Chattanooga History Books By John Wilson Available At Zarzour's Restaurant, By Mail

  • Wednesday, August 16, 2017

John Wilson, former Hamilton County Historian and publisher of Chattanoogan.com, has written two volumes on the early families of Hamilton County and also books on Chattanooga and on Lookout Mountain, as well as editing books on Chattanooga's railroads and the Stokes and Hiener photo collections.

Railroads In And Around Chattanooga, featuring Chattanooga's intriguing railroad history, has 69 chapters and covers rail history here and in surrounding towns.

The book, with many photos by Wes Schultz, has 568 pages and 1,546 photos and maps.

It is $35, plus $6 for shipping and handling.

There are some remaining copies of the third edition of The Remarkable Stokes Collection of early Chattanooga photos The price of the soft-cover book, which includes some 700 early Chattanooga views, is $35, including tax, plus $6 for shipping and handling.

The pictures were passed down to great-granddaughter, Connie Cooper Jones, who has graciously allowed their publication. The over-sized, clear photos have been kept in several cardboard boxes for over a century. Most had not previously been published. The most recent photo in the collection is around 1920, and many are much older. This book has almost 600 pages.

Also still available are copies of the new Paul Hiener's Historic Chattanooga. Mr. Hiener, a longtime Chattanooga printer and lifelong resident, collected over 3,000 historic pictures of his beloved hometown. He made some of the photos available through a four-volume set called Chattanooga Yesterday and Today. The Hiener family in April 1985 donated the more than 3,000 historical Chattanooga photographs in his collection to the Chattanooga Public Library. They were eventually cataloged and are now viewable on the library's website.

The 253-page Hiener book includes over 700 photos. It is in an 11x8 1/2 format with a soft cover.

The price of the book is $35, which includes the sales tax. For mailing, add $6 for shipping and handling.

Chattanooga's Story is a 500-page complete history of Chattanooga. An updated edition was published in 2013. There are tentative plans for a new updated edition of Chattanooga's Story in the future.

The paperback Scenic, Historic Lookout Mountain is a history of Lookout Mountain that runs from Chattanooga to Gadsden, Ala. It is also sold out.

Two family books by John Wilson are sold out. Copies possibly may be available by contacting the Chattanooga Public Library.

The first family book is Hamilton County Pioneers. Compiled from Mr. Wilson's dozens of articles on early Hamilton County settlers, this book features 140 families and over 9,000 names.

Hamilton County Pioneers includes:

A Adams, Allison, Anderson
B Barker, Bean, Beason, Beck, Bell, Berry, Bird, Blackwell, Boyce, Brabson, Brown
C Cannon, Carter, Chesnutt, Clift, Coulter, Cowart, Cozby, Cravens, Crutchfield, Cummings
D Daughtery, Divine, Douglas, Dugger
E Eldridge, Elsea
F Faidley, Fields, First Settlers, Foster, Foust, Fouts, Frazier, Frist, Fryar
G Gamble, Gann, Gardenhire, Gillespie, Glass, Gothard, Green, Guthrie
H Hair, Hamill, Harris, Hartman, Henderson, Hillsman, Hooke, Hughes, Hunter
I Igou
J James, Johnson, Jones, Justice
K Kaylor, Kelly, Kesterson, Key, Kirklen
L Lattner, Lauderdale, Lee, Legg, Levi, Lewis, Light, Long, Lusk, Luttrell
M Maddux, Mahan, Massengale, Millsaps, Montgomery, Moon, Moore, McCallie, McDonald, McDonough, McGill, McMillin, McRee
N Nail
P Palmer, Parham, Parker, Patterson, Poe, Puckett
R Ragsdale, Rawlings, Rawlston, Rice,
Roark, Roddy, Ross, Rowden
S Sawyer, Selcer, Shepherd, Shipley, Simmerman, Sivley, Skillern, Sniteman,Snow, Standifer, Stringer, Sylar
T Tallant, Tankesley, Taylor, Thurman,
Trail of Tears, Trewitt
V Varnell, Varner, Vaughn, Vinson
W Walker, Wallace, Wells, White, Whiteside, Williams, Wolf
Y Yarnell.

Early Hamilton Settlers is the second volume. It has over 14,600 names and includes:

Alexander, Andrews Raiders, Arnett, Barnes, Bisplinghoff, Blunt, Blythe, Bolton, Bowers, Boyd, Boydston, Bradfield, Bradford, Brown, Bryant, Burchard, Bush, Cameron, Campbell, Card, Carper, Carr, Cate, Champion, Chandler, Cleveland, Cocke, Coleman, Condra, Conner, Cookson, Cooley, Corbin, Corbitt, Crabtree, Davis, Denney, Dobbs, Doyle, Dragging Canoe, Edwards, Elder, Eustice, Evans, Evatt, Fitzgerald, Ford, French, Fulton, Gilliland, Goins, Grenfield, Gross, Hancock, Harvey, Hickman, Hixson, Hogan, Holder, Hutcheson, Julian, Kennedy, King, Kunz, Lenoir, Lewis, Lightfoot, Lowe, Martin, Matthews, Milliken, Mitchell, Monger, McBride, McNabb, McWilliams, Padgett, Parrott, Peak, Pearson, Pendergrass, Priddy, Ragon, Ramsey, Rice, Roberts, Rogers, Roy, Ruohs, Ryall, Schneider, Smith, Talley, Teenor, Tyner, Vail, Vandergriff, Van Epps, Vaughn, Vineyard, Walling, Warner, Watkins, Webster, Wilkins, Wisdom, Witt, Woodward.

The book includes several families that are among the most difficult to sort out - because of the many different branches and families of the same name here. These include Hixson, Smith, Brown, Davis and Conner. The Hixsons were among the county's earliest settlers and have been among the most prolific.

The Railroad, Stokes and Hiener books are available from Shannon at Zarzour's Restaurant on Rossville Avenue behind the fire hall on Main Street.

Zarzour's, which has been operated by the same family since 1917, is open for lunch from 11-2 Monday-Friday.

By mail order from:

John Wilson
129 Walnut Street Unit 416
Chattanooga, Tn., 37403

Sold out books by Mr. Wilson are often found on the ABE Books website.


 

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