2021 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HOMEPLACE — PATHS TO PROGRESS

2021 Smoky Mountain Homeplace

Paths to Progress

A Production of

Page 2 •Smoky Mountain Homeplace 2021

S Eddie Walker

usan Rice, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, in the commencement address at Stanford University in 2010 conveyed, “Progress is the product of human activity.” That said, it is not hard to realize that progress has been around for a long time.

It was progress when the uses of fire were discovered, just as it was when the wheel was invented.

All of the breakthroughs in science and medicine along with the developments in technology have been progress. The recognition of the

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Paths To Progress basic rights of all humans in such areas of race, gender, religion and intellect exemplifies progress.

It might be said that progress began locally when Native Americans created trails to make their travels across the terrain easier. Certainly it was progress when John Gilliland in 1781 decided to lay claim to the property at the forks of the Big Pigeon and French Broad Rivers and thus became the start of the settlement of what became Cocke County.

Progress has continued here ever since, even if

“by fits and starts.” The instances are many; it may have been the idea for the building of a road or the establishment of a ferry across the river or perhaps opening of a new store or providing a necessary service, but within each progressive idea laid the concepts of personal gain and citizen benefit.

There have been periods of significant industrial growth in the community, starting with the Scottish-Carolina Timber and Land Company in 1884 then later by the Unaka Tannery in 1892 and

Stokely Brothers in 1906.

Many readers can remember the lasting impact of the industrial boom after World War II, particularly the industries that located here 1955-1970.

Progress, however, always brings change, and humans are often resistant to and combative toward change. Maybe our people are just naturally contentious. Senator K.D. McKellar once said, “The folks of Cocke County are fine people, but they rarely agree.” The conflict over the location of our county seat on the French Broad

River in 1799 continued off and on until 1884. There were those citizens who protested the right-of-ways desired by the railroads and Interstate 40, and there are some who will recall the laments of the property owners when TVA “took their land” to build Douglas Lake. In looking at the big picture, have the benefits of these to the county not outweighed such complaints?

Even though it has been long and sometimes rough, the path of progress here has been profitable. And hopefully it will never end.

Newport’s First Textile Industry

BY EDDIE WALKER The textile industry in this country was first located in the North. The first cotton mill was supposedly established in 1811 in Fall River, Massachusetts. The raw material was often produced in the South but the finished product was manufactured in the North.

In fact, one of the weaknesses of the Confederacy was its lack of industry.

After the Civil War, northern capitalists realized the financial opportunities in the South. With the elimination of slavery, the agricultural system was unstable. There was a large labor pool who would work for lower wages due to the economic stress of farming as a tenant or share-cropper. The pay might have been low but it was regular.

The textile industry offered something for every member of the family.

Available work included mechanical and heavy work for the men, detailed jobs that required nimble fingers for the women and even tasks for children. In some places mill villages were built that provided social opportunities for the workers. While the industrial entrepreneurs wanted these efforts to appear philanthropic, they basically were paternalistic and exploitive.

Before the textile mills are discussed, it would be appropriate to mention the Newport Tobacco Factory. Fortunately, much of Newport’s early industrial history can be found in the Knoxville newspapers, particularly the Journal and Tribune. In July 1892 it was reported that the Newport Tobacco Factory was soon to be completed and that it would be a fine building. The operative word in the previous statement would be “soon,” for it was reported in April 1893 that request for bids were being advertised and the contract would be let on May 22. The building was to be 50x90, brick with all modern conveniences.

On June 4 it was reported that the contract had been awarded to C.S. Kennedy and that the building should be completed in 60 days. (From the picture of the building, 60 days seems impossible.) Mr. Kennedy was also the contractor for the 1898 section of Newport Grammar School.

Evidently the Newport management of the tobacco operation did not succeed for on January 29, 1894, it was reported that Knoxville capitalists were conducting negotiations to operate the “new and commodious factory which is now idle.” Nothing can be found about the success of those negotiations, but if they did succeed, that operation did not last long for in December 1895, it was reported that the Newport Packing Company was using the building to pack bacon.

Other negotiations took place. In January 1896 it was reported that a cotton mill employing 500 might be coming to Newport. An incentive given by the county court exempted any new manufacturing plant from taxes for five years and there was a fine brick building ready for occupancy.

The Knoxville Tribune, February 16, 1896, announced that Newport’s

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Bellevue Cotton Mill was at the corner of East Mail Street and Lincoln Avenue.

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Creed F. Boyer was a driving force in the Bellevue Cotton Mill. This picture was from the Knoxville Sentinel in 1912.

Cotton Mill was an assured fact. All of the $100,000 capital had been raised, and the new tobacco built in Eastport had been secured.

James Lord, formerly of Standard Knitting Mills of Rock Hill, SC, was to be the superintendent. The local stockholders were Alfred Knisley, W.C. Anderson, C.B. Mims, W.H. Penland, C.B. Haag, C.F. Boyer, J.W. Penland, James M. Kyker, Deaton & Willis, L.M. Eubanks, D.H. Reid, A.J. Tucker, C.J. Nelson, W.J. McSween, R.C. Smith, F.A. Lincoln, Y.J. McMahan, D.M. Hampton, W.R. Furr, James Bryant, J.J. Denton, John Balch, and Peter E. Blow.

On March 1, 1896, it was announced that the charter of the Newport Cotton Factory had been registered with the county clerk and named as the incorporators were Mr. Mims, Knisley, Willis, McMahan and Smith. It was added that a

representative of the cotton factory was in the East purchasing machinery and it was hoped the factory would be in operation in 60 days.

In August 1896 it was reported that the machinery was being received and that 150 hands will be employed to produce colored cloth and fine shirtings. This would be a weaving mill; no spinning would be done.

There were 200 looms with special Compton motion.

All of this would be powered by two Erie boilers to supply the steam of a 120hp Frick engine.

The mill was partly in operation in November 1896 and “in a few days will be running on full time.”

What was “a few days”? In March 1897, it was reported “Newport Cotton Mill has started up.” Things apparently didn’t go as planned, for Morristown Gazette, August 24, 1898, reported that the Newport

Cotton Mill had been sold at a Trustee’s Sale and that the $10,000 bid had been raised by eastern bondholders. By 1899 they were in litigation.

In February 1900 the Philadelphia bondholders sold the mill for $20,000 to J.L. Erwin of Burlington, NC. The article added that the Philadelphians were not textile men and had little knowledge of the property’s value. It included a four story brick building 170x75, the best machinery and five tenant houses. Apparently it was Erwin who changed the name to the Bellevue Cotton Mill. A notice in May 1900 stated that the managers hoped to be running at full capacity by June 1st. In October 1901, the mill was “still increasing.”

A news item in Chattanooga News, March 11, 1903, reported that the Bellevue Cotton Mill was shut down because of storm damage. Did it re-open?

There was a special feature article about Newport in the Chattanooga News, September 15, 1906, and it told that the Bellevue Cotton Mill had been purchased “a year or so ago” by C.F. Boyer who was overhauling it in hopes of making cotton cloth. Mr. Boyer operated the mill for two years. It was still in operation in February 1907, according to the Morristown Gazette.

The following article appeared in the Knoxville Sentinel, June 3, 1908: The Bellevue Cotton mill which has been closed for several months will be in operation again within a month, The company has been reorganized and will be under different management… Col. Theodore Garrish and son George Garrish of New York…have been here for a week in the interest of several northern gentlemen who have recently bought an interest in the mill…

This deal probably didn’t

pan out. On March 6, 1909, the Charlotte News reported that W.O. Willard and sons and J.C. Foster of Liberty, SC had purchased a controlling interest in the mill and had it back in operation. The name was to be changed to Willard Cotton Mill. Mr. Foster had worked here when J.L. Erwin had the mill.

However, it seems again that the deal may not have materialized. In October 1909, it was reported that “after an idleness of two years” the mill had been leased by W.C. Cook of Spartanburg and M.C. Cook, Jr. of Brevard who hoped to have the mill back in operation by December 1st. It was still in operation in November 1909 as the Bellevue Cotton mill with 400 spindles for manufacturing yarn and the machinery for knitting hosiery.

More difficulty lay ahead for the operation. The Knoxville Journal and Tribune, August 27, 1910, reported : At a chancery sale, the Newport cotton mill plant was sold… to the holders of the first mortgage for $12,000. The Newport Cotton mill started off with a great flourish here. After the first change of hands, the management never met with success and the mill finally came into the possession of C.F. Boyer who mortgaged it for several thousand dollars

and started it running. The profits did not materialize and a second mortgage was given to a New York concern, but thus company finally forced the sale…

The locals who purchased the mill this time were J.R. Jones, Y.J. McMahan, Stokely Brothers, B.W.D. Gorrell, J.N. Gorman, Newport Milling Company, A.E. Sparks, J.W. Fisher, L.S. Smith, C.G. Holland, J.R. Seehorn, C.B. Mims and J.A. Rorex.

The owners hoped to re-open the mill but they did not. On March 2, 1911, an auction was held to liquidate the operation.

Stokely Brothers bought the building for $6,100 (it had cost $13,000 to build), A.E. Sparks purchased the machinery for $3,500 and L.S. Smith the ten tenant houses for $2,500.

Stokely Brothers modified the building for their tomato canning operation.

It was at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and East Main Street and was still in use in the 1960’s before being razed. The Smith tenant houses were located on River Road across from Riverview Baptist Church.

After the close of the Bellevue Mill, there have been at least six other textile operations in Cocke County: Lamons Hosiery, C.H. Bacon Mills, Burnett Knitting Mill, Fielden Manufacturing, Dixie Hosiery and McDonald-Joye Factory.

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Smoky Mountain Homeplace 2021 • Page 3

A.A. Arthur And the Scottish-Carolina Timber and Land Company

BY EDDIE WALKER Communities today are often seeking ways to boost their local economy, one of which is to convince businesses or industries to locate in the community and thus provide employment for the citizens. It is often necessary to hire a person to seek for available prospects.

This person, called an industrial recruiter, usually has a vision, the proper contacts and the communication skills necessary to promote the community in order to make relocation attractive. The first of such a person for Newport was Alexander A. Arthur.

Before the Civil War, industry in the South was limited. After the war, northern capitalists saw a great financial opportunity in taking industry into the southern states, where the agricultural economy was decimated and much of the land devastated. The land could be purchased cheaply and labor would be plentiful. Wages for the southern worker would be less than those in the North. There is no question of the improvement which this brought to Dixie, but at that time, resentment against anything northern was widespread among southerners. They even had uncomplimentary names for the capitalists.

Cocke County got its first taste of what industry could do for a community when the Scottish-Carolina Timer and Land Company located here in latter part of 1884. Managing this organization was Alexander Alan Arthur, who was born in 1846 in Quebec of Scottish parents. He lived in Canada until near his majority when the family moved to Boston. He went “on the road” for a Boston business. By the early 1880’s he had become very successful and was regarded as one of the shrewdest on the road. It was in this way that he came to know men with money who were willing to back any enterprise that appeared to have promise.

This Mr. Arthur told in an interview with Jesse S. Cottrell of the Knoxville Weekly Sentinel, September 3, 1904. When asked “Why did you come to this section and what did you hope for in so doing?”

Mr. Arthur replied: It was this way, you know. I was passing through East Tennessee and was attracted by the magnificent growth of timber about Newport. I saw that it was of the finest and most choice quality and that the quantities

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A.A. Arthur as a young man.

were inexhaustible. I took a proposition to New York and there laid it before the proper parties, and I was somewhat surprised to find that they took to it at once, and it was not long until the Scottish-Carolina Lumber Co. was organized, and the home offices were made a Newport and at Waterville a town was founded. Thousands of feet of lumber logs were cut but the scheme did not work owing to the fact that we did not have enough water to handle the logs at Newport, and then we came to Knoxville and installed that Scottish lumber mills near there, The history of this enterprise is well known and then it was that I became interested in Middlesboro.

Mr. Arthur went on to explain: A more gigantic milling concern was never projected in this country.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were at the disposal of the promoter and a request was not made that wasn’t complied with. Mammoth mills were installed at Newport.

Success seemed assured.

Mills were built, the mill site was named Waterville, and booms were constructed in the mountain waters.

The mountain timber lands were filled with men and the majestic and virgin oaks were felled on every hand by the many axes…But the enterprise was ahead of its time and it was demonstrated that the gigantic undertaking was too great for the water supply, the water was too swift for the logs to be controlled and then came the dissolution as far as

Newport was concerned.

This was in 1886…Millions of logs were cut to be floated down. Millions of feet of lumber were sawed and everything seemed roseate for the company.

In hundreds of mountain passes throughout Cocke, Sevier and other counties contiguous to the French Broad and its immediate tributaries are to be found heaps of logs that were cut, but which were never floated out. The waste was prodigious, but it only taught the people of that section that there is a future for the lumber interests…

The first local record of him appeared in the Knoxville Daily Chronicle, October 11, 1884, where A.A. Arthur “of Boston” was numbered among those registered at the Hattie House. Things moved quickly for on November 12th the Daily Chronicle reported: LARGE INVESTMENT TO BE MADE AT NEWPORT BY WEALTHY SCOTCH COMPANY (from Newport Journal) The following persons representing a wealthy company, chiefly of Scotchmen, are in Newport: Wm. Hamilton and wife, John B. Lindsey and H.H. Montcreaf, of Glasgow, Scotland; Mr. McCullen and J.B. Nadeau, of Montreal, Canada; and A.A. Arthur of Boston, Mass.

This company, we understand, have purchased the lots of Joseph Gorrell, Mr. Kennedy and Vinson Fine in Eastport, between the river and the railroad, and propose purchasing all the remaining lots in

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A.A. Arthur after he left Newport and lived in Middlesborough.

that locality if they can obtain them at reasonable terms. Mr. Charles Holland, we learn, is making the purchases for the company. It is said large tracts of mountain lands owned by the Cushings on Rich mountain, in the vicinity of Mack’s [sic] Patch, have been purchased by the company, and that they will if the location suits them, confirm the purchases made and erect extensive lumber mills and other machinery.

Then on November 30th, the newspaper reported that workmen were hard at work digging the foundation for the mill. Early in December the Newport Journal reported: The Morristown Gazette intimates that the Scotch Timber and Land Company will make Morristown their headquarters. The Gazette is off again. That company has located at Newport, has purchased property here and here

will be its headquarters.

Newport is on a boom and henceforth the little protozoan village of Morristown is to owe its importance to its proximity to this growing city…

Mr. Arthur and the SCTL did try to make a big splash here. Mr. Arthur built The Scottish Mansion, which has been written about. In March 1886, it was reported that the house was ready for the Arthurs to move in, but in November of that year, they were living on Broad Street in Knoxville.

There were other grand plans for the town. Mrs. Cora Massey Mims had one of the maps showing all that was planned; she said Attorney Carty McSween also had one. Mrs. Mims gave her map to Knoxville historian Pollyanna Creekmore. Both Attorney McSween and Ms. Creekmore are deceased and the whereabouts of the maps unknown.

The Knoxville newspa-

pers made frequent references to the Scottish company in 1885 and 1886, but by the latter part of 1886, Mr. Arthur had shifted his focus to his vision for Middlesborough, KY. That is another story. As has been mentioned, there are various reasons given for the Scottish company’s departure from Newport. Mr. Arthur said it was the lack of water. Wilma Dykeman in The French Broad said it was the flood of 1886 (too much water) which scattered its stockpiles of logs.

Mr. Arthur’s granddaughter Mary Stonecipher had heard that it was the lack of cooperation from the civic leaders of Newport. Who knows?

There may some validity to Mrs. Stonecipher’s memory. When Mrs. Mims, as a reporter for her brother’s newspaper, the Newport Star Journal, interviewed Mr. Arthur, he said something to the effect that Newport might not want to “kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”

As a witness to this metamorphosis of Newport from the SCTL, Mrs. Mims recalled that the influx of ‘foreigners’ with their different accents, habits and stories made quite a “culture shock” for the townspeople. Some sixty years later Mrs. Mims wrote about that time and some of the people who came.

Now that the Scottish Mansion is gone, there are no real landmarks associated with the SCTL. Their log yard was where the ConAgra Distribution Center is now. Logs were pulled out of the river and stockpiled there. When ready to be sawed, they were floated down the river to the mill which was behind the Riverview Baptist Church. The company offices were on the hill overlooking the mill on what is now Tabor Street.

This was a notable era in our community’s history.

Honor God Love Your Family Serve Your Community

P r o g r e s s . . .Wo r k i n g To g e t h e r I s S u c c e s s • Co m m u n i t y • B u s i n e ss • Ed u c a t i o n

The City of Newport

My service to you comes from my heart and I thank God for giving me a heart of a servant. It is my calling and privilege to protect the people of Cocke County.

We, as a department, are united and working together for you, the good people of Cocke County

~ Sheriff Armando Fontes

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Driving The Hogs To Market

BY EDDIE WALKER

Most folks today could tell you that Tennessee’s nickname is the “Volunteer State,” but how many would know its first nickname? The Hog and Hominy State. In 1840 Tennessee was first in the nation for corn production and by 1850 they were first in the production of hogs, thus the nickname.

(Anyone reading this would know that hominy is a product made from corn.)

Hogs were once a necessary staple in this area.

All families raised hogs for their own consumption, and in so doing, made use of “everything but the squeal.” Hogs were not raised extensively in other parts of the country, so that created a market for those that did. In the Tennessee Gazetteer (1832) when describing the economy of Cocke County, it written: The staples are cotton, corn, wheat, rye and hemp. Corn is the principal, which is fed to stock and driven to market.

One of the main routes for moving the hogs from as far away as eastern Kentucky to market in the Carolinas passed right through Cocke County, then to Asheville and onto South Carolina. The route followed the French Broad River and was known as “Drovers Route.” From Morristown Gazette, February 8, 1882: Over it passed herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and droves of hogs, mules and horses.

Coming through Cumberland Gap it crossed Clinch Mountain, passed by Bean’s station by Morristown, up the French Broad River onto Asheville and from thence into North Carolina and South Carolina.

So vital was this operation that between 1824-1828, North Carolina built the Buncombe Turnpike which stretched from Greenville, SC to the Tennessee state line where it connected with the Tennessee link of the route.

It would be interesting to know what care was done for the route by Tennessee.

Some income for maintaining the route was generated by toll gates. It was recollected that the Huffs operated one located near the present Slab Restaurant on Hwy. 25/70. There was another at Marshall, NC. Although hogs were foremost, cattle, horses, mules, turkeys and sheep were also driven to market.

So significant were these drives to its history, Asheville has erected a monument to them in downtown Pack Square.

The principal person in this operation would be the drover. He amassed the drove by raising the hogs himself or by buying them from others in his neighborhood, and then on the droves, he was the boss.

Charles Stokely of Del Rio (then known as Big Creek) was one of the big drovers.

His son Jesse W.D. (18661947) shared his memories of driving hogs with Dr. Edmund C. Burnett for an article he wrote for Agricultural History in 1946. Jesse himself had accompanied his father on the drives, 1877-1881.

Mr. Stokely estimated that there were possibly 25-30 drovers each year from Cocke, Jefferson and Greene counties. Some of the drovers from Cocke County that he recalled were: William Russell Stokely, Joseph and John Huff, Dunk Easterly, Andrew Steele, Pleasant Driskill, Adam Boyer, Joel Brooks, William Sheffey, W.R. Swaggerty, Wesley Davis, Cas and John McNabb, David, George and Jake Susong, James and Burrell Rorex, and Col. William Jack and sons. Other sources name William and Alvy Jack, Alex Stuart, W.B. Wall, Wright Brooks and Thomas Moore.

The hog season started right after the first of the year when the sows were bred. Three and a half months later, the litter

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Getting the hogs ready for the drive.

This picture appeared in Harper’s Magazine in 1857. It was reproduced from the NCpedia.

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Charles Stokely, one of the hog drivers from Cocke County.

began arriving. The fattening process began in late summer when the corn had sufficiently matured to be fed to the hogs. Dependent of this, the driving season was from mid-October to mid-November. Under

“Cocke County Items” in the Knoxville Daily Chronicle, December 24, 1872, it was reported that a total of 5,076 hogs had been “taken South” from the county, adding “out of this large number

there were very few inferior hogs.”

As mentioned, the drover had amassed the drove, but in order to get them to market he needed drivers.

The drovers were on horseback; the drivers were the ones who walked with the hogs, prodding them along and watching for any that might stray off the road. A drive needed a driver for every 100 hogs. A drove usually had about 400 hogs and could cover 8-10 miles per day. Mr. Stokely said that his father drove his hogs to Anderson, SC. The distance is 140 miles, so that took two weeks or so.

The driving route came up the north side of the French Broad. The hogs had to be ferried across the river at Del Rio. Dr. Burnett estimated that the ferry could handle about 50 hogs at a time. Sometimes the droves would be backed up several miles waiting to cross on the ferry. Occasionally one would fall overboard and drown.

Those nearby were quick to get it out of the river and dressed and some families in the community would have fresh pork for supper.

The route continued up the river by Fugate to Wolf Creek where it left the river and crossed the mountain to Warm Springs.

The men on operations like these had to be cared for, and this was done at

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“stands,” places along the route where the men and the hogs could be fed and housed for the night. Mr. Stokely estimated that there were 15 or more stands between Del Rio and Asheville. The one nearest to Del Rio was that of Arthur Sawyer at the mouth of Rock Creek. Wash Allen had one at Wolf Creek. At Shut-in in Madison County was Frank Lawson’s. (He was the grandfather of Newport Mayor, Dr. L.S. Nease.) Then four miles below Hot Springs, Henry Ottinger had a stand and a ferry to get the droves across the river.

One of the unique stands from that time was Wash Farnsworth’s four miles above Hot Springs at the mouth of Big Laurel. Mr. Farnsworth was African American, and Mr. Stokely said “we were well-fed and well-housed.” The most famous, perhaps, was that of James Mitchell Alexander which on the river near Weaverville in Buncombe County. Established in 1828, Alexander’s had a hotel, store, tanyard, harness shop, shoe shop, blacksmith shop, sawmill and a ferry. The hotel had forty beds and was regarded at that time as the best accommodations from Cincinnati to Charleston.

This is now the community of Alexander.

The stands were just

like hotels and restaurants today — some were better than others. What did they have to eat? Mr. Stokely remembered that there was meat, beef or pork, with kraut and Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes, cornbread and occasionally wheat bread with molasses.

There were milk, coffee and possibly something stronger to drink. All of this for a price of 20 cents per meal.

What did it take to provide feed for all of the animals? Mr. Stokely stated that it took 8 bushels of corn to feed 100 hogs. That would be 32 bushels for a drove of 400. He said that the stand owner paid growers about 50 cents per bushel, but he charged the drover 75 cents. All of this became part of the overhead for the drover.

Dr. Burnett said that his grandfather Swan P. Burnett moved to Cocke County from Asheville in 1835 intent on establishing a stand, but he soon realized that he could do better by raising the corn to sell to the stand owners to feed the droves. Mr. Stokely recalled that his father had driven hogs in 1849 for Eli McMahan (the ancestor of the Cocke County McMahans.) Mr. Stokely asked the keeper of the tollgate in Asheville how many hogs had come through that year: 90,000.

The price of hogs fluctuated with the price of cotton. If cotton was going for sixteen cents per pound, then hogs would be eight cents per pound. Between Del Rio and Asheville, a hog could lose as much as twelve pounds. Lame hogs could be sold to the standkeepers who were always in need of fresh meat.

The return trip from South Carolina to Cocke County took three to four days on horse, about a week on foot. For the drover, the return trip was not always one of leisure.

As always, there are those who seek to profit quickly and illegally from the work of others. The hog driving route had its share of “highwaymen” who were quick to attack and rob a returning drover, whom they knew would be carrying a large sum of money.

Wilma Dykeman told a story like that in her novel Return the Innocent Earth.

Do the math: 400 hogs, each weighing 200 pounds at eight cents per pound could generate $6400 in 1880. In today’s currency that would be $165,000.

That would be a quick take for some thief. The drovers, of course, were armed and often returned by a different route.

The hog droves across Cocke County began waning after the railroad was completed through the mountains to Asheville in 1882. It became quicker and easier to ship, rather than drive, the hogs to market, but was the process as dramatic and picturesque?

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Smoky Mountain Homeplace 2021 • Page 5

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Postmaster Alexander Ragan (in white shirt) and mail carriers about 1905 in front of the Newport Post Office, which was located near the Mims Avenue entrance of US Bank.

The Mail Must Go Thru!

BY EDDIE WALKER “The mail” is an integral part of our daily life. It is so routine that citizens may take it for granted. What happens, however, when our mail doesn’t arrive as expected?

Among the powers granted to Congress in Section 8 of the United States Constitution is that “to establish post offices and post roads.” The mail has been moving through the country ever since that went into effect in 1789.

Published in the Knoxville Gazette, October 23, 1795, the following article outlines the mail service for this region, even before Tennessee became a state: Mails of the United States Proposals for carrying the MAILS of the United States in the following Post Roads will be received at the General Post Office until the first day of November next.

In VIRGINIA AND S.W. TERRITORY From Abingdon by Jonesborough, Greenville and Jefferson Court House to Knoxville once on two weeks.

Leave Abingdon every other Sunday by 6 A.M. and arrive at Knoxville the next Wednesday by 7 P.M. Returning. Leave Knoxville every other Wednesday by 6 P.M. arrives at Abingdon the next Saturday by 6 P.M.

Note 1. The Post Master General may alter the times of arrival and departure at any time during the continuance of the contracts, he previously stipulating an adequate compensation for any extra expense that may be occasioned thereby.

Note 2. Half an hour shall be allowed for opening and closing the mail at all offices where no particular time is specified.

Note 3. For every hour’s delay (unavoidable accidents excepted) in arriving after the times prescribed in any contract, the contractor shall forfeit one dollar; and if the delay continue until the departure of any depending mail whereby the mails destined for such depending mail lose a trip, an additional forfeiture of five dollars shall be incurred.

Note 4. Newspapers as well as letters are to be sent in the mails; and if any person making proposals desires to carry newspapers other than those conveyed in the mail for his own emolument, he must state in his proposals for what sum he will carry it with that emolument and for what sum without that emolument.

Note 5. The contracts are to be in operation on the 1st day of January next, and to continue until the 1st day of April 1798.

Service Times Sunday School 9:30 a.m.

Sunday Morning Worship 10:00 a.m. or on Facebook Sunday Night Services 6:00 p.m.

Wednesday Night Services 6:00 p.m.

Pastor John Hill 221 West Broadway Newport, TN 37821

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Note 6. Should any persons making proposals desire an alteration of the times of arrival and departure above specified, he must state in his proposals such alteration and the difference they will make in the terms of the contract.

Note 7. Persons making proposals are desired to state their prices by the year.

Contractors may receive their pay quarterly.

General Post Office Philad.

July27, 1795. JOSEPH HABERSHAM Post Master General As specified, those carrying the mail contracted for the position. Probably politics came into play, and the lowest bid may not have been the one awarded the contract.

In 1809, Newport was on Route #131: From Beene’s [sic] Station by Cheek’s Cross Roads to Newport once a week. Leave Beene’s Station every Sunday at 2 P.M. and arrive a Newport every Monday by 10 A.M. Leave Newport every Monday at 2 P.M. and arrive at Beene’s Station Tuesday by 11 A.M. In 1810 the Knoxville Gazette in reporting mail routes stated that Newport’s mail would come from Warm Springs and then go onto Knoxville, Clinton, Chitwood and Pulaski, KY. Another route would take mail from Newport to Cheek’s Cross Roads, Bean’s Station, Tazewell, Powell Valley and Cumberland Gap. No mention of mail from Newport to any points north. In 1822 the routes were similar, but it seems that mail went from Greeneville to Warm Springs then to Newport.

By 1833 traveling condition had improved and Newport was receiving mail twice a week carried by a four-horse post coach. We were on Route #2508 which left Shown’s (Shoun) Cross Roads [Johnson County] and made stops at Dugger’s Ferry, Elizabethton, Jonesborough, Old Salem, Greeneville, Silon, Wood’s Ferry, Parrottsville, New Port, Oak Grove, Dandridge, New Market and Knoxville.

The coach left Shoun’s every

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Mail carrier Henry A. Freshour in front of the Blazer home near the intersection of Good Hope Road and Sparks Road.

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The desk from the Birdsville post office when William Hartsell was postmaster.

Monday and Wednesday at 4 AM and arrived in Knoxville at 9 PM every Wednesday and Friday. Return trips left Knoxville at 1 PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays and arrived at Shoun’s by 9 PM on Thursday and Saturdays.

In 1833 there were only 4 post offices in Cocke County: New Port, Parrottsville, McKoysville and Lucetta.

McKoysville possibly was near Wilsonville and Lucetta appears to have been in the Del Rio area. The mail was delivered to either of those places, and it was then the citizen’s responsibility to go to the post office and pick up his mail, no matter how far away he might live. In some places, communities could hire a person to go to the

post office for the mail. This would be the case for many years.

In Cocke County, there have been 64 separate post offices over the years, not all of them functioning at the same time: Big Creek, Birdsville, Bison, Bluffton, Boomer, Bridgeport, Brown, Buzzard Roost, Bybee, Calfee, Carson Springs, Cato, Cosby, Costner, Creed, Del Rio, Drice, Drift, Driskill, Edwina, English, French Broad, Givens, Gorman’s Depot, Hackletooth, Hartford, Help, Holt, Huckleberry, Jonestown, Jonesville, Kinzel, Lemons Gap, Lucetta, Mae, McKoysville, Moraine, Naillion, Newport, Nough, Ogdenville, Ottinger, Parrottsville, Peanut, Phillips, Punkton, Rankin, Read Hill, Riverside, Salem, Shaver, Shellan, Sutton, Tampa, Taylorsburg, Teake, Thesha, Wasp, Weller, Whitwell, Wilsonville, Wilton Springs, Wiltonville, Wolf Creek.

Usually these post offices were in someone’s store, occasionally in a home or a few in a separate building.

The position of postmaster was important in a community, but there was not always job security. The postmasters were politically appointed, and when a postmaster’s party was out of office, the party in office appointed one of their own. Mr. Roy T. Campbell, Sr. was Newport’s

postmaster in 1933 when Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected. A Republican, Mr. Campbell was soon out of a job.

Rural Free Delivery (RFD) brought a drastic change to the United States mail service. Home delivery in the city began in 1858, but it wasn’t until October 1891 that rural free delivery began as “an experiment.” Like any change, there was opposition.

First, there were those who felt it was too costly to hire all of the necessary carriers; the local merchants were opposed because they said it would limit their business because the citizens would no longer be coming to town as frequently and it would give rise to the mail order business, such as Sears- Roebuck.

RFD became official in 1896 but it took several years before it was fully implemented nation-wide. It has been labeled “the biggest and most expensive endeavor ever instituted by the United States Post Office.” Appearing on the scene with RFD was the roadside mailbox, which is still around a century later. Although there are different designs, the same basic design from 1896 is still the most common.

The first Tennessee RFD route was in Tipton County in 1897. It was implemented in Cocke County January 1. 1903. The Knoxville

Journal and Tribune, December 30, 1902, gave this information about Cocke County’s new RFD system: - Bybee — three routes — Post offices of Calfee, Driskill, Help, Holt, Shaver discontinued — Cosby — three routes — Post offices of Bison, Birdsville, Mae discontinued. Costner will be served by rural carriers. — Parrottsville — three routes — Post offices of Salem, Ottinger, Thesha, Peanut, Sirensburg discontinued.

Caney Branch served by rural carriers.

Newport — five additional routes — Post offices of Edwina, English, Phillips, and Carson Springs discontinued. Jones Cove supplied by rural carriers.

Getting a carrier’s position usually required some intervention from one’s congressman, either directly or by way of a local intermediary, such as the postmaster. Tom Burnett Jones told that he got G.W. Cole to speak to his personal friend, Congressman B. Carroll Reece, on his behalf to get his position.

No doubt, the new RFD system did not suit all Cocke Countians in 1903, just as a change today would not be unanimously popular. Occasionally, new proposals for mail delivery are mentioned, but nothing sweeping has yet been enacted. Until it is, the mail will go thru as usual.

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ROADS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

Jonesboro, Greeneville, Warrensburg, thru the northern part of Cocke County to Dandridge and onto Knoxville. A branch of that path crossed the Big Pigeon River at the “War Ford” in what is now downtown Newport.

The “Great Indian Warpath” later became to be known as the “Great Trading Road” or “Great Wagon Road” and was the way that many settlers came from other parts of the thirteen original colonies into the wilderness of East Tennessee.

At the Long Island (near present Kingsport), the Wilderness Road branched off the Great Wagon Road and went northwesterly thru the Cumberland Gap to Boonesborough, Kentucky. The Great Wagon Road continued south.

At Cumberland Gap, the Wilderness Road was joined by the Catawba Trail which originated near Greenville, South Carolina. The Catawba Trail went through what are now Hancock, Grainger, Hamblen and Jefferson counties into Cocke County and then followed the French Broad River to Warm Springs, Asheville, Saluda and onto Greenville, SC. Those readers who have done hiking in the mountains will have some idea of what the earliest roads were like, if they were as good as the hiking trails.

As migrations into this area increased, so did the need for improvement of the routes — rivers, canals, harbors, roads and turnpikes. The responsibility for this fell to the various governmental bodies, local, state and federal, and most likely were as controversial in that time as “internal improvements” are today.

An article in the Knoxville Gazette, October 23, 1795, reported that in “emigration into this Territory” had been great that year, so it was felt necessary that the condition of the wagon SEE ROADS ON PAGE 9

SUBMITTED

1838 map of Cocke County and the surrounding area.

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ROADS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

road from Charleston, SC to Knoxville, as determined

by General Win of South Carolina, be detailed. It was stated that wagons had been able to pass over this route and the settlements and the distances between them were listed. (The mileage after each location is that from the previous point.)

Charleston to Orangeburgh — 79 miles; to Granby (now Cayce) — 35 miles; Winsborough — 2 miles; Fishdam on Broad River (Chester Co., SC) — 30 miles; Union Court House — 20 miles; Spartanburgh — 30 miles; Col. Thomas’s ( near what is now Greer, SC) — 24 miles; Saluda — 15 miles; Green River Cove (now Henderson Co., NC) — 10 miles; Blue Ridge (Henderson Co., NC) — 3 miles; Little Mud Creek (near Brevard) — 6 miles; Buncombe Court House — 14 miles; Flat Creek — 25 miles; Barnet’s Station (near the present Mars Hill) — 5 miles; Laurel Creek (near present intersection of US 25/70 and TN 208) — 6 miles; Wilson’s at the foot of M.S.W.T. — 13 miles; Fine’s Ferry on French Broad — 20 miles; Big Pigeon — 2 miles; Little Pigeon (Sevierville) — 23 miles; Knoxville — 25 miles.

It is amazing that the mileage given then is pretty close to what is today.

I do not know for what M.S.W.T. stands, but it must have referred to a mountain. The Wilsons lived in southern Greene County so the route possibly came through Houston Valley to the French Broad River and then onto Fine’s Ferry.

In viewing some old maps online, one from 1816 (published by Lucas Fielding, Jr.) labels what is Cocke County as Sevier County and has Sevier Court House where Newport was then located. A road is shown from Greeneville to Sevierville. The rivers on this map appear to be rightfully placed.

An 1818 map by Matthew Carey shows a road from Greeneville to Sevierville through Cocke County and also a road from Warm Springs to Newport. That was old Newport on the French Broad River.

Isaac Lea’s map of 1822 shows Greeneville to have been a crossroads. One road went eastward to the Warm Springs. Another went west to Cheek’s Cross Roads (now Russellville) and a third went southeasterly to Newport, crossing the Nolichucky, French Broad and Big Pigeon Rivers and traveling onto Dandridge.

Joseph J. Meyer’s 1845

SUBMITTED

1862 map of this area. “Cosby’s Creek” is noted.

map shows two routes from Greeneville to Newport.

One went to Warrensburgh and then onto Newport via what is now Bybee; the other appears to have come through what is Parrottsville. The road from Newport to Warm Springs appears to branch off the Parrottsville road and go through Long Creek over to Del Rio and then by Meadow Creek where is insects with what is now Hwy. 70.

From Newport to Dandridge the route appears to be about what Hwy. 25/70 is now.

Samuel Augustus Mitchell published a map in 1859 which looks pretty much like the 1845 map mentioned previously EXCEPT it showed the railroad from Knoxville to Abingdon. The stations in between were New Market, Russellville, Bulls Gap, Rhea Town, Jonesboro and Paperville (near Bristol).

The rivers were also traveling routes and the earliest cities were located along them. The following

appeared in the Daily National Intelligencer [Washington, DC), May 27, 1831: … It is believed the French Broad can be made navigable to Newport, a village upon its banks, less than 100 miles from Saluda Gap. Steamboats may not ascend so high but at that point may be reached by keels… There are reports of local men taking goods by raft or flatboats downstream to Knoxville, but there is no recorded history of any larger boats coming as far up as Newport.

Within the county, there would have been an increasing need for roads from the various areas.

That usually fell to the private citizens to build the roads and to maintain them. Doing so involved right-of-ways through the lands of diverse citizens and agreement, or lack of, was probably a frequent issue. Citizens often had to petition the State Legislature for the necessary approval in regard to

roads. Following are some early petitions from Cocke County: 1819: For Carthy Sehorn to maintain the road from NC to Sevierville; 1826: To build a road from North Carolina; 1829” Peter Davis, William Reynolds and Stephen Huff to have a turnpike charter; 1831: John J. Howell, William Sharp and George W. Allen to have a turnpike charter. 252 persons signed this; 1832: Howell Houston, Stephen Huff, P.J. Davis and James Carson to have a turnpike charter; 1844: Turnpike road built by William P. Gillett, Philip Eisenhower, Ezekiel Birdseye and Jacob Peck; 1847: William Robinson, Stephen Huff and Peter F. Kendrick to build a turnpike road.

A turnpike is a road which is maintained by tolls which are collected a certain points which used to be called tollgates. It is not difficult to imagine the local controversy that could arise from this

Su

e b i r c bs

point B. Because of the fire in 1876, our earliest records start at 1877, but such entries not only name the starting and ending points but also the names of all the property owners along the stretch of road to be maintained. That gives some idea as to the road’s location, but some of the points named are rather vague: ”The spring where the old schoolhouse used to stand”…” the old road across the mountain”… “where Harriet Spurgeon used to live”…”to a double chestnut tree on road from Cosby Creek…”Buckner’s old spring”… “poplar tree on district line.”

Time and circumstances cause routes and roads to be moved. The classical example is the fine new concrete Morristown highway, built in 1932, only to be abandoned in 1943 when Douglas Lake was impounded.

How many have ever heard Hwy. 25/70 called the “old road to Knoxville?”

! y a d to

1 7 1 23-6

6 3 2 4

process. Of course, those in charge could always claim that money was necessary in order to keep the road in good traveling condition. It was also a business venture and profit was (and still is) the goal.

Eventually the counties took over the maintenance of the roads and citizens either had to pay a tax or work a certain number of days on the road crew doing maintenance work.

Roads of course were not paved and constant traffic created ruts, just as rains created mud. Horses and horse-drawn vehicles could do some better on that type of road than the early automobiles. The story is told about one farmer who kept a continual mud hole near his home, making it a source of income for his team of mules to be used to pull the vehicles out of the mud.

The early county records show where a person was named by the county court to oversee the maintenance of a road from point A to

Page 10 •Smoky Mountain Homeplace 2021

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Establishment of infrastructure was vital to the community’s growth

I

n today’s world, rarely a day passes without the mention of a community’s infrastructure. As Cocke County’s economic development and community leaders have established a new industrial park, one of their major concerns is getting modern infrastructure, in the form of streets and highways, water, power, and sewer services, and transportation services, in place in order to attract new industries.

Today Cocke County has all of the above, including I-40, which bisects the county, but, in the world of economic growth, they must be upgraded continuously.

But imagine a community with no infrastructure, not even an unpaved road.

Somewhere, somehow, someone had to be the first to get the ball rolling for Cocke County to grow.

Among the earliest “movers and shakers” was Peter Fine, a Revolutionary War veteran, who settled in the Old Town area and received a license to operate a ferry across the French Broad River, prior to 1800.

Another power person in the early part of the nineteenth century was Major William Chesley Roadman.

Roadman was born in Williamsburg, Virginia on 6 October 1784, a son of John Augustus and Elizabeth (Lightfood) Roadman, and educated at William and Mary College.

On November 12, 1807, he married Sarah (Sally) Muse Sanford, a native of Richmond, Virginia, and the couple later moved first to Jonesboro and eventually to Cocke County.

Here they quickly established themselves as one of the new county’s leading families, acquiring an estate described by Lady Ruth O’Dell as “several thousand acres, which extended from the Oldtown bridge, on the French Broad Rive, to the Pigeon River on the West.”

O’Dell described the Roadman home as “handsome,” stating it was in Oldtown and “designed after the style of his forebears homes in Virginia.” Sadly the home is gone, its exact location now a mystery.

For the rest of his life, Major Roadman concerned himself with all sorts of

activities and projects connected with the growth of the fledgling county.

At Oldtown, he operated a store and later was named postmaster. During the War of 1812, he headed a batallion of Cocke County men who headed south to fight the British, but, again according to O’Dell, “the very day before they reached New Orleans, that great and decisive victory— The Battle of New Orleans—was won.”

Roadman returned to Cocke County. Later he was elected to the Tennessee State Legislature, and later represented Cocke and Sevier Counties in the 1834 Constitutional Convention and still later was a Tennessee delegate from the First Constitutional District to the National Convention that nominated Andrew Jackson for the Presidency.

Roadman and his wife Sally were both extremely well educated and their home became known for hosting dozens of nationally and locally prominent government, business, church, and other leaders, including Andrew Jackson.

Says O’Dell, “Tradition has it that on Jackson’s visits to Major Roadman, they found great pleasure in racing their blooded horses in the vicinity of the latter’s home. (Some claim the race track was located on the site of which the business section of the present Newport is now located).

One of Major Roadman’s business ventures involved a turnpike that ran from Del Rio to Oldtown. Today Cocke County citizens take Highway 25/70 (the Dixie Highway) for granted as they travel from Newport to Del Rio, but such was not the case in the 1830s when Philip Isahower (Eisenhower) and William P. Gillett filed a petition in Cocke County Court seeking permission to build a “bridge access” and to “make a road.”

Filed Monday, April 3, 1837, the petition states The Court this day took the petition [of] Philip Isenhower and William P. Gillett that was filed at the last term of this court which was granted in the words following.

A petition of Philip Isahower and William P. Gillett praying the County of Cocke to grant them the privilege of building a bridge access [across?]

French Broad River above Wm. Faubion’s Mill dam and also to make a road from the bridge to the Meeting House below Stephen Huff’s with all the privileges that is now granted to William P. Gillett by the Legislater [Legislature] the State of Tennessee and the Court now setting. The prayer of said petition being granted your petitioners will ever pray.

The premises of said petition being considered it is hereby allowed that Philip Isahower & William P. Gillett is allowed privilege to build a bridge access French Broad River and also to make a road upon the north bank of said river to where a road will intersect the road below Stephen Huff’s with all the privileges that has been granted to William Gillett by the Legislature and the County Court and for the same term of time and in the same rules and restrictions. Be it further granted that Alfred Lea and Stephen Huff is (sic) appointed commissioners upon Road & Road & Bridge & the rules heretofore prescribed done by a majority of the acting justices of the peace for Cocke County.

Monday, April 3rd, 1837 At a Court of Monthly Sessions opened & held at the Court house in Newport for the County of Cocke on the 1st Monday in April 1837 the following Justices were present: John J. Howel, Jas. Swagerty, Wm. K. Sims, Jno. Kelly, J.R. Fox, A. Mathis This petition was granted and Eisenhower and Gillett were in business, but by 1844, there was a fly in the ointment. An 1844 petition to the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee concerned Roadman’s acquisition of the bridge constructed by Philip Isahower (Eisenhower). The petition states: The undersigned are the proprietors of a Turnpike Road granted by act of Assembly and also by the

DEDICATED SERVICE

County Court of Cocke County to William P. Gillett and Philip Isahower and by Gillett his—for a valuable consideration transferred to Ezekiel Birdseye and Jacob Peck the Road under said charters has been made and extends from the Meeting House near Stephen Huff’s down on the North bank of [the] French Broad River to near Faubion’s Mills crossing the River above his (Faubion’s) Mill dam.

Both Gillett and Eisenhower were leading citizens of Cocke County, their names appearing often in many of the early records.

Birdseye once owned thousands of acres of land in the Del Rio community, and the Pecks lived in the Wolf Creek community, near the TN/NC stateline.

The “Meeting House near Stephen Huff’s” probably refers to what would become Del Rio Baptist Church, and the Faubion Mill is thought to have been in the vicinity of Bridgeport/Parrottsville near the site of Seclusion Bend, the antebellum home of the late Miss Hester Susong.

The undersigned until recently were in the peaceable enjoyment of said property. One of the undersigned, Philip Isahower, at great labor and expense, constructed a Bridge which connects itself with said Road access the river above mentioned.

This the said Isahower expected to enjoy and take to himself the profits.

In addition to his labor and expense, Isahower procured from William C. Roadman of Newport the right of passing through a small part of an Island and –ing as an abutment the lands of said Roadman and for this he had to pay said Roadman.

Said Isahower in the Construction of these works, which are a great benefit to the community, became involved and about May 1842 had got from said Roadman the loan or advance of money and gave to said Roadman a deed of Trust on said bridge for a small sum compared to its value.

This was but a mortgage at most, but said Roadman obtained the possession of said Bridge and has taken of the profits more then sufficient to pay him for any advanve he has

ever made to Isahower on that account. This whole subject as far as Isahower is concerned is the court of Chancery for adjudication by that tribunal.

To the utter surprise of the undersigned through the medium of the newspapers the undersigned discover that to strengthen his hold upon the property said Roadman has besought the Legislature to grant him a charter, not only for the bridge, but as we learn, for portion at (illegible) of the road of the undersigned and to three miles west on another road laid opened and kept in repair by order of the County Court. It would not be difficult to show in the whole affair that it has been the steady and aid of said Roadman most unjustly to appropriate to himself what has been achieved at the labor and expense of others.

What action the Legislature has taken in favor of said Roadman[‘s] application, the undersigned are not informed. They hope if any act of Assembly has grown out of it, that the same may be forthwith repealed. They impute no blame to the Legislature as they must have acted without all the lights on the subject. Your Honerable (sic) Body will see at a single glance that a law perperting[?] to grant rights and privileges under such circumstances would be unconstitutional as it would be taking from one man his right and giving it to another.

Your petitioners pray that in the sequel your Honorable Body will leave this whole subject where they first found it and let the courts of Justice where the subject properly belongs settle the whole matter between William C. Roadman on the one side and the undersigned upon the other.

Signed Philip Isenhower Ezekiel Birdseye Jacob Peck However, another group of men submitted a follow-up petition asking the state not to grant “any further charter to the above named men (Isenhower, Birdseye, and Peck), claiming “the road is now made and in good order.”

Their petition reads The undersigned are informed that a petition

is pending before your Honorable Body for a Tennessee charter from this village up the south side of French Broad River to a Bridge in pessission (possession) of William C. Roadman and Mess.

Foubeans (Faubion) and up on the north side of French Broad River to a meeting house at Stephen Huff’s.

The undersigned would respectfully demonstrate against the granting [several illegible words] any further charter to the above named men as the road is now made and in good order from the town to the Bridge and from near the Bridge on the north side of sd River to the meeting house near Stephen Huff’s. The Road is now in good order and a charter for the [illegible] owned by Jacob Peck, Ezekiel Birdseye, and Philip Isenhower and in no way belonging to the said Roadman or Faubions. That they bought the Bridge well knowing all there [their] facts and have often tole [told] at the [illegible] by authority granted by the county court and at a great profit on their investment and they any further grant to them would be a public and private injury.

Signed Jno. Stuart, W.C. Storey, Wm Carter, J.B. Weaver, Stephen Fox, Charles Stokely, N.H. Stokely, Wm Robinson, James [illegible], Edmund Hickson, John Stokely, Abijah Fowler, J.P. Shulas [Shields?], William Jack, Anderson McMahon, A. Fine, Jas. McSween, P.F. Kindrack (Kendrick), Allen McMahan These signatures represent men from different parts of the county. For example, William Carter’s holdings lay alongside the French Broad River now incorporated into Douglas Lake alongside Hwy. 25E, William Jack’s plantation stretched from today’s Food City West area to Stokely’s Chapel Baptist Church, the Kendricks lived at Old Town, and the Stokelys resided in Del Rio. Sadly the outcome of this lawsuit has been lost to history, at least for the time being, but this story once again illustrates the growing pains a community must undergo in order to develop and prosper.

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Smoky Mountain Homeplace 2021 • Page 11

SUBMITTED

In 1867, after several efforts, railroad service finally arrived in Cocke County. This photo, taken in the early 1900s, shows one of the early steam engines.

The coming of the railroad to Cocke County

BY EDDIE WALKER

George Stephenson is credited with perfecting the design of a railroad in England. It was 1822 when the first railroad operated there on steam power, not animal power. The first chartered railroad in the United States was the Baltimore and Ohio.

Construction was begun on July 4, 1828, when the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll, age 91, turned the first shovelful of dirt.

Also in 1828, Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey of Knoxville began advocating for a railroad from South Carolina to Tennessee in order to give this area access to the east coast. A letter from Secretary of War Lewis Cass published in the Knoxville Republican, December 12, 1832 made this statement: Col. Long having completed the survey of Frenchbroad and Holston rivers…has been ordered to proceed as soon as practicable…in the survey of the railroad route from Colombia, S.C. to the mouth of the Nolachucky in Tennessee. That survey would have come through Cocke County, as that river forms the northern boundary of the county.

In 1831 the Tennessee Legislature had issued six charters to railroad companies, one of which was the Knoxville and Southern.

Most of these companies never functioned because of a shortage of funds.

A convention was held in Knoxville in July 1836 with delegates from Georgia, the Carolinas, Kentucky and Tennessee to discuss government supported railroad projects. While party politics was never mentioned (Surprise! Surprise!), the majority agreed on a plan connecting Charleston, SC to Knoxville via of the southeastern corner of North Carolina along the French Broad River (again right through Cocke County!). The Georgians opposed this plan and decided to build their own, the Atlanta to Chattanooga Railroad.

The first railroad in Tennessee was the LaGrange to Memphis line of 4.5 miles which functioned briefly in 1842. Other railroad companies, such as the Nashville to Chattanooga line, developed over the next year. Some were more successful than others. Existing newspaper articles indicate that from 1840 to 1860, railroad activity was also a political

SUBMITTED

An 1872 invoice from the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston Railroad signed by Depot Agent D. Ward Stuart.

and sectional hotbed fraught with clashes of ambitions and wills.

The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad began in 1849 to the goal of connecting Dalton, GA and Knoxville. By 1852 the tracks had gone as far as what is now Loudon. The first train arrived in Knoxville on June 22, 1855. In reporting the event, the Knoxville Register mentioned the irony of the fact that the train was carrying the corpse of Charles Hector Coffin, one of the early supporters of the

railroad. (His descendants today own Coffin Shoes in Knoxville.)

Work then began to extend the line from Knoxville to Bristol. One crew started in Knoxville and another in Bristol. The crews met two miles west of Mosheim in Greene County on May 14, 1858. The area is still known as “Midway.” The line had reached Greeneville on March 20, 1858, and had reached Morristown by July 1, 1857, as reported in a description of Morristown in the Daily Nashville Pa-

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triot: It is immediately on the line of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and is made a point of the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston Railroad, a portion of which has already been graded and is now under auspicious movement. When this line was completed, there was a direct railroad route from New

York City to Memphis.

At this point, something should be said about constructing the various railroad lines. Every attempt was made to follow “a path of least resistance.” Rightof-ways had to be secured, and it was reported that the railroads often employed “strong arm techniques” to force property owners into

agreement. At a last resort the railroads would proceed with imminent domain condemnation suits. (The Burnetts in Del Rio were so embroiled for several years.)

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human body could not withstand speeds of 16-18 miles per hour and various ailments would occur.

Cocke County was not on the above line and there were those citizens who could envision the economic impact that a railroad line would have. General A.E. Smith was the leader of this movement. The Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston Railroad was chartered November 18, 1853, for a railroad from Cumberland Gap to Paint Rock, NC with an intermediate point at Morristown. Construction work started November 15, 1855. Mrs. O’Dell in her book gives a list of the local stockholders in the C, CG and C Railroad, dated May 15, 1857, but it was noted that they eventually lost most of their investment when the road went into receivership of William and Robert McFarland who sold the company’s interest.

From the Republican Banner (Nashville), December 2, 1857, is a report of a meeting held in Newport on November 18-19, 1857, between the President and Directors of the Greenville and French Broad Railroad Company and the President of the C, CG and C Railroad Company.

These Carolina men recommended that the C, CG and C increase their subscriptions of stock (a/k/a raise more money) so as to insure the completion of the line. The G and FB Railroad group promised that as soon as the C, CG and C began work on the line from Morristown to Paint Rock, they would begin work at Paint Rock and proceed “up the river” with their line. There are many references in the North Carolina and Tennessee newspapers concerning railroad activity.

All of this came to a halt with the onset of the Civil War. Much of the railroad properties in East Tennessee were damaged by the war.

In The Report of the President of the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston Railroad dated 1867, he reported that by the spring of 1862 by bed from Morristown to the French Broad was completed and ready for rails, the masonry for the bridge over French Broad was completed, the bed from French Broad to Pigeon “was ready for iron,” and a large amount of the masonry work was done beyond Pigeon toward North Carolina. Due to the circumstances of war, the Board of Directors voted to suspend work on June 12, 1862.

No work was attempted until 1866. Because of war, flooding and weather much of the work which

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This is actually a picture of the Copper Creek Trestle in Scott County, VA, but Mrs. W.O. Mims wrote that the trestle across the river in Eastport was first built of pine poles like this one.

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“Old Buncombe” was later renamed “Governor Senter.” It was the first locomotive to come to Cocke County.

had been done had to be redone.

The line from French Broad to Pigeon River, near Newport, a distance of about ten miles, had been thoroughly repaired and the grading finished, ready for the

timbers, when the freshet of March 1867 took much of it away.

Crews got right back on the job and a news item in the Knoxville Daily Herald, November 1, 1867 stated that the bridge over French

Broad [Leadvale] was complete and the first cars had crossed it on October 25th, and the crews were laying one-half mile of track per day. This appeared in Nashville’s Republican Banner, December 6, 1867: The Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston Railroad is progressing very favorably. The track is laid about nineteen miles and will be completed to Newport

by Christmas when track laying will cease for a season. The workers evidently met the schedule for Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, published in 1887, noted that the railroad was completed to “what is now known as Newport” on December 24, 1867.

Work began in 1868 and continued eastward. This was in the Memphis Daily Appeal, August 11, 1868: Knoxville Press and Herald says that the Cincinnati, Cumberland Gap and Charleston Railroad is now completed to Big Creek, thirty-four miles from Morristown and fifteen from Warm Springs and passenger trains will run daily on and after the 10th.

Dr. Edmund C. Burnett chronicled

the event in “The Railroad Comes to Big Creek.” He puts the date as around August 5th, as he was an eyewitness to the excitement of the day.

The Tennessean [Nashville], September 16, 1868, reported that the C, CG and C was completed with two or three miles of the North Carolina line. That would have been Wolf Creek. Knoxville Daily Press and Herald, December 9, 1868, noted that trains would run from Morristown to Wolf Creek on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then the passengers could connect with the stage line.

The final phase of the railroad from Wolf Creek to Paint Rock would not be completed until February 1882. It had been over fifty years since Dr. Ramsey had shared his vision of rail travel, and he had lived to see it happen.

(P.S Here are two bits of local railroad trivia. The end of the steam engine came with the arrival of the first diesel engine in Newport on June 18, 1947. The last scheduled passenger train was December 5, 1968.)

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Crossing the river at a ford

BY EDDIE WALKER A ford is a shallow spot where a stream may be crossed on foot or a vehicle. Such spots can occur naturally or they can be constructed by filling the spots with rocks. The banks on either side had to be level enough for access into the stream. Of course, in times of high water, these places will be impassable.

In the first half of the 20th century, dams on all our rivers have affected the water levels from earlier times, just as the construction of I-40 did the Pigeon River.

In Cocke County, the most noted ford would be the WAR FORD on the Pigeon River behind the courthouse annex. The present Warford Road takes its name from this spot. Most of the time it is easy to see the shallowness of the river there. The late Mrs. Mary Holder Vinson grew up on the site now used for annex parking.

She told that the water was usually only waist-deep when they crossed the river as children.

What most do not know is the fact that there were evidently two War Fords.

Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey (17971884) in The Annals of Tennessee, published in 1853, told the story of General John Sevier’s campaign to drive the Indians away from the white settlements. In the summer of 1781 Sevier raised a company of 100 men from the Watauga area and marched south …crossing the Nollichucky [sic] and proceeded south of that river to what has since been known as the War Ford, near the present town of New Port.

Crossing the French Broad at that place, and also Big Pigeon at the War Ford, he fell unexpectedly upon the trail of the Indians, surrounded their camp, and by sudden fire killed seventeen of them. (In 1853, New Port was on the

French Broad River.)

The above is not difficult to understand, but Dr. Ramsey wrote this about a later campaign led by Col. George Doherty and Col. Robert McFarland in August 1793: They were out on this campaign four weeks, and reached the white settlements twelve miles above the War Ford on French Broad, New Port. Where were the settlements — at New Port or twelve miles above New Port?

It might be appropriate to insert this bit of lore. The late Allen Thomas grew up in Jefferson County not far from the present Elswick Motel on Hwy. 25/70. He said that about a half mile from his home was a place on the French Broad River called the “Indian Walk” where there were enough rocks to cross the river, placed there by the Indians.

This area would have been about twelve miles down the river from “Old New Port.” Could there be a connection with this point and the above story?

Mr. Thomas said that the Indian Walk was obliterated when the lake was built in 1942, but “Indian Walk Shoals” are still placed on the Google map.

Dr. Ramsey also told of a journey made in August 1783 by his father Col. F.A. Ramsey, Col. Robert Love and General James White (the founder of Knoxville) into this area to locate land warrants. These warrants had been issued by the State of North Carolina for persons could take ownership of vacant or unclaimed land. Many Revolutionary War veterans were compensated for their service in this way. This expedition ”crossed the French Broad at the War Ford. There were but few inhabitants then south of Chucky. At the mouth of Pigeon, Mr. [John] Gilliland had corn growing but no cabin had been erected there.”

Frank Cooper grew up

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The War Ford behind the Courthouse Annex.

in Oldtown and he recalls horses being ridden across the river at the island which is just below the present Valentine Bridge.

He also remembered that when there were baptisms, the preacher had to walk pretty far out into the river for the water to be deep enough. Perhaps this was the War Ford on the French Broad.

The fact remains that at some point travelers had to get across the rivers and streams, and they did not worry about getting their feet wet! Crossing most SEE FORD ON PAGE 14

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This photo was taken of the Palisades near the War Ford behind the present day County Annex.

FORD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

creeks would not be such a problem, but crossing a river would be better if on horseback or in a wagon.

Horses are natural swimmers, so a horse can safely carry a rider across deep water if the stream isn’t extremely wide.

French Broad is a wider and deeper river than Pigeon, so there were probably more fording sites on Pigeon.

An 1890 map shows a ford across French Broad River in Dutch Bottoms directly west from where Rankin Hill Road meets Hwy. 25/70. The river bed is about 1/2 mile west from the present highway.

In the pre-bridge days, if you were coming into Newport from the north, you would cross the river at the War Ford. Coming from the east would require crossing at Swaggerty’s Ford, which was about where the present Fisher Bridge crosses Pigeon River in Eastport. In the Morristown Gazette, January 11, 1893, it was reported that the Cocke County Quarterly Court had voted to build a bridge at “Swaggerty’s Ford.” The Swaggerty family owned the property of the east side of the river, which included present day Broad Acres and Irish Cut. The Swaggerty home is now known as the “Dr. Ford Place.”

At the Newport City Park Smith Street becomes Rankin Road, but now one cannot get to Rankin by that way. When you could, you crossed Pigeon River near the forks of the river on the Deep Ford Bridge.

An 1895 map shows a ford at that point. The Deep Ford Bridge has been gone about 60 years.

In the early records of the County Court, which had been published by Bruce Price, references to

various other fords can be found: Nolichucky River: Sherman/Shaman/Shannon ford; B.D. Talley ford; Cam’s ford; Harper’s ford; Cain’s ford; Wilson’s ford.

Big Pigeon River: Kelley ford; Baptist McNabb ford (at mouth of Cosby Creek); Gray’s ford (also known as the Foreman ford); Rutherford’s ford; Daniel Price’s ford; Ford at the mouth of Groundhog (Bluffton) French Broad River: Frank Clark ford; White Moore ford; ford opposite Allen’s mill Local folks have remembered other spots where Pigeon River could be forded: - The Grahams have farmed much of the river frontage from Richland Park all the way to the mouth of the river since 1970. Jay Graham said there are probably several places where the river could be forded. He recalls one spot where they drove a truck across the river.

- Duay O’Neil says that at Edwina there is a spot at Edwina across from the site of the old William Wood homeplace where it is possible to ford. Attorney Bill Leibrock concurs.

He recalls when his family drove some cattle across the river there. Of course, he said that was only possible at times, certainly not when water had been released at Waterville.

- Mrs. Betty Vinson Lenderman was reared at Pleasant Grove and she said they could wade across the river most of the time to their island where they sometimes raised watermelons. She did not say about the opposite side of the island.

- Keith Bundy remembers that they often walked across the rocks in the river from their farm on Green Road at Greasy Cove to go to Denton to the store.

- Mike Ogle thinks that perhaps there was a spot near the Bluffton Bridge

shallow enough to ford and his wife Karen says the same about a spot

below the present bridge at Hartford.

Other persons who are

familiar with the rivers may know of other spots where people forded in

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1895 topographical map showing the ford on French Broad River at Dutch Bottoms.

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times past, but aren’t we grateful today for bridges?

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Smoky Mountain Homeplace 2021 • Page 15

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This picture of the ferry across Nolichucky River was found on a Lowland community site.

Crossing the river on a ferry

BY EDDIE WALKER A ferry is a commercial vessel, such as a raft or boat, used to carry, passengers, cargo or vehicles across a body of water.

Stories of these go as far back into history as Greek mythology where souls were ferried across the River Styx to the underworld. Ferries have been established whenever and wherever it was necessary for people to cross where the stream was too deep to wade or ford.

Cocke County’s first ferry of record would have been that of Major Peter Fine (1753-1826) on the French Broad River. An internet source says that Fine’s Ferry was licensed in Jefferson County, but this ferry pre-dated the county.

The legislative act which created Jefferson County was dated June 11, 1792, and mention of its northern boundary included the phrase “…from the starting point to Peter Fine’s ferry on French Broad river…”

Mrs. O’Dell said that the ferry was located on the river at what was later the George I. Thomas place.

Today that property is owned by the Tunney Moore family and is on Rock Hill Road.

Cocke County was established on October 9, 1797, and its first county court was held on November 27, 1797, on the Big Pigeon River. There was dissension over where the county seat might be, which was not settled until John Gilliland donated fifty acres to the county for its seat on October 23, 1799. It has been recorded that Newport (or New Port as it was first called) was established “at Fine’s Ferry,” but the

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Hodges Ferry on French Broad River between Sevier and Knox counties as shared by Billie McNamara.

county seat was actually about a mile downstream.

(It should be noted that the dissension of the location of the county seat continued, off and on, for the next 85+ years.)

An article on the diary of Dr. William McLean was published in the Charlotte Observer, July 8, 1934. The diary told about McLean’s trip to Middle Tennessee in 1811. He

wrote that he ”ferried the river at Fine’s ferry, opposite Newport, the village of Cocke county.”

Ferries could be public or private enterprises, but either had to be licensed

by the counties. With our courthouse having burned, there are no records about our early ferries, but a comparison could be found in a newsletter of the Smoky Mountain

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This 1872 engraving by Harry Fenn was entitled “A Ferry on the French Broad” and was published in Picturesque America. Most likely it was at a crossing in Buncombe County.

FERRY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

a ferry” on French Broad River at the mouth of Dumplin Creek. (That is now Sevier County.) In the court records are listed the ferry charges (in cents): single person 6 1/4, single horse 6 1/2, person & horse 12 1/2, cattle and hogs 4 (each), sheep 2, cart and horse 25, 2 horse cart 37 1/2, 4-5 horse wagon $1, 4-5 horse carriage 75, sulky or gig 50.

Dr. Edmund C. Burnett described the ferry at Del Rio in 1946 in Agricultural History: In the beginning there was no wire cable stretched from bank to bank, although according to my recollection it was installed quite early.

Before the installation of the cable, or when it was down, as happened every now and then, the boat was propelled by poles. When the river was low, two men could easily manage the boat, although a certain skill was requisite to keep it at the proper angle. With the cable installed, the boat was pulled across the river by hand. With the river low and the load light, one might be able to manage the boat, but if the current were strong and the load heavy, it was as much as two men could accomplish, and usually there were three pairs of hands

pulling hand over hand on the cable. No doubt, it was similar for all the ferries.

In reviewing facts, streams have to be crossed.

A ferry could be a commercial venture. There have always been persons looking for a way to make money. Therefore, ferries were established when a need and an opportunity were recognized. In actuality, establishing a ferry did not require a lot of capital.

Once a ferry was built (and some of the pictures show them to have often been rather crude), just strength and willingness to take the loads across were needed. It is unfortunate that all ferries in our county cannot be documented, but research has provided information some located here and some in adjoining counties that served Cocke County. In addition to Fine’s Ferry, here are some others: HOLLAND FERRY - Law officers pursuing a fugitive pursued him ”to Holland’s Ferry on the French Broad” (Wilson’s Knoxville Gazette, July 27, 1808). This would have been in the vicinity of the present Wolf Creek Bridge on Hwy. 25/70. There were references to Holland’s Ferry in Knoxville papers in 1834 and 1836.

CURETON FERRY - Methodist Bishop Francis recorded in his journal, November 6, 1800, “Crossed Nola-

chucky at Cureton’s Ferry.”

This ferry was actually in Greene County near Warrrensburg, but it ferried travelers across the river to Cocke County. It was operated by Richard Cureton, an ancestor of our local Cureton family.

SHINE FERRY - Bishop Asbury wrote in his journal that on November 2, 1802, ”We rode through Newport, the capital of Cocke County, forded French Broad at Shine’s ferry…” Historian Samuel Cole Williams wrote that it was John Shine who operated this ferry and that Shine’s daughter Eleanor was the mother of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut.

This information raises some questions. Was Shine in competition with Peter Fine?

CONWAY FERRY - This ferry was located on the Nolichucky in the Briar Thicket community.

It was operated by the C.T.P. Conway family and had been started in the 1850’s just as a raft and then a more substantial vessel was built. Catherine (Conway) Sawyer (18551943) told that she could operate the ferry by herself when she was 17. The ferry continued until the present bridge was built in 1924.

ROADMAN FERRY - An ad in the Knoxville Register, March 4, 1835, from W.C. Roadman seeking bids to build a bridge mentions ”near my ferry

landing on French Broad at Newport.” In the county court minutes on July 7, 1877, reference is made of ”the ferry at old Newport,” and on January 1, 1880, ”for more than fifty years there has been a public ferry kept on French Broad River at the town of Newport.” According an article in Knoxville Daily Chronicle, March 8, 1882, there was still a ferry in Oldtown. George Nelson, a horse thief, was being pursued and ”Officer Hicks…came upon him…at the ferry at Old Town near Newport, Cocke county.”

No information as to who might have operated this ferry. (Evidently Mr. Roadman never built his bridge or perhaps it had been washed away.)

HARRISON FERRY - This ferry was actually in Jefferson County, but it carried passengers across the French Broad to Dutch Bottoms in Cocke County. It was in operation by 1883 (Morristown Gazette, 28 March 1883) by the family of James R. Harrison (1826-1913) who operated it probably until Walters Bridge was built in 1932. The name is memorialized in the community of Baneberry.

INMAN FERRY - This ferry was on Nolichucky.

No information has surfaced as to who operated this ferry. In April 1910 Hamblen County voted to pay half the cost of erect-

ing a steel bridge at that site. (Knoxville Journal and Tribune, April 6, 1910). A steel bridge was eventually built, but it was replaced by the present David T. Jones Bridge.

DEL RIO FERRY - After the Del Rio Bridge went down in the flood of 1916, Joe Burnett operated a ferry until the bridge could be put back in service.

SOLOMON FERRY - This ferry crossed the Nolichucky in the Point Pleasant community over to White Pine., on which side is Leeper’s Ferry Road. Did the ferry go by two names or were there different ferries? According to the Morristown Gazette Solomon Ferry was in operation by 1910 and ceased in 1942 when Douglas Lake was built. In 1943 a bridge was erected upstream, on the Hamblen County side at the farm of C.T. Hale and on the Cocke County side at that of R.H. Inman.

Y.E. BROOKS FERRY - The county court minutes, May 7, 1877, mention the Y.E. Brooks Ferry on the Parrottsville Road. Young Elijah Brooks (1822-1885) lived near Bridgeport, so that ferry would have been on the French Broad River possibly short distance upstream from the Huff Island.

HIGHTOWER FERRY - On April 2, 1877, Allen Hightower applied

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to “reestablish an ancient ferry on Pigeon a short distance below the war ford at Newport.” There seems to be a legal issue with the A.E. Smith heirs who owned the property on the north side of the river. Mr. H.H. Gouchenour told a story that his mother was trying to get to Newport to catch the train. Mr. Hightower would not take her across because the river was high. Mr. Gouchenour’s mother just went upstream, plunged her horse into the current and safely crossed the river. It is my supposition that this ferry was near the present Walgreen’s. The north side of the river would not have allowed for an entrance until about this point.

Farther up Pigeon River at Edwina AUNT BETSY WOOD had a boat or canoe in which she ferried passengers across the river. On the east side there was bell to be rung if someone needed the boat brought across. Mike Ogle recalls having heard that there was a raft a Bluffton before there was a bridge.

There must have been others as the Morristown Gazette, January 22, 1879, reprinted an article from the Newport Sentinel: Nearly every ferry boat along Pigeon and French Broad rivers was swept away by the recent high waters. Perhaps more information about the local ferries will come to light.

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John William ‘J.W.’ Rice remembered for ice and coal business [The following sketch about the life of John William Rice, one of Newport’s earliest African-American businessmen, was written in 2000 for the Newport Plain Talk as part of a series of articles entitled Cocke County Citizens of the Century.]

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ohn William Rice, more commonly known as Will Rice, was born in Yancey County, NC on November 25, 1867. When he was seven years old, he and his mother walked from Yancey County to Cocke County, eventually settling in the Dutch Bottoms.

By the time that Rice was seventeen, he had earned enough money to put himself through Morristown Normal School (later Morristown College). He taught school for several years, then went into business for himself.

His first ventures were agricultural. He did plowing and raised corn, sweet potatoes and strawberries.

He had a drayage and hauling service.

Rice had a brickyard located on Cosby Highway on the former Pit Stop (at the corner of Hedrick Drive).

There he manufactured brick, cement block, and tile. His company made the brick for the 1924 addition to Newport Grammar School. Rice also erected some buildings for rental purposes. The present quarters of The Newport Plain Talk were built from his bricks, and just up the street the former home of Tennessee Tire, which burned, was built from his concrete blocks.

However, it is the ice and coal business for which Rice is best remembered. He first was in the ice business in his early years when the ice came from Morristown by train and he delivered it to his customers in a wheelbarrow.

This business grew to where he was delivering with a horse and wagon. For several years, Rice was involved in

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Born shortly after the Civil War, by the early part of the 1900s, J.W. Rice was a leading Newport businessman. His interests included bricks, ice, and coal.

other pursuits and was not in the ice business, but about 1930, he purchased the Robinson ice business in downtown Newport.

The ice plant was located on what is now McMahan Avenue about where the Belton Hearing Aid business is now.

The ice plant produced about 18 tons of ice weekly and they had six or seven delivery trucks going all through the county. Adjacent to the ice plant was the coal yard and wood yard. The coal was brought here by train and two of Rice’s biggest customers were Stokely Brothers and the Tannery. He sold about 300 cords of wood each year.

Mr. Rice and his wife, the former Parolee Cochraham, were both active in their respective churches. He was a deacon in the Macedonia Baptist Church on White Oak Avenue and she was an elder in the Rice Presbyterian Church in Jaybird. Mrs. Rice was a teacher in the Negro

schools for fifty years.

The Rices were the parents of six children: Ted, who remained here in Newport and continued the family coal business; Ralph and Neil, both of whom worked for Ford Motor Company in Michigan; Claude, who died at age 2; and Mabel Rice Beard and Hazel Rice Anderson, both of whom became teachers.

The Rice home was located on the site of Annunciation Episcopal Church on Hwy. 321, across from the Newport Post Office. They had a coal yard on the site of the post office.

J.W. Rice died on November 25, 1952. He was a selfmade man, one who combined foresight, initiative, and hard work in order to reach his goals. He is remembered still by his friends and customers, both black and white, as a real gentleman, a successful businessman, and an upstanding citizens.

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Crossing Over The River On Bridges

BY EDDIE WALKER There is no question that crossing a stream on a bridge is far easier than having to ford or take a ferry, but building a bridge is a far more involved and complicated process.

Bridges have been around a long time. The Chinese are known to have built bridges prior to 2900 BC. The oldest existing bridge in the world is thought to be the Arkadiko Bridge in Greece which was built about 1200BC and is still usable. The oldest bridge in the United States is the Frankfort Avenue Bridge in northeast Philadelphia. It was built in 1697 and is still in use.

Bridge building is an engineering operation which involves consideration of certain factors: (1) the obstacle to be crossed, i.e. a stream or gully, (2) the distance to be spanned, (3) the

load-bearing conditions, (4) necessary materials, (5) depth, base and speed of a stream. These factors will determine which of the several different types of bridge to build.

In the lore of the Faubion family is the story that Jacob (The Dutchman) Faubion (1751-1827) was responsible for the construction of the first bridge in Cocke County on the French Broad River at the place that became known as “Bridgeport.” (Imagine that!) In the 1870’s a traveler mentioned going thru Bridgeport on the train but noted “there was no bridge.” Evidently something had happened to the Faubion bridge.

There is no record to indicate if and when a bridge was built on Pigeon River.

There was still a ferry at Oldtown in 1882 and Allen SEE BRIDGE ON PAGE 19

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Smoky Mountain Homeplace 2021 • Page 19

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This is an example of a Howe Truss single span bridge. This bridge is used by the railroad to carry cargo into and out of Newport. The photo was taken by Calvin Sneed in August 2008.

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Hightower sought to reestablish a ferry on Pigeon River across from the Depot in 1877. It would seem that a ferry wouldn’t be a financially viable venture if there was a bridge nearby.

Using a bridge would be quicker and cheaper (if it wasn’t a toll bridge).

There are numerous bridges crossing the streams and gullies of Cocke County. Some have been built by the county and state, others by the individual property owners.

This article will only deal with information found on the river bridges.

FRENCH BROAD RIVER JAMES M. WALTERS (Dutch Bottoms): This bridge was built in 1932 and was named for Rev. Walters whose boyhood home had been nearby. His son was Herbert S. Walters for whom Walters State was named. When Douglas Lake was impounded in 1943, this bridge was raised and access ramps added. It was a two-lane, steel truss bridge, but many readers will recall that they were narrow lanes. The original bridge was demolished in 2017 after the present

bridge was built.

RANKIN: The Newport Plain Talk, January 4, 1912, reported that $12,000 had been appropriated to build at Rankin with Tom Clark and E.B. Miller to be superintendents. In July a complaint was raised that the new bridge was “a mile away” from the village. This bridge rebuilt in 1921 and then was raised when Douglas Lake was impounded in 1943 and the village of Rankin was basically obliterated. The present bridge was finished in 1981, but much of the old bridge still stands nearby.

F.M. VALENTINE (OLDTOWN): There is no record how long the Roadman bridge might have lasted.

There was a ferry there in 1882. There was a bridge there by 1896. The Knoxville Sentinel, April 16, 1896, reported that recent high water had undermined one of the piers and two spans fell into the river. A new bridge was built in 1902 after the bridge was knocked down by the flood in February. The bridge committee was S.A. Burnett, J.A. Boyer and W.B. Robinson. This bridge had to be rebuilt after the flood of July 1916. The site of the earlier bridges is slightly upstream from the present bridge which

was opened in 1975. Dr. Valentine was a long-time physician in Newport.

JAMES T. HUFF (BRIDGEPORT): The Knoxville Sentinel, July 28, 1902, reported that Mortis Cope was the contractor to build a bridge at Bridgeport “where there had never been one before.” The bridge committee was J.W. Brooks, J.B. Susong, and T.N. Huff. This would be unique because the bridge was to be built on steel cylinders rather than stone piers.

Although damaged by the 1916 flood, this bridge was still in use into the 1970’s.

However1/10 mile upstream was the Major James T. Huff Bridge which was erected in 1933. It was replaced by the present bridge which opened in 2010; the name was carried to the new bridge.

Major Huff was a Confederate officer whose home was nearby.

W.M. JONES (DEL RIO): There possibly was a bridge at Del Rio before 1903.

The Knoxville Sentinel, January 8, 1903, reported that the “new bridge lacks only the flooring.” The bridge committee was M.N. Stokely, J.A. Jones and S.L. Burnett. The flood of 1902 may have damaged an existing bridge. The 1903 bridge fell to the flood waters on SEE BRIDGE ON PAGE 20

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The original Major James T. Huff Bridge photographed by Mary Hartman during the construction of the present bridge.

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July 16, 1916. It was rebuilt and was used until the present bridge was opened on October 28, 1970. The new bridge crossed Jones property and W.M. Jones’ son, Tom Burnett Jones, was the first citizen to cross the newly completed bridge.

MICHAEL G. GIBBS (WOLF CREEK): This bridge was completed in February 1928, at a cost of $119,000. It was rebuilt 2013-2014 at a cost of $8.7 million. Michael (Mickey) Gibbs was a native of Del Rio and was killed in Vietnam in 1967 NOLICHUCKY RIVER JONES (Lowland): The Morristown Republican,

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October 14, 1910, reported that a steel bridge would be built at Inman’s Ferry and financed jointly by Cocke and Hamblen counties. It was named in honor of R.M. Jones whose home was nearby. This bridge on Hwy. 160 was replaced in 1948.

The present bridge was named for David T. Jones, son of R.M. Jones.

CONWAY (Briar Thicket): The Conway bridge was built about 1925 and was named for the C.P.T. Conway who lived nearby and had operated a ferry at that site for many years. On Briar Thicket Road, it is the oldest exiting river bridge in the county. The construction of the Nolichucky Dam in Greene County in 1913 and the changes in water levels impeded the operation

of the ferry to the extent that a bridge was deemed necessary. Conway Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

HALE (Inman Bend): Because the impoundment of Douglas Lake had necessitated the end of the Solomon Ferry, it was felt that a bridge was needed at this point. The first bridge was erected in 1943 and was a structure removed from Holston River by TVA when Cherokee Lake was impounded. The Hamblen County end of the bridge was at the farm of C.T. Hale and the Cocke County side was on the property of R.H. Inman. This has also been known as the Inman Bend Bridge. The present bridge was built in 1990.

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This photo shows the original J.M. Walters Bridge before it was demolished in 2016.

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