Rogersville Review 

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History of Red Bridge Tavern, Near Mooresburg is a Romantic One

At the turn of the 18th century the tavern was in its hey day, but let the story unfold itself.

Hugh G. Moore, on of the three brothers who came to the new world from Scotland in the year 1774, settled in a place in Virginia which afterwards became known as Mooresboro. Another brother settled in North Carolina and later a county, Moore county, was named after him. Hugh G. Moore settled at Mooresburg and entered seven hundred acres of land including the famous Red Bridge farms. It was here Hugh Moore erected a house for his son Cleon Moore, which later became known as Red Bridge Tavern.

Red Bridge was famous as a stage coach tavern. It was here the horses were changed and weary guests partook of the hospitality of the place. No doubt the rafters rang with the loud laughter of hearty coach drivers and perhaps as evening shadows fell the soft mellow strains of violins and the light dancing of the minuet were heard.

The sight of the tavern was a beautiful spot, overlooking the river as it did and the spacious grounds spreading right down to the rivers edge. Because of the low level expanse of ground a race track was built which extended from the bridge to the mouth of Poor Valley Creek. The track was 3-4 mile in length.

The race track drew wealthy men and blue blooded horses from the states of Kentucky, Maryland and Virginia. The horse racers usually came for two months out of the year and held races during that time. They most always began the races in September.

Rogersville Review

26 November 1936

Sesqui-centennial Edition
 
 

An Interesting Old Document

We the undersigned subscribers promise to pay Hawkins Lodge No. 41, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the amounts severerally annexed to our names (all amounts under $20 to be paid by the first day of July, 1849) and all over in four semi-annual payments, the first payments to be made on the 1st day of July 1849, for the purpose of erecting a female academy with Odd Fellows hall and boarding house attached thereto, in the town of Rogersville, Tenn., to which payment we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators.
 
 

November 28, 1848
 
 

Names------------------------------------Amounts
 
 

Hawkins lodge No. 41 Independent

order of odd fellows---------------------$3000

Geo. W. Netherland-------------------------100

Benj. Looney-------------------------------100

Deery & Bros--------------------------------50

Samuel Neill, Sr.--------------------------100

Hu Walker----------------------------------150

D. Alexander-------------------------------150

Joshua Phipps------------------------------150

Louisa Phipps------------------------------100

Wm. Armstrong-------------------------------50

Mary E. Armstrong---------------------------50

David Lyons--------------------------------100

William Lyons-------------------------------50

Matilda C. Lyons----------------------------50

Mary E. Armstrong---------------------------50

C.C. Miller--------------------------------100

Juliet Miller------------------------------100

Barshabe Kyle------------------------------100

Eliza McKinney-----------------------------100

Mary E. McKinney---------------------------100

Susan C. Netherland------------------------100

Orville Rice-------------------------------100

Margaret H. Rice---------------------------100

Absalom D. Looney---------------------------50

Henry C. Armstrong--------------------------50

David Shaver, Sr.---------------------------25

Wm. Kinkead--------------------------------100

Matilda Rogers------------------------------50

Nancy Nugent--------------------------------10

Eliza C. Mitchell---------------------------50

Griffith Rogan-----------------------------100

James Hickman-------------------------------20

Mary G. Kyle--------------------------------50

Alice G. Fulkerson--------------------------20

S.D. Mitchell-------------------------------50

Alice G. Mitchell---------------------------50

Maria S. Wells------------------------------50

Susan E.V. Mills----------------------------50

Susan Mountcastle---------------------------25

John Aston----------------------------------25

James R. Forgey----------------------------100

Caroline E. Simpson-------------------------50

A.S. Gammon--------------------------------100

John Shields--------------------------------50

Jane Vance----------------------------------50

James H. Vance-----------------------------100

William Lynn-------------------------------100

Wall & Simpson-----------------------------100

Theodocia Ross------------------------------50

Rowena Ross---------------------------------50

Catherine A. Phipps-------------------------50

William P. Phipps---------------------------50

John Young----------------------------------50

Sarah Howard--------------------------------50

Nathan Wells---------------------------------5

Samuel Rhea--------------------------------100

Fred A. Ross-------------------------------100 

26 November 1936
 
 

Sesqui-centennial Edition
 
 

(Editors Note: The following clipping give a brief history of Yellow's Store. It was given us for this edition by Mrs. Mary Miller.)

Out in the country, about 12 miles from this city, there is a store which for 126 years has held its trade, despite the disadvantage of its location, by a type of advertising it has followed since long before advertising developed into a science. Its color and the capitalization of that color in its name have made the "Old Yellow Store" a historic landmark throughout Eastern Tennessee. For 126 years, every time this store has been repainted, it has been repainted yellow.

Captain De Wolfe Miller, an old merchant of the place, tells how his grandfather built a raft of logs and floated them down the river with his family to the present site of the Yellow Store. Impressed with the country, he decided to locate, ad entered twenty acres of government land. Soon he made larger entries until he owned a large body of land and the Yellow Store was built.

But in those days, he says, "there were but few things kept in a store. The people tanned the leather, and made their own shoes, and then got the raw cotton, spinning and weaving their own clothes. I was a grown man before I ever wore a suit of "store clothes". In those days the people led the simple life and their wants were nothing compared with what people these days feel they just must have. My grandfather ran a tanyard and a shoemaker was a part of the store force."

"My father succeeded his father, and later I came on and took charge of the farm and business. I can remember when we used to haul our merchandise from Baltimore. A wagon train was made up, consisting of half a dozen or a dozen teams, carrying country produce to that city and exchanging it for such commodities as couldn't be had in our country. We paid $6 in silver for every hundred pounds of freight brought back. These wagons were loaded with feathers, beeswax, tallow, hides, beans, dried fruits, ginseng, etc. The wagons would be started, and in a day or two a trusted man would follow on horseback to take care of the caravan and exchange the country products when the market was reached. This man in charge was for many years Wiley Woods, an uncle of Roy Woods, a member of the firm of Woods & Taylor, of Knoxville.

"When the old East Tennesee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad came through that, of course, did away with hauling our goods by wagons from Baltimore and we bought many goods in Knoxville as soon as this began to be a jobbing market.

I volunteered in the Confederate Army and fought hard until the close of the Civil War, when in 1868, I began business in the Yellow Store, which had never been vacant since it was built until two years ago, during the war, when the federal forces closed it. It was about the time I began business that the "drummers' as we called them then, started to visit the trade. They rode horseback and carried saddle bags. At first they had nothing but memorandum books, and while urging us to visit their firms would take down a few items. Gradually they got to carrying samples, which continued until now a merchant can stay at home and buy everything he wants, seeing the goods nearly as well as if in the jobber's house."

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