I’d been researching the National
Register of Historic Places for another county in East Tennessee to explore…and
it was a beautiful day for a drive.
Meigs County was the site for what Dawn Marie termed as ‘our historical
scavenger hunt’.
This is the R.H. Johnson Stable, also
known as the Edgemon Barn. It’s located
at approximately 30275 TN Hwy 58 and it’s readily visible from the highway. The structure dates back to at least 1888. This stunning old barn or stable has been
well maintained…
The great majority of Meigs County’s thirty-eight
(38) listings in the NRHP were accepted and published in 1982. I’m guessing that it was a community effort
spurred on by some dedicated residents who had an interest in preserving the
county’s history. In 1985, a quilt was
made which depicted several of the historic sites or buildings in the
county. The R.H. Johnson Stable was one
of those structures. That quilt and many
other exhibits now reside in the Meigs County Historical Museum located at 200
Smith Avenue in Decatur Tennessee.
Photos of some of the exhibits, including
some nifty old pictures can be found on the museum’s website at http://www.meigscohistoricalmuseum.org/.
The museum is only open for a few hours
on Fridays. For further information, you
can contact the museum coordinator at meigsmuseum@MeigsMuseum.com.
This is the Mt. Zion Church. It’s also pictured on that special quilt at
the Meigs County Historical Museum. This
Methodist Church was organized ca. 1830 and this particular structure was built
around 1850. Due to flooding in its
former location, it had to be moved and rebuilt at its current site.
The last member of the church died in the
1930’s…but “Homecoming” is held on the 2nd Sunday in June each
year. To quote: “Visit your ancestors
and hear stories of those still in the area or just eat the great southern food
they bring and listen to the music”. The
church is only open for Homecomings, Funerals and Special Events. Interested parties are instructed to contact
Ricky Crabtree, who happens to be the Vice President of the Meigs County
Historical Society.
This is the cemetery that adjoins the Mt.
Zion Church. For information on this
cemetery, (i.e., the cemetery’s ‘residents’), as well as photos of the
headstones, you can go to http://knaepen.homestead.com/Mt-Zion-Cemetery.html.
Laurie’s photo above shows the ‘Boggess
Corner’ of the cemetery. Six members of
the Boggess clan are documented as having been buried here. Boggess Crossroad is still listed in
Wikipedia as a populated place in Meigs County.
I found records showing that members of the family fought in the War of
1812, the Civil War (Confederate Army), World War I and World War II. Captain Abijah Boggess (Jr.), the family
member who fought in the Civil War, was killed in the battle of Bentonville
NC. This battle in March of 1865 took
place less than a month before the end of the war.
Note: Members of the Boggess family still
reside in Meigs County. I noted a couple
of fairly recent real estate transactions and Taylor Boggess was named to the
Class 5-AA Girls All District Basketball Team for 2012. The family line can be traced back to Robert
and Mary Boggess and a son, who arrived in Virginia from England in 1656.
These are two of the tombstones enclosed
in the little walled area from Laurie's previous photo. Abijah (Sr.) and Susan were very early
settlers in the area. The Boggess family
had a long history in Meigs County.
Abijah is recorded as being a veteran of both the War of 1812, during
which he would have been between 17 and 20 years of age, and the Civil War,
when he would have been 65 to 70 years old!
Abijah and his wife Susan had 13
children. Despite having that many
children back in the early 1800’s, Susan lived to be 72…but Abijah, despite
serving in 2 wars, lived to be almost 88!
One of the most interesting of Abijah and
Susan’s children was Captain Irby Holt Boggess. (Also a Civil War veteran) He
was born in 1835 and died in Texas in 1914.
This colorful character is considered a north Texas pioneer and he
helped found the town of St. Jo Texas…current population of just under
1,000. There was a divorce, shooting and
lots of business dealings… For more information you can go to http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hjs04
or http://www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com/files/TX/IraHoltBoggess.htm.
I had to toss in this photo for viewing by
those of you who are into history and/or the restoration of historic sites. This is the newly restored Stonewall Saloon
that was built by Captain Irby Holt Boggess in St. Jo Texas. It is now a western museum. A tremendous amount of work went into this
building restoration…
This photo was ‘borrowed’ from the museum’s
website. For more information on this north
Texas attraction, just go to http://www.stonewallsaloonmuseum.com/.
This is what remains of the Big Sewee
Creek Bridge. It was built ca. 1914 but
the basic iron structure still stands… The Champion Bridge Company erected this
truss bridge. It contains one 94.5 foot
span on concrete abutments and its 17 feet tall with a ‘curb to curb’ width of only
11 feet.
Meigs County barricaded and closed
this bridge to traffic in 1985. It
remains intact as a historic ruin. Laurie
liked the way that Mother Nature is having her special ‘artistic’ way with the
steel frame that remains…
FYI… This was also known as the Hickory
Flat Road Bridge.
As you can see from this photo, the Tennessee
Department of Transportation, in cooperation with Meigs County and the Federal
Highway Administration, built this replacement bridge in 1988. While the new bridge is safe and very
utilitarian, it lacks the beauty and romance of the old structure…
Well, that’s about it for this chapter of
our tour of Meigs County Tennessee. More
will follow in the weeks to come… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge
them…
Thanks for stopping by and sharing this
historical and architectural tour with us!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
You guys have learned way more about this area in a couple of years than I have in 44 - of course it's hard to see much from my chair.
ReplyDeleteand what a scavenger hunt you had!!
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed to find how long some families have been in certain regions. Talk about roots:-). Have a great day. Blessings...Mary
ReplyDeleteI like posts like this, full of history of a place. Families were large then – 13 children! I also liked the Stonewall Saloon – I would have enjoyed getting a drink there back in the days when it was popular.
ReplyDelete