Andrew Johnson National Historic Site

Day 5 - November 4, 2015 (Great Lakes Region Trip)

Time to pack up and leave Gatlinburg. Robin took the room keys to check out in the front office. She asked the lady (not manager) about Room 231. The lady laughed and said they only had one room like that. She agreed that she would be a little intimidated in that room. She said, however, she does have people call and request only that room. We both laughed and said it was not for us. We will return to Zoders but we will definitely request NOT being in Room 231.

Before we left Gatlinburg, we drove through town and took some pictures of the south entrance. Christmas decorations were going up all over the main street. Some were funny since they were "in the process."

We drove on back through Gatlinburg and then to Pigeon Forge. We stopped at Starbucks and got our drinks of choice. There were some interesting sights that we had to stop to see.

Our destination for the first half of the day was Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greeneville, TN. We drove on US 441 through Sevierville and on until we reached I-40.  We decided, for the sake of time, to take interstate to get to Greeneville.   

We found a place to park and walked to the Visitor Center. It wasn't a big place, but it was quite unique. 

One room had an exhibit all about Andrew Johnson and the attempt to impeach him. The opportunity was provided for visitors to review the claim, the evidence and cast your vote for guilty or not guilty. 

The next room was very large with tall ceilings. That was because it housed Andrew Johnson's Tailor Shop. The Visitor Center had been built around the shop so as to keep it in tact. This room also had some other displays and an area to watch the movie. We found the movie to be outstanding. In fact, we learned so much that we bought a copy of it.

After looking at the rooms in the Visitor Center, we walked several blocks to Andrew Johnson's house. We saw a beautiful butterfly on our way.

We had signed up to be part of a Park Ranger tour about the house. Boy, were we glad we took the time for this tour. Our Ranger was outstanding and taught us so much about President Johnson and his family.

He took us through the entire house and explained the history of the house as well as room by room details and who occupied the rooms. 

We left enlightened with brains on overload. We walked back through town, looking at the steep incline we walked up to get to the home. The sidewalks were covered with leaves. On our way back, we stopped at the replica of Andrew Johnson's birthplace home. The original is in Raleigh, NC.

Andrew Johnson's early home was across the street from the Visitor Center. We walked through the home and learned more about his family tree.

Getting back in our car, we drove to the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery on the other side of town. There, we saw his monument as well as his family's graves. Most of the family graves were within the inner fence, but his daughter, Martha, and her children were buried outside. Maybe it was because they ran out of room or for another unmentioned reason. The  Constitution is displayed on Andrew Johnson's monument. He wanted to be remembered as Defender of the Constitution. 

The monument was on the top of a very high hill. The view of the surrounding city areas were so beautiful. 

Here are some of the many things we learned about Andrew Johnson:

• Andrew Johnson (Democrat) was Abraham Lincoln's (Republican) Vice President. Six months into Lincoln's second term, Johnson became President after Lincoln's assassination.
• Andrew Johnson was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee by President Lincoln prior to his second term.
• Andrew Johnson served as Senator before AND after becoming President.
• President Andrew Johnson did not see eye to eye with members of Congress who were substantially Republicans. They tried to impeach him, but were 1 vote shy of the two-thirds required. Later, the Supreme Court found the law in question unconstitutional.
• Most of Andrew Johnson's family died of tuberculosis, although it was not known at that time.
• Andrew Johnson's great granddaughter (end of lineage) made a deal with the National Park Service (NPS). Once the NPS went through the governmental red tape for approval, the granddaughter made 2 demands of her own. The first one was the NPS would get the home and the belongings if they built her an exact replica somewhere in town. The second demand was that she would work for the NPS for 30 years as a tour guide of the home. The NPS agreed and followed through with her demands. They did get a little upset with her over those 30 years because she treated the home as if it were still home. While Park Rangers used white gloves when touching items, the granddaughter would lay on the beds or sit in the chairs while giving tours because it HAD been her home. The Rangers did feel a sigh of relief when her time was up.
• Andrew Johnson's wife outlived him by 6 months although she had the symptoms of tuberculosis for years. All 3 sons died of tuberculosis - two (Charles and Robert) died before marriage and the youngest (Andrew "Frank" Johnson, Jr.) married but died before he had any children.
• Andrew Johnson's oldest daughter, Martha, played the role of First Lady while at the White House because her mother could not because of her illness. Martha married and had 3 children.
• Andrew Johnson's youngest daughter, Mary, was sent back to Greeneville 5 months before President Johnson's term was up to prepare the home for the family to move back into. The home had been abused by soldiers in the Civil War who had used the home as a place to stay. Her job was to work with builders to repair and add rooms.
• Andrew Johnson owned slaves of his own. He freed his own slaves first and gave them the option to go or stay and be paid. They chose to stay. As Military Governor, Johnson freed the slaves in Tennessee before the Emancipation Proclamation.

We left the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site and headed towards Kentucky. We were curious about signs that led us to Yoders Country Market. It was lunch time so we visited the deli and had sandwiches made to order. The jams and bakery items looked irresistible so we didn't try to resist. We bought quite a few items and were very happy to try some of them. Yoders provided picnic tables outside so we enjoyed our sandwiches there. It was a nice break and yummy food.

Crossing over the state line into Kentucky came shortly after our shopping spree. The views we saw in Kentucky were spectacular. 

Once we passed through the Cumberland, we saw lots of pretty fall colors. There was a sign in Middlesboro, stating it was the home of Lee Majors.

It got darker and darker as we drove. We did see deer along the side of the road, but mostly darkness. We hadn't eaten dinner yet. Finally, we found a McDonalds and stopped for Egg McMuffins. It was late and we didn't want anything too heavy. 

We were close to Fort Knox, which was our destination for the next few days. Robin's niece, Leigh, and her family live on base. Andrew, nephew, has been stationed there for a year and a half. 

We were worried about getting on base, but were surprised at how easy it was. They scanned our driver's licenses and said have a good night. It was 9:00 pm, but Leigh and Andrew's directions led us straight to the hotel. We stayed at the Wickam Inn, a Holiday Inn Army Hotel, located on base.  The room was great, other than double beds! We checked in and got settled in. As we were watching tv in our living room, we heard Taps. It sounded like it was in the distance. Since the show we were watching involved a police officer who had been shot and was being buried, we thought it was part of the show. We went to bed, not giving it a second thought.