Wheat, Tennessee

Last updated

The George Jones Memorial Baptist Church is the only building still standing in Wheat. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Oak-ridge-george-jones-tn1.jpg
The George Jones Memorial Baptist Church is the only building still standing in Wheat. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wheat was a farming community in Roane County, Tennessee. The area is now in the city of Oak Ridge.

Contents

The earliest settlers moved into the area in the late 18th century. However, it was not until 1846 that the area was established as the community of Bald Hill. The name was changed to Wheat in 1880, when a post office was opened and the community took the name of its first postmaster, Frank Wheat.

The first settler with the surname of Wheat and the recognized founding father of the town is Levi Henderson Wheat, born in Virginia between 1770 – 1780 [1] .  Levi is first shown on a tax record within Roane County, Tennessee in 1805 [2] .  On Nov 14, 1814, a “tract of land being in the 3rd Civil District, on the waters of Paw Paw Creek, consisting of 146 acres is conveyed to Levi Wheat from Jason Matlock for the sum of $200”. [3] Levi Wheat worked the land as a farmer, married three times, and bore a total of 18 children.  Levi served in the War of 1812 as a Private under Captain John McKamy’s Company of East Tennessee Militia, Colonel E Booth’s Regiment. Levi Henderson Wheat died prior to April 20, 1849, the date of his estate probate, in Roane County, Tennessee [4] .

Early farming residents included John Henry and Elizabeth Inman Welcker. They owned Laurel Banks plantation on the Clinch River from the early 19th century until c. 1840. Records from the time show that the Welckers were active in the purchase and sale of slaves. [5] George Hamilton Gallaher purchased the property in the 1840s, and it is now referred to as the Gallaher-Stone Plantation. The Wheat Community African Burial Ground (AEC #2) and Gallaher-Welcker Cemetery (AEC #1) still survive. The African Burial Ground was long forgotten, but the site was found in 2000 by Will Minter and was cleaned up and marked by U.S. Department of Energy personnel and volunteers. At least some of those buried in the African Burial Ground are believed to have been part of the Gallaher-Stone Plantation; a monument to those held in slavery is on the cemetery grounds. [6]

Wheat eventually included several churches, a seminary/college, several stores, a gas station and a Masonic lodge. Poplar Creek Seminary, founded in 1886 by a Presbyterian minister, later became Roane College. In 1908, the college transferred ownership of the building to Wheat High School.

Farmhouse in Wheat Wheat-house-tn1.jpg
Farmhouse in Wheat

The community of Wheat was dissolved, and residents displaced, in 1942 when the United States government purchased the land as part of the Manhattan Project. Most of the site remains in federal government ownership, managed by the United States Department of Energy.

The George Jones Memorial Baptist Church is the only Wheat building still standing. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Crawford Presbyterian Church building was torn down for a highway construction project. The cemeteries of both churches are maintained and are still used for burials of former Wheat residents and family members. The Wheat community, including former residents and their families, holds a "homecoming" reunion at the George Jones Church every year on the first Sunday in October. [7]

Related Research Articles

Oak Ridge or Oakridge may refer to numerous locations in English-speaking countries - the most well-known being Oak Ridge, Tennessee, due to its part in the Manhattan Project. These and other meanings include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roane County, Tennessee</span> County in Tennessee, United States

Roane County is a county of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,404. Its county seat is Kingston. Roane County is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anderson County, Tennessee</span> County in Tennessee, United States

Anderson County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the northern part of the state in East Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, its population was 77,123. Its county seat is Clinton. Anderson County is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockwood, Tennessee</span> City in Tennessee, United States

Rockwood is a city in Roane County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 5,562 at the time of the 2010 census. It is included in the Harriman, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oak Ridge, Tennessee</span> City in Tennessee, United States

Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about 25 miles (40 km) west of downtown Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 31,402 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area. Oak Ridge's nicknames include the Atomic City, the Secret City, and the City Behind a Fence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriman, Tennessee</span> City in Tennessee, United States

Harriman is a city located primarily in Roane County, Tennessee, with a small extension into Morgan County. The population of Harriman was 5,892 at the time of the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwardsburgh/Cardinal</span> Township in Ontario, Canada

Edwardsburgh/Cardinal is a township in the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville of eastern Ontario, Canada. Edwardsburgh township was first surveyed in 1783, and incorporated in 1850. The township was part of the historical Grenville County before it merged with Leeds County to form the United Counties in the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powell, Tennessee</span> CDP in Tennessee, United States

Powell, formerly known as Powell Station, is a census-designated place in Knox County, Tennessee. The area is located in the Emory Road corridor, just north of Knoxville, southeast of Clinton, and east of Oak Ridge. It had a population of 13,802 during the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Robertsville was a farming community in Anderson County, Tennessee, that was disbanded in 1942 when the area was acquired for the Manhattan Project. Its site is now part of the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Big Sugar Creek is a 47-mile-long (76 km) waterway in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri. The creek starts near the Arkansas state line. Big Sugar starts from three tributaries. One flows north from Garfield, Arkansas, and one, west near Seligman, Missouri, and another, south from Washburn, Missouri. Big Sugar flows west down Sugar Creek Valley, where in the Jacket community it is joined by Otter Creek, from Pea Ridge, Arkansas.

The East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS), headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of East Tennessee history, the preservation of historically significant artifacts, and educating the citizens of Tennessee. The society operates a museum and museum shop in the East Tennessee History Center on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. The East Tennessee Historical Society was established in 1834, 38 years after the establishment of the state of Tennessee, to record the history of the development and settlement of the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Jones Memorial Baptist Church</span> Historic church in Tennessee, United States

The George Jones Memorial Baptist Church, also known as the "Wheat Church," is a historic church building at the former site of the community of Wheat in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. It is the only structure remaining from Wheat, a rural Roane County community that was dissolved in 1942 when the United States government assumed ownership of the land for the Manhattan Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornstalk Heights</span> Historic house in Tennessee, United States

Cornstalk Heights is a neighborhood in Harriman, Tennessee, United States. Platted in the early 1890s as a residential area for Harriman's upper and professional classes, the neighborhood contains over 100 buildings added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 as a historic district for their architectural and historical significance. The neighborhood is named for the home of Harriman founder Frederick Gates, which once stood near the eastern end of the district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinton Engineer Works</span> Manhattan Project uranium enrichment facility

The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) was the production installation of the Manhattan Project that during World War II produced the enriched uranium used in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, as well as the first examples of reactor-produced plutonium. It consisted of production facilities arranged at three major sites, various utilities including a power plant, and the town of Oak Ridge. It was in East Tennessee, about 18 miles (29 km) west of Knoxville, and was named after the town of Clinton, eight miles (13 km) to the north. The production facilities were mainly in Roane County, and the northern part of the site was in Anderson County. The Manhattan District Engineer, Kenneth Nichols, moved the Manhattan District headquarters from Manhattan to Oak Ridge in August 1943. During the war, CEW's advanced research was managed for the government by the University of Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presbyterian Burying Ground</span> Cemetery in Washington, D.C, United States

The Presbyterian Burying Ground, also known as the Old Presbyterian Burying Ground, was a historic cemetery which existed between 1802 and 1909 in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was one of the most prominent cemeteries in the city until the 1860s. Burials there tapered significantly after Oak Hill Cemetery was founded nearby in 1848. The Presbyterian Burying Ground closed to new burials in 1887, and about 500 to 700 bodies were disinterred after 1891 when an attempt was made to demolish the cemetery and use the land for housing. The remaining graves fell into extensive disrepair. After a decade of effort, the District of Columbia purchased the cemetery in 1909 and built Volta Park there, leaving nearly 2,000 bodies buried at the site. Occasional human remains and tombstones have been discovered at the park since its construction. A number of figures important in the early history of Georgetown and Washington, D.C., military figures, politicians, merchants, and others were buried at Presbyterian Burying Ground.

The Jacob Brown Grant Deeds, also known more simply as the Nolichucky Grants, were transactions for the sale of land by the Cherokee Nation to Jacob Brown. The transaction occurred at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga River on March 25, 1775. The Jacob Brown grants were for two large tracts along the Nolichucky River some of which had been previously leased from the Cherokee.

Raven Rock is a rural unincorporated community located along U.S. Route 421 in the Upper Little River Township in Harnett County, North Carolina, United States, west of the town of Lillington.

References

  1. ↑ "Ancestry.com - Levi Henderson Wheat Sr". Ancestry.com .
  2. ↑ "Tennessee, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1810-1891". Ancestry.com. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Roane Co. Registry of Deeds, Book E, pg 291".
  4. ↑ "Roane Co. Registry of Deeds LOS film #560110 Book L, pg 244-245".
  5. ↑ "Brief History of the Wheat Area, the Welckers, & the Gallahers". Archived from the original on March 6, 2009. Retrieved November 17, 2008.
  6. ↑ John Shearer, Slave cemetery registry intended to document more local black history, Archived July 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Knoxville News Sentinel , February 22, 2011
  7. ↑ "Wheat residents will meet for 72nd reunion." Archived March 25, 2013, at the Wayback Machine The Oak Ridger. 1 October 2004. Accessed 10 June 2009.

Sources

35°56′12″N84°22′25″W / 35.93667°N 84.37361°W / 35.93667; -84.37361

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.