Ramsey House
Encyclopedia
The Ramsey House is a two-story stone house in Knox County
Knox County, Tennessee
Knox County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its 2007 population was estimated at 423,874 by the United States Census Bureau. Its county seat is Knoxville, as it has been since the creation of the county. The county is at the geographical center of the Great Valley of East Tennessee...

, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

. Also known as Swan Pond, the house was constructed circa 1797 by English architect Thomas Hope
Thomas Hope (architect)
Thomas Hope was an English-born American architect and house joiner, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Trained in London, Hope moved to Knoxville in 1795, where he designed and built several of the city's earliest houses...

 for Colonel Francis Alexander Ramsey (1764–1820), whose family operated a plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 at the site until the U.S. Civil War. In 1969, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 for its architecture and its role in the region's early 19th-century history.

Francis Alexander Ramsey arrived in what is now Greene County in 1783, and shortly thereafter made a surveying trip down the Holston River
Holston River
The Holston River is a major river system of southwestern Virginia and east Tennessee. The three major forks of the Holston rise in southwestern Virginia and have their confluence near Kingsport, Tennessee. The North Fork flows southwest from Sharon Springs in Bland County, Virginia...

, where he first identified the future site of the Ramsey House. Throughout the 1780s, he served as an official of the fledgling State of Franklin
State of Franklin
The State of Franklin, known also as the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland , was an unrecognized autonomous United States territory created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered,...

, and later served in various capacities in the governments of the Southwest Territory
Southwest Territory
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States as the State of Tennessee.The Southwest Territory was...

 and the State of Tennessee. Ramsey's children included early Knoxville mayor, W. B. A Ramsey, and early Tennessee historian and businessman, J. G. M. Ramsey
J. G. M. Ramsey
James Gettys McGready Ramsey was an American historian, physician, and businessman, active primarily in East Tennessee during the nineteenth century. Ramsey is perhaps best known for his book, The Annals of Tennessee, a seminal work documenting the state's frontier and early statehood periods...

, both of whom occupied the Ramsey House at various times. Due to their Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 sympathies, the Ramseys fled Knoxville when the Union Army
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

 occupied the city during the Civil War, and the family sold the house in 1866.

The Knoxville Chapter of the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities (APTA) purchased the Ramsey House in 1952, and currently maintains the house and grounds as a museum.

Location

The Ramsey House is situated in a broad valley just over a mile east of Forks-of-the-River, where the Holston River and French Broad River
French Broad River
The French Broad River flows from near the village of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into the state of Tennessee. Its confluence with the Holston River at Knoxville is the beginning of the Tennessee River....

 join to form the Tennessee River
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...

. The property managed by APTA, which includes the Ramsey House, a visitor's center, and gardens, covers 101.5 acres (41.1 ha). The house and grounds are located at 2614 Thorngrove Pike, just off John Sevier Highway (TN-168).

Early history and development

Francis Alexander Ramsey was born in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 in 1764 to Scotch-Irish parents, and moved to Greene County, Tennessee in 1783. That year, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 (which controlled what is now East Tennessee
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...

) opened up Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 lands north of the French Broad to settlement, and Ramsey, James White
James White (general)
James White was an American pioneer and soldier who founded Knoxville, Tennessee, in the early 1790s. Born in Rowan County, North Carolina, White served as a captain in the county's militia during the American Revolutionary War...

, and several other explorers began making excursions into what is now the Knoxville area in search of new land. On one such expedition, Ramsey discovered a game-rich beaver dam
Beaver dam
Beaver dams are dams built by beavers as protection against predators such as coyotes, wolves, and bears, and to provide easy access to food during winter. Beavers work at night and are prolific builders, carrying mud and stones with their fore-paws and timber between their teeth...

 pond which he named "Swan Pond." He was issued a grant for Swan Pond and its surrounding land in November 1786.

Ramsey's rise to prominence in the failed State of Franklin (1784–1788) kept him occupied for the remainder of the decade, and it wasn't until 1792— after he had been appointed clerk for the newly formed Southwest Territory
Southwest Territory
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States as the State of Tennessee.The Southwest Territory was...

— that he decided to move to Swan Pond, which lay just outside the territory's new capital at Knoxville. Ramsey chose to build his new house on a peninsula in the pond, although due to malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

 concerns, he was forced to drain the pond before the house was constructed. London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

-trained architect Thomas Hope designed the house, and probably built it between 1795 and 1797.

In the years after its completion, the Ramsey House came to be part of a sizeable plantation. Upon Ramsey's death in 1820, the house passed to his eldest son, W.B.A. Ramsey. In 1840, W.B.A Ramsey sold the house to his brother, J.G.M. Ramsey (1797–1884), who had taken an active interest in the region's history, and had built a large mansion, known as "Mecklenburg," overlooking the Forks-of-the-River. Mecklenburg was noted for its 4,000-volume library containing numerous 18th-century documents pertaining to the settlement of Tennessee. In 1857, J.G.M. Ramsey gave the Ramsey House to his son, also named Francis Alexander Ramsey, as a wedding present.

The Civil War

J.G.M. Ramsey played an active role in the economic development of East Tennessee. He helped establish the region's first medical society, served as president of the Bank of East Tennessee, and fought to bring railroads to the region. In the late 1850s, as one of the directors of the Bank of East Tennessee, Ramsey ran afoul of Knoxville's fiery newspaper publisher, William G. "Parson" Brownlow
William Gannaway Brownlow
William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow was an American newspaper editor, minister, and politician who served as Governor of the state of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875...

. Brownlow relentlessly accused the bank's directors, who along with Ramsey included Ramsey's brothers-in-law, John H. Crozier and A.R. Crozier, of defrauding the bank's clients. He also accused Ramsey's son, John Crozier Ramsey (1824–1868), whom Brownlow called "a few degrees removed from an idiot," of creating false pension funds for employees. His continued attacks helped Horace Maynard
Horace Maynard
Horace Maynard was an American educator, attorney, politician and diplomat active primarily in the second half of the 19th century...

 defeat John Crozier Ramsey for the district's Congressional seat in 1859.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Ramseys, who were states' rights Democrats, sided with the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

, drawing them further into conflict with Brownlow, who was a radical anti-secessionist. In December 1861, John Crozier Ramsey, who had been appointed Knox County's district attorney, had Brownlow jailed on charges of conspiring to burn railroad bridges in East Tennessee
East Tennessee bridge-burning conspiracy
The East Tennessee bridge-burning conspiracy was a Civil War-era guerrilla warfare operation carried out by Union sympathizers in Confederate-occupied East Tennessee in 1861. The operation, which was planned by Carter County minister William B...

. The Ramseys demanded Brownlow be hanged, but the Confederate Army, fearing a public backlash, released him. Due in part to Brownlow's influence, J.G.M. Ramsey's Mecklenburg mansion— with its invaluable library— was burned when the Union Army occupied Knoxville in 1863.

With Mecklenburg in ruins, the Ramseys, who had fled to South Carolina on approach of the Union Army in 1863, decided not to return to Knoxville. The Ramsey House was sold to William Spurgien in 1866, and afterward began to deteriorate. J.G.M. Ramsey eventually moved back to Knoxville in the 1870s, and was deeply saddened at the state of the Ramsey House. His autobiography, written during this period, included a poem lamenting the house's decline.

Preservation

In 1927, the Bonnie Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....

 placed a marker at the Ramsey House commemorating the site as the birthplace of J.G.M. Ramsey, whose book, the Annals of Tennessee, had become an important work on the state's early history. In the following decade, the house was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey
Historic American Buildings Survey
The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...

. In 1952, APTA's Knoxville Chapter purchased the house with the help of state and local governments, and began restoring it. The roof and windows were replaced, and an old log cabin was moved to the site to represent the cabin used by the Ramseys in the 1790s while the main house was being built.

Design

The Ramsey House is a two-story Late Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...

 house, built primarily of local pink marble
Tennessee marble
Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found primarily in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, this stone has been used in the construction of numerous notable...

 with blueish-gray limestone trim. This blueish-gray limestone forms a "belt" around the house about midway up the walls, and also forms the house's four corners. The house has a "dogtrot" kitchen wing, with the southwest corner of the kitchen wing joining the northeast corner of the main house. Exterior ornamentation includes hand-carved cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

s and window arches consisting of nine narrow stones each.

The house's interior follows a central hall floor plan. The front door opens into a hallway, with a library/parlor room to the left and a dining room to the right. The second floor has two bedrooms, and a passageway that leads to the second-story entrance door (the purpose of this door is uncertain). The kitchen wing is also two stories, although there is no passage from the second story of the main wing to the second story of the kitchen wing. The house has three chimneys— one at both ends of the main wing, and one the end of the kitchen wing— and six fireplaces in all. The interior has been outfitted with period furniture, most notably two Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director...

 chairs given to Francis Alexander Ramsey and his wife, Peggy, as a wedding present.

See also

  • Alexander Bishop House
  • Blount Mansion
  • Craighead-Jackson House
    Craighead-Jackson House
    The Craighead-Jackson House is a historic two-story, brick house in Knoxville, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The home was constructed by John Craighead in 1818 across the street from the William Blount Mansion. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places.The Craighead family lived...

  • James Park House
    James Park House
    The James Park House is a historic house located at 422 West Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. The house's foundation was built by Governor John Sevier in the 1790s, and the house itself was built by Knoxville merchant and mayor, James Park , in 1812, making it the second-oldest...

  • Statesview
    Statesview
    Statesview, or States View, is a historic house located on South Peters Road off Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Built in the early 1800s by early Knoxville architect Thomas Hope and rebuilt in the early 1820s following a fire, Statesview was originally the home of surveyor Charles...

  • History of Knoxville, Tennessee
    History of Knoxville, Tennessee
    The History of Knoxville, Tennessee, began with the establishment of James White's Fort on the Trans-Appalachian frontier in 1786. The fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790, and the city, named for Secretary of War Henry Knox, was platted the following year...


Resources

  • Isenhour, Judith Clayton. Knoxville - A Pictorial History. (Donning, 1978), page 20.
  • Rothrock, Mary U., editor. The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee. (Knox County Historical Committee; East Tennessee Historical Society, 1946).
  • Knoxville: Fifty Landmarks. (Knoxville: The Knoxville Heritage Committee of the Junior League of Knoxville, 1976), p. 9.

External links

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