As the weeks progress, we continue moving toward our nation’s semiquincentennial by focusing on the related contributions and connections of folks of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston rivers.

Last week, we began to look at the military profile of Jesse Perry, who served in the Snow Campaign of the Revolutionary War during the winter of 1775-76. Today, we continue his story to learn how he connects to the old log cabin that was on the little farm where I grew up in the heart of the Fork.

Though he and his Patriot comrades were allowed to go home after walking miles and miles through two feet of snow, Perry served in the Patriot militia a few more times for typical three-month terms.

Jesse spent weeks on the Broad River, collecting and destroying water vessels to keep the Loyalists (“Tories”) from using them, and he also was among the 40 men who sought and defeated Loyalist forces on the Reedy River. He was in multiple skirmishes at Augusta, Georgia, until the British fled toward Savannah. Additionally, he served to keep the Loyalists from gaining ground in the country above Charleston, and then again on the Congaree River in April of 1780 at Monck’s Corner, where the Patriots were defeated by Loyalists that included General Patrick Ferguson.

WWI post cards from James Perry to his parents

A few days after eventually being discharged and returning home, he moved his wife three miles to her mother’s, believing that he could no longer live in security or peace at his house because of the constant raids by the Tories.

He then joined the American Army in a company of horsemen commanded by Captain John Cook on the Congaree and remained as a volunteer for about one year. During this time, he was in the 1781 skirmish at Juniper Spring and helped to disperse the Tories and suppress the outrages of the British until hostilities had decreased to the point that the armies were no longer necessary. Still, after he left the army and was at home, he was taken prisoner by a company of Tories and sent to Camden, where he was eventually paroled. Continuing to fear for the lives of his family because of his war involvement, he left them in safety and stayed with friends about 20 miles above King’s Mountain until the war was over.

After first relocating to lands along the Duck River, Jesse and his wife, Margaret, moved in about 1812 to the Fork, where their children married and began families nearby.

Jesse was living with Lewis Perry when he submitted his pension application at age 77. He was awarded $80 a year for his service, which totaled two years. Jesse died on December 31, 1845, at the age of 90. Though he has no grave marker, he is believed to be buried at Lebanon-in-the Fork.

His obituary in the Knoxville Standard stated: “he always maintained the character of an honest man, a quiet and unoffensive citizen and a good patriot. …” His wife, Margaret Elizabeth, died less than a year later.

Jesse and Margaret’s great-great-grandson Nathaniel Edward Perry (1872-1940) had owned the cabin on the little farm where I grew up. During WWI, Nathan’s son James Wesley Perry enlisted in Company A of the 46th infantry in 1918. In the attic of the old log house on our property, my brother Kenny found the post cards written back and forth between James and his parents. After my parents passed away, we sold the property to our maternal cousin Darrel Kitts, who we discovered is a descendant of Jesse Perry through his mother’s lineage.

May these Perry contributions to our nation’s history not be forgotten in the Fork.

Jan Loveday Dickens is an educator, historian, and author of Forgotten in the Fork, a book about the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers, obtainable by emailing ForgottenInTheFork@gmail.com.

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