The New Deal and Union County
In his The Coming of the New Deal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., points out that "In the months after Roosevelt's inauquration, Congress and the country were subjected to a residential barrage of ideas and programs unlike anything known to American history." On adjournment on June 15, 1933, the President and the 73rd Congress left a record of 11fourteen programs to be facilitated in the first hundred days of the New Deal. The acts were to affect the lives of many in the Tennesee Valley as well as the nation. Perhaps the most important act was the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
Even though Senator George Norris assumed the responsibility of lobbying for a bill to have the Tennessee Basin developed, he was surprised when the newly inaugurated president invited him to the White House to discuss the bill. After the meeting Norris was elated to announce that the president had plans for development of the Tennessee Valley far more outstanding than his own.
With the stroke of a pen, the bill creating the Tennessee Valley Authority was signed on May 18, 1933, and the authority would serve the Tennessee Valley with power, industry, fertilizer and jobs. Creation of the agency was a total new concept of the region. Senator Norris was honored to have the bill, the lake, the town of Norris, and the first dam in the valley to be named for him.
Cove Creek in Anderson County was chosen for the first TVA dam. In all, a total of 152,000 acres would be required for the lake basin representing 1,262 tracts in Union County inclusive of 323 tracts in the Loyston community. (7) Little established precedent was available for directing the program of removing families and personal property from the basin. There were 2,890 rural families affected (991 from Union County), most of whom had lived in the valley for generations. Tremendous difficulties lay ahead in locating suitable sites for new homes and farms for this number. TVA worked with the University of Tennessee Extension Service and other agencies in East Tennessee to aid families in relocating. The agency paid between $10 to $300 and more at an average moving cost of $85 per family in the relocation process totaling $241,000.
The dead as well as the living were removed from the Norris Basin. The relocation of 5,226 graves in communities would entail disinterment and reinterment at new locations.* Many of the graves were unmarked and dated back to 1800. To aid in the grave relocation project, five memorial cemeteries were established for reinterment which provided plots for 84 percent of the total, while a number of private and church cemeteries provided plots for the remainder. Prior to the removal of any graves, a number was assigned to the affected cemetery and a survey made. On plates each grave was distinguished by a grave number with corresponding identification (name of the deceased, date of death, and age at death) taken from the headstone or next of kin. The reinterment cemetery was also surveyed (if one of the five memorial cemeteries were used), and detailed records were made of each reinterment plot including the date of the removal.
A map of the Norris Basin was drawn by TVA engineers, and each disinterment cemetery was plotted on the map. A brief description of the cemetery location and present owner of the plots were noted. A copy of all records pertaining to the grave removal project was given to the University of Tennessee Library and a copy retained by the TVA depository in Chattanooga. The Union County Historical Society obtained copies of these records for its files in 1980.
In District 4 surrounding Loyston, thirty-one cemeteries below pool level were removed, while eight cemeteries above pool level were also disinterred due to isolation once the lake filled.
Neither war, disease, famine, or the Depression of the 1930's affected the people in the Tennessee Valley as the TVA project did. Although the greatest majority accepted the fact that progress was being made in East Tennessee, they were being asked to make sacrifices for that progress. Many years would pass before families reconciled themselves in new communities, with new homes and new friends. Some families were happy to leave the communities where they had accumulated little wealth, while others such as a merchant at Clear Creek, became despondant regarding the move and hanged himself.
Months passed as frantic efforts were made for the relocation,
and on October 14, 1934, hundreds of families gathered at the new Loyston
School to say goodby in what has been termed the "Last Roundup." Two years
later, on May 4, 1936, the flood gates closed, and within a few months an
estimated 34,000 acres were covered by water. William H. Thomas who witnessed
the acquisition and flooding was always nostalgic and reminiscent and expressed
his feelings in 1963 regarding the matter when he wrote:
"When Big Valley became the bed of Norris Lake in 1935, a beautiful area rich in literary and historic lore disappeared, and, like fabled Atlantis, westward of the Pillars of Hercules, will haunt generations yet unborn with wonderment about the brave and virtuous pioneers who came there to carve a civilization from the wilderness, and questions will doubtless arise as to offsprings of these pioneers who were dispersed in the sad exodus. This region was, to many, a new Eden and the veritable dimple of the universe. The valley, its inhabitants and the drama of their removal might some day inspire an epic poem comparable to Longfellow's "Evangeline."
Although much has been discussed and recorded regarding adult problems in relocation of farmers, manufacturers, churches, and schools from the lake basin, few comments describe the plight of the young. An excerpt from a poem, "Two Lovers", from Echoes of the Tennessee Valley, written by Rev. Leonard White in 1939, characterizes their situation.
I spied two lovers the other day,
As they stood upon the street,
With sad expressions upon their face
As they restlessly shuffeled their feet.
The girl was fair and beautiful
Tho not very finely clad.
She wore tan hose with a skirt of blue
And a countenance that was very sad.
"The time has come that we must part
With you I cannot stay."
With a little checkered handkerchief in her left hand,
She brushed the tears away.
He tried in vain to console her,
His love was as clear as the day.
But the little checkered handkerchief in her left hand,
Still brushed the tears away.
This couple to me is entirely unknown.
I heard nothing they did say.
The story was told by the little handkerchief,
As it brushed the tears away.
* The Museum and Library in Maynardville has a complete list of graves that were moved for the Norris Project by TVA. The also maintain a number of TVA Cemetery Maps.
For more information on this article or any article or publication of the Union County Historical Society please write them at:
Union County Historical Society
P.O. Box 95
Maynardville, TN 37807
Or
E-mail the Union County Historical
Society.
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