Edna Gladys Coleman

Edna married Frederick Bond 7 Jul 1934, Rutherford, Tennessee. Frederick was born 18 Sep 1907; died 21 Apr 1992. [Group Sheet]

1. Bond
2. Bond
3. Bond
4. Bond

Samuel — Estella Payne. Estella (daughter of Joseph Payne and Elizabeth Littlejohn) was born 12 Jun 1887, Chinmey Rock, North Carolina; died 19 Oct 1940, Jefferson County, Tennessee; was buried 21 Oct 1940, Jefferson County, Tennessee. [Group Sheet]

Samuel married Nancy E. Dockery 6 Dec 1871, Sevier County, Tennessee. Nancy (daughter of Isaac Dockery and Charlotte "Lottie" Thomas) was born 8 Feb 1854, Sevier County, Tennessee; died 3 Jun 1919, Jefferson County, Tennessee; was buried 4 Jun 1919, Jefferson County, Tennessee. [Group Sheet]

Joseph — Elizabeth Littlejohn. Elizabeth was born South Carolina. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Census: 1850, Cocke County, Tennessee
• Census: 10 Aug 1860, District 5, Sevier County, Tennessee
• Census: 14 Jun 1870, District 5, Sevier County, Tennessee
• Census: 1880, Sevierville, Sevier County, Tennessee
• Census: 1900, Newport, Cocke County, Tennessee

Notes:

In the late 1860s, Isaac Dockery (1832-1910) built a brick kiln near Sevierville and established a brick masonry business. Dockery, who was born a free Black, moved to Sevierville to work as a merchant clerk for a white businessman, Henry M. Thomas, before the Civil War. After the war, Dockery became instrumental in establishing the brick masonry tradition within the African-American culture of Sevier County. Often, he inscribed his initials, “I D,” and sometimes a date on his bricks as a trademark. Dockery taught his brick masonry craft to his sons, his sons-in-law, and his grandsons.

Dockery constructed brick foundations and chimneys for many dwellings throughout the county, but his most notable buildings were located in Sevierville. Recognized as Sevier County landmarks, these buildings include the New Salem Baptist Church (1886), the original Murphy College building (1891), the Sevierville Masonic Lodge (1893), and the elaborate Sevier County Courthouse (1896).

Dockery moved to Newport in adjoining Cocke County in 1898 and died at his son’s home in Knoxville in 1910. He was buried in the public cemetery for African Americans near Sevierville.

Several members of Dockery’s family also became well-known brick masons in Sevier County, including Paris Witt McMahan (1852-1929), a former slave who established the Riverside Steam Brick Company that operated near Sevierville until the 1930s; George and Stewart Burden (1890-1988), who established a highly productive collection company in the early twentieth century; Bill Coleman, who moved to neighboring Jefferson County; and Joe Leak McMahan, Sr. (1881- 1964).

Fred McMahan (1895- 1980), perhaps the most notable of Dockery’s descendants, attended Knoxville College in the late 1910s and earned his master’s degree in Architectural Engineering at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Around 1920, he returned to Sevierville and established the J. F & N McMahan Construction Company with his brothers, James and Newt McMahan.

One of the most prolific black builders and brick masons in the state, McMahan and his construction company were responsible for scores of Sevier County buildings, beginning with the Pleasant View Rosenwald School in 1921-22. The company built landmark buildings throughout the county and in adjoining counties between 1920 and 1960, including dwellings, churches, schools and college campus buildings, automobile showrooms and service stations, a WPA-funded post office, and commercial buildings.

One of the most important buildings that Fred McMahan constructed may be the Dwight and Kate Wade House, which was finished in 1940 at SevierviIle. This house was designed by Verna Cook Salomonsky, a leading female architect from New York City, and is a replica of an avant-garde exhibition dwelling at the 1939-40 New York World Fair’s “Town of Tomorrow” exhibit.

McMahan’s own home still stands outside Sevierville.

The Historic Architecture of Sevier County, Tennessee
Robbie D. Jones

Isaac — Charlotte "Lottie" Thomas. Charlotte (daughter of Mary Thomas) was born 11 Nov 1835, Sevier County, Tennessee; died 30 Apr 1913; was buried New Salem Cemetery, Sevier County, Tennessee. [Group Sheet]