Sevier Day to be held at Fort Defiance, Saturday

Clarksville, TN – On Saturday, September 12th, 2020, the Fort Defiance Interpretive Center will hold it’s annual Sevier Day from 10:00am to 3:00pm.

The event focuses on the frontier and colonial history of Clarksville. Native American and frontier re-enactors will demonstrate activities such as flint knapping, an authentic blacksmith operation, frontier camp life, ax throwing, and flintlock musket firing.

“Valentine Sevier and his family settled this area in 1790 and built a compound and station at the confluence of the Cumberland and Red Rivers,” said William Parker, Historical Interpreter at Fort Defiance.

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Clarksville Parks and Recreation hosts “Day with the Dead” at Fort Defiance

Clarksville, TN – On Austin 10th, 2019, come out and join Clarksville Parks and Recreation for a meet and greet with historical residents of Clarksville’s past from 5:00pm to 8:00pm at Fort Defiance Interpretive Center and Civil War Park, located at 120 Duncan Street.

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Author Carolyn Stier Ferrell to sign books at Clarksville’s Fort Defiance Interpretive Center

Clarksville, TN – The Fort Defiance Interpretive Center, 120 Duncan Street, will host a book signing event from 1:00pm to 4:00pm on Sunday, October 2nd, 2016.

Author Carolyn Stier Ferrell will be available to sign copies of her seventh book, “Valentine Sevier: Blood on the Bluff,” along with her other six books. At 2:00pm, she will give a presentation on the Sevier family massacre.

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Clarksville Parks and Recreation Report for September 11th, 2016

Clarksville, TN – The weekly Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department Recreation Report provides Clarksvillians with a glimpse at the activities and events that are available from the Parks and Recreation Department for them to enjoy together as a family.

This weeks highlights include: Sleep Under The Stars Campout, Canoe + Kayak Float, Sevier Days at Fort Defiance and the Heritage Park Skate Park Art Contest.

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Clarksville’s Fort Defiance to host pre-Civil War event, “Sevier Days”

Clarksville, TN – The City of Clarksville’s Fort Defiance Interpretive Center, located at 120 Duncan Street, is excited to present “Sevier Days,” an 18th century, pre-Civil War event from 9:00am to 1:00pm on Friday, September 16th and 10:00am to 3:00pm on Saturday, September 17th, 2016.

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Clarksville Beginnings – Part 4: Is Sevier Station Really Sevier Station?

Clarksville, TN – If you look hard enough, it is not difficult to find a rather cynical analysis of recorded history. For example, “The past actually happened. History is what someone took the time to write down,” says writer and comedian, Whitney A. Brown.

Or there is American writer and Civil War veteran, Ambrose Bierce, who chimed in with, “God alone knows the future, but only a historian can alter the past.”

Yet, despite these opinions and the imperfections they reveal concerning the whole endeavor of unearthing information about the past, it is a still considered a noble one.

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Clarksville Beginnings – Part 3: What Kind of Man Was Valentine Sevier?

Clarksville, TN – Our lives here in Middle Tennessee are built upon the foundation of those who lived before us. The names of these souls of long ago are sprinkled upon our consciousness as they are now reflected in the names of our counties, cities, and roads: John Montgomery, George Rogers Clark, James Robertson, etc.

They are people who lived the prime of their lives in the late 18th century on the cusp of a new nation, bordering a frontier with a plethora of possibilities. These men are revered and their lives have been boiled down to a thick consistency of stories that all reflect their heroism, bravery, and sometimes larger than life achievements.

There is a definite vibe that they are only to be portrayed as one dimensional hero type characters. Along with that I get the feeling that to declare anything else is pretty much blasphemy.

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History lecture at APSU to examine state’s first governor, John Sevier

Clarksville, TN – In 1794, a man named Valentine Sevier sent an urgent letter from his home along the Cumberland River, in what is now Clarksville, to his brother John. In it, he described a recent attack by Native Americans on their small settlement.

The attackers, he wrote, “scalped my daughter Rebecca. I hope she still will recover.”

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Clarksville Beginnings – Part 2: Revisiting the Massacre at Sevier Station; In Their Own Words

Clarksville, TN – I love history and find it fascinating – and you must enjoy it as well or you would not be reading this article! Yet, I could listen and listen to someone who is alive and well with me today go on ad nauseum about the dry facts from the past and get absolutely nothing from it.

But, to hear the very words of those who lived before us – those priceless journals, letters, and testimonies – that is gold to me! It is amazing to be able to peak into their minds and hearts for just a moment and experience with them the joys, the struggles, the hopes, and the pain of the experience of life.

That is what we have with the story of the lives of Valentine Sevier, his family, and community – their own words.

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Clarksville Beginnings: The Early History of Sevier Station – Part 1

Clarksville, TN – Have you seen the old stone building on Walker Street in the New Providence area? If not, come by and take a look at it some time. This primitive looking building, labeled “Sevier Station”, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is touted as the oldest building in Montgomery County, Tennessee.

As you walk around and gaze at the roughhewn limestone quarried from the nearby bluffs, and ponder the old chimney placed oddly in the center of the building, and consider the apparent gun port built into the east side, may you contemplate the ground upon which you are standing.

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