Custon House

Customs House

1870

THE NEW CUSTOM H0USE.
Proposal by Propcrty Holders.
We arc prrinittted by the Comnissioners nppolnitcd bv the Govcrnmenti to receive sealcd proposals to sell, to the Government, a lot 100 to 160 feel, upon which to erect the proposed Customs House and Post Ollicc. We of course can make no comments now, but give the news to the public The Government will take prompt actlon and the location will soon be filled, Mr. A. B. Mullott, the Architect, is cxpected here to give more detailed information
The proposals
J. H. Curry 1st Proposition--Corner Asvlum nd Gay slreels. 170 feet on Asyium and 150 on Gay St. $20,000

J. II. ("BOZIKK Corner Church and State strcets, 100 foot on Cliurch and I60 feet on State Street. $7,500

15. R.I. WILSON Corner Clinch and Prince streets, 160 feet on Prince and 128 feeton Clinch Srect. S13.000.

D. T. BOYNTON, and others- Conier Prince and Clinch streets, 160 feet on Prince and 100 feet on Clinch Street. $9,000

W. M. Heiskell,. President of Board of Trustees, Comer Church and Locust streets, 160 fcet on Church and 100 feet on Locust street, $6,000.

E. T. HALL Corner Asylum ana Harris streets, 100 feet on Asylum stroet, 200 feet in Harris street. Amount, offered for $10,000

WILLIAM PARK- Corner Cumberland and Prince streets, 160 feet on Cumberland and
140 feet on Prince streets. $8,000

A. L, MAXWWLL- Corner Broad and Bellcvue strcets. 200 feet on Broad and 200 feet on
Bllenevue streets, property offered for nothing

E. N. PARHAN Corner Asvlunt and Prince streets, 142 feet on Asylum and 168 feet on Prince
street.. $18,000

W. K. ECKLE Asvlum street and Market Square, 120 feet square, $14.OOO. This proposition cannot be received, a it does .not come within tlio requirements of the advertisement. (Source: Knoxville weekly chronicle. (Knoxville, Tenn.), 25 May 1870. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85033438/1870-05-25/ed-1/seq-5/>)

1871

Custom house Knoxville Tenn 1871

To George W Ross collector Knoxville Tenn 40,576 90

B Birch disbursing clerk 362.60

Total 40,939 50

Purchase of a site for custom house Knoxville Tenn To PB Camp 50.00

1872

Custom house Knoxville Tenn

To George W Ross collector Knoxville Tenn 89,735 22

B Birch disbursing clerk 1,028 68

Treasury Department 27. 38

Total 89,791 28

From which deduct the following repayment By George W Ross 1,000

(Source:An Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of the United States. 1791-, US Dept of Treasury, 1875, p. 131)

1873

Heavy Stone

For completion of the building for the custom house at Knoxville, Tennessee, one hundred and sixty six thousand seven hundred and forty seven dollars. (Knoxville Daily Chronicle. 3 May 1873, p.3)

It is quite interesting to watch the work men about the custom house moving the immense corner cornice stones. They are huge blocks of beautifully worked marble and will make au imposing appearance on the corners of the splendid structure they are to ornament. Gen. Holman is pushing the work on the building very rapidly and but little cutting remains to be done.
As soon as steam power can be put in use the heavy stones will be elevated and the building be ready for the roof. No wonder Mr. Mullett is so well pleased with the custom house work here for it is closely
and intelligently supervised by Gen. Holman, who is in every respect qualified for his work.

1874

(Source; Knoxville weekly chronicle. (Knoxville, Tenn.), 22 July 1874, p.5. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress,) Link

Hawkins County

Depot in Rogersville

Hawkins County lies in upper East Tennessee, and extends somewhat in the shape of a parallelogram from the Virginia line to the northern boundaries of Grainger and Hamblen Counties. It is divided into two almost equal parts by the Holston River, which traverses its entire length. It is one of the largest counties in the State having an area of 570 square miles. The surface is much of it broken, but the uplands are more fertile than in many counties. Iron ore is found in some localities, but is not now worked. In marble, Hawkins County surpasses any other county in the South. It is found in all tints from a pale pink to a dark richly variegated chocolate color, and in inexhaustible quantities.

The first permanent settlements within the limits of Hawkins County were made in 1772, very soon after the settlements on the Watauga were begun. They were made in Carter's Valley, a short distance west of New Canton.

Among these pioneers were Mr Kincaid, Mr Love, Mr Long, and Rev Mr Mulkey. At about the same time, Messrs Carter & Parker established a store in the neighborhood. Soon after this store was robbed by a party of Cherokees, and when Henderson & Co's treaty was held with the Indians, the proprietors of the store demanded as compensation all the lands in Carter's Valley extending from Cloud Creek to Chimney Top Mountain of Beech Creek. This was granted upon the payment of a small amount advanced by Robert Lucas who then became a partner of Messrs Parker & Carter. The firm leased their lands to the settlers much after the manner of the Patrons in the early history of New York. This continued for a time but when it became known that the lands lay in North Carolina. instead of Virginia. the settlers refused to recognize the ownership of the firm and the right and title to the territory acquired was denied by the former State. They were afterward included with the members of the Henderson Company to whom a grant of 200,000 acres was given by the government of North Carolina as a compensation for the trouble they had been to in obtaining these lands.

The deeds obtained by Henderson &Co from the Cherokees is recorded in the register's office of Hawkins County. It was given by Oconistoto the chief warrior and representative of the Cherokee Nation and Attakullakulla and Savanooka otherwise Coronoh appointed by the warriors and other head men to convey for the whole nation to Richard Henderson. Thomas and Nathaniel Hart, John Williams, John Luttrell, William Johnston, James Hogg, David Hart, and Thomas H Bullock. The compensation for the immense tracts conveyed by these deeds as expressed at 10,000.

The settlement in Hawkins County was confined chiefly to Carter's Valley until about 1780. Several stations or forts were built and it is said that a Presbyterian Church was organized there as early as that date. At about the same time, a fort was built at Big Creek. Not far from this fort about three and one half miles above Rogersville,

Thomas Amis, in 1780 or 1781, erected a stone house around which he built a palisade for protection against the Indians. The next year he opened a store, and erected a blacksmith shop and a distillery. Very soon after he also put into operation a saw and grist mill and from the first he kept a house of entertainment. A Baptist Church was organized and a school established very soon after the settlement was made. The church was probably organized by Thomas Murrell who located on the farm now owned by John A Chesnut on the Holston River some time prior to 1782. Among the school masters who taught in the school at this place were John Long in 1783, William Evans 1784, James King 1786, Robert Johnston and Samuel B Hawkins 1796. Thomas Amis was twice married and was the father of fourteen children. The stone house in which he lived is now occupied by his grandson, Thomas Amis, and is in a remarkably good state of preservation. In 1789 he represented Hawkins County in the Legislature of North Carolina and took an active part in restoring Gen Sevier to the rights of citizenship. He owned two or three large tracts of land one of which included the site of Rogersville he died in 1798. In 1784 Joseph Rodgers, an Irishman, arrived at Amis and for a short time was engaged in keeping store but in 1785 or 1786, probably the latter year he married Mary Amis. Mr Amis then gave to the newly married pair a tract of land upon which in 1787 was established the seat of justice for Hawkins County. There they continued to reside until their death in November 1833. Rachel, another daughter of Thomas Amis married James Hagan, a countryman of Rodgers, with whom he was in partnership in merchandising for a time. He afterward removed to a farm above town. Of other early settlers of the county only a few of the most prominent will be located. Perhaps no Tennessean of his time ranked higher than William Cocke, who settled at what was known as Mullberry Grove about 1780. He was a lawyer by profession and his name appears upon the records of all the older counties of East Tennessee as a practicing attorney, but during the greater portion of his life was engaged in filling some official position. In 1783 he was elected attorney general for Greene County, and the next year was sent to the convention which met at Jonesboro. In 1785 he was made a member of the Council of State of the Franklin Government was chosen brigadier general of militia and was sent as a delegate to the United States Congress. In 1786 he represented Spencer County in the Franklin Assembly. From the fall of the State of Franklin until 1794, he was actively engaged in his profession. In that year he was chosen a member of the Territorial Assembly, and in 1796 was a member of the Constitutional Convention. The first Legislature elected him as one of the members of the United States Senate where he remained for twelve years. In 1810 he was elected judge of the First Judicial Circuit, but after serving one year he was impeached. Stung by the ingratitude of his countrymen whom he had served so long and faithfully, he at once left for Mississippi where he remained until his death. Joseph McMinn located in the extreme upper end of Hawkins County about 1787, and soon took an active interest in the affairs of the county. In 1794 he was elected with William Cocke to represent it in the Territorial Assembly, and two years later was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He then served two terms in the Upper House of the General Assembly. In 1815 he was elected governor of the State, a position he continued to hold until 1821. Soon after he was appointed Indian Agent at Calhoun, now in Bradley County, and was filling that position at the time of his death. The above named men were the most illustrious of the first settlers of the county. Among others who had settled prior to 1783, were Mordecai Haygood who lived on the Holston about eight miles above Rogersville, Peter Cocke who lived in the same neighborhood, and Rodham Kenner who located about one mile above Spear's Mill. He was prominently connected with the affairs of the county and was a member of the Legislature one or more terms. Capt Thomas Caldwell lived ten miles above Rogersville on the north side of the river. John Saunders lived on the river opposite Kenner's. William Cox Sr, Charles and William Payne, Obadiah and Elijah Chissom also lived south of the Holston and the last named kept a ferry across that stream. Thomas Lee, Cornelius and John Carmack, and Thomas Gibbons lived in Carter's Valley. William Armstrong settled at Stony Point. Among others who had located in the county prior to 1783 may be mentioned: John Cox, Col John Smith, William McGehee, Peter Harris, James McCarty, Hutson Johnston, John Evans, George Ridley, James Blair, Thomas Brooks, Elisha Walling, William W Brown, Capt Thomas Hutchings, James Short, Abraham Rice, William Ingram, William Lauson, Reese Jones, Capt Thomas English, James Berry, Benjamin Murrell, George and Littleton Brooks, Thomas Henderson, Thomas Caldwell, Robert King, and Martin Shaner. Among those who came in during the next two or three years were Robert Gray, Richard Mitchell, Samuel Wilson, William Bell, John Horton, Robert Stephenson, and John Gordon.

Some time about 1795, one of the most extensive iron works of those days was erected near the present town of Rotherwood by Daniel Ross & Co, and a considerable business was done there for a number of years.

Hawkins County suffered much less from Indian depredations than some other sections of the State. A few instances of massacres and robberies are mentioned by Haywood, but the most of these occurred in what is now Hancock County. The comparative immunity of this section from Indian attacks was due partly to the position of the county, and partly to the vigilance of the settlers who had taken every precaution for the protection of themselves and families. The Indians made several incursions into Carter's Valley, but finding the people in the forts and prepared for them, they retreated without doing serious damage. On one occasion the families that had gathered into the fort at Big Creek became greatly in need of salt and a young man Joab Mitchell volunteered to go out and procure a supply. While upon his return he was attacked by a party of Cherokees and mortally wounded. He succeeded, however. in reaching the fort and his remains were interred in that depression which has since borne the name of Mitchell's Hollow. In December. 1787, William English was killed by the Indians and two of his children carried into captivity. The county court records of 1790 contained the following entry: Whereas it has been represented to the court by Thomas King that Matthew English and Elizabeth English orphan children of William English who was taken and killed by the Indians in December 1787 at which time the aforesaid children were carried into captivity by the Indians supposed to be of the Wyandotte Nation and are yet in captivity, Thomas King therefore represents that the said orphans might be recovered if there was property sufficient for that purpose. Ordered by the court that James Blair and William Patterson do receive from the said Thomas King, or from any other person the property belonging to the estate of the said William English, and the same apply as they shall think best for the redemption of the said orphans, and Thomas King was discharged thereupon of said property.

It is related that a boy on one occasion came suddenly upon a party of Indians not far from one of the forts. He turned and fled with the savages in close pursuit. Before reaching the fort he was compelled to cross a small stream, and just as he reached the bank, the foremost Indian caught him by the back of his loose hunting shirt. But the lad was not a captive. Straightening out his arms behind him he sped on to the fort in safety, leaving his pursuer holding the shirt.

In 1785 the State of Franklin organized Spencer County, including, besides other territory, the present Hawkins County. Thomas Henderson was chosen county court clerk and colonel of militia, and William Cocke and Thomas King representative to the Assembly. The remaining officers are unknown In November 1786, the Legislature of North Carolina passed an act creating Hawkins County. It included within its limits all the territory between Bays Mountain and the Holston and Tennessee Rivers, on the east to the Cumberland Mountains on the west. The county court was organized at the house of Thomas Gibbons but as the early records were all destroyed during the late civil war nothing is known of its transactions. (Source:History of Tennessee, Volume 2, Goodspeed Publishing Company Staff, Southern Historical Press, 1887)

For the county of Hawkins: George Maxwell, John Long, Nathaniel Henderson, William Armstrong, Joseph M' Min, Alexander Nelson, Thomas Jackson, John Gordon, David Larkin, James Berry, Mark Mitchell, Thomas Lea, James Lathim, William M Carty, James Armstrong, Benoni Caldwell, Absalom Looney, John Mitchell, and David Kinkead. Commissioned Justices of the Peace May 6th, 1796 ( Commission Book of Governor John Sevier, Tennessee Historical Commission, Nashville, Tennessee, p. 22)

Received a bill to amend the line between Hawkins and Grainger counties and for other purposes endorsed read the first time amended and passed.

Hawkins county: Mr Joseph M' Minn (Journal of the Senate of the state of Tennessee: begun and held at Knoxville, on Monday, the twenty-eighth of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety six,Tennessee. General Assembly. Senate, McKennie & Brown, 1852)

Lost Creek Manumission Society

"It may not be known by many young readers that movement which led to the emancipation of slaves of America had its beginnings in the South, and that first distinctively abolition paper ever published in the country was published in East Tennessee.

The mind of the general reader turns almost England and to William Lloyd Garrison, and whenever the question of antislavery is raised. But William Lloyd Garrison or Wendell Phillips had left their teens, or Boston had her conscience stirred, there was an incipient ant-slavery warfare raging in east Tennessee which was destined to spread over the entire country.

At Lost Creek Meetinghouse in Jefferson Tennessee Feb 25, 1815, there was organized the first Manumission Society. Just how many composed this historic beginning is not entirely clear, but the names of eight of come down to us and have a place in the roll of Tennessee's immortals.

The boldness of this movement and the character of the men may be judged by the first article of the constitution they adopted. It reads, "Each member is to have an advertisement in conspicuous part of his house in the following words: Freedom is the natural right of all men; I therefore acknowledge myself a member of the Tennessee Society for promoting the manumission of slaves.'"

The methods by which they meant to effect the organization is seen in Article Second, which stipulates "no member shall vote for a governor or legislator unless him to be in favor of emancipation."

The formation of other societies followed rapidly, and on Nov 21, of the same year, they held their annual convention in Greene County.

By the time of the next convention which was held in Greeneville, the movement had spread over a large part of East Tennessee, and many counties were represented in this annual meeting.

Early in the year 1819 Elihu Embree, a Quaker, began the publication of a paper in Jonesboro, TN, called "The Manumission Intelligencer." a copy of which, bearing the date July 19, 1819, is in the possession of a citizen in Knoxville. This was the first paper ever published in the United States devoted exclusively to antislavery principles.

Mr Embree died within a few months after he started the paper, and his friends later invited Benjamin Lundy, another Quaker living in Mount Pleasant, Ohio to come to Tennessee and continue the work. Mr. Lundy had just begun to issue an abolition paper in Mount Pleasant, called "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," his first issue being January, 1821.

When the invitation of his brethren in difficulties under which he labored at Mount promise of support in Tennessee, led him to regard the call as providential. He had started his paper some eighteen months before, with only six subscribers, and the list had not grown fast.

He was not at this time a practical printer, and their was no printing press in Mount Pleasant. It was his to carry his copy to Steubenville, some twenty miles away, making this journey on foot and returning with the printed edition on his back.

He tells us in his autobiography that in he traveled eight hundred miles partly by water, but mostly by foot, reaching Greeneville, the scene of his future labors in September,1821. Here he continued his "Genius of Universal Emancipation" until he moved to Baltimore in the fall of 1824. A few copies of this paper still exist, being in the State Library. Another was given to Bishop Gilbert Haven when he visited Greeneville shortly before his death.

Of Benjamin Lundy, Horace Greeley says in his Great American : "Benjamin Lundy deserves the high renown of ranking as the pioneer of direct and distincrive antislavery in America. Many who lived before and are contemporaneous with him were abolitionists; but he was the first of give his life and all his powers exclusively to the cause of the slave."

Speaking of Benjamin Lundy, William Loyd Garrison said: "Now, if I have in any way, however humble, done anything toward calling attention to slavery, or bringing the glorious prospect of emancipation at no distant day, I feel that I owe everything in this matter, instrumentally and under God to Benjamin Lundy.

It was in 1828 that Lundy having gone to Boston to enlist the ministers of that city in the cause of abolition, met Lloyd Garrison at the boarding house where he chanced to stop. Mr Garrison was at that time a young man but twenty-three years of age, and interested in the work of temperance. It was but a step from one reform to the other, and Benjamin Lundy's persuasive voice won him for the cause which has made him immortal.

Mr Lundy was a great traveler and a man of wonderful patience and perseverance in his then thankless work. He nearly always made his journeys on foot, earning his support as he went, by making or mending saddles and harness, this having been his trade in his early life.

As he went about over the country he talked"abolition," distributed his literature, and, whenever practicable, organized manumission societies. Thus he traveled to Baltimore from Greeneville in 1824, and from Baltimore to Boston two years later. He made two voyages to Hayti with the lthe purpose of securing privfeges and lands for the founding of colonies for freemen from the United States, and twice he tramped across Texas to the Rio Grande for the same purpose. It is a matter of historic note that the area now owned by Texas was "" under the dominion of Mexico.

But in all of these efforts Lundy was unsuccessful. He also made a visit to Canada and studied the condition of the colony there. His greatest work was, perhaps, that which at the time may have seemed least, namely the enlistment William Loyd Garrison. Speaking of his labors, one has said: "he had neither wealth nor eloquence to bring to the cause of antislavery, but he had courage, perseverance, and devotion.

Connected with the Manumission Society of East Tennessee were men also who traveled westward and carried the fires of freedom into those parts. Among these were the Rev David Nelson, of Washington County, and the Rev John Rankin, of Jefferson, both of whom were Presbyterian ministers, and were prominent in the work of abolitionists the state of Kentucky, whence they moved from East Tennessee.

Mr Rankin had been a member of the first Manumission Society, which was organized near his home in 1815, and in 1817 he moved to Paris, Kentucky, and afterward to Ripley Ohio, where he was a pastor until the Civil War. He was ever active in the cause of the slave, his house being for a number of years the first station in the underground railroad.

He sheltered "Eliza Harris,: of :uncle Toms Cabin" fame, when she , having fled her master, crossed the Ohio by leaping from one mass of floating ice to another. Mr Rankin canvassed the State of Ohio in 1836, under the auspices State Abolition Society, and has testified that in his early life the majority of the people of east Tennessee were abolitionists: and at that time it was much safer to make an antislavery speech in the South than it was to make the same one in the North.

This is emphasized by the fact that in 1826 there hundred and forty-three antislavery societies in the United States and of these one hundred and three were in the South. So strong was the antislavery sentiment in east Tennessee in days that many slaveholders emancipated their own accord. Nor did this cease until the State Legislature passed laws prohibiting emancipation, except on condition liberated should be sent out of the state.

In the State Constitutional Convention, held in 1834, a petition on emancipation was presented, signed by more eighteen hundred persons, at least one hundred of whom were slave owners. The prophetic feature of this petition is significant. In as much as the provision of the constitutional amendment it prayed was that a gradual emancipation might ensue, having as its the year 1866, when slavery should cease to exist throughout the state.

On July 23, 1866, President Johnson signed the Tennessee into the Union, she having a few months before, by the state legislative and popular vote, ratified an amendment to the constitution abolishing slavery.

The old house where Benjamin Lundy published his "Genious of Universal Emancipation" in Greeneville has rotted aaway, but the very ground on which it stood seems sacred. The quaint dress of the Quakers and their singular speech are seen and heard no more among the people of Easr Tennessee, but the memory of their spirit and labors in the cause of of humanity lingers in the minds and hearts of the people.

Greeneville, Tenn. (Source: Christian Advocate, Volume 76. 1901, pp. 851-853)

Eliza B Wallace

Knoxville College

Eliza B Wallace

Eliza B Wallace was born on June 6, 1838 to John and Jane McClenanhan Wallace in Fairvew, Guerney County, Ohio.

Her brother David was president of Monmouth College when she attented.

Eliza Wallace lived in Illinois, in 1866, where she is listed as a Science Course Senior from Monmouth.
In 1870, Eliza Wallace lived in Monmouth, Illinois, in 1870.
Post Office: Monmouth, Occupation: College Professor

After Eliza Wallace graduated from Monmouth, she came to Knoxville, Tennessee where she worked with Knoxville College to provide better educational opportunities for black children.

She also worked to establish a school of nursing and a hospital.  The hospital was established soon after her death, and was commonly called the Eliza B. Wallace Hospital.

In 1882 she is listed in the city directory as a math teacher at Knoxville College.

Eliza's brother David wrote the following about their parents:

She was eight years of agee when her parents came to America. They were married, June 14, 1825,
when they settled on a farm near Fairview. John Wallace was a ruling elder in the Fairview congregation of the Associate Reformed (Presbyterian) Church for over twenty years: first under the pastoral care of the Rev. Samuel Findley, D. D., afterward under that of the Rev. Hugh Forsythe. He died April 20, 1850.

His pastor, the Rev. Hugh Forsythe, writes: "He was a man of good sense, sound judgment, very judicious and very prudent. He was kind hearted. ln cases of discipline, if he erred at all. it was on the side of mercy. I suppose he had more influence over me than any other member of session. He had
great influence in the congregation. Two things gave him influence in congregational meetings, good
sense and a perfect willingness to do his part. He befriended a great many poor people, without respect
to race or color. When he was buried, some colored people, whom he had befriended, were standing near the grave looking into it while tears were rolling down their cheeks. John AVallace was emphatically the poor man's friend.'' (Source: A Busy Life: A Tribute to the Memory of the Rev. David A. Wallace, 1885, p. 5) Link

SUMMARY: The aggregate enrollment in all the schools under uur care this year is 1,518 and in our Sabbath Schools over 1,600, showing a very encouraging increase over last year. Since our last report 110 students from our school were engaged in teaching in the public schools. Of these 90 received their education wholly or in part in the Knoxville College. Source:Minutes of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian ..., Volumes 25-28, Board of Publication, 1883, p. 73) Link

"Knoxville exhibits an increase in enrollment the number now being 328. Religious services were conducted regularly with spirit and with profit throughout the year. The normal department received particular attention and it has been especially satisfactory," (Source:Minutes of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian ..., Volumes 25-28, Board of Publication, 1883, p.426)

KNOXVILLE: The work here has gone forward without interruption. The only change worthy of note is in the afternoon service on the Sabbath. Instead of holding the Sabbath school in the College in the afternoon, two school houses have been occupied. One is a quarter of a mile distant and the other two miles. At the nearest school house very few attend aside from the pupils who attend at the College in the morning. At the other school house we reach those who seldom attend elsewhere. The design in this change was to lessen the number of meetings in the College building and leave the afternoon free and also to afford an opportunity to students and others to do missionary work. Very little difficulty has been experienced in securing volunteers for the afternoon Sabbath schools. There is a Sabbath school in the morning followed by a sermon. The same personns, old and young, are present in the Sabbath school and at church Prayer Meetings. Two prayer meetings are held on Sabbath evening, one for males and the other for females. These are attended by students mainly who are living in the dormitories. A prayer meeting is held on Monday morning, at which all the students attend and which they conduct, as they do the others themselves.

Day of Prayer for Colleges This day was observed and in addition to a sermon in the morning a prayer meeting was held in the afternoon by the students. Extra Meetings were held throughout the last week of March. They were arranged so as not to interrupt the regular work and were attended with interest bible Lesson. The International Sabbath school lesson for the following Sabbath is recited on Monday, and both teachers and pupils are better prepared for the work ni the Sabbath. The Congregation has 81 colored members and 10 white. Increase by profession 3, by certificate 3, decrease 16, Infant baptisms 7, adult 8. Contributions to all the Boards $49. Total $180.

Average attendance: 161, at nearest school house 70, at the other 36.

The laborers here are: President JS McCulloch, Lady Principal Miss Eliza B Wallace, teachers: DT McClelland, Edgar MacDill, Mac H Wallace, Mrs AH Wait, Miss Ida McCulloch, Miss Henrietta Mason (colored) and Miss Maggie McDill. Miss McDill has charge of the Little Girls Home and Mrs Mary J Johnston has charge of the work in kitchen and dining room.

Miss Mary L Buchanan has assisted throughout the year in the Sabbath school and sewing without pecuniary compensation. She has also given lessons in instrumental music at half the ordinary rates ot tuition.

The Enrollment for the year is 202. The attendance was seriously affected by the prevalence of small pox in the vicinity during December and January. At no time however did a panic seize the students nor was a discontinuance of the school seriously threatened. For this we are devoutly thankful to God. One of the most encouraging things in the work of this year is the disposition of the students to hold on till the end of the term and pass through the examinations preparatory to regular promotion. Some however are still compelled to leave in order to earn money for the support of themselves and their parents. Sewing School The sewing school has been conducted this year very much as it was last year. Nearly all the girls in the school are divided into three classes supervised by teachers. They sew by hand forty minutes a day, and while they sew, they sing, or some one reads from an interesting and instructive book, so that the sewing hour combines both pleasure and profit, Students are encouragud to make garments for their own use and some are able to cut out as well as sew. They have the privilege of purchasing any garment thus made for about half the price of the material. The beginners have made patches for several quilts and put them together and the more advanced have made about 160 garments. A Mother's Meeting was carried on from September 1st to March 16th. It was held on Friday afternoons when about two hours were spent. It was opened and closed with devotional exercises, memorizing scriptures, singing and prayer, and a talk was given on the lesson sometime during the meeting.

Miss Wallace, Mrs McCulloch, and Miss Buchanan had charge of this work. The enrollment was 69; garments cut and made: 275, material used: 600 yards, receipts from garments sold: $24.38, expenditures: $11. About 30 boxes and packages of bed clothing, wearing apparel, material and papers have been received from Ladies Missionary Societies and individuals. These have been distributed with much care so as not to encourage thriftlessness. Comparatively few articles are given away. The prices are very low, but the money thus obtained serves to keep up the sewing schools and is used to assist the needy, both in health and when sick.

Colored Teachers About 70 who have at some time attended the College have been engaged in teaching this year. Their schools continued from two to seven months the average being less than four, perhaps. They taught in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Many of them have taken an active part in Sabbath schools, and in this way not less than 3,000 have been educated to some extent indirectly through this institution.

Aid for Students As a church we are doing comparatively little in the way of direct personal aid to students, however deserving they may be. Some of the oldest colored institutions appeal annually to the churches for a large part of the money necessary for the support of the students. A large proportion of the students in some of the best colored colleges are helped from year to year to the extent of from $25 to $100. We have been entirely too modest in appealing for such help. Our own sons and daughters would in many instances give up in despair or disgust if they had to encounter the actual trials of some of the colored young men or women now in Knoxville College. The President says I could, if it were prudent, give names I could relate simple unvarnished facts. I could tell of patient long continued toil, of pinching economy, of self denial that would appeal powerfully to every real friend of the colored man. Here are boys and girls whom every member of the Faculty would deem it an honor to help through an education. Are there not generous individuals, and societies, and Sabbath schools, and churches ready to promise $25 a year or $50 a year for one such needy student? Let them send for the names and they will be furnished. When a young woman works hard all summer at low wages and succeeds in saving enough to barely support her four months, let us say to her that her heavenly Father has provided enough to finish. When a young man comes with $50 the savings of four months with pick and shovel let us relieve him from worry about the $25 or $50 more that may be needed.

Boarding Department There were 78 boarders this year. The number was not as great as last year. The falling off may be attributed partly to the increase in the price of boarding and partly to a wide spread rumor of small pox in the city referred to above. Among the boarders there are 4 who belong to the Presbyterian Church, 9 to the United Presbyterian, 12 to the Methodist, 14 to the Baptist. the others are not members of any church. What a work there is here to be done. The daily religious exercises consist of worship as in a Christian family all joining morning and evening in the service. Nearly all the boarders grouped in two companies agree to read the same chapters daily in their rooms and on Saturday evening they meet, each company with a teacher, and talk over the chapters read during the week. These meetings are voluntary but nearly all attend. They are opened and closed with prayer. This exercise seems to be much enjoyed and good must result from it. There is a reading room for the girls in this department which is of great benefit. It is open every evening. A donation of $50 worth of books was received from L MS of the Cleveland Ohio congregation. Also a donation from the Western Tract Society. For these good gifts the donors have cordial thanks.

Orphanage or Little Girls Home A new feature has been added to our work here under this title. Little girls from the age of 6 to 15 are received and kept in the Home during the entire term. These children have no homes of their own or live with relatives or strangers who are not able to support their own families. This Home had 8 little girls last year, all orphans or half orphans except one. They were under the charge of Miss Maggie McDill, who lives with them and does for them as nearly as possible all a mother could do. She teaches them to do all kinds of work and requires them to carefully prepare their lessons for school. The number would be greatly increased if the expense could be provided for. A business man in Chicago provides for half the support of two girls. He has our thanks and will have the blessing of the Lord. The Ladies Missionary Society of the Presbytery of Southern Illinois paid the salary of the matron Miss McDill last year and is deserving the thanks of the whole Church. This part of the work must be continued and enlarged. (Source:Minutes of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian ..., Volumes 25-28, Board of Publication, 1883,p.767-769)

She died on December 12, 1897, at the home of her sister, in Pennsylvania, at the age of 59. Her death is listed in the Catalogue of Monmouth College, Illinois, 1906-1906 Link

Obit
Sad News.-President J. M. Wallace of the Salem Water Community,has received sad news of the death of his sister, Miss Eliza B. Wallace, in Waters Park, Pa., her demise occurring Sunday night. Miss Wallace's death was sudden and unexpected, in recent letter received by her brother
Indicating an Improvement In her slightly impaired health. Having held the important position of principal of the Knoxville college at Knoxville, Tenn., for the past 25 years, Miss Wallace was only obliged to resign her position owing to ill health.
Interment will be had in the family vault at the old home in Cambridge,Ohio.(Source: Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.), 14 Dec. 1897. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.) Link

One of her dreams did not come true during her lifetime. For years, Wallace wanted to establish a nurse-training program but could not find the funds. In her will, she bequeathed the money for such a program. The Wallace Memorial Hospital opened on the campus in 1907, 10 years after her death. The first black Red Cross nurse in the United States was Frances Elliott Davis who took her initial training at that hospital. Robert J Booker  Eliza B. Wallace

Rural Mount

By Blake Wylie - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,Link

Alexander Outlaw was born in Duplin County North Carolina in 1738. He received a classical education, was admitted to the bar and began the practice in his native county. In 1783, he moved to Greene County, North Carolina and settled in that portion which is now Jefferson County, Tennessee. He seems to have shared the general opinion that the Cession Act of North Carolina of 1784 made it necessary for the settlers in the ceded territory to erect a government of their own, and he therefore took an active part in the formation of the State of Franklin. He was in the Convention of August 1784 and in 1785 and again in 1786 was one of the commissioners of the State of Franklin to negotiate with the Cherokee Indians. His associates in 1785 were John Sevier and Daniel Kennedy and in 1786 William Cocke, Samuel Weir, Henry Conway, and Thomas Ingles. (Source:Tennessee: The Volunteer State, Volume 2 1769-1923, John Trotwood Moore, Austin Powers Foster, S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1923, p.200 )

In 1796 Alexander Outlaw represented Jefferson County in the Constitutional Convention, among his colleagues being Joseph Anderson and Archibald Roane. He was an active member of the Convention and was highly esteemed by his associates. He represented Jefferson County in the first General Assembly and, in 1799 was elected to the State Senate from Cocke and Jefferson Counties, and was made Speaker. In 1801, he was returned to the Senate by the same counties. It should be mentioned also that he represented the new and short lived County of Caswell in the Legislature of the State of Franklin.

He had four daughters and one son. These daughters were married to four well known men of that time to wit:

Judge Joseph Anderson married Only Patience Outlaw

Her dowry was a large tract of land on the Nolichucky River where Judge Anderson built a home—"Soldier's Rest."
Soldier's Rest was an adjoining plantation and sister to Rural Mount. It was
demolished for the present American Enka Plant. (from application for National Register for Historic sites)

Joseph Hamilton, married Penelope Smith Outlaw

("A native of Virginia, where he was admitted to the bar; moved to Hawkins County, 1784, and subsequently became a prominent lawyer in Tennessee (Caldwell, Bench and Bar, Tenn., pp. 77-82).") 
Rural Mount is thought to have been built as a gift to his daughter, Penelope and her husband Joseph Hamilton. 

Judge David Campbell married Elizabeth Outlaw

Paul McDermott and Dolly Outlaw

From Paul McDermott and his wife was descended the wife of JB Cooke of Chattanooga former Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee from

TG Outlaw a prominent and worthy citizen of Mobile Alabama is believed to be the present head of the direct line Alexander Outlaw died in October, 1825 He was one of the best and purest as well as one of the ablest men of his time in Tennessee. His social position thorough education and high character gave him prominence and influence and his entire career was marked by genuine and unselfish patriotism. No man in our early history left a better reputation and none more faithfully endeavored to discharge his duties as a man and as a citizen. (Source:Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Tennessee

By Joshua William Caldwell. Ogden brothers & Company, printers, 1898, pp 65-66)



Tennessee State Supreme Court Case: Link

William E F S Milburn

W. E. F. Milburn home in Greeneville

The former was a soldier in the war of the Revolution and a pioneer of Greene County about 1804.

[See above. I have not found any documentation that either Jonathan or his father served in the Revolutionary War. John Milburn is listed as a Revolutionary War Patriot because he renendered material aid.

Jonathan was a Lieutenant in the Greene County Militia (Oct 16, 1799) (Source:Record of Commissions of Officers in the Tennessee Militia)

The father was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church for five years more than half a century. He was, during the war of the Rebellion, an avowed Union man and was much persecuted and imprisoned by the rebels for his Union sentiments. He was chaplain of the Eighth Regiment Tennessee Cavalry Volunteers United States Army. The mother was born near Harper's Ferry Va April 10 1802 and died February 14 1861. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Our subject served as a soldier from November 20, 1862 to October 25 1865 in Company B Twelfth Regiment Tennessee Cavalry Volunteers, United States Army in the war of the Rebellion. He was engaged in the battles of Florence and Shoal Creek and Sugar Creek, Ala; Pulaski, Triune, Clifton, Spring Hill, Columbia, Campbellsville, Franklin, and Nashville, Tenn, and the fourteen days of continuous skirmishing with Gen Hood's retreating forces from Nashville to Eastport, Miss.

After the war he entered school and was graduated with the degree of AB and won the highest honors of the class of 1871 in the East Tennessee Wesleyan University. For the two successive years 1872 and 1873 he was professor of mathematics in his then alma mater. In the year 1874, he was graduated upon examination from the University of Michigan with the degree of Master of Arts. He was president of the Holston Seminary for one year 1874-75 in the meantime reading law so as to be admitted to the bar in 1876, at Athens, Tenn, his license being signed by Judge Hayle and Chancellor Bradford.

In 1879, he removed to Abilene, Kansas, and early in 1880, he located at Greeneville, Tenn. From January 1882 to July 1885, he was special examiner of the United States Pension Bureau in the State of Kentucky with headquarters at Bowling , after which he resumed the practice of law at Greeneville. In November 1886, he was elected as a Republican to represent the county of Greene and served with ability and distinction in the Legislature of 1887. He was a member of the executive committee of the State Temperance Alliance, and took an active part in the canvass to adopt the constitutional Prohibition amendment in 1887. October 1, 1878 Florence Ella daughter of Mr John H Williams of Golden, Col became his wife. She was born at Ducktown, Tenn March 19, 1859. To this union have been born three children namely Lulu Belle, Frank Emily, and Blaine. Mrs Milburn is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

[There is some evidence that he married again after his first wife's death. A short article from the Chattanooga Times:

"Johnson City, Tenn., July 4 – A quiet wedding took palace Wednesday morning at 9:30 o’clock at the home of Mr. And Mrs. Frank Mountcastle, on Watauga Avenue when Miss Mary W. Hardy became the bride of Capt. W. E. F. Milburn, quartermaster of the soldiers home." No marriage rcord found, but he is listed as married on the 1920 Census and also on his death certificate." ]

William E F Milburn died on July 9, 1925 in Greeneville, TN, and according to his death certificate, he is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery.

The original article is from History of Tennessee, Volume 2,  Goodspeed Publishing Company Staff, Southern Historical Press, 1887, p.1224