Tessentee. “Tennessee?” No, Tessentee. “Two ‘s’s’ and two ‘e’s.’” And, when someone sees the word written, the usual question is, “How do you pronounce that?”
The approximately six-mile-long Macon County road that is partly in Otto and partly in Franklin is pronounced “Tess-n-tee.” The meaning of the Cherokee word is unclear, but the road and the creek running alongside much of it bear the name of Tessentee; both are supposedly named for a small Cherokee village that once existed near the spot where Tessentee Creek joins the Little Tennessee River from the east.
The area is rich in nature and history. For example, the 70-acre Tessentee Bottomland Preserve, less than eight miles from Franklin’s Main Street, is one of Mainspring Conservation Trust’s properties – accessible by the public for walking, hiking, and water activities.
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Historically, this site was where the first battle of what became known as the “Cherokee Wars” is thought to have occurred in 1760. Then, in 1775, famed naturalist and explorer William Bartram spent the night in a trader’s hut documented to be at “the foot of the Tessentee.” Additionally, at Tessentee Bottomland Preserve is a 100-plus-year-old preserved farmhouse that once belonged to Whipple Carpenter Smart (1867-1946), his wife, Mary Louise Silver (1871-1918), and their children. At the home is a black and white photo, provided by a relative, that shows the family in front of the house with their mule.
Visitors to the house, just a short walking trail from the parking area, glean an understanding of Macon County’s late 19th and early 20th century farming culture, as farm equipment, a silo, an outhouse, chicken coop, root cellar, and smokehouse exist around the house as well.
Back in the day
Some Macon County residents who grew up on Tessentee Road remember simpler days of few cars, drawing water from a well or carrying it from a spring house, no computers, no cell phones, and little-to-no televisions. It was a time when neighbors truly relied on neighbors and much of what was consumed was eaten fresh or canned.
Housing developments a few miles from the end of Tessentee Road currently exist where farms once thrived. Franklin Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Director Linda Carpenter Harbuck was raised on a portion of that land by her maternal grandparents, Oscar and Omega (Brown) Carpenter. They sharecropped on the property owned by Omega’s half-sister, Nellie (Brown) Clouse. The adjoining property belonged to Omega’s half-brother, John Brown.
Her grandparents’ home was complemented by a chicken house, canning cellar, smokehouse, canning house, and outhouse. Harbuck remembers playing in the fields and along the creek and having her Uncle John put her on one of his work horses when it was time to stop working in the fields for “dinner” (which some people refer to as “lunch”).
“I spent time swinging on a grapevine and climbing trees,” she said. “We also ate what we raised and grew. We had our own milk cows for milk and butter, and we grew corn (which was taken to a nearby mill to be made into corn meal) and we also had a big garden.”
Each Thanksgiving, neighbors and family members would gather together and help one another butcher hogs and smoke the meat.
“Almost every part of the pig was used for food,” she explained. “One of the neighbors always wanted the feet. My Granny would render the fat for lard and what was left became pork rinds. I would help her grind some meat and trimmings for sausage that was seasoned and fried and put in glass quart jars, which were covered with the ‘grease’ from the frying pans and sealed.
“Every time I fry sausage now, I wish I had a can of that sausage. That was the best sausage ever! There has never been any pork better than that fresh tenderloin fried for supper that day.” Her grandfather also raised bees.
“I would help him ‘rob the bees’ [get honey]. I used a smoker. I went barefoot and the bees would sting me on my feet and grandfather would scold me for not putting on shoes. That’s probably why I rarely get sick; I got stung so many times.”
Her Granddad found an amethyst mine in the woods behind their house. In the 1950s and 1960s, her grandparents would charge $1 a carload for anyone who wanted to look for amethysts.
“They would go into the mine themselves or have my grandfather go in for them,” said Harbuck. “When it rained sometimes, the amethysts would work their way up through the mud and they could find them on top of the dirt. If they were around for dinner or supper, my grandmother would invite them in and feed them a meal.”
Long ago, the mine was covered up and over time foliage and trees consumed the property where Harbuck grew up. But she still has her memories.
From the time I was born until I became an adult, I lived in the Tessentee area,” she said. “Cousins, aunts, uncles … all lived on that road. I am truly blessed by being part of a wonderful, caring family. We all knew each other on Tessentee, or we were related. So, we were free to roam, pick apples in the fall, fish in the creek, sled in the winter … good memories. It was and is a wonderful place to call home!”
Harbuck and other children who lived on Tessentee at the time attended the school in Otto on Hwy. 441 that is now Old School Knife Works.
“I went to that school for eight years and then finished at Franklin High School,” said Harbuck.
Eighty-nine-year-old James (Punkin) Wiggins also has fond memories of growing up on Tessentee Road. He lived toward the end of Tessentee that is still unpaved.
“I remember Oscar Carpenter,” he said. “He was a legend in those parts because he was a World War I veteran. And his wife Meggie (Omega) was wonderful.”
Where Wiggins was raised, a family had a chicken business. Remnants of numerous chicken coops as well as a few abandoned houses still exist beside Tessentee Road and the creek.
“There had to have been 40 chicken coops in operation during the 1940s and ‘50s,” said Wiggins.
While he was growing up, no one on Tessentee Road had a telephone. The only phone in the area was maintained by the fire warden. “I rode my bike to the bus stop, we made wagons out of black gum trees and went down the hills on Tessentee, and we participated in hog kill day with family and neighbors,” he shared.
Wiggins also remembered almost being bitten by a rattlesnake when he was young, while his half bulldog was bitten on the nose. “Rattlesnakes were all over that area of Tessentee.”
It was around 1949 that Wiggins remembers electricity reaching out on a “spur line” to where his family’s house was. We paid $15 for someone to wire the house.”
Wiggins also remembers when the U.S. Forest Service established a road at the end of Hickory Gap Road, past where the paved part of Tessentee Road ends. The road is completely overgrown, but it leads to the part of the Bartram Trail that runs from Osage Overlook on Scaly Mountain Road to Jones Gap off Gold Mine Road and Highlands Road. A family with the last name Cadon lived where the Forest Service cut a road, and a small graveyard still exists.
“People sold out when the government started logging that area,” said Wiggins. “I don’t know what became of the Cadons, but there used to be strawberry fields all over that area and we would walk there from Tessentee to pick them.”
As an adult, Wiggins became one of the founding volunteer firefighters for the Otto Fire Department, which serves Tessentee Road and other areas of Macon County; he attended the groundbreaking for the new fire department building in February of this year.
Wiggins and his wife, Susan, currently live on Coweeta Church Road, but he remembers “fondly” the era when family and neighbors walked to enjoy Easter egg hunts and picnics together, helped one another in need, and attended Tessentee Baptist Church because it was close by.
“I know it’s just one area of Macon County, but I had good, good memories growing up on Tessentee Road,” said Wiggins.