As we continue to move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial and consider elements of the Revolutionary War effort of attaining independence, I’m focusing on the related contributions and connections of families of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers.

According to his 27-page pension records, Edmund Newman was born September 6, 1763, in Shenandoah County, Virginia, where he continued to live throughout the war. Unfortunately, the 91-page file also contains papers for a Sergeant Edmund Newman of Prince William County, Virginia, but later Hancock County, Kentucky, as well as that Edmund’s wife Mary’s application to receive her husband’s pension after he died in 1850. However, our Edmund was 69 years old when he applied for his pension in 1832, and he lived a nice long life in the Fork. Samuel Bowman and James Newman vouched for his integrity and truthfulness. John and Jesse Newman also verified his story of service in 1855, when Edmund was 90. Joseph Plumlee, a Justice of the Peace in the Fork confirmed Edmund’s identity.

How did Edmund serve? In February 1781, our Edmund was drafted into the service for a two-month term as a private under Captain John Brown, who later became Colonel of that militia. Their assignment was to guard prisoners, British regulars and Tories who had been taken in the South by General Morgan, and to march them to the northwest of Winchester. They moved the prisoners to be guarded by another company as Edmund’s term was ending.

However, just a few months later that year, he was drafted again for another two months. His company marched toward Fredericksburg, where they passed a church with 50 or 60 wounded men lying around. It was a disturbing sight. Edmund’s company was joined to the main army and marched to the James River, about 18 miles below Richmond. After encampment, they marched through Newcastle to Sandy Point. He was discharged after three months instead of two, because they didn’t start counting his service until he was included in the main army. In November of 1781, Henry Bowman, who also lived in Shenandoah County, was drafted for two months but had a large family he didn’t want to leave, so he paid Edmund Newman to serve in his place.

For that tour, Edmund was enrolled in Captain Darby Downey’s company and they guarded British prisoners at Winchester. After that term ended, he was drafted again in the summer of 1782 under Captain James Simmerill and Lieutenant Patrick Shannon to guard 2,600 British prisoners, after which he was discharged. He served a total of eight months.

According to the family history shared by John P. Newman in 1951, Edmund (Edmond) and his wife arrived with his parents and uncle at the Fork in 1787. John said that Edmond’s father, Jimmy, and uncle Jessie (twin brothers) had heard about this beautiful and bountiful area from Jeremiah Jack as they traveled near the Nolichucky River after the war. They soon went by horse through Dumplin Valley and down to Seven Islands and found the picturesque little valley near Tuckahoe Creek. When they were ready to move, they traveled by canoes with everything they owned and came down the Holston to the confluence with the French Broad. By that time, Jeremiah Jack had descended the river and made his home on the French Broad. Reencountering him, they left their wives and goods at his home and took their canoes up the French Broad, where they staked their claims, returned with their family and belongings, built a home, and resided the rest of their lives.

Probably most anyone today who visits Seven Islands State Birding Park is familiar with Edmond’s descendant James Newman (1849-1931), the steamboat captain of the Lucille Borden and the Star, which plied the waters of the French Broad with goods and passengers aboard. Through James and Martha (Atchley) Newman’s descendants who still live on Edmond’s lands or have scattered between the rivers, his legacy is not to be forgotten in the Fork.

Storyboard about the Newmans at 7 Islands State Birding Park

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.

Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook and Instagram.   Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our Free Newsletter.