Maryville Enterprise (Blount County, TN) August 18, 1911

Maryville Enterprise, Friday, August 18, 1911, Page 1:

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“Logan’s Chapel---A Sketch. A Historical Article Dealing With The Older Families Who Lived About This Old Chapel.

George and Rebecca Julian lived where James McCamy now lives. They reared a family there; Isham, the oldest son, became a Methodist minister and lived at the old Allen Strick or Garner place just across the river from where Andy Davis now lives. Leaving there he lived and preached until he became so old and feeble he would have to sit down to preach, finally dying at the advanced age of 88. His father and mother died just fifteen days apart with a disease called black tongue. Their remains rest just back of this church in that little stone house. The dates of their births could not be obtained and do not appear on the slab at their heads. Neither do we know just when they came here, but it was as far back as 1820 and perhaps earlier. Their descendants are all gone except the great-grandchildren descending from the marriage of their daughter, Sallie, to James McCamy. But Bradley County is full of them.

John Brakebill lived at the Perry Franklin place and reared a large family. They were very prolific and it looked for a while like they were going to populate this common wealth; but they have scattered until only a few remain to represent that large family. Mrs. Sallie Cunningham, being the only one of the original family left here. John Jr. lives in Knoxville and is 75 years old. Most of them are dead. Uncle Peter lived to be 87 and reared a good sized family but William H. and George W. are the only ones left in this neighborhood. They lived on their father’s farm, to-wit, the Stephen Porter place, or earlier the Gordon White place. Gordon White was living there when our time began. He had a son, John, who died a young man and was buried on that slate knoll between the present homes of William and George Brakebill. It was during a wet season and water rose in the graves so much that it was necessary to bail it out before lowering the coffin. Some years later when the farm passed into other hands the Whites wanted to remove John’s remains to this place. Accordingly, they reopened the grave to find the body a solid rock. It had petrified and weighed 500 pounds or more. Samuel McCamy tried to cut the body with his knife, but it was like marking a stone. A story goes that his grave was robbed a few years ago and the body taken away, supposedly to be put in a museum; but we do not know if this is true. Several members of the White family are buried here.

Another very important factor in the neighborhood was Henry Dupes. He lived on Nails Creek but made all the furniture for this part of the country. The writer has a bookcase he made about the year 1813. It shows design, workmanship and skill. It is made of cherry and is almost as good as when it was made. Mrs. Sallie McBath has a corner cupboard made about the same time, made of walnut. Of course the lumber was all dressed by hand and everything about its trimmings, which are neat and artistic were done by hand. His eldest son, George, worked with his father; but his second son, Jacob, saw the necessity of hinges, and so he made a blacksmith, as did his son, George M., who only recently left this place to make his home in California. And just here it is only due to say that this graveyard never had two better friends than George Dupes and John Walker. There were never too busy to stop and dig a grave when it was needed, or to help clean off the graveyard or to do anything else that needed doing, and yet they were very busy men. A lesson for us.

Gardiner Mays lived at the old James Massey place just up Nails Creek from the Martin Mill. He reared a family but the writer only knew James and Flemmond, who divided the old place and reared large families for themselves. They lived on opposite sides of the creek. Their sister, Fanny, married a man named Caldwell and was the mother of Gardiner Caldwell. Their sister, Patsy, married a man named Johnson. James Mays married Susan Brakebill, while Flem, his brother, married a Sherrill. They have all gone, most of them dead. Gardiner Mays was among the first settlers here.

We do not know when the Martins came from Virginia here, but they were among the first settlers of this country. Warner Martin and his wife, Martha or Patsy, as she was called, first settled at the William Hall place or where John Adney now lives. He built the first mill in this whole country, and it ground only corn. It stood just below the ford of the branch at his home. Some of the old beams with their cog castings were there as late as 1865. There they reared a family of four boys that we know of. They were Peter, Joshua, John and Leonard. These boys were sent to West Point to college and educated; three of them made lawyers and John made a farmer and miller. The lawyers went early in life to Alabama where they plied their profession and where they died. One being a judge who dropped dead after pronouncing the sentence of death on a fellowman but a murderer. John, with his father, entered the entire valley around them, making in all 1,410 acres of land, which was very fertile and which had a very fine growth of timber on it. John married Sarah Swan, whose mother was a Buckingham, and he built down the creek where Willie DeLozier now lives. This house was built half at a time, the first half about the year 1806. Their first child, Warner, was born in 1808; William in 1810, then Henry, Leonard, John, Frank and Lucian. Four girls, Maria, Martha, Lizzie and Sarah. Of these only John Jr. made a farmer. William, Henry and Leonard read law, while Frank made a wanderer. Lucian died at the age of 21.

John married Isabella Porter, daughter of Capt. James Porter, and two girls, Florence and Frankie. The latter died when only a child, while Florence married William A. Colter, but died without children. Warner Sr. died and was buried at Eusebia because that was the only church and burying ground in this country. His widow lived at the old home alone with her 30 odd Negroes until she was old. Then she went to her sons in Alabama where she died. That branch, I suppose, called the old Patty Martin branch. Patty was a member of the Eusebia Church and used to take her little granddaughter, John’s Martha, behind her on a horse and ride to church every preaching Sunday, a distance of five miles. That little Martha was my mother and would have been 93 years old had she lived until now, being born in 1818. But she died in 1898 and was buried here where she had lived nearly all her life. John built a modern mill a few hundred yards above where the present Sanderson Mill now stands. This mill ground wheat as well as corn, and also had a sawmill attached. Of course it was a sash saw which worked up and down, the circular saw being of modern times. John Sr. died about the time the last half of his house was built which was about 1835. His widow remained there until the close of the Civil War when she sold to Thomas Sanderson in 1866, and went to Alabama where several of her children had preceded her. There she died and was buried. The only representatives of that large family left in this neighborhood is Mrs. Sallie McBath. And the only ones in Tennessee aside from Mrs. McBath is her brother, James McCamy and Mrs. John E. Hood, of Knoxville, who is a granddaughter of William. John Jr. and his family are buried here, and John Sr. at Eusebia. After John Jr. died, which was in 1861, his widow married George W. Henry, and reared three boys, Charles, George R. and Willie. Charles and Willie died just as they were reaching manhood, leaving only George R. or Tobe as he is called, to represent the Porters and the Henrys. Tobe owns both homesteads, that is the John C. Martin place and the Capt. James Porter place, but lives in Maryville.

Thomas Sanderson was an Englishman who added a carding machine to the mill. He reared four children: Edward, who is in the west; Barbara, who married John Cunningham and died recently in Kansas; Annie, who married George Brakebill, and is the only one left in this neighborhood; Nellie, who married Lee McCampbell and lives in Knoxville. Mr. Sanderson and his wife died at Little River Station on the K. & A. Railroad. He sold the mill property to Mr. Beeson, who died there, as did his wife, and both are buried here. Their children have all gone. Mr. Beeson sold the mill to A. Wells.

Major Reeder lived at the Henry Cochran place. He was quite a prominent citizen in his day. He, with his wife and one or two children are buried here. His daughter, Sarah Ann, married Samuel Henderson, and came into possession of the old home. They reared one son to be grown, George M. Mrs. Henderson, after the death of her husband in 1856, married John Jennings, a Methodist minister, and lived there during the Civil War. Later, Mr. Jennings was sent by the Holston Conference to Virginia to preach. He took with him Mrs. Jennings and their son, Charlie; and George Henderson became proprietor of the old home. But he sold to Andrew McBath and went to Arkansas. Mr. McBath sold to Henry Cochran and Cochran sold to the Waters boys, Joe and Otis. Not a living descendant of the Reeders is left in this country.

Stephen Plumlee lived at the James Harris “Black Jim” place. He reared a family there but sold to John Hunt and moved away years before the war. Mr. Hunt lived there during the war but at its close, sold to Dev Wright and went to Arkansas, I think. Mr. Wright lived there till about 1870 when he sold to Mr. Harris, whose sons, Charles and William, still live there. Mr. and Mrs. Harris both died there but were taken to their old home church, Stock Creek, in Knox County, for burial, as was also their eldest son, Andrew.

William and Mary McCamy kept a public house and stock lot at what is now the Rorex or Brabson Ford on Little River. People traveled by wagon and on horseback; they also drove horses and mules south and hence the necessity of stopping places. They also settled there about the year 1820, reared a family of seven boys and girls. The boys were John, Tim, James, Robert, Sam, Arthur and Major. Jane was the girl. James married Sarah Julian and Robert married her twin sister, Martha. James became the owner of the old home and reared a family of four boys and six girls. They boys were William, Samuel, Robert and James H. The girls were Rebecca, Martha, Sarah Ann, Neoma and Sophronia (twins) and Narcissus. William and Robert still live in Murray County, Georgia, William being 87 years old. Martha, (Mrs. Dr. Morton) and Narcissus live in Knoxville, while Sophronia lives in Texas. All the others being dead. John married Elizabeth Shaver and made his home at the old Julian place, where his eldest son, James, now lives. All the other children, numbering six, are dead except William, who lives at Chattanooga. And Lizzie has been an inmate of Lyons View asylum for 23 years. All the other McCamys went south, mainly to Georgia and there are only left in this neighborhood James, son of John, and Mrs. Sallie McBath to represent those several large families. Rebecca married Josias Gamble and left three boys and four girls, all living in or near Maryville. They boys are Andy, Hon. Moses and Alex. Mrs. Dr. McTeer of Maryville is a daughter of Martha Morton. Samuel married Martha Martin and lived on a part of the old Martin farm, where James Harris now lives, until he died in 1864, leaving a widow and two children, James L. and Mrs. Sallie McBath of Bank. His widow died in 1898, having been a widow for 35 years. She was a member of the church at Logan’s Chapel for nearly 67 years except the seven years she lived in Maryville. They are both buried here. J.L. McCamy and W.O. McBath composed the firm of McCamy & McBath who sold goods from 1883 to 1891, where J.C. DeLozier now sells. William, son of James, married Matilda Davis, sister of our Jim and Jack, and lived where Esq. James Dykes died a few years ago. Leaving there, he operated the upper ferry at Knoxville for a few years and then went to his present home in Georgia. He reared a large family. The others all married in Georgia except Miss Narcissus.”