1798- Lockhart Place

Location: 2516 Gray-Hendrix Road

Lockhart Place was built as a log cabin in 1798. I found an excerpt from the book "Historic Knoxville and Knox County," by Russ Manning and Sondra Jamieson, that has a brief blurb about this house:

"In 0.4 mile turn left on Gray-Hendrix Road. You'll see on the right the Lockhart Place, a 1927 East Tennessee Vernacular construction that encloses a 1798 log house at 2516 Gray-Hendrix Road.

The house with its old stone fence has been recommended for the National Register" (Manning & Jamieson, p. 221-222).

This mention is significant because it's one of the only sources I have seen that actually mentions a construction date for the home.

Upon first glance, the house does look like one right out of 1927:

However, it's when you go under the house and into the basement that things get really interesting:

These pictures show that some of the logs from the original log cabin are still holding up the floor! Some of them even still have the bark on them. That first basement shot shows a hand-hewn support beam that has been squared off with hand tools. The second-to-last of the above pictures shows what the homeowner believes to be part of an old cistern. He also believes that this quirky little light fixture in the living room (above) may be attached to one of the original logs, too. It juts out of the wall at a height of about 4 feet or so.

This black-and-white house structure is located behind the main house. It may also date from the late 1920s-early 1930s, like the updated portions of the main house. Using a metal detector, the homeowner found this belt buckle about nine inches below ground in his front yard. The property also includes a flowing spring with a spring house around it.

Looking through the deed records on file with Knox County, I have traced the ownership of this property back to an Azor Pyatt:

• The first deed record that mentions Azor Pyatt is from December 23, 1913, when he and his wife, M.L. Pyatt, sold 16 acres, which included the house, to Charles B. Gray. The Pyatts also sold Mr. Gray one more acre on October 23, 1920. According to "Freddy Furr's Genealogy Files" on rootsweb.ancestry.com, Azor Freeman Pyatt was born on July 4, 1848 in Knox County, TN. He died on June 23, 1921, also in Knox County- the year after he sold that one acre to Charles Gray. Pyatt is buried at Old Beaver Ridge Cemetery, located at the intersection of Emory Road and Copper Ridge Road, which is a short distance north of this property.

• Charles Gray held onto these 17 acres, apparently until he passed away around 1949.

• On July 2, 1949, Larry Gray, Charles Gray, Jr. and Eula Gray sold these same 17 acres to Joseph and Myrtle Wallace. I assume that at that point, Mr. Gray had passed away, and that Larry and Charles, Jr. were his sons, while Eula was his widow.

• On July 13, 1955, Joseph and Myrtle Wallace sold 3.06 of their 17 acres, which included the house, to John T. Chambers and his mother, Mima M. Chambers. (I guess the Wallaces kept the other 13.94 acres.)

• On February 19, 1957, the Chambers sold 0.66 acres of their 3.06 acres to T.B. and Caroline Fitzgerald. This parcel did not include the Lockhart Place house.

• The Chambers held onto the remaining 2.4 acres and the house until September 9, 1963, when they sold to Edward and Elizabeth Lockhart, the namesake of the house.

• The Lockharts lived there until Mr. Lockhart passed away around 1982. Mrs. Lockhart remained in the house until August 27, 1984, when she sold the 2.4 acres. The house has had five different owners since then.

While Azor Pyatt owned the home and the land up until 1913 (and that one acre until 1920), I'm not 100% sure when he actually first got the land, or who lived there before, but I have a pretty good idea. I got in touch with Barbara Guinn, a local amateur genealogist/historian who lives in the Karns area, and she told me that she thinks Azor Pyatt got the property and home from his uncle, Azor Smith. Azor Smith was apparently the brother of Azor Pyatt's mother, Eliza Ellen Smith. Neither she [Ms. Guinn] nor I have found any record of a land transaction between the two Azors, but there is one clue that suggests the story is true. There is an 1895 map of Knox County, Tennessee that is available for viewing on the Library of Congress website. It is also on display at the McClung Collection in downtown Knoxville, which is part of the Knox County Library. This map shows the names of many of the residents/property owners in the county at that time, as well as where they lived. At more or less the same spot on the map where Lockhart Place is today, there is a small notation that says "A. Smith." You can see it just below and to the left of the "19":

If Azor Smith lived here in 1895, and Azor Pyatt sold the place in 1913, then the transfer of property from Smith to Pyatt must have happened sometime between those dates. According to an entry on the website www.findagrave.com, Azor F. Smith was born on February 3, 1827, died on April 12, 1901 and was buried in the Old Beaver Ridge Cemetery, the same place as Azor Pyatt. Perhaps Pyatt inherited the property or bought it in 1901 after Smith died.

I believe that Azor Smith bought the land from his wife's uncle, Joseph Cox, in 1860. There is a deed on file in the Knox County Archives that says Joseph Cox sold 178 acres to Azor F. Smith on December 27, 1860. Here is the description of that tract, straight from the deed:

"… a certain tract or parcel of land situated in the 19th civil district Knox County on the waters of Meadow Creek adjoining the lands of A R Trotter Joseph Cox and others, containing one hundred and seventy-eight acres, and bounded as follows. Beginning on a

black oak north of the Campbell Station road thence East 62 poles to a stake thence south 50 west 54 p to a stake thence south 21 E 14 p to a stake thence south 40 E 14 p to a stake thence north 60 E 40 p to an ash thence south 33 E 106 p to the top of the

ridge thence down the ridge south 31 W 46 poles to a stake thence south 50 E 20 poles to a white oak thence south 50 W 7 p to a stake thence north 50 W 72 p to a stake thence south 40 W 10 p to a chestnut oak thence north 294 p to the waters water

courses and all the right title claims…"

The most important part of that description, for our purposes, is the fact that list tract was located "on the waters of Meadow Creek." The Lockhart Place house is very close to Meadow Creek, as you can see from the map above; they're only about 365 yards apart. I have only found one other land transaction for Azor Smith, and it was when he bought 262 acres from either Palathian Shelton, Sr. or Palathian Shelton, Jr. in 1853 (I haven't been able to determine whether it was the Shelton father or son who sold the land to Azor Smith). However, the deed in question says that the 262 acres were located "on the North side of Beaver Creek." The Lockhart Place house is definitely not on the north side of Beaver Creek. Therefore, that's why I believe that Azor Smith bought the land on which the Lockhart Place house sits from his uncle, Joseph Cox, in 1860.

As I said above, both Azor F. Pyatt and his uncle, Azor F. Smith, are buried in the Old Beaver Ridge Cemetery, on Copper Ridge Road, a short distance north of this house. There is a Joseph Cox buried in the Lebanon Cemetery on Garrison Drive, just a short distance northwest of this house. I believe this is Azor Smith's wife's uncle. Here are the headstones for all three men. Note that Azor Smith's wife was Fannie Cox, the same surname as her uncle Joseph Cox:

In 1910, when Azor F. Pyatt still owned the Lockhart Place house, he was listed on the census for Knox County. His location is given as "Byington Pike." Click on the "Show Fullscreen" button at the bottom of the image (four arrows pointing in different directions) to see a larger image of this census page (it will open in a new window). His is the third household from the bottom of the page: