Amanda and I have been researching Ebenezer Cave the last few days. I had a meeting today off Peters Rd in Knoxville and next thing we know we are on Ebenezer, funny how things work out. Amanda pointed out the old house on the corner with the Jazz Club sign which I realized was the Baker Peter Mansion from the Civil War, I had done some reading about it when we first moved into the area. We headed over to the house and proceeded to pull in, it has a awkward footprint next to an oil change business. we drove around and left. I ended up coming back to the house and told Amanda I should call or see if I could get in to take pictures, as we had seen some workers inside. I parked the suv and headed around the front to snap a few pictures, little did I know it was a doctors office and I had gained entry to the front door. Into the doctors office I went explaining that I was in fact a history nerd. They said "Great! Well then the door you want to see is right around the corner." We got a full on all access tour of the home and basement/slave quarters. Our guide today took us outside and down under the home where you could see all the windows were barred up. Obvious slave quarters, our guide showed us the old slave access stairwell, where the owner Dr. James Baker would come down to access his slaves. This stairwell leading to Baker's bedroom was the ONLY access to the slave quarters... interesting. We headed deeper under the house into a room. The guide told us " the slaves most likely lived here, when they acquired the home she said it was just a table inside no modern duct work, and one crude chain light. Walls have been blocked off which is very apparent I put my camera through the holes in the walls and saw even more rooms under the home. Couldn't imagine growing up in this home in the 1900's. Upon first entering the threshold of the door, the EVP gave us the words, James and Chest. Dr. James Harvey Baker was murdered by a bullet to the chest, just a few feet away. So the full story goes, Dr James Harvey Baker built the home sometime around 1849. Back then that area was rural farmland several miles from Knoxville, Dr. Baker's brother had a house nearby and they both lived right on Kingston Pike. Kingston Pike was the major east-west turn pike. In June 1863, Abner Baker was away at war and fighting for the confederacy. Although much of East Tennessee held allegiance to the Union, the rebels controlled the City of Knoxville and Dr. Harvey Baker supported them. At that point, the area was about to have its first brush with actual Civil War combat with an incoming raid of 1,500 Union cavalry from Kentucky focused on blowing up bridges and railroads that supplied the confederates. Many posts mention that Dr. James Harvey Baker tended to the wounded in his home, however this is simply not the case. He was one of the first confirmed casualties of the civil war in Knox County. This is confirmed on many maps including one from November 1863 that was a reconnaissance map for the Union campaign in Knoxville. If you trace the map down Kingston Pike, you come to the Baker Peters house and it is labeled "Widow Baker" referring to the fact that Dr. Baker was killed earlier that year in June of 1863. The Union Calvary headed toward Knoxville on the road directly in front of Dr. Baker's house. Dr. Baker grabbed his gun, got on his horse, and planned to head to Knoxville to warn the rebels and help defend the city. One account says he was spotted mounting up and did not get far before he was stopped by Federals. When Dr. Baker met up with the Federals that did not go well for him. We don't know shot first, but one account from a neighbor said Dr. Baker and the Union soldier who stopped him both fired to no effect. Dr. Baker ran back to his house and barricaded himself in the upstairs bedroom with family members, including his wife. Federal troops went in for the kill. A soldier shot through the bedroom door and killed Dr. Baker. The original bedroom door is now downstairs at the office of the dentist Dr. Larry Tragesser. You can still see the bullet holes where the soldier shot through the door and killed the Doctor protecting his family in the master bedroom. Joan Markel, the curator of the McClung Museum, has shed light on the fact that many blatant lies and changes have been made to the story of Dr. Baker's death and the subsequent murder of his son Abner. In 1865, 22 year old Abner Baker returned home. The Union had defeated them in battle, and they had also taken the life of his father, at his home. This is where many of the incorrect versions of the story kick in. Will Hall, whose name happened to appear on our EVP along with the word hurt, was a Union Veteran who was working at the Court House in town. After a fight about war, Abner shot Hall fatally in the head. Word spread around town about the Rebel killing the Union Veteran, and the city rang the fire bell, signalling a death knell. Bringing a mob who broke him out of jail, and hung him in the center of town. Photos of the hanging tree circulated as far as Boston, MA. Since Abner was never offered the chance of a trial, words were put in his mouth after death, and comments of an "old grudge" began to circulate. Curator Markel also mentions that in all of her readings, she has never seen any articles about revenge being a motive, but the notion of vengeance worked its way into the story more than a century later when a book published in 1976 claimed Abner killed Hall for his involvement in Dr. Baker's death. No Proof has ever been uncovered that Hall had anything to do with the death of his father, and rather just picked a fight with the rebel in the courthouse that day. To quote Markel, "Is there hostility between these two guys just after the war, remembering which side they were on? I believe so." So let's recap real fast. Some blatantly inaccurate versions of the Baker story have become solidified in many places in recent years. Specifically the historic marker which sits in front of the home. It claims that Hall was a postmaster who informed Union Forces that Dr. Baker was using the home as a make-shift hospital to treat wounded confederate troops/ The sign says the Union forces came into the house to arrest Dr. Baker and fatally shot him in 1864. The sign then says Abner Baker murdered Hall in retaliation for his role in his father's death. Again, the truth is, Dr. Baker was killed in June 1863, Hall was not a postmaster, and no newspaper accounts at the time mention Dr. Baker's death as a motive in the shooting death of Hall. Dr. Baker’s house was later sold in the late 1800’s to the Peters family.
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