One of the earliest known taverns in what is now Knoxville, Tennessee opened for business in 1792 and was operated by Captain John Chisholm and his three partners Alexander Campbell, John Wool, and Peter McNamee. The December 19, 1792 issue of the Knoxville Gazette advertised that Captain Chisholm and his partners had opened a “House of Entertainment”. Although no document has yet been located specifying the exact location of this tavern, it was very likely located on lot number 17 in Knoxville that Captain Chisholm had purchased in 1791. This lot was located at the corner of Arch (now State Street) and Front Street.
Unfortunately I have been able to find very little detail concerning this “House of Entertainment”. In April, May, and June of 1793 Captain Chisholm ran advertisements in the Knoxville Gazette notifying the public that he had “a convenience house to let in Knoxville, by the year, half year, or quarter”. The ad stated that the house had two rooms down stairs and one up stairs. It is unclear to me whether Captain Chisholm was trying to lease the entire tavern or if he was just trying to rent out the extra room available.
The facts concerning the 1792 and 1793 ads are quit cloudy and it is impossible to know if the “House of Entertainment” or the “Convenience House” referred to in these ads were actually the establishment known as Chisholm’s Tavern, as no address or business name was mentioned. It is clear however that Captain John Chisholm was involved in the Tavern business shortly after arriving in Knoxville.
Some local historians have indicated that an old building located on the north side of Front Street was Chisholm’s Tavern. The Daughters of the American Revolution placed a historical plaque on the building and the building was photographed and surveyed by the Department of the Interior as part of their Historic American Buildings Survey. The 1934 drawings, data sheets, and photographs are currently housed in a Library of Congress collection. There are some local historians who question whether this building was actually the tavern and there are several theories about its location. I tend to agree that the building was not the tavern, but maybe it was the Chisholm home. I can find no definitive evidence either way.
In the January 12, 1794 issue of the Knoxville Gazette Captain Chisholm advertised that he once again opened a “House of Entertainment” at number 17 State Street. The ad stated that boarding may be had there by the year, half year, or quarter on the usual terms. The ad also pointed out that the house would be managed by Mr. James Montgomery. This tavern was surely the establishment known as Chisholm’s Tavern. This same advertisement was repeated in the January 30 and February 13 issue of the Gazette.
In the book Heart of the Valley, A History of Knoxville, Tennessee by the Knoxville History Committee, East Tennessee Historical Society, it is said that John Chisholm was one of several men who played a role in Knoxville’s early history, but passed out of it without significantly affecting its development. While Captain Chisholm may have not been as significant in Knoxville’s history as some of the other characters of his time, I am fascinated with what I have learned of him and feel it is worthwhile to tell what is known of his story. Captain John Chisholm was many things. Yes he was a tavern owner, but he was also a good friend of Governor William Blount, he was a soldier, he was an indian agent, he was a postal contractor, and he was a justice of the peace.
Genealogy records state that John Chisholm was born about 1749 in Drum, Scotland and migrated from that place to Colonial South Carolina and later the frontier territory in the Watauga – Nolachucky region in what is now the State of Tennessee. In Lord Dunmore’s War of 1774, in the battle of Point Pleasant, in Virginia, he was a private in Captain William Nalle’s Company. In 1777 Chisholm returned to the Watauga region, prior to the organization of Washington County and was appointed a justice of the Washington District Court and when the county was organized on February 23, 1778 he was still listed as a justice. He held that office until after the Revolutionary War battle at Kings Mountain.
It has been said that John Chisholm, like many men of Scottish decent, was stout and was an expert with his fists! A court record dated prior to 1780 confirms that John Chisholm was not afraid of a brawl. He was fined 100 pounds for beating a man named Abraham Denton, who was thought to be an active Tory or British loyalist. This run in with the frontier law did not seem to tarnish his reputation, it most likely increased his status, as we find in 1780 he was elected as the Washington County deputy surveyor.
The territorial governor William Blount was a good friend of John Chisholm and when he moved the seat of his territorial government, to White’s Fort (now Knoxville) Chisholm followed and soon opened a tavern there. Chisholm was married when he arrived at White’s Fort, but his family life is another grey area. We do know through land records that he had a son by the name of Ignatius Chisholm. Stories and tradition say his wife was a half-breed indian woman, I have seen unsourced genealogies that suggest her name was Betsy Fauling.
In 1792 Chisholm also started one of the first post routes in the area. It ran from Knoxville to Jefferson Court House, Greenville Court House, Jonesboro, Abingdon, Sullivan Court House, Hawkins Court House and then Back to Knoxville. At this time there were no governmental postal routes so they had to be operated by private citizens. This route ran once every twenty one days. It is obvious that among everything else John Chisholm was he was also an early entrepreneur to boot.
Shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Holston, a treaty between the frontier settlers and the local indians, Governor Blount employed Chisholm as an indian agent and sent him on many missions as a messenger to the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Cherokee chiefs. Then on June 11, 1792 the County of Knox was formed and on June 16, 1792 John Chisholm was named justice of the peace by Governor Blount.
So as you can see despite what some may say he was a man of some status and is a noteworthy figure in not only Knoxville’s history, but to early colonial Appalachian frontier history as well. Unfortunately John Chisholm’s most noted page on the history books has to do with a scandalous episode during William Blount’s term as Tennessee’s senator.
Senator Blount hatched a plan to take the territories of Louisiana and Florida from Spain by force on behalf of England, under the condition that he was to become the governor of the territory and that he receive large grants of land in exchange for his efforts. It was his trustworthy friend John Chisholm who Blount asked to relay a message to British Minister Liston. The discovery of the conspiracy was made when a letter, which was allegedly carried by Chisholm, was given over to government officials and as a result William Blount was impeached.
It is not really known how much of a role John Chisholm played in the conspiracy because after his trip to England he was never officially seen in Tennessee again and due to his absence he made a convenient scapegoat. In my opinion William Blount was most likely the mastermind behind the scheme, he had always been a land speculator and a businessman, it is seems obvious that, although he treated his constituents well, he very much craved more land and power.
I cannot find any official word on what became of Captain John Chisholm after his trip to England, but it is known that he left his wife and children in Knoxville. His daughter Elizabeth married John Somerville in Knoxville. It is likely that Chisholm reentered the country under an assumed name and headed west, it is also very probable that at least one of his sons joined him.
No matter what you may think of John Chisholm, you cannot deny that he was a colorful and interesting character. It was stated on the day he was to sail from Philadelphia to England to deliver that damned letter; he had yet to be seen by his contacts, who became very worried about him. As day turned to night they frantically searched for him all over the city and at about one o’clock in the morning found him in a bar room in a brawl with a group of Frenchmen. It was said he had three of them laid out before they could get him back to the ship!
Here is a description of John Chisholm given by a Mr. Davy of Philadelphia at Blount’s impeachment trial:
"He was a hardy, lusty, brawny, weather-beaten man .... While drinking some porter, he appeared sociable; said that he was a back country man; that he had long lived among the Indians, and was with them during the last war; that he was well known to the Spaniards; that his name was Captain Chisholm; that he had been an interpreter to the Indians last winter in this city; that the 'Spaniards had frequently imprisoned him and treated him cruelly in Pensacola; that they dreaded him, and he hated them, and was now determined to take his full revenge on them. He added, that his influence with the Indians was such that he could do with them as he pleased; that he knew every part of the Mississippi; that there was no man in America who knew the forts and their exact situation so well as himself, and that he was now going to London to accompany and conduct a squadron to the attack of Pensacola; . . . that the Spaniards had no posts of any consequence on the whole of the Mississippi; that one hundred, or one hundred and fifty, a mere handful of men, might destroy them all."
These are the facts that I have found to date, I plan to continue my research and will update this article if and when more information emerges from the murky depths of history.
Sources:
- US Department of the Interior, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
- East Tennessee Historical Society Archives
- Heart of the Valley, East Tennessee Historical Society
- Chronicals of Oklahoma, Volume 8, No.2, June 1930, John Chisholm, A Soldier of Fortune by Kate White
- John Chisholm's Tavern by Ron Allen
- Chisholm's Tavern (Knoxville) Wikipedia Article
Photographs: US Department of the Interior, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress
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