As we continue to move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I’m still sharing about 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.
Many of us often travel his lands, whether we are driving along Gov. John Sevier Highway from Strawberry Plains Pike toward Asheville Highway or crossing the Asheville Highway or I-40 bridges over the Holston River. He owned most of that river bottom acreage. His name was Robert Armstrong, same as his father.
Portion of 1895 Knox County map showing Armstrong lands, island, mill, and school (Ruggles Ferry at top)
Although I personally can’t find a confirming primary source, Bobby Gilmer Moss’s book, Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution, states that Robert Armstrong II was born in 1731 in Ireland and served as a First Lieutenant in South Carolina’s First Regiment. It was organized in the summer of 1775 and was adopted that fall into the Continental Army. It was assigned to the First South Carolina Brigade the following fall and was reported at one time to be part of “Swamp Fox” Francis Marion’s brigade. Marion was known for his guerrilla warfare of surprise attacks and sudden withdrawals against Tories loyal to the crown.
Revolutionary War records list several men by the name of Robert Armstrong. Our Robert Armstrong II should not be confused with the North Carolina Robert Armstrong, who married Nancy Green and later moved to Illinois and whose records are plentiful. Our Robert married Margaret Cunningham in 1767, lived in Washington County in 1784 but moved in 1787 to the Fork, where he owned most of the land along the Holston River from near Strawberry Plains Pike all the way to the vicinity of the Asheville Highway Bridge. His holdings also included an island along that stretch of the river.
The diligent research of Armstrong family historians Zella Armstrong and Tommye Jordan shows that Robert Armstrong II and several of his descendants were surveyors and held other official positions. Much of their work is reflected in the voluminous Grace Armstrong Coile collection of family memorabilia and records, which contains approximately 9,580 items and is housed at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville, where I’ve perused a lot of it. The collection is described as “remarkable for its scope and depth.” I agree.
The collection includes significant records of Robert II’s son, also named Robert. Robert Armstrong III had multiple terms of military service that are well documented. He served in the mounted infantry in the Knox County Regiment of the Hamilton District Militia for the Territory South of the Ohio (the “Southwest Territory”) commanded by James White, among others, “for the protection of the frontiers,” 1792-94.
Fork progenitors Margaret and Robert II were faithful members of Lebanon-in-the-Fork Presbyterian Church, where their offspring continued to hold leadership positions. However, the family cemetery is located beside the Holston River on “Summit Hill,” where John Sevier Highway cuts through right beside it. Robert II died in 1796, but Margaret lived to be 92 in 1837.
The Armstrongs of the Fork have been a prosperous and prolific family, with many members of subsequent generations still living on Robert II’s original lands. Their properties have included a school, a mill, and a ferry, known to more recent residents as Ruggles Ferry, renamed when an Armstrong daughter married a Ruggles. Later, near the ferry site was the River Breeze Drive-In, where many of us have treasured memories from the Holston River bottom land next to Robert II’s son Moses Armstrong’s two-story brick home built in the early 1800s. It still stands.
The Robert Armstrong II family’s contributions to our nation’s development continue to be celebrated by descendants and are not 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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