Skip to main content
What Are You Looking For?
Categories
< All Topics
Print

Scott County Lineage Project

Posted
Updated
Bybenwgarrett@gmail.com

It would be extremely difficult to determine with exact certainty all of the earliest settlers of Scott County, Tenn., because Scott County wasn’t formed until 1849. By that time — or by the time the next census was taken in 1850 — there were 1,905 residents of Scott County. Prior to 1849, these people were residents of Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Fentress counties.

This project, however, will track the lineage of as many early Scott Countians as possible. This is an incomplete work; efforts will be ongoing. This is an extension of the Scott County Cemetery Project, which tracks many of these early families. 

Timeline of settlement

There is some debate over when settlement began in the area that is now Scott County, Tenn. The historian Esther Sharp Sanderson traced it back to as early as the Revolutionary War era. However that is unlikely to be accurate.

One of the earliest forays into this region by European settlers was in 1750, when Dr. Thomas Walker of Virginia led a surveying party to extend the boundary between the colonies of Virginia and North Carolina. This line, called the “Walker Line,” would eventually serve as the boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky.

King George III issued a decree on Oct. 7, 1763 declaring all lands west of the Appalachian Divide off-limits to colonial settlers. This would have included all of what is now Tennessee. Exploration of the western frontier continued, primarily in the form of long hunting. Daniel Boone first ventured through the Cumberland Gap in 1767, and blazed a trail through the Cumberland Gap for white settlers in 1775. Historians estimate that as many as 300,000 settlers traveled the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap between 1775 and 1810, by which point settlement in Tennessee and Kentucky had begun in earnest.

The area of the Cumberland Plateau that would later include Scott County was owned by the Cherokee Indians until the Third Treaty of Tellico was signed in 1805. That treaty resulted in the Cherokees ceding ownership of the plateau to the U.S. government. Long hunting expeditions to present-day Scott County can be traced as far back as 1772, when a group of long hunters named Phillips, Bledsoe and Russell established a camp at the present-day site of Charit Creek Lodge in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, which led to the area being called Station Camp.

In general, it is believed that long hunters visited the Cumberland Plateau region until the Revolutionary War began, at which point they returned to the colonies to take up the fight against the British. After the war ended, they began to return to the frontier lands west of the Appalachian Divide to settle down permanently. Many of Scott County’s earliest settlers were Revolutionary War veterans. However, it is not known whether anyone settled here prior to the signing of the Third Treaty of Tellico in 1805.

The absolute earliest that settlement can conclusively be traced to in present-day Scott County is 1807. It was that year that a property record for Abraham Goad‘s 100 acres of land on New River was entered.

There is evidence to suggest that settlement began prior to this. In 1804, Tennessee’s Cherokee Indian agent, Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, wrote to settlers in both Tennessee and Kentucky, accusing them of being “intruders on Indian Lands on the West Side of Cumberland Mountain,” and ordering them to remove themselves or be forcibly removed by the U.S. military. Several areas were specifically mentioned by Meigs, including “Mouth of Buffaloe,” which may have been Buffalo Creek that enters New River near present-day Huntsville, Tenn. And Josiah Terry, who settled on Pine Creek, appears on an Anderson County tax list in 1805, indicating that he may have lived in the area of present-day Oneida by then.

There is a grave at the Laxton Cemetery in the Buffalo community that is marked by an uninscribed field stone and also includes a metal funeral home marker identifying it as the grave of John Goad. Genealogy websites typically identify him as the brother of Revolutionary War veteran Abraham Goad, who died in 1795. If verified, that would place the first settler in present-day Scott County as early as 1795. However, it is unlikely to be true. John Goad, brother of Abraham Goad, is believed to have died in Sullivan County in upper East Tennessee. Additionally, funeral home grave markers were not in practice as early as 1795. The oldest grave in Scott County that can be conclusively proven is a broken stone in the Davis Cemetery in Winfield that is dated 1812. It is not known whose grave it marks. (Abraham Goad‘s grave at Vanderpool Cemetery is the oldest identifiable grave in Scott County. He died in 1816, although the stone marking his grave isn’t original.) The Independent Herald‘s conclusion after reviewing census data and other available public documents is that John Goad was the son of Sarah Goad, and that he died sometime between 1860 and 1870, when he was between five and 15 years old.

Along the Big South Fork River in the western part of present-day Scott County, settlement is generally believed to date to the 1810s and 1820s. However, the first conclusive evidence that can be found of permanent settlement along the river’s tributaries is 1824, when David Miller patented 50 acres of land on Station Camp Creek. Burdine Young and Anderson Young patented 100 acres along the same stream that same year, including the area where the longhunters’ camp had existed in 1772. (Richard Harve Slaven’s land grant, recorded in 1817, was on the BSF River itself.)

Jonathan Blevins is often said to have lived at Charit Creek — the area of the longhunters’ camp — in the 1810s, but that is seriously doubtful. He likely lived in Wayne County, Ky., until after 1850. Elijah Terry — brother of Josiah Terry, who was the first to settle present-day Oneida — was probably the first to settle Parch Corn Creek, though the exact date of his arrival isn’t clear. However, in a cultural resource document, the National Park Service states that Jonathan Blevins was living on Parch Corn Creek by 1815, and that the Blevins family relocated to the area after marrying into the Smith family.

The first settlers

Like the timeline of settlement in Scott County, the earliest settler is a matter of some debate. It has historically been assumed — but cannot be conclusively proven — that Mikel “Grand Mikey” Low was the first permanent white settler in present-day Scott County. Other candidates for this distinction would include Richard Harve Slaven, Archibald Angel, and any of the Revolutionary War veterans who settled in Scott County. That list includes: 

Others who entered Scott County at about the same time would include John “Drewry” Carroll — who, like Low, settled on Smokey Creek — and Anderson Grant Lewallen, who settled on Black Wolf Creek near Glenmary, along with Josiah Terry, the first settler of Oneida. Anderson Lewallen’s son-in-law, Michael Robbins, was an early settler of Brimstone.

The historian Esther Sharp Sanderson, in County Scott and Its Mountain Folk, wrote that Mikel Low made the move to present-day Scott County as early as 1776. That is almost certainly incorrect. Low was still living in Pennsylvania when he married his wife in 1794. The first conclusive record placing him in present-day Scott County was the 1830 census. However, he served in the 5th Regiment of the East Tennessee Militia during the War of 1812, meaning he had likely moved to Smokey Creek by that time.

It has been written that John Reed moved to New River as early as 1796. There’s nothing to disprove that, and also nothing to prove it.

It is clear that Abraham Goad was living on New River by 1807, when his 100-acre tract of land was first entered. He last appeared in court records in Virginia in 1802, meaning his move occurred sometime between 1802 and 1807. It has been written that it occurred in 1803. Randolph Lawson was at New River by the following year, 1808, when he served as a chainman when Goad’s land was surveyed. He lived nearby at the mouth of Paint Rock Creek.

Anderson Grant Lewallen had a son, Joel, who told census enumerators that he was born in North Carolina in 1803. His brother, Andrew Leutian Lewallen, was married in Roane County, Tennessee, in 1814. That places the Lewallen family’s move to Black Wolf Creek near Glenmary sometime between 1803 and 1814.

Josiah Terry, who settled on Pine Creek (now Oneida), appeared on an Anderson County tax list in 1805. That area was part of Anderson County at the time, which may mean Terry had moved to present-day Scott County by 1805. It has been written in family histories that Josiah Terry and his brother, Elijah Terry, moved to present-day Scott County in 1815. However, the historian H. Clay Smith wrote in Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past that the Terry brothers were granted their land, which covered much of present-day Oneida, in 1811.

Michael Robbins, who settled at Brimstone, also appears on that 1805 tax list in Anderson County. The first property record in his name came in 1813, when 140 acres were surveyed on Brimstone Creek.

In 1804, Cherokee agent Col. Return Jonathan Meigs sent a letter to Archibald Angel and others naming them as “intruders” on Indian lands “west of the Cumberland Mountain.” However, Angel and his father-in-law, Dennis Trammell, were found on a tax list in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1807. Their names appear on land records on Pine Creek in 1810, placing their move to Scott County somewhere between 1807 and 1810.

Richard Harve Slaven has been said to have arrived at No Business Creek near the Big South Fork River as early as the 1780s. However, he married his wife, Susannah Mounts, in Garrard County, Kentucky, in September 1798. His land grant on the BSF River was entered in 1817, which times his move sometime between 1798 and 1817.

What does this tell us? We know the Third Treaty of Tellico was signed in October 1805, giving the U.S. government ownership of the Cumberland Plateau from the Cherokee. Any settlement here prior to that would have been intrusion, as Col. Meigs wrote to Angel in 1804. However, the very existence of Meigs’ letter is proof that white settlers were living on Cherokee land prior to the signing of the treaty in 1805, whether or not they were living in present-day Scott County.

The first substantive proof we have that someone was living in the area that would become Scott County was 1805, when Josiah Terry and Michael Robbins appeared on an Anderson County tax list. The first concrete proof we have that someone was living in the area was 1807, when Abraham Goad’s property on New River was recorded.

From this, we can reasonably conclude that the first settler may have been in Scott County prior to 1805, but definitely arrived between 1805 and 1807. There’s no way to prove that Mikel Low was the first settler; it could easily have been Josiah Terry or Michael Robbins or even Abraham Goad — or maybe John Reed. But there’s also no way to prove that Low wasn’t the first settler. Settlement in this area began in earnest between 1807 and 1810.

First Families

This section is incomplete

Our Ancestors

In some cases, the first ancestor of a particular surname to settle in Scott County wasn’t among this area’s first settlers. For example, Thomas Boyatt of Foster Crossroads did not arrive until sometime around 1830 or later, and Francis Miller of No Business wasn’t even born until 1856. Nevertheless, these families are important because, in most cases, they still have many descendants living in Scott County today.

Each person listed below is the first person of that particular surname who settled in what is now Scott County. Most or all of the people living in Scott County today with that particular surname are descended from them. In a couple of instances (specifically, the Lawsons, Phillips, and Terrys) there were siblings who moved to present-day Scott County at or near the same time. This section is incomplete.

Note: The Scott County Lineage Project is a work in progress. If you have anything you would like to contribute, or suggested changes, please email newsroom@ihoneida.com.

Posted
Updated
Bybenwgarrett@gmail.com
Table of Contents