Circa 1812- Samuel Frazier House
Location: In Blount County, west of Maryville, near the junction of Marble Hill Road and Big Springs Road.
The owners of the Samuel Frazier House claim that it was possibly built between 1750 and 1772. If anything, it was probably closer to 1772, or later, because there were hardly any people of European descent in this part of Tennessee in the 1750s and 1760s.
The owners have a website for the home: www.samuelfrazierhome.com. The home page of that site has a discrepancy as to the construction date of the house. A graphic at the top of the page says "Built Between 1750-1752." However, the text below that says "Built between 1750 and 1772 in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains…"
Either way, I believe that the Samuel Frazier House was actually built around 1812 or shortly thereafter. I found a copy of a land grant for a Samuel Frazier, dated July 2, 1812, for about 206 acres in Blount County, on both sides of "Gallahers Creek." There is a present-day Gallagher Creek that flows right by the Samuel Frazier House, not even 600 feet away. I think that this land grant was for the land where the house stands today. I think that Samuel Frazier received this grant in 1812 and then proceeded to build his house there. Here is the text of the grant. It was scanned and added to the website Ancestry.com in their Ancestry Library. Ancestry says that it came from "North Carolina and Tennessee, Early Land Records, 1753-1931; East Tennessee Land Grants; Roll 60, Book 3:
The State of Tennessee
Number 2409
To all to whom these presents shall come Greeting Know Ye that in pursuance of an act of assembly passed November the 23rd 1809 there is Granted unto Samuel Frazier a Certain Tract of land Containing Two hundred and six acres and one Rood lying in the County of Blount in the district South of French Broad and Holston within the Tract located for the use of Colleges on both sides of Gallahers Creek there being due and Chargeable on said land the sum of Five hundred and six dollars and twenty five Cents with the Interest due thereon Beginning at a Stake on the point of a Rocky Ridge Corner to Joseph Weldon thence with his line south Twelve Chain and one tenth to a stake and pointers Then with the lands of Gray and Craughford South Fifty West one hundred Chain and two Tenths to a stake and pointers then with Rays line North Twenty nine and an half West forty one Chain to a post oak then with vacant land north thirty East ninety three Chain to a pine South three and a fourth West Eighteen Chain to a stake and pointers north sixty Eight East ninety six Chain to a double black oak South Eleven East Twenty one Chain to a stake and pointers south seventy Eight West fifty four Chain to a hickory south Ten and three fourths East twenty four Chain to a buckeye south Thirty five and an half East seven Chain and seven Tenths to a black oak South Twenty three and a fourth West Eighteen Chain and six tenths to a stake and pointers South Twenty one and an half East seventeen Chain to a stake and pointers then North Eighty and an half East three Chain and Eight Tenths to the Beginning surveyed February the 23rd 1807 with its appurtenances to the [sic] Have and to hold the said Tract or parcel of land with its appurtenances To the said Samuel Frazier and his heirs forever In Witness Whereof Willie Blount Governor of the State of Tennessee hath hereunto set his hand and Caused the Great Seal of the said State to be affixed at Knoxville on the second day of July in the Year of our Lord one thousand Eight hundred and Twelve and of American Independence the thirty sixth
By the Governor Willie Blount
WG Blount Secretary
I feel like this land grant pretty much clears up whether the house was built in the 1750s-1770s. However, even without it, I don't think it's possible that this house could have been built as early as the 1750s, or even the 1760s. According to just about every history of the state I have read, there were no permanent non-Native American settlers in what is now Tennessee before 1769. The website for the town of Bean Station, Tennessee says "William Bean, the first permanent white settler in Tennessee and a noted gunsmith, built his cabin on a knoll along Boone's Creek in 1769."
The 1853 book "The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century" by J.G.M. Ramsey also says: "Of those who ventured farthest into the wilderness with their families, was Capt. William Bean. He came from Pittsylvania County, Va., and settled early in 1769 in Boon's Creek on Boon's Creek, a tributary of Watauga… his son, Russell Bean, was the first white child born in what is now Tennessee." (p.94)
A little to the south of the Samuel Frazier House, Fort Loudoun, one of the earliest British fortifications in what is now Tennessee, wasn't even built until 1756-1757, and it was abandoned around 1760. The idea that Samuel Frazier could have successfully lived here before the protection of Fort Loudoun was available strikes me as unlikely.
Another thing that I have not been able to determine is who this Samuel Frazier was. Frequently (but not always), homes are known by the names of the people who first built and lived in them. If a Samuel Frazier lived in this house back when it was built, it would be difficult to figure out who he was. There are no surviving census records for the State of Tennessee prior to 1820. One possibility: there was a Samuel Frazier (1749-1839) who was one of the framers and signers of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee. There is a page about him on the website www.findagrave.com. According to this page, he was from North Carolina and moved to Greene County, TN around 1789. I have seen some old maps that suggest that in 1789, Greene County was much larger than it is now, and may have included the area where the Samuel Frazier house is. This Frazier fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain during the Revolutionary War, was a delegate to Tennessee's first Constitutional Convention, and was the first state senator from Greene County. According to the Find-a-grave page, he and his wife, Rebecca, moved to Knox County soon after 1800. They are buried at the Highland Memorial Cemetery in Knoxville. If this Samuel Frazier was the one who built this house, then the house is obviously no older than about 1789. However, I think that these are two different Samuel Fraziers: one who went from North Carolina to Greene County, Tennessee to Knox County, and another who settled in Blount County.
There is a Samuel Frazier Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the Knoxville area, and I think it is named after the aforementioned Samuel Frazier. In May, 2015 I e-mailed this chapter to find out if they knew anything about this house: when it was built, whether it was built by their Samuel Frazier, etc. Unfortunately, the group's registrar replied back and said that their namesake is not connected to this house in any way that they are aware of.
For more and better views of both the inside and outside of the house, go to the homeowners' website: www.samuelfrazierhome.com.
The Wikipedia page for the National Register of Historic Places listings in Blount County, Tennessee also has a good picture of the Samuel Frazier house.
