As we continue to move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I’m still focusing on elements of 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.

In 1776, James and Gideon Cruze (Cruse/Crews/Cruis) enlisted as privates in Captain Thomas Patterson’s company in Buckingham County, Virginia, with Colonel Hendrick’s 6th Regiment. After one year, they served in Colonel Morgan’s regiment for another year. During their two years of service, they were in the battles of Bemis Heights and Edge Hill, as well as both battles at Saratoga, and lots of skirmishes. According to the pension application of John Bayliss (Bayless), James was also at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, although he was probably a militiaman at that time.

James first applied for a pension on June 4, 1818, in Knox County and was approved, based on his physical infirmities. He was joined in the application process on July 19, 1819, by his older brother Gideon, who had basically served the same terms with him and lived in Knox County as well. Their names were spelled as “Crews” on their applications, which were signed with an “x,” but family stories tell that when James learned to read and write, he accidentally turned his “s” backward in “Cruse,” making it look like a “z,” and thus the name became “Cruze.”

At age 73 in 1829, James had to reapply for a pension, based on need. At that time, veterans often listed their property in order to demonstrate their financial situation. On his farm, which he was no longer able to competently work because of his age and pains, he and his wife had “two cows and calves,” along with seven head of sheep, one yoke of oxen, one horse, one mare and colt, two sows and thirteen shoats. His wife was still able to work, as might be expected for a woman aged 60. His older sister lived with them, but she was unable to contribute to her own support. Living with Gideon and his wife were two grandchildren and two daughters, who were able to support themselves.

James and Gideon had been discharged at Valley Forge but had no proof of their service; however, good neighbor John Childress came forward to vouch for them, telling how the two had stopped by the Childress home in Virginia on their way back from battle.

Gideon died in 1824, and James died on March 6, 1841. Although the Cruze family lines originally lived across the river in South Knox County, some migrated to the lands between the French Broad and Holston, where several are interred at Asbury Cemetery and elsewhere. A commemorative marker for James “Crews” is in the Cruze family South Knoxville cemetery, where generations of the family were buried. A part of the early Cruze landholdings is now known as Baker’s Creek Preserve.

James’ will lists his children as William, Robert, John, Gideon, Archibald, Betsy, and Nancy (who was married to a Bayless), as well as Ellison and Walter, who had already passed. Among the livestock James left to his loved ones were cows. Sadly, grave markers were damaged during a more modern period when the Cruze Cemetery was fenced and used as a holding pen for newborn calves.

The Cruze family cemetery in South Knox County

Of course, most country folks during the Revolution, as well as in the 1800s, probably had at least one cow, but I mention these details because of the Cruze family’s dairy farm and their ice cream and pizza businesses that are now thriving in the Fork. The Forks of the River Industrial Park acreage was once a mecca of pastureland and processing plants for multiple dairies. The Cruze name is well known for its wonderful products, but the service of James and Gideon Cruze has largely been 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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