Booker Farm - On The National Register of Historic Places
The Booker Farm (circa 1750) located on Luttrell-Corryton Road in Union County was the second property in Union County to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Eighty-nine acres of the Booker Farm was registered along with a collection of historic buildings and landscape comprising a historic district that documented rural architecture and agriculture in Union County. It is the second oldest century farm in Union County and well represents the settlement patterns of this Appalachian Region. The farm lays divided by the Luttrell-Corryton road.
John Booker II established the Booker Farm on 500 hilly acres in 1798-1800. At that time, the farm was part of Knox County, but after Union County's creation in 1850, it became located in the borders of Union County. At the time Booker acquired the property, he cleared 40 acres of the land along the creek for his homestead. Early settlement patterns of the area put the house near a water source. The rich bottom land just north of the house was best used for row crops. As the family cleared the property, they cut yellow popular trees, hand-hewed them into v-notched logs and built the double log house and crib. The Booker House was one of the largest in the area and according to tradition, it became a social center for community dances and frollies.
John Booker II died in 1803 and control of the farmstead was passed to his 2nd wife Elizabeth Giles Booker. Her son, George W. Booker, born in 1797, and his wife, Sarah Bond Booker, appears to have acquired the farm by 1831. They were parents to 11 children. During the Civil War, the sons of George and Sarah took opposing sides. This was a common occurrence in many East Tennessee families. After the death of George and Sarah Booker, the property was divided among their sons circa 1879. The farm continued to pass through the Booker Family and was owned by Ross Booker at the time it was placed on the National Register in 1998.
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Hello. My name is Heather Booker, and my fourth great-grandmother is Elizabeth Giles Booker. She was married to John Booker in Virginia, where they lived, raised a family, and died. She is buried in Rockingham County, Viriginia.
A man named D. Ray Booker wrote a book in which he paired her with another man named John Booker, the John Booker who moved to Tennessee. To be fair, I can see where that would be confusing, what with so many men named John Booker in one place. But HIS John Booker left Virginia, while MY John Booker and his wife Elizabeth Giles Booker remained in Virginia.
Elizabeth Giles Booker is the close relative of a Virginia governor and did not ever move to or live in Tennessee. Her grave is in Virginia, along with her husband and her children, none of whom were named George and all of whom lived and died in Virginia.