Wheat was a farming community in Roane County,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. The area is now in the city of Oak Ridge. The earliest settlers moved into the area in the late 18th century. However, it was not until 1846 that the area was established as the community of Bald Hill. The name was changed to Wheat in 1880, when a post office was opened and the community took the name of its first postmaster, Frank Wheat. The first settler with the surname of Wheat and the recognized founding father of the town is Levi Henderson Wheat, born in Virginia between 1770 – 1780. Levi is first shown on a tax record within Roane County, Tennessee in 1805. On Nov 14, 1814, a “tract of land being in the 3rd Civil District, on the waters of Paw Paw Creek, consisting of 146 acres is conveyed to Levi Wheat from Jason Matlock for the sum of $200”. Levi Wheat worked the land as a farmer, married three times, and bore a total of 18 children. Levi served in the War of 1812 as a Private under Captain John McKamy’s Company of East Tennessee Militia, Colonel E Booth’s Regiment. Levi Henderson Wheat died prior to April 20, 1849, the date of his estate probate, in Roane County, Tennessee. Early farming residents included John Henry and Elizabeth Inman Welcker. They owned Laurel Banks

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

on the

Clinch River The Clinch River is a river that flows southwest for more than through the Great Appalachian Valley in the U.S. states of Virginia and Tennessee, gathering various tributaries, including the Powell River, before joining the Tennessee River in ...

from the early 19th century until c. 1840. Records from the time show that the Welckers were active in the purchase and sale of slaves. George Hamilton Gallaher purchased the property in the 1840s, and it is now referred to as the Gallaher-Stone Plantation. The Wheat Community African Burial Ground (AEC #2) and Gallaher-Welcker Cemetery (AEC #1) still survive. The African Burial Ground was long forgotten, but the site was found in 2000 by Will Minter and was cleaned up and marked by

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear we ...

personnel and volunteers. At least some of those buried in the African Burial Ground are believed to have been part of the Gallaher-Stone Plantation; a monument to those held in

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

is on the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

grounds. Wheat eventually included several churches, a seminary/college, several stores, a gas station and a Masonic lodge. Poplar Creek Seminary, founded in 1886 by a Presbyterian minister, later became Roane College. In 1908, the college transferred ownership of the building to Wheat High School. The community of Wheat was dissolved, and residents displaced, in 1942 when the United States government purchased the land as part of the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

. Most of the site remains in federal government ownership, managed by the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

. The George Jones Memorial Baptist Church is the only Wheat building still standing. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The Crawford Presbyterian Church building was torn down for a highway construction project. The cemeteries of both churches are maintained and are still used for burials of former Wheat residents and family members. The Wheat community, including former residents and their families, holds a "homecoming" reunion at the George Jones Church every year on the first Sunday in October.Wheat residents will meet for 72nd reunion.
''The Oak Ridger''. 1 October 2004. Accessed 10 June 2009.

References

* Moneymaker, Dorathy S. ''We'll Call It Wheat''. Oak Ridge, Adroit Print Co., 1979.

Sources

Excerpts From Oak Ridge National Laboratory: The First 50 Years

External links

Historical Wheat community photos
ORNL Historical Photo Gallery {{coord, 35, 56, 12, N, 84, 22, 25, W, display=title Geography of Roane County, Tennessee Ghost towns in Tennessee Oak Ridge, Tennessee 1880 establishments in Tennessee 1942 disestablishments in Tennessee Populated places established in 1880 Populated places disestablished in 1942