Hamblen County, TN
Hamblen County was formed after the US Civil War from parts of Grainger, Jefferson and Hawkins Counties. Due to this post-Emancipation political formation, it can be difficult to trace Black families to modern areas of the County. Below are the 1860 Slave Schedules & Free Families as well as the 1870 populations of Color for the three counties that Hamblen County would be made from:
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Jefferson County, Tennessee: People of Color, 1860 & 1870
Pineville School was one of the earliest & longest operating Black primary schools in the county. In 1939, it combined with Golda & Lowland's one room schoolhouses. In 1947, Russellville's 7th & 8th graders began attending Pineville and one year later, the school would absorb Whitesburg's students.
In 1954, the new, brick Miller Boyd school was built nearby to replace Pineville.
Russellville
Russellville, at one time, was one of the more significant communities in Hamblen County, more vibrant & economically important than the current county seat of Morristown. Here are some community-held collections of family photographs, marriage, death and burial documents, narrative family & Bewley's Chapel church histories.
Russellville families represented include Blevins, Burnside, Cain, Carmichael, Courtney, Hawkins, Isom, Jackson, McKinney, Nicely, Sherles & Phillips among others.
Items also include materials associated with artist Samuel Nicely.
This work is being conducted in partnership with Bewley's Chapel Church &
in collaboration with East Tennessee State University's Archives of Appalachia, Department of Appalachian Studies & Reece Museum.
Morristown College History Project
From 1881 to 1994, Morristown, Tennessee enjoyed the presence of Morristown Normal and Industrial College, a historically Black college created by Northern Methodists to serve the educational needs of the area’s African-American residents.
Built on the grounds of the old slave market, the late college's campus was eventually purchased by the City of Morristown & all buildings were demolished. The site has now been turned into a public city park called "Fulton-Hill".
Despite the loss of the physical structures, there is a strong narrative & huge body of historic materials associated with this important learning institution that are still available from the caretakers of this Historically Black College.
In April of 2018, Black in Appalachia partnered with The Africa to Appalachia Foundation and Reunion of the Ages to begin the process of digitizing, cataloguing and making available materials associated with Morristown College. This is an ongoing project.
View the Morristown College materials here
One amazing set of materials includes the Morristown College/Morristown College High School Graduation photos from 1890 - 1951. This now-public resource is proving invaluable, not only to individual families, but to our research & narrative development of Black teachers produced by the College & their careers in rural one-room school houses across the region.
Additional Resources
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A Highway in the Wilderness by Mrs. A.H. Stearns - Press of MacGowan & Cooke, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1892
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A School For Freedom: Morristown College and Five Generations of Education for Blacks, 1868 - 1985 by Jovita Wells - Morristown College, 1986
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A Historical Analysis of Selected Forces and Events Which Influenced the Founding, Growth and Development of Morristown College, A Historically Black Two-Year College From 1881 to 1981 by Brenda Hines Hammond -
The George Washington University Ed.D. 1983 -
Methodist Adventures in Negro Education by Jay S. Stowell - The Methodist Book Concern, 1922 - ISBN: 9781332518623
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The Mighty Red Knights: An Intriguing Story of Morristown College (1881-1988) by Paul Fuller -Independently Published, 2022 - ISBN: 9798844206733
