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- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 11 Dec 2008.
New beginnings
By Linda Braden Albert
One of Blount County's oldest landmarks is now the focus of a restoration effort intended to bring it back to life.
A group of about 10 volunteers began clearing brush and trees that had encroached on the old Martin Mansion, also known as the Martin Mill House or the Warner Martin House, Dec. 5. Neil Goddard, owner of Goddard's Tree Service, volunteered his time and equipment to remove the trees.
Ken Cornett, chairman of the board for the Blount County Historical Museum and president of the Blount County Genealogical and Historical Society, said the Martin Mansion is the county's first wood-frame house. It was built by Warner Martin beginning in 1793.
"It equates to the Blount Mansion in Knox County," Cornett said. "It was built about the same time. Rumor has it that Warner also sawed the lumber for Blount Mansion."
Began with a fort
Cornett's research indicates that Warner Martin first visited the area that is now part of the Wildwood community of Blount County in the early 1780s on a military assignment to chase the Cherokee Indians back south of the Chilhowee Mountains. He came here from Fairfax, Va., where he was a neighbor and friend of George Washington. It was on this expedition that Martin chanced upon the clear, fast-flowing springs and knoll above Nails Creek, an ideal site for a home. In the custom of frontier days, he marked the site with a "skin," or animal hide, possibly from a deer, stretched to a tree to lay claim to the site.
Martin built a small fort, called Martin's Station, on the property where he lived with his wife, Martha Baily Martin, and their children near several other families who moved to the area with them from Alabama. The basement of the fort had several tunnels running to the spring and to Nails Creek, affording some safety if the settlers were caught away from its protection during an Indian attack, plus offering a way to obtain water if they were besieged.
Martin applied for a license to build a public mill for grounding flour and a sawmill for lumber. The road to the mill from Knoxville is Martin Mill Pike. Cornett said the slash-type sawmill gave Martin a way to cut the boards for his "mansion," where prior to that the dwellings were of logs.
Martin is believed to have finished the first part of the home in about 1793, with the two-story building being completed by 1800. It was built on top of the original fort.
The timbers in the Martin Mansion were slash-sawed from heart of pine found on the property. Susan Jones, chair-elect for the Blount County Historical Museum, Thompson-Brown House liaison for the Blount County Historic Trust and past president of the Historic Trust, said, "The heart of pine boards inside the house are 12 to 14 inches wide. The trees must have been massive."
Historical significance
The Martin Mansion is historically significant because of its construction and also for the "firsts" that took place there.
"It was the first fort, the first mill, the first school and the first polling place in Blount County," Cornett said.
The house, owned by the Mark and Nina DeLozier Family, is on the National Register of Historic Places but has been unoccupied for about 20 years. The most immediate, pressing need is for new tin to replace the dilapidated roof, Jones said. Anyone who would like to help in the effort may contact her or send donations to the Blount County Historic Trust.
The original deed to the property, which was, ironically, obtained by Warner Martin 20 years after the house was built, was signed by his friend, Tennessee Governor John Sevier, and dated 1809. It has been donated to the Blount County Historical Museum by the DeLozier Family.
- [S52] Miller Funeral Home, (http://www.millerfuneralhome.org), 5 Oct 1982.
DeLozier, Mark Keener 8-29-1905 10-5-1982 William Hampton DeLozier Effa Hayes Keener Logan's Chapel
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