Swagerty Log House 1783-1960's, Cocke County, Tennessee

In this photo the Old Swagerty Log House at Clear Creek
              had stood for circa 160 years in 1940 . . .
Fanny Swagerty Eubank, right, and sister Eunice Swagerty Fine stand at the east side of the house in 1940. These photos are the oldest known to exist of the old house, which by 1940 had stood for almost 160 years.   Fanny and Eunice were daughters of Squire William R. Swagerty, and granddaughters of James Swagerty, Jr. who owned a plantation at Newport during the 19th century.

by Iris Teta Eubank Wagner

Built during the 1780's, a comfortable house for its time and place in the wilderness, this log house stood for almost 180 years at the top of a small hill a few hundred feet north of the more well-known Swaggerty Fort. Both structures were originally built by the Swagerty family at the time of their settlement at Clear Creek, now in Cocke County, Tennessee. In 1783 the Clear Creek area was a part of Greene County, North Carolina.

Toward the end of the Revolutionary War the North Carolina legislature made the French Broad River the Cherokee tribal border, south of which no white families were legally to settle. The new federal government in Washington City recognized this border. Frederick Swagerty brought his family in 1783 from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, to settle six miles north of the Cherokee border along Clear Creek.

The old house is a symbol of endurance. All people who came to the frontier wilderness to live needed this kind of endurance in human terms. They had to come with the skills for everyday life and with the spirit and will to endure . . . as in their skillful construction of this log house.

Several owners and occupants through the years gave their skills and talent in caring for both the homestead and Fort, which no doubt contributed to the long existence of both structures. But as most houses that are fortunate enough to last as long as this structure, are likely to undergo changes and deterioration.

[Note : It is interesting to note here how such a beautiful house and estate so important to our American history as Jefferson's Monticello was neglected and let fall to ruin. When Uriah Levy purchased Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and 218 acres in 1836 he "found the house in a deplorable state of ruin . . . the roof had fallen in . . . the splendid drawing room where Jefferson had entertained Madison, Monroe, Webster, Van Buren, Lafayette . . . was used as a granary . . . exquisite, inlaid floors were littered with corn. Vandals and weather completed the desolation." Levy restored and added acreage to the estate. He died at the height of the Civil War in 1862 and his heirs subsequently lost ownership. It was not until 1879, and Levy family ownership restored, that Levy's nephew found the estate and house to have again fallen into ruin. Jefferson's grave monument had been destroyed by vandals. . . . "The roads melted into the hillsides. Cattle were stabled in the parlor, whose broken windows looked out on desolation." . . . Information is from an article by Henry N. Ferguson, writer and photographer living in Kerrville, Texas. For a very thorough handling of the Levy story, Ferguson suggests reading Navy Maverick --Uriah Phillips Levy by Donovan Fitzpatrick and Saul Saphire.]

East End of the house . . . (above)
It is evident by this photo that a chimney was still intact at the time board siding was added to the house. Exposed logs can be seen adjacent to the right of the boarded-up second floor fireplace. Just above those logs the evident lines of the chimney begin to slant upward and toward each other, but end on a line with the eave of the house.

The high vertical part of the Chimney may have slightly separated from the house . . . . . . . just enough to place the boards of siding behind it. The chimney ending at the eave could also mean that there was originally a structural space between this high part of the chimney and the house, as in a popular architectural style of the time.

It might also mean that the house was originally constructed in the wilderness of the 1780's with a more shallow roof. Settlers so near border territory would want to get the shelter up and protecting the family within a few days span. Several men of the family, and likely men from neighboring farms . . . as was customary in a settlement area . . . would have gotten the walls up and a roof overhead within a few days time. The gabled roof may well have been added at the time exterior siding and porches were added.

West End of the house . . . (right) The house faced south down this slope to Clear Creek and the Swaggerty Fort. Both the back and front porches were probably added at the time siding was added.

A close study of the logs in this west end view of the house show the wearing away of the exterior board siding to reveal logs that appear to be in a more deteriorated state than the logs of the Fort. The deterioration of the notching and joints at the corners is evident, and of a more single cut or bow saw-through -- an efficient
cut settlers might make when wanting to get the shelter up in a hurry. The notches are in a much more deteriorated state than are the logs in the Fort, which were cut about 1860.

West End of the House in 1958 (at right above) just a few years before it was torn down in the early 1960's
In appreciation to Marguerite White Williams, a descendant through James Swagerty, Sr., for her generosity in sharing this photo of the house - the west end and the photo (below) of the east end.

A scientific, or dendroarchaeological analysis in recent years of the wood of the logs and artifacts at the site of the Swaggerty Fort has proved the cutting dates of the logs to be about 1860. These pictures show the structural joining at the corners of the house and fort to be of different styles, and those of the house in greater deterioration.

The Swaggerty Fort ↑
The logs of the Swaggerty Fort (above) cut in 1860 are sharply hewn and can be seen as cut in half dovetail corner notches..
Back Porch of the Old House - 1940 ↑
In the upper back porch (above) the ends of two old logs at the corner of the house can be seen to be structurally different than the notches of the logs of the Fort cut in 1860. The spaces between the logs of the house are wider and appear to be more deteriorated than those of the fort. It appears the house logs have shrunken to reveal wider spaces between logs.

During the Last Years of Its Time Along Clear Creek
There were a succession of owners and occupants of the Swagerty house during the many years it stood, from circa 1783 to the 1960's.

Frederick Swagerty died in 1803, and it's likely he was living here with his son James Swagerty, Sr. at the time.

During the next forty years James and Delilah Meek Swagerty raised their children here. On March 22, 1844 Delilah died here.

The front of the house faces south toward the Swaggerty Fort at the lower end of the hill at Clear Creek.

East End of the house in 1958
James remarried and subsequently sold the tract and home to the Jacob Stephens family in 1850. Stephens descendants lived in the house for many years. Later, until the early 1920's the place was known as the McCracken farm. In the early 1920's Gay Gillespie bought the farm, the house, and were proud and responsible owners of the Swaggerty Fort.

Not occupied for a number of years, the old house was torn down some time in the early 1960's. The Swaggerty Fort was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

1948 visit to the old house . . Through its long age and endurance, visits to the house were made by Swagerty descendants from time to time. One visitor of note who left behind drawings and description of the house was Annice Graddon Eberle, who was a granddaughter of Squire William R. Swagerty and great granddaughter of James Swagerty, Jr. She visited the house in 1948, and later wrote a short description :

". . . Mr. Gillespie [the present owner] happened to be there and showed us all through the house. Up the stair by the chimney, which was closed off by a door, left a step at the bottom to form a seat by the fireplace where a small child or two could sit on a cold winter day and be nice and warm. The inside blinds on the windows fascinated me. They were evidently made by a cabinet maker, and a good one, too."

The kitchen had been originally separate from the house. When the back porch addition was added, it connected to the kitchen producing a breeze-way.

Mrs. Eberle explained by 1948 "the kitchen had been torn away to build a barn at another location on the property. In the back yard was a large smokehouse. There was also a spring in the yard with a little branch leading down to the creek [Clear Creek] along the road, which had grown up with trees so that the house was hidden from the road and if one did not watch closely they would miss the house entirely.

Marguerite White Williams and her cousins Bernice Harned Barger and sister Laduska Harned Kelly visited the house in 1958. Mrs. Williams took the 1958 photos shown above. Mrs. Williams and her cousins descend through James Swagerty, Sr.'s daughter Polly Swagerty, who married David Harned.
h

left shows how the structure likely was constructed originally - without porches and with chimneys. The rendering is based on the 1958 photo of the house shown here (below).