We are gearing up for our busy fall season here at Marble Springs State Historic Site!
Join us at the East Tennessee History Fair in downtown Knoxville on August 16. We will be there with the other Historic Homes of Knoxville.
On August 23, we will be hosting a Soap Making Workshop (10am-2pm).
On September 20 (10am-5pm) and September 21 (12pm-5pm), we will host our annual John Sevier Days. Join us for period demonstrations, militia drills, historic lectures, and more.
On September 20, come back to our site for our 2nd annual Sevier Soiree in the evening. This fundraising event will involve food, music, and a silent auction.
Details are subject to change. We will keep you posted about other fall events soon!
All money raised at these events benefits educational programming at Marble Springs. Programming assistance for these events is provided by
the Arts & Heritage Fund and Knox County. Marble Springs is funded under an
agreement with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation,
Tennessee Historical Commission, and supplemented by additional funds raised by
the Governor John Sevier Memorial Association.
Happenings, History and More
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Sevier Family Coat of Arms
This post was written by our summer intern, Kristin Brig. Thanks, Kristin!
In the medieval era, the coat of arms
developed as a way for families to distinguish themselves and to broadcast ties
to nobility or as well-to-do. All sorts of colors and shapes went into making a
coat of arms, each with a specific task in mind. Even the background of the
coat of arms meant something important.
On the Sevier family crest, two colors make
up the background: gold and red. Gold indicates generosity and lifting one’s
mind to higher thoughts than oneself. Red, on the other hand, demonstrates a
belonging to a warrior class and to the military. Sometimes it means martyr.
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Although no thick cross sits on the shield,
the crest clearly divides into four areas. Such division therefore indicates a
will toward faith and protection. In each of the four areas, there are symbols:
two areas carry three boxes each in the same pattern, while the other two areas
carry the same man’s head.
There are no indications of rectangular
boxes carrying any significance on family crests, yet there is a symbol called
the carpenter’s square that exists on certain crests. This square represents
the family’s loyalty to the law of righteous and equity in society, which would
further confirm the faith and protection division of the crest.
The most common question visitors give us
when it comes to the crest, however, is why the human head with a turban is on
there. According to family crest symbolism, this symbol points to prowess
during the Crusades, actually naming the symbol the head of a Moor (a Spanish
name for Muslim in the medieval era).
As for the writing at the bottom of the
crest, “pro patria,” the phrase is Latin for “for country.” A flexible phrase
for a flexible, ever-moving and ever-changing family.
If we read the Sevier family coat of arms
via the meanings of these symbols, we discover something new about Sevier’s
ancestors. Clearly the Seviers fought in the Crusades during the medieval era,
due to the colors and Moor’s head chosen. They held true to their faith as
well, even leaving their first homeland, France, in favor of a society in which
they could practice their Huguenot faith. They believed in equality of persons,
faith to their God and country, and even a warrior spirit in times of trouble. Each
of these qualities showed in John Sevier during his life here in Tennessee, and
his descendants still pass on these centuries-old qualities that we can find
today in a simple coat of arms hanging in a corner of an old cabin.
Friday, June 20, 2014
The War of 1812: John Sevier’s Involvement
This post was written by our summer intern, Kristin Brig. Thanks, Kristin!
On the eve of the start of the War of 1812, Congressman John Sevier found himself in the middle of an on-going argument between pro- and anti-war advocates. Although pro-war himself, Sevier kept track of the argument through his letters to his son George Washington Sevier, discussing major players and key events in the days leading up to the war.
On the eve of the start of the War of 1812, Congressman John Sevier found himself in the middle of an on-going argument between pro- and anti-war advocates. Although pro-war himself, Sevier kept track of the argument through his letters to his son George Washington Sevier, discussing major players and key events in the days leading up to the war.
George
Washington lived at Fort Hampton in the Mississippi Territory at the time with
his wife and children. Like his father, George Washington served as a captain
in the United States army, protecting the American frontier. John Sevier tried
to keep his far-off son updated on the latest military events in Washington via
posted letters. Unfortunately, George Washington failed to receive many of the
letters sent to him; what he did receive, however, consisted of tales of his
father’s doings in Washington, amongst the doings of other important leaders.
John Sevier had
connections in Washington when it came to finding out news on the growing
conflict between Britain and the United States. He dined with the Minister of
France and attended Mrs. James Madison’s parties at the White House, where he
met and talked with those in the higher ranks of Congress and of the Cabinet.[1]
Sevier even lived on the same floor as Lieutenant Colonel Smyth, one of the
major figures in the Army at the time: “The Colonel and myself have lived on
the same floor all the winter, good part of the time in the same room, and on
very friendly terms.”[2]
With such important connections as these, Sevier determined collect what
information he could and to share his information with his family and friends
back home instead of waiting for the newspapers to break war news.
Sevier did not
merely listen to the brewing wartime spirit in Congress, however. Sevier found
himself at the core of the discussion. As early as January 1812, Sevier
promoted the prospect of war with his colleagues and family members, warning
them of the soon-to-come war with an almost excited fervor. In his letters to
George Washington, Sevier stressed the importance of the US Army and for George
Washington as well as other sons to look for promotions in the time leading up
to war. Finally, along with seventy-eight fellow pro-war congressional supporters,
Sevier signed the declaration of war against Great Britain on June 4, 1812,
beginning the War of 1812. (His journal for the day read, “Thurs. [June] 4
[1812] Pleasant day wt to the House passed the declaration of war against G.
Britain &c &c....")
While he never
actually fought in the war himself, unlike in the American Revolution, Sevier
maintained a constant presence in communication between anti-British
Tennesseans and Congress. Such representative action gave him a way to help the
war effort when others, such as his rival Andrew Jackson, gained glory in the
battlefield.[3]
As a result,
through his letters and rallying cries for war, Sevier involved himself in the
war as much as he could, living through one final American-British war before
dying three years after it began.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Weather in the Time of John Sevier
Thanks to our volunteer, Kristin Brig, who researched and wrote this blog entry for us!
Today, the sun is shining, the clouds
are scattered across a silky blue sky, and the weatherman, who predicted rain
this morning, turns out to be wrong in his prediction. But we still have a
weatherman we can rely on in dangerous weather, just a click away on the living
room television. In John Sevier’s time, no weathermen existed in times of
danger, no less televisions to issue warnings. Instead, Sevier, like so many
other American colonists, personally had to learn the art of predicting
weather, colonial style!
Unlike
today, the colonists had only a few weather tools to use for predicting the
weather, among them weather vanes and thermometers. Although the first
thermometer reached America in 1715 in Philadelphia,[1]
people along the frontier usually solely used wind vanes and almanacs.[2]
Almanacs attempted to accurately predict the weather through use of temperature
and wind direction tables, which helped farmers decide where and when to sow
seed and put plants in the ground. Yet colonists along the frontier like Sevier
could more easily find out wind direction via wind vanes: “The settlers often found the weather of their new home rather
challenging, so they made ample use of weathervanes to predict the weather and
improve their farming practices.”[3]
In large towns or cities the town hall usually held the wind vane for the town.
If not, farmers would own their own wind vanes, as Sevier might have done at
Marble Springs.
From
entries in his diaries, Sevier probably had neither a thermometer nor an almanac,
as he often recorded daily weather patterns but not exact predictions or
temperatures. At times, he solely records the day’s weather from his own
observations; for example, in March 1799 Sevier writes about the daily weather
and nothing else for nine days straight![4]
As a farmer, Sevier had to watch the weather closely. As such, he put weather
descriptions in his diaries every so often to keep up with the ever-changing
frontier weather. Sometimes, it wasn’t even for the farming- he would also
remark on the weather during his time as a Congressman in Washington, DC. During
his time in DC, many times he focuses more on the weather than visiting with
foreign ministers and heads of state! On March 13, 1813, he wrote “Visited the
President [Madison]. Cold and windy.”[5]
If you
want to see the weather descriptions for yourself (in edition to a few “cures”
Sevier had for ailments), you can access his diaries here:
[1] Thomas L. Purvis, Colonial America to 1763 (New York:
Facts on File, 1999), 1.
[2] Fae Moller, “Predicting Weather in
the Eighteenth Century,” http://www.history.org/history/teaching/weather.cfm.
[3] “History of Weathervanes,”
weathervanesplus.com.
[4] John Sevier’s Diary, March 1799, Penelope.uchicago.edu.
[5]
John Sevier’s Diary, March 1813, Penelope.uchicago.edu.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Gardening at Marble Springs
Thanks to our volunteer, Kristin Brig, who researched and wrote this blog entry for us!
 |
| Is this a watermelon or a pumpkin? |
Is that a watermelon?
We’ve been hearing this question a lot at Marble Springs, in
regards to our garden. What you’re actually seeing is a pumpkin!
Our garden isn’t only full of these (currently) green
beauties… We’ve also got corn, squash,
onions, tomatoes, and more. In growing true colonial foods, we try to think
about what John Sevier might have grown back in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. After all, not all historic preservation has to take
place in a museum, or the cabins that you visit here on site; in fact, much
historic preservation goes towards maintaining gardens!
Gardens served several purposes in the colonial era. For
instance, if you travel up to Colonial Williamsburg or Charleston’s historic homes,
you will find gardens teeming with some of the most colorful flowers to be
found in the South. In these instances, gardens served a purpose of beauty, of
giving serenity to a bustling household, and of showcasing the stately nature
of the wealthy inhabitants of said households.[i]
Today, much as the colonists did three hundred years ago, visitors to such
places enjoy a stroll along the garden paths, studying the colorful flowers and
remarking on the geometry used by the colonists.
Yet John Sevier’s gardens went beyond just cultivation of
flowers. For Sevier and other colonial settlers along the frontier, gardens
meant food, a form of self-sustaining farming. And today, unlike the colonists
of three hundred years ago, visitors often wonder why such gardens have fewer
flowers and more crops than townhomes do, especially for a man as politically
active as John Sevier. Visitors instead should take away a different message
from these maintained gardens: the colonists put a lot of work into producing
much of the same food for their tables that we only have to purchase at our
local grocery stores. According to Therese Ciesinski from Organic Gardening, “What [colonists] grew and how they grew it reveals the differences
between then and now…and emphasizes how difficult it was to coax food from the
ground.”[ii] As
a result, maintaining the gardens here at Marble Springs not only gives
visitors something delectable (and sweet-smelling) to look at, but also
something to make them think about how difficult the life of a colonist truly
was, even in aspects of simply getting food to eat.
Our herb garden is also undergoing a transformation, as we
are currently expanding it and removing the walk-in areas. For a colonist,
herbs provided flavoring for food as well as medicine for basic illnesses.
Typically, colonists raised their herb garden beds so that water would drain quicker
and the soil would warm quicker in the spring and summer.[iii]
As such, our herb garden beds here at Marble Springs are raised, as is our
vegetable garden. (They are also raised due to the archaeologically sensitive
ground that the gardens sit on).
A big thanks to our fantastic volunteers, Jim Buckenmyer,
who helps us out with our gardening workshops, and Fran Brown who has been
helping us with weeding and cutting back the herbs.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Marble Springs Storytelling Festival Coming Soon!
A Festival of Storytelling for the whole family will take
place on April 20, 2013, from 12-7pm at Governor John Sevier’s Marble Springs
State Historic Site. This event is sponsored by the Governor John Sevier Memorial
Association and the Smoky Mountain Storytellers Association. Professional storytellers
will perform live all day, with humor, traditional, historic, Appalachian
tales, & tall tales. Food and drink will be available. Guests should bring
chairs and/or blankets to sit on.
Youth Storytelling Showcase will take place from 12-2pm,
featuring Rebecca & Sarah Bird, National Youth Storytelling Showcase
Torchbearers, and students from local schools.
At 3pm, our special guest, Jack Neely, author of Knoxville’s
“Secret History,” will share stories.
Fee:
$5 per
adult, $3 student (age 7-18), under six free. Parking is free.
All
activities take place at the Marble Springs State Historic Site: 1220 West
Governor John Sevier Highway, Knoxville, TN 37920.
Programming assistance for this event is provided by the Arts
& Heritage Fund and Knox County. Marble Springs is funded under an
agreement with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation,
Tennessee Historical Commission, and supplemented by additional funds raised by
the Governor John Sevier Memorial Association.
Information
found at 865-573-5508
Website problems
We apologize for anyone having issues with our website currently. Our website was hacked two weeks ago, and we have to provide our developer with all the information that was previously on there before it can go back to normal.
Until then, we will post information about events here and on our Facebook page.
Until then, we will post information about events here and on our Facebook page.
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