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Emigrants arrival

Belgians in America

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C.W. Soldiers

Belgian Civil War soldiers

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the old soldier's homes: Mountain

Congressman Walter P. Brownlow represented the people of the First District of Tennessee. He had already secured federal funds to build bridges and roads in this area and was determined to have a Branch of the National Soldiers Home built in theDistrict. The Board of Governors refused to give him an audience reminding Brownlow of the national policy (NO NEW BRANCHES!). He requested five minutes of their time and actually took only three. In those three minutes he reminded the Board of three things: (1) East Tennessee furnished the Union 30,000 volunteers, more than any other state in the South. There were currently 18,250 Union pensioners living in the First District. (2) The Board had already built a Branch in Hampton, Virginia, a state where there were no Union Volunteer soldiers of record and (3) The Congress had recently approved the construction of a million dollar federal prison in Atlanta. Weren’t our volunteer Union soldiers deserving of as much as these convicts? The Board took an immediate vote and recommended to Congress that a Branch be built in the First District. In 1900, Brownlow’s bill passed Congress unanimously. In 1901, Johnson City was a village of 5,000 inhabitants. In the three years it took to build the facility, Johnson City’s property value and population doubled. 475 acres of farmland was purchased from four families (Lyle, Miller, Hale, Martin) at a price of $50 per acre. The Board of Governors chose the site for its view of the mountains and its access to fresh water. The facility was occupied in 1903.