Blue Ridge Country May/June 2023 - 14

OUR BLUE RIDGE TOWNS
DANDRIDGE, TENNESSEE
'We Saved a Place for You'
Tennessee's second oldest town has a story you won't forget-and they tell it really well.
Text and photos by JOAN VANNORSDALL
t's on just about every visitor brochure featuring
Dandridge and Jefferson County, Tennessee: " We
Saved a Place for You. " A curious choice, I thought
when I first saw it-rather generic, quite vague-and
it raised more questions than answers. Who did the
saving, and why? What got saved, and from what?
And so I found myself in Dandridge-it bills itself
" the Heart of East Tennessee " on " the Lakeside of the
Smokies " -listening to well-told and well-lived stories
from a long time ago. Listening to the official Jefferson
County historian " with a talent for working with deeds
in the County Courthouse. " To a descendent of a family
removed from their homeplace when the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park was built. And yes...to the story
of how, 80 years ago, Dandridge saved its historic downtown
from a watery grave.
I
As a seventh-generation Jefferson County resident,
Bob Jarnagin's passion for his place runs deep. His grandfather
was mayor of Dandridge from 1930 to 1970, and
Jarnagin now owns the longstanding family insurance
business on Main Street. " My ancestors came at the close
of the Revolutionary War, in 1783. They built the first
gristmill in the area. "
Dandridge is located along the French Broad River,
and on a major north-south migratory route.
" People came by stagecoach and steamboats to Dandridge, "
Jarnagin says. " So we had a lot of early inns and
taverns here-and four of them are still standing and
occupied. "
ABUSH'S BEANS
DON'T-MISS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY
Ten miles south of Dandridge sits the largest producer of baked beans in the world:
Bush's Baked Beans. Still run by the Bush family, the factory and adjacent visitor center,
museum, gift shop and café sprawl over dozens of acres in tiny Chestnut Hill, Tennessee,
within view of the Smoky Mountains.
Redone in 2022, the museum is dedicated to, yes, beans. Catchy phrases like " our
beautiful bean story " and " the beautiful bean harmony " are scattered throughout the
documentary chorus, and the thing is . . . you leave there feeling the love. After more
than a century, the Bush's Baked Bean story is still rooted deep in family and community,
and the company is known for its employee loyalty. It's, well, beautiful. -JV
14 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
IMMEDIATE RIGHT: Jefferson
County historian Bob Jarnagin is a
seventh-generation resident.
CENTER: TVA's Douglas Lake
meets downtown Dandridge, with
the Great Smoky Mountains a
distant blue border.
FAR RIGHT: Tinsley-Bible
Drugstore has been a fixture in
downtown Dandridge for more than
a century.
One of those, the Shepard Inn bed and breakfast,
boasts of three sitting presidents-Andrew Jackson, James
K. Polk and Andrew Johnson-having stayed there. Jarnagin
steps across the graduated rise of stepping blocks near
the entrance and balances above the gravel lot. " This, "
he grins, " is how the ladies mounted their horses and got
into their stagecoaches. "
It's in the nearby Revolutionary War graveyard that
Jarnagin tells the story of how Dandridge got its name.
" The County of Jefferson was designated in 1792, " he
says. " And a year later, the first commissioners of the
county elected to name the county seat after George
Washington's wife, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington.
That's pretty amazing, a group of 18th-century men
naming this place after a woman! "
The graveyard was the site of the first Presbyterian

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Blue Ridge Country May/June 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country May/June 2023