(from the archived RCHC Web site)

Submitted to The Rockwood Centennial book in 1968 (original source unidentified)

Note:  No grammar editing was performed on the archived content when reposting it here.

In 1804 Dr. John Cloud Haley and his family came to Roane County and settled on the land between Reservoir Hill and the Tennessee River.  His grand-daughter Betty married James Woods Cosby Wilson, Captain and owner of the Cherokee steamboat that carried mail, passengers and freight between Chattanooga and Knoxville. He sold the boat and bought a farm in Sequatchie Valley.  The town of South Pittsburg is located on that farm.  They returned to farm in Roane County but there were no schools near by so in 1880 they bought from Gen. Wilder‘s sister, the house and land on Rockwood Avenue which has been the home from that day to this.

There was a large family: Charles, Maggie, Henry, Robert, Belie [sic], John, Claude, Mabel, George Ed, Bess, and a nephew – Little Charlie Halley [sic] whom they raised and nieces and nephews from farms in Roane and Rhea County who stayed with them to attend school.

With so many young people it was a very gay household old was a gathering place.  I love to dwell on the tender memories, the kindred ties, the early affections, the family narratives and incidents that were a part of my childhood.

However, my mother said that she did not hear it thunder twenty years.

Perhaps the greatest contribution to the town was that sons, Charles and George Ed; two nephews, J. M. Ramsey Welter S. Clack; and a step-nephew, J. M. Clack, all graduates of Vanderbilt Medical College, returned to Rockwood served the town as Doctors and Surgeons for many years.