A – Chapel
B – Commissary
C – School
D – Mill
E – Mill Pond
F – Slave House
G – First House
H – Mansion House
Company.
He set up the Ratcliffe Foundation (an older
spelling of his surname), to preserve the land and its
heirloom buildings in their pristine condition.
It was his wish that the Thomas Price house be
restored, and the Foundation has done so.
In its hay day, the Elk Garden Cattle Company
operated a commissary with a payroll office and a post
office, and the Elk Garden Chapel was located there.
The Chapel had been built from logs traditionally
from the home of Dr. R. N. Price.
He was the grandson of Richard Price, Sr. who, it
was believed, had built the log cabin.
Dr. Price was a well known Methodist minister,
and author of the authoritative History of Holston
Methodism in five volumes.
The belief that Richard Price, Sr. lived here is
unfounded, as he lived on his settlement right north of
US 19 at Old Rosedale.
The log cabin of Dr. Price was situated east of
State 80 across from the Thomas Price Mansion.
On Saturdays the Elk Garden Cattle Company ran a
bus up Corn Valley to The Loop to bring in employees and
their families to the payroll office, where they were
paid in script, and to the commissary, where they could
spend it. It
was even referred to as “Downtown Elk Garden”.
...
Continued, Page 23