The

Netherland Inn

and

Old Kingsport

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Newspaper articles from

Kingsport Times, February 27, 1927

Cherokee Indians Once Hunted

Where City Of Industries Now Stand

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History of Kingsport is Related by Oliver Taylor

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Interesting Article Tells of Activities of Indians

May years Ago Before City of Kingsport Was Realized

------ Great Resources Abounded, Says Taylor in Article

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By Oliver Taylor

When Daniel Boone Left his home on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina; and journeyed toward the land across the Cumberland, his route lay along the banks of a river the Indians called Cootclaw, now know as the Holston. With his surveying instruments and a few men he afterwards laid out what is know as the Wilderness road. In his survey he ran across another road that came from he knew not where, and went to some unknown destination. It may have been centuries old. It crossed the Holston at long Island, and over the present southern city limits of Kingsport In time white settlers called it the Great Path and Indian War Path. This road had its beginning at Echota, the capital of the Cherokee nation, between Chattanooga and Chickamauga, and extended as far as what is now Staunton, Va. It was the main trading route of the Southern Indians with northern tribes. About midway on this path was selected a neutral strip, a no man's land, where all tribal differences were settled. They might wage wars and trespass elsewhere, but this spot must be held sacred. Long Island became the Indians' Hauge. Here they held their parleys around council fires; here the peace pipe was passed around and the tomahawk buried. It was their "Ultima Thule---Utmost Isle."

In 1760 the country was shocked over the treacherous massacre of the occupants of Fort Loudon, near Knoxville, then supposed to be in Virginia. The governor of that state dispatched Col. Byrd in charge of a number of men to the relief of the fort. On the way he was succeeded by Col. Stephen, who, on arriving at Big Island or Long Island, built a fort which he called Fort Robinson. Col. William Christian's men later called it Fort Patrick Henry. It was located on the hill near what is now the site of the Kingsport Brick Corporation. Hearing of the approach of this army and fearing punishment, the Indians, 400 in number, headed by chief Oconostota, hastened there and sued for peace. A treaty was made November 16, 1761, the first Indian treaty made in Sullivan County. The building of Fort Robinson encouraged immigration, and many families settled nearby, where little disturbed them for some time.

During June, 1776, Nancy Ward, called "Beloved Woman" of the Cherokee Nation, sent word to Fort Patrick Henry and Fort Watauga that 700 Indians, headed by the blood thirsty Chiefs Dragging Canoe and Abraham, were preparing to surprise and attack them. It is supposed her friendship for the whites, which had been shown before this, was due to the fact that her father was a white man, a British agent by the name of Ward. Her mother was an Indian princess, a daughter of Attakullakulla, once chief of the Cherokees.

James Robertson "Father of Tennessee, " spoke of her as "queenly and commanding, her house furnished in accordance with her high dignity." The solders quartered at Eaton Station, just above the southern end of Long Island were ordered there by Col. William Preston to protect the frontier, and Major Bledsoe, in his report, names the following in command: Captains John Campbell, James Shelby, William Buchanan, William Cocke and Thomas Madison. The scouts sent out, the morning of 19 of August, returned and reported large bodies of Indians, making for the settlements. Fearing harm might be done the unprotected settlers, the soldiers decided to march forward and meet the Indians in open battle. They fell upon them at Island Flats, about where the Federal Dye Works at Kingsport are now located, and defeated them after a sanguinary fight. This battle, fought August 20, 1776, stands out in the history of border warfare.

The Indians, chafed under the defeat, urged on and , paid by enemies of liberty, just beginning to light up the nation, sought revenge. Hearing of their threats, it was determined to make a war of agression. Col. William Christian then assembled 2,000 men at Fort Patrick Henry and, proceeding down the river, reached the Indian settlements, which he found deserted. he burned several towns and destroyed much grain, finally agreeing to a truce. Following the truce they returned to Long Island and the treaty, known as the tready of Long Island, entered into June, 1777, was the outcome, and was attended by many Indian Chiefs and noted border men. At this treaty the Indians were compelled to give up Long Island. They pleaded to be allowed to keep in their possession this sacred piece of ground "to hold talks on," but their vain pleading was the pathos of a vanishing race.

In the spring of 1779, Evan Shelby gathered his men at Fort Patrick Henry and made a campaign against the Chickamaugas, likewise destroying their towns and crops and carrying away booty.

During the same year Col. John Donolson removed with his family from Virginia to Long Island. Here he built 30 boats and organized an expedition for the purpose of setting on the Cumberland, now near Nashville. Three hundred people went with him when he started, December 22. In his company was his daughter, then a little girl of 13, who afterward became the wife of "Old Hickory" Jackson. This expedition was the most venturesome of any that had yet been launched to people the West.

Gen. Evan Shelby, Gen. Joseph Martin and Major Anthony Bledsoe were at different times in command at Fort Patrick Henry.

In September, 1780, Col. Isaac Shelby and Col. John Sevier, Revolutionary heroes, called for volunteers to go on the Kings Mountain campaign, and Long Island sent its full quota of men.

After the treaty of 1783 there was a long peace. Industries sprang up and farming was carried on unmolested. One of the industries brought over from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century was from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century was the powder mill. In 1806 Kingsport had as many as four powder mills in operation, for powder then was as necessary in the family as salt. A charcoal iron furnace and iron works were built and the tilt hammer pounded away along the river. The oil mills turned out at least pure linseed oil. Tanneries made leather to replace rawhide moccasins. The grist mill and saw mill worked together. Follow-ing these, Dr. Frederick A. Ross a pioneer Presbyterian minister, who inherited a large area in this section, erected a cotton mill at the west end of Long Island, hauling in his raw cotton by wagon from Knoxville. He made a servicable cotton goods, finding time also to cross pens in bitter irony with William G. Brownlow, the famous Knoxville Whig, regarding his religious beliefs. But the only business, he said he had any fancy for was the manufacture of silk, the making of which he declared would cause him to be regarded as "a benefactor" to East Tennessee. He planted the white mulberry and the "morus multicaulus," and induced farmers to do likewise and sell him the cocoons. In one year at least he made $30,000, and became so proud of his effort that he wore a silk suit of his own cloth, lasting him several summers. Thus it will be seen the early settlers realized the value of Kingsport as a favorable location for manufacturing enterprises. But his manufacturing achievements were not the greatest pride of his enterprising parson. His family consisted of fourteen sons and a daughter, and it was in this daughter, Rowena, he centered his greatest pride and affection. She was educated in a select school in Philadelphia, whither she journeyed from Kingsport in a magnificently upholstered carriage, drawn by beautiful horses, driven by liveried slaves, where she became accomplished in the natural charm and culture of her own home at Rotherwood, she was the most saught belle of her time, and was known as the most beautiful woman between Mobile, Ala., and Norfolk, Va.

Kingsport has undergone an evolution in names. It has been called Peace Island, Big Island, Long Island, Fort Robinson, Fort Patrick Henry, Boat Yard, Christiansville, Rossville and Kingsport. The latter took its name from King's Iron Works, located at the mouth of Steele's Creek. Here Col. James King, in 1790, associated with him Governor William Blount, for whom Blountville was named, in the manufacture of iron. Besides supplying local trade their product was hauled by wagon to Kingsport and shipped by boat to different parts of the country. It then became King's Port.

The old town was on the main stage route from Lynchburg to Knoxville and it is believed offered the best and easiest location for the building of the East-Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, now the main line of the Southern Railway from Chattanooga to Washington. But no attempt was made to secure it and it is said its location here was opposed, due to the belief by some of the city

fathers of Kingsport that the Holston River could be made navigable by deepening the channel. The town, used to boats wanted boats, and subsequently two small steamers, the Mary McKinney and Mayflower, one day puffed in amid great enthusiasm. But, after a few other attempts, the project was abandoned and Kingsport fell into a long, deep slumber.

The slow going ox team that had been crowded into fence corners by the swifter moving stage coach now covered the right of way with their swaying bodies, fudged on wheels of every light vehicle, avenging past grievances. The loafer about the stores sat on empty goods boxes carving holes and dates. The barefooted school boy thumbed his gallows, looked longingly down the road and in every rising dust thought he saw the stage coach that would never come back again.

The Netherland Hotel, that historical hostelry, gradually fell into neglect and its doors creaked on rusty hinges. This hotel has housed and fed many noted travelers, including most of the men in

public life in Tennessee. Here politics formed a hot bed that forced growth and fame on some officials and wilt on others, without warning. Hither came Jackson and Polk and Johnson, Tennessee's three contributions to the presidency, and Bell and Gentry and Senter and Gaines, the hero of the battle of Fort Erie, the governors, senators, congressmen, orators, preachers and tradesmen. And hither came the cavalier with his lady fair on their wedding tour. How gracefully she swept along the floor in dainty slippers and furbelows --- customs and courtesies we shall not see their like again.

But once more the town was aroused and often disturbed during the war between the states. The most important engagement was during Stoneman's raid in December 1864. Arriving at Rotherwood with 5,000 Federal soldiers, he found his futher advance opposed by Gen. Basil Duke's men, under the command of Col. R. C. Morgan, a brother of Gen. John Morgan, the noted Confederate cavalryman. Morgan had only 350 men, but, with the river and the rocky cliff to shield him, held back the Federals for several hours. In the afternoon Gen. Stoneman sent Col. Patton up the river, where he crossed, surrounded the Confederates and defeated them.

After the war Kingsport, discouraged, fell into another deep slumber. Nature was allowed to take its course and went ahead and planted dog fennel and horse weed and old maid's bonnets along the sidewalks. But while the town had been denied the development of other resources, agriculture was not neglected. From the rich river bottoms were hauled great loads of wheat and corn, and well fed cattle grazed on green hillsides, were driven to market.

During the early part of the nineteenth century discoveries were made that meant the reclaiming and revival of Kingsport and all the territory around it. The treasures were there, the natural power was there to bring them forth --- there must be found a way to deliver them. So in 1895, the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway plunged through mountains, tore away towering cliffs, crossed deep chasms and bridged swift rivers to bring closer together the grain fields of the West, the great coal fields of Virginia and rapidly growing manufacturing districts of the Carolinas.

The future history that records the deeds of days one by one will one day tell of these builders --- pioneers of industrial development.

Then Kingsport awoke, stood up, stretched its arms, waved them in wand-like circles and lo! a city spread over the spot. The old tilt hammer that beat away that day at the bend of the river, and the cotton spools, turned by slow power, had long since been silenced and now, in their stead, ponderous machines, moved by mysterious electric power, pound out new made things for modern needs.

Kingsport! Its history will be forever linked with Indian legends, their mystery, their romance and the daring exploits of the rugged pioneers. They will always be commemorated. The council fires are lighted there today as in days of yore. Chiefs of commerce gathered about them "to hold good talks" that mean the enlargement of big things begun and the bringing in of new enterprises. The pipes of peace are smoking in the valley, but the smoke is from lofty stacks of workshops and factories.

With great resources and a climate excellent, the people who go there remain to dwell there, for, like the Aborigines, they, to, have found their "Ultima Thule --- Utmost Isle."

A good history of Kingsport is found in an article resurrected in the old files of The Kingsport Times issue of June 29, 1916. The article was written by Chancellor John Allison, and it gives in detail the origin of the name "Kingsport," and other interesting facts on the now prosperous and growing city.

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By Chancellor John Allison

"In the year 1834, Eastin Morris, a banker of Nashville and a very public spirited and useful citizen had published, "The Tennessee Gazetteer," which contains local history of that period that I have not found elsewhere.

"Under the letter B, he has 'Boat Yard, at the mouth of the south branch of the Holston' --- see Kingsport."

"Although a number of boats are loaded between this place and the mouth of Watauga, yet it is considered the head of Navigation, and it is supposed there are annually shipped from Kingsport, about 4,000 barrels of salt, besides considerable quantities of iron, castings, flour, bacon, etc."

"Mr. Morris then gives the distance from Kingsport by the old dirt road to Abingdon, Blountville, Greenville, Jonesboro and Nashville."

"Mr. Morris says he got his information as to Sullivan county from 'John Lynch, Jr. and Samuel Rhea, Esquires,' and so the information given was accurate as far as it went, but my mother at that time was the wife of Richard Gammon, Jr., and resided in Blountville; and her father (my grandfather), John Chester, resided at the same time near the 'Yellow Store,' in Hawkins county and my mother, in visiting him, passed through the 'Boat yard' in going and returning and she is my authority for the information that at that period there were in the 'Boat Yard,' a hatter shop, a tin shop, a tailor, a coppersmith, a wagon maker, blacksmith, shoe-maker, harness and saddle maker, all of whose names she told me, but which I have forgotten. The Sunday clothes worn by the man of that period were all made by the local tailor."

"The change of the name from 'Boat Yard,' to 'King's Port' was not in honor of King George, but because of the heavy shipments of salt from there by Mr. Kings, who at that period owned and operated the 'Salt Works' over in Virginia, north of Abingdon, the salt being hauled from the works in the old fashioned four and six horse road wagons---down the Reedy Creek road, and this method of transportation of salt continued until the construction of the 'Virginia and Tennessee', (now Norfolk and Western) railroad."

"In the late fifties of the 19th century, a little steamboat, the 'Mary McKinley,' made a trip from Knoxville to Kingsport and return on the Holston. Some capitalists of lower and upper Tennessee, at that time, having their eyes and minds on the future of Kingsport."

"Fort Patrick Henry was located near Kingsport, on the south side of the Holston, and it was from this fort that John Donelson set out in December, 1779, with is good boat 'Adventure,' and a fleet following for the Cumberland country with a colony aboard."

"As late as the eighties of the 19th century, grain, flour, bacon, etc, were loaded on flat bottomed boats at Kingsport and floated on the 'tides' annually to the markets, and so Kingsport has been a shipping port for a century."

"Under 'Pactolus', Mr. Morris says: 'A post town in Sullivan county, six miles above Kingsport, on the south side of the Holton. There was established in this place a very extensive nail factory, which supplied nearly the whold country east of Huntsville, Ala. with first class nails. The factory is owned Elijah Embree, Esq."

"In other days I found authority showing that the nails made at Pactolus found their way as far south as New Orleans and also to towns on the lower Mississippi and up to the Ohio river. These nails were four square spikes with the large end bent over for a head. I have seen the secured from old buildings."

"The name 'Pactolus,' given to this little factory, and also in early times to a small stream near by, sheds light on the knowledge possed by the pioneers of ancient history, for we learn from the very earliest writers that Pactolus was a small brook of Lydia in Asia Minor, its source being on the northern slope of Mount Tomolus, a hill rich in minerals.

"The sands and mud of Pactolus were long famous in antiquity for the particles of gold dust which they contained, and which are supposed to have been carried down by its waters from the bosom of Tomolus, a hill rich in minerals. The collection of these particles of gold, according to legend, was he source of Croesus' vast wealth."

"It might be interesting as well as instructive to relate in this reminiscence to the present generation, why the old Tennessee and Virginia railroad was not built by way of Kingsport. The line inco-rporated was from Knoxville to Kings Meadows or Bristol. It must be built, if at all, by state and county, and private subscription to its capital stock."

"All things considered, the natural or least expensive route, was from Knoxville to Blain's Cross roads in the west end of Grainger county, then up the valley by Bean's station, Rogersville, Kingsport, up Reedy Creek some ten or twelve miles, thence southeast to Bristol; the other route was as the road runs now."

"It was apparent that subscription would determine the location of the route."

"Local dealers and influential men in the three counties of Granger, Hawkins and in the northwest and on the north side of Sullivan, made in concert, the singular but truthful argument against county help and individual subscription, that to build the railroad through these counties on the route sug-gested would destroy flat bottom boat transportation, and destroy the transportation business of all the old four and six horse road wagons then engaged in freighting between the east and west, and along with these would go all of the stage stands, taverns, etc. and so neither of the three counties named as such subscribed, nor did the individual subscriptions from citizens of these counties amount to much."

"Washington county subscribed fifty thousand dollars, Jefferson county subscribed fifty thousand dollars, but Greene, as a county did not, I believe, subscribe, but her citizens subscribed liberally, as did also the citizens of Washington and Jefferson, and the railroad was located and built as it is now."

To thousands of people who have come into Kingsport from other parts of the country within the recent years, the early history of Kingsport sounds like a fairy tale. However, it is intensely interesting to both the aged resi-dents of the city and the newcomers to compare the city today with the post town of half a century or more ago.

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The following article, entitled "Kingsport Fifty Years ago," is taken from an issue of the Kingsport Times of June 29, 1916. It is reprinted exactly as printed 11 years ago, including the editor's note as follows:

"The times is indebted to J. A. Newland, of Bloomingdale, for the clipping given below, which has been in Mr. Newland's posession over thirty years. Mr. Newland is well versed in the early history of Kingsport and is one of the few now living who went aboard the steamer 'Mary McKinley', when she visited Kingsport 60 years ago. The Clipping follows:

"It may be generally known that Kingsport fifty years ago was one of the most active, lively business places in the state east of Knoxville. It was then the head of navigation for Upper East Tennessee and Southeast (sic) Virginia, and at the same time was called the "Boat Yard," being situated immediately in the fork of the north and south forks of the Holston river in the lower end of Sullivan county. Here thousands of barrels salt could be seen stacked upon the river bank, waiting for tides and flat boats to carry it off. It was brought to this place in wagons from Saltville, Va., and then sent down the river to New Orleans and all over the south.

"Here, also, a large mercantile business was carried on by such firms as Lyon, Wall and Co.; Brownlow, Patterson and Co.; John Lynn and Co.; R. Rogan and Co.; James O'Brine and Co.; Simpson and Co.; Baughman, Dameron and Co. and many others not now known. The first mentioned firm also operated a large spinning factory on the point of the island just opposite the town, and a large hemp factory was in operation, owned by Rogan and Myers, and a few years later another spinning factory was erected a little lower down at the mouth of the north fork, by Rev. F. A. Ross, and then there was an iron foundry or forge, grist mill, etc."

"Kingsport was also the place of nativity of some of the distinguished men of the nation. Here was born and reared, General Gaines, the husband of Mrs. Myra Gaines, who had such a long contest in the courts about her property in the city of New Orleans. His father, Squire Gaines died here and is buried at the Groseclose place, one mile above the town."

"Governor W. G. Brownlow was here married to Miss Eliza Ann O'Brien, who was a granddaughter of Captain Joseph Everett, by his first wife, Barbary G., the wife of this scribe, was Captain Everett's youngest daughter by his last wife, he having had six daughters by his first wife and four by his last wife."

"But now how changed and delapidated is the old town. As I ride along the street, I look and there stands the old stone house, the Everett mansion, and upon the hill just above it is the old Gaines mansion where the general was raised --- now an old log house, covered with boards and occupied by colored people."

"I look again up Main street for those once flourishing merchantile houses and they are all gone --- having long since been swept away by the high tides in the river. I inquired for the owners and proprietors of having been swept off by the river of death and out into the great ocean of eternity."

"And did you know ....?" Bill Highsmith, 76, said as he recalled each slice of Kingsport history. Of course, his listener had heard of very few of the events.

Highsmith's family moved to Kingsport in 1919, two years after the city's incorporation. Highsmith's father had been a doctor for a coal company in Coalwood, W.Va., and he moved the family here to practice medicine. As Highsmith said, "Lots of folks were moving to Kingsport in those days.

Highsmith remembered the twister that hit West View Park in Cherry Hill in 1925. People were taken to the hospital at the corner of Charlemont and Broad streets.

"I remember standing outside that night watching the ambulances bring people in," he said. "The doctors were operating on people using lanterns."

Then there was the disaster Highsmith barely missed in 1934. there was an old bridge that crossed the Holston River below Rotherwood. The bridge was part of the road between Kingsport and Knoxville. The bridge collapsed one morning.

"I came across it about 9 0'clock the night before on a Greyhound bus," highsmith said. "it collapsed the next morning when a fruit truck went across it."

"And did you know ....?" about the planes that used to land in the pastures at Cherokee Village, off Sullivan Street, and the "barnstorm." The planes would park along Sullivan Street and sell

tickets for rides.

A three- to five-minute ride was about the logest a person could hope for, but at least competition eventually drove the prices down.

"At first it was $10 for a ride," Highsmith said, "Then it became more popular and it was $5, then it was $2."

"And have you heard about" The Big Store that was the predecessor to J. Fred Johnson's store at the corner of Shelby and Main streets? That was Kingsport's only department store at the time.

"Bonnie Steadman used to sit above the floor and all those transactions would be sent to her on a little cable activated by a pulley," Highsmith said. "And she would send the change back down on a little basket."

On Nov. 4, 1930, Highsmith was a member of the Kingsport High School band that was directed, albeit briefly, by John Phillip Sousa. The band went to Johnson City to attend a Sousa concert, and the director arranged for Sousa to direct the band during intermission.

Highsmith played second clarinet, Sousa directed the band through a version of "El Capitan," at the conclusion of which Sousa was reported to have said, "It was certainly fine work boys."

With all these memories of the way things used to be, Highsmith said he doesn't mind seeing historic structures like the Homestead Hotel torn down. "Oh no," he said, "you have to be pragmatic about these things."

Highsmith remembers when the Homestead Hotel "was a fine place" where a lot of the workers went to eat in the cafeteria in the basement.

"As a youngster, three of us here in town went to the Homestead Hotel on Saturday nights to sell the Saturday Evening Post, Lady's Home Journal and the Country Gentleman," Highsmith said.

The

Netherland Inn

Tavern In Old Kingsport One Of The

Most Historic Points Of Interest To The

People Of This Section

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Three-Story Structure on Lee Highway Built Over 100 Years Ago; Used During Stage Period

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Building Has Weathered Many Storms; Used As A Residence

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Former Presidents Once Entertained At Kingsport Tavern --- Many other Statesmen Stopped During

Trips By Stage Coach --- Little Cooking Done on Sunday During Early Life

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(Kingsport Times, Sunday, February 27, 1927)

One of the most historic points of interest in this section is the old "tavern" located on the Holston river in Old Kingsport. From the most authentic data available, this antiquated structure was erected about the year 1816. It was used as a hotel or inn as it was more generally called during the stage coach period, when the stately coaches were operated from New Orleans to Washington. The building was erected several years before the state began to develop in an industrial way.

Older residents say this city was named Kingsport because the developer of King's salt works made this his shipping point. It was formerly written and printed "King's port." The salt industry in Virginia thrived for many years and the output from the infant industry of that time was loaded on wagons and later transported on flat boats.

This business caused a thriving village to spring up on the banks of the Holston River.

Pioners of this community say the "tavern" was erected by Richard Netherland. He was a land and slave owner. For many years Netherland owned and operated a farm on Long Island in the Holston river, opposite this city. Netherland was buried on the hill that rises from the rear of the "tavern." It was his request, pioneer residents say, that his body should repose in the beautiful garden spot at the rear of the "tavern."

Many years after developments started through-out Tennessee, steamboats were operated from Knoxville to Kingsport. At that time cotton mills were operated at Kingsport on an extensive scale. Raw material from the cotton fields of the south was transported from Knoxville to Kingsport to be used in the old cotton mill operated on the point of Long Island.

One of the first steamers to make this trip was the "Mary McKinney" a light draught boat. This trip could be made only on high water. When rises of six or eight feet would take place, the steamers would make quick trips up the river destined for the "Head of Navigation" as it was called at that time. An old sign bearing "Kingsport Tavern --- Head of Navigation" was in front of the old "tavern" for many years. On one end of the board was the picture of a steamboat, with steam and smoke puffing from the boilers and smoke stack.

A few years before the railway traffic became a factor in the developments of this section, stage

coaches were operated daily through old Kingsport and the "tavern" was one of the stopping places where horses were changed, while the passengers got meals and a brief rest in the old hotel.

Among the notable guest entertained here were Andrew Jackson, who often traveled from the Hermitage, at Nashville, to Washington; Andrew Johnson, James K. Polk, Governor William Blount, Hugh Lawson White and others who were famous in the period of early developments of Tennessee and the State of Franklin.

In later years the old building was used as a residence and boarding house. Many social functions have taken place in the dining room and other large rooms that were used for banquets during the time the Netherlands resided there. It is well known that this historic structure was for many years the center of social activities for old Kingsport and this part of Tennessee. It was related that the Netherland family was pious and belonged to the Presbyterian church when the "tavern" was in the height of its popularity, but guests who chanced to dine there on Sunday were forced to partake of light bread baked the day before; as no unnecessary cooking would be permitted on Sunday.