Thomas Granville Carver

The Carvers - written by Dave Post

For more than two decades, pre 1830 to post 1850, the Carver surname was prominent in Cades Cove where family property was tilled from the "upper end" to the "lower end" and at points in between. The Carvers arrived with other Cove pioneers but left for "greener pastures" as the population density peaked around 1850. The families and descendants of two brothers, Thomas Sr. and Cornelius, appear to represent the Cove Carvers. Thomas Sr. and his son James established Cove homes prior to 1830.

The elder's will documents his death before August 1836 and identifies his 11 children, living except for John in 1836. His children later scattered to Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina and Iowa. Property transactions indicate the cabin homes of Thomas Sr. and another son Reuben were located in the vicinity of the Methodist Church. Thomas Sr. was probably buried at the Carver-Davis Cemetery located north of the church.

Davises appear frequently as neighbors, legal witnesses and buyers of Carver property. An 1836 deed of Thomas Sr.'s was witnessed by William "Fighting Billie" Tipton, the original Cades Cove land speculator. James, married to Elizabeth Burchfield of Carter County, established his home in the "lower end" near Nathan Rose and Reuben's son Burton. In the 1840s, James sold property to Jacob Davis and D.D. Foute. The Foute tract was originally conveyed to James by Robert Burchfield and included the eventual site of the Cable Mill.

One of James' daughters, Celia, married Charles Gregory in 1848, son of Russell and Susan Hill Gregory. Charles and Celia soon moved to Cherokee Co., N.C. with her parents but returned between 1870-1880. Charles also visited during the Civil War as a Confederate soldier. Thomas Carver Jr. built his cabin in the "upper end" with Henry Shields and George Rowan his neighbors but left with the rest of the family before 1850. Cornelius' family moved into the Cove in the 1840s just as his brother's descendants were leaving Cornelius appears to have deceased prior to 1850 as his wife, Elizabeth, is living with son John in that year. Thomas, Cynthia and Jane, married to Russell Jones, were other children maintaining Cove homes in 1850.

By 1860, no Carvers were living in the Cove! Today, the scant reminders of Carver footsteps are the old home sites and the unmarked Carver-Davis Cemetery, only known by a diminishing number of Cades Cove descendants and historians.

Thomas Carver - Will

• Blount County, Tennessee - Wills Volume 1 page 28
• FHL film 888878 it1
• State of Tennessee Blount County February the 9th 1836

I Thomas Carver Jnr being of a sound and perfect mind and memory do make and publish this my last will and testament in manner and form following. I give to my daughter Margaret five shillings. I give to my son Adien five shillings. I give to my daughter Mary five shillings. I give to my Benjamin one cow. I give to my son William. I give to my daughter Elizabeth one cow. I give to my son John heirs one cow each. I give to my son James giving James Carver a track of land beginning on Nathan Rose line with the Meadow and cross fence opposite the ditch thence a straight core to the ditch thence North straight to the east and west line thence east to Alfred Buton Carver line thence with said line south to Thomas Carver line thence west to his corner thence with his own line and Nathan Rose's to the beginning at the hay stacks where they now stand let the same be more or less. I give to my son Ruben to one sorrel horse and a rifle gun. I give to my daughter Rosanna five shillings. I give to my neas Seany Carver, a daughter of Thomas Carver Junyera one feather bed and furniture. I give to my neas Sary Carver, Reubens daughter, one feather bed and furniture. Likewise when William Carver marries James Carver is to give him the half of the South of the property his father gave him was it now worth. Signed sealed in the presence of as Attest )John Collins

                                                                                                                     )Attests     Thomas Carver (Seal

                                                                                                                     )Thomas Davis  by mark