Although our nation continues to celebrate its 250th birthday (because as long as you have cake, it still counts as your birthday, right?), I have completed my effort to write about Revolutionary War soldiers’ ties to the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston rivers. I’ve enjoyed the process, but it’s time to return to something that excited me while I was in the midst of the other research.

You might remember that back on September 9, 2025, I wrote about how Fork physician Dr. Swancey W. Kennedy’s 1870s ledger mentioned a family member of Revolutionary War, veteran Francis Merriman.

Well, a couple of months after I was given that ledger, the McPherson estate shared with me more than 40 of Dr. S.W. Kennedy’s daily diaries. I was beyond thrilled! He wrote in them every single day, even if it was just to say that he stayed home that day and rested. Every day for more than 40 years. That’s about 14,600 entries of information about individuals of the Fork and their lives. Did I say I am excited?

Sometimes a doctor needs a doctor

At the end of many of the diaries, Swancey lists the babies who were born that year. My plan is to have the books scanned and put on microfilm and then use a transcription application to help record their contents before I donate them to the Knox County Library’s McClung Collection at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville. I look forward to sharing tidbits of Fork information along the way.

Born in 1844 to Mary Ann (Blake) and Samuel Kennedy, young Swancey married Mary E. Plumlee (1849-1898) in 1868, just three years after the Civil War ended. He graduated in 1870 from Bellevue Medical College in New York and then began his medical practice in the Fork, where his service to the community ended only a year before his death in 1923. Swancey and Mary had six children who married into the nearby Vance, Wayland and Blake families, and most of them are buried in what is known today as the Old Salem Cemetery on Wayland Road.

Active in late 1800s Fork politics and civic work, Dr. S.W. Kennedy was frequently in the news. Among his roles was that of school commissioner for his district. At a glance, I’ve already seen reference to this responsibility in his diaries.

Swancey and Mary’s home and his office were on the southwest corner of the intersection of Flint Gap and Wayland roads. This information was confirmed for me just a few months ago when Swancey’s relative Bruce Kennedy and daughter Dione rode around with me in the Fork as Bruce pointed out who and what was where and shared memories from throughout his 99 years of life. Bruce has been a life-long pillar of our mutual home church Mt. Harmony Baptist, but he was also my dear friend who helped me, not only with the church history, but also with Fork history in general.

He passed away on July 2, 2026. His obituary is here. My heartfelt condolences to his daughters and all who loved him.

Jan with Bruce Kennedy at the Fork exhibit’s opening

Bruce’s father owned an early store in the Moshina community of the Fork, and as a young man, Bruce delivered groceries and goods throughout the nearby neighborhoods back when automobiles were scarce. He once told me how my dad would stop by and get just a dollar’s worth of gas in order to go visit my mother while they were courting during World War II. Bruce has told me so many interesting tidbits over the years. When I was a teen doing research for a high school class, he’s the one who told me about the community’s Kangaroo Post Office “jingle.” They teased, “Kangaroo boys deliver the news; Briartown boys don’t wear any shoes!” Bruce was one of my special guests when we opened the permanent exhibit of Fork history at Historic Ramsey House. I had called to speak with him just a couple of days before he passed. I already miss him.

Between these two Kennedy men and what they’ve left behind, lots of local history will 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.

Enjoyed this article? Read more of Jan Loveday Dickens’s stories about the people, places, and history that make the Fork community unique.

Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook,   Instagram, X, and LinkedIn. Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our free newsletter. Comments may be sent to news@knoxtntoday.com.