First settlers, Tennessee first settler, Knoxville, Sold to James White,

Knoxville's First Settler

Research resources:

Elisha Baker

(1756 - ~1830)

"On a bluff above the Tennessee River, formerly the Holston River, in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, is located the historic landmark known as White’s Fort. The hewn-log dwelling stands on the banks of First Creek, flowing from the north and winding its way through the center of the city. The creek empties into the river a short distance south of the fort structure. The persistent history is that the structure was the dwelling of militia Captain James White, built in 1786 on a one-thousand-acre tract of land he had acquired by the Land Grab Act of 1783. White, eventually the founder of Knoxville, is credited as the first settler in the area" but... Excerpt from Knoxville's First Settler - More

Land Grant Map - at Knoxille

Baker's dwelling plot on Long Creek

Elisha Baker Historical timeline

Knoxville's first settler was Elisha Baker

Norman L. Baker, published author on early American forts -settler expansion in Virginia - Tennessee

Capt. Elisha Baker - Founding member of State of Franklin - timeline

"If the treaty {Cherokee, 1791} negotiation took place at the site stated by Ramsey (Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee, 1853), it was on the land by the river which two months before had been the land of Capt. Elisha Baker" Link to map

For more information or to provide additional research data,

please email: nlbsnb@aol.com