thedailytimes.com : Your 24/7 news source

Artifacts from Blount County are playing a big part in the East Tennessee Historical Society's new exhibition, "Voices of the Land: The People of East Tennessee."

The display includes a rifle once owned by legendary hunter, politician and hero at the Alamo, Davy Crockett.

Maryville Mayor Joe Swann loaned the rifle, which has been in Swann's family since 1806, to the historical society for the exhibit.

Swann explained his family ties to the Kentucky rifle as The Daily Times previewed the exhibit this week, a tour conducted by ETHS Director Cherel Bolin Henderson and Curator of Exhibitions Adam H. Alfrey.

As a young man, Crockett fell in love and wanted to marry a woman who lived on a farm in Jefferson County adjacent to the Swann ancestors.

He had been born in 1786 to poor parents in Limestone, and "to get married you had to have a horse to farm because that was the only way you could make a living," Swann explained at the ETHS headquarters in Knoxville.

"You had to work six months to get a horse, and Crockett had worked four months. Crockett was in too big of a hurry to wait two more months, so he sold his rifle to my ancestor so he could get the extra money to marry Polly Finlay in 1806 after he had just turned 20. The rifle (he named 'Betsy') has remained in my family ever since," Swann said.

His great-great-uncle had it until 1900 in the Dandridge area. Then a great-uncle took possession and allowed it to be displayed in a museum in Oklahoma in the 1920s and '30s. It wound up with Swann's cousin in Modesto, Calif.

Swann contacted him in 1976 or 1977, seeking to buy "Betsy" and bring her back here to put in a museum.

The cousin agreed to do that in 1978, so Swann went to California and brought "Betsy" back to Tennessee.

The rifle was "in real bad shape. It was broken in about three places," Swann said.

He hired a restoration expert in Kentucky to bring the rifle back into prime shape.

Swann put "Betsy" in the Tennessee State Museum for about 15 years, in the Smithsonian Institute one year during the Crockett's Bicentennial and, since 1995, it has been on loan to the East Tennessee Historical Society.

Kentucky long rifles were made in Central Pennsylvania by German craftsmen.

"The rifles were made for people traveling down 'The Great Road,' which ran from Central Pennsylvania, down the Shenandoah Valley into North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee during the first Western expansion. They're very good guns. The workmanship is excellent. They're highly collectible," Swann said.

Voices tell history

The rifle fits right in with the "Voices of the Land" exhibit, which tells the history of East Tennessee through the eyes and voices of the people, giving different stories handed down through their families about life on the land here.

The aim of the $3 million, 8,500-square-foot exhibit is to tell the story of more than three centuries of life in the East Tennessee. It features more than 500 historical artifacts representing 35 East Tennessee counties, including almost two dozen tied to Blount County.

The exhibit includes more than 350 stories of individual East Tennesseans, as well as 25 media programs, including touch screen interactives and three feature videos.

There are colorful murals of such scenes as the Cherokee being removed on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma, mountain rhododendron and frontier life.

Joe Swann is not the only family member to be connected to an artifact with an interesting regional story for the exhibit. The family of his wife, Becky Greene Swann, provided a shirt of one of her slain relatives that still has the bullet holes and blood on it from an incident during the Civil War.

While many East Tennesseans were strongly Unionist in sympathy, some favored the Confederacy and others hoped to remain neutral and hid in the mountains to avoid conscription.

According to the story, in 1863, Alfred Greene was hiding in the mountains in Hancock County. He came home briefly to check on his wife and newborn son when he was ambushed by three Confederate neighbors who wanted to force him to fight for the South.

The Confederates chased him to the smokehouse and shot and killed him through the door. The shirt Greene was wearing that night and the Abija Fairchild-made long rifle he was carrying are on display. Also in the exhibit is a wooden spoon he carved while hiding in the mountains.

Monroe County artifacts also tell stories.

This includes the only string of Cherokee beads from the 18th century in known existence outside of the British Museum. The beads were a gift to Rev. John Martin, a Presbyterian missionary, in about 1758 by Cherokee Chief Old Hop and Little Carpenter, who later became chief of the Cherokee nation. Martin is thought to be the first Protestant missionary in Tennessee.

Another is one of the 12 original, 300-pound cannons believed to have been surrendered to the Cherokee in August 1760 when Fort Loudoun fell. The cannons were hauled to the British fort over the mountains from Charleston, S.C., breaking the backs of several mules along the way. The cannon was found in 1963 by a man plowing a field near the old Cherokee town of Chota.

Blount artifacts

Blount County exhibit artifacts include:

Whiskey flask from about 1789 that Thomas McCammon brought to America from Tyrone, Ireland.

Spun-brass kettle possibly owned by Mary Elizabeth McCroskey Clark from about 1866.

Orange blossom headband worn by Elizabeth Toole Brabson on Sept. 5, 1838, when she married Benjamin D. Brabson of Sevier County.

Writing-arm chair believed to be used by Isaac Anderson, early president of Maryville College, in the 1840s.

Saber used by Major William Anderson McTeer made by Schuyler, Hartley Graham, New York, around 1861. Etched on blade reads "STAND BY THE UNION". McTeer was in the Company A., 1st Tennessee Cavalry, U.S.A.

Side-hammer carbine found by McTeer made by Sharps' Rifle Manufacturing Co., Hartford, Conn,, around 1859. McTeer, of the 3rd Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry, U.S. Volunteers, found the carbine as he mustered out of the service in 1865.

Confederate medical shoulder straps of Dr. Wilkinson Cates from around 1862.

Railway signs from stations at Alcoa, Armona, Morley and Spring City.

Jacquard coverlet made by Maryville Woolen Mills around the later 19th century.

Untitled landscape by T. Campbell from 1914. He founded the art department at Maryville College.

Feather fans made by Jessie Cates Clark around 1900.

Sign posted on public road at edge of Cades Cove reading "Col. Chapman, Let the Cove People Alone, Get Out Get Gone, 40M. Limit" from 1928.

Horn used at Montvale Springs Inn around 1885 to summon guests for breakfast.

Writing box of Sterling Lanier, known as Hotel Prince because he had chain of establishments around 1860s.

Souvenir model moonshine still from Line Spring Hotel about 1940.