Our second week of adventure began with us spending Monday morning at the Grainger County Archives in Tennessee, located in the old high school building on the second floor. Stevvi Cook, manager, welcomed us and we began searching their records in hopes of finding some trace of Stephen Farrar and his family. I have spoken with Stevvi on the phone over the years and she was most helpful this time as well. Reading through the tax records I discovered that Stephen did not own land but paid taxes of twelve and a half cents on being a white adult male. The only other thing we came up with was a book on the history of the county that had entries for some Farrar's. I copied the information to sort through later to see if there is any connection since nothing was obvious at a glance.
We do know that James Farrar, the son of Stephen, did live in Buffalo Springs when he enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. Tennessee was a divided state on the slave issue, but east Tennessee seemed to be more union than not. James and his brother William went to Louisville, KY, to enlist. We do not know exactly where in Buffalo Springs they lived, but Stevvi was able to show us on a map where it is and we took off to visit our ancestral home.
Buffalo Springs is a beautiful area of rolling farm hills. Cattle and corn and wheat are grown here.
When the Farrar's came to this area, they came along with about 200 other families from Orange County North Carolina. Today, Buffalo Springs is home to a fish hatchery and is a wildlife reserve.
We made our way back to Dandridge by way of Cherokee Lake. It seems to divide the two counties of Grainger and Jefferson, although where Buffalo Springs is located, it is all land and not too far to get into Jefferson County.
The beautiful fall colors made the excursion pleasing to the eye.
We came down this road to the lake.
At the western end of the lake is the Cherokee Dam.
Tuesday we woke up to rain and cloudy skies. We spent the day, at least six hours of it, at the Jefferson County Archives, located in the courthouse in Dandridge. The courthouse was built in 1845, and is the oldest courthouse still in use in Tennessee. The roof is all wood, including pegs to hold it together. There are no nails in it. The bricks were all handmade and made us think of the many red bricks made in Nauvoo during that same time period.
It was quite the day of research and we were successful to some degree with finding marriage records, tax records, and some court records. They also have a book on the history of the county in which we found numerous entries that may be about some of our ancestors or extended family members. Volunteer Jim was most helpful, spending the entire time with me in research. It was an amazing experience. Upon leaving, they said I really needed to talk to Britt Farrar, he would know everything about the family.
Off we headed to the Farrer Funeral Home in Jefferson City.
Britt was there and very friendly. We had a great conversation and he said his Uncle Bill Farrar was who I needed to talk to. He called his 94 year old mother for the phone number and we were on our way. I called Uncle Bill but we were unable to make a connection as his family came from Franklin County, Tennessee, more in the middle of the state to the south, quite a distance from Grainger and Jefferson counties in the east. What I did learn from talking to Britt and his Uncle, the name Farrar is pronounced like pharough, with soft 'f' and 'r' sounds. All in all, it was a good excursion into my family history.
We packed up and headed to Dry Ridge, KY, where we stayed the night. The weather was cloudy and rainy the whole way and the temps dropped. It was a safe trip with frequent stops.
Wednesday we woke up to more clouds and a slight sprinkle of rain. I guess that was fitting as we were heading to the Ark! The Ark Encounter is located in Williamstown, KY, and is an attraction of AnswersInGenesis.org.
The ark is constructed after the dimensions given in the Bible. The inside is what the organization thinks it could have been like. Bob is a natural on the scooter.
These are ideas for water and grain storage aboard the ark. They line the walls in their various blocks.
These are crates that house some of the animals. The container on the left is for food and the one on the right is for water.
Living quarters.
There are three levels in the ark. This is the back end of the ark.
There was more fun to be had with a camel ride. It was my first. Seven year old Luke was pretty good with walking around the course with me in tow. He hales from Minnesota.
Luke was even great with a pose to match mine!
Bob already had his choice of ride and decided he would forgo the camel experience.
Here are a couple of cute little critters whose ancestors were on the ark.
We enjoyed our tour of the ark and decided it was more than just building a boat for Noah. He basically learned from the ground up and it took time and effort and a lot of days, maybe months, maybe even years.
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