Marble Springs - History

History

John Sevier arrived in Tennessee from his native Virginia in the early 1770s. He quickly earned a reputation as a competent frontier militia commander, helping the American cause at the Battle of King's Mountain (1780) and defeating the Cherokee at the Battle of Boyd's Creek (also in 1780). Sevier served as the only governor of the short-lived State of Franklin (1785–1788) and later as governor of Tennessee for six terms, 1796–1801 and 1803-1809. Sevier served as a state senator from 1809–1811 and as a U.S. Congressman from 1811 until his death.

Sevier officially obtained the Marble Springs area in 1796, although he was living there as early as 1790 (the site was within a days' journey of Knoxville, which at the time served as capital of the Southwest Territory). He named it after two springs on the property that flowed continuously throughout the year. Structures on the farm included a barn, springhouse, corn crib, smokehouse, ash hopper (used for making lye soap), and several other cabins.

Sevier's children sold Marble Springs to an attorney named James Dardis in 1818. Dardis leased the property to the family of George Kirby, who was living at Marble Springs in 1840. Kirby purchased the property from the Dardis family when Dardis died in 1847. In 1941, the state of Tennessee appropriated funds to purchase and restore Marble Springs. The Tennessee Historical Commission and the John Sevier Memorial Commission oversaw the site's restoration.