Elijah Terry

Elijah Terry (1791-1870) was an early settler of present-day Scott County, Tennessee, and the brother of Josiah Terry, who was the first settler of present-day Oneida, Tennessee.

See Also: The Scott County Lineage Project

Biography

Born in 1791, Elijah Terry was the son of John Terry (1760-1842) and Esther Brown (1765-1848). His parents were originally from Botetourt County, Virginia, but had probably moved to Tennessee by the time he was born in 1791. He would later tell census enumerators that he was born in Tennessee.

Elijah married Sarah “Sally” Baker, but little is known about her. She had died by the time the 1850 census was taken. However, an old marriage record indicates that she was born in 1814, and that they were married in Tennessee. The Baker family was prominent in Campbell County, around the area that is now Norris Lake.

Elijah appears to have first married a woman named Sally Rice, though almost nothing is known about her. She likely died by shortly after the 1830 census was taken. He then appears to have married Sarah Ann Baker in 1832. An old marriage record shows that she was born in 1814. The Baker family was prominent in Campbell County, around the area that is now Norris Lake, and also spread into the Gum Fork area of present-day Scott County, but it isn’t clear who Sarah’s parents were. Genealogy records typically state that Sarah Baker Terry died in 1880.

Elijah had several children, including: Hellen Emily Terry Blevins (1832-1913), Calvin Terry (1833-1909), Elijah Terry II (1835-1910), and others. The 1850 census finds him with Naomi Terry (age 14), Emily Terry (13), Easter Terry (7), and Serepta Terry (6). The 1860 census finds a Marion Terry, age 13, also in the household. There also appears to have been a John Terry. All of them were the children of Sarah Baker. Elijah appears to have had another child with Sally Rice, Henderson Rice Terry (1817-1892).

Move to Scott County

Elijah Terry’s older brother, Josiah, is credited with being the first settler of Oneida. A monument in his honor is erected at the Oneida Municipal Services Building. He lived about where Hardee’s is located in Oneida today and originally owned much of the present-day “Four Lane” area.

Josiah Terry is found on an Anderson County tax list as early as 1805. That could mean he was living in present-day Scott County as early as 1805, since the Oneida area was part of Anderson County before Campbell County was formed in 1806. However, it has been written that Josiah and Elijah moved to present-day Scott County together in 1815.

Elijah Terry may have originally lived at what is now known as Stumptown, near the former Tibbals plant. According to the historian H. Clay Smith, in his book Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past, Elijah Terry lived near where Burchfield School is now located in West Oneida.

Later, Elijah Terry moved to Parch Corn Creek on the Big South Fork River in the present-day Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. He established the farm that was later owned by his son-in-law, Armstead Blevins, who married his oldest daughter, Hellen. She is buried on the farm.

Another of Elijah’s children, son Calvin Terry, moved to the Black Oak area and established the Terry family that became very prominent there.

Death

Oral history states that Elijah Terry was hunting with friends at Parch Corn Creek when he died in 1870. The account states that the temperature was too cold for them to bury him, so they returned in the spring and buried him somewhere overlooking the Big South Fork River. The exact location of his grave is unknown.

It is also unknown where Sarah Baker Terry was buried when she died 10 years later. Some believe that she was buried at the Baker Cemetery at Capuchin, near Gum Fork. This seems unlikely, as she was living in the Big South Fork when the 1880 census was taken just before her death.