Jefferson City

In 1788, Adam and Elizabeth Peck followed the Holston River from Virginia into east Tennessee and settled in what would become Mossy Creek. Utilizing the waterway, the Pecks' gristmill thrived within a growing community. The outbreak of the Civil War brought the Battle of Mossy Creek on December 29, 1863. During the next century, zinc mining, the establishment of Mossy Creek Missionary Baptist Seminary (now Carson—Newman University), and the town's inclusion as a stop on the new railroad us...