Discover Hawkins County - Fall 2015

DISCOVER

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Hawkins County VOL. 5 — ISSUE 2 — FALL 2015 EDITION

Surgoinsville celebrates 200 years

“The Roots of Our History Runs Deep” See related stories on pages 8, 12 and 42

Carved in Stone:

County’s first industry linked to U.S. Capitol and beyond — page 30

A golfing proposition

Disc golf course at Church Hill’s Laurel Run Park is a hit — page 48

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Welcome to

Hawkins County!

Can you believe it’s FALL again?

If you are visiting for the region’s gorgeous autumn color, you’ll find plenty of God’s handiwork in the patchwork quilt-colors splashed all over our mountains and valleys.

There’s also an enormous variety of activities packed into the fall and early winter months for all ages to enjoy.

The streets through historic downtown Rogersville will be alive with color and every variety of “arts and crafts” items on the planet, with many unique gift ideas for the holidays that are just around the corner.

Take time to visit the county’s many antique and art shops, sample the local cuisine, and listen to some of the best live country, bluegrass, gospel, and contemporary music this side of Nashville.

If you don’t see what you like, just ask, and some of our friendly hometown folks will be glad to offer directions or suggest places that you can visit.

No matter if you are a first-time visitor or a “life-long” resident, this edition of the Review’s twice-a-year magazine is submitted for your pure enjoyment.

The Fall 2015 edition is jam-packed with history, culture, events and places of interest, and the faces of the people who truly are Hawkins County.

If you picked up this magazine in one of Tennessee’s Interstate Welcome Centers, we hope you will come and “sit a spell” on our historic “front porch”.

Visit the historic Courthouse in Rogersville (ca. 1836), one of the oldest in the state, and one that many first-time visitors mistakenly think is a church because of its bell-tower steeple!

Down at Rogers Cemetery you can see the graves of the founders of Rogersville (Joseph and Mary Amis Rogers), and the grandparents of Davy Crockett (who lived right there at the site and who were massacred by Indians in the 1700’s).

Just up the street is the beautiful Hale Springs Inn, also one of the oldest in the state, that dates to 1824 when Rogersville was a stop on the Great Wilderness Road, and a stagecoach stop between Washington and points south and east. At the Inn, go in and see the three “presidential” rooms, where Presidents Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson and James Polk stayed on visits here. (Book a room and tell folks you slept where Presidents slept!)

Rogersville is also the home of Tennessee’s very first newspaper and at the Depot Museum (operated by the Heritage Association), where you can see early printing equipment (including the Linotype used to set type for The Rogersville Review in its early days) and front pages of many of the county’s former papers.

Up the hill is Swift Museum, where Hawkins County’s AfricanAmerican heritage is displayed. Director Stella Gudger will be glad to give you a tour of the historic facility.

Over at Bulls Gap, the Archie Campbell Museum contains many artifacts of the iconic landscape artist and Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw star. Also in the town’s museum are Civil War artifacts from the

Battle of Bulls Gap, and just across the way is the Railroad Museum.

Just north of Rogersville, in Church Hill, is Laurel Run Park where the 1984 movie “The River”, starring Mel Gibson, Sissy Spacek and Hawkins County’s own 12-year old Shane Bailey, was filmed. Go and hike the short distance up the trail to the mountain stream and waterfall featured in the opening scenes of the film.

Throw in all of the county’s Revolutionary War and Civil War landmarks, the water-related sports on the Holston River and Cherokee Lake and you could spend a week or more just focusing on the wealth of historic and recreational sites in our county.

The natural beauty of Hawkins County shines brightly throughout all four seasons. Springtime flowers bring a constant burst of color around every corner, while the mild summers are a true blessing. Fall is an explosion of changing colors as oaks, hickories, maples, gums and other deciduous trees paint the mountainsides with a patchwork quilt of reds, oranges, yellows and purples. Winter brings snowfalls which turn the hills and valleys into quiet, peaceful worlds of white against the backdrop of fields, pastures, and century-old barns.

Hawkins County is also home to many outstanding artists, musicians and craftsmen whose talents are known far outside the boundaries of northeastern Tennessee.

Probably the most important attraction Hawkins County has to offer is its people. Folks hereabout truly care about each other, and welcome newcomers as friends and neighbors.

It is obviously outside the scope of Discover” magazine to focus in one issue on every single attraction and event that our county has to offer, but if you are a firsttime visitor, we hope to have piqued your interest and shown you just a small sampling of what Hawkins County has to offer residents and visitors alike.

No matter why you are here, please accept this as our personal invitation to come and visit again ... to walk our streets, shop with our local merchants, sample the fine local foods, and enjoy everything about Hawkins County, from Clinch Mountain on the west (the reallife home of some of the most famous fictional characters of all time, Western author Louis L’Amour’s “Sackett” family) to Bulls Gap on the east, and from Allandale and Kingsport in the north to Mooresburg and Bean Station in the south.

Welcome, friends! We truly hope that after one visit you will want to come back ... again and again.

Sincerely,

Tommy Campbell Publisher & Editor The Rogersville Review

MANAGEMENT Tommy Campbell Publisher & Editor

Joel Spears

Managing Editor

PAGE PAGE

Discover Hawkins County is published semi-annually by Hawkins County Publishers, Inc. P.O. Box 100 | Rogersville, TN 37857 www.discoverhawkinscounty.com 423-272-7422

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Hawkins County

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DISCOVER

Pat Smith

Business Manager

CONTRIBUTORS Jim Beller Contributing Writer

Wade Littleton

PAGE

Sharon Roberts

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Circulation Manager

ADVERTISING Abby Swearingen Marketing Consultant

Buffy Sizemore

Marketing Consultant

Christy Alvis

Marketing Consultant

Freda Turbyfill Creative Services

Advertising information available upon request.

PAGE

Contributing Writer

8 12 30 42 48 54 60

Features Inside: Surgoinsville, Tennessee “The Roots of Our History Runs Deep”

Surgoinsville’s history is evident everywhere Carved in Stone: County’s first industry linked to U.S. Capitol and beyond

Surgoinsville fixture since the 50’s The Dairy Mart, a town landmark, going strong for more than 60 years

A golfing proposition Disc golf course at Church Hill’s Laurel Run Park is a hit

Tyler Gilliam Volunteer High graduate getting to play on new ETSU football team

Rogersville Main Street Cruise-In on the Square

4 Letter from Tommy Campbell, Publisher & Editor /

The Rogersville Review 36-37 Map of Hawkins County 70 Advertiser Index

Story suggestions, inquiries should be made to news@therogersvillereview.com

Discover Hawkins County - Fall 2015 is a single-copy supplement to The Rogersville Review. Additional copies may be purchased at the Review office for $2 each, plus postage if mailing is needed. Call our office at 423-272-7422 or email us at pat.smith@ therogersvillereview.com for orders and delivery.

Copyright: 2015 Discover Hawkins County - Fall 2015, Hawkins County Publishers, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission of the newspaper’s management.

Reproduction of advertising and design work is strictly prohibited due to the use of licensed art services and agency agreements.

ON THE COVER: New Providence Presbyterian Church, the oldest Presbyterian church in Tennessee, was organized in 1780 at the home of William Armstrong II, located in Carter’s Valley.

— photo by Jim Beller

Rogersville Main Street

Mountain Star Mall 272-7800

Local Artists Gallery 921-7656

Merle Norman 921-0703

The Shepherd’s Center 272-4626

Oh Henry’s Restaurant 272-0980

Hale Springs Inn / McKinney’s Restaurant & Tavern 272-5171

Sunny Side Yarns 272-9276

Sweet Amis Catering 9217400

Kyle House Reflexology 272-7771

Miss Bea’s Perk and Pies 272-6555

LuElla’s Gift Market 272-7656

Sunshine Sandwich Shop 293-3088

The Country Place 360-6733

Heritage Antiques Gallery 293-3166

Buds n’Blooms / Maggie Mae’s Pet Salon 293-3400 / 293-0745

Flowers by Wanda 272-3735

Carter K Boutique 293-3359

Wendy’s Simple Treasures 921-3244

Taylor’s Treasures 293-0685

The Texican Grille 272-2819

ROGERSVILLE IN BLOOM April 20 - May 23, 2016

A TASTE OF ROGERSVILLE Main Street, Rogersville May 20, 2016 www.rogersvillemainstreet.com

CRUISE-IN ON THE SQUARE

HERITAGE DAYS

May through October www.rogersvillemainstreet.com

October 14, 15, 16, 2016 www.rogersvilleheritage.org

JULY 4TH CELEBRATION

TRUNK or TREAT

July 2, 2016 www.rogersville4thofjuly.com

Main Street, Rogersville

October 31, 2016

Browse Our Unique Shops and Enjoy Our Local Cuisine!

www.rrogersvillemainstreet.ccom

CHRISTMAS PARADE

Main Street, Rogersville

December 5, 2015

8 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

Matriarch Margaret Sanguine is depicted in this early 1800s oil painting.

Copies of the original handwritten charter now on file in the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville.

200

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Surgoinsville October 6, 1815 — October 6, 2015

Tennessee

“

“The Roots of Our History Runs Deep”

That a town heretofore laid off on the lands of James Surgoine at his present residence, on the north side of Holston River, in the county of Hawkins, shall hereafter be identified and known by the name of Surgoinesville, and the same is hereby established as laid out in the original plan of said town.”

So states the Town of Surgoinsville’s original handwritten charter, now on file in the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville, which officially established the town on Oct. 6, 1815.

Named in honor of its founder, Revolutionary War Major James continued on page 11

Melvin and Morag Surguine are pictured here (second and third from left), along with former Surgoinsville Mayor Johnny Greer, Jerilynn Graham and current Mayor Merrell Graham at a special meal and “meet and greet” held at the Graham’s home during the town’s Bicentennial celebration in September in honor of the Surguine family. Melvin is the greatgreat-great grandson of French immigrant, Maj. James Surguine, who founded the town of Surgoinsville in October of 1815. — photo by Tommy Campbell

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on Main Downtown Morristown, TN | 42 423.581.0600 • 162 W. Broadway, Jefferson City, TN | 865.471.7848

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Keyuna Roberts, psychology Keyuna knows her story will involve psychology.

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fall 2015 / discover hawkins county continued from page 9

Surgoine (alt. spelling, Surguine), the town today enjoys a population of about 1,900 and is celebrating its bicentennial this year.

While the official anniversary is in October, town officials felt that summer would be a better time to hold some of the bicentennial celebration since schools were out and families would have more time to attend and participate, so it coincided with the annual Doc Lyons Festival June 25-27.

A two-day Homecoming Celebration in conjunction with the annual Riverfront Festival and Block Party was also held on Sept. 11 and 12.

The theme of the bicentennial celebration — “The Roots of Our History Runs Deep” — focused on the people, past and present, who have called Surgoinsville home.

By all accounts, it was a rousing success.

“Everything went great,” said Surgoinsville Mayor Merrell Graham.

“The people of Surgoinsville were very happy and very proud. We had a real good celebration. The Surguine descendants came and they were very proud. They had a good time.”

Celebrating the people, past and present, who have called Surgoinsville home.

Maryland residents Melvin Surguine, who is the great-great-great grandson of the French-born participant in the American Revolution who settled Surgoinsville in October of 1815, and his son, James — a greatgreat-great-great grandson — attended along with their families.

It was the icing on the anniversary cake.

“I think by them coming that gave everything a historic point of view,” Graham said. “A lot of people didn’t realize why Surgoinsville has its name. I think it’s been real educational for people. People are very proud.”

“It exceeded our expectations,” said James Surguine. “We had a tremendous time. It was a very special time for us. The people were very friendly, the parade was fun and the Riverfront Festival was just as much fun.

“We had always talked about going to Surgoinsville but the bicentennial was just too good an opportunity to pass up,” Surguine said. “My parents had driven by the town a few years ago and one of my cousins went to visit about two years ago. That’s how I knew about it.

“It’s a beautiful location, especially where the river park is. The people are wonderful. They couldn’t have been any nicer to us,” Surguine said.

The Laurel, Md. resident said his favorite part of the weekend was “meeting the people who were so friendly and I got to drive a tractor. I never drove a tractor before. That was fun.

“We also went to Allen Competitive Engines. He invited us over to his shop. I liked that because I like cars and getting to see these engines being built was very, very cool. The old cars at the riverfront were also very special,” Surguine said.

Hawkins County Historian Rodney Ferrell and Surgoinsville Mayor Merrell Graham study a historic document. — photo by Tommy Campbell

11

The town founder descendant said he definitely would be coming back to visit.

Graham said the bicentennial celebration was educational and brought out a lot of town pride in its residents.

“I’m sure a lot of younger people had no idea why it’s called Surgoinsville. The elementary school had a historical, educational program that was good. It was good to see the kids were learning about Surgoinsville and why we’re having a 200-year celebration,” Graham said.

“I looked at our celebration and I feel like it couldn’t have gone any better. It kind of legitimizes the fact that Surgoinsville is the town that it is and the history that’s behind it. This has really brought it out,” he said.

— By Jim Beller Some information in this article was contributed by Tommy Campbell

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Founded in 1791, Long Meadow Farm began as a log pen structure in 1763 and over time grew as the magnificent home it remains today. The Grandmother’s Cabin, or Widow’s Cabin, was built behind the home

by John Young circa 1800.

fall 2015 / discover hawkins county

A

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Surgoinsville’s history is evident everywhere

s Surgoinsville, Tennessee celebrates its 200th birthday this month, the contributions of the town’s original citizens and their legacies cannot be overlooked – literally. Many of the structures built in the early days of the town’s history remain standing today throughout the area, a testament to the quality of construction and their continuing care.

Before a town can be established, it needs settlers. One of the first in the area was William Young, who settled with wife Caroline Walker Young in the 1760s in what is now Carters Valley. The home they built, Long Meadow, still stands today.

“William Young came there in 1763 and built a log pen 17’ by 25’,” said Hawkins County Historian Rodney Ferrell. “He went to North Carolina to file a claim and while he was gone, Thomas Gibbons came there and stole his claim.

“So when William Young came back, he beat the devil out of him and made him go back down there where he was,” Ferrell said. “They called it Long Meadow because of the big meadow that stretches before it. It’s the oldest wooden structure in Tennessee.”

When the Revolutionary War broke out a dozen years later, William and his young teenage son, John, were called to battle, leaving Caroline and the slaves to tend to Long Meadow.

Over time, the original log cabin became a nucleus as rooms were built above and around it, Ferrell said. The additions were necessary as the family also grew. John married Margaret Galbraith in 1788 and they produced 14 children. Seven generations followed living at Long Meadow.

Robert Miller Young Jr. manages Long Meadow Farm now.

“Joseph Foard was a Captain for the Confederacy in the Civil War,” Ferrell said. “He married one of the Young girls. The Union soldiers came over the hill on Christmas Day 1862 and made him walk all the way down to Knoxville in the new boots he got for Christmas.”

Slave labor played a vital part of Long Meadow’s development.

Records indicate between 22 and 23 slaves were on the property in the 1850s and 1860s.

A slave burying ground is on the farm and remaining buildings include a very large log corn crib, a stable, a log kitchen, a spring house, a smoke house, a widow’s cabin, two barns, and hay barn in addition to the main house.

“John Young owned the house and built the grandmother’s cabin for her,” Ferrell said.

His son, John Jr., would ultimately marry Sarah Miller, joining two of continued on page 15

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Armstrong Home at Stony Point was built by William Armstrong III in the 1780s. An additional section (below) was added in 1846.

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In 2014, the Tennessee Society of the Sons of the American Revolution honored Armstrong with a grave marking at New Providence Presbyterian Church Cemetery, where he’s buried. It was attended by descendants, brothers Orville, Clinton and Clayton Armstrong (above).

continued from page 13

Surgoinsville’s most influential families, the Youngs and the Millers.

Called the Hogenogee by the Cherokee and ultimately named after Stephen Holston, who settled at its headwaters in 1758, Holston River winds through the length of Hawkins County. It was vital to early Surgoinsville as an artery for shipping goods and transporting travelers.

Some of the earliest settlers arrived by boat, including Peter and Sybil Pitzer Miller, who settled on Miller’s Island in the Holston River in 1780.

“The Millers were coming down the river in the 1700s on a flotilla boat. They stopped on the bank on this little island to rest overnight. When they woke up in the morning, they loved it so much and thought it was so beautiful, they went and filed a claim on it and they got the grant from King George. Peter Miller was the first one. He’s buried in the pine trees down there,” Ferrell said.

Their son, Jacob Miller, built the Yellow Store general store and the

“Yellow Store Home,” a magnificent antebellum plantation home that was lived in by six generations of Millers, including the late Neil Miller, who passed away at the home May 18, 2014 at age 94.

Located on Old Stage Road, the main thoroughfare from Washington, D.C. to Nashville, the Yellow Store received its name when Jacob painted the exterior of the one-room store bright yellow, making it a beacon for those on the well-traveled route.

The bright color was a good marketing strategy as the Yellow Store stayed in business for 150 years until a 1955 tornado demolished it. The Yellow Store Home still stands in grand condition, 215 years after being built.

The tornado just missed the Frank Smith house, which is owned today

by Thomas and Sally Childs Shelburne and remains in good condition nearby.

While Peter and Sybil Miller were settling Miller’s Island, upriver in the continued on page 16

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Margaret Lavinia “Livie” Lyons and Clinton Galagher Lyons (left) lived in the Lyons Store (right), built by his father, William, in 1800. It was also the Lyons Post Office from 18371866 and served as the Confederate conscription office during the Civil War. Clinton Lyons twice made narrow escapes from bushwhackers after the Civil War, hiding in the house in a feather bin the first time then under a mattress the second.The Lyonsdale log home (below) was built in 1891.

continued from page 15

community of Stony Point, William Armstrong was constructing the first brick building in Hawkins County on a hillside. The slate and the fireplaces were from Caney Valley and the bricks were made from clay on the farm.

“It’s supposed to be one of the oldest brick houses in Tennessee,” Ferrell said. “In 1797, Prince Louis Philipe, the Duke of Orleans stayed here. He talked about eating hole cakes and sleeping three to a bed. He later became King. When he was visiting years later, he asked somebody, ‘Do they still sleep three in a bed in Tennessee?’”

“Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett also stayed here,” Ferrell said. “It was a tavern.”

Later, a red brick house was built to the north, and then the two connected together. “They got a permit in 1846 to build this part,” Ferrell said. “A floating staircase goes all the way up to the third floor. The third floor of that was used as a hospital during the Civil War.” Stony Point was to become a thriving, active community, with Armstrong’s tavern at the center and often referred to as Stony Point itself.

“This was Old Stage Road. When the stage was coming, they would sound the horn on the stagecoach way down the road to tell them how many people were coming so they’d have the table set,” Ferrell said.

Unfortunately, the Stony Point home’s renovation was never completed, but the historic structure still stands.

John Mauk’s store and Hyder’s store were other popular gathering spots for several years in Stony Point.

“During the 1930s, President (Franklin) Roosevelt liked to get with his secretary and they’d take off is a car and they’d go to Warm Springs, Ga.” Ferrell said. “They’d drive to all these places in Appalachia. One day, somebody came running into Hyder’s Store and said, ‘The President is out there in the car,’ so they all gathered out there to see.”

Another early settler was William Lyons, who opened a store in 1800 a mile and a half west of Stony Point called W.M. Lyons and Sons, which was later just called Lyons Store.

“It was used as a store from 1800 up until 1909. During the Civil War, it was the sign-up place for the 12th Cavalry for Confederates,” Ferrell said.

It also served as the Lyons Post Office from 1837 to 1866.

Shortly after opening the store, William and Matilda Lyons established the Lyonsdale Farm. They raised tobacco and cattle on 1,600 acres. William and Matilda, who had nine children, also operated an inn and way station in their home. The Lyons buildings still stand as part of Surgoinsville’s impressive historic district.

“Tucker’s Knob is between the Lyons plantation and Long Meadow,” Ferrell said. “The slaves used to meet on Tucker’s Knob over there and they would have dances. They planted all these jonquils and in the spring you can see the great circles of jonquils on top of that mountain where they used to meet and dance.”

With a growing population, Major James Surguine, a French Huguenot, saw the need for a town.

Originating from a 400-acre North Carolina land grant to Mark Chambers, who sold the land to John Looney, Surguine then purchased the

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Fudge Farm land from Looney in 1804 and divided a 3,000-foot by 1,500-foot section, a little over one-quarter of the 400 acres, into more than 100 town lots.

“Major James Surguine was a member of the Tennessee Militia,” says Surgoinsville Mayor Merrell Graham. “He was an officer. He purchased all this property that is now called Surgoinsville and began a settlement.”

Surguine sold off the town lots and on Oct. 6, 1815, Surgoinsville was established.

As is common in early recorded history and genealogy records, spellings of names often change through the years.

“I think it had something to do with an alternative spelling of the name Surguine, because on our charter it’s got Surgoinesville,” Graham said. The legislative act establishing the town spelled it Surgoinsville, Surgoinesville and Surgionsville.

Early commissioners were Surguine, Arthur G. Armstrong, Joseph Klepper, Edward Erwin and Jonas Laughmiller.

A rivalry developed between Surgoinsville and Rogersville, which had been founded by Joseph Rogers in 1785, 10 years after its settlement by the grandparents of Davy Crockett, on land granted to him by his father-inlaw, Thomas Amis. The Town of Rogersville was chartered in 1789.

Rogers successfully lobbied to have the county seat located at his tavern, which had been established as the first county courthouse in 1787.

By around 1825, however, a vote was put before the people to build a new courthouse. Also on the ballot was where to locate the county seat, as Surgoinsville was more centrally located and by that time was almost as large as Rogersville.

In an election with its share of mudslinging, Surgoinsville was disparagingly referred to as a “half-mile of cheap shells of houses strung

along the public road with very little business being transacted and none of the elements of a live town.”

This was not true, as Surgoinsville had grown quickly and by the early 1830s, featured five stores, two blacksmith shops, two grist mills, one saw mill, a tan yard, a wool carding machine, three shoe shops and two hatter shops, not to mention numerous, still-standing mansions. The county seat and courthouse still ended up in Rogersville, however.

Impressive farms continued popping up in and around Surgoinsville.

Constructed in 1825 by Conrad Fudge, the Fudge Farm consists of over 250 acres and was a central part of the early Stony Point community as an Inn on the Great Stage Coach Road.

“Three of the Fudges were killed in the Civil War,” Ferrell said. “One died in the Andersonville prison.”

The farm was once a self-contained homestead with its own water supply, still in existence, a blacksmith shop, and numerous barns which are still standing.

Across the old highway the property continues with two log structures, one of which is recognized as one of the three oldest barns in Tennessee. continued on page 18

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The historic 1824 double-pin barn (left) and corn crib (right) at Fudge Farm. continued from page 17

“The big, log, double-pin barn was built in 1824,” Ferrell said. “It’s one of the oldest barns in Tennessee. It has the carvings of Civil War soldiers on it. Confederate soldiers stayed in there during the war. The floors are split logs. Surgoinsville had square dances and singings in there for years.”

Continuously owned by members of the original family, the federal style house at Fudge Farm was restored by Selmer and Jane Fudge Cole in 1989.

“The slave quarters were in the back,” Ferrell said. “It’s incorporated into the house now. There used to be a breezeway between them. The back log cabin is the smoke house. The log cabin with the quilt pattern on it is the corn crib.”

Another historic farm overlooking the Holston River is the Kramer Farm, which was previously the Adelberg Farm and originally the Armstrong Farm.

The Adelberg Home is now the Kramer home at Kramer Farms on River Road.

“We got it from the Adelbergs and she was an Armstrong,” said Tina Kramer. “We believe the Armstrongs got the land grant. It was built in 1848.”

“It was originally part of the Armstrong estate,” Steve Kramer added.

“Willy Armstrong married Jack Adelberg, who was the mailman in the area, and it became the Adelberg Farm. Everybody knew Jack. Bill Jenkins said that if there had been a Johnny Carson/Jack Paar opportunity, Jack Adelberg would have been one of those type personalities. He was an absolute card. He and Doc Lyons, the pediatrician who delivered all the babies, were big buddies.”

Numerous Civil War and Indian artifacts were found in the area.

“They found a lot of Civil War stuff there,” Ferrell said. “They dug that up when they were excavating for TVA in 1971. The Moravian village is just a short way out there near the Adelberg place. They were missionaries that came to live among the Indians and teach them about Jesus. They found that continued on page 20

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The Smith house today (above) and in 1955 (right) after a tornado that destroyed the Yellow Store (pictured in the two photos below).

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The Yellow Store Home, aka the Miller Home, as it looks today. continued from page 18

village in the archaeological dig. They dug up the Chief, who had a bear claw necklace around his neck.”

Another historic home in Surgoinsville, located at the corner of Old Stage Road and S. Zions Hill Road, is the Miller home, built in 1892 by E.W. Whittaker, who sold it to George Edens in 1901. Sam P. Miller bought it in 1907 and added a huge living room and its distinctive 20-inch columns and balcony on the front. For a long time it was the property of James and Charlotte Miller.

Next door sits the Armstrong House, which was built in 1853 of bricks made on sight. It is splendidly maintained and sits in wonderful condition.

Walls, interior and exterior, are three-brick thick.

Another well-kept home is the Barton Home, back toward Stony Creek.

It was built in 1912 by John F. Barton, who was Hawkins County Sheriff for a time. The working farm and home remain to this day in the Barton family.

No town is complete without churches and schools and in Stony Point, one of each are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

New Providence Presbyterian Church, the oldest Presbyterian church in Tennessee, was organized in 1780 at the home of William Armstrong II, located in Carter’s Valley. A report from the Abingdon Presbytery to the General Assembly in 1797 states the original congregation was made up of 50 families. Many names recorded on early books at New Providence are representative of families still residing in Hawkins County today, according to www.surgoinsvilletn.gov.

The first New Providence Church, a log structure in Carter’s Valley was soon moved to Stoney Point. A second building, a small brick structure, was erected about 1812 and stood until 1839 or 1840. A school

was established in 1816, transferred on a three and one-half-acre deed to New Providence Meeting House as part of an agreement for a cemetery and school. For many years ministers served as schoolmasters at Maxwell Academy.

As the church grew in popularity there were reportedly 183 new memberships in 1826 and the total eventually reached more than 400 members.

In order to house such a large congregation, a large frame house was built in 1827 and used until 1866, when another structure was built. It was destroyed by fire in 1892 and its replacement – the present-day church – was finished the following year.

Maxwell Academy’s new building was constructed in 1850 across Stoney Point Road from New Providence Church. It was established as a male academy in 1852 by the Board of Trustees of the New Providence Presbyterian Church, and served grades first through 12.

Named in honor of George Maxwell, first elder of New Providence Presbyterian Church, Maxwell Academy became coed by 1877 and female students outnumbered males at that time. The original building burned down in 1901 and was replaced with the present-day structure, and like New Providence Presbyterian Church, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The church operated the school until 1907 when the Hawkins County School System took over. In 1919 the school became an elementary school when Surgoinsville obtained a high school and remained in operation until 1942.

In the late 1930s and 1940s, the Hawkins County School System was continued on page 23

fall 2015 / discover hawkins county

The Miller Home

The Armstrong Home

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Looney’s Store in 1902 (above left and below left). Mr. Looney is holding the broom. Also pictured are Mr. and Mrs. Ledbetter, daughter Esther, and Paul and Rosa Burton. Looney’s great-grandson, Bill Davidson, re-opened the old building as Davidson’s Store (above right).

Next door to the Looney/Davidson Store is the Looney/Davidson Home (below in both photos). Mr. and Mrs. Looney (inset) stand in front of the Looney/Davidson Home, shown in the large photo as it looks today. Known as Dad Looney, he operated the adjacent Looney’s Store until it closed during the Great Depression.

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Maxwell Academy opened in 1852 and closed in 1942. The original building burned and was replaced in 1901 by the current structure, as it appears today (above and below right) and as it did with students in 1906 (below left).

continued from page 20

made up of approximately 120 schools. The Surgoinsville school district was comprised of at least 19 schools that taught primary through eighth grade: Big Creek, Campbells, Carters Valley, Christians Bend, Fisher’s Creek, Fudge’s Chapel, Greenland, High Point, Lone Oak, Long’s Bend, Long Hollow, Looney’s, Magnolia, Maxwell, Midway, Phipps Bend, Shiloh, Surgoinsville and Zion’s Hill.

Surgoinsville-area growth continued in the early 1900s.

Looney’s Store opened in Carter’s Valley in 1902. With cash a rarity, most trading at the store was literally that: the barter system. Chickens, eggs, corn, wheat, oats and pelts were commonly traded. The store fell victim to the Great Depression, but was renovated and re-opened 70 years later as Davidson’s Country Store by Looney’s great grandson, Bill Davidson.

“They were descendants of Michael Looney, one of the early settlers,” Ferrell said.

Davidson’s Country Store offers products like jams, jellies, condiments, and relishes made from family recipes and, in season, fresh farm produce from Davidson Farm, a working, fourth-generation family

farm. In the fall, the farm hosts a corn maze, pumpkin patch, hayrides and activities for children in season.

Other structures built in the early 1900s still standing include the John K. Williams Store and Bellamy’s Hardware.

“The Williams Store was really the center of town, the store,” Ferrell said. “It was a store, a beauty shop, a laundry mat.”

Bellamy’s Hardware, built in 1908, is known today for it’s live bluegrass gatherings on the third Saturday of the month. For 80 years, it was a country store, offering a little bit of everything.

“Ed Bellamy ran it,” Ferrell said. “He had hardware, feed, he had everything.

“When the train ran, they stored caskets in there until they could load ‘em on the train. They forgot one back there one day for a long time until they finally started smelling something,” Ferrell said.

After the Great Stagecoach Road became State Route 1, built from Bristol to Memphis between 1910 and 1925, traffic through Surgoinsville increased greatly. “It was the Great Stage Road at one time, the Wilderness continued on page 27

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Bellamy’s Hardware today (above) and in 1925 (right) which shows Maj. M.L. Morrell of Knoxville Freight Line holding young Lillian Bellamy. With a top speed of 20 mph, Morrell’s 1924 Armleader truck took two days to make deliveries on the Knoxville/ Kingsport round trip.

The John K. Williams Store

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Stony Point was the center of activity in the early days of Surgoinsville.

With residents on either side of the Holston River, ferries were used from the early 1800s up until 1954 when a bridge was finally installed.

One of the last practicing village blacksmiths, Will Sandidge (right) started bending steel at Stony Point in 1916 until moving into Surgoinsville. The old blacksmith shop still stands on Main Street.

26 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

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fall 2015 / discover hawkins county continued from page 23

Road, all fashioned from an Indian path,” Ferrell said. “Carters Valley Road was just a buffalo path. This was the main highway. Surgoinsville was thriving because of this road. It was the main thoroughfare. Downtown Rogersville used to be bustling, too.”

The road became a “super highway” with four lanes through Hawkins County from the 1960s through the 1990s, Hwy 11W dividing Hawkins Co. in two. “When they put the bypass in in the ‘60s, it changed a lot of things, just like it did for Rogersville,” Ferrell said. “It used to be bustling. Then when they changed over, it wasn’t. Now that they changed it over, nobody comes over here as much.”

While the traffic doesn’t channel through the town as it once did, Surgoinsville remains an integral part of Hawkins County.

Phipps Bend Industrial Park is home to a valuable technical college and a range of manufacturers employing more than 2,000 workers.

Hawkins County airport is also located in Surgoinsville in what was once a slave-gathering area called Millers Flat. The airport provides access to amateur as well as professional pilots in the area, and is essential, along with rail service and the Holston River, in attracting industry.

Two hundred years after its establishment, the Town of Surgoinsville End of an era: Traffic passes the Fudge Farm (right) circa 1940s/1950s prior to construction of the 11W “super highway.” Below: The Barton Home. Inset: J.C. and Annie Barton, circa 1919.

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is as relevant to Hawkins County as ever and its vitality is reflected in the pride of its residents and the community’s lasting legacy.

Sources: Hawkins County Historian Rodney Ferrell; Stories from Home: A Patchwork of Memories by Rodney Ferrell; Tales of the Past: A Pictorial History of the Town of Surgoinsville, Tenn. - Old Stage Printing; Images of America: Hawkins County by Rodney Ferrell; Surgoinsville Mayor Merrell Graham; surgoinsvilletn.gov; wikipedia; The Rogersville Review; ancestry. com; Broome Funeral Home, Rogersville, TN

— By Jim Beller

28 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

Town of

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Orville Rice, owner of Rogersville Marble Company and Marble Hall, is painted here in a portrait by Tennessee artist Samuel Shaver. (Courtesy of Rodney Ferrell)

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Carved In Stone: County’s first industry linked to U.S. Capitol and beyond

ichelangelo said, “The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.” If that’s true, then Hawkins County abounds with thoughts unfulfilled.

In the 1830s, Gerard Troost, the state’s first geologist set out to explore Tennessee’s natural landforms. Following a visit to Hawkins County, he sent a letter back to Nashville that charted a course often forgotten today.

“I do not know any European or Egyptian, as some Italian marbles are here called, equal in beauty with the Tennessee marble, as well for its variegations as for its polish,” he wrote regarding natural deposits found near Rogersville (East Tennessean, 1839).

His words not only helped carve the county’s industrial landscape, but also shaped the architectural style of the United States for nearly a century. And if Troost’s findings were the foundation of the county’s marble industry, then Orville Rice, a Connecticut native turned Hawkins County entrepreneur, was its cornerstone.

Orville Rice Rice’s story in the marble industry began in 1838 when he and former Rogersville Mayor Stockley D. Mitchell founded Rogersville Marble Company, whose product is found throughout the country including the Washington Monument, U.S. Capitol and U.S. Treasury Buildings.

Though not entirely from Rice’s Quarry, the Hawkins County marble which he discovered can also be seen in the South Carolina State House at Columbia; Philadelphia’s Public Buildings, including the iconic Philadelphia City Hall (still the world’s tallest masonry structure, and the tallest building in the world until 1908), the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the New York Mutual Life Insurance Building, and “Wootton,” the home of G.W. Childs (co-owner of the Philadelphia Public Ledger); New York City’s Buckingham Hotel (which stood adjacent to St. Patrick’s Cathedral); New York’s Grand Central Hotel (famous for the murder of “robber baron,” “Diamond” Jim Fisk); Baltimore City Hall, the Baltimore Sun Newspaper Office; Buffalo City Hall and the home of William G. Fargo (co-founder of Wells Fargo & Co. and American Express, Buffalo’s largest home upon completion); many buildings and homes in Boston, Chicago

and Cincinnati; San Francisco’s Palace Hotel (the world’s largest luxury hotel); and the American Chapel in Paris, France.

In 1855 Troost’s successor, James M. Safford, wrote that Rogersville Marble Co. was the state’s first. Today, its location is unknown, but former County Historian Henry Price states in his book “Hawkins County, Tennessee: A Pictorial History” it was near Caney Creek.

Safford’s records state that, “In April 1838, the ‘Rogersville Marble Company’ was formed by gentlemen in and near Rogersville, for the purpose of ‘sawing marble, and establishing a marble factory in the vicinity of Rogersville.’ Orville Rice, Esq. was elected President, and S.D. Mitchell, Secretary. The company operated to a limited extent for several years, erected a mill, and sold several thousand dollars worth of marble annually, which was mostly distributed in Tennessee.”

In 1844, Stockley sold his share of Rogersville Marble Co. to Orville, who had loftier goals.

So great was Rice’s legacy at the turn of the 20th Century that when his former home, the historic Marble Hall Mansion located between Rogersville and Mooresburg on the Old Stagecoach Road, burned in February 1907, Dr. George F. Mellen, PhD, a former editor of the Knoxville Sentinel wrote, “The destruction, this week of the ‘Marble Hall,’ a noted East Tennessee mansion, brings a pang of regret. For years it has stood like some ancient landmark, telling a mingled story of past grandeur and pathos.”

Attempting to memorialize Rice’s storied legacy, Dr. Mellen contributed an article previously published in the Nashville Children’s Visitor with an elaborate epitaph to the man and his home, as well as Hawkins County Marble: “The sight-seer in Washington looks with delight upon the richly variegated and highly polished marble ornamenting the Capitol. As he ascends the stairway leading to the Senate and House galleries if of an inquisitive turn of mind, he may be led to inquire whence came its beautiful columns and balustrades with their changing tints of mottles strawberry, pale pink, and dark chocolate. Going through the marble room continued on page 32

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Marble Hall was the showplace of Rogersville Marble Company, as well as the home of its founder Orville Rice. Former Knoxville Sentinel editor, Dr. George F. Mellen, PhD, described his first-hand account of the house, a week after it burned in 1907, saying “For years it has stood like some ancient landmark, telling a mingled story of past grandeur and pathos.” The picture here is from the late 1890s, well after Rice’s tenure in the home, which was upon construction described as one of the grandest in the state.

(Courtesy of George Webb) continued from page 31

The Marble Hall Kitchen, a structure separate from Orville Rice’s elaborate Marble Hall Mansion, was all that remained of the Rice legacy following a fire that destroyed the house in 1907.

and into other parts of the building, he will meet with the same rich hues of marble. Proceeding thence to the Treasury Building, he will find it again.

Later, wending his way to the Washington Monument, he will discover an inscription indicating the source, for two huge blocks bear the words: ‘Hawkins County Block,’ ‘From Hawkins County, Tennessee.’

“The tale is but half told,” Dr. Mellen wrote, “when omission is made of the name of him through whom this exquisite material for ornamentation was made know to the authorities at Washington. When more than the name of the man is told and his history is unfolded, it sounds like a chapter from the story of Midas, or recalls incidents in the life of Dick Whittington, or perchance bears some resemblance to the adventures of Sam Slick.”

According to the Visitor, Orville arrived in East Tennessee from

fall 2015 / discover hawkins county Connecticut with cousins Moses and Augustus Rice in the early 19th century and continued “for some years to be led by some fairy’s magic wand and then suddenly to be left to blind impulses for guidance.”

In 1824 he found Hawkins County, having followed “the beaten highway which penetrated the valley of Virginia and led to the southwest.

His outfit consisted of a cheap, long-used horse, a dilapidated wagon, and a small lot of tinnier, ‘warranted to be of the best,’ which he peddled from house to house.”

Eventually, he “sold out at a handsome profit” and engaged in the fur trade, employing agents to purchase furs from local trappers for a profitable return.

“With the money received he bought some acres of knob land west of the village of Rogersville, in Hawkins County. This land being on the Great Stage Line from Washington to the Southwest, he opened a country store, a tavern, and a stage stand. No railroad then penetrated East Tennessee. Guests representing every phase of human ambition and activity, from presidents and statesmen to hog drovers and horse traders, received welcome and entertainment as long as bills were paid…With genuine Yankee thrift, he made every turn count toward the increase of his revenue.”

Maintaining dual roles as a country merchant and tavern keeper, Orville also began to sell Connecticut-made wooden clocks.

“Providing agents with outfits, he sent them forth either as onehorse or two-horse peddlers through a wide area of territory. So swift and well organized were their movements that within a few years he had a monopoly of this business, then a very profitable one, in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and retained it for many years. Plenty with a lavish hand poured her bounties constantly into his coffers. Still his alert mind was occupied with finding other methods of investment.”

One of those other methods was the marble manufacturing industry of which Orville had an inexhaustible supply.

A rare, pink, variegated marble under laid lands that Rice purchased near the Holston River, where an entrepreneur like himself saw opportunity, with a natural mode of transportation to domestic and even foreign markets.

“This discovery came at a period when enthusiasm for internal improvements had seized the public mind and State Legislatures were making reckless appropriations for the construction of highways and for the opening of rivers. After opening the first quarry in the state and erecting the first marble sawmill, he [Orville] put the product on the local market, and found a ready sale,” the Visitor continued.

With his new idea in hand, Rice and others made a successful appeal to the Tennessee General Assembly to improve the Holston and Tennessee Rivers above Knoxville. Having bitten off more than early 19th Century engineering could chew, however, the venture failed.

“So gigantic was the undertaking and so vast the territory to be provided for that the means proved totally inadequate and the work done was profitless,” Dr. Mellen wrote. But the failure didn’t stop Rice from convincing residents on the East Coast that Hawkins County Marble was like no other.

According to the Visitor, Rice loaded up six-horse wagons to the hilt with marble tabletops, mantels, and tombstones and rode them to Baltimore where marble furnishings were in high demand.

“There he sold them and invested the proceeds in merchandise to be brought to Tennessee. It was under these circumstances that he, as a private citizen, furnished in the name of his home county, Hawkins, the finest block of marble that went into the Washington Monument, and through him that the state of Tennessee contributed another block.

“The fine quality of these attracted such general admiration as to

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Pictured is an original ledger sheet from Orville Rice and Co. Merchants, located at Caney Gap in Hawkins County, and written on Feb. 1, 1839. The document was penned by Rice, who was also owner of Rogersville Marble Company, the state’s first.

The ledger is an account record showing purchases made by a Mr. Samuel Riggs “per Lady” from February 1838 through December 1838. A notation on the document also recognizes William Galbraith, indicating his receipt of the note on December 27, 1841.

While Caney Gap was in Hawkins County, its exact location remains unknown, as does the exact location of Rice’s marble quarry. (Courtesy of George Webb) induce Congress to send an expert to Hawkins County to examine the amount and the character of its marble deposits. The agent reported the quantity inexhaustible and the quality the finest variegated marble in the world.”

Half of the ornamental work in the U.S. Capitol at Washington is the result of the investigation, which was also a profitable one for Mr. Rice. By the time of the Civil War, Orville reportedly owned nine farms and became a businessman “of unlimited public and private credit.”

With his new income, he left his log home and constructed Marble Hall, noted by Dr. Mellen as “the most elegant country residence in East Tennessee…finished throughout and trimmed, as it is, with polished marble.”

Earlier, in 1851, an advertisement in the Rogersville Times called for an open position with the Rice and Edmonds Marble Factory, noting continued on page 34

34 discover hawkins county / fall 2015 continued from page 33

Orville had a new business partner.

Research by Carroll Van West, Ph.D., Director, Susan W. Knowles, Ph.D., Research Fellow, at the Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University, states that the advertisement indicated one of the individuals “had more than twenty years of experience in some of the best establishments in Europe and the Eastern Cities.”

It was also indicated that Rice’s marble factory was water-powered and employed up to six men. More importantly, it was the only establishment listed under marble in the United States Seventh Census: Manufacturers for Tennessee in 1850.

From Rice’s address at Marble Hall they could furnish “monuments, both plain and ornamental,” as well as “marble mantels, centre tables, side tables, bureau tops, vases” and other items.

In his 1907 tribute, Dr. Mellen described Marble Hall, as well as its location: “During the summer just past I visited this stately old Southern home, testifying to past wealth and grandeur, Traveling westward from Rogersville over a highway memorable for the skirmished and raids that took place repeatedly during the Civil War, with the Holston River on [one] hand and the Choptack Mountain on the other, one comes abruptly upon the residence at the foot of a pass where the river breaks through the mountain. There is nothing picturesque about the site, but it stands like a fortress holding a strategic position, and bespeaks the former business sagacity of its lordly proprietor…evidently built it as a monument to perpetuate the story of his varied struggles and efforts in accumulating a fortune. From his own hands and under his supervision the bricks were burned and the timbers sawed that went into its construction. Without a crack or a stain indicating the corroding hand of time, it has stood half a century to testify to the solid worth of the builder and owner and to a season of unbounded prosperity.”

Despite his prosperity, Rice allegedly retained his generosity in the community.

“In all the years his character had never been maligned or his integrity impeached,” Dr. Mellen continued. “In the midst of prosperity he had ministered attentively to the unfortunate about him. He made it a daily business to ascertain who were in need of kindly attention. All the sick and afflicted of the neighborhood for miles around he personally visited, going empty handed neither to the rich nor to the poor. A little wine, a loaf of bread, a sack of flour, some sugar, tea or coffee— these and other accompaniments were the evidences of his kindness and thoughtfulness.”

Despite his benevolence, Rice reportedly made a poor business decision that cost him his marble empire and carried his fortune, as well as his home, into the other hands.

“As if entranced by some siren’s song or entrapped by some witch’s Machinations the flood tide of Mr. Rice’s prosperity was suddenly turned into a sea of desolation,” Dr. Mellen lamented.

According to Dr. Mellen, when the Civil War began to boil around

1855, copper ore was discovered in Southwest Virginia. For Rice, it had all the appearances of a new marble industry that would increase his already substantial income.

“Fortune had favored him so bountifully in the past that, apparently, he ceased to believe in a possible adversity for himself,” Mellen wrote. “The care and foresight he had exercised in younger days were not brought into requisition. Without discretion or discrimination and knowing nothing of their value, he invested in lands said to contain rich copper ore.”

Rice had already made his first mistake.

“When his own capital was exhausted he availed himself of the unlimited credit he could always command. Not to stay the hand of oncoming misfortune, he generously endorsed the note of friends who were buying as unwisely as himself. Eventually, with failure to sell lands or to secure returns, and with creditors clamoring for money lent, and with the approach of the Civil War, he was threatened with destitute circumstances. Fortune was swept away, lands were sold, and home was taken from him.”

Orville lost everything, “yet in the hour of misfortune and calamity he stood serene and even grand.”

“When broken in fortune, he retired to a little homestead, he was not forgotten by those to whom his timely aid had been given. There, in quiet uncomplaining dignity, he closed a career remarkable for its repeated success and for its ultimate failure. The death knell of the Confederacy sounded but a few years before his own.”

By the time Dr. Mellen rode past Marble Hall in 1906, it was a shell of its former grandeur. He wrote that the home had passed into the hands of strangers, “who do not occupy one-forth of the large building.”

“After going through it from ground floor to garret, visiting its numerous rooms, and examining its varied appointments, I stood upon the broad front portico and looked out on the shrubbery, trees, grounds and out-buildings, all set out and planned by the once wealthy owner. Just across the stage road stood the weather-beaten storehouse fast falling into decay.

“My eyes looked in vain for views of the winding river and the surrounding mountains, but these are shut out by hills that rise precipitously in the front and in the rear. By ascending one of these hills one of the most beautiful prospects, in a region famous for its views, may be had. In the train of reflections incident to my surroundings I thought of the many old Southern Manor houses and estates I had seen lying in ruins from the effects of the Civil War and the abolition of slaves: but this was a wreck merely hastened by the war and for which other causes were responsible,” he wrote.

While the marble industry thrived in Hawkins County for a few more decades, the legacy of savvy, Connecticut businessman who started it all would be nearly forgotten.

“In the changes and in the devastation wrought by the time a wholesome lesson and a sad memory are combined in thinking of this New Englander in his adopted home,” Dr. Mellen concluded somberly.

“In youth and middle age as a faithful and patriotic: as a neighbor he was generous and hospitable. In old age he sat down in the midst of failure and

Though Marble Hall has been gone from the Hawkins County landscape for more than 100 years, replaced by a more modest structure that bears its name, “Marble Hall Road” is still visible at intersections of U.S. Highway 11W—all that remains of the man some likened to King Midas.

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A postcard advertising the accomplishments of Dougherty Marble Quarry (Doughertyville, East and Hawkins County, Tennessee) whose headquarters were located at 1303 Market Street, Philadelphia. The postcard also features a drawing of the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition, Main Exhibition Building.

The exhibition celebrated the 100th anniversary of American Independence and was held in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. It was the first major U.S. world’s fair ever held. Dougherty Quarry, near Rogersville, was a featured part of the event, and the building it was housed in was the world’s largest until its demolition in the 1880s.

desolation brought on through unbounded confidence and injudicious investments.”

Though Marble Hall has been gone from the Hawkins County landscape for more than 100 years, replaced by a more modest structure that bears its name, “Marble Hall Road” is still visible at intersections of U.S. Highway 11W—all that remains of the man some likened to King Midas.

Mr. Rice Goes to Washington While Rice’s legacy was filled with Early American idealism and determination, the Hawkins County Marble Industry he founded has a history of its own.

As Dr. Mellen noted in 1907, Orville Rice’s Quarry furnished two marble blocks for the Washington Monument, including Tennessee’s State Block. Geologist Safford, in his 1855 account, noted in greater detail the business exchange between Rice and the State Legislature that led to the contribution: “Mr. Rice sent a block of the ‘light mottled strawberry variety’ to the Washington Monument. It was called the ‘Hawkins County Block,’ and bears the inscription, ‘From Hawkins County, Tennessee.’ Another block of one of the best varieties, was sent by act of the Legislature, which was called the ‘State Block.’”

A well-connected man at this point, Rice was reportedly acquainted with Tennessee State Capitol Architect William Strickland, with whom he left a marble inkstand to attest the color and quality of Hawkins County Marble.

In an 1850 letter to geologist Troost, Rice also made note of the block of light-colored marble he sent to the Washington Monument (Tennessee State Library Archives), in response to an 1849 request from the Washington National Monument Society which asked builders across the Union to supply “memorial blocks” from each state.

Strickland, however, had also sent a sample to Washington and

empowered then-Tennessee Governor William Trousdale to grant him Tennessee’s representation in Washington. In the end, no doubt to Strickland’s dismay, Rice’s Hawkins County Block won out.

Records uncovered in Van West and Knowles research show that Governor Trousdale approved payment to Rice for engraving and gilding the stone, including a statement, “The Federal Union it Must be Preserved,” which was a quote from President Andrew Jackson.

Before the monument was assembled, Rice made a trip to Washington and wrote back that, among the large display of memorial blocks presented by other states, he “saw nothing like it [the Hawkins County Block] from any state.”

Tennessee also paid for shipping Rice’s stone to Baltimore, by land and water transport, where it was transported by rail to Washington.

Though Rice was a documented, early champion of bringing rail service to Hawkins County, his business relied entirely on wagon and river transport—a problem that would ultimately cause the entire Hawkins County Marble Industry to falter.

Van West and Knowles research notes, “to get the monument stones to Washington in 1850, he [Rice] had floated them by flatboat down the Holston and Tennessee rivers to Chattanooga and railroaded them to Charleston for transport up the east coast by schooner to Baltimore.”

Friendly Competition with Capitol Connections Despite attention Rice’s marble attained in Washington, he later lost a bid to furnish the interior of the Tennessee State Capitol which went to Irishman and former New Yorker James Sloan using marble quarried at Knoxville. The marble industry there had begun to boom.

Following his loss, Rice again met competition “in his own back yard,” according to Van West and Knowles who noted, “Two years after he had lost the Tennessee Capitol contract, Hawkins County’s Orville Rice had competition…from William Dougherty.” continued on page 39

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Mount Carmel: • Gov. McMinn’s Home (historic marker) • Liberty Hill Cemetery (historic site) • Mount Carmel City Park & Veterans Memorial Church Hill • Carter’s Store historic marker • Rice’s Mill historic marker • New Canton Plantation • Church Hill Park & Veterans Memorial • Laurel Run Park

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(Oldest Presbyterian Church in TN)

• Phipps Bend Industrial District (nuclear reactor base)

• Long Meadow House, Carter’s Valley (Oldest log home in TN)

• Fudge Farm (house, oldest log barn in TN) • Riverfront & Creekside Parks • Maxwell Academy • Civil War sites (Battle of Big Creek) Bulls Gap • Archie Campbell Homeplace / Museum • Railroad Museum • Bulls Gap Museum • Long & Berry Cemetery • Civil War sites (Battle of Bulls Gap)

Rogersville • Hawkins Co. Courthouse (1836) • Veterans Memorial • Clay-Kenner House • Pettibone House • Rogers Tavern • Crockett Spring Arboretum • Rogers Cemetery (containing graves of Joseph & Mary Amis Rogers and grandparents of Davy Crockett) • Price Public Community Center & Swift Museum • Kyle House • Tennessee Newspaper & Printing Museum • SIte of Tennessee's first newspaper • Hale Springs Inn (1824) • Overton Lodge • Amis Mill Homeplace, Eatery, Dam • Ebbing and Flowing Springs & Methodist Church Mooresburg • Campgrounds • Hawkins County's marble mining industry landmarks

Cherokee Lake / Holston River • Fishing • Boating • Water-related activities, camping Boat Ramps • Church Hill City Park • Laurel Run Park • Christian Bend • Surgoinsville Bridge • Beech Creek • Beech Creek SW • John Sevier Steam Plant • Caney Creek • Gilmore Dock • Melinda Ferry • Quarryville • Church House Point • County Line Road (Bean Station) In adjoining counties • General Longstreet Museum, Russellville, Hamblen Co. • Bridge Burners Monument, Midway, Greene Co. (PUBLISHER'S NOTE: These landmarks are only a few of the many points of interest in Hawkins County and is not a comprehensive or all-inclusive list.)

U.S. Congressman Phil Roe (R-Johnson City) stands at a set of stairs located in the U.S. Capitol at Washington, D.C., which were carved from the National Quarry near Rogersville.

“All East Tennesseans should be proud of the special connection we share with our nation’s Capitol building. Every time I step foot in the Capitol to vote, I think about how the vote will affect Tennesseans. It’s special to have a piece of home in that same building to remind me of the people I’ve been elected to serve,” Roe said. (Photo courtesy of the Office of Congressman Phil Roe.)

fall 2015 / discover hawkins county continued from page 35

39

“I had them taken 200 miles further down the river than the usual landing, and sent the greater part of the force at the quarry to unload them on the beach and haul them to the Rail Road which cost more over four hundred dollars more than it would otherwise have done. Thirteen of the columns are in this lot, the other one is on its way to Charleston….”

Dougherty, a Philadelphia resident, was Construction Superintendent for the Washington National Monument and had talked with another Hawkins County landowner, Andrew Galbraith, about a marble quarry on his land, located southwest of Rogersville.

In 1855, state geologist Safford noted a “[federal] government agent” Inadequate Transportation and Industry Failure visited Hawkins County to inspect the marble and obtain it for the interiors Though Hawkins County Marble had earned national attention from of new wings of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Washington all the way to San Francisco, and was included in more than “Capitol Architect Thomas U. Walter, who had inspected the ‘memorial 150 prominent structures throughout the country, the lack of adequate stones’ sent by various states to the Washington National Monument, may transportation from Rogersville to the nearest railroad was a constant have remarked upon Hawkins County, Tennessee’s marble resources,” threat.

Van West and Knowles wrote. “He certainly “…While Rice may have opened the knew construction superintendent William way for Dougherty to develop a market Dougherty, and the latter might have arranged for Tennessee marble in Washington, the a visit with introductions furnished to him by “It is this stone from ventures of both men were stymied by the Orville Rice, whom he would have met in 1850 lack of direct rail connection north through the ‘Old Dougherty when Rice traveled to Washington, D.C. to see the valley of Virginia to the eastern seaboard,” the sample stones sent by other states.”

Quarry’ that Van West and Knowles continued.

Whatever the case, by 1855 Dougherty And because Knoxville—dubbed constitutes about marble in large quantities was being shipped “Marble City”—had the railroad first, its from Hawkins County to Washington. half the ornamental marble industry prospered while Hawkins A quarry approximately nine miles from County fell behind. marble used in the Rogersville near the Holston River was its According to the Dept. of Education’s access point, where “hundreds of cubic feet” National Capitol. The 1924 account, marble in Hawkins County was of marble were shipped off to Charleston and hauled by mule team and then shipped by balustrades, and Savannah for a journey up the Atlantic to boat down river until it met the Atlantic to be Washington, D.C. “It was here at the National columns of the stairs shipped elsewhere.

Quarry, also called the “Old Dougherty “In times of low water, however, this leading up to the Quarry,” that Dougherty and Baltimore mode of transportation was often interrupted businessman Hugh Sisson obtained marble House and Senate and subject to annoying delays and used on the U.S. Capitol Extensions, including uncertainties, and the coming of the railroad Galleries, the walls three staircases and the walls of what is known was welcomed as a happy event. The marble as the Senate Retiring Room, also known as of the Marble Room, was conveyed from the quarries to the railroad the “Marble Room.” (Van West and Knowles) by wagon hauled by mule teams, from 5 to 12 and other parts of In 1924, the Tennessee Dept. of Education teams and sometimes 15 being required for printed in “Bulletin No. 28” that the National the building are of each wagon.

Quarry was “located on the north side of the “From the beginning, the contract for Tennessee marble.” river at the southwestern extremity of a ridge, hauling the product of the quarries was held by at the base of which the marble formation a colored man, Fred Netherland of Rogersville, 1924, the Tennessee Dept. outcrops. The location was well chosen, for whose equipment of mules numbered at one of Education, “Bulletin No. 28” the formation here was thick and massive and time about 100.” blocks were easily transported to the boats, An anonymous ‘Account Book: 1886-87’ by which they were conveyed to Chattanooga, from Rogersville also documented hauling by Netherland, an African and thence by rail to Washington.

American entrepreneur who specialized in hauling heavy loads using mule “It is this stone from the ‘Old Dougherty Quarry’ that constitutes teams. about half the ornamental marble used in the National Capitol. The According to research by historian Henry Price, two other African balustrades, and columns of the stairs leading up to the House and Senate Americans, John Wells and Reeves Kyle, along with Sam Goodman, used Galleries, the walls of the Marble Room, and other parts of the building are teams of eight to 32 mules or oxen to haul Hawkins County Marble to the of Tennessee marble. Segments of columns rejected by the contractor may railroad. still be seen in the vicinity of the quarry and one that accidentally rolled off The account book also detailed the shipment of blocks of marble to the board is said to be resting in the bottom of the river near the loading customers in Knoxville, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, New York, Milwaukee, place.”

Chicago, St. Louis, and Lexington.

“The drilling was by hand,” it states, “the block wedged out and With such distances to travel—first by mule or oxen, then by water roughly dressed in the quarry. No derricks were used, the blocks being before rail—the inflated value of Hawkins County stone was almost rolled out of the quarry by man and team labor, loaded on wagons and exclusively for interior uses. Businessmen around the country who wanted hauled by teams to the boat landing.” to use marble on the exteriors of their palatial facades turned to Knoxville In an 1858 letter to U.S. Capitol Construction Engineer Captain where there was more variety, lower prices and rail access as early as 1855.

Montgomery Meigs, Dougherty wrote about the difficulty of shipping his marble down river for transport to Washington. continued on page 39

40 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

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Although the rail lines at Bristol and Knoxville were being built out simultaneously, they did not meet at the finishing point in nearby Greene County until 1858.

Van West and Knowles noted that more than one belt of marble had also been discovered at Knoxville, and the same pink and gray marbles also abundant in Hawkins County were in limited supply at a lower price.

Ultimately, however, the failure of a completed railroad network could be attributed to the slow demise of Hawkins County’s Marble Industry.

The Dept. of Education’s 1924 record states, “One of the chief obstacles to the development of marble industry in this [Hawkins] county, however, is want of shipping facilities. Most of the quarries are from 5 to 8 miles from the railroads, and the great expense of teaming the marble over the mountain roads to the railway, prevents this district from competing successfully with others farther south, where the quarries are located within easy reach of the railroad. Given favorable railroad facilities, deposits of pink and gray marble, which undoubtedly exist here, would have been opened but under present conditions these are not likely to be developed.”

Van West and Knowles’ research agreed that, “Those in the Fourth District (Mooresburg) indicated that marble was shipped by wagon and rail, while those in the Third District [Knoxville] shipped directly by rail.

Yet, the Hawkins County marble companies, still dependent upon river to rail transport for the first part of any marble shipment, were destined to fall farther behind as the industry began to coalesce in the Knoxville area…. “…Construction of the East Tennessee and Virginia (ET&V) Railroad, between Knoxville and Bristol, lagged three years behind that of the East Tennessee and Georgia (ET&G) Railroad near Knoxville, which made convenient access to long distance rail shipping for quarry owners like Rice and Dougherty nearly impossible.”

“Even though the ET&V Railroad would eventually pass through Whitesburg, just five miles south of the main highway connecting Rogersville to the marble areas near Mooresburg, the transfer of marble from quarry to rail would continue to involve the heavy labor and expense of mule teams, wagons, and flatboats. Whitesburg is located on the opposite side of the Holston River from Rogersville. A railroad spur from Bull’s Gap to Mooresburg-Rogersville was finally constructed circa 1870 under the aegis of a separate corporate body. But by then the Hawkins County marble industry had lost its early advantage in the industry.”

A Growing Industry Despite Limitations Despite transportation limitations, the East Tennessee marble industry continued to grow following the Civil War. Four new quarries sprang up in Hawkins County between 1850 and 1880, according to U.S. Census data, each of which named Baltimore as its primary market.

One of those would furnish the interior for Baltimore City Hall.

Following the success of the Old Dougherty Quarry, Hasson’s Quarry or “The Cave” was also founded, according to the Dept. of Education’s Bulletin.

“This quarry was opened by Mr. John Hasson about 1857, and was the first of the Tennessee quarries in which derricks and channeling machines were used. Mr. Hasson having installed here for the first channeling machine brought south of the Potomac River.

“The first large contract was for blocks for the Baltimore City Hall, and these like all other marble blocks in those days, had to be hauled to the river and boated down to Chattanooga. But in those times the prices obtained were quite large, and a great deal of the marble from this quarry

41

was sold above ten dollars a cubic foot.”

Other early quarrymen of Hawkins County included J. C. Stamps of Rogersville, who operated the ‘Stamps Star Quarry’ located two miles southwest of the Dougherty Quarry.

The Stamps Star Quarry was opened by a “Mr. Stuart” around 1874 and operated by Mr. Stamps until 1887, “when it passed under the control of some Chicago parties represented by Dr. Kerber of Mooresburg. These operations were continued for four or five years since which time the quarry has remained idle.”

A half-mile northeast of the Stamps Star Quarry, “near the road leading to Red Bridge Ferry, is the quarry and mill of Mr. H. B. Stamps, who with his brother, has been connected with the quarrying industry of Hawkins County for many years.”

Stamps’ name can still be seen on Rogersville’s H.B. Stamps Memorial Library. His quarry was opened in 1887 and continued in operation in a moderate way until the 1920s, “when the demand for the dark variegated marbles practically ceased.” Today, the quarry is surrounded by Cherokee Lake and inundated, as are many other Hawkins County quarries.

The Rogersville Episcopal Church, formerly the Pauline Stamps Home and first location of H.B. Stamps Library on Main Street, is an example of Stamps-Star and other locally mined marbles. The house has a marble exterior, and includes a marble walkway, as well as retaining wall.

Adjoining the Stamps Star Quarry was Evans Quarry, “operated extensively for many years by the W. H. Evans Marble Company of Baltimore, Maryland.” However, “with the change in public taste for lighted shades,” Evans Quarry transferred to Knoxville.

“Other names prominently associated formerly with the marble interest of Hawkins County are those of J. H. Pierce and James Cooper of Rogersville. Various quarries were opened on the belt northeast of the Old Dougherty Quarry, about 20 being in operation at one time in this district, with Rogersville as the logical center of the industry. Many were of relatively minor importance, but together they made a notable contribution to the output of the district.

“First, northeast of the Old Dougherty Quarry are the ‘Fudge’ and ‘McClure’ quarries. Then in order come the ‘Pride,’ ‘Kyle,’ and ‘Cave’ quarries.” Other names have been lost in the past.

By the mid-1880s there were approximately 30 marble businesses operating in Tennessee, all of which began with Orville Rice near Rogersville.

In 1876, Dougherty Marble Quarry was featured at the first International Exhibition, held at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia to celebrate the 100th anniversary of American Independence. The exhibition was also the inaugural World’s Fair, which would return to Knoxville in 1982.

By the 1920s-30s the East Tennessee Marble Industry had reached its peak. A 1937 report from the Tennessee Valley Authority showed that more than half the marble in the U.S. came from East Tennessee, but Author Edwin Eckel noted that Hawkins County quarries—considered a chief area of development—were no longer productive.

Despite modern day scars in the earth, as well as county road names like Quarryville, Marble Hall, Stamps, and a handful of others whose meanings have long since faded, the industry founded in Hawkins County has left few memories, but will always have a legacy carved in stone.

— By Joel Spears

42 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

Jerilynn and Merrell Graham have owned and operated Dairy Mart for more than 30 years.

Surgoinsville fixture since the ‘50s The Dairy Mart, a town landmark, going strong for more than 60 years

F

or more than 60 of Surgoinsville’s 200 years, Dairy Mart has been a town landmark and big part of its heritage.

During lunch hours, at supper time, after school, before sock hops – multiple generations have swung by Dairy Mart for a quick ice cream or a hot dog topped with its famous cole slaw and homemade chili, the secret recipe for which dates back at least to about 1954, when it was called “Dari Mart.”

When James Graham and Lillian Huff Graham moved from the coal mining hills of Fleming-Neon, Kentucky in 1960 and bought the restaurant from founder Eleanor Henry, they acquired with it a secret document.

“A friend who lived in Surgoinsville bought some furniture from someone, took it home and opened the drawer and found this recipe for chili,” says James and Lillian Graham’s son, Merrell. “She brought it to Miss Henry and said, ‘I found this recipe, you might want to use it here.’”

fall 2015 / discover hawkins county

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Dairy Mart, known as “Dari Mart” in the early days, has been a popular Surgoinsville spot since the 1950s.

continued from page 42

So, Ruth Elkins’ recipe has always been used at Dairy Mart.

“When I moved down here in 1960 from Eastern Kentucky – my dad was laid off as a coal miner – I was between my sophomore and junior year,” Merrell said. “My mom’s people are all here, the Huff family. The video store (Cliffhanger Video) used to be a Texaco service station. My dad purchased that and they ran them together several years before he went back to the coal mines. I worked here then, too.

“I started up at Surgoinsville High School. I played all sports when I was in Kentucky but they didn’t have football up here. When we moved here, a lot of people from Rogersville, the coach, people from the boosters club, came up here and tried to talk my dad into letting me go to school in Rogersville and let me play football. They’d guarantee me a starting position,” Merrell says.

“I told my dad, ‘I can’t do that. People wouldn’t trade here with you if I left here and went up and played ball in Rogersville.’ They had me a way to and from Rogersville but I liked it here,” Merrell says. “I love Surgoinsville. I fit right in with the people here. It’s just like I’ve known them all my life.”

Lillian sold the restaurant in 1964, around the time Merrell married his high school sweetheart, Jerilynn Quillen.

“Jerilynn and I got married during her senior year in school,” Merrell says. “Back then, people married pretty young.”

Merrell became a police officer in Surgoinsville in 1970, then served as Surgoinsville Police Chief from 1972 until 1980. He was a TVA police officer for 22 years until retiring in 2000. “I had a lifetime of law enforcement,” says Graham, who was elected mayor in August of last year.

Dairy Mart changed ownership numerous times in its 60-plus years, including Arthur and Eleanor Henry, who built the restaurant along with

a Texaco service station, Conner and Bobby Lou Britton, Elmer and Nina Myers, Mae and James Graham, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Golden, Mr. and Mrs. G.A. Golden, and since 1986, Merrell and Jerilynn Graham.

“Jerilynn was working for Nick Nave Catering in Kingsport and this place came up for sale. Nick encouraged her to take it. He said, ‘It’s a good business. I know it. I could buy that and run it myself.’ So we went ahead and bought it,” Merrell said.

Jerilynn said, “Nick told me that if we couldn’t make it, he would make it for us.”

“We’ve been happy with it,” says Merrell. He and Jerilynn have owned it for the past 30 years. “Jerilynn and I run it. We’ve got seven parttime people.”

While the ingredients for the chili and cole slaw may be secret, the Grahams’ recipe for success isn’t.

“When we bought the business, we decided that we would buy the top product – the best burgers, the best fries – that’s available to us. We still do that today. We buy the number one product in everything. We don’t go to second grade in anything. And it’s paid off for us. People know that,” Graham said.

“We also deliver. We would like to have a $35 order. We deliver quite a bit to the Hawkins County Industrial Park and occasionally to the schools,” said Graham, who is also Chairman of the Surgoinsville Riverfront Festival Committee.

For years, the Dairy Mart has sponsored the Block Party, which precedes the Riverfront Festival. “We give away 1,000 hot dogs. We pull in a huge crowd. They love the chili,” Graham says.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes. Back then, it was basically hot dogs and hamburgers and soft-serve ice cream,” Graham says. “Now we serve real continued on page 45

44 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

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Dairy Mart as it appeared in the 1960s next to Golden and Mauk Texaco, which is now Cliffhanger Video.

continued from page 43

ice cream, Breyers™ ice cream. There’s a little more variety in fast food now.”

Dairy Mart is a little more than fast food. Besides the usual staples, Dairy Mart serves catfish, shrimp, flounder, BLTs, Chuckwagon, salads and bacon and eggs.

“We have customers as far away as Kingsport come down here for our hot dogs,” says Merrell, who recalls a time when he was working for TVA. “I was working at Boone Dam one day and there was a guy from AT&T telephone company. We got to talking and I told him I was from Surgoinsville.

“He said, ‘I live in Kingsport. We come to Surgoinsville every Thursday, my family and in-laws, and we buy these hot dogs at this little old place down there called the Dairy Mart.’ I said that’s my place, I own it.

He said, ‘Well, my goodness. It’s a small world.’

“People come from Rogersville up here for hot dogs. They tell us they’re on their lunch break and they’ve got to hurry up and hurry back,” says Graham. “A lot of people eat here just about every day. We know our customers. Some of them will pull up out here and raise their hand and we know exactly they want. They don’t even have to get out of their car.

“Between 2 and 4 o’clock, we’ll have a lot of customers for ice cream cones and milkshakes,” he says. “Of course, the things that are important to us and unique to us is our homemade chili and cole slaw. We sell a lot of cole slaw. People by it by the cup – 16 ounce, 32 ounce – for supper at home. Those are our homemade recipes.”

You can get just about whatever you want at Dairy Mart but the secret recipes.

“That’s my wife’s recipe and we don’t give it out, either,” Merrell says. “We have people that ask for it but we won’t give it out.”

Like Dairy Mart itself, the Grahams are a fixture in Surgoinsville. “ I have always felt that this is where God wants me to be because I can’t remember the number of people that just stop by and ask for prayer,” Jerilynn said. “During difficult times many people just stopped by to tell us that they were praying for us, and that is all we needed.”

For hot dogs, chili and cole slaw, or just to say hello or share a prayer, stop by Dairy Mart, located at 2120 Main Street, Surgoinsville. It is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Phone number is (423) 345-2716.

— By Jim Beller

Some information in this article was contributed by Rita Dykes.

46 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

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48 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

A group of disc golfers play the course during the summer.

Pictured from left: Travis Johnson, Shawn Owens, (kneeling) Steve Smith and Kevin Owens.

fall 2015 / discover hawkins county

49

Kevin Owens plays the No. 9 hole.

A golfing proposition Disc golf course at Church Hill’s Laurel Run Park is a hit CHURCH HILL — ­ For Joe Lindsey, it’s been a long time coming and well worth the wait.

Lindsey, the caretaker at Hawkins County’s Laurel Run Park, saw the dream of a disc golf course come to fruition this year. Although there have already been people playing the nine-hole course, the course opened for tournament play in July.

We’ve got disc golf courses surrounding us,” golfer Kevin Owens said.” We’re hoping that this course will be up there with some of the other courses in our area. If we get more people coming, we’ll be able to expand,” Owens noted.

“We’re probably getting 150 to 200 people a week and we’ve not ad-

vertised,” Lindsey said.

According to Owens, disc golf is popular throughout the world and can be played year round, even during the winter months.

The course received a shot in the arm with a donation from the Hawkins County Parks Committee in order to buy and install the baskets for the course, according to Lindsey. Labor was free with players installing the equipment.

“We were going to try to drum up the money ourselves. We thought we had a sponsor lined up, but it fell through,” Lindsey said.

“What Hawkins County got was one hell of a deal,” Owens said. continued on page 51

50 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

2016 SKELTON LAW RACING SERIES SURGOINSVILLE 10 MILER

THE RIVER MILE

February 27, 8:30am Surgoinsville Middle School SFTC Long Distance Series SFTC King & Queen Competition SFTC 2010 Race of the Year Award RRCA Tennessee State 10 Mile Championship

June 7, 6:00pm Laurel Run Park – Church Hill SFTC Kids’ Festival of Miles SFTC Mile Series Competition SFTC King & Queen Competition

PHIPPS BEND RIVER RUN

June 25, 8:00am Phipps Bend Industrial District – Surgoinsville SFTC King & Queen Competition SFTC 2011 Shirt of the Year Award SFTC Prince & Princess Competition

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LAUREL RUN ASCENT

April 16, 8:30am 11 mile trail race Laurel Run Park – Church Hill Trail Runner Trophy Series SFTC Long Distance Series SFTC Trail Series Competition SFTC King & Queen Competition SFTC 2013 Race of the Year Award

PHIPPS BEND 5K

FIRECRACKER 4 MILER

July 4, 7:00am Rogersville City Park SFTC King & Queen Competition SFTC 2006 Race of the Year Award Rogersville 4th of July Celebration Event RRCA Tennessee State 4 Mile Championship

WOLF RUN

May 7, 8:30am Amis Mill Eatery – Rogersville SFTC King & Queen Competition

July 19, 6:30pm 7 mile trail race Bays Mountain Park – Kingsport Kingsport Fun Fest Event Trail Runner Trophy Series SFTC Trail Series Competition SFTC King & Queen Competition SFTC 2014 & 2010 Shirt of the Year Award SFTC 2012 & 2009 Race of the Year Award

CASA ROAD RACE 8K & MILE

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June 4, 8:00am Crockett Spring Park – Rogersville SFTC Kids’ Festival of Miles SFTC Mile Series Competition SFTC King & Queen Competition

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MARK ALBERT SKELTON AMY KATHLEEN SKELTON

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51

Laurel Run Park has the only pro shop in the area stocking discs and supplies.

Shawn Owens eyes the mark for his next shot. continued from page 49

“We had a lot of help putting it in,” Lindsey said. “To be honest, (in Jaunary) I didn’t know about the sport. I’ve learned a lot on the fly.”

Benches and signs located around the course were built and installed by a local Boy Scout troop. East Tennessee Forest Products donated materials for a bridge on the course.

Other course locations in Northeast Tennessee include Warriors’ Path State Park and Borden Park in Kingsport, Cherokee Park in Morristown and Harmon Hills in Greeneville.

The golf course also has a pro shop located inside Lindsey’s office at the park. The Laurel Run shop also sells the Trilogy line of Frisbee discs. In addition to discs, towels and T-shirts are also available for sale in the shop.

Lindsey noted that they also do special orders.

The Laurel Run course also hosts the only driving range in northeast Tennessee. The only closer driving range is in Asheville, N.C. Proceeds will benefit alternate tee pad instalation and a possible ninehole course expansion.

“We’ve really been wanting this course for a long time,” Owens said. “We’re super excited to have this course here. It’s something that people aren’t going to have to drive to Kingsport, Morristown or Greeneville to play. “

The economic impact is tremendous, according to Lindsey.

“People are going to buy food and gas at the businesses around here,” Lindsey said. “It’s good people, too. It helps everyone in the long run, it really does.”

“None of this would have been possible without Joe, he’s been all over it,” Owens said.

“I think it’s a blessing for Hawkins County in the park traffic and disc sales. That’s extra money for the county,” Lindsey said.

“You never know, you may get another course in Hawkins County and that will bring in more,” Owens said.

— By Wade Littleton

To schedule times at the Laurel Run Course, contact Lindsey at (423) 357-8110.

52 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

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PHOTOs by TOMMY CAMPBELL

Tennessee Newspaper & Printing Museum and Depot

Photo courtesy of ETSU Sports Information Department

fall 2015 / discover hawkins county

55

Tyler Gilliam Volunteer High graduate getting to play on new ETSU football team

JOHNSON CITY — Playing football comes naturally to some people.

For Tyler Gilliam, his experience as a long-snapper at Volunteer High School has gotten him a roster spot on East Tennessee State’s resurrected football program.

Gilliam came to the Bucs in late spring. He is the son of Mike and Cynthia Gilliam of Church Hill. He wears jersey 66 for the Buccaneers.

“I’m a late commit, I committed at the last practice before the spring game,” Gilliam said. “After spring practice, Assistant Coach Antonio Goss said they had a walk-on spot for me then.

“I talked to Marshall, Tennessee Tech and other schools, but I quit talking after signing day. Goss and Assistant Coach Billy Taylor contacted me and I went for a visit for three or four spring practices. Coach Goss found a spot for me after that.

It’s been quite a quantum leap for the Hawkins County player, who played for former Falcons’ Coach Scott Rider last season.

“It’s been great, so far. ETSU Head Coach Carl Torbush is really good with special teams. He likes to put us in pressure situations. That way when it comes game time it doesn’t affect us,” Gilliam noted.

After the program was discontinued after the 2003 season by then-ETSU President Dr. Paul Stanton, a task force was formed by now-President Dr. Brian Noland to gage the interest in the return of football to the Johnson City campus. The findings found that there was a spot for the fall sport at ETSU. ““It’s been really exciting. It’s a humbling experience to bring back something special,” Gilliam said.

The season began in early September against Kennesaw State. Although the Bucs have yet to win a game this season, they are building for the long haul with many freshmen and sophomores from Northeast Tennessee and other areas.

Although the Buccaneers are Southern Conference members, they will not begin league play until the 2016 season.

In playing long-snapper on field goals, punts and extra points, Gilliam honed his craft by learning from the best.

“I went to Chris Rubio, the best long snap coach in America,” Gilliam said.

As far as hobbies, Gilliam like to keep things simple.

“I like to go to my room to talk to parents on phone, practice snapping and play Madden 2016,” he noted.

On the college game, Gilliam has noticed many differences. “The game is so much faster here than in high school. After you get up here, it

just happens so fast. It’s all happening,” Gilliam noted.

For Gilliam, his major just comes naturally to him. He is majoring in mass communications to be able to follow his dream of working in sports talk radio.

It’s been quite a quantum leap for the Hawkins County player, who played for former Falcons’ Coach Scott Rider last season.

“I’m going all out for mass communications,” Gilliam said. “I’d like to be somewhere in the sports world. My dream job would be to work for ESPN or SEC Network where I could talk sports all day long. It would also be great to work around here to help the local high school athletes to get their name out.

Possible locations for future employment include Washington, D.C. or Knoxville. “I like D.C. because I went there to visit. I love every D.C. sports team and there would be a lot of job opportunities. The Knoxville market also has some good sports radio shows,” Gilliam added.

In addition to his parents, Tyler has a sister, Laiken, a student at Tennessee Tech. She was a basketball player for several years and will graduate with a degree in criminal justice in December.

Gilliam has not lost track of why he is in college. “Coach Torbush wants us to develop friendships with students,” he said. “I’d love to bring an ETSU scrimmage to Volunteer.”

— By Wade Littleton

www.sportslogos.net/logos/view/66640802014/ETSU_Buccaneers/2014/Wordmark_Logo

56 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

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Sales throughout the year ... plus recliners, sofas, love seats and accessories to fit your lifestyle.

We have great gifts for all occasions!

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Drive-thru Window Visit our Old Fashion Grill 423-272-0713

Medical Center Pharmacy 423-272-8104 Hours: Monday - Friday 9-6 • Saturday 9-3

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Beginning in late May and continuing on the second Friday evenings through October, visitors and locals enjoy Rogersville Main Street’s Cruise-In on the Square.

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Cruise-in entries may begin parking after 4 p.m. and dash plaques go to the first 50 cars. A People Choice Trophy will be awarded.

Please contact 423-272-2186 for more information. — photos by Sheldon Livesay

62 discover hawkins county / fall 2015

Cruise-In En

Cruise-

Cruise-In

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ntertainment

-In Fun

n Friends

Photos by Sheldon Livesay

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Thank you for your business!

— Harsh Patel St. Clair Place

If you have any comments, please call 423-754-9663.

We Serve Sandwiches • Coffee • Cappuccinos 420 Park Blvd, Suite 10 • Rogersville, TN

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advertiser INDEX Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium...................................... 64 Blue Ridge Package............................................................... 59 Broken Arrow........................................................................ 65 Broome Funeral Home, Inc.................................................... 58 Bulls Gap Drugs..................................................................... 69 Campbell’s Hometown Pharmacy......................................... 59 Christian-Sells Funeral Home................................................ 57 Church Hill Drug Store........................................................... 65 Church Hill Vet Hospital......................................................... 58 Colonial Mini Storage............................................................ 58 Community Clothes Closet, Inc.............................................. 59 Creek Country Real Estate..................................................... 59 Crye-Leike Realtors of Rogersville......................................... 57 Custom Heating & Air Conditioning, LLC................................ 67 Dewayne’s Body Shop, LLC.................................................... 58 Di’s Diner............................................................................... 69 East Tenn Pest Control........................................................... 59 East Tennessee Printing......................................................... 64 Eastman Credit Union............................................................. 3 Edde Chevrolet Company, Inc................................................ 26 First Community Bank........................................................... 44 Givens Nelson Realty, Inc...................................................... 28 Grayson Subaru..................................................................... 71 Greene’s Trailer & Equipment................................................ 64 H&R Block, Peggy Long......................................................... 44 Hancock County Home Health and Hospice Agency.............. 65 Hancock Manor Nursing Home.............................................. 44 Hancock Medical Equipment................................................. 65 Hardwood Specialties........................................................... 56 Hawkins County Commissioners / Park Division............... 36-37 Hawkins County Gas Utility..................................................... 2 Hawkins County Lutheran Worship Community.................... 26 Home Place B&B................................................................... 53 Investment Rental Properties............................................... 64 Justice Stoneworks, LLC........................................................ 47 Kingsport Academy of Hair Design........................................ 47 Local Heating / Cooling......................................................... 56 Main Street Realty................................................................ 53 Mark A. Skelton, Attorney at Law.......................................... 57 Martin’s Greenhouses & Landscaping..................................... 47 Mauk’s of Jonesborough....................................................... 56 Mary’s Spirit & Fine Wines..................................................... 53 Medical Center Pharmacy..................................................... 58 Michael’ Family Diner............................................................ 47 Mike Harrison, State Representative...................................... 46 Mounts Mechanical............................................................... 68 Nationwide Insurance........................................................... 40 Niswonger Performing Arts Center (NPAC)............................ 29 Oakes Salvaged Freight......................................................... 64 Papa John’s........................................................................... 53

Parkway Tobacco / Rogersville Tobacco ................................. 66 Pig & Chick............................................................................ 47 Quality Inn / Comfort Inn & Suites........................................ 53 Republic Services.................................................................. 40 Richardson & Richardson Realty and Auction Company........ 64 RNK Logging......................................................................... 44 Rogersville / Hawkins County Chamber of Commerce............. 6 Rogersville City School System.............................................. 46 Rogersville First Baptist Church............................................. 26 Rogersville Main Street........................................................... 7 Rowena’s on Main................................................................. 10 Rural Health Serviced Consortium, Inc.................................. 52 Short Mountain Silica Company............................................ 46 Signature Properties & Auction............................................. 40 Silver Lake Garden Center..................................................... 44 Simply Tee-Rific.................................................................... 44 Skelton Law Racing Series..................................................... 50 St. Clair Place ........................................................................ 66 Stanley Valley Market........................................................... 66 Stapleton Insurance Agency.................................................. 44 Tennessee College of Applied Technology............................. 46 The Rogersville Review..................................................... 69, 70 The Shepherd’s Center – Of One Accord Ministry................... 69 To Go Market......................................................................... 66 Town of Bulls Gap................................................................. 29 Town of Rogersville................................................................ 28 U-Save.................................................................................. 68 United Country Real Estate / Clinch Mountain Realty and Auction................................... 72 Walmart................................................................................ 40 Walters State........................................................................ 10 Wendy’s Simple Treasures..................................................... 40 Wilderness at the Smokies.................................................... 67 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.......................................... 68 Yoder’s Country Market......................................................... 29 Yum-Yum.............................................................................. 66

DISCOVER

Hawkins County Get additional copies of this edition for out-of-town friends and family for $2 each (plus $2.30 shipping).

Drop by The Rogersville Review at 316 East Main Street Downtown Rogersville, TN or Mail a check for $4.30 ($2 plus $2.30 shipping for each copy) to The Rogersville Review / Discover • P.O. Box 100, Rogersville, TN 37857 Please include your mailing address and phone number.

fall 2015 / discover hawkins county

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Lisa McBride

Principle Broker Cell: 423-748-1081

Joey Haun

clinchmtnrealty@gmail.com

Afliate Broker Cell: 423-748-7181

Tereasa Hubbard Afliate Broker Cell: 423-839-8544

joey@ucclinchmountainrealty.com

tereasahubbard@yahoo.com

Proudly Serving East Tennessee.

Nobody knows the Country like We Do!

Homes, Cattle Farms, Mountain Cabins, Weekend Getaways and Horse Property

3736 Highway 25-E Bean Station, TN 37708

865-993-5263 Fax: 865-993-6447 TNFL #5167

Each ofce independently owned and operated

www.ucclinchmountainauction.com www.ucclinchmountainrealty.com