After Chris and I got ready and gathered all of our belongings in virtual darkness early the morning of Sunday, March 16, 2008, we left Ryan and Becki’s house in Pooler and bid farewell to our three-day Savannah, Georgia getaway. The ride home was fairly uneventful after stopping for breakfast at McDonalds, the car lighter that charged the iPod transmitter dock died, and Chris realized that he had left with one of Becki’s bags in his trunk. That is until we made our way into Tennessee…
It was here that we had Burger King. No, that’s not the exciting part. It was our decision to veer off thirty miles east to visit President Andrew Johnson’s hometown of Greeneville, Tennessee. We first stopped off at his grave marker and it was here that I convinced Chris to also make the hop over the keep-out fence to get his first photo taken with a Presidential grave. I explained that down the road, he may become insane like me and wish to chronicle all of the Presidential gravesites.
Chris begins his Presidential journey
He’s not starting out very well…
Then we headed into downtown Greenville where we visited the Visitors Center that included Johnson’s tailor shop, two of Johnson’s homes, and a reproduction of Johnson’s birth house (the original is in Raleigh, North Carolina). All of the details of these historic locations might be found here.
In the Andrew Johnson birthplace reproduction
Chris in the basement of Johnson’s 1830’s Greenville home
Instead of going back west toward our homes, we decided to go another ten miles or so in the eastward direction toward Limestone, Tennessee. Although it really wasn’t on a mountaintop as The Ballad of Davy Crockett would have you believe, it was in a little area a ways off the beaten path that Davy Crockett was actually born.
Nestled within the Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park was a monument that was certainly erected in the 1800’s marking the spot of the cabin in which Crockett was born. This is right next to a nearby reproduction log cabin. Also in the area is a cenotaph monument to Davy Crockett which was erected in 1890 and then replaced in 1865. A brick wall was built around the monument and included a rock or brick from each of the fifty states. Chris was quick to proudly locate Ohio’s contribution.
With the ancient Davy Crockett birthplace monument
The log cabin reproduction
The multi-state wall around the monument
Chris lives here
Kilt him a b’ar when he was only three…
From there we headed home trying to keep the conversation going in order to stay awake. It was more difficult for me since Chris did all of the driving. Chris dropped me off at Mom’s where my car was located and I headed back to the homestead, arriving about 9:30pm.
The trip was over.
Wow! How interesting. That would be one place that I’d really like to visit!
Amber
May 2nd, 2008
Davy Crockett is my 5th great-uncle.
Jean
March 24th, 2020