Dr James Gettys McGready Ramsey (1797-1884)

Civil War Confederate Treasury Officer, Tennessee Historian. Born at Swan Pond, Tennessee to an aristocratic family, Ramsey received his education at Washington College near Jonesboro, Tennessee and later the University of Pennsylvania, where he attended medical lectures. and Ramsey also joined his father and brother in banking, and was am early advocate for building railroads to connect Knoxville with Charleston, South Carolina ("Mecklenburg Politics") over developing water transportation routes from Knoxville to New Orleans. Ramsey also founded the first historical society in Tennessee, and was the author of "The Annals Of Tennessee". During the Battle for Knoxville in September 1863, his Meckenburg mansion at the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers was burned down and destroyed by a Union soldier. This single act destroyed most of the lost State of Frank and early Tennessee historical records in Ramsey's collectionHis autobiography and letters have also been published long after his death.

Bio by: Dustin Oliver