1

Summary of research on characters involved in the legend of Knoxville's Frankenstein, compiled by

reference assistant Danette Welch at the Knox County Public Library's Calvin M. McClung Historical
Collection. Completed October 2017.

Stephen Foster
Dr. Stephen Foster was born on February 15, 1798 in Andover, Massachusetts, a village located between
the towns of Salem and Lawrence, just outside of Boston. Both Andover town birth records (images
available on ancestry.com) and the tombstone erected for him in Mount Vernon Cemetery at Boxford,
Massachusetts (viewable at findagrave.com) confirm he was the son of John and Sarah Ingalls Foster.

The same year as Stephen Fosters birth, an Andover resident named David Brown, who was an ardent
Democratic-Republican and supporter of then-Vice President Thomas Jefferson, became infamous for
setting up a liberty pole on the town square which bore the phrase No Stamp Act, No Sedition Act,
No Alien Bills, No Land Tax, downfall to the Tyrants of America; peace and retirement to the President;
Long Live the Vice President." His arrestand the ensuing controversy related to his steadfast refusal to
identify any of his co-conspirators in pole-raising led to Brown becoming infamous as the citizen who
received the most severe sentence meted out under the Alien and Sedition Acts, eighteen months in
prison and a $480 fine.

During Dr. Fosters early childhood his father John was a metal worker and silversmith located in
Andover proper. Later, the family would move to a farm near more rural Boxford. While Andover had
David Brown as their claim to local and national notoriety, Boxford was and still is best known as home
to Witch Hollow where, in her confession during the Salem Witch Trials, fifty-one year old accused witch
Rebecca Eames claimed she had been bewitched by the devil (initially in the form of a black colt) and
cavorted with other members of her coven. It was also where she claimed the Devil had baptized her
twenty-nine year old son Daniel and made him a wizard. Today, Witch Hollow, Witch Hollow Farm, and
the Tyler-Wood House (built on the farm in 1727) remain Boxfords claim to fame as well as a brisk
producer of tourism dollars.

Eames was initially arrested as a witch on August 19, 1692, when she was accused of tormenting her
fellow spectators in the crowd at that days hangings of accused Salem witches George Jacobs Jr, John
Proctor, and John Willard. Convicted and sentenced to death, Rebecca Eames retracted her confession
and appealed to the governor. She managed to survive until the end of the Salem witchcraft fervor.
Eventually released from prison, she returned to Boxford and remained there, apparently quite
notorious, until her death on May 8, 1721.

Stephen Foster attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He entered his studies there
during the brief period Dartmouth was a public university (1817-19) and remained after the reversion to
a private school. At Dartmouth, Foster was a member of Phi Beta Kappa fraternity and academic honor
society, whose 1844 Catalogue of the Fraternity of New Hampshire confirms he was a member of
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Dartmouths graduating class of 1821. Returning home to Massachusetts, he attended the Andover
Theological Seminary, an orthodox Calvinist training school for Congregationalist ministers which had
shared the campus of Phillips Academy, a local private preparatory school, since breaking away from the
more liberal-leaning seminary at Harvard in 1807. Stephen Foster was ordained as a Congregationalist
minister on September 30, 1824. In Foster Genealogy (1899), relative Frederick Clifton Pierce asserts
that during his time at the Seminary, Stephen Foster spent a year as a home missionary in Texas.
Though this assertion sounds odd at first, evidence can be located to indicate that such a scenario may
have been possible. Andover Theological Seminary was a hub of Massachusetts state missionary society
and the American Home Missionary Society was actually founded at Andover Theological Seminary in
1826 by a merger of the United Domestic Missionary Society with the protestant missionary societies of
several states. Protestant missionaries from New England are believed to have had a presence in Texas
as early as 1817.

Dr. Foster spent the 1825-26 school year teaching somewhere near Estillville in Scott County, Virginia,
probably at a small country subscription school. There appear to have been no public schools or places
of higher education in the county at that time. For school year 1826-27, he was hired as a lecturer in
Latin and Greek at Greeneville College (now Tusculum) in Greeneville, Tennessee. In Higher Education
in Tennessee (1893, pg. 65), Lucius Salisbury Merriam recounts that when Charles Coffin, Greeneville
Colleges president and a fellow Massachusetts native, left to become president of East Tennessee
College at Knoxville during school year 1827-28, he recruited Stephen Foster to be East Tennessee
Colleges new Professor of Ancient Languages. Upon Dr. Coffins return to Greeneville College in 1834,
Dr. Foster became the president of East Tennessee College and remained so until his death on January
11/16th, 1798.
(Previous two paragraphs per information obtained from Appletons Cyclopedia of American Biography,
1889, pg. 514, Stephen Foster, Educator, with supplements as mentioned)

One of Stephen Fosters most dedicated students was Rev. Thomas Humes (later rector of St. Johns
Episcopal Church and librarian of Lawson McGhee Library) who attended Dr. Fosters language classes
from 1827 until his graduation from East Tennessee College in 1830. Humes then became Fosters
assistant and personally studied theology with him for two years before entering Princeton Theological
Seminary in 1832. (Necrological Reports and Annual Proceedings of the Alumni Association of
Princeton Theological Seminary, vol. 2, 1893, pg. 193)

Knox County marriage records show that Dr. Foster married Ann A. Davis of Knox County on June 30,
1831. Since Ann and her older sister Jane seem to have been a lifelong package deal, he likely also
gained a live-in sister-in-law. The Fosters son John was born during February 1833. Dr. Foster died in
Knoxville, on January 11th or 16th 1835 (sources vary) and was buried in the graveyard at First
Presbyterian Church. The Knoxville Registers weekly issue for January 21, 1835 has been preserved but
it does not mention the death of Stephen Foster. The issues from January 7, 14, and 28, 1835 do not
survive and it seems likely that the January 11th death date could be correct and that his death could
have been discussed in the missing issue for January 14. His toddler son John Foster died on August 28,
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1835, at the age of two years and six months, and was buried in the First Presbyterian Church graveyard
as well.

When Stephen Fosters father John died in Boxford, Massachusetts on November 30, 1837, his mother
Sarah Ingalls Foster put up a triple stone memorializing the three generationsJohn (1759-1837);
Stephen (1798-1835); and John (1833-1835)though it seems very unlikely that she would have actually
had the bodies of her son and grandson disinterred at Knoxville and brought back to Massachusetts to
share the grave at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Boxford. However, during one very compressed two-year
period (1835-1837), she suffered a number of losses that may have made her consider herself very
alone in the world. Her only son Stephens two older sisters had preceded him in death: Ruby Foster at
age twenty in 1812 and Lucy Foster Kimball at age thirty-two in 1825. In addition to her husband John,
her son Stephen, and her grandson John, Sarahs eighteen-year-old granddaughter Mary Melvina
Kimball also died on August 28, 1836. In response to grief that she must have felt very keenly, Sarah
Foster chose to spend what must have been a great deal of money on gravestones carved by Benjamin
Day of Lowell, Massachusetts, described as a sculptor and one of the most prominent stone carvers in
New England (Benjamin Day, Stonecarver, 1783-1855, self-published by Marilyn Day in 2005). I dont
suppose it is impossible that Sarah Foster could have had the bodies moved to Massachusetts, but it
seems most likely that the triple stone serves as a cenotaph and the remains of Stephen Foster and his
son John remain here in First Presbyterian Graveyard.

+++ ADDITION OCTOBER 18, 2017 +++

Since first beginning to write the summary for Stephen Foster, I have obtained Sketches of the Alumni
of Dartmouth College: From the First Graduation in 1771 to the Present Time, with a Brief History of
the Institution (1867, George Thomas Chapman). Stephen Foster is identified as a member of the Class
of 1821, but his entry (pg. 206) provides some information contrary to that of other works on the Foster
family:

Stephen Foster, the son of John and Sarah Ingalls Foster, was born at Andover, Massachusetts, February
15, 1798, Andover and died at Knoxville, Tennessee, January 11, 1835, at age 36. He studied divinity at
Andover Theological Seminary sometime in the Class of 1824; was ordained a missionary in October
1824; settled in Greeneville, Tennessee, but removed thence to Knoxville, and was there at first,
Professor of Latin and Greek in the College of East Tennessee and then President of the same,
discharging the duties of both offices with ability. He married Ann Allison Davis of Knoxville, June 30,
1831, Knoxville. Isaac Foster, D.C. 1828, was his brother.

In the section concerning the Dartmouth Class of 1828, the Entry (pg.241-42) for Isaac Foster agrees:

Isaac Foster, the son of John and Sarah Ingalls Foster, was born at North Andover, Massachusetts, July 7,
1806. He studied divinity at Andover Theological Seminary above two years in the Class of 1831; taught
a classical school at Portland, Maine, 4 years; was principal of a Female Seminary in Exeter from 1834 to
1836; was then over an Academy at Kingston, Rhode Island 1 year, and a classical school at Stonington,
Connecticut 1 year; returned to North Andover in 1839 and has become a farmer. He married Frances
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Brewster, daughter of Ebenezer Lee of Hanover, July 2, 1834. Charles Lee Foster, D.C. 1860, was his son,
and Stephen Foster, D.C. 1821, his brother.

Charles Lee Foster was born less than two months after Stephen Fosters death. Charles Lee Fosters
entry (pg. 449) does not mention Stephen Foster and it probably does not need to, but for the sake of
completeness, it seems appropriate to transcribe it here as well:

Charles Lee Foster, the son of Isaac (D.C. 1828) and Frances Brewster (Lee) Foster, was born at Exeter,
March 2, 1836, and died at New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 8, 1863 at age 27. He accompanied his
classmate, Daniel Ashley Dickinson, in a pedestrian tour through Great Britain in 1860; on his return,
studied medicine and painting at both Andover and Boston, Massachusetts, until September 1862; then
became hospital Steward of the 47th Regiment of Massachusetts, 9 months volunteers (Company K); was
in General Banks expedition; fell sick in July 1863, and unable to return home with his Regiment, did not
long survive its departure.

On a total tangent, here is a transcription of Daniel Ashley Dickinsons entry (pg. 448) as well:

Daniel Ashley Dickinson, the son of Wright S. and Martha (Dennison) Dickinson, was born at Hartford,
Vermont, October 28, 1839. He spent the fall of 1860 in walking about Great Britain with his classmate
Charles Lee Foster; on returning, read law at West Lebanon to September 1861, and then at Plattsburg,
New York to June 1863; at that time became an Acting Paymaster in the U.S. Navy, serving in the
Potomac flotilla; resigned in January 1865; finished legal studies at the Albany, New York law school,
graduating LL. B. in May 1866; began practice at Plattsburg, January 1, 1867. He married Mary E.,
daughter of R.A. Reed of Plattsburg, June 11, 1867.
+++ END ADDITION OCTOBER 18, 2017 +++

Despite what appears to have been her massive grief, Sarah Ingalls Foster was not completely without
descendants. At the time of her husbands death, Ann Davis Foster was pregnant. Their daughter Sarah
Jane Foster was born later in the year. The 1840 Census of Knox County records twenty-nine-year-old
Ann as a head of household with thirty-five-year-old Jane and five-year-old Sarah, living in the town of
Knoxville and sharing their home with eleven white males between the ages of ten and thirty as well as
one female slave between the ages of 24-35 and two female slaves less than ten years old. The most
logical suspicion seems to be that the Davis sisters were supporting themselves and little Sarah by
running a boarding house which most likely may have catered to the students and faculty of East
Tennessee College.

Knox County marriage records and the Knoxville newspaper of January 27, 1846 confirm that Stephen
Fosters widow Ann Davis Foster married Dr. Samuel Blair Cunningham of Jonesboro, Tennessee in
Knoxville on January 22, 1846. The 1850 Census of Jonesboro, Washington County, Tennessee finds
thirty-nine-year-old Anne, forty-five-year-old Jane and fifteen-year-old Sarah in the household of Dr.
Cunningham. Dr. Cunningham and Ann Davis Foster Cunningham also have a child of their own, one
year old Sophia. Tombstones in the Jonesboro City Cemetery show that Sophia was not Dr. and Ann
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Davis Foster Cunninghams first child together: like little John Foster almost fifteen years before him, a
son named Nathaniel Cunningham had died on April 23, 1849 at age two years and six months.

By 1860, Stephen Fosters twenty-one-year-old daughter Sarah Foster still survived and was newly
married, but she and her new husband Rev. Samuel A. Rhea still shared Dr. Cunninghams home along
with her forty-nine-year-old mother Ann, her fifty-four-year-old aunt Jane Davis, her seventeen-year-old
stepbrother Cornelius Cunningham, and her eleven-year-old half-sister Sophie Moody Cunningham.
Samuel and Sarah Foster Rhea were described on the census as missionaries to Persia. In fact, thirty-
three-year-old Rev. Samuel Rhea had already been living in Persia for almost a decade; his first wife
Martha had died there in 1854 and he and his new wife Sarah would be traveling back to Persia
(specifically, Kurdistan) within the year. (The Tennessean in Persia and Koordistan: Being Instances in
the Life of Samuel Audley Rhea, by Rev. Dwight W. Marsh, 1869)

During the intervening decade, Ann Davis Foster Cunningham had given birth to two more children,
Robert Blair Cunningham on May 24, 1851 and Mary Lyon Cunningham on December 26, 1853, but both
had died: Mary at age two on January 19, 1856 and Robert at age five on June 8, 1856. Even Anns
surviving Cunningham daughter Sophie and Sophies only daughter Rhea would predecease her, dying
on January 31, 1884 and May 18, 1884 respectively.

It might have seemed like Anns eldest daughter Sarahs venture to Persia might have been a death
sentence as well, but it turned out that it wasnt. Samuel Rhea succumbed to illness in Persia within a
few years, but his young widow Sarah survived him and remained in Persia a while longer before
bringing their four children (Robert, Annie, Foster, and Sophie) back to the United States. Ann Davis
Foster Cunninghams obituary in the Jonesboro Herald Tribune reveals that Sarah Foster Rhea was still
alive and well at the time of her mothers death on October 21, 1894: Mrs. S.J. Rhea is expected from
Chicago today for her mothers funeral. It seems Sarah Foster Rhea never remarried, but she did
become one of the founding forces behind the Presbyterian Churchs Womens Foreign Missionary
Society (John Edminston Alexander, Brief History of the Synod of Tennessee 1817-1887 (1890), pg. 47).

Before Jack Neely discovered the 1868 news story regarding Dr. Fosters attempt to revive James
Whites corpse, his name was remembered in Knoxvillebut only for a history he compiled on the
Cavett Station Massacre of September 24/25, 1793. Fosters original account was in the form of an
essay he read before the Knoxville Lyceum and published in the Knoxville Register on September 21,
1831. After Fosters untimely death, this essay was reprinted in Southwestern Monthly (1852, Volume
11, #5, pgs. 330-33) and retold in Rules Standard History of Knoxville (1900, William Rule, Chapter 7:
Indian TroublesStephen Fosters Account of the Massacre at Cavetts Station).

The surviving thirty-five pages of Moses Whites manuscript Knoxville (being both a scrap and likely
much edited from its original form) only works its way up to the creation of East Tennessee College
(1807), but it still spends the better part of five pages discussing Fosters history of the events
surrounding the violence at Cavetts Station. And, Moses White apparently preferred Fosters version to
those from the graphic pens ofa Humes and a Ramsey. If Moses White also wrote of Fosters alleged
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experiment and/or the double execution over which his father presided, we may never know what he
knew or what he might have had to saythe preserved bit of Whites work stops abruptly well before it
reaches the proper time period.

The preserved portion of Moses Whites history of Knoxville is undated, but it seems to be relatively
contemporary with Rules Standard History (1900) and if we choose to pair them together as such, then
only one more recent mention of Dr. Foster was located prior to his revival by Jack Neely. This other
mention occurred in 1915 and evidence of its existence was located in the finding aid to the George
Frederick Mellen Papers (1878-1929), held at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville. Box
III of the collection is recorded as containing an Index of Clippings from Scrapbook #3: In the Days of
the Pioneers. Item #106 of the scrapbook is identified as an article called A Knoxville Romance and is
described as Rev. Stephen Foster and Ann A. Davis, wooed and won, human interest. We know Dr.
Mellens articles ran in the Knoxville Sentinel, but the date supplied by the scrapbook is simply 1915; it
is not possible to go through all the microfilm of the newspaper from that year in search of the article.

Prior to Jack Neely, the only mention of Stephen Fosters experiment regarding James White was found
in the article from 1868.

Another thing that might be interesting to note is before Stephen Fosters 1992 renaissance, he was
mostly referred to as Dr. Foster, relating to his career as a teacher, but he is almost exclusively referred
to as Rev. Foster in post-1992 sources.

Tennessee State Library and Archives Index to Tennessee State Supreme Court Case Files shows that
the following have been preserved at the state library and archives in Nashville:
1829 Eastern Division Henry Lunsford Range 7, Section F, Shelf 5, Box 666 17 pgs
1829 Eastern Division James White Range 7, Section F, Shelf 5, Box 668 2pgs
(incomplete)
1829 Eastern Division Joshua Young Range 7, Section G, Shelf 3, Box 694 16 pgs

Per information published in newspapers as far afield as the Baltimore Patriot (August 19, 1829, pg. 2)
and borne out by the previously mentioned index, the Tennessee State Supreme Court at Knoxville had
actually sentenced three persons to be executed on the second Monday in August 1829 (August 17,
1829): Henry Lunsford of Blount County for the murder of a man named Berry Thompson; James White
of Marion County for the murder of a man named George W. Brown; and Joshua Young of Knox County
for the murder of his wife Margaret Young. While a double hanging was relatively rare, a triple hanging
was even rarer, so local and perhaps even not-so-local citizenry must have been anticipating quite an
event. The Knoxville Register, the surviving local paper, reported as late as July 22 that executing the
three convicted criminals on the same day was still in the cards, though it did say at Maryville. As we
know now, though, only two men would ultimately meet their deaths on the gallows at Knoxville when
the day set for the hangings arrived.
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James White
In regard to James Whites crime, most local contemporary information appears to have been destroyed
by a fire at the Marion County Courthouse in 1922; but, at the time of the murder, Marion County
bordered the Cherokee Nation, and the Cherokee Phoenix, the newspaper based in the Cherokee capital
of New Echota, reported (February 4, 1829, pg. 2): A man by the name of James White, on the 26th
ultimo [of last month], was committed to the prison in Jasper, Tennessee for the crime of murdering one
George Brown. Mrs. Brown, the wife of the deceased, is supposed to have been an accessory to the
horrid act of taking the life of her husband. She has likewise been committed. While Brown was living,
White and the woman were known to live too intimate. The Knoxville Register (August 19, 1829, pg. 3)
added the information that, at the time of his execution, White was within a few days of being twenty-
four years old and his crime was taking the life of George W. Brown last December in Marion County.

Fortyish years after the fact, the Knoxville Press and Heralds anonymous citizen recalled:
White was about thirty-five or forty years old, in the very vigor of manhood, a fine-looking man with a
fine head of dark hair and a complexion not dark enough to obscure his rose-colored cheeks. He had
become enamored with the wife of a man named Brown and became the murderer of her husband and
threw his body in the river. His youth and good looks excited a great deal of sympathy or compassion
among the crowd that surrounded the gallows.

The age remembered for James White obviously differs from the description provided in the 1829
account, and the lack of a complete case file preserved at the state archives serves to make the
possibility of searching for additional information even more difficult. However, all might not be lost.
The Knoxville Registers 1829 (August 19) articles discussion of Young and White also mentioned that
both fully confessed committing the crimes for which they suffered and their confessions have been
published. A Checklist of American Imprints 1820-29: Title Index (1972, M. Frances Cooper, ed) cites
the existence of an eight page pamphlet called Confession of James White for the Murder of George W.
Brown, December Last in Marion County, Tennessee and printed by Thomas J. Larsh of Richmond,
Indiana. Though his name is not included in its official title, The Annals of Murder: A Bibliography of
Books and Pamphlets on American Murders from Colonial Times to 1900 (1961, Thomas M. McDade,
comp., pg. 320-21) implies that Joshua Youngs confession is also contained within the same eight page
pamphlet. Early Printing in Tennessee 1793-1830 (1933, Douglas Crawford McMurtrie, pg. 124) agrees.
Unfortunately, the McClung Collection does not own a copy of this pamphlet. However, a check of
WorldCat shows that the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville owns a hard copy and that
the libraries of both Duke and Harvard Universities possess microfilmed versions.

It seems safe to say that Mrs. Brown was not executed. It seems probable that she was not convicted of
a crime. As a matter of fact, a potential case against her may never have even come to any sort of trial
at all. The Index to Tennessee State Supreme Court Case Files records no files preserved against a
woman named Brownor any woman from Marion Countyduring that time period. Tennessee
Convicts: Early Records of the State Penitentiary, Volume I, 1830-58 (1997, Charles Sherrill, ed.) shows
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no entries in the state Convict Record Book for a woman named Brown, either from Marion County or
during a nearly right time period, so anyif any at alltime Widow Brown spent incarcerated must
have been relatively short and/or solely in a city or county jail.

Attempting to locate Mrs. Brown in other records proved equally fruitless. A check of the Marion County
Census of 1830 shows no households headed by women bearing the surname Brown. If she was still
living in Marion County at that time, George W. Browns widow must have been part of a household
headed by someone else. Likewise, the 1830 Census enumeration of Marion County records no
household headed by a female bearing the surname White. If James White also happened to be
married and left behind a widow, then she, too, was either no longer living in Marion County or she was
not living in Marion County on her own as the head of her own household.

Only three Marion County households were headed by men named White during 1830 and all three of
their census entries were located within three consecutive pages. At age 20-30, William White was too
young to have been James Whites parent, but it is possible that he might have been a brother or other
relative. During that census year, William White was recorded on the same page as James Brown, a 70-
80 year old head of a household that included one white female between the ages of 60-70 and one
white male between the ages of 15-20.

Abraham White was enumerated as the head of a Marion County household located just one page away
from Willliam White. Described as between the ages of 50 and 60 in 1830, Abraham White could easily
have been the father of William and/or James White, assuming the 1829 newspaper account correctly
placed James age as 24. Abrahams household included two white womenone aged 40-50 and one
aged 15-20as well as five other white malesone aged 20-30; one aged 15-20; two aged 10-15; and
one aged 5-10. In The Story of Marion County: Its People and Places (1990, Marion County Historical
Society, comp., F997 James Alexander White, April 23, 1828-October 1907, pg. 556) Abraham White
descendant Herman Kent asserts that Abraham White and his wife Elizabeth were the parents of seven
children, six sons and one daughter, though he identifies only oneDaniel White who married Martha
Goff and became the father of the abovementioned James Alexanderand of the others only vaguely
says several left the area between 1840 and 1850. If Herman Kents information and child count are
correct, Abrahams 1830 household would seem to indicate that all but one of his children were still
living at home at that time. At the moment, we have no further information available to help try to
determine if that missing child might have been James White, William White, or someone else entirely.

Silas White, the final White enumerated as a head of household in Marion County during 1830, was
described as between 50 and 60 years old and as such, was also of an age which would allow him to
potentially have been a father of William White or James White. Besides himself, Silas Whites 1830
household consisted of eight other persons: one white female aged 40-50; one white male aged 15-20;
one white female aged 10-15; one white male aged 5-10; one white female aged 5-10; and three white
males under the age of 5. Silas Whites census entry was also located just one page away from those of
William White and James Brown, in the opposite direction from the entry for Abraham White.
 9

In addition to the household of James Brown, five other Marion County households were headed by
males bearing the surname Brown in 1830. None of those appear to have been located in any sort of
proximity to the households of James Brown and the three Whites. Three of the Browns (John, Samuel,
and Solomon) were located on pages 1, 3, and 5 of the 62 page census, over thirty pages away from the
Whites. The household of 40-50 year old Peter Brown was located on page 15 and the entry for 60-70
year old Thomas G. Brown was located on page 61, over twenty pages away from the Whites. John
Brown, on page 1, headed the largest Brown household, eleven people, including himself: one white
female aged 40-50; one white female aged 20-30; one white male aged 15-20; one white female aged
15-20; one white female aged 10-15; 2 white males aged 5-10; 2 white males under the age of five; and
one white female under the age of 5. It is possible that John Browns household could have included the
members of more than one nuclear family. While it does not seem very likely that a Brown family might
have taken in George Browns widow, it might have been possible that a Brown family might have taken
in George Browns childrenif he had any. Unfortunately, it is impossible to determine anything from
the information currently available at hand, and East Tennessees Forgotten Children: Apprentices
1778-1911 (2000, Allan N. Miller II, pg. 106-07) reflects no childrenBrown or Whitebound out after
the fact in Marion County who might have given any other clues.

Joshua Young
As far as Joshua Young is concerned, the Knoxville Register (August 19, 1829) described him as about
sixty-seven years old and hung for the murder of his wife who was about sixty-four years old. The
unidentified reminiscer elaborated in much greater detail when speaking to the Knoxville Press and
Herald reporter for the June 10, 1868 issue:

Young was a very old man, about seventy. He had become entangled in the wiles of a comparatively
young woman who lived at his house or in his immediate neighborhood. On her account, he murdered
his old wife with whom he had raised a family and lived peacefully for forty years. This he did very
deliberately. He made a wooden gun and fired it while he and his wife were out burning brush one
evening. It split and failed to kill his wife. Then, he completed her murder with an axe.

Young was by no means devoid of sense, but he met his deathwith considerable indifference. He and
White were confined in the same cell of the Knoxville jail. The evening before they were to be hung, he
remarked to White that according to accounts he had heard that Missouri was one of the finest of the
United States to live in. When he was executed, no one in the large crowd had any sympathy for him.

The murder for which he was executed was committed in Knox County near the main road, two miles
this side of Loveville [todays Lovell] on the left side as you go west.

In Joshua Youngs case, further information is available in the form of the case file held by Tennessee
State Library and Archives and his confession that is most likely included in the pamphlet concerning
James Whites confession, collected at the Knoxville Jail on August 15, 1829. An additional resource for
 10

Joshua Young exists in the Knox County Archivesthe Knox County Circuit Courts case file from his
original proceedings in the local court:
1829 State vs Joshua Young Docket #798 Minor #480 Box #6
(Second Judicial Circuit, Ex Dk, Volume A, pg. 407)

When considered in comparison with the 1868 reminiscences, the information contained within this file
can also be used as a litmus test for judging the potential accuracy of the Press and Heralds
unidentified source. The case file tells us that the crime occurred on February 22, 1828 when Joshua
Young struck his wife Margaret Young in the hinter part of the head with an axe, a mortal wound 2
inches long and one inch deep from which she instantly died. He also made an assault with a billet
of wood in the left side of the neck three inches long and two inches deep which was judged to have
been also a mortal wound. On the next day, February 23, 1828, Knox County coroner Thomas Brown
convened an inquest where upon viewing the body of Margaret Young, then and there lying dead, upon
the oath of James Seton, William Douglass, Samuel Martin, Jacob Lowe, Lewis Cox, Rhuben Walker,
William T. Givens, John Gounds, Walker Hoffer, Doctor Hezekiah Shelton, George Arnold, and Reuben
Arnold, the coroners inquest jury say Margaret Young was violently, voluntarily, feloniously, and with
malice aforethought murdered and do suspect her husband Joshua Young to be her murderer. The
prosecutors for the indictment of Joshua Young were identified as inquest witnesses Samuel Martin and
Jacob Lowe.

An additional indictment was also sent to the Grand Jury by the Knox County Circuit Court itself it
appearing to the said court that the offense herein set forth had been committed and that no one would
prosecute for the same. This indictment became the basis for a separate case, State vs Elizabeth
Penniger, which charged that Elizabeth Penniger, single woman, late of this county, before said felony
murder, did, on February 18, 1828, feloniously and wickedly incite, move, procure, aid, counsel, hire, and
command Joshua Young to commit said felony and murder. This case also appears cited among the Knox
County Circuit Courts case files:
1828 State vs Elizabeth Penniger Docket #673 Box #6

The Grand Jury returned a true bill for Joshua Young, but it passed on the opportunity to hear the
evidence against Elizabeth Penniger, who was, at the time, unable to be located in Knox County.
Elizabeth Penniger was evidently located sometime during March 1828, for her case file contains a bill
generated on the last day of March 1828 for the costs of two turnkeys (guards) holding her in jail
(presumably the Knox County jail) for fourteen days. During the last three of these fourteen days,
Joseph Alexander Mabry (the original Joseph Alexander Mabry who died as a result of a duel; the Joseph
Alexander Mabrys killed by Thomas OConner were his son and grandson) took six depositions for future
use. The first, on March 29th, was from John Cordwell/Cordell, a citizen who seems to have chosen to
act as a prosecutor in the case and who on his oath complained that he had reason to believe that
Elizabeth Penegar [sic], not having the fear of God before her eyes was moved and seduced by the
instigation of the Devil to cause the murder of Peggy Young.
 11

The next day, Joseph Mabry took depositions from Sarah Strange, Elizabeth Young, and Peggy Young
(not the dead Peggy Young, as Mabry noted), three witnesses favoring the prosecution of Elizabeth
Penniger. Sarah Strange declared that (at some unspecified time and event) she heard Elizabeth
Penniger say that if Mrs. Peggy Young was to come out with them, that she should not live to get out
there and that she heard Peggy Young ask her if she would kill her to which Elizabeth Penegar made
no reply. Elizabeth Young made a similar oath that she heard Elizabeth Penegar say that if Peggy
Young had come out with them she would not live to get here.

Joseph Mabry recorded the deposition of Peggy Young last, taking steps to differentiate between the
two identically named women: Peggy Young (witness in behalf of the State) says that she heard
Elizabeth Penegar say to Peggy Young (the murdered person) that if she had to come with them, that she
should not live to get there. Mrs. Peggy Young asked Mrs. Penegar if she would kill her to which
Elizabeth Penegar made no reply. Elizabeth Penegar and Joshua Young was together on Monday before
Peggy Young was killed, in private conversation.

Daniel and Polly Brandon were the witnesses in favor of Elizabeth Penniger. Daniel Brandon told Joseph
Mabry that on Friday night, he came home about an hour and a half, he doesnt know about the day of
the month but it was that Friday night, about an hour and a half after night and that Elizabeth Penegar
was at his house, that he went to bed and left her at his house. Polly Brandon agreed that the day she
understood the murder happened, Elizabeth Penegar was at her house from about an hour of sun in the
evening until about twelve oclock at night.

Whether it was due to an apparent lack of evidence or by bail or by her own extrajudicial efforts (i.e.
escape), Elizabeth Penniger appears to have been released from confinement by March 31, 1828. As far
as can be ascertained by the two case files remaining in Knox County, she never appeared at court again.

Joshua Youngs case was tried at the August 1828 term of Knox County Circuit Court, but his attorney,
the prominent lawyer William B. Reese, successfully petitioned for a mistrial based on the assertion that
the prosecutors and many other influential persons in the County of Knox have, as he [Joshua Young]
believes, used considerable pains and industry to arouse the public indignation against him and to incite
the prejudices of the community as to the merits of his causeand believes they have succeeded to an
extent such to prevent a fair and impartial trial at this time.

The Circuit Court was also once again prepared to present its evidence against Elizabeth Penniger to the
Grand Jury on August 22, 1828. It had summoned Peggy Young, Sarah Strange, and Daniel and Polly
Brandon to appear at the courthouse and had managed to assemble Sarah Flanagan, Sarah Raby, and
Elizabeth Young to serve as witnesses, but Elizabeth Penniger herself remained outside the bounds of
Knox County and beyond the reach of its officials. It appears that the Knox County Court took no further
action against Elizabeth Penniger at that time or at any point beyond.

Prosecution of Joshua Young resumed at the February 1829 term of Knox County Circuit Court. William
Reese once again tried for a mistrial, this time citing the precedent of Tipton vs State, which had opined
 12

that a jury must either credit a whole confession or disregard a whole confession, meaning that the jury
deciding Youngs fate should not be asked to arbitrarily accept some parts and discredit others.
Nevertheless, the trial continued and Young was convicted. The case was promptly appealed to the
state supreme court.

Several witnesses were summoned to appear during the trials of Joshua Young:

Witnesses for the State Witnesses for the Defendant

George W. Arnold William Young
Edward Gound Sherod Raby
Samuel Martin Sarah Raby
Ann Hustin
John Threwitt Witness, side illegible
Lewis Threwitt Elizabeth Young
Jacob Lonas
Thomas Brown, Esq

It may be worth noting that none of these events were reported on in the surviving local newspapers.

Changing her name would have been prudent, and it is probably likely that Elizabeth Penniger did just
that. Elizabeth Pennigers (of a variety of potential spelling variants) are rare among the surviving records
of Tennessee, and of course, many census records have been lost and many women never appeared by
name on censuses at all during this period, but the only variant of Elizabeth Pennigers name found on
the entire United States Census of 1830 was enumerated in Tennessee. At that time, this Elizabeth
Pinegar was described as between the ages of thirty and forty years old and lived in Dickson County,
Tennessee. She shared her household with a white male between the ages of 15 and 20 years old and a
white female between the ages of 10 and 15 years old. An Elizabeth Pinegar married a man named
William OKelly on December 31, 1842, also in Dickson County and may have been the same person. No
evidence exists to help determine, though, if she might have been the Elizabeth who was wanted in
Knox County.

Henry Lunsford
Determining the story attached to Henry Lunsford, the third man whose conviction and death sentence
was affirmed by the Tennessee State Supreme Court at the same time as James White and Joshua
Young, turns out to be even more complex. It seems very likely that the seventeen page case file
housed at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville could serve to much more handily sort
out Henry Lunsfords story, but using the sources in hand at the moment, the facts of the matter remain
difficult to discern. Unlike White and Young, whose post-1829 mentions seem to have been confined to
one newspaper article in 1868 and an increasing number during the years after Jack Neely published his
 13

first article on the subject in Metropulse during 1992, Henry Lunsford was discussed by various sources
during several different eras after 1829.

In an article on Hangings in Blount County published in the Maryville Enterprises September 29, 1838
edition, local historian Will Parham stated on September 26, 1828, Henry Lunsford was hung for killing
a man named Murphy at a log rolling. As his source, he cited Will A. McTeers writings in newspapers
because court records as to these trials are lost. Parham also identified the site of Henry Lunsfords
hanging as the current (in 1938) intersections of McGhee and Porter Streets in Maryville. Of course, we
know some things in Parhams account, like the date and the name Murphy, are wrong. A few
paragraphs later, Parham says In 1868 or 1869, John Murphy was tried for killing a man named
Lunsford. He escaped, was re-arrested in Kentucky, brought back, dismissed from Blount to Loudon,
there nolle prossed because of no witnesses, this being on September 29, 1875. In light of the previous
paragraph and the portions already demonstrated to be inaccurate, the rest of the John
Murphy/Lunsford information certainly sounds like another mistake. Except, surprisingly, it turns out
that it isnt. The September 8, 1870 edition of the Maryville newspaper bears out the story of a John
Murphy and a Lunsford: John Murphy who was condemned to be hung in Blount County a year or two
ago, for the murder of Louis Lunsford, but who escaped from jail, had been captured and is imprisoned in
the Livingston Jail, Overton County.

The July 23, 1883 edition of the East Tennessee News carried a similar article called Executions in
Blount which may have been written by the aforementioned Will McTeer. Concerning Henry Lunsford,
this article stated the next execution by hanging was that of Henry Lunsford. He was tried and
convicted of murder on the second day of August 1828; the sentence was pronounced on the 9th of
August and the time of execution fixed for Friday, September 26, 1828the murder was said to have
been committed on a man named Thompson, on the place where James Crisp now lives. The old men tell
us that there were extreme doubts as to Lunsfords guilt; indeed, some stoutly maintain that he was
innocent of the murder. The circumstances were that at some type of gathering, the two men got into a
quarrel, Lunsford struck the other a blow with a stick on the head. A few hours after, he took very sick
and soon died. He was said to have been suffering from epilepsy or something of that kind, and many
thought it was the disease that took his life and that the blow had nothing to do with it. He was hung on
the day fixed in the sentence, in the hollow near the present residence of William Coning in southwest
Maryville, a vast concourse of people witnessing the execution.

Yet another Maryville area historian named Inez Burns recounted two more versions of the story of
Henry Lunsford in her History of Blount County, Tennessee 1795-1955 (1957 revised edition). During
her discussion of the historic Norwood Inn (pg.78-79) an eight-room affair, commodious and
pretentious for its day built in 1820 by a John Norwood and located (in 1955) on the crest of a hill west
of Greenback Industries along what used to be a long stretch of the old Federal road from Maryville to
the south, she offered the information that Henry Lunsford killed a man there, named Thompson, by
shooting into the main room through a hole in the chimney (left for ventilation). Lunsford was tried and
sentenced to be hung. This accounts in part for the haunted house legend.
 14

What haunted house legend, you might ask? So did I. Ms. Burns did not elaborate in the body of her
work, but she did do so in footnote #36: The inn was known locally as the haunted house. People
declared they saw light in the deserted house at night. She also cited a source in the same footnote,
the Knoxville Register, July 22, 1829, Sentenced and Hung Near Maryville Yesterday, with the
additional comment newspaper account says Thompson was killed, but tradition says Murphy. The
mention of a specific newspaper article from 1829 was quite excitinguntil the Register microfilm was
consulted and the article turned out to actually be entitled Sentenced to Be Hungthe very same
article about all three men cited at the beginning in the introductory paragraph of this summary.

On page 206 of the same work, Inez Burns says: [Blount Countys] second hanging was Henry Lunsford
on September 26, 1828 for killing one Thompson. The story goes that Lunsford had struck Thompson on
the head at a log rolling with a hand spike. Thompson went about his work for a month before he died
suddenly from the effects of the blow. That version is, of course, in direct contradiction to the version
she recounted earlier in her book. She cites no source for this version other than the comment, Dr.
John A. Goddard and Will McTeer have left us the story of Blount Countys first three hangings. Will
McTeer makes no mention of Henry Lunsford in his own autobiography, so Ms. Burns was likely
referring to a clipping from one of the many articles he wrote for the Maryville Enterprise over the
course of his life. Unfortunately, we dont have the clipping or a date for the issue of the Enterprise in
which his discussion of the subject may have appeared. We do know that Will McTeer would have had
to have gathered his information about Lunsford from others, though. Will McTeer was not born until
1843.

On page 207, Ms. Burns recounts a version of the John Murphy/Louis Lunsford story: About 1868, John
Murphy shot and killed one Lunsford. He was tried at the May Term of Court in 1868 and sentenced to
hang. Murphy was such a handsome rascal that he aroused quite a bit of sympathy. He appealed his
case but before the hearing, he escaped to Kentucky. He was apprehended and returned to Knoxville.
He was given a second trial and the judge ruled that since the crime had taken place in that part of
Blount County that was cut off as part of Loudon County in 1870, that the case must be tried in Loudon
County. Murphy was taken to Loudon County for trial and the same judge again ruled that since the
murder was committed in Blount County that it could not be tried in Loudon and threw the case out of
court. Murphy later met his match in Campbell County and was killed in a brawl. She did provide a
citation for this story, Dr. John A. Goddard in the Maryville Times, April 9, 1902.

So, I went to our microfilm of the Maryville Timesand found that on reel #205 (Maryville Times 1900-
1905) the issues skip from March 15, 1902 to May 10, 1902. As a result, I was unable to determine if
Henry Lunsford was also discussed in the article she cited. The July 2015 issue of the Greenback
Historical Societys Chronicler (pg. 4-5) repeats the story of Henry Lunsford and the Norwood Inn and
calls it a traditional tale, but cites Inez Burns as the only source.

Following the Campbell County mention, I also looked for a random clue about Henry Lunsford that
might have been recorded at the time of John Murphys death. Paul W. LeMasters, a diligent preserver
of history related to Campbell County, found seven articles in Knoxville newspapers related to John
 15

Murphy and reprinted them in his 2001 work Campbell County, Tennessee Newspaper Obituaries 1821-
1889 (pg. 92, 119-123). All of the articles date from 1876-1878 and though some of them look back on
Murphys murder of Lewis Lunsford in Blount County, none of them mention the case of Henry Lunsford
or gave any background on Lewis Lunsford that might have helped to determine if he and the Henry
Lunsford before him might have been related.

The earliest Blount County newspaper in our collection dates from 1832, so I did not have them to turn
to as a potential source for contemporary information about Henry Lunsfords crime, trial, or execution.
After July 22, I couldnt find any further mention of Henry Lunsford in any surviving Knoxville
newspapers. Only one Lunsford household appeared on the 1830 Census of Blount County. It was
headed by Alsy Lunsford, a white female aged 30-40 and, besides her, was made up of a white male
between the ages of 5 and 10 years old, a white male under the age of 5, and a white female under the
age of 5. Washington County, Tennessee marriage records show that an Alsey Henrixon and a Henry
Lunsford were married there on December 4, 1820.

Henry Lunsford never reappears in the records of Blount County nor is he mentioned in the Tennessee
State Convict Record Book, so it seems safe to assume that his execution was likely carried out at some
point. At Maryville on August 17, 1829 seems to be the most likely of the possibilities presented in the
written record, but since executions served as public spectacles and drew visitors who were an
economic boon to the towns in which they were held, it is hard to imagine that Blount County might
choose to execute its own prisoner at Maryville on the very same day that a double hanging was taking
place so few miles away in Knoxville.

Gallows Hill
The earliest independent reference located for Gallows Hill appeared on page 37 of the 1837 Report
of Chief Engineer of the State of Tennessee on the Surveys and Exams for the Central Railroad:

[re the proposed route of the proposed Central Railroad]runs with Hiwassee Railroad to Knoxville and
parts with the Hiwassee road about a half mile from the courthouse in Knoxville and passing north of
Gallows Hill, crosses First Creek above the cotton factory and continues along its south side to the first
bend, near Bells.

In the February 7, 1935 issue of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, local color columnist Lucy Templeton
quotes from a 1910 reminiscence by William G. Stringfield, who witnessed the first trains arrival in
Knoxville on July 4, 1855:

There were few buildings in that part of town where the depot is located. The hillsides for a mile or more
below were lined with an anxious and excited and enthusiastic populace. Gay Street then or a short term
previous, had its northern terminus at or near Gallows Hill or Summit Hill of later days.
 16

Ms. Templeton herself went on to comment:

More interesting even than the description of the trains arrival is the fact disclosed, and before unknown
to me, that Summit Hill was formerly known as Gallows Hill. Some of the present generation may not
even know where Summit Hill is, so it may be well to say that it is that part of town where Lawson
McGhee Library and the Church of the Immaculate Conception stand.

So, it seems that in 1935, both Summit Hill and Gallows Hill were names that were not commonly
used or known around town. Furthermore, Ms. Templeton (b. 1878) had lived in Knoxville all of her life.

Second Presbyterian Church

The Second Presbyterian Church where Dr. Fosters experiment would have been conducted was the
original Second Presbyterian Church building which, along with its associated cemetery, stood on the
current site of Home Federal Bank in downtown Knoxville.

Second Presbyterian Church was founded in 1818 and the first church building was under construction
by April 1820. W. Russell Briscoe and Katherine Boies Briscoe provide an image of this church on page
11 of their 1968 book Her Walls Before Thee Stand: History of the Second Presbyterian Church 1818-
1968 and describe it (pg. 10, 12):

The building was built of brick and as was the custom then in this red clay country, the brick was burned
either on the site or a short distance away. It was a very unpretentious structure about forty feet wide
and seventy-five feet long. It stood on the south side of the lot, very close to Clinch Avenue, which it
faced.

It was several years before the inside was finished, but it served its purpose well, and in a few years, its
ceiling was installed, pews replaced with wooden benches, the walls were plastered over, and it took on
a finished look. Outside, it was surrounded by a wooden fence made of slabs layed horizontally and
fastened to the upright poses by wood pegs, then whitewashed. The front of the church was also
whitewashed, however, the sides and the back were left their natural brick finish. This method of
treatment to brick structures was quite common in the early 1800s.

Adorning the roof at the front center was an octagonal belfry. The bell was not installed until several
years after completion of the church.Shortly after the church was constructed, a grave yard was
opened to the rear along what is now Union Avenue on the north end of the lot and extended down the
west side of present day Market Streetthe aforementioned Dr. Anderson [Isaac Anderson] was the first
pastor of the church and served for ten years 1819-1829.
 17

It seems that Dr. Fosters experiment inside the church, if indeed it happened, occurred after Dr.
Andersons resignation, during the two year period (1829-31) when the church had no regular minister
and its pulpit was seemingly occupied by a series of supply ministers. Ann Allison Davis Foster
Cunninghams stepson-in-law Rev. Nathan Bachman served as Second Presbyterians minister 1866-
1876 and, in fact, was the minister there at the time the article on Dr. Fosters experiment appeared in
the newspaper. Neither the Briscoes book nor Lowell L. Giffens A History of Second Presbyterian
Church 1818-1994 mention anything about Stephen Foster, the double execution, or an experiment.

Among our folders of newspaper clippings concerning Second Presbyterian, the only hint of a haunting is
found rather obliquely, in a mention that no one had died as the result of a jump from the bell tower of
Second Presbyterians third building (1907-1957, on the site of the current Lawson McGhee Library).
This mention may have appeared in response to a persistent rumor that the ghost of someone who
jumped from the bell tower haunts the site. When I worked in the Periodicals Room at Lawson McGhee
Library, people would occasionally come in and ask about it, the Periodicals Room being in roughly the
same position as the bell tower. I do not see any outright mention of that rumor among the clippings in
our files.

The Execution
The Knoxville Register of August 19, 1829 described the execution of James White and Joshua Young as
follows:

At an early hour, people began to throng into town, by noon, streets presented a crowd perhaps never
before equaled in Knoxville. Between noon and one oclock, the concourse assembled around the jail
awaiting the appearance of the prisoners was immensethe number of persons assembles was
estimated at 3000 to 5000. About one oclock, the unfortunate convicts were brought forth and
ascended the wagon while a hymn was singing and were conveyed to Gallows Hill.

On arriving at the place of execution, a prayer was addressed to the throne of Grace by the Rev. Mr.
Craig which was followed by a hymn and a sermon and concluded by another prayer. White then took
leave by shaking hands with some of the bystanders. At about twenty minutes after two oclock, both
launched into eternity. They died without a struggle.

No mention was made of the fate of Henry Lunsford at all.

Nor was there any mention of Second Presbyterian Church or Stephen Foster or an experiment or a
galvanic battery. Attempted resuscitation was apparently a popular experiment around that time,
though. In Victorian Prison Lives (2012), author Phillip Priestly notes that the British began enacting
laws specifically designed to curb the practice in 1832.

The Knoxville Press and Herald of June 10, 1868 was much more wordy:
 18

In our yesterdays paper, we alluded to the fact that the skeleton found in grading Vine Street was that
of a man by the name of Young who was hung about forty years ago. Then, the gallows and grave was a
considerable way out of town. Now, it is nearly in the center of population of our city.

A friend has given some interesting reminiscences of the execution. Young and White were hung on the
same gallows. At that day, the gallows was a simple affair. Two upright posts were sunk in the ground
eight or ten feet apart and about ten or twelve feet high. A beam extended from one to the other to
which the rope or ropes were attached. The criminal or criminals were hauled to the execution in a cart
or two-horse wagon. When the rope was placed about the neck, the horses were driven forward and the
culprits left to hand in the air until they were dead! Dead!! Dead!!!

The Experiment
The same issue of the Press and Herald contains the only description of Dr. Fosters experiment found in
print prior to Jack Neelys 1992 article:

An hour or two before he [White] was taken out of jail, Dr. William J. Baker bled him, and Professor
Foster of the University had a galvanic battery conveyed to Second Presbyterian Church. Many of the
crowd believed an attempt was going to be made to restore him to life after he had been hung.

As soon as the body was cut down, it was put into a one-horse wagon and driven rapidly to the church. A
considerable portion of the crowd followed, but as the church doors were fastened, they could not gain
admittance. A number climbed up and looked at the windows and as they saw the effect of the battery
upon the muscles and nerves of the corpse, they announced to the crowd that White had breathed once!
Twice!! Three times!!!

This announcement was received with great satisfaction and there were strong hopes expressed among
the crowd that White would be restored to life. These hopes were disappointed, for the Sheriff had
obeyed the order and judgment of the court and the culprit had been hanged until he was dead! Dead!!
Dead!!!

And he will sleep until the day of the general resurrection.

There was no desire upon the part of those who directed the galvanic battery to restore White to life.
The experiment was made to satisfy the philosophical curiosity of the experimenters as the effects of
galvanism on the human body.

After the experiment was finished, Whites body was taken possession of by his relations and friends and
conveyed to the county where he had lived. Youngs was buried at the foot of the gallows.
 19

The mention of Dr. William J. Baker (1800-1865) might be significant. Dr. Bakers interest in medical
experimentation is a confirmed fact. With assistance from Dr. James Sawyers and Dr. John Boyd, he
performed the first successful abdominal hysterectomy on November 13, 1856 (Extirpation of the
Uterus and Its Appendages, Dr. John M. Boyd, American Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences,
January 1857, pg. 71 and March 1857, pg. 220). The mention of bleeding also seems odd. Normally,
bleeding was designed to improve health. As James White was scheduled to die in just an hour or
two, the need to improve his health would seem slim.

Potters Field?
No speculation or specific information was found regarding what happened to the skeleton found on
June 6th, 1868, supposedly that of Joshua Young, or to the several other pre-Civil War skeletons
unearthed during the same construction project on June 15 (Brownlows Knoxville Whig, June 17,
1868). The place where the city generally buried their poor and unclaimed would be a reasonable guess.
In 1868, that would have been Belleview Cemetery located on Bethel Avenue at Kyle Street.

George McNutt White

George McNutt White was indeed Sheriff of Knox County in 1829 and he did preside over the double
hanging of James White and Joshua Young. During 1829, he was thirty years old and in his second term
as sheriff, with almost a decade of law enforcement experience behind him:

1821-22 Assistant United States Marshall

Under Charles T. Porter who had been the Eastern Districts U.S. Marshall since 1801

1822-26 Deputy Sheriff, Knox County, Tennessee

Under High Sheriff John Calloway

1826-34 High Sheriff, Knox County, Tennessee

On November 29, 1827 George McNutt White married Sophia Moody Park. The 1830 Census of
Knoxville shows the households of Dr. William J. Baker, Sheriff George M. White, and Stephen Fosters
employer and mentor Dr. Charles Coffin enumerated together all in a row. Stephen Foster was not yet
the head of a household in 1830 and it cannot be ascertained where he was boarding, but Calvin
Morgan, the head of household listed directly after Baker, White, and Coffin, did have four white males
aged 20-30 living with him during 1830.