Discover Kingsport

10/01/2026

10/01/2026

What was the Reedy Creek Settlement that put us on the map? The Reedy Creek settlement was one of the earliest pioneer communities in present-day Tennessee, established in the 1770s along Reedy Creek just east of modern Kingsport. Settled by figures like Robert Samuel Brashears and later expanded by Thomas Fain—who built a prominent brick plantation home and store in the 1830s—the area became widely known as Arcadia. It became nationally know after the Chief Logan Massacre of the John Roberts Family. See facebook.com/share/p/1Chf1cJgUo/

Hal Spoden expounds :
​Reedy Creek, Reedy Creek Road, Bloomingdale Pike and Environs
​Hal T. Spoden
​REEDY CREEK ROAD or KENTUCKY ROAD
​The western section of the old Reedy Creek Road or old Kentucky Road in and near Kingsport is today called Bloomingdale Pike. The eastern section of the road retains the name, Reedy Creek Road. This historic road parallels US Highway 11W (Stone Drive) on the north for some distance east of Kingsport. Then it crosses 11W a number of times and finally travels​west of Interstate 81 for some distance into Virginia.

​Much of this old roadway follows the Great Indian Warrior Path, used by the Naive Americans in the early years and later by Indian traders, longhunters and pioneers traveling to settle the western wilderness.

​During the early 1770's many settlers made their homes along this road. In the year 1774, during Lord Dunmore's War when King's Mill Fort was located in the Reedy Creek Settlement, this famous road was used by wagons carrying supplies from the upper Holston River area to the settlements on the Clinch River.

​In 1777 the road was improved westward from the juncture of the old Wilderness Road (Wadlow Gap Road) and the present Bloomingdale Pike to Colonel Gilbert Christian's plantation at the mouth of Reedy Creek opposite the Long Island of the Holston in the heart of modern Kingsport. This would become Christianville in 1802.

​From 1775 the road became a main route west to the regions of Middle Tennessee and Kentucky, and was known interchangeably as the Kentucky Road and the Reedy Creek Road.

For a short period of time, in the early nineteenth century, the western sector near Kingsport was frequently called Ross's Furnace Road.

​The buildings and homes still standing along this historic road.

Before being call Arcadia, the Reedy Creek Settlement was an early 1770s frontier community in Sullivan County, Tennessee.

• History and Origins
Early Establishment: Formed around 1772–1773, it stood as one of the earliest colonial settlements in present-day Tennessee.
•Key Figures:
Pioneer settler Colonel Gilbert Christian established his "Walnut Hill" plantation near the mouth of Reedy Creek in 1775, which later contributed to the founding of Christianville and early Kingsport.
• Routes and Expansion:
Daniel Boone’s Wilderness Road and the ancient Great Indian Warrior Path (later Reedy Creek Road) ran through or near the settlement area.
• Evolution:
The area later became known as Arcadia, featuring historic locations like the mid-19th-century Thomas Fain Plantation (Arcadia mansion), which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Reedy Creek Settlement is yet another jewel in the history of Kingsport.


image from DiscoverKingsport com

08/02/2026

The Flood March 1867 "​The late disastrous flood in East Tennessee, by which so much property was destroyed, and in some places many lives lost, when all the facts are known, will disclose some noble deeds of heroic daring in persons saving the lives and property of others. The Jonesboro Flag relates an incident that occurred at Kingsport, a village situated on the bank of the Holston, in the western portion of Sullivan county, which reflects great credit upon Lieut. James N. Cox, late of the thirteenth Tennessee cavalry. There were two families, numbering fourteen persons—men, women, and children—who were removing west in a flatboat. They had made a short stop at Kingsport, and the boat had been fastened to a tree, but the river had surrounded it, and the sweeping torrent of drift wood threatened every moment the destruction of the frail craft and its inmates. Some fifty or sixty persons were standing on the banks of the river, seemingly powerless, when Lieut. Cox was sent for, who instantly seized a canoe, and at the imminent peril of his own life, dashed through the rushing, turbulent waters to the boat, amid surging bodies of drift-wood, and a still swelling torrent, and with his strong, skillful arm conveyed the entire fourteen souls safely to land. Upon their safe arrival the crowd on the bank greeted Lieut. Cox with long and repeated shouts. One of the men who was rescued had a trunk in the boat, in which was a large amount of money, and he offered Lieut. Cox a liberal reward if he would return to the boat and secure it, but with a truly noble spirit he replied, "I will risk life for life, but not for money;" and in a few moments the boat was carried away with the overwhelming flood, and with all its contents soon destroyed. The Flag states that the canoe used by Lieut. Cox belonged to a minister of the Gospel, who refused its use, but the Lieutenant was not deterred from saving life by this refusal."

08/02/2026

All roads lead to the fort. Island Road, Eaton's Ridge, Warpath Drive, Konnarock Rd .. the basic route of troops and pioneers in the 1700s. The fort was three sided with an opening guarded by the Holston River.

Fort Robinson came first. Built in 1761 by British colonial forces during the Anglo-Cherokee War, it was abandoned in 1762. Settlers reconstituted and expanded it on or near the same site in 1776, renaming it Fort Patrick Henry to honor the Patriot cause.

Rebuilt in September 1776 by Lieutenant Colonel William Russell, Fort Patrick Henry was a three-acre stockaded fort across from the beginning of Long Island on the Holston River. It served as a major base during the Revolutionary War for campaigns against the British-aligned Cherokee, hosted the signing of the 1777 Avery Treaty, and later acted as a key staging ground for westward settlers.

While officially called the Treaty of Long Island of 1777, historians and local tradition often refer to it as the Avery Treaty .

The 1777 Treaty of Long Island (Avery) was signed on July 20, 1777. Led by North Carolina commissioner Waightstill Avery, white settlers forced the Cherokee to cede vast swaths of land in East Tennessee following military conflicts, while reserving Long Island for the tribe.

Gilbert Christian (Kingsport's Christianville founder) served as a militia officer who provided security and guard duty during the 1777 treaty negotiations at Long Island. His military commander, Colonel William Christian (cousins), had led the preceding campaign against the Cherokee that forced the peace talks.

The July 1777 treaty followed Dragging Canoe's 1776 attacks - one being the Battle of Island Flats in the Kingsport area - and the subsequent colonial retaliatory expeditions.

Dragging Canoe refused to sign the 1777 Treaty of Long Island of Holston (as well as the companion Treaty of DeWitt's Corner). Rather than accepting its land cessions, he led his followers south to form the Chickamauga Cherokee and continue fighting.

Fort Patrick Henry, the Revolutionary War outpost, was abandoned around 1794.
It was located on the banks of the Holston River facing the south end of Long Island. When heading east on John B Dennis Highway (Hwy 93) in Kingsport, the location is easily seen at what is now part of the Eastman Chemical buildings on James C. White Drive.

08/02/2026

07/25/2026

Exchange Place ​1856 Deed Transcription : "​This Indenture made this 11th day of April in the year of our Lord One Thousand eight hundred and fifty six and Between John M. Preston of Washington County and State of Virginia of the one part and James H. Preston of Sullivan County and State of Tennessee of the other part Witnesseth that said John M. Preston for and in consideration of the Natural affection he has for the said James H. Preston

and also for the further consideration of the sum of Four dollars to him in hand paid the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged has bargained sold and confirmed unto the above named James H. Preston and to his heirs &c forever the following described four tracts of Land containing together thirteen hundred and fifty six acres be the same more or less situated in Sullivan County and State of Tennessee and lying on both sides of Reedy Creek. To Wit Eleven hundred and eighty two acres purchased by the aforesaid John M. Preston from John S. Gaines by Deed bearing date the 20th day of August 1845 and bounded as follows to wit

​Beginning at a White Oak on the south side of the Island Road corner to Roler’s Thence with said Roler’s line crossing said Road at 24 poles and Reedy Creek at 120 poles North 4½° West 393 poles to three White Oaks and two Hickories in a hollow corner to said Roler on the Old Pendleton patent line; Thence with the Same N. 61½° E. 195 poles to two White Oaks corner to the Thompson place;

Thence with a line of the same N. 53° W. 99 poles to a White Oak and Spanish Oak on the top of a ridge;

Thence with a line of the same N. 30° W. 178 poles to two Gums and a White Oak in a hollow;

Thence with the line of said Thompson tract S. 88½° E. 144 poles to a Ni**le Beech Gum & Post Oak in a hollow;

Thence with a line of the same S. 50° E. 215 poles to three Hickories on Pendleton’s patent line;

Thence with the same N. 62½° E. 15 poles to a White Oak & Hickory near Hughes corner (a White Oak & Hickory);

Thence same course 58 poles to a double & single White Oak on said Old patent line near the sulphur well;

Thence crossing Reedy Creek S. 27° E. 230 poles to a large White Oak on the top of a bluff;

Thence crossing the Island Road S. 19° E. 202 poles to a Chestnut Oak Hickory and four Dogwoods on Cook’s old line;

Thence with the same S. 47° W. 138 poles to two Dogwoods sourwood & Chestnut sapling;

Thence with said Cook’s line N. 25° E. 77 poles to an Ash Post Oak & Hickory;

Thence with the same and Loab Pence line S. 67° W. 72 poles to a large White Oak;

Thence with said Pence line S. 88½° W. 81 poles to a Spanish Oak near the Island Road;

Thence with said Pence line S. 51° W. 67 poles and 12 links to a planted rock near a Black Oak & White Oak pointers;

Thence with said Pence line S. 5° W. 26 poles to a planted rock;

Thence S. 25° E. 14 poles and 12 links to a small Poplar; Thence S. 51° W. 99 poles to two Black Oaks and a Hickory on Gaines’s line;

Thence with the same N. 28° W. 34 poles to two Red Oaks and a Spanish Oak;

Thence with Roler’s line N. 51° E. 94 poles to the Beginning.

​ALSO Ninety-five acres conveyed to said John M. Preston by Scott Vance by Deed bearing date 28th November 1848 and adjoining the first described tract Beginning at a Small Black Oak and pointers on Pendleton’s old patent line 14 poles from a Stumpy White Oak;

Thence with a line of the 1182 acre tract S. 17° W. 76 poles to a planted rock;

Thence with William Pence’s line S. 30° E. 63 poles to a Peach tree & planted rock;

Thence crossing a small branch S. 85° E. [line damaged/cut off] 27 poles to a Chestnut near a road;

Thence S. 49° E. 18 poles to a Poplar;

Thence S. 57½° E. 72 poles to three Dogwoods Sourwood & Chestnut;

Thence with William Pence’s old line N. 35° W. 25 poles to a stake on Loab Pence’s line;

Thence with the same N. 37° E. 125 poles to an Ash and two Hickories a corner of the 1182 acre tract above described;

Thence with the lines of the same S. 60° W. 60 poles to the White Oak corner;

Thence with the same N. 88° W. 20 poles to a Spanish Oak on the old Pendleton line;

Thence with the same to the Beginning.

​ALSO Fifty-four acres Conveyed to Said John M. Preston by David S. H. Funderburk and others by Deed bearing date the 21st September 1848 and adjoining the 1182 acre tract Containing Fifty-four acres Beginning at Six Dogwoods a Hickory & Spanish Oak sapling a corner to the 1182 acre tract and to Charles A. Vance and with the lines of his tract S. 67° W. 139 poles to six Dogwoods a Black Oak & Chestnut sapling;

Thence with a line of the same N. 35° E. 77 poles to an Ash Post Oak & Hickory;

Thence with Pence’s old line S. 37° W. 96 poles to a Cedar and Post Oak;

Thence crossing the Island Road S. 48° E. 60 poles to two Black Oaks & Dogwood on the South side of a wagon Road;

Thence N. 55° E. 138 poles to a planted rock between two White Oak pointers on the North side of the Island Road;

Thence N. 19° W. 69 poles to the Beginning.
​ALSO Twenty-five acres Conveyed to said John M. Preston by William Lorimer by Deed bearing date the 28th day of November 1848 and adjoining the tracts aforesaid... (document cut off at bottom)

Transcription may have few errors but overall this is when the land deed was transferred. Today part of this is the Exchange Place 1850s Farm in Kingsport.
4812 Orebank Rd, Kingsport, TN
ExchangePlaceTN.org