Jar Made By Haun,

A 'Bridge-Burner,'

Had Come Down

In Jenkins Family;

Similar To Lowe Jar

By BILL JONES

Staff Writer

A rare "redware" jar, produced prior to the Civil War by one of the Greene County potters who was hanged in 1861 by Confederate authorities for burning the railroad bridge over Lick Creek at Mohawk, has come to light here.

Betty Jenkins, of South Allens Bridge Road, contacted The Greeneville Sun earlier this week after realizing that the 13-inch-high piece of Civil War-era pottery that had been in her late husband's family for generations was very similar to another piece of Civil War-era pottery featured Sept. 6 in the Sun.

The redware jar featured on Sept. 6 is the only known example of the work of J.A. Lowe, a local Civil War-era potter and an acquaintance of the six local men who became known as "The Bridge Burners."

The Lowe jar is to be auctioned on Sept. 27 by Case Antiques in Knoxville. John Case, of that firm, said the jar was brought to his company by "an old Hawkins County family."

Betty Jenkins said this week that the piece of pottery in her possession had for many years been the property of the late Oscar Jenkins Sr., father of her late husband, Hugh Jenkins.

Oscar Jenkins Sr. was the long-time operator of the Jenkins shoe-repair shop on East Depot Street and had kept the redware jar on display in the den of his residence for decades, Betty Jenkins said.

Upon the elder Jenkins' death, she said, her husband, who also has since died, inherited the redware jar. It remained on display at their home until Wednesday.

"Hugh (Mrs. Jenkins' late husband) said his father wanted it (the jar) to stay in the family," she said.

She said she did not know why the jar had been important to her late father-in-law or anything about its history.

But she said that, after comparing it with the Sept. 6 newspaper photo of the redware jar produced by J.A. Lowe, she thought the Jenkins family jar might also have been Lowe's work.

On Tuesday, however, western Greene County history buff and researcher Donahue Bible examined the jar at Jenkins' home and, from faint markings on the jar's surface, determined that it was the work not of Lowe but of another potter who was one of the Bridge Burners, Christopher A. Haun.

Such pottery jars, Bible said, were used to store foods such as honey or pickled vegetables and meats during the 19th century.

Family Link?

He also offered to Mrs. Jenkins a theory as to why the jar had been prized by her late father-in-law.

Bible explained that he thinks the jar may have come down in the Jenkins family from cousins of the late Oscar Jenkins Sr.

He noted that a woman named Almirinda Walker Hinshaw Jenkins apparently was married to a relative of Oscar Jenkins Sr.'s grandfather, William Jenkins.

Almirinda Hinshaw Jenkins, Bible said, was the widow of Bridge Burner Jacob Hinshaw, who was hanged by Confederate authorities in 1861 for his part in burning the Lick Creek railroad bridge.

She subsequently married a relative of the Jenkins family. But upon her death, Bible said, Almirinda (Rinda) Jenkins was buried beside her first husband, Jacob Hinshaw, in the Long Cemetery near Bulls Gap in Hawkins County.

Also buried in the same plot, Bible said, was William Hinshaw, the six-year-old son of Almirinda and Jacob Hinshaw, who had died some time after his father was hanged.

Bible said he originally believed Almirinda Hinshaw Jenkins had been married to Oscar Jenkins Sr.'s grandfather. However, a check of Census records proved otherwise, Bible explained.

Should Be Preserved

He said that, while examples of Haun's work are not quite so rare as that of fellow Bridge Burner Lowe, they are still important artifacts of Greene County's past and should be preserved.

As a result, he said, he purchased the Haun redware jar from Mrs. Jenkins and plans to offer it for display as part of the recently-revamped Bridge Burners exhibit at the East Tennessee Historical Society's museum in Knoxville.

That exhibit, Bible said, already contains several other pieces from Greene County, including a smaller piece of pottery produced by Haun.

On learning the history connected to the jar, Betty Jenkins said she felt it needed to be placed in a facility where others could see and appreciate it for its historical connection to a tragic episode of the Civil War in Greene County.

She readily agreed to sell the jar to Bible with the understanding that it is to be placed on public display as part of the Bridge Burners exhibit.

Bridge Burners Background

An Oct. 26, 2006, article in The Greeneville Sun by Bible explained that the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad's Lick Creek bridge near present-day Mohawk was burned on the night of Nov. 8-9, 1861.

The burning of this and other East Tennessee railroad bridges was to have been coordinated with an invasion of East Tennessee by Federal troops. The bridges were burned, but the invasion itself was canceled at the last minute.

The Union sympathizers who carried out the action became known simply as "The Bridge Burners," Bible wrote.

Destruction of the Lick Creek Bridge eventually cost the lives of five local men who lived in the Pottertown settlement near the present-day Midway Post Office and took part in the burning of the bridge near Mohawk, Bible said.

Five Men Hanged

Jacob Harmon Jr., his son Henry Harmon, Christopher A. "Alex" Haun (who apparently made the Jenkins family's jar), Jacob M. Hinshaw, and Henry Fry were all hanged by Confederate officials within a five-week period.

The two Harmons, Haun, and Hinshaw all were Greene County potters, Bible wrote in the 2006 article.

On orders of Confederate Secretary of War Judah Benjamin, Henry Fry and Jacob Hinshaw were hanged near the Greeneville railway depot after being captured near Parrottsville, where they were hiding from Confederate authorities, according to Bible.

Jacob Harmon Jr., Henry Harmon, and Christopher A. Haun subsequently were hanged in Knoxville after court-martial trials there.

Harrison Self, another of the accused Bridge Burners, was subsequently pardoned -- just hours before he was to hang -- after his daughter sent a plea for mercy to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

On Wednesday, Bible said the plea for mercy was actually written by the Rev. William G. "Parson" Brownlow, a Methodist minister and the editor of the pro-Union Knoxville Whig newspaper, who was being held in the same jail as Harrison Self for his anti-Confederate writings.

Fellow potter Lowe, who was not a Bridge Burner and who was listed as a material witness for Self's delayed trial in Knoxville, joined the Confederate Army two days after Haun and the Harmons were hanged in Knoxville, according to an Aug. 22 Antique Week article by Eric C. Rodenberg.

Name Was Overheard

Harper's Weekly, the national newspaper of the Civil War era, published an article about the railroad bridge-burning in its March 29, 1862 issue.

The newspaper's front page featured an artist's portrayal of (Union Army) Colonel David Fry swearing into the Union Army the Greene County men who carried out the bridge-burning at the home of Jacob Harmon Jr., about two miles from the Lick Creek Bridge.

Fry, who was a captain in the Union Army at the time of the bridge-burning, had made his way to Greene County from a Union Army camp in Kentucky with orders to organize the burning of railroad bridges prior to the planned invasion by the Union Army from Kentucky, Bible has written.

He said the Bridge Burners might have gotten away with burning the bridge had not Confederate bridge guards whom the Bridge Burners allowed to live not overheard one of the Bridge Burners' names while the bridge was being burned.

Some Timbers Were Saved

Although the bridge was destroyed, it was quickly rebuilt by Confederate authorities, Bible said.

He noted that some of the partially-burned timbers from the original bridge were later used to build a barn near Mohawk.

Bible salvaged a small section of bridge timber when that barn was torn down several years ago. That section of bridge timber, he said, is now on display at the East Tennessee Historical Society Museum in Knoxville.