Rosenbalm Origins & Resources

David Rosenbalm and his wife Elizabeth were living near Tazwell, Tennessee in 1860, but by 1870, they had disappeared from the records and are presumed to have died by then.

*Much of the Rosenbalm history was shared with me in 1977 by Mildred Garvey (daughter of Mary Hopson Majars and granddaughter of Jesse Hamilton Hopson) of Redondo Beach, California, and can be found in Clifford R. Canfield's book, The Rosenbaum-Rosenbalm Family of Southwest Virginian, which is 726 pages long and about the size of a large Sears catalog!) The name Rosenbaum is of German origin and means "rose tree." The Rosenbaums were a German Lutheran family that arrived in America as early as 1710. In 1660, the Rosenbaum name was entered into the records of the Lutheran church in Westphalia, Germany. There are also many Rosenbaums of the Jewish faith from Central Europe living in the U. S., but that is a different line. Rosenbaums (of various spellings) settled in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Southwest Virginia, and have scattered across the nation, but our particular line can be directly traced to Anthony Rosenbaum, who lived in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s.

Henry C. Oakley & The Battle of 'Burg Hill

My great grandfather Henry Coleman Oakley recalled the Civil War Battle of Gatlinburg from his role as a "home guard," when he was just a teenager.

Saltpeter, used to make gunpowder, is said to have been mined at Alum Cave. Both sides would need it and yet would want to keep it from their foes. It was near the cave that Confederate commander William H. Thomas and his "legion" of about 200, comprised primarily of Cherokee soldiers, met Union Lt. Col. Lemborn and his group of 50 men. The skirmish lasted only about an hour, as the two sides battled their way in and out of Gatlinburg.

Henry Oakley told how he watched from a big rock overhang on Turkey Nest Mountain as the Blue Coats of the Union army rode around Burg Hill and the Confederate Gray Coats came around Graveyard Hill. They shot at each other across what would become the main part of town.

One Union soldier was captured. Although no one died, several wounded soldiers escaped, and all the Union supplies were taken, as the fighting dissipated between Gatlinburg and Kodak.

Henry Coleman Oakley, father of my grandmother Josie Oakley, died in 1920. Shown in the top photo is the reenactment group of the 63D Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, CSA, led by their captain, Henry's great-great grandson Jeff Noland, also pictured at right. Period photos of the modern 63d TN impressionists were taken by Wendell Decker of Vintage Studios, using the authentic war photography process.

Bradford Loveday & The 1863 Siege of Knxville, TN

Perry Webb wasn't my only ancestor who participated in the battle of Fort Sanders at Knoxville. My great-great grandfather Noah Loveday's brother Bradford was there, too.

With Major General Burnside and the Union army inside the fort, which was located near today's Ft. Sanders Hospital, Confederate Lt. General Longstreet thought he and his men could attack at dawn and take them by surprise. He surveyed the fort through field glasses and saw men walking up to the fort walls, but what he did not see was that they were walking across planks that spanned a ditch that was twelve feet wide and from four to ten feet deep.

In the dim morning light with freezing rain, the Confederate soldiers charged, only to be tripped by taut, low-strung wire before falling helplessly into the ditch, unable to scale its sides or the fort walls. As such, they were easy targets for the Union. The battle lasted only 20 minutes, but the Confederates suffered 813 casualties, while the Union had only 13. At least 200 Rebels were taken prisoner from the ditch. Eventually, the Confederate dead were buried in the cemetery behind what is called the Mabry-Hazen House.

Pension papers filed in the late 1880s after Bradford Loveday's death show that neighbors (Henry Ward, Matthew Ball, Emanuel Hurst, William Yarberry, Byram Hurst, Daniel Hurst, and Lewis Breeden), some of whom were Bradford's fellow soldiers, attested to the illness and injury Bradford sustained from his time in Knoxville and suffered with until his death on September 20, 1883.

Rucker Farm

My beautiful great-grandmother Mary Isabell (Rucker) Hopson (left) was born April 13, 1868 to Minerva (Jordan) and Samuel Rucker at Washburn, Grainger County, Tennessee. Minervia's mother was a Harvey. Minervia had a brother named Jack Jordan.

Mary Rucker Hopson is shown here at her brother's farm with her sister-in-law Mary, who married Dewitt Rucker (Mary Rucker Hopson's brother). Confused?

According to oral history, Mary's father Samuel Rucker put wood in the fireplace, then lay down on a sheep skin rug, and called, "Minervia!" but by the time she got to him, he was dead.

My mother, Wanda Lee (Kitts) Loveday was with her grandmother Mary Rucker Hopson, who was in the bedroom cutting out material for an apron when she just fell over. My grandmother and Gladys Merritt (Chet Atkins’ mother’s sister) were in the garden picking greens, when Mother went out to tell them about her grandmother Mary falling. Mary died that day, on Mother’s sixth birthday, September 30, 1930.