Four mayors stood together at Rocky Mount on Friday, April 17. Sullivan County Mayor Richard Venable, Bristol Mayor Vince Turner, Kingsport Mayor Paul Montgomery, and Bluff City Mayor Lori Staton. All four. Same ground. Same day. They were there to kick off America 250, a year of programming leading to America's 250th birthday on July 4.
Joyce Crosswhite, who chairs the Sullivan County America 250 Celebration Committee, led the program. Matthew Johnson, Director of the Sullivan County Department of Archives and Tourism, emceed the press conference. Barbara Street spoke on behalf of the Rocky Mount Historical Association. Then Johnson read the Declaration of Independence on the front lawn, on the grounds where Constitutional signer William Blount governed the territory that became Tennessee.
Each mayor spoke, and each one had been given a different chapter of the same story. Four cities. Four chapters. One valley.
- Richard VenableSullivan County Mayorthe Overmountain Men crossing the mountains to Kings Mountain
- Vince TurnerBristol MayorBristol on the state line, a place built on connection, not division
- Paul MontgomeryKingsport Mayorthe Long Island of the Holston, Fort Patrick Henry, and the Battle of Island Flats
- Lori StatonBluff City MayorChoate's Ford and the Holston River as a launching point for westward migration
I stood there listening to it, one chapter after another, on the ground where all of it happened. In her remarks, Barbara Street said she believed we were standing on sacred ground. I believe we all understood what she meant.
Before there was a here
Before there was a Bristol, a Kingsport, a Bluff City. Before Sullivan County took the shape it has now. Before Tennessee existed as a state. Before any state west of the Appalachians existed at all. This ground was already doing the work.
The Cobb family was here first. In 1780, when the Overmountain Men mustered for the march to Kings Mountain, the Cobbs supplied gunpowder, horses, and provisions from this property. A decade later, President George Washington appointed William Blount to govern the Southwest Territory, the federal territory that would become Tennessee. Blount was one of only 39 men to sign the United States Constitution. He set up his government on these grounds. From here, the Treaty of Holston was negotiated. A state that did not yet exist was written into being on paper sent from Sullivan County.
That work happened between 1790 and 1792. Tennessee became a state in 1796. The American story was not written only in coastal cities like Philadelphia or Boston. It was written here, on the frontier. You cannot tell the story of how Tennessee came to exist without telling the story of this property and the people who lived on it. That is not marketing. That is the documentary record.
The property stayed in the family for generations, passed from the Cobbs to the Massengills. In the late 1950s, Pauline Massengill DeFriece arranged the transfer of this property to the State of Tennessee, oversaw its renovation, and founded the Rocky Mount Historical Association, which operates the site today in partnership with the Tennessee Historical Commission. The doors opened April 1, 1962 because of her. Without her, there would be nothing left to stand on.
Whose ground is this
Rocky Mount is common ground. It belongs to the kid who dipped a candle on Saturday and to the governor who signed a treaty here in 1791. It belongs to the family that drove two hours and to the Cobbs who never left. The ground was here first. It belongs to whoever shows up.
It is not a museum behind glass. It is fifty acres of open ground where the seat of government stood before any of our current lines were drawn. People come out and stand by the forge while the blacksmith works the iron, eat what gets cooked over the open fire, walk the same ground that Blount walked two and a half centuries ago. It is a live thing, not a preserved thing.
Tennessee did not start in Nashville. It started with people right here who never believed in the easy path. That story happened on these grounds, and there is no better place to begin this celebration.
Saturday
Saturday morning the gates opened. Free, to anybody who wanted to come. Families drove in from Bristol and Kingsport and Bluff City and Blountville. Some came from farther. Kids lined up at the candle-dipping station. The blacksmith worked the forge. Living-history interpreters brought 1791 back for a day. Master Gardeners walked people through the garden. David Doan and Tom Vaughn of the Overmountain Victory Trail Association held a station under the oak tree in full period dress. Popcorn and apple butter at the Rocky Mount Pantry. Music on the lawn.
If this is everyone's ground, what does it look like when everyone shows up? It looked like Saturday. None of the history on this property matters if nobody walks across it.
