The last of the Indians passed through the valley in 1842.
As Old Coonrod prospered he bought land and slaves, and was a large
owner of both in his day. He was a cautious and judicious purchaser of
realty. The court records show that at some time or other he was the
owner of the most desirable parts of Fentress county. He held title to
the land upon which Jamestown, the county seat, now stands, which is the
"Obedstown" of Mark Twain's "Gilded Age." He owned "Rock Castle," a
tract of hardwood timber that is enclosed by mountains and can be
reached by but one passageway, a place that became famous during the
Civil War. He bought and sold much of the county's best farming-land
along Yellow Creek.
Fentress was made a county of Tennessee in 1823 and the first four pages
of the new county's records of deeds show that within eighteen months
Conrad Pile had added, through a number of trades, over six hundred
acres to his already large holdings.
So cautious in land titles was he that at the time of his death he owned
three rights to his home-place including the farming-land along Wolf
River. The first was his squatter's rights, which he had homesteaded.
But against this, North Carolina in ceding the territory of Tennessee to
the United States Government reserved title to the land grants the state
had offered to her soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and "one Henry
Rowan" of North Carolina entered warrants given him on March 10, 1780.
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