Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-03-31
The first Settlers of East Ten
nessee.

The FIRST Settlers of East Ten
nessee.
To the Editor Of the Public Ledger:
Some of our East Tennessee exchange
are printing the following paragraph
"The house Of Mr.Williani Greenway
near Broylesville, in Washington county
is probably the oldest building in Eas
Tennessee, having been erected about thu
year l74l by the grandfather of thu
present occupant. 49,.
That house is not quite so old. The
first permanent white settlement was
made in Sullivan or Hawkins county in
1859, twenty-eight years after it il
claimed the house near Broylesville was
erected. 1t is very certain that that
house was not erected in l74l, nor for
thirtyyears thereafter. Nashville Union
and american.
The editor of the Union and American,
from which the above extract is taken, is
certainly correct in stating that Mr..
Greenway's hsuse is not so old as is here
represented. 1t may possibly be the
Oldest house in East Tennessee, but most
certainly was not built as early as l74l.
No settlement in East Tennessee was
made at so early day. 1t was about
this period that the earliest adventurers
and hunters made their first appearance
in that portion Of our State, and not I'M
til several years later were any settle
ments attempted
The writer some years since, for his
own amusement, made some researches
into the early history Of Hawkins
county, which were published in the
Presbyterian Witness. As bearing upon
the date of the first settlement in that
part Of our State, | make the following
extract from those articles:
A little more than century ago the
magnificent area, the circumference of
which is swept as with compass by the
Cumberland mountains aud the Holston
and Tennessee rivers, was one vast, I'M
broken solitude. No human habitation
relieved the intense and solemn silence
of the wilderness. Seldom indeed were
the Astounding multitudes of wild ami
mails, which roamed as its undisputed
and undisturbed monarchs, molested
even by the little less untamed Indian
hunter. @EIasE fL
Allured by the immense profits which
were to be realized by trafieing with tie
Indians, enterprising traders, long in adj
vance Of the tide Of emigration, had
penetrated through this solitude to the
settlements of the natives, for the pur-
pose of exchanging their wares for the
trophies Of the forest and chase. The
earliest authentic record we have OF
civilized men in Hawkins county is Of
such party, which passed through it as
early as l740, on their way southwark to
the Cherokee Nation Their route was
probably the same as the present
great road from Kingsport to the mouth
Of Big Creek; then diverging to the left
they pursued the course of the river,
which they crossed at the point now
known as McKinney's Mills. Still bear
ing southwark they passed by the site of
the present Aourishing village of st.
Clair, on to the Indian settlements.
Even at this early day, the path pur-
sued by these adventures was an old
one.
The accounts which, from time to
time, these traders brought back of the
abundance of game and the great natu-
raj beauty of the country, we're not long
in exciting the hardy men Of the border,
who had for time been stayed by the
great Appalachian chain, as a mighty
breakwater. But the wave had been &C
cumulating momentum until even this
mighty barrier was practically parting
before the pent-up tide.
About 1853, bold pioneers began to
explore the wilderness as far westward
as the present limits of East Tennessee,
and in 1861 a company Of hunters from
Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Caro-
lima penetrated as far as Carter Valley,
perhaps only crossing the northern part
Of the Valley. Ten years later three
men, Messrs Sawyer, Christian and An
derson, came still further west, their ex-
plorations terminating at Big Creek,
three miles above Rogersville, where
they we're arrested by evidences Of the
presence Of large party of Indian
hunters. 1t was about this time the first
permanent settlements began to be made
in East Tennessee. j. W. Z.