Our Stories
Colonel Francis Alexander Ramsey
A surveyor and one of the first settlers of Knox County, Ramsey held many important positions, including serving as court clerk and as a founding trustee of what was to become the University of Tennessee.
Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey
Author of one of the state's earliest histories, The Annals of Tennessee, J.G.M. also founded the East Tennessee Historical Society, was a physician, and was later exiled from Knoxville during the Civil War.
William B.A. Ramsey
William B.A. Ramsey was the first popularly elected mayor of Knoxville, publisher of the Knoxville Register, served as Tennessee’s secretary of state, and was also a known abolitionist.
Margaret Alexander Ramsey
Colonel Ramsey’s beloved wife, “Peggy” moved from wealth to a log cabin overlooking Swan Pond. She and Francis had nine children, three of whom survived to adulthood.
Levy
Born into slavery at Swan Pond, Levy served as a carriage driver for the Ramsey family. He was freed during the Civil War and lived through reconstruction in the 1870s.
Swan Pond
Located on what was once Cherokee hunting grounds, Colonel Ramsey acquired the site for Ramsey House, a game-rich, beaver-dammed wetland, in 1786. Called Swan Pond, over 100 acres of original farmland is preserved today.
