Sevierville, TN, Rogers family roots Part 1

I found the place where I think the Rogers family originally settled in Sevier County, Tennessee, before it even became a state.  Of course anyone who lives in Sevierville that's also a descendant of the Rev. Elijah Rogers family, may know much better than what I'm piecing together today.

The original Rogers land was at the junction of the French Broad River and the Little Pigeon River, in what is now Sevierville TN.

The Litte Pigeon River has several forks, so I used a Google map to find the island which had a cousin's name, McCroskey.  In the 1950s Joe Sharp (genealogist) let my grandfather, George Rogers, know that the original property was currently where a cousin McCroskey lived.

Google maps showed me McCroskey Island, and McCroskey Island Rd, but didn't say what was on the island.  A small mobile home park is on a loop of homes, but as I crossed the bridge to the island (above) I found bunch of industrial buildings.  There was a wide open gate, and no signs about not to enter, so I did.

 I drove past some guys standing in garage doorways, and I probably wasn't welcome here, but I just pretended to be a lost tourist, got to the French Broad River, took it's picture, and left.

And as I left McCroskey Island, I noticed two things, the pipe going across the bridge, and the smell. This was probably a sewage treatment plant!  What a laugh I had, at thinking this was the ancestral home.

I looked up on a hill and saw a large plantation style home, and will hope that this is where the McCroskeys and the Rogers lived...rather than the flood-prone island.  Of course with the dams that the TVA built, there are probably few floods these days.

Then I went searching for the graves...I'll continue this story soon.