History of Roane County Tennessee United States of America

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Local History Notes:

Roane County was erected November 6, 1801, and was formed from Knox County. It was named for Judge Archibald Roane, governor, 1801-1803. After the Hiwassee Purchase, Roane County was extended on the south side of the Tennessee River and Morgan County was taken from it.

On November 30, 1793, a blockhouse was completed by John Sevier at Southwest Point, a station established in 1721, near Kingston, which was of great service to travelers and settlers as a protection against the Indians.

Capt. W. E. McElwee, of Rockwood, is authority for the following statement concerning the early history of this section: "In 1799 the Legislature then in session in Knoxville passed an act, 'To establish a town to be named Kingston, on the lands of Robert King, near Southwest Point, in Knox County' to be laid out under the direction of David Miller, Alexander Carmichael, George Preston, John Smith, William L. Lovely, and Thomas N. Clark. Later a petition was sent to the Assembly to create a new county, with Kingston for the county seat. This was done November 6, 1801. It was named in honor of Archibald Roane. There were in the county 275 men capable of bearing arms, organized into six companies. Only eight men were unable to sign their names to the muster rolls. Forty-two of them had been Revolutionary soldiers, among them Captain Walker, who had commanded the bodyguard of Light Horse Harry Lee."

The road running from the Clinch River to the Cumberland settlements, built in 1785, passed through Roane County. When Knoxville became the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1792, the road was extended to that point. In 1822 it became a twice-a-week state route, running through the main street of Kingston. At that time Kingston was a very important point. Its inns were stopping places for Jackson, Sevier and other noted men of those days. On Monday, September 21, 1807, the Legislature met at Kingston, but adjourned to meet at Knoxville on Wednesday, September 23d.

Early settlers were: Dr. Daniel Rather, Thomas C. Childress, William French, David Patton, Thomas Brown, quartermaster for the garrison at Southwest Point; Gen. John Brown, owner of extensive lands, and William Brown, an eminent lawyer. Gen. John Brown was the first sheriff of Roane County. The Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was organized on December 20, 1801, at the home of Hugh Beatty, at which time the following magistrates were qualified: William White, Samuel Miller, Hugh Nelson, Paul Harlson, Zacheus Ayer, George Preston, William Campbell, James Preston, Isham Cox, William Barnett, George McPherson, and Abraham McClelland.

Early lawyers were: John Purvis, James McCampbell, W. C. Dunlap, J. W. Brazeale, J. Y. Smith, and I. Hope.

Soldiers from this county in the Creek war and the War of 1812 were: John Loyd, Daniel Wester, Uriah Allison, Tom Margrave and John Morrison. Sam Houston was a clerk in a store in Kingston when he enlisted as a soldier in the Creek war.

Rittenhouse Academy was one of the twenty-seven academies established in Tennessee in accordance with the terms of the compact of 1806. It educated many prominent men and women. For many years its principal was a Prussian of high birth, named H. W. von Aldehoff. He married a sister of Judge James Sevier, a grandson of John Sevier. Afterwards he established a celebrated school on Lookout Mountain and later moved to Dallas, Texas.

Statistics of Roane County: Population, 1920, 24,624. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $14,239,879. Area, 450 square miles. Number of farms, 1,687. Railway mileage, 89. Drained by Tennessee River and tributaries. Surface mountainous and covered with fine forests of timber. Soil fertile in valleys and river bottoms. Mineral resources are iron ore, coal and building stone. Staple products are corn, wheat, grass and live stock. Fine county for orchards and vineyards. The strawberry industry has been developed in the county. The county has a fine system of public highways. Kingston, the county seat, with a population of 516, is a flourishing town with good schools, churches, bank and weekly newspaper. Harriman, with a population of 4,019, has fine schools and churches, banks, newspapers, and several manufacturing establishments. Rockwood, with a population of 4,652, is an iron and coke center and gives employment to a large number of people in these industries. It has fine schools and churches, banks, weekly newspaper and manufacturing establishment. Scholastic population of county, 8,618; high schools, 5; elementary schools, 57.

From: Moore, John Trotwood. Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL, USA: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923.

Biographies:

Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson, representative, was born in Roane county, Tenn., March 19, 1812; son of David and Phoebe (White) Nelson, and grandson of John Nelson of Rockbridge county, Va. He was graduated at East Tennessee college in 1828; was admitted to the bar in 1832, and settled in practice in Washington county. He was married, July 30, 1839, to Ann E., daughter of Montgomery Stuart of Washington county, Tenn. He was attorney and solicitor-general for the first district of Tennessee, 1833; attorney-general, first district, 1841-47; a presidential elector on the Clay and Frelinghuysen ticket in 1844, and on the Taylor and Fillmore ticket in 1848. He declined the U.S. consulship to China in 1851, was defeated by James C. Jones by one vote in the Whig caucus for the U.S. senatorship, 1851, and by John Bell in 1853; was a Whig representative from the first Tennessee district in the 36th congress, 1859-61, and was re-elected to the 37th congress. In endeavoring to make his way to Washington to take his seat he was captured by Confederate scouts in southwestern Virginia, taken to Richmond, and obtained his parole upon condition that he would return home and not engage in hostilities against the Confederate States while they had possession of Tennessee. He was president of East Tennessee Union conventions at Knoxville and Greenville in 1861; removed to Knoxville in 1863; was a trustee of East Tennessee university, 1865; counsel for President Johnson in the impeachment trial, 1868; a delegate to the Democratic national convention at New York in 1868; judge of the state supreme court, 1870-71, and resigned in 1871. He is the author of the poems: East Tennessee; King Caucus, and Secession. He died in Knoxville, Tenn., Aug. 24, 1873.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Roane County Tennessee

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