Descendants of slave owners and slaves will meet at Rotherwood Mansion, Kingsport

 

KINGSPORT — For the first time, the Rotherwood Mansion will be hosting a reunion for descendants of both slave owners who owned the property in the 1800s, and slaves who lived and were forced to work on it.

The reunion will be at 2 p.m., Sept. 21 at the Rotherwood Mansion. It is not open to the public, and about 125 people are attending, Rotherwood descendant Tacia Green said.

“We already moved on, but have we truly moved on?” Green said. “We can’t forget our past but we don’t always have to live in our past.”

Rotherwood was a plantation and its main house is Rotherwood Mansion, descendant Calvin Sneed stated in an email. It was built by Frederick A. Ross and was later passed to Joshua Phipps who was cruel to those enslaved to him.

Green said she hoped the event would bring peace and healing between the families.

Green found the Rotherwood Mansion Kingsport TN Facebook page. She contacted the current owner Lanita Thibault, who said she would be happy if Green organized an event at the property.

“So I put it out there,” Green said. “And, surprisingly, everybody was coming on board excited.”

She said the event would not necessarily bring closure, as that part of American history can never be closed, but the reunion could bring peace to the families.

“I hope that the young people that are there to learn, not only the descendants of the enslaved, but the descendants of the owner, that our young people can see the harmony that we’re trying to portray, that none of us was actually there,” Green said. “And yes, we were done wrong as the enslaved, but in 2024 we can’t blame anyone that’s actually living. And let’s give anyone the opportunity to own up. ‘Hey, my family did wrong, can we make amends?’”

Green said she hopes people take away “peace, love and history, love for each other and love for the true history.”

Eugenia (Jeannie) Hodges remembrance

 

IN THE CARE OF

East Lawn Funeral Home & Memorial Park

Eugenia L. Hodges (Jeannie) was born March 7, 1942 in Detroit, MI.  She was the daughter of the late John L. and Clellie Mason Baylor.  Her family moved to Kingsport when Jeannie was a very young child.  Jeannie attended and graduated from Douglass High School.  She attended Bennett College and ETSU.  She worked for the Kingsport City School system for 40 years, retiring in June 2004.

Jeannie served as Superintendent of Central Baptist Church Sunday School and was a faithful member for the Usher Board. She assisted the Deacons and Pastors with the baptism for many years.  She was also involved in several community organizations.

Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by her maternal grandparents:  George McGhee and Estelle Stafford;  paternal grandparents: James and Bessie Hipps;  sisters: Elizabeth Cunningham and Linda Faye Mason and her brother: William “Billy” Hipps.

Jeannie leaves behind to cherish her memory, her husband: Willie E. Hodges;  Children: Lisa Greer, Kingsport and Susan Hodges of North Carolina.  Granddaughter: Sunny Hodges; grandsons:  Armande Hodges, Christopher White, and Shane Greer.  Great grandchildren:  Alexa, Khloe and Tavis III.  Sister: Ellen “Francine” Mason.  Six nieces, three nephews and several great nieces and nephews and great great nieces and nephews.

Receiving of friends will be Friday, Sept. 13, 2024 at Central Baptist Church from 11:00 AM until 12:00 noon with her home going service to begin at 12.  Burial will follow in East Lawn Memorial Cemetery.

To all the friends and family that visited Jeannie, drove her to church, baked her favorite cake, brought her favorite foods or snacks and remembered her in your thoughts and prayer.  Thank you.  An also to Amedysis Hospice and Tonya.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, Oasis of Kingsport, Small Miracles Therapeutic Equestrian Center, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

From the Jack Pierce family

 

Remembering a legacy: Historic Pierce Bays Mountain home destroyed by fire

 

This story courtesy the Kingsport Times-News, Six Rivers Media

KINGSPORT — Sitting atop Bays Mountain, history lingered in the walls of an old house that stood the test of time for over two centuries.

The house at 529 Hood Road in Sullivan County is now reduced to ashes after a fire destroyed the home a couple weeks ago.

The fire went unnoticed by local authorities until several days after it ravaged the structure.

It wasn’t until Aug. 6 that Mary Nunley was alerted by a friend that the house burned down. Nunley said she believed the fire occurred on Aug. 2.

Nunley contacted the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 9.

According to Cptn. Andy Seabolt, an arson investigator was assigned to the case of the fire, but the extensive damage made it impossible to determine the area of origin or the cause.

Nunley is the daughter of Bud Nunely who took over renting the house in 1969.

“My dad [Bud] passed away in January 2017, and my mom lived there a couple years longer,” Nunley said. “When we needed someone to stay and watch over the place, my daughter’s biological dad moved in and has stayed there the last two to three years.”

Nunley said that her daughter’s biological dad was periodically in jail.

At the time the house burned down it was empty.

The significance of the house extends far beyond the Nunley family. The Pierce family, one of the oldest families in the area, has a long and storied connection to the property.

A century legacy on Bays Mountain

Jack Pierce, a 95-year-old resident of Kingsport recalls his grandfather, Jerome Pierce, purchasing the land off Bays Mountain in the early 19th century and building the house.

According to the Sullivan County Register of Deeds, on March 27th, 1888 Jerome purchased 163 acres of land on Bays Mountain from Nancy Hayes Vincent for $53.00, worth roughly $1,754.00 in 2024.

There, he constructed the two-story log cabin with a rock chimney, living room, kitchen and three bedrooms for his family, Pierce said.

Jerome would raise his seven children there, including Albert Pierce, Jack’s father.

“Now, my grandfather, Jerome, was a former slave,” Pierce said. “And after he was freed he got to keep the last name of his owners’ [Pierce]. I do remember him telling me that his owners treated him good.”

(Click on the map to make it bigger)

For orientation, the small red circle at the bottom of the picture is the old Pierce Homestead on the side of Bays Mountain, at the bottom left.  Circled at the upper left is what used to be the Rotherwood Plantation.  Circled at the top center is what was "Old Kingsport."  Circled on the right, in order from top to bottom is geographic Downtown Kingsport, the Riverview Community and at the bottom right, is Eastman Chemical (the former Tennessee Eastman Company).

About 28 acres of Jerome’s property going up the side of the ridge was sold to Bays Mountain in April 2006, but the original homestead remained in the Pierce family who rented it out for more than 40 years. Pierce recalled his grandfather’s property having lots of animals — including hogs and chickens, in addition to grapevines.

Pierce said that his father and grandfather helped construct the dam atop Bays Mountain, hauling the stone and concrete using large Belgian horses.

In the late 1920’s, Eastman began hiring men to log timber to make methanol and later acetic acid anhydride for the process of filmmaking. The Pierces were an important family in logging and getting the logs to the Eastman sawmill, Pierce said.

“My father always worked for himself,” Pierce said. “He hauled timber and what not, he raised his own animals — the family always had plenty to eat.”

‘Old Kingsport’ - circled in red above.  Click on the map to make it bigger.  The blue circle in the center is the Old Kingsport Presbyrterian Cemetery, thought to contain many African-American graves from near the nearby Rotherwood Plantation.

Pierce said he grew up in “Old Kingsport” and as an adult, often took his children to the house on Bays Mountain.

“Old Kingsport is about where the Netherland Inn area is at,” Pierce said. “We were the only black family living there, our father raised us on a farm.”

Pierce said he remembers his family helping each other out and sharing goods with white families around them.

“We shared milk, hogs, eggs, just about anything,” he said.

After graduating from Douglass High School in the 1940’s, Pierce married Miss Betsy Whittington and together they had six children. Pierce worked at Eastman for 38 years.

“They didn’t treat us blacks very well,” Pierce said. “Our department with all the black folks had the most firings.”

While raising his children, Pierce said he would take his children to the house on Bays Mountain where they would play and hang out with friends. Pierce recalls having very fond memories of the house and its impact on keeping families together.

“That house was something very special,” Pierce said. “It is very sad that it’s burned down, it has stories and carries a lot of history. I had always hoped that Bays Mountain would’ve bought it and made it a historical site.”

Memories of the past

Nunley, 45, who grew up in the house roughly from 1979-2011, said she was devastated to hear the news of the house fire.

“Growing up, we loved that house,” Nunley said. “Having a home where anyone was welcome to come hang out, have a meal and great conversation, it was the glue that held us all together.”

Nunley said that some of her best childhood memories were created in the house growing up.

“We lost something that mean a lot to us,” Pierce said. “Just knowing it was out there and we’d go every once in a while to see it brought some comfort.”

Jerome Pierce passed away in 1945. He was preceded in death by his wife Alice Luvenia, who had passed in 1928. They are buried next to one another in the Pierce Chapel A.M.E. Cemetery in Kingsport, which is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Anna Coley, another grandchild of Jerome’s wrote a book published in 2011 titled “From Whence We Came: Good Old Days.” Coley recounts the Pierce’s family history and their linkage to Bays Mountain. Coley died in 2021

She writes:

“Grandpa and Grandmother Pierce were the roots of our family tree as we know it today. They were the vines, we are the branches. We have a very rich heritage, a very proud family history. Let’s not every forget to sow the same fruits of the spirit that our forebears did.”

Pierce said he would not change anything about the City of Kingsport, “I’m happy to be where I am.”

NOTE:  As one of the oldest families in Kingsport's Black community, the Pierce-Bond family is part of the continuing story of the influence that "The History of African-Americans in Kingsport" experience has done to make Kingsport what it is today.

troyed by f

Sarah Ann Ford remembrance

 

                          Sarah Ann Ford 

Ms. Sarah Ann Tarter-Ford, 80 years old went to her Eternal Home on Friday, August 30, 2024 around 4:59 A.M.

Sarah married Charles Ford Sr. at 16 and they were blessed with 6 beautiful children. Their 5th child transitioned to Heaven 12 hours after birth. After her divorce she went on to work at North Electric (AT&T) and Maintenance for The Kingsport Housing Authority. She bartended at The Hut, The Elks, Sarges and Harvey’s. After Salvation, she worked at Winn Dixie and The Indian Springs Baptist Church as their main custodian and retired several years after. She has been a long time member of Powerful New Life Church located in Kingsport, TN.

She is preceded in death by her Father, Albert Tarter and Mother, Laura Fain- Hoskins; Son, Jeremy Ford; Siblings, Jim Tarter, Clarence Tarter, Henry Tarter, Jesse Tarter, Betty Lou Tarter-Hale, Helen Tarter-Bly, Nancy Tarter-Dykes, Bessie Tarter-Bradley, and David Bradley; Grandson- Tyree Ford.

She is survived by 5 Children & 22 Grandchildren & a Host of Great Grandchildren (Including Vashawn Ford of whom she raised as her own). Charles Lewis Ford Jr. (Casey Nix), Clayton Ford, Makala Ford, Samuel Ford, Maliachi Ford and Roman Ford. Darryl Evans Ford (Tawana Ford), Talisha Ford, Rashawn Ford, Shreva Ford. Randall Scott Ford (Little Randall Ford), Trevor Ford, Blake Ford and Chloe Ford. Velma Renee Ford (Jakia Ford), Jermaine Carpenter, Ketha Ford, Jamar Hardy. Lourie Ann Ford-Hale {Pastor Hugh Hale}Keesha Hale-Markl, Chasten Hale (Shea Hale), Tabitha Hale-Gill, Matthew Hale. Special Granddaughter, Briana Story and Great Grandson Ezekiel Story. Bonus daughter Carmella Lee. Sister-in-law, Joyce Tarter. Special Cousins, Edith Lyons and Wayne Fain. Also, Mother had some special nieces whom checked on her weekly, Sebrina Shoemaker, Pal Tarter, Valerie Williams, and a host of beautiful nieces and nephews whom respected and loved her dearly!

Those who were blessed to know her, knew that she was the Best Beans & Cornbread maker in the world! She will be Greatly missed, but we rejoice that she made her arrival into her Heavenly Home!

The family will receive friends from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm Wednesday, September 4, 2024. Homegoing Celebration Services will begin at 1:00 pm with Pastor James Goins and Pastor Hugh Hale officiating. Music selection will be provided by Neal Ewing. Interment to follow in Mitchell-Crest Cemetery.

Christian-Sells Funeral Home, Rogersville is serving the Ford family, phone (423) 272-0555.