The area where Knoxville would be established was first explored for settlement in the 1780s. James White (1747-1821), along with Alexander McMillan (1749-1837) and others, surveyed the area within the French Broad and Holston river watersheds after 1783. James White erected a fort along the Holston River in 1786 in what a year later would be laid out as Hawkins County, North Carolina. On 2 April 1790, the United States Congress accepted the cession of North Carolina’s western lands (present-day Tennessee), organized the region into the Southwest Territory, and established requirements necessary for its citizens to achieve entry into the Union as a state.

In 1790, John Crawford (1756-1831) began to register land grants along Whites Creek adjacent to Adair’s Station. John Crawford was a native of Augusta County, Virginia, and a veteran of the 1780 Battle of King’s Mountain, fighting for the American cause. It appears Crawford was already established in the Grassy Valley by 1790 and residing on the property for some time because that same year, on 3 November, he was commissioned as a captain in the Hawkins County militia. Grassy Valley was a part of Hawkins County at the time, as it was being reconstituted under territorial status by Governor Blount.

The following year, another Crawford settled along Whites Creek. In December 1791, Samuel Crawford (1754-1822) recorded a grant for 200 acres on the headwaters of Whites Creek adjoining John Crawford’s holdings. Like John, Samuel Crawford was a native of Augusta County, Virginia, and a veteran of the Revolution. Samuel Crawford is recorded in some family histories as having participated in the building of the first log house in Knoxville and his own home was a two-story structure similar in form to most in the Grassy Valley including the one constructed by John Crawford on his farm.

For much more detail, including source notes and images, see Moses Crawford: Tennessee’s Earliest Cabinetmaker Revealed.