklin government ended, representatives of all the white settlers south of the Holston and the French Broad assembled at Newell's Station and adopted Articles of Association,thus establishing a government separate from both North Carolina and the United States, neither of which recognized the land claims of our first settlers.
Newell's Station, located near the junction of Chilhowee Road with Chapman Highway, was the county seat of Sevier County under the State of Franklins and now became the seat of government of this south of Holston and French Broad country until 1791 when the territorial governor William Blount negotiated the Treaty of Holston with the Cherokees at White's Fort, or the infant Knoxville. In this treaty the Cherokees again relinquished their claims to Sevier County.
That Sevier's associations with Sevier Countians were not always pleasant becomes evident from a letter he wrote to Colonel Samuel Wear, commander of the county's militia. He wrote this letter on May 25, 1796, about one month after his inauguration as first governor of Tennessee. From Knoxville he wrote:
"Information has come from the Cherokees that a party of four was out hunting on the borders of your County. They were fired on by three white men who wounded one of the Indians, and took from them two guns by information from Little Pigeon I have reason to believe the persons were John Bird, Robert Henderson and John Phillips who fired on the Indians."
Sevier's alarm at this incident resulted from his fear that it would cause a renewal of attacks by the Cherokees on the frontier besides he told Colonel Wear that he had promised the Indians that their guns would be returned and they agreed to accept the guns and forget the affair. He ended the letter with this appeal: "I beg you Sir to use your endeavors and influence to get the guns from the person who has them and let them be returned otherwise I shall be obliged to pay for them myself. And not only so my enemies will rejoice, and has already said my friends would bring on a war -- these men, two of them I well know, to be my friends, and I most earnestly hope they will deliver up the guns. And let there be no more trouble about it. I would Rather pay for ten guns then any rupture should Happen or be Occasioned from your county. I Conceive the young men so much my friends that they will readily listen to my reasons, think them good, and find the guns."
Nothing more is known of this frontier episode in Sevier County's long history -- perhaps young Bird, Henderson and Phillips were "juvenile delinquents" of their day, but like most frontiersmen they probably felt that the only good Indian was a dead Indian. It is safe to assume that the Indians' guns were returned either by these young Sevier Countians or by Sevier himself. |
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No Fight at French Broad Crossing |
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The text contained in this article is from a Web document that was formerly available at the Sevier County Library's Web site. The document is no longer on-line, but it was located in an Internet Archive. The actual source and transcriber were not identified in the document, nor was there any indication of whether the extraction was complete. Some minor, obvious corrections were made to the text because it appeared to have been mechanically converted (OCR).
No copyright infringement is intended by posting the information here for the benefit of researchers.
If you have information to add-to or correct this document, please follow the links on this page to Contact Us.
by Hugh Allen
While Colonel Christian and his men were swallowing their disappointment at finding no Indians at the crossing of the French Broad. Let us look at what had been going on in the Indian country.
Caleb Starr, a white trader who had much influence, had advised the Indians to come to terms with the advancing white men. The Raven, and others of the older chiefs, also were in the favor of appeasement.
But Alexander Cameron, the British agent whose job it was to keep the Indians fighting against the Americans, and chief Dragging Canoe, always blood thirsty were for an all-out fight. These two decided, however, that there best bet was to abandon the Indian town on the Little Tennessee and to fall back to the Hiawassee River and there make their stand.
In the end, The Raven and the older chiefs won their way, and sent a messenger to treat with Colonel Christian. The man they sent was Capt. Nathaniel Gist, who had lived for long periods among the Indians, and in whom the white men had none to much confidence, Gist was coolly received by Christian. Some of Christians followers wanted to hang him on the spot. He reported that Cameron had influenced the Indians to burn their northern towns and their store of corn and other crops, and fall back on the Hiawassee. He said that no general engagement could be expected before the Hiawassee was reached.
After waiting a day on the French Broad to give the men time to dry their clothing and equipment Colonel Christian pressed forward. His route lay up the valley of Boyds Creek, then down Ellijoy Creek to Little River. From there the army moved on past the present site of Maryville to the Little Tennessee River.
Christian expected an attack at the Little Tennessee, despite what Capt. Gist had reported, but none developed The river was crossed at Toqua Town, and the army marched on through Tuskegee and past the site of old Fort Loudoun, which had fallen to the Indians about 20 years before, and to the Great Island Town. Here Colonel Christian decided to halt and await developments.
Everywhere along the Tennessee there was evidence of a hurried withdrawal by the Indians. Many of them had apparently departed by canoe down the river, leaving horses, hogs, poultry and a large store of corn and potatoes. The hungry troops ate well from the Indians provisions Christian reported later that he found altogether 40,000 to 50,000 bushels of corn, and 12,000 to 15,000 bushels of potatoes.
Colonel Christian made his headquarters here, and sent messengers telling the Indians they better come and talk things over. A delegation headed by The Raven now the war-chief came to call on Christian. Christian told them bluntly that the British agent, Cameron, and Chief Dragging Canoe would have to be delivered up to him before he could talk business. But these two had read the handwriting on the wall and had departed for parts unknown.
Six or seven of the friendlier chiefs came to terms with Colonel Christian but the trouble was with the blood guilty chiefs. Their towns and stores of provisions were burned. The death of the boy Samuel Moore about whom we have told earlier, was avenged by the burning of the two towns from which his captors came.
This agreement reached between Christian and the chiefs was little more than a preliminary truce. The Indians agreed to release some white prisoners they were holding, to return some stolen horses, and to end a delegation the following year to Long Island for a formal peace treaty that would give the white settlers title to the lands which they occupied and also some additional lands. Then the Christian Expedition returned home.
Colonel Christian had been criticized for failure to deal more harshly toward the Indians. Even some of his officers were disgusted. They said the expedition had accomplished nothing except to burn five towns and to patch up a sort of peace.
It is true that not a battle had been fought, and that Dragging Canoe and Cameron had not been particularly chastised Christian had not marched on the Hiawassee, as he might have done.
It is not our function here to weigh the military and political success or failure of the expedition. If the Indians were taught any lesson they soon forgot it.
It is significant that 2000 white men had seen the mountains and valleys and streams of the future Sevier County and had liked what they saw. And that many of them determined that it would be a good place to return to and settle down.
Expeditions against the Cherokee beginning a hunt down for the next 20 years or so and there is little need to try to record them all. One, however, stands out, and we shall talk about it next. It took place 4 years after Christian's Expedition and on it was fought the Battle of Boyds Creek.
Source: The Sevier County Record, 22 Jun 1950, page 1 |
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The Travels of Mr. Vaughan About 1840 |
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The text contained in this article is from a Web document that was formerly available at the Sevier County Library's Web site. The document is no longer on-line, but it was located in an Internet Archive. The transcriber was not identified in the document, nor was there any indication of whether the extraction of Sevier County-related information was complete. Some minor, obvious corrections were made to the text because it appeared to have been mechanically converted (OCR).
No copyright infringement is intended by posting the information here for the benefit of researchers.
Source: The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee, by John Haywood (Nashville, 1891 - reprinted edition; first edition, 1823), p. 40.
Mr. Vaughan who lived as late as the year 1801, in the County of Amelia, in Virginia, was employed about the year 1740, as a packman to go to the Cherokee Nation with some Indian traders. The Country then but thinly inhabited to the west of Amelia; the last hunters cabin he saw was on the Otter River, a branch of Staunton, now in Bedford Co. Virginia. He exactly described the different prospects of the mountains..... (here Haywood described the Trading Path) ... thence down the waters of the Nolichucky to the French Broad, and crossing the same bellow the mouth of Little Pigeon River; thence up the Little Pigeon River to its ford, thence leaving the waters of the Little Pigeon, over some small mountains, to Tuckaleeche Town, on Little River.
This an old path when he first saw it, and he continued to travel upon it, trading with the Indians, until the breaking out of the war between the French and English nations about the year 1754. |
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