Copyright * All rights reserved
J.C. (Jim) Tumblin, OD, DOS
3604 Kesterwood Drive, East
Knoxville, Tennessee 37918-2557
(865) 687-1948

(Andrew Thomas Collection)

 December 2009

John H. Newman

(1861-1947)  

 “What is the history of the businesses along Hotel Ave.?” That question or some  variation of it is the most frequent this author receives. It’s always a pleasure when the question comes from some member of a younger generation. That happened not long ago when Ben Patin, son of the owner of the Creamery Park Grille, asked about that restaurant’s location.

Some time ago we described Lot No. 1, a R.T. Miller property, which housed “R.T. Miller, grocer” in 1905, the “Fountain City Confectionery Co, drugs” (owned by William and Dossie Miller Cooper) in 1916 and the “Howard and Zion Drug Store” in 1917.

Newman's Store

(Hotel Avenue and Broadway, Circa 1920)

(Andrew Thomas Collection)

Long before the Fountain City A&P, well before the White Store (now Food City) and many decades before Kroger, there was J.H. Newman and Sons Grocery Store. Photographic records indicate that the store was originally on the corner of Hotel Ave. and Broadway at Lot No. 1. Also, the 1920 City Directory mentions the John H. Newman and Sons Grocery for the first time in the alphabetical listing of the property on Hotel Ave.

There were no street numbers listed prior to the 1927 directory. By this time, the store is listed at 114 Hotel, the present location of the Creamery Park Grille (Lot No. 5). Tracing the deeds to that location proved very interesting. In the process a map of the Miller and Cooper Addition (by civil engineer J.C. Thomas, dated 1911), was discovered that shows lots 1-10 on the south side of Hotel Avenue with their dimensions.

Lot No. 5 passed from W.H. Weaver to J.C. and Nannie Woodward and S.H. and Mary A. George on Sept. 14, 1895. Col. J.C. Woodward (1841-1913) was the Lexington, Ky. capitalist who bought the park, lake and Fountain Head Hotel properties in 1890 and developed the Fountain Head Hotel and Resort into a premier East Tennessee “destination place” well ahead of its time.

The George family was also well known, particularly for George’s Department Store on Gay Street. Sol H. George (1839-1924) had been a stockholder of the company that constructed the Fountain Head Hotel and later of another company that built the Fountain Head Railway. He married Mary A. McMillan and the couple had three sons, Edgar, Albert and Sol M. Both Albert and Sol M. were long time officials of the department store.

After passing through several owners, Lot No. 5 was bought by J.H. Newman from H.H. Tinsley on June 22, 1920. The deed described the lot having a frontage of 25 feet, 59 feet in depth on the east side and 65 on the west, with  “a two-story frame store house now occupied by J.H. Newman and Sons on (the) first floor and as dwelling purposes on (the) second floor.”

John Henry Newman was born on May 22, 1861 in Sevier County, the son of William Newman and Mary Polly Kittrell. According to family tradition, John was at the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, possibly to have his corn crop ground into meal and there he first met Virena, the daughter of Hiram S. and Mary J. Blair of the Fair Garden Community of Sevier County. John H. Newman and Virena Blair (1870-1950) were married on Jan. 1, 1886 in Sevier County.

Their family would eventually number 11 children: Charles G., Nellie Jane, Bertie, Asa Mack, Cora, Allen B., Johnie B., Kate, Willie Lou, Paul S. and Theodore A. Charlie died of a ruptured appendix at 15 years of age, but the other children lived to adulthood.  After residing on Jackson Ave. and later on Tazewell Pike, the family moved to 321 Watauga Ave. in 1921. There John and Virena would live out their days.

When Fountain City’s Central Baptist Church was organized in 1914, John and Virena Newman were among the Charter Members. John was a Deacon and Virena was active in her Sunday School Class. Of the 31 who left First Baptist to form Central Baptist Church about one-third were members of the J.H. Newman family.

Motoring was an adventure in those early days and John Newman liked adventure. His friend John I. Copeland, who owned Fountain City’s first automobile and first garage, told Knoxville Journal writer Vic Weals of an interesting trip he and John Newman made to Agee on the Powell River (in Claiborne County). Copeland said, "He told me that he wanted to see the country and I said that I would take him if he bought the gas and gave me $1 for oil." It was a beautiful day and they got to Andersonville without much difficulty, crossing fields and following fence rows where there were no roads. Out beyond Andersonville, they met Fountain City physician Dr. J.H. Gammon.

Weals quoted Copeland’s description of the rest of the trip: Doc Gammon hitched his horse and climbed in with us. Said he had to visit a patient up where we were going. Well, we got to a steep hill the other side of Andersonville and as we started down the other side the car went faster, faster, and faster. I tried the brakes and everything else, but couldn’t hold it to save my life. The grease had got hot and run down on the brake drums. Directly we came to a wide place--a kind of passing place they used to make in one-lane country roads. I thought to myself, I’ll hit the bank and see if I can’t stop the thing. But it scooted right over the bank and kept going. Then I headed it for a rail fence. Just before we hit, Dr. Gammon jumped. Rails flew up in the air and came down all over him. Mr. Newman and I were scratched, so we worked Doc free and thought at first he was dead. Directly he opened his eyes and said, "Is anybody hurt?" He got allright in a few minutes, except that his hands were bleeding pretty bad. He insisted on walking on. I backed the car out of the fence and started to file on the brake rods. So we went up to the river and didn’t have any more trouble. Made it up there and back in a day, quite a trick in those times.

A. Mack Newman, one of John’s sons, gradually assumed management of the store. An era ended on Sept. 15, 1947 when John Henry Newman passed away at his home. After services by Rev. Charles S. Bond and Rev. A.F. Mahan at Mann’s Mortuary, he was interred at Lynnhurst Cemetery.

Author’s Note: Thanks to Alvin Frye, Doris Martinson, William G. “Bill” Bright and Andrew Marshall “Jim” Thomas, J.H. Newman’s grandson, for their assistance with the text and photographs for this article. Additional information and another photo may be found on www.fountaincitytnhistory.info/.

D-NewmanStore-1209.doc (11/30/09= 1,142 words)