Twice each year we try to have a major clean-up at the Thompson-Brown House. The clean-up this year started in the spring as Little River Watershed Association moved on out of the house and into temporary storage buildings to make room for some positive changes for the house. They moved later into the old health department building and are adjacent to the Blount County Historical Museum in that building now. Their side of the house was cleaned out of all furnishings, swept out, vacuumed in every nook and cranny, and mopped from ceiling to floor with Murphy's oil soap.

NISUS Corporation came in and treated every exposed surface with glycol-releasing borates to arrest further damage from the rots and molds that were threatening the logs.

In June, Keep Blount Beautiful (KBB) found new digs on Ellis Avenue, in the same office building as Foothills Land Conservancy's office. That meant that KBB's side could be treated to the same deep cleaning as the other side. Then Cades Cove Preservation Association started moving their artifacts in and setting up their museum.

As close to 9/11 each year, as our remembrance of those who gave their lives that day, BCHT tries to have a service project. This year, on September 8, we had another huge clean-up, partnering with the BCHT board and membership and the Maryville Kiwanis Club. Ten of our board members and seven Kiwanians perspired willingly that day, stepping around a dozen or so CCPA members conducting a docent workshop on the front porch. Many un-safe dips in the grounds were filled, mulch spread, brush cut, trees trimmed, and weeds pulled up or whacked to oblivion. Trevor White, a Maryville High School volunteer, worked wherever he was needed. CCPA members Rod Law, David Ledbetter, and Dave Post put finishing touches on the beautifully restored sign on the property (BCHT supplied the paint). They had earlier re-built the rotted ramp, and the BCHT paid for new carpeting for the ramp.

Windows were cleaned and glazed, all wood doors and trim were cleaned, and the stair risers were painted. Some of the original wooden, tarred-interior guttering got lined with plastic mulch film and filled with potting soil and pansies to decorate the back porch. We should have contacted This Old House; we'd have been a great feature.

Hello, members, former members and wannabe members of the Blount County Historic Trust (BCHT)! We have lots to report to you this year—you’ll find all sorts of interesting reading in this newsletter. Bill Cabage, the board secretary and also an editor in real life, has agreed to produce our newsletters for us. The Trust has had lots of “goings-on” since the last newsletter in March, and you’ll be hearing about some of those events in this newsletter.

Many of you signed up as new members at our April Board Meeting, but we have only your last names on a deposit slip. Somehow, when we gathered up all of the materials after that delicious event, the membership forms made it into an alternative (possibly circular) file instead of into our membership files that night, so the mailing might not reach some of you, I’m sorry to say. When you hear about the newsletter from someone else in the trust and wonder if we still love you, know that we do! Please call me at 984-3369 to say that you signed up as a member this year—we can match last names on the deposit slip, and I’ll fill out another form via the phone.

A huge clean-up day took place on Sept. 8 with everything really spruced up: more about that elsewhere in the newsletter.

Saturday, September 15, we had a huge event at the Thompson-Brown House. The house itself became the Cades Cove/Thompson-Brown House Museum (with our organization as eternal sponsor of the house or overseer of its well-being—well—eternal could be a slight exaggeration in time, but I hope not). Right next door, the Blount County Historical Museum also opened that day. An amazing, very well-attended Heritage Fest to celebrate Appalachian History Day followed. More about that, too….

We’re still trying to assure that we’ve raised the matching funds to get our T-DOT Enhancement Grant. If we can raise enough, we may be able to combine with some possible in-kind donations to equal the match and thus allow us to apply for the half-million dollar grant. If you’re thinking you’d like to part with a few dollars for a really great cause….

I hope you’ll enjoy reading about all of the great fun in which you (we hope) and your Trust have been involved.

Historically yours,
Susan

Civil War bullets found upstairs in the boys' bedroom of the Thompson-Brown House. Sally McNeill recounts many such discoveries on the grounds by family members. Some of General Sherman's troops camped on the farm's open fields and some skirmishes took place there.


A photo of an oil painting of Eliza Jane Thompson Blanton sent to us by great granddaughter Anne Blanton Crosswy. Eliza and her twin brother Berkley Wallace Thompson were born in the Thompson-Brown House on Oct. 27, 1825.


A fragment of an 1893 letter to Eliza Jane from her daughter. The last page of the letter is missing, so we're not sure yet of the daughter's name.


A photo of Martha Wallace Thompson Post, who helped nurse her husband, Dr. Calvin Post, back to health after he was seriously injured in a steamboat boiler explosion.

The Blount County Historic Trust's Annual Heritage Fest drew a yard full of exhibitors, vendors and visitors on September 15.

Along with the Cades Cove Preservation Association's demonstrators, we had individual musicians and music groups, story-tellers, re-enactors outdoor cooks, vendors, and a huge crowd to help us celebrate a very successful, second annual Heritage Fest as part of our museum openings.

Numerous local officials and VIPs, including 14 county commissioners, arrived for the ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the opening of the Blount County Historical Museum next door. The CSA 29th reenactors provided a stirring color guard. Congressman Jimmy Duncan and state Sen. Raymond Finney spoke, as did Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham, Maryville Mayor Joe Swann and CCPA President David Post. The Blount County Historical Museum's Ken Cornett served as master of ceremonies.

The presence of the Thompson-Brown House, the Cades Cove Preservation Association's collection and the Blount County Historical Museum, all in close proximity, makes the site a historically rich destination for local folks and visitors alike.

Musicians who participated included a rousing performance by Cheerful Diligence, the bluegrass band of Russian kids who lived in Maryville this summer and became local favorites. Also performing were Pistol Creek Catch of the Day, Peanut Inman and his indispensable better half, David Oliver and his harmonica, mountain musician Herb Miller and the Mountain Winds dulcimer orchestra from Tellico Village.

Former park ranger and author Dwight McCarter told some hilarious stories to the crowd. Demonstrations, courtesy of the Cades Cove Preservation Association participants, included Dutch oven cooking, quilting, making yo-yos and doing laundry the pioneer way (lye soap, washboards, wringers and flat irons).

Vendors included Boy Scouts from Troop 87, who sold lemonade and iced tea as a service project for the trust, and Donnie Dalton, who made country vittles. The Cades Cove folks also had delicacies such as homemade lemonade and fried pies, which only the early-arrivers got to sample.

All reports affirmed that a good time was by everyone had and included hopes that the event will be repeated. Of course, we plan to do just that.

We have a new guided walking tour of historic downtown Maryville, thanks to research and writing skills of board member David Duggan. To make an appointment for your group, call the Trust at 865-980-2129 or call Susan Jones at 865-984-3369. Plans are underway for the tour to be offered during the Foothills Fall Festival later this year.