A Brief Visit to Athens Tennessee

…another pause in the ongoing posts pertaining to our road trip into northern and western Nebraska.

Laurie was in the mood for a bit of shopping and we both felt like getting out and about locally, so we were off to Athens Tennessee via Sweetwater Tennessee.  Naturally, I managed to fit in a few historically related photos to give me something to research...

As most of those who follow my blog site are aware, I am just not into shopping.  However, when cruising through stores that say that they sell antiques, there is always hope.  I do collect old postcards…but they need to be stamped, postmarked and ideally mailed before 1920.  I also like quirky paper ephemera such as old road maps, old bank checks, etc.

Our first stop was in nearby Sweetwater Tennessee.  The big flea market at the TN Hwy 68 and I-75 interchange is home to a free standing store called Cave Creek Antiques and Home Décor.  It was mostly country style home décor with a scattering of antiques and a bunch of collectables.  As you will see later in this post, we did make a few purchases from the 3 different stores that we visited.

Cave Creek Antiques and Home Décor is located on the grounds of the flea market.  Address: 121 County Road 308 in Sweetwater.  Phone: 865-399-4376.  This store can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cavecreekantiques/videos/cave-creek-antiques-home-decor/971468663373909/.

The second store that we visited was in Athens Tennessee.  Warehouse 23 was also heavy on home décor items but they did have some antiques and collectibles mixed in.  The staff at this large store were very hospitable.  I even found a couple of things to go through.

Warehouse 23 is located at 306 Congress Parkway South (US Hwy 11) in Athens Tennessee.  Phone: 423-506-6518.  To learn more, just go to https://www.facebook.com/warehouse23ofathens/.

The third store that we visited was right in the downtown area of Athens.  Junktiques is larger than it looks on the outside as it is a maze of individual rooms primarily packed with decorative items for the home.  I noted few antiques or interesting collectibles, but Laurie did score a couple of purchases.

Junktiques is located at 115 East Madison Avenue in Athens Tennessee.  Phone: 423-453-2233.  This store is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MKjunktiques/.

As you can see from the preceding photos, Laurie was on a mission to stock up on a variety of wreaths!  She was quite happy with her purchases and upon arriving back at our house, she set about changing out her existing wreaths and putting the new ones up.  She bought a bunch of those cloth candy canes for her sister Bonnie back in St. Louis Missouri.

Now for some history and notable historic buildings in the city of Athens Tennessee…

This is the Mars Hill Presbyterian Church in Athens.  The church was first organized in November of 1823 and as the size of the congregation grew and the initial church was outgrown, a new church building became necessary.  For some time the congregation met in a small brick building that had originally been built as a school… 

The land that this church was built on, lot 19 in the original plat of Athens, cost $300.   The brick sanctuary was completed in September of 1838.  It not only served as a church, but also as a meeting place for the town.  The church continued to grow until the Civil War caused internal strive among members.  Ownership of the church became a bone of contention…a disagreement that went all the way to the State Supreme Court.

By 1870, it was realized that major renovations were needed due to years of neglect.  The original walls were rebuilt and a new sanctuary was completed by 1878.   The lasting divisions between different elements of the church weren’t resolved until the late 1880s.  The Great Depression combined with a massive fire created even more challenges…with some repairs not being completed until the early 1970s.

The Cleage House was built in 1823 by Samuel Cleage.  Although the historic plaque on the wall states that Samuel Cleage was ‘an itinerant contractor’ from Virginia, I suspect that he was a bit more than that.  The plaque stated that he’d moved south from Virginia…building houses…and “taking payments in gold, notes or Negroes”.  In 1936, this building served as the Central Office for the Hiwassee Railroad, which in 1837 became the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad…one of the predecessors of the Southern Railway System.  FYI, the Hiwassee Railroad ran between Knoxville Tennessee and Dalton Georgia.

Samuel Cleage was born in Pennsylvania and then settled in Virginia.  In 1823 he arrived in Athens Tennessee with his family and his slaves.  He was indeed a contractor but he was also a master mason and businessman.

I discovered that Samuel Cleage’s family home, a large 2-story Federal style residence, was constructed just outside of Athens.  I borrowed this photo from the Internet.  From what I could find, Cleage’s land holdings eventually came to something over 4,000 acres.  The family property was called ‘Mouse Creek Farm’.  Allegedly, in 1850 Samuel Cleage was stabbed to death in his home after an argument… The home still stands and is reputed to be haunted.  It currently is a commercial venture named “The Scream Chamber”.  Cleage, his wife, other family members as well as some of their slaves are buried nearby in the Cleage family cemetery.

This is the Trinity United Methodist Church in Athens.  The congregation was founded in 1824 – 1825 as the Methodist Episcopal Church of Athens.  The congregation’s first church building was a log structure built by slaves.  The present Gothic Revival style church building was completed in 1910, with an education wing being added in 1926. 

As had happened with the Presbyterian Church, this church congregation was also divided during the Civil War.  The church became a United Methodist church in 1968 when the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church were combined.

Now for a little local history…

Athens is located in McMinn County Tennessee.  A lot of history has been made here.  General John Wool of the US Army headquartered here to coordinate the “Cherokee Removal”, aka “The Trail of Tears” as Native Americans were forced west to the Oklahoma Territory. 

During the Civil War, the county…like the church congregations…was divided.  McMinn County narrowly voted against secession, 1,144 against and 904 in favor.  During the war, the county sent 12 military units to the Union Army and 8 units to the Confederate Army.

Following World War II, in 1946, several McMinn County veterans ran for local office in an attempt to replace a county government that was felt to be corrupt.  On August 1^st, local authorities locked themselves in the county jail with the ballot boxes.  Suspecting that the ‘fix’ was in, the veterans armed themselves and assembled across from the jail.  After an exchange of gunfire, the county authorities surrendered.  Several combatants were injured but no one was killed.  When the ballots were counted, the veteran’s ticket was elected.  To learn more about “The Battle of Athens”, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athens_(1946).

Athens is home to Tennessee Wesleyan University and about 1,200 students.  This private Methodist University was founded in 1857 and it’s affiliated with the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church.  The University maintains a branch campus in Knoxville where it conducts its nursing classes and its evening classes in business administration.

There are several old and historic university buildings on campus or nearby…with one known as ‘Old College’.  It was completed in 1857.  The Athens Female College opened in late 1858 with 5 faculty members and 70 female students.  Back in this era, the college was one of very few in the USA that accepted both men and women…

I was unable to find any information on the three buildings shown above but given their appearance and how long the University has been operating, many of them are over 100 years old. 

Note: In 1867, shortly before Ulysses S. Grant became President of the United States, he made a sizable donation to the school.  He was one of the school’s first donors.

As Laurie and I drove down one road on the University’s campus, we noticed these statues, so we stopped to learn what their story was…

The myth/story is that a wounded English officer from Fort Loudon was befriended by an Indian Chief.  The officer was given the Indian name “Connestoga”, meaning “The Oak”.  He was nursed back to health by Nocatula, the Chief’s daughter.  “The Oak” was accepted into the tribe and he married Nocatula.  A jealous suitor then stabbed Connestoga.  As he lay dying, Nocatula proclaimed her eternal love and plunged a knife into her breast.  Buried together, the Chief placed an acorn in Connestoga’s hand and a hackberry in Nocatula’s hand.  This was to symbolize their undying love and from the acorn and the hackberry developed 2 trees which stood on this spot for 150 years.

A North American version of Romeo and Juliet for sure!

One more church… This is the First United Presbyterian Church at 321 North Jackson Street in Athens.  This historic African-American church congregation was established in either 1889 or 1890 as a mission church.  The founding minister, Jacob L. Cook was a native of Athens and the son of former slaves.  A graduate of Knoxville College, Cook traveled north to study for the ministry at the United Presbyterian Church’s Allegheny Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. 

Upon his return to Athens, Cook started a new congregation in a building that also served as a dance hall.  The early Gothic style church pictured above was built in 1892 on the site of that dance hall.  It was built and furnished with assistance from sponsors in Pennsylvania.  From what I could learn, the interior seating, which is still in the church, came from an opera house.  I found it very interesting that Reverend Cook got his start as a child selling his mother’s tea cakes in the very dance hall that stood on this spot…

To learn more about Reverend Jacob L. Cook, just click on this link: http://sites.rootsweb.com/~tnmcmin2/jguyjakecook.htm.  

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave