JAMES WHITE’S FORT
James White, The Founder of Knoxville, came here in 1783 from North Carolina. Having served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War he was given a land grant of 1,000 acres for his service and here he built his two story log house in 1786. Two years later he enclosed the house and outbuildings with a stockade fence for protection from marauding Indians and the wild animals. James White was a friend to the Cherokee Indians and he assisted in the negotiation of several of their treaties with the settlers. The area surrounding the Fort would have been cleared of trees and in their place were gardens along with orchards and fields of corn and tobacco mostly for White’s family and slaves use. In October 1791, James White laid off part of his land to establish the town of Knoxville, named for Henry Knox, Secretary of War under President Washington’s. The town at first was the Capital of the Territory South of the River Ohio and later became the first Capital of the State of Tennessee in 1796.
Phone: 865-525-6514 Tours: (April – November) Monday – Saturday: 9:30 am–5 pm (last tour at 4 pm).
(December – March) Monday – Friday: 10 am–4 pm (last tour at 3 pm) Website: www.jameswhitesfort.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JamesWhitesFort