______________________          e  __________________

James Swagerty 
July 14, 1800  -  February 9, 1885

                                                by Iris Teta Eubank Wagner

Below are excerpts from letters written in testimony to the friendship and character of James Swagerty by a friend of many years, Charlie B. Mims, of Newport, Tennessee . One of the letters is reproduced below :

. . . from Fanny Eubank family archives

CHARLES BEAUREGARD MIMS and his father DAVID A. MIMS owned a merchandise and clothing store and the Mims Hotel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Newport.  The letters were written to James's granddaughter FANNY SWAGERTY EUBANK who had been  away from Newport for many years.  She was at that time writing the second of her lengthy family manuscripts, and she knew Charlie had a wealth of knowledge about Newport, and they corresponded frequently between 1936 and 1938, the year of Charles's death.
         
 from the letters :
. . . I often think of your father and your family and what a good time we used to have here.  And your grandfather always made his headquarters at our place, one of our best friends, and we always enjoyed having him with us; he was a fine old gentlemen.

another letter . . . We never had a better friend.  He was always our friend at all times.  Grandfather McSween and my father D.A. Mims considered him their best friend, when friendship meant something.  The Swagerty family were the best of friends.
                                       
another letter . . . I am going to send you a copy of a piece I wrote on your grandfather's death in 1885.  I have always felt pretty proud of this because I felt he was worthy of every word I said in regard to him.  My grandfather and father had no better friend than Mr. Swagerty. 


. . . . from James Swagerty's Obituary written by C. B. Mims, which was published in The Knoxville Tribune, February 9, 1885 . . . .

.  . .  On the 8th instant at 5 o'clock p.m., James Swagerty departed this life at the ripe and venerable age of eighty-five years.  This worthy and good man was born in Cocke County, Tennessee, in the year 1800, and for four score and five years has been one of the leading figures in the history of the county. . . . He united his destiny with Nancy Clark, an industrious, intelligent, and noble woman.   .  .  . , and at the commencement of the Civil War, they had amassed a fortune, a great portion which was swept away . . . . yet enough was left to hold them in affluent circumstances, and to this industry and economy added enough to provide a large family of children with a liberal start in life.
. . . . Too much cannot be said about the character of James Swagerty, as every man, woman and child who knew him will unhesitatingly say that he was a jewel of consistency.

As a businessman he had few equals.  Possessed of natural intellect, good judgment, and instinctive foresight, all of his business transactions were a success.  In business circles his word was his word was his bond.  Socially, he was refined, entertaining, genial and clever, and specially swaying a magnetic influence over all young men with whom he came in contact.  In the death of James Swagerty we all realize we have lost one of our best citizens. 

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James Swagerty wrote his will on August 9, 1878.  The witnesses were MARY C. McSWEEN, WILLIAM McSWEEN, and D.A. MIMS.   Son WILLIAM R. SWAGERTY and WILLIAM ROBINSON, a friend of many years, were executors.  He gave each of his seven surviving children $5,000, either in advance of his death or to be paid from his estate after his death.  His son ALEXANDER S. SWAGERTY had died during the Civil War in the battle at Fort Donelson, and GEORGE C. SWAGERTY had died recently in 1877.   James requested that his estate and homestead be managed by his executors for the benefit of his wife if she should survive him.  The will was admitted to probate on March 2nd, 1885. 

Nancy Swagerty did not survive her husband.   She died in Newport on November 18, 1882, after a lengthy and painful illness.  She died at the Bridge House, the home in which she and James had lived since the railroad survey had taken their old home before the Civil War.  

The following excerpt is from the obituary for Nancy Swagerty which was published in a Newport newspaper :

. . . Her health had declined for more than two years, but through all her sickness, she bore up with wonderful fortitude. . . She was often heard to say she had no fear of death and could meet it in the same spirit that she had borne her affliction.
 . . . She spoke the names of her children around the bedside until within a few minutes of her death.
      The loss to her children and the community, as a mother, as a neighbor and a friend will be severely felt.  Her place cannot be filled.
       She was born in this county July 25, 1810, and was married to him, who is now the bereaved husband, on March 9, 1826.  Long and faithfully had this devoted pair shared together life's joys and sorrows, its gains and losses, ministering to each other's wants and ever mindful of the happiness of those around them.
       Her remains were laid to rest Sunday evening, the 19th, at the family burying ground in the presence of a large gathering of relatives and friends.
        Peace to her ashes, and words of cheer and consolation to all the bereaved.

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Nancy Clark was the daughter of Thomas and Susannah Gooch Clark.   She was born and had grown up at the Clark farm along the French Broad River two miles from the Nolichucky River, five miles north of Newport. The Clarks were early and prominent settlers in the area.

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Mariah Swagerty was the wife of ANDREW SWAGERTY.  Both were emancipated in 1863 at James and Nancy Swagerty's plantation.  Stored  in boxes of family archives for years, this photograph of Mariah is damaged, yet most of her strong facial features are intact.   On the reverse of the photograph, Fanny Swagerty Eubank had
noted that Mariah was her grandfather Swagerty's nurse for two years during his final illness after his wife Nancy died.  Both Andrew, or "Andy" as he was known, and Mariah were favored servants to the Swagerty family, before emancipation, and long after as well.  Many of the black Swagerty families stayed on the farm and worked acreage as tenant farmers, or pursued their craft or trade which they had learned while living on the plantation.

One member of James Swagerty's servant family was  skilled craftsman Jim Swagerty.  "Blacksmith Jim" he was called.  When the war was waning in favor of Grant's Army, James  was offered $3,500  for Jim. James Swagerty refused  the offer, saying, " I do not sell my people, and will not break up families."

My Visit
with Augusta Swagerty   

Andrew and Mariah had several children, among them was AUGUSTA SWAGERTY, who was age nine at emancipation.   Augusta married Thomas Foster, and among their children was Flora.   A visit with Augusta and Flora is a special memory of mine at age eleven when my father, WILLIAM A. EUBANK,  my sister Betty Jean and I visited  Augusta in Newport.   She was ninety-one at the time.  I remember Flora, and commenting to her how young she looked at age 55.                  
 

                                                                                                                                                                              Mariah Swagerty, 1870's

Augusta  spoke some about her memories of the Swagerty home, my great aunts - James Swagerty's granddaughters.  In fact, she talked about the day she and her family were told they were free. "There wasn't no ceremony or flag wavin' ," she told us.   "Mr. James Swagerty come by our cabins, and stood before us and told us we was free to go.  He told us 'If you want to stay on the farm, you are welcome to stay and farm, or until you can find places for yourselves.' "  

She said further,
" Mr. Swagerty was a good master  and some of  us stayed on the farm as long as we wanted to. " 

 It is in the deed records of Cocke County that acreage was deeded to several freedmen eventually by  James Swagerty or by his son William R. Swagerty. 

     Augusta Swagerty Foster
               age 97 in 1953,                                                    
         the year of her death
from a photo which appeared in the Newport Plain Talk ,  1953
                                                                                                                              
The Mission to Ringgold, Georgia 
James and Nancy's son WILLIAM R. SWAGERTY escaped from Fort Donelson before the capture by Union forces in February, 1862.   His brother Alex died during the battle. William was with  his regiment, the 26th Tennessee, Company C, until wounded at the Battle of Stone's River at Murfreesboro, January 2, 1863.  William recovered from his wound and was furloughed for sixty days.   He returned in March to move with his regiment into southeastern Tennessee. 

After the defeat at Gettysburg in the summer and the loss of both Chattanooga and Knoxville in November, 1863,  James Swagerty knew the south's will to fight had lost momentum and the demise of the Confederate States of America would be a matter of time.  He and Nancy had lost their second eldest son ALEXANDER S. SWAGERTY at the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862, and they did not want to lose another son to the war, for a cause that was near defeat. 

Union forces were in command around Newport in late November, 1863.  After negotiating safe passage for two servants as escort to his daughter MARGARET SWAGERTY, James Swagerty sent Andrew and Alfred Swagerty  to accompany his daughter Margaret to Ringgold, Georgia.  They were to visit  William who was assigned   at   that time to a hospital near Ringgold.
    
      

         William R. Swagerty
Photo is reproduced from a locket photo kept by Mr. Swagerty's daughter Hattie Murray Swagerty.

 At the same time, Margaret was to deliver a message to William from their father : "Father wants you home," Margaret told him.   James Swagerty sent Andrew and Alfred Swagerty to accompany his daughter on this mission because  he trusted them absolutely.   Alfred Swagerty was another favored member of the Swagerty household, and, with his wife Susan,  were the servants on which Fanny Eubank based an autobiographical  family history of plantation life.

William stayed as close as was comfortable to the wagon of his sister with  Andrew and Alfred, and rode under cover in the wagon at times during the journey home.  Once home he was hidden in the smokehouse of a co-operative neighbor and close associate, John Rorex.   The Rorex and Swagerty family association went back years to the time when their ancestral families lived in Pennsylvania.  

After some days, William's presence in the smokehouse was discovered, and he was arrested by the Union command at Newport, and taken to the Sevierville jail to await transfer to  Camp Chase, Maryland. 

Once again, James Swagerty came to the aid of his son and sent a trusted associate from Newport to Sevierville to "strongly encourage" William to take the Oath of Amnesty and come home.

William listened to the pleas brought to him from his father.  Heeding the wise words of his father, William took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America on December 11, 1863 at Sevierville, Tennessee.  And he came home to later enjoy a comfortable and prominent life with his wife and five daughters  for many years to come.  However, as a result of these actions during the war, William, in his old age, and ill, was denied a pension for his service in the Army of Tennessee, 26th Regiment, Company C, the officials claiming desertion.   He did say often during his long life, that if he had gone to Camp Chase, he would surely have not made it back home. 
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James Swagerty was born to parents James and Delilah Meek Swagerty at the family's settlement farm on Clear Creek about six miles north of the French Broad River. At the time of James's birth, his grandfather, German immigrant Friedrich Schweickhart, was still living at the old Swagerty home built at Clear Creek in the 1780's, contemporary to the original structure of The Swaggerty Fort.

Young trapper of muskrat and otter -  As a boy and young man, James chose to spend his time in the most lucrative business there was at that time in this vast landscape of river and forest of east Tennessee, which had become a state in 1796.   Young James hunted and trapped muskrat, otter, and beaver for the profits from the sale of their fur or hides.  From the beginning of settlement in the American colonies, profits from fur pelts and hides had been the sustaining element for the early economies before the cultivation of tobacco became  profitable.

While James's father James, Sr. was busy with the business of crafting saddle trees,  young James began making trips to Charleston with wagons loaded with fur hides.  The profits were good, and James, as each year went by, was becoming a shrewd business man. 

James, now in his late teens and early twenties helped build a tannery at the farm, so that the long trip to Charleston would not be necessary.  He could tan the hides locally at the farm that he continued to bring back from his trapping and hunting excursions.

James saved the earnings from the sale of his fur hides until, by the time he was engaged to marry Nancy Clark in 1826, he and Nancy were able to buy a thousand acres  between the French Broad and the Big Pigeon Rivers.

A year or two before his marriage to Nancy, and during their engagement, James began hiring carpenters to construct furniture pieces from the numerous varieties of wood in the forests.  At the same time work began on the two-story log house where he and Nancy would live and prosper, and rear their children during the next thirty years.

The Railroad Survey takes their old home.  During the late 1850's citizens in the Newport area were encouraged by the coming of the railroad, and they worked eagerly toward its development.   Products could be moved more rapidly to markets, and it would make travel easier for passengers traveling to Knoxville and later, in years after the end of the Civil War, across the mountain to Asheville.  

Regrettably, the surveyed route of the rails struck through James's and Nancy's old homeplaed and prospered, and where they saw their children grow up.   The house was located just beyond the west end of the railroad bridge on the prominent bluff above the Pigeon River.  As it turned out, losing their old home to the railroad presented an opportunity to build a new home.  They built their new home in the Italianate or bracketed style, used so often at that time in plantation house design. 

   James and Nancy Swagerty's Bridge House -
      construction began before the war, completed in 1866

Google 2010
Completed in 1866, James and Nancy called their new home the Bridge House, as it was built just a few hundred yards south of the railroad bridge.  Seen just to the right of the present upgraded Bridge House (above) is the present road bridge crossing Big Pigeon River on U. S. Route 25-70.  The old evergreen trees had been recently removed from near the house when the Google "street view" crew came by.

The Original Road Bridge on Route 25-70 crossing
the Pigeon River was Named for James Swagerty

The original road bridge was constructed during the 1930's.  To honor their prominent citizen and friend who had owned the large farm and the Bridge House during the 19th century, Newport citizens wanted the bridge named for James Swagerty.  In 1938 the Tennessee State Legislature issued a resolution naming the bridge "The James Swagerty Bridge."  Markers stood at each end of the bridge for many years until the 1980's when the bridge was upgraded and essentially a new bridge was built.  The new bridge is called "The J. W. Fisher Bridge."    In the few years after James Swagerty's death, William R. Swagerty sold the farm to investors of the Newport Development Company, and the Unaka Tannery was  founded on the site of the Swagerty farm.  The tannery then owned the Bridge House, which became the residence of  the tannery manager, J. W. Fisher.

The Bridge House was originally white frame.  The original wooden framing is evident all around the exterior of the house showing the white board siding of the windows, and the original hinges that held the storm shutters, still visible beneath the many layers of paint.   There is also evidence that there was a cupola, or "widow's walk" atop the roof.  I've had an opportunity to visit the Bridge House, and the interior of the house features elements of a fine home built in mid-19th century. 

My grandmother Fanny Swagerty Eubank, who lived in the house from age eight until she was twenty, described the original exterior of the house in a family history :

 The house was a rectangular two-storied, frame building, painted white.  There were one-story wings, also an extension at the back;  all lighted by many small-paned windows.  A wide pillared gallery and great brick chimneys lent an air of dignity and gave promise of comfort and hospitality.  The house was shaded by evergreen trees on a wide, grassy lawn that sloped gradually down to a public highway.  A box-bordered walk paved with brick, led from the inner gate to the front entrance.   On the left was a clear, slow river [ Big Pigeon River ], bordered by the highway on the right bank, while on the opposite bank, was a towering limestone cliff.

Cora Massey Mims was the wife of William O. Mims, an attorney in Newport, and the brother of Charlie B. Mims.    In the 1940's, Mrs. Mims wrote a series of historical articles about Newport for The Plain Talk, a newspaper published in Newport.   Grandmother Eubank helped  Mrs. Mims in recalling the Newport they both knew well during their young years. As Mrs. Mims wrote to my grandmother, "we both belong to the society of pen women," writing in their later years about life remembered as young women in Newport. 

James Swagerty was the executor of the estate of his father, James Swagerty, Sr. - James Swagerty, Sr. was age ten when his father Frederick Swagerty brought the family in 1783 from Fermanagh Township in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania to the over mountain country of North Carolina.   Earlier researchers of Swagerty, Sr. have expressed his death year as 1868.  By a recently discovered deed held in the collection of the State Library of Tennessee in Nashville, it is apparent that James Swagerty, Sr. died in 1860 or 1861.

 James's household is entered on the 1860 U.S. Census of Cocke County, Tennessee.

Ancestry.com image

A Deed of Trust made on July 12, 1865 from James H. Clark to David O'Dell places in trust a tract of land owned by Clark and located in Cocke County, Tennessee.   The deed instructs that the sole  purpose of the Trustee is to ensure that proceeds from the sale of the land be used to satisfy Clark's over due debts owed to several men of Cocke County, Tennessee.  

From the text of the deed each debt is itemized, including :
"To James Swagerty, Jr. as Adm. of James Swagerty, dec'd, about the sum of $125 by note due some time in
  the year 1862."
                Deed registered in the Office of the County Clerk,  July 12, 1865, Book # 17, Page 65, (signed)
                James C. LaRue, County Clerk for Cocke County, Tennessee ; C. Brockway,  Registrar for Cocke
               County, Tennessee.

Research for the Website and Narrative © Copyright Iris Teta Eubank Wagner 2011