Slaves in Union County
During the decade preceding the Civil War, Union County became an independent county. The boundary lines were established and litigation terminated. County law-makers divided the county into 10 civil districts, levied taxes, and appointed revenue commissioners in each district to collect taxese From those tax records, we learn there were a total of 105 slaves in the county in 1854. Land owners in District No. 8, including Loy's Cross Roads, had 16 slaves that year. The Sharps owned the greatest number. William had four, Alfred two, Caswell and Hamilton one each. The Loys owned five slaves, Jacob had three, William and Nancy one each. District No. 2 with its center at Pinhook Store in HickoryValley, consisted of lands running east and west along Hickory Valley, north and south along Island Ford Road, including much land on both sides of the Clinch River, and land in Little Valley because of the large holdings of Jesse Alec Butcher Sr. In this district the total land acres were 8,399 valued at $32,450.00. Living within the boundary of the district were 75 white families and 16 slaves. The slaves belonged to families named Buckner, Huddleston, Kincaid, Cox, Hurst, McCrary, and Smith. The sixteen slaves for tax purposes were valued at $9,050.00. The total slave population in Union County in 1854 was valued at $56,660.00. The county land mass of 97,117 acres was valued at $385,852. With the exception of District No. 7 where no slaves were recorded, District No. 1 had 14 slaves, District No. 5, fourteen, District No. 10, twelve, District No. 3, eight, District No. 4, eight, District No. 6, eight, and District No. 9, nine. John Chesney and Jacob Miller in District No. 1 had five slaves each. One of those belonging to John Chesney was Pharoah Chesney whom it is said lived to the ripe old age of 120. Pharoah "Ferry" Chesney was born in Clarksville in Meclenberg County, Virginia. In his youth he was sold to Johnathan Jackson a planter for $1,000. Jackson's son, Corban, a stock dealer, settled in Grainger County, Tennessee in 1825. At his father's death he sold Ferry to John Chesney for $451. Chesney lived on Bull Run Creek in the Luttrell area of Union County where he farmed, ran a grist mill and distillery. At the close of the Civil War, Chesney gave Ferry 150 acres on Copper Ridge between Condon and Maynardville where Ferry and his family lived until his death in 1905. Three years before Ferry's demise, Professor John C. Webster of Morgan County, Tennessee compiled a book Pharoah--Last of the Pioneers, in which he recorded his interviews with the former slave. Ferry recalled the hard winter of 1815-16 following the explosion of the Indonesian's Tambora volcano in 1815. "There were so many frosty nights the following June in Canada and the United States that people called it the "Year Without a Summer" (Time Magazine June 5, 1982). That April, Ferry recalled, snow was six feet deep in the Shenanodona Valley. During the month of May little snow melted. In June the snow melted leaving the ground frozen and soon more snow fell. Independence Day that year was celebrated inside due to the cold weather, Ferry said. Corn tassaled in August and was fit only for animal feed, and flour increased to the unheard of price of $17 a barrel. Ferry remembered seeing President George Washington in Virginia and was present for a debate between James K. Polk and "Lean" Jimmy Jones at Blain's Cross Roads in Grainger County, Tennessee in 1841e The most trying time for "souls of poor ignorant mortals" that Ferry could remember was the great shower of falling stars that took place in 1833. At night he recalled the heavens resembled a snowstorm. "This phenomenon was the Leonid meteor shower which seemed to proceed from the constellation Leo Major, occurring with marked intensity" (Columbia Encyclopedia). Although Ferry spent most of his life on "Rebel ground," (the Chesneys were Confederates) he did not want to be buried on soil that supported the South in the Civil War. At his death in 1905 Ferry was buried on property belonging to Houston Wyrick who had supported the Union. 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
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In 1990, the Tennessee Historical Commission promoted
the installation of state highway markers commerating outstanding blacks
in the state. Samuel Smith's name and his contribution to the community was
submitted to the commission by the compiler and a state highway marker was
approved.