James Gettys McGready Ramsey (March 25, 1797 – April 11, 1884) was an American historian, physician, planter,

slave owner The following is a list of slave owners, for which there is a consensus of historical evidence of slave ownership, in alphabetical order by last name. A * Adelicia Acklen (1817–1887), at one time the wealthiest woman in Tennessee, she inh ...

, and businessman, active primarily in East Tennessee during the nineteenth century. Ramsey is perhaps best known for his book, ''The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century'', a seminal work documenting the state's frontier and early statehood periods. Ramsey was also a major advocate for development in East Tennessee, leading efforts to bring railroad access to the region, and helping to organize the region's first medical society.Lisa Oakley
James Gettys McGready Ramsey
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 29 July 2010. As the son of a prominent Tennessee statesman, Ramsey encountered as a child many of the state's important early political figures, giving him a unique historical perspective on the state's early years.William Masterson, "J. G. M. Ramsey: Historian of Early Tennessee." Introduction in Ramsey's ''The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century'' (Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 1999), pp. xiii-xxix. After his father's death, Ramsey began compiling a vast collection of historical documents related to the state's Watauga, Franklin, and

Southwest Territory The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...

periods. After years of exchanging advice and notes with fellow historian

Lyman Draper Lyman Copeland Draper (September 4, 1815August 26, 1891) was a librarian and historian who served as secretary for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin. Draper also served as Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisco ...

, Ramsey published the 700-plus page ''Annals'' in 1853. While the book has been praised for its attention to accuracy and factual detail, modern historians have criticized it for its lack of historical inquiry and its overemphasis on biography and warfare. A lifelong states' rights Democrat, Ramsey supported the Confederacy during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, and as a Confederate treasury agent, he was forced to flee Knoxville under an armed guard ahead of the city's Federal occupation in 1863. While the war left his family and finances in ruins, Ramsey nevertheless returned to Knoxville in the early 1870s, and gradually rebuilt his fortune. His funeral procession in 1884 was the largest ever witnessed in Knoxville until that time.

Biography

Early life

Ramsey was born in a temporary cabin at what is now the Ramsey House (the house was still under construction) in 1797, the fourth son of Francis Alexander Ramsey and Peggy Alexander, both of Scots-Irish descent. Francis Alexander had left Pennsylvania possessing only his horse, and both a surveying compass and chain during 1783 at age 19 after having been invited by his material uncle John Alexander to live with him on Big Limestone Creek at what was then Washington County, North Carolina (now Greene County, Tennessee) and within approximately one mile of the Martin Academy founded by the Rev. Samuel Doak. Also during 1783, Ramsey's father helped James White explore what is now the Knoxville area, and later served in various capacities in the State of Franklin and

governments. Guests who frequented the Ramsey House during Ramsey's formative years included

John Sevier John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...

and

Willie Blount Willie Blount (April 18, 1768September 10, 1835) was an American politician who served as the third Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to 1815. Blount's efforts to raise funds and soldiers during the War of 1812 earned Tennessee the nickname, "Volu ...

, and Knoxville founders James White and Charles McClung. Francis Alexander married Margaret "Peggy" Alexander from Mecklenburg, North Carolina on April 7, 1789, and moved his 23 year old bride to his Limestone residence where they lived until 1792 or 1793, when they moved away to Swan Pond. Swan Pond is located within the Lebanon In The Fork area east of Knoxville where the

Holston River The Holston River is a river that flows from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee. Along with its three major forks (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork), it comprises a major river system that drains much of northeastern Tennessee, ...

meets at a confluence with the

French Broad River The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows from near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Tennessee, where its confluence with the Holston River at Knoxville form ...

, these rivers together forming the beginning of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other name ...

. J.G.M. Ramsey studied with private tutors as a child before attending the Ebenezer Academy, located in what is now West Knoxville. He graduated from

Washington College Washington College is a private liberal arts college in Chestertown, Maryland. Maryland granted Washington College its charter in 1782. George Washington supported the founding of the college by consenting to have the "College at Chester" name ...

(previously, Martin Academy) during March 1816, and later studied medicine at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He married Margaret Crozier in 1821, and began practicing medicine in Knoxville.East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: The Society, 1972), pp. 97, 470-471.

Business interests

After his father's death in 1820, Ramsey succeeded him as president of the Knoxville Branch of the Bank of Tennessee. During the same period, he began building a large plantation at the confluence of the French Broad and Holston rivers, named "Mecklenburg" after his mother's native

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Mecklenburg County is a county located in the southwestern region of the state of North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,115,482, making it the second-most populous county in North Carolina (after Wa ...

. Along with a large mansion, Mecklenburg included a 4,000-volume library that contained many important documents pertaining to Tennessee's early history, as well as a ferry across the Holston River immediately at its confluence with the French Broad River, east of Knoxville. According to an account of a visit to Mecklenburg by "Ora," a correspondent of the ''Mobile Advertiser'', (and later republished within the April 6, 1862 edition of the '' Knoxville Register''), the Ramsey's Mecklenburg residence was located about 100 yards from "...the ruins of the old Presbyterian Church of Lebanon". As early as 1825, Ramsey had proposed connecting Knoxville with the Atlantic Coast via railroad, which would have given the region's farmers better access to markets in Charleston. Over the years, Ramsey negotiated several hundred thousand dollars worth of bonds, which funded the first railroads built in the region. Ramsey also championed improvements to the Tennessee River that would give Knoxville's river merchants year-round access to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

. In 1828, the first steamboat to reach Knoxville, the ''Atlas'', docked at Mecklenburg, prompting Ramsey to give a speech on the meaning of patriotism. During the 1850s, Ramsey served as a director of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, which finally brought railroad access to Knoxville in 1855. In 1858, the Bank of East Tennessee, of which Ramsey was also a director, collapsed due to overspeculation. The bank chose to pay off its largest depositors instead of its smaller (and less affluent) depositors, causing outrage throughout the region.Robert McKenzie, ''Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 25, 78, 107, 211. '' Knoxville Whig'' newspaper editor and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

minister William "Parson" Brownlow, who had been at odds with Ramsey since the 1840s, sued on behalf of these depositors and won a civil judgement against Ramsey.William Gannaway Brownlow, ''Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession'' (Philadelphia: G.W. Childs, 1862), pp. 289-290.

''The Annals of Tennessee''

Ramsey began accumulating historical documents pertaining to the state's history during the 1830s. He began writing ''The Annals of Tennessee'' in 1840, but the project stalled as Ramsey struggled with a lack of information regarding certain periods, and attempted to address certain contradictions in his source documents. A major catalyst for Ramsey during this period was his friendship with historian Lyman Draper, who first visited Ramsey in October 1844. Draper, who was compiling documents for a history of the Trans-Allegheny region, helped Ramsey fill in a number of gaps, and provided him with technical advice. ''The Annals of Tennessee'', which covers the state's history to 1800, was finally published in 1853. Contemporary historians such as Draper,

George Bancroft George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian, statesman and Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts and at the national and internati ...

, and

Benson John Lossing Benson John Lossing (February 12, 1813 – June 3, 1891) was a prolific and popular American historian, known best for his illustrated books on the American Revolution and American Civil War and features in '' Harper's Magazine''. He was a ...

, praised the ''Annals'', while others, such as William B. Campbell and A. W. Putnam, derided it. The book sold moderately well, and a second edition was published within a few years. The 1860 edition of Ramsey's ''The Annals of Tennessee'' also features approximately 36 pages of display advertising for Lippincott & Grambo & Co.s Publications at the back section of the book, predominately selling religious books, sermons, and illustrations. The book is an invaluable account of many of the state's early historical events, especially considering that many of the documents on which it was based were destroyed during the Civil War. Modern historians, however, criticize Ramsey for focusing almost solely on battles and biographies of key figures, while ignoring economic and social factors that contributed significantly to the state's early settlement. The book has also been criticized for its unbalanced organization, providing a torrent of details on some events and scant details on other, equally important events.

Secession crisis

Ramsey had long sought to bring a Deep South-style economy to East Tennessee. He believed the South was morally superior to the North, and detested the idea that Knoxville would become industrialized along the lines of northern manufacturing centers. This brought him into conflict with Brownlow and business leaders such as Perez Dickinson, who believed the region's abundant coal and iron resources made industrialization Knoxville's most lucrative option. Ramsey was also radically pro-slavery, going so far as to call for the reopening of the Atlantic slave trade.J. G. M. Ramsey, William B. Hesseltine (ed.), ''Autobiography and Letters'' (Nashville, Tenn.: Tennessee Historical Commission, 1954), pp. 87-95, 173. During the secession crisis that followed Lincoln's election in November 1860, Ramsey grew increasingly frustrated with East Tennessee's refusal to align itself with the South. Ramsey suggested that most East Tennesseans were too "ignorant" to understand the secession issue, and accused Brownlow (who was pro-Union) of using the ''Whig'' to brainwash them. After the fall of

Fort Sumter Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle ...

, Ramsey wrote to Governor Isham Harris, and suggested he bypass a voters' referendum on Tennessee's Union ties and simply dissolve them by proclamation. Ramsey owned eight slaves in 1860 prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.

The Civil War

During the war, Ramsey served as a Confederate treasury agent, and two of his sons served in the Confederate Army. His eldest son, John Crozier Ramsey, was appointed Confederate States District Attorney of Knox County. In this capacity, the younger Ramsey issued indictments against the city's pro-Unionists, and in December 1861, had Brownlow arrested for treason. As rumors spread that the Confederate Army was planning to release Brownlow, the elder Ramsey wrote to Jefferson Davis, calling Brownlow the "prime mover and instigator" of Union sentiment in the region, and demanded he be court-martialed. As the war raged on, Ramsey's fortunes collapsed. His son, Arthur, was killed in battle, his daughters Charlotte and Henrietta died, and two other sons were captured. When the Union Army occupied Knoxville in 1863, Ramsey and his family were forced to flee. His home, Mecklenburg, with its 4,000-volume library, was burned by a Union soldier (Ramsey claimed the arsonist had been hired by Brownlow). Brownlow seized Ramsey's townhouse in Knoxville, and had Ramsey's youngest daughter, Susan, expelled from the city. Ramsey's son was forced to sell the family's ancestral home in East Knoxville. Ramsey himself spent the latter half of the war in various cities around the region, continuously fleeing the Union Army's advance.

Later life

At the end of the war, the Ramseys wound up in a house in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, which they called "Exile's Retreat." Brownlow, now governor of Tennessee, refused to pardon Ramsey, and ordered his arrest. Ramsey's friends, however, managed to obtain for him a presidential pardon from Andrew Johnson, issued in November 1865. Ramsey returned to Knoxville 1872. He began practicing medicine again, and managed to regain some of his property through a series of complicated lawsuits. Within various letters from 1875 collected for his edited "Autobiography and Letters" by William B. Hesseltine, Ramsey noted that he had suffered an '...ignoble accident from an unruly horse", that he had a crushed limb, that he was a "cripple", that he used crutches, and that he was confined to his room. When Ramsey died in 1884, the flag at the

Tennessee State Capitol The Tennessee State Capitol, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It serves as the home of both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly–the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tenn ...

was lowered to

half-staff Half-mast or half-staff (American English) refers to a flag flying below the summit of a ship mast, a pole on land, or a pole on a building. In many countries this is seen as a symbol of respect, mourning, distress, or, in some cases, a salu ...

. The ''Knoxville Chronicle'' reported that Ramsey's funeral procession was the largest in the history of Knoxville. Ramsey was buried nearby his father at the Lebanon in the Forks Cemetery, near the confluence of the French Broad and Holston rivers at the beginning of the

Legacy

During his lifetime, Ramsey helped establish the East Tennessee Medical Society, serving as its first president, as well as the

East Tennessee Historical Society The East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS), headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of East Tennessee history, the preservation of historically significant artifacts, and educating ...

, serving as its first recording secretary. After the war, he served as president of the Tennessee Historical Society. The stone house of Ramsey's father, completed the year of Ramsey's birth, still stands on Thorngrove Pike in East Knoxville, and is currently a museum. Ramsey was the inspiration for the George Washington Harris short story, "The Doctor's Bill," which describes a doctor's comical attempt to obtain payment from the county for the treatment of a local

pauper Pauperism (Lat. ''pauper'', poor) is poverty or generally the state of being poor, or particularly the condition of being a "pauper", i.e. receiving relief administered under the English Poor Laws. From this, pauperism can also be more generally ...

. Ramsey, called "Doctor Blank" in the story, probably told the story to Harris at some point. The story also mentions Ramsey's old mentor, Joseph Strong ("Dr. S").M. Thomas Inge, ''High Times and Hard Times'' (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1967), p. 92n. While criticized by modern historians, the ''Annals of Tennessee'' remains an important source of factual information regarding the state's early settlement, and has been republished several times. In 1918, the East Tennessee Historical Society published a short pamphlet written by Ramsey that details the history of the Lebanon-in-the-Fork Presbyterian Church. In 1954, the Tennessee Historical Commission published an autobiography Ramsey had written to venerate his family's actions during the Civil War, along with some of his personal correspondence.

References

External links

J. G. M. Ramsey Papers, 1789-1944
— University of North Carolina's Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library *
The Annals of Tennessee
' – Google Books

— Online edition, annotated and fully searchable

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsey, James Gettys Mcgready 1797 births 1884 deaths People from Knoxville, Tennessee Businesspeople from Tennessee American historians Writers from Tennessee American people of Scotch-Irish descent American slave owners 19th-century American businesspeople