Roane County TN Archives History - Books .....Kingston And The County 1927
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com November 5, 2005, 10:51 am

Book Title: The History Of Roane County Tennessee 1801-1870

KINGSTON AND THE COUNTY



     A Fort at South West Point was established in 1792 and Gen. John Sevier was

stationed there in November by William Blount, Governor of the Territory of the

United States South of the Ohio. Gen. John Sevier gave the station its name,

South West Point. United States Troops were quartered there until 1817 to

prevent incursions from Cherokee Indians into the settlement, when the garrison

was moved to a point on the right bank of the Tennessee River, near Washington,

Tenn.



     October 23, 1799, the Tennessee Legislature passed an act for the

establishment of a town, to be known as Kingston, on lands owned by Major Robert

King. David Miller, Alexander Carmichael, George Preston, John Smith T., William

Lovely, Meriwether Smith and Thomas N. Clark, were appointed commissioners. The

act of the Legislature establishing Roane County was passed November 1, 1801.

The county at that time extended from Anderson and Knox Counties to the southern

boundary of the State, but did not include any territory south of the Holston

and Tennessee Rivers.



     For Military and Civil purposes the County was divided into six companies

commanded by: Thomas Coulter, Richard Oliver, Gray Sims, George Ingram, John

Walker, and Hugh Francis.



     It is believed that all of these men served in the Revolution. Service of

most of them is proved.



     In 1802 the population of the county included 275 whites and 137 blacks.

Only eight of the whites were unable to write.



    Hugh Beatty and John Stone operated Cotton Gins. Mathew Nelson opened a

Tavern in 1808. Henry Liggett was a hatter and lived where the Dixie Hotel is now.



    Sam Houston, afterwards Governor of Tennessee and Texas, was a clerk in a

store in Kingston when he enlisted in the Creek War.



     The Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was organized December 20, 1801, at

the home of Hugh Beatty and the following qualified as magistrates: William

White, Samuel Miller, Hugh Nelson, Paul Harelson, Zacheus Ayers, George Preston,

William Campbell, James Preston, Isham Cox, William Barnett, George McPherson,

and Abraham McClelland.



    Zacheus Ayers was appointed Entry Taker; Jacob Jones, Surveyor; George

McPherson, Ranger, the constables were: Francis Lea, Robert Kirkpatrick, and

Patrick Burrus; Thomas Brown was collector of the District Tax.



    The Circuit Court was organized on the first Monday in March 1811, by James

Trimble, Judge of the Second Judicial Court.



    The first Grand Jury was composed of John Givens, James Todd, Jesse White,

William Waller, Samuel Hays, Thomas Rayburn, Jacob Warren, Jacob (or James)

Robinson, Nicholas Nail, John McKinney, Thomas Ogden, Asa Cobb, John Rector,

Henry McPherson and George Cross.



    Chancery Court was organized at Kingston, October 21, 1824, for the District

including the counties of Knox, Anderson, Morgan, Rhea, Roane, Hamilton,

Campbell, McMinn, Monroe, and Blount, by John Catron. Judge of the Supreme Court

of Tennessee.



    The Legislature appointe Hugh Nelson, John Smith T, Alexander Carmichael,

William Barnett, Paul Harelson, and Zacheus Ayers, commissioners to erect the

Court House which was finished in 1803. The present Court House was built in 1853.



    The General Assembly of Tennessee was held in Kingston, September 21, 1807

and adjourned to meet in Knoxville September 23, 1807.



    In a treaty made with the Indians they had reserved a mile square in the

fork of the rivers. Kingston had been laid out and houses were being erected

around the reservation and there were hopes that the capitol of the state would

be erected here. The whites wanted the mile square reservation. The Indians

agreed to the sale, but had the cause thereof stated in the deed. The

commissioners said they had no right to contract that the capitol should be

built here, but assured the Indian Chief, Tullentuskie, that the legislature

should be convened there. It was for this reason that the legislature met here,

but adjourned next day to Knoxville, alleging it was for want of a suitable hall

and room. This was not the truth, as a matter of course, because the courthouse

was finished the year before. The truth is, it was merely a trick played upon

the Indians in order to negotiate the purchase of the reservation.



    Kingston was an important point as early as 1800, with a Military Post at

South West Point within a mile of the town and the stage route from Nashville to

Washington passing through. It was the stopping place for Andrew Jackson, John

Sevier and other men of importance. Bishop Asbury tells of stopping in 1801 at

the home of Thomas N. Clark "which was a comfortable home with open fires in the

upstairs bed rooms."



    General Sevier always stopped at the home of Thomas N. Clark which stood

near the big spring. His house was part of the blockhouse built by General

Sevier in 1792.



     There were two taverns in the town, Alexander's occupied the site of the

present Exchange Hotel and stood back from the street in the brick ell. Dr. John

W. Wester remodeled the building in 1850 making it as it stands today. It was

here that General Andrew Jackson always .stopped. The other tavern stood a block

and a half up the street from the Alexander Tavern and was the place of meeting

of the Legislature in September 1807.



     The County today has a fine system of highways, with flourishing towns

supplied with good churches, schools, banks, newspapers, manufacturing plants,

large iron and coke industries- and is one of the largest peach and strawberry

centers in the State. Roane County has one of the best public health units in

the State.



     In the Spring of 1797 Prince Louis Philippe, later King of France, and his

brothers Comte de Montpensier and Comte de Beaujolair, on their journey from

Knoxville, where they had been entertained by Gov. John Sevier, to Nashville,

stopped at South West Point (Kingston) and visited the site of a proposed Fort

and the remains of prehistoric brestworks. Tradition says that some of the

Indian Chiefs, among them Tulantuski who lived where Rockwood now stands, joined

the party of distinguished visitors and the company drank at the Big Spring. The

Princes were entertained at the home of Judge David Campbell. Thomas Norris

Clark gave and deeded to Kingston this Big Spring early in 1880. It furnishes

many gallons of good water each day.



     The County was named for Archibald Roane, who was born in Pennsylvania

1759, coming to Tennessee in 1778. He was admitted to the Tennessee Bar at

Jonesboro and Greeneville 1788 and the same year was appointed Attorney General

of the district of Hamilton. He was a member of the Constitutional convention

1796, and was elected one of the Superior Judges when the State was organized.

He was elected the second Governor of Tennessee without opposition in 1801.

During his administration the, state was divided into three congressional

districts, Washington, Hamilton and Mero. Knoxville was the Capitol of the

State. He was reappointed a Superior Judge in 1815 which office he held until

his death in 1819. He never lived in Roane County but was Governor when the

County was erected.





Additional Comments:
From:



Part One



The History of Roane County Tennessee 1801-1870

by

Emma Middleton Wells



Printed by

The Lookout Publishing Company

Chattanooga, Tennessee

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