Welcome to the Massengale Homeplace

Welcome to the Massengale Homeplace. . The Dempsey Massengale, Jr. family lived on this ridgetop just south of present-day Rugby from the 1860s to the early 1900s., According to deed records, Dempsey bought a 50-acre tract of land in north Morgan County from his father on December 17, 1858, that is likely this property. The precise date that Dempsey moved his family here from Smoky Junction in nearby Scott County is unknown, but his name first appears in the Morgan County census in 1860., The Massengale’s cabin faced the early 19th century trace that Rugby founders named Allerton Road, still visible today., Based on the topography, this was a terrace farmstead, with the cabin at the top of the ridge, behind this kiosk, and fields, pastures, orchards and woodlands located on the slopes of the ridge, down to Cox and Whaley Branches. Massengale family research and Appalachian practices indicate that other buildings would have included a smokehouse, chicken house, corn crib, stock pens and equipment sheds., The stone chimney remains seen today are the only visible evidence of the Massengale cabin. Students from the University of Tennessee and Rugby community volunteers, under the direction of Dr. Charles Faulkner and Kim Pyszka, carried out extensive archaeological testing to locate and determine dimensions of the cabin, map the site, and recover material culture left by the family., The corners of the cabin have been marked with sandstone to indicate its size and location. Visitors in early spring may find Mrs. Massengale’s Van Sion and Butter and Egg daffodils still blooming., The watercolor painting depicts the Massengale family members that research indicates were still living at the homeplace in the mid-1880s, during Rugby’s early years., Their cabin in the background and snake or zibzag fencing is based upon an historic watercolor done by Englishwoman Mrs. Tom Taylor. It was painted in 1887 while she ad her daughter, Lucy, were visiting Rugby and the Hughes family., Standing at the left is Elizabeth Massengale, and at the right, her husband, Dempsey Massengale, Jr. In the ceter are two of the Massengale’s grandchildren, Henry and George Massengale along with Elizabeth’s widowed sister, Mary Lowe., Like many Appalachian mountain men, “Uncle” Dempsey was quite a teller of tall tales, some of which were documented by one of the Rugby colony’s young children, Edith Walton., Rugby’s Anglo / American colonists were not the first settlers in this remote part of the Cumberland Plateau. Earlier, primarily Scots-Irish-English families like the Massengales had made their way to the plateau’s coves and ridges by the early 1800s. They lived off the land, growing, raising and making virtually everything they needed to survive, supplemented by game hunting and the gathering of natural foods and herbs., Much of what is known about the Massengale family has been provided by Uncle Dempsey’s great-grandson, Lummy Massengale. Lummy was the model for this depiction of Uncle Dempsey as no photographs of him have been found to date., Do the Massengales’ spirits linger at this once-beloved homeplace?