William H. Griffitts House

Last updated
William H. Griffitts House
Griffitts-house-greenback-tn1.jpg
USA Tennessee location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Greenback, Tennessee
Coordinates 35°40′25″N84°13′39″W / 35.6737°N 84.2275°W / 35.6737; -84.2275
Area10.5 acres (4.2 ha)
Built1854 (1854)
Architectural styleEast Tennessee vernacular
NRHP reference No. 89000141 [1]
Added to NRHPMarch 2, 1989

The William H. Griffitts House is a historic farmhouse on Jackson Ferry Road in Loudon County, Tennessee, United States, northwest of Greenback and near the edge of Tellico Lake. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Contents

Description

The house, which was completed in 1854 (when its site was part of Blount County, Tennessee), is a two-story wooden frame farmhouse with nine rooms arranged in an ell-shaped layout. [2] It is a vernacular design that exhibits Federal influences in its three-bay front facade and pedimented front entrance. [3] The house has five fireplaces. [2] [3]

History

The owner of the house, William H. Griffitts, was born in 1825 into one of the Quaker families that had arrived in Blount County around 1800 and settled in the Unitia and Friendsville areas. He and his wife, Lucy Ann Burton, were the parents of seven children. [2]

With other Quakers in the local area, the Griffitts family were active supporters of the Underground Railroad movement that aided fugitive African-American slaves attempting to reach freedom in the northern United States. [2] Historians identify the Griffitts house and the nearby Friendsville and Unitia communities as "stations" on the Underground Railroad. [4] [5] During the American Civil War, they also sheltered white Southern men seeking to avoid military conscription by the Confederacy. [4]

During the Civil War, William Griffitts had conscientious objector status due to his Quaker religious faith. In lieu of military service, he worked in a salt mine in Kentucky. His wife and teenaged son managed the farm and household during his absence. After the war, the Griffitts family allowed former slaves to live on a portion of their property that is still known locally as Negro Hollow. [2]

The property remained in the Griffitts family until 1960, and Griffitts descendants lived in the house until 1943. [2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 as the result of efforts by Larry Benson, who purchased it in 1978 and did extensive restoration and renovation work. Architect Eugene Burr drafted the National Register nomination materials. [2] [3]

Related Research Articles

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

Loudon County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the central part of East Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,886. Its county seat is Loudon. Loudon County is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.

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

Friendsville is a city in Blount County, Tennessee. Its population was 896 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.

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

Greenback is a city in Loudon County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was at 1,102, according to the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Garrett</span> American abolitionist

Thomas Garrett was an American abolitionist and leader in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War. He helped more than 2,500 African Americans escape slavery.

Concord is an unincorporated community in Knox County, Tennessee, United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district, the Concord Village Historic District. The United States Geographic Names Information System classifies Concord as a populated place. It is located in western Knox County, east of Farragut and west of Knoxville. Mail destined for Concord is now addressed to Concord, Knoxville, or Farragut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levi Coffin House</span> Historic house in Indiana, United States

The Coffin House is a National Historic Landmark located in the present-day town of Fountain City in Wayne County, Indiana. The two-story, eight room, brick home was constructed circa 1838–39 in the Federal style. The Coffin home became known as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad because of its location where three of the escape routes to the North converged and the number of fleeing slaves who passed through it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. Julius LeMoyne House</span> Historic house in Pennsylvania, United States

The F. Julius LeMoyne House is a historic house museum at 49 East Maiden Street in Washington, Pennsylvania. Built in 1812, it was the home of Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne (1798–1897), an antislavery activist who used it as a stop on the Underground Railroad. LeMoyne also assisted in the education of freed slaves after the American Civil War, founding the historically black LeMoyne–Owen College in Memphis, Tennessee. His house, now operated as a museum by the local historical society, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997. It is designated as a historic public landmark by the Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rokeby (Ferrisburg, Vermont)</span> United States historic place

Rokeby Museum is a historic farm property and museum at 4334 United States Route 7 in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. The 90-acre (36 ha) property includes a 1780s farmstead, and eight agricultural outbuildings with permanent exhibits. Hiking trails cover more than 50 acres (20 ha) of the grounds. Rokeby is open from mid-May to mid-October each year. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997 for its association with Rowland T. Robinson, a Quaker and ardent abolitionist who openly sheltered escaped slaves at Rokeby as part of the Underground Railroad. Robinson's extensive correspondence is an essential archive giving insight into the practices of abolitionists and the operations of the railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Pleasant Historic District (Mt. Pleasant, Ohio)</span> Historic district in Ohio, United States

The Mount Pleasant Historic District encompasses the historic center of the village of Mount Pleasant, Ohio. Founded in 1803 by anti-slavery Quakers, the village was an early center of abolitionist activity and a well-known haven for fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. The village center is relatively little altered since the antebellum period. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Districts in 1974, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ercildoun, Pennsylvania</span> Unincorporated community in Pennsylvania, U.S.

Ercildoun, population about 100, is an unincorporated community in East Fallowfield Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The hamlet was founded by Quakers and was an early center of the abolitionist movement. In 1985 the entire hamlet, including 31 properties, was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Of these properties two were vacant land, 14 were significant buildings, ten were contributing buildings, and five buildings, built in the 1950s, were non-contributing. The Lukens Pierce House, an octagon house listed separately on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, is located about half a mile northwest of the hamlet. Ercildoun is one of about ten hamlets in the township, which has no cities or towns, but has 31 sites listed on the National Register. It is one of the larger hamlets, located near the center of the township, and historically among the best known. The city of Coatesville is about 3 miles north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underground Railroad in Indiana</span>

The Underground Railroad in Indiana was part of a larger, unofficial, and loosely-connected network of groups and individuals who aided and facilitated the escape of runaway slaves from the southern United States. The network in Indiana gradually evolved in the 1830s and 1840s, reached its peak during the 1850s, and continued until slavery was abolished throughout the United States at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. It is not known how many fugitive slaves escaped through Indiana on their journey to Michigan and Canada. An unknown number of Indiana's abolitionists, anti-slavery advocates, and people of color, as well as Quakers and other religious groups illegally operated stations along the network. Some of the network's operatives have been identified, including Levi Coffin, the best-known of Indiana's Underground Railroad leaders. In addition to shelter, network agents provided food, guidance, and, in some cases, transportation to aid the runaways.

The Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) is the State Historic Preservation Office for the U.S. state of Tennessee. Headquartered in Nashville, it is an independent state agency, administratively attached to the Department of Environment and Conservation. Its mission is to protect, preserve, interpret, maintain, and administer historic places; to encourage the inclusive diverse study of Tennessee's history for the benefit of future generations; to mark important locations, persons, and events in Tennessee history; to assist in worthy publication projects; to review, comment on and identify projects that will potentially impact historic properties; to locate, identify, record, and nominate to the National Register of Historic Places all properties which meet National Register criteria, and to implement other programs of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended. The Tennessee Historical Commission also refers to the entity consisting of 24 Governor-appointed members and five ex officio members.

William Parker was an American former slave who escaped from Maryland to Pennsylvania, where he became an abolitionist and anti-slavery activist in Christiana. He was a farmer and led a black self-defense organization. He was notable as a principal figure in the Christiana incident, 1851, also known as the Christiana Resistance. Edward Gorsuch, a Maryland slaveowner who owned four slaves who had fled over the state border to Parker's farm, was killed and other white men in the party to capture the fugitives were wounded. The events brought national attention to the challenges of enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherwood Equal Rights Historic District</span> Historic district in New York, United States

Sherwood Equal Rights Historic District is a national historic district located at Sherwood in Cayuga County, New York. The district consists of 29 properties containing 27 contributing primary buildings, one contributing site (cemetery), three contributing carriage houses and one non-contributing building in the historic core of the hamlet of Sherwood. It encompasses the entire hamlet and includes several commercial / civic structures at the intersection of New York State Route 34B and Sherwod Road. The structures commemorate the historical Quaker community's dedication to abolition, women's rights, and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maden Hall Farm</span> Historic house in Tennessee, United States

Maden Hall Farm, also called the Fermanagh-Ross Farm, is a historic farm near the U.S. city of Greeneville, Tennessee. Established in the 1820s, the farmstead consists of a farmhouse and six outbuildings situated on the remaining 17 acres (6.9 ha) of what was once a 300-acre (120 ha) antebellum farm. Maden Hall has been designated a century farm and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clover Hill Mill</span> United States historic place

The Clover Hill Mill is a gristmill located in the U.S. city of Maryville, Tennessee. Out of the hundreds of early-20th century mills once scattered across the mountains of East Tennessee, the Clover Hill Mill is one of the few still in operation, and the last such full service mill in Blount County. The mill was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mount Zion Cemetery</span> Historic church in New Jersey, United States

Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mount Zion Cemetery is a historic church and cemetery located at 172 Garwin Road in Woolwich Township, New Jersey, United States. The church was a stop on the Greenwich Line of the Underground Railroad through South Jersey operated by Harriet Tubman for 10 years. The church provided supplies and shelter to runaway slaves on their way to Canada from the South. The church and cemetery were part of the early 19th-century free negro settlement sponsored by Quakers known as Small Gloucester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appoquinimink Friends Meetinghouse</span> Historic church in Delaware, United States

Appoquinimink Friends Meetinghouse, also known as the Odessa Friends Meetinghouse, is a very small but historic Quaker meetinghouse on Main Street in Odessa, Delaware. It was built in 1785 by David Wilson and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Members of the meeting, including John Hunn and his cousin John Alston, were active in the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman may have hid in the meetinghouse. Measuring about 20 feet (6.1 m) by 22 feet (6.7 m), it may be the smallest brick house of worship in the United States.

Unitia is an Unincorporated community of Loudon County, Tennessee. Historically it was a crossroads village, the site of a post office, and a stop on the Underground Railroad. The historical center of the community was flooded in the 1940s by the filling of the reservoir behind Fort Loudoun Dam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaac Mendenhall</span> American farmer and abolitionist (1806–1882)

Isaac Mendenhall was an American farmer, abolitionist, and station master on the Underground Railroad in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Isaac and Dinah Mendenhall aided several hundred fugitives to escape to freedom. Prosperous farmers, they lived at the estate of Oakdale, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972. A Pennsylvania state historical marker was dedicated in their honor on November 10, 2018.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "You Are Invited" (PDF). Chronicler. Greenback Historical Society (21): 1. October 1, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 "Community celebrates home's history". News-Herald. Lenoir City, Tennessee. August 3, 2009.
  4. 1 2 Durham, Walter T. The State of State History in Tennessee in 2008: The Underground Railroad in Tennessee to 1865 (PDF). Tennessee State Library and Archives. pp. 70, 78–79. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-14. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  5. "213 Newly Interpreted Markers Installed as of 6/9/11" (PDF). Tennessee Civil War Trails Program. Tennessee Civil War GIS Project. Retrieved February 23, 2014.