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This portion of the letter appeared on a mailing list in 1999.  If you can provide a complete transcript of the letter, please contact the Webmistress (link in Menu).
From Sevier County Republican, 28 Feb 1940 -- Contributed by Donald B. Reagan

Old Letter Reveals Interesting History of Sevierville
Letter written by M. A. Rawlings in 1856 is 84 years old.

Tells of the burning of Sevierville...small village at that time and the 43 houses burned just about wiped out the town.  Some of the settlers who came from Shenandoah Co., VA:  Denton, Lichlyter, Lewis, Jones, Spangler, Clevenger, Seehorn and others...  From NC came Halls, McCoigs, Brimers and Cowans.

Next paragraph continues with:  Bea wrote:  "As a small child, I grew up on Indian Creek Road.  As I drive or walk down that road, I can recall each and every home.  First, there was the home of the Halls, then George Hall, whose father was Perry Hall who married Edah Brimer, d/o Thomas, who was in turn, the s/o Vineyard Brimer.  Then the Wm Taylor farm...  Wm md Mary Livingston...large family.  Next the Lewis family...included Templins, Holberts, Stranges, McCoigs, Fines, Masons and many more who had settled between 1786-1820...  Beyond the Taylor Schoolhouse was the Lichlyter Cemetery, now the Lawson Chapel Cemetery where all related families were buried.  Most of these were Methodists.

Old store owned by Houk Mason descendant of the first John Mason who came to the area many years ago....passed Lawson Chapel Methodist Church on the right side of the road, and then the Brimer home, Cate home, Strange home...then Indian Creek Bridge...Beaver Dams and arrive at an old road, which would hardly amount to more than a lane today and you would be going along right beside the French Broad River, where the homes of Vineyard Brimer, the Moores and the Phillips then were.

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