The Stephen Holston Chapter of the Tennessee Society Sons of the American Revolution (TNSSAR) will be holding a patriot grave-marking and wreath-laying ceremony on Saturday, September 28, 10 a.m. at the Berry-Lynnhurst Cemetery, 2300 Adair Drive, Knoxville.
The ceremony is honoring patriots John Adair and Edward Smith, both of whom were early settlers of Knox County following the Revolutionary War. Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs has issued a proclamation naming September 28, 2024, as Patriot John Adair & Patriot Edward Smith Day in Knox County. Mayor Jacobs will present this proclamation at the event this Saturday. In the event of rain, the ceremony will move indoors at the Berry-Lynnhurst Funeral Home, which is across the street from the burial sites of the patriots.
This is historic, especially as we have just celebrated the 244th anniversary of the gathering at Sycamore Shoals in Elizabethtown, and as we approach the anniversary of British Major Ferguson’s defeat at the Battle of Kings Mountain, which Thomas Jefferson called “the turning of the tide of the American Revolution.” Many historians agree that were it not for the provision of funds by John Adair to John Sevier and Isaac Shelby this battle would not have been possible.