The year 1788 was a particularly bloody time in what would become Blount County’s history. The Kirk Massacre at Nine Mile in May set off a firestorm when young John Kirk took revenge against the Cherokee for massacring 11 members of his family by murdering several Cherokee chiefs, including one known as Old Tassel. Old Tassel’s nephew, a mixed-race man known as John Watts, vowed vengeance. What happened at Gillespy’s Fort in present-day Alcoa continued the revenge killings between the Cherokee and White settlers.
Since the Kirk massacre, settlers — living in constant fear — stayed in fortified areas. Some were palisaded forts with cabins. Other stations were two-story structures where riflemen could fire from the top floor. Every few miles, a place of refuge existed as Native Americans in the area sought to drive White settlers away. What would become Blount County sat on the edge of settlement territory, close to the Cherokee capital of Chota. After the fall of the State of Franklin, the settlers were there illegally, and the Cherokee knew it.
James Gillespie and his wife, Elizabeth Findley Gillespy, and others built a fairly large fortification containing cabins. It was known as Gillespy’s Fort. About 50 people were living there in the fall of 1788…