Wednesday, January 28, 1981 Cocke County Plain Talk

An Era Passes At Big Creek

EDITOR’S NOTE: The voyage of the Burnett families from 1835 when they moved Into Cocke County is the subject of this historical sketch by former county historian Mary Rowe Ruble.

In 1835 a caravan of wagons crossed the Warm Springs Mountains bringing the family of Swan Pritchett and Frances Bell Burnett from near Asheville in Buncombe County, North Carolina, to their new home In Big Creek (now Del Rio) in the French Broad River Valley of Cocke County, Tennessee. With the passing recently of their great-grandson, J. Frank Burnett, after nearly one hundred and fifty years, no other descendants bearing the Burnett name reside on the original land.

Swan P. Burnett purchased a tract of 1200 acres stretching over five miles along the river from Big Creek on the west to Rock Creek on the east. He built a home in the bottoms, now occupied by the Bennington Pine plant. (After a flood, the home was later moved to higher ground.) This couple produced thirteen chIldren, five of whom married into the Huff family, thus making nearly a score and a half of double cousins. (Relationships such as these have woven varied and complicated degrees of kinship among the Del Rio people.)

Frank Burnett’s grandparents, James Madison and Caroline Huff Burnett, resided on the eastern end of the Burnett tract. They erected a substantial log home along the banks of the river, directly across from the home of Capt. Andrew C. and Narcissa Burnett Huff. (During the Civil War, the two families took opposing sides of the issue and at least once, shots were exchanged. On that spectacular occasion, a bullet entered the central downstairs hall of the Burnett home, taking off the end of a finger of a little slave boy and nearly scaring James Huff Burnett (Frank’s father) to death.

The railroad came to Del Rio in 1869, the right-of-way going through the Burnett lands. It was necessary to raze the James M. Burnett home. It was completely dismantled and rebuilt atop a knoll farther back under the brow of the hill. Over the years it has been enlarged and remodeled to meet domestic demands and it has been kept in an excellent state of repair. Frank and Sarah Burnett have been proud to make this house their home. They have followed the traditions of their family and have made all feel welcome here. Each summer they have hosted the annual Burnett reunion, as well as greeting any Burnett descendants who might have come to Del Rio in search of their "roots."

James M. Burnett donated the right-of-way for the railroad through his lands, since he knew that the elevated railroad grade would create a type of dyke and would protect his bottom land from flooding. The first depot building in Del Rio was built by the Burnetts and was leased to the railroad for many years.

When the family arrived from North Carolina, they brought with them a belief in the value of education, both for the boys and the giris.The first schools in the Del Rio Community were subscription schools, provided and taught by their people. (It was the Burnetts who engaged the services of the first female teacher in this county, Miss Rachel Waddell.) When there was sufficient Interest for a community school in Del Rio, the Burnett family, with the help of the Masonic Order, provided the land and a building for it (in fact, all three public school buildings of Del Rio, including the present one, have stood on the original Burnett land.) Any wood needed to heat the first school was gotten from the nearby Burnett woodland. Adjacent to the schoolyard was the Del Rio Cemetery, also donated by the Burnetts.

In North Carolina, the Swan P. Burnett family were members of a congregation which is now Asheville’s First Baptist Church. When arriving in Big Creek, they affiliated with the Big Creek (now Del Rio) Baptist Church, and until the present, the family has been a mainstay to the church. The present building stands on property donated jointly by Jesse M.L. and Jefferson Burnett, the latter being the Bible teacher for the men of the church for many years.

Frank Burnett’s father, James H. Burnett, was the superintendent of the Sunday school of the Del Rio church for years. He initiated what modern churches now call their "bus ministry:" Each Sunday a wagon was sent through the area providing transportation to Sunday school and church. At the time of his death, Frank Burnett was a trustee of the church and this past fall had taken a vital Interest in the completion of certain church maintenance projects.

Even though no Burnetts now reside in Del Rio, the impact that this family has had upon the community has been extensive, spanning nearly a century and a half. The effects will be long felt, and thus having made "footprints on the sands of time," the Burnett tradition will live.