As we continue to move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I’m still focusing on elements of the Revolutionary War effort of attaining independence and the related contributions and connections of families of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers.
One thing leads to another. Helma Jane Fawver’s comment on my Facebook post about the Edmondson family I was researching led to a delightful exchange of information, and here we are.
I’ve known for quite a while that the Sherrod family has had deep roots along the Holston River, but I really didn’t know much about their history. However, while standing at the grave of Alexander McMillan in the Old Caledonia Cemetery off Ruggles Ferry Pike, I wondered why I hadn’t come across a Revolutionary War veteran for them. Enter Conrad Sherrod.
Old Caledonia Cemetery, where early Sherrods in the Fork were buried in the 1870s
But let’s back up a bit. According to James Andrew Sherrod’s 1984 864-page tome of family history, Arnholtz and Catherina Scherertz left the western part of Germany back when it was Prussia and came to America about 1754 on the ship Neptune. After landing on the shores of Pennsylvania, the family eventually settled in York County, where they built a combination grist/saw mill and a fulling mill that was used to process linen. Amazingly, the grist mill still stands!
Arnholtz and Catherina’s son Conrad, as well as other sons, served during the Revolutionary War in Pennsylvania. Conrad was Captain of the 3rd Company of the 7th Battalion of the York County militia, and he continued in this position even after the war until 1785. The militia scouted the area and provided protection for the area citizens. Conrad apparently was married twice, first to Mary Margaret Laird, then to Anna Owens, who was his wife by the time he had moved his family down into Tennessee. Records for the family appear in Sullivan and Washington counties during the early 1800s, but by 1819, a few of their children (Conrad Jr., his wife Mary Ann DeVault, and his brothers Henry and John) and their families were in Knox County. Many were Lutherans, and their lands constituted the areas we now know as Millertown, Ellistown, and lands along Flat Creek on the northern side of the Holston.
I love the fact that Isaac Sherrod recorded the Conrad name as “Coon Royd” and that stories were told and poems were written about his legendary mischief! The family’s German language and accent continued into the next generation, until their children began to intermingle with and learn better English from other children. By this time, the surname, too, had transitioned from Scherertz and several variations to Sherrod. Another Sherrod line came from North Carolina at the same time that Conrad Sr.’s children settled in Knox County, and speculation suggests that they were familiar with a mutual ancestor.
Will and Sarah White with their children (left to right) George, Paul, Ralph, Eunice, John, Mark (in Sarah’s arms), Helma Lee, Will, and Nell
More than 300 pages into the family history, I find where Henry Sherrod’s descendant Sarah marries William Andrew White in 1900. These are Conrad Sherrod Jr.’s lines who crossed the river by the mid-1850s and settled along the Holston’s southern bank in the Fork, primarily in the area of Ruggles Ferry Pike. Will’s parents, George and Annie Elizabeth (Drummer) first had a log home behind where they later built a stately two-story frame house, which still stands on Ruggles Ferry Pike.
William and Sarah’s daughter Eunice (1901-1964) married Porter Hollis Fawver (1899-1994). He was the son of John Porter Fawver (originally Fauber or LaFarve and variations), a descendant from another German family from Pennsylvania. The Fawver family came to East Tennessee via Virginia in the mid 1800s and were soon living between the French Broad and Holston rivers, where many of their descendants remain today. A creek crossing under Asheville Highway still bears the family name, but some lines ended up in the Marbledale area of the Fork, where a road is named for them.
John Porter Fawver (1873-1950) and his wife Martha Cathern Charlotte (Kelly) built their home and had a store near the Holston River off Asheville Highway, close to St. Paul Methodist, which was pretty much a family chapel for some branches of the White family and others. The Fawvers were founding members of Mt. Carmel Baptist nearby. However, many generations of these lines are buried at Caledonia (and Old Caledonia) Presbyterian Cemetery.
How proud old Conrad Sherrod Sr. would be of all his descendants, who, through meticulous research, have not allowed his Revolutionary War service to 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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