Sunday, October 16, 2005

A Short History of Laurel Bloomery

Where the World Ended and Tennessee Began
Written by Thomas Gentry (County Historian)



The year was 1749 when a survey party was engaged by the British Parliament to establish the boundary lines between the two colonies of North Carolina and Virginia. As the surveyors finished the task, they came to an area now know as Pond Mountain. The area is also called three corners since it is the point where Tennessee joins both Virginia and North Carolina.
When the leader of the party came to a high knob where he viewed White Top Mountain, the Unaka Range, and into the wilderness valley that is known as Taylor's Valley, Sugar Creek, and Fodderstack Ridge, he made a decision. He called the members of the party together, and packed up the instruments and equipment. He later recorded these comments
" I came to a place I call steep rock (today called Cat Face) and this is where we stop because this is as far in the wilderness as any white man will go." It's interesting to note that the leader of the survey party was Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the United States. Jefferson would be the one to make the Louisiana Purchase and send Lewis and Clark to the Pacific.
Contrary to what Peter Jefferson believed just 20 short years passed before Daniel Boone left The Yadkin in North Carolina and blazed a trail through the area.
So this is where the great state of Tennessee began in what became the first Civil District of Johnson County, Tennessee.
When you leave the top of Pond Mountain at 5000 feet above sea level, you can follow Rogers Ridge down to Gilbert's Branch, on down to where Kate's Branch joins in and you will encounter the beautiful natural double water falls known as Gentry's Falls. This is the beginning of Gentry's Creek, the first tributary in Northeast Tennessee. This area is in the Cherokee National Forest and is still basically in its undisturbed natural beauty passable by foot only. You will travel down Gentry's Creek another 3-1/2 miles before you reach the first residents.
Rogers Ridge was named after John Rogers who is believed to have built the first white man's cabin in the Gentry's Creek area. A property deed from 1800 makes reference to Roger's cabin which had already burned.
You may be a direct descendent of some of the early pioneers if your last name is Keys, Ward, Gentry, Wills, Doran, McCann, McQueen, Wilson, Cutburt, Judd, Warden, Smith, Farris, Greer, Cornett, Grace, Morefield, Worley, Michael, Mock, Johnson, Eggers, Stone, Sutherland, Reid, Sexton, Venable, Mink, Jenkins, Gilbert, Widner, Speer, Edmondson, Snoodgrass, Roe, Robinson, Owens, Abel, Blevins, Dinkens, Hawkins, Neely, Ray, Fritts, Debusk, or Simmons since these were some of the early settlers in the area.
The first community in the first district was originally named Wards Forge. It was named for Major John Ward, an iron ore businessman and War of 1812 veteran. Iron ore was the primary enterprise in the early years with Joseph Gentry and Lewis Wills being two of the first in the business. In 1882 Joseph H. Grace, also in the iron ore business opened a post office and renamed the community Laurel Bloomery. The name reflected the abundance of Laurel growth in the area and Bloomery was the term for smelling iron ore.
As the number of residents increased from 1798 through 1890, the number of products grew. The virgin timber was the source for many wood products. For instance another nearby community produced an abundance of wood roofing shingles and thus became known as Shingletown and is still called that today. Other products of the area included rifle barrels for the long rifles used by the early pioneers and civil war soldiers. There were small farms, and water wheel mills for grinding flour, making molasses and producing iron.
As the iron ore was depleted during the 1880's, the timber business grew and created a need for a railroad. A narrow gage track was constructed which eventually extended to Mountain City. There were depots at Dollarsville, (named after Monroe, John and Roby Dollar who operated a lumber camp) Eurica, (at the Ackerson Creek cutoff) Silver Lake and the end of the line was at the depot located just across the creek behind the present Rite Aid Pharmacy.
The train track as well as the roadbed followed the Laurel creek through the mountains. The route was 14 miles long with the road fording back and forth across the stream 28 times in that short distance.
Silver Lake was a prominent area during those early years. It was first called Deep Springs after the Governor of Virginia who mistakenly thought the land was part of Virginia had awarded it to Mr. Alexander Doran. It was the location of the Methodist campgrounds at the present location of Clinton Presbyterian Church.
Irvin J. Warden and his son Arthur generated the first electric power (DC) in Laurel Bloomery at their mill (where the Old Mill Park is today) in the early 1920's. It supplied some of the homes, stores and schools as well as an ice house. When Mountain Electric Cooperative brought power to the community during the early 1940's customers was mailed a postcard each month. They would then read their own meters and pay their bill of approximately $1.00 when they came to Mountain City. The meter readers would go by every 6 months or so and assure that the customers were reading their meters correctly. This was the beginning of the wilderness but it was also the beginning of the great state of Tennessee. If England was our mother country then North Carolina was our mother state since Tennessee came from the original North Carolina colony.

2 Comments:

At October 22, 2015, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My Grandfather has a cabin on bishop rd and we ride four-wheelers up to cat face and get out on it. It is an amazing sight.

 
At March 29, 2021, Blogger Janie reece said...

This was a wonderful read. Thank you

 

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