The Shipley-Bledsoe House
106 Woodrow Avenue
Circa 1840s
Overlooking Jonesborough stands the house that was once the home of
Dr. William R. Sevier who was a nephew of John Sevier, first Governor of Tennessee, and an early Jonesborough physician.Dr. Sevier was the son of Valentine Sevier of Greeneville "Red Fox" and Nancy Dinwiddie. His paternal grandparents were Robert Sevier, who died in the Battle of King's Mountain, and Kesiah Robertson, daughter of Charles Robertson "Black Charles."
In 1841 William R. Sevier came to Jonesborough, Tennessee to read medicine, and in 1844 he graduated from the Medical College of New York. At that time he joined Dr. Samuel Blair Cunningham in his medical practice in Jonesborough and married Dr. Cunningham’s daughter, Martha Ellen "Ella" Cunningham. They had a son, Samuel Dayton Sevier, in 1846, and in 1856 their daughter, Nannie Leila Sevier was born.
The property was purchased by Mr. Shelby Shipley in 1848, and was sold to Dr. Sevier in 1854, where it remained in the Sevier family until sold by Dr. Sevier's widow, Lucy Evans Sevier, in 1891.The Grand Dining Room
Originally the home had a Federal stoop with a second floor door over the foyer. In the 1880s-90s the existing front porch was added.
The home is now owned by Baxter and Tobie Bledsoe, where Dr. W.R. Sevier's shingle is on display in the formal dining room.
William Robertson Sevier Biography
Background design provided by: By The Sea Enterprises
