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Roane County Heritage The Roane County Heritage Commission was created in 1975 to preserve the Historic Roane Courthouse.

The second known poor farm cemetery is located at Ladd Landing. There were two tombstones there but only one could be l...
10/19/2026

The second known poor farm cemetery is located at Ladd Landing. There were two tombstones there but only one could be located in 2006. We found the stone for John H. Heald, son of F.H. and A.T. Heald, born 18 Jan 1876, died 4 Mar 1899. We only found the footstone for Dolly Davis Holland, born 8 Nov 1889, died 13 Mar 1891. These were probably children of the overseer of the poor farm. In the T.V.A. Watts Bar Grave Removal records, it lists the graves of Alex Adams (died 3 Jun 1940, aged about 80 years old), Garfield Forester (died 16 Jan 1941, aged about 60 years old), and Betty Lowden (died 17 Dec 1940, aged about 78 years old. There are many unmarked graves here.

Roane County purchased the property for the Poor Farm at Ladd Landing in 1870 from Willis S. and Jane M. Center. It was used from that time period up to about 1941 when TVA acquired the property. Then the Poor Farm was moved to behind the Roane County Board of Education. This is an 1890 survey of the poor farm property at Ladd Landing.

From The Harriman Record, Thursday, 23 Oct 1952.Death of Mrs. Silas H. Larson from polio
10/19/2026

From The Harriman Record, Thursday, 23 Oct 1952.

Death of Mrs. Silas H. Larson from polio

From The Harriman Record, Thursday, 23 Oct 1952.
10/19/2026

From The Harriman Record, Thursday, 23 Oct 1952.

In Johnny Mac Barnard's collection are two Carriers' Route Directory. The first one, from 1954, is R.F.D. No. 3 which w...
10/18/2026

In Johnny Mac Barnard's collection are two Carriers' Route Directory. The first one, from 1954, is R.F.D. No. 3 which would be in the Kingston, East Roane County area and it contains all of the names in which he delivered mail to. Johnny Mac would have been the carrier of the mail. The second one is from 1948 and for R.F.D. No. 1, which is South of the River. The carrier was Robert S. Ladd. Like the first book, it contains all of the names in which mail was delivered to. I've included the page which has John M. Barnard's family.

From The Harriman Record, Thursday, 16 Oct 1952.
10/18/2026

From The Harriman Record, Thursday, 16 Oct 1952.

From The Harriman Record, Thursday, 9 Oct 1952.
10/18/2026

From The Harriman Record, Thursday, 9 Oct 1952.

There are three Poor Farm (Pauper) Cemeteries in Roane County. The oldest is off of Lawnville Road on Rusty Byrd's prop...
10/18/2026

There are three Poor Farm (Pauper) Cemeteries in Roane County. The oldest is off of Lawnville Road on Rusty Byrd's property and is known at the Pauper Cemetery. It was run at one time by Samuel Houston Hamilton. There are several tombstones there, but these people would not have been at the poor farm. Several of the children of Samuel Houston Hamilton and his wife, Sophia Jane (Ladd) Hamilton are buried there.

Jehu C. Pope crossing on Browns ferry which was also called Southwest Point. He was the mail carrier South of the [Tenn...
10/17/2026

Jehu C. Pope crossing on Browns ferry which was also called Southwest Point. He was the mail carrier South of the [Tennessee] River.

The ferry started on the Kingston side near J.C. and Rachel Parker's which is on the right before you reach Fort Southwest Point. Even when the South of the River (Highway 58) bridge was built, the ferry continued to operate. The bridge was a toll road until the state made it free. The ferry came back at the time of the building of Watts Bar Dam. This was due to the Highway 58 bridge being raised to accommodate river traffic.

10/17/2026

There are a couple of areas in Roane County in which they are pronounced differently than they are spelled. Near Rockwood is "Johnny Hollow," which is spelled "Joiner Hollow.". The other area, South of the River, near Paint Rock, is pronounced "Stomp Creek" but it is written as "Stamp Creek "

10/17/2026

Human nature has never changed. It's just that we have the internet, T.V. and the radio. This is one of the interesting things in the newspapers of 1896:

An Elopement. A Married Woman Deserts Husband and Child. ‘And Goes Over the River” After a Young North Carolina Farmer—A Sensation at Cardiff, Tenn. Special to The Chattanooga Times. Harriman, Tenn., May 2.—Quite a sensation was created in the neighborhood of Cardiff and Hood’s Landing yesterday by the wife of Bud Leffew, a laborer, eloping with Pat Steward, of North Carolina. The parties crossed the Tennessee river at Hood’s Landing, the young man in advance stating that he was going to Loudon and the faithless wife of Leffew, having left a young child at home and deserted her husband, crossed the river later, saying in response to appeals of friends to return to her husband and child: “Where Pat Steward leads I will follow.” It is supposed the couple are bound for the Old North State. From: The Chattanooga Daily Times, Sunday, 3 May 1896.

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119 Court Street
Kingston, TN
37763

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Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4:30am
Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm

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