As mentioned in my January 28 article, James Kennedy was the brother-in-law of John Campbell, from whom he bought the McNutt/ Campbell/ Kennedy house after the Civil War. James was the son of the Rev. James Kennedy, the Seceder Presbyterian minister who built the church that once stood beside what is now called Old Salem Cemetery at the end of Wayland Road next to the French Broad River in the Fork.
According to the research of William L. Fisk in his article “The Seceders: The Scottish High Church Tradition in America,” the Associate Reformed (Seceder) Presbyterians’ allegiance basically was to the church leadership in Scotland, not any synod here in the United States. They also believed themselves above the government, declaring no loyalty to the British crown nor to the American Patriots during the Revolutionary War. Taking a firm stance against slavery, they believed they could offer refuge to escaped enslaved persons and ignore the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Many believed that Deuteronomy 23:15-16 was a higher authority.

Old Salem Cemetery
The Rev. James Kennedy bought land from Alexander McMillan at Riverdale in 1805. As early as 1807, he was pastor of Salem Seceder, which originated on the south side of the French Broad off Kimberlin Heights Road in 1800 under the Rev. James Spencer Mills. Kennedy died in 1826, holding 444 acres in the Fork. The Rev. Kennedy’s son James built “New Salem Seceder Presbyterian” at the end of Wayland in 1854, the year after the death of his mother Mary (Smith). Although it disappeared from Seceder rolls in 1879, the building continued to be used for funerals until about 1920. At some point, a church for Black congregants was also built there, and it stood until the late 1800s. Elderly locals recalled services held there and told me of remnants of the foundation stones, but I can’t find them. However, newspaper articles verify its existence. The “Old” Salem Cemetery holds the graves of many Kennedys, as well as those of their Black neighbors.

F.D. Frazier meal bag
The younger James Kennedy also built what is now called Riverdale Mill on Campbell Branch in the 1850s and ran a post office from his home at the end of Wayland before he bought the Campbell place across the lane to Bowman/ McBee/ Hodges ferry. The gristmill has also been associated with the Pickel, Rutherford, Swaggerty, Atchley, Kreis, Terry, Frazier and Hankins families over the decades. The current concrete dam was replaced by the Kreis family in 1916, and in 1921 they sold the mill to F.D. Frazier, who operated it with his son Fred until his death in 1947. Charles Hankins bought the mill in 1953, then sold it to William Moorefield in 1976. Jean McCoy bought and restored it to operation in 1983, but it has since been renovated into a private residence.
Other mills forgotten in the Fork, include Cates’ mills on Limestone Creek (one in Thorn Grove), Carter’s mill on Lyon’s Creek, and the Bowman/ Peters mill on Tuckahoe Creek at Kodak Road, where a portion of the dam can still be seen.
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.
Am enjoying your articles about the forks. Thank you!
I appreciate your interest! Just let me know if you are interested in my book about the history of the Fork, the lands between the French Broad and Holston rivers, all the way to the Jefferson and Sevier County lines.