June 7th & 8th Tennessee State Library & Archives

Interior of the Tennessee State Library and Archives

I set my alarm for 6:30 this day in hopes of getting to the Tennessee State Library and Archives early enough to get a parking space. I succeeded. On June 7^th and 8^th I was one of the first five visitors to enter the library.

The day before I looked at their books on Carter County and found several things of interest. My treasures included 1) a detailed list of each of the 24 persons buried in the Fitzsimmons Cemetery with details of what information is on every headstone. Four of my ancestors are buried there including William Stover, my third great grandfather. This document was prepared by the History Records Project which was one of President Roosevelt’s WPA programs to put people to work during the depression. I hadn’t known about this before. 2) A History of the Iron Industry in Carter County to 1860 written by Robert Nave, a local historian and archivist who had generously spent a day with me in 2012 taking me to all the places where my ancestors had lived. This book is of interest because William Stover owned the Speedwell Bloomery Forge in Carter County ca. 1855 3) Five years of Tax Lists from 1796 to 1800 for Carter County, and 4) The book Images of Carter County that had several interesting photos including two in particular. One was a picture of Daniel Stover’s home before it was restored. Daniel is my fourth great grandfather and a good photograph of the Sinking Creek Baptist Church which is relevant but I cannot recall why just now.

TSLA building

On the second day I looked mostly at deeds. I started with the Index for 1795-1880 and made a list of 17 deeds for my Drake family line and 65 for my Stovers! My goodness, my ancestors bought and sold a lot of pieces of property. At this rate I’d be here a month, so I decided to only look at the Stovers for the period 1880 – 1895 and found only 28 additional documents. By 1895-1911 the numbers were much reduced and the names less familiar – only 12 more, so I decided to skip 1911-1928.

I did in fact look at microfilm for each of the above deeds but it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared because each film had multiple documents on it which made things go faster …. Except when I’d skip one and have to retrieve the film and reload it onto the reader. I haven’t processed any of these deeds yet so don’t know what treasures I may have found.

Entrance to the archives

I also looked at the 2-volume index of Land Grants where I found 5 for my Stovers and 1 for Samuel Drake. The librarian explained the difference between a Land Grant – the original purchase of the land, and a Deed – when someone buys the property from an original or previous owner. Two of these land grants were for William Stover, my third great grandfather. I noted that he purchased the land with another non-family member, Thomas Heatherly. I am wondering if this may have been for a commercial property and he and Heatherly were in business together.

I looked at their surveyor records hoping to find hand drawn land surveys but these documents were too hard to read and I gave up. I’ll try again in the County Clerk’s office when I get to Carter County.

Seal of the State of Tennessee

I found three marriage records from 1796-1879 and scanned them. Checking their “Inventories of Estates 1839-1855” I found one for Abraham Drake – a fourth great grandfather. There was nothing on my family in the County Court Settlements 1886-1936.

This was the end of my third day in the archives. I’d worked intensely to look up and make digital copies of everything I found. As I made the copies I tried to add names to each file that I hope will help me sort it all out later when I’m back home. Before I left the library I went back to the books I’d started with the first day to make sure there wasn’t anything there I’d missed. There wasn’t, so I left the library and toured the State Capital Building and Supreme Court while in downtown Nashville.

State Capital a National Historic Landmark since 1972.
William Strickland, Architect. Completed 1859

If any of my CGS readers have Tennessee ancestors I recommend a trip to the TSLA – it is a great resource. They have very helpful staff. They also provide a tremendous amount of information online.

Ceiling detail in the State Capital

Governor's office

Tennessee House of Representatives chambers

High ceilings inside the State Capital

Legislative lounge

President Andrew Johnson, an ancestor by marriage

Supreme Court designed by Mark Holman, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places

Detail at Supreme Court Building