Cocke County’s history goes back to late 1700s

When Cocke County was formally established in 1797, settlers had already carved out homes and farms here twenty years or so earlier.

Native Americans, of course, were the first human residents of the area. Proof of their residency continues to surface in the form of arrowheads and bits of pottery when springtime plowing is done.

Although it has not been proven, circumstantial evidence indicates that Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto and his party passed through here.

White trappers and hunters definitely began making their way into this wilderness by the mid-eighteenth century. By the 1770s and 1780s, more and more pioneers moved here, trickling down from the Upper Watauga community and across the mountains from North and South Carolina.

Quite naturally the earliest settlements sprouted along the three

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WednesdayNight BibleStudy ~6:00pm rivers — Nolichucky, French Broad, and Pigeon — which flow through the county. With these settlers came the need for protection against the occasional Indian attacks. Several forts, including Bell’s Station, Whitson’s, Huff’s, Wood’s, McKay’s, and Swagerty’s, were erected as safe havens for the citizens. Today Swagerty Fort, which stands alongside Old Hwy. 321 north of Parrottsville, is the only such fort remaining.

Legend accords John Gilliland the honor of planting the first corn crop in the county “at the mouth of the Big Pigeon River.” Gilliland is also credited with donating fifty acres of land, in what we now call Old Town, for the establishment of a county seat.

For close to a century, Old Town was the county’s hub of activity. Here were the courthouse, the jail, Peter Fine’s ferry, a hotel or two, and a few other early businesses, such as Rankin & Pulliam’s store.

Today the Gilliland-Cameron-O’Dell house is the only remaining original structure in Old Town. The other reminder of Old Town’s prominence is the Roadman Cemetery, high on the Parrottsville side of the river, which overlooks the area. Here lie such early leaders as Peter Fine, Edom Kendrick, and William Roadman.

Those hardy souls brought a deep faith in God with them when they moved into this area. In 1787, nine years before Tennessee was admitted to the Union and ten years before the formal

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