By Kate Brewster, Farragut Museum Volunteer
It may be hard for morning commuters to imagine the forest that once covered the area through which Concord Road now cuts (from Kingston Pike and S. Campbell Station Road), but that’s what was there in 1787 when Colonel David Campbell settled in what would become Farragut, Tennessee.
Campbell, along with other early families, recognized the need for a church and cemetery early on in their community of Campbell’s Station. In 1798, Revered Samuel Graham Ramsey became the pastor of the church. Originally called Grassy Valley Baptist Church, it was later named Pleasant Forest for the trees that surrounded it. A rough-hewn log building served as a meeting house for the tiny congregation.
On May 1, 1800, Colonel Ramsey deeded the land to the pastor and officers of the church. Thirty-five years later, the congregation had outgrown the log building, and a brick building was erected to replace it, becoming one of the first brick churches in the county outside the city of Knoxville. In 1849, a 40-by-44-foot school building was built adjacent to the church.
Like many brick buildings of the time, Pleasant Forest Church became a casualty of the Civil War. In 1863, as General Ambrose Burnside’s federal troops built their winter quarters in the area, they scavenged bricks from the little church building to use as chimneys. At the close of the war, veterans returned to find their church in ruins.
Neighbors found it nearly impossible to worship together due to their intense partisan sympathies.
In 1871, the remaining members of the congregation erected a new frame building under the leadership of Elder John Steele Campbell. Despite their best efforts, regular services were discontinued in 1892.
To make room for the expanding cemetery, the building was sold to Orion Lodge No. 276 I.O.O.F. in 1925. It was dismantled and reassembled and later became a horse barn in the area that is now the Biddle Farms apartments.
A notable grave in Pleasant Forest Cemetery is that of Archibald Roane, the second governor of Tennessee. Roane served in the Continental Army and was present at the surrender of British Gen. Charles Cornwallis in 1781. Before serving in the army, Roane was a professor of languages and mathematics. In 1788, he moved to this area of Tennessee, formerly a part of North Carolina, where he was licensed to practice law. He represented Jefferson County at the Constitutional Convention at Knoxville when Tennessee became a state in 1796. He also served as a superior court judge for six years before being elected governor in 1801.
Roane died in his home near Campbell’s Station on January 4, 1819. His grave remained unmarked for nearly a century. In 1918, the State of Tennessee finally erected a 13-ton, Winnsboro (SC) blue granite monument in his memory that is still easily recognizable today. Visit PleasantForestCemetery.com for additional information including an alphabetical list of gravesites.