Biography

Thomas Crutchfield was born 1801 in Virginia to Mary Nuckols and Robert Crutchfield. On June 19, 1820, Crutchfield married Sarah Moore Cleage in Botetourt County, Virginia. Together they had four children, three of whom survived to adulthood, Mary Jane (Crutchfield) Lumpkin, William Crutchfield, and Thomas Crutchfield Jr.

In the early 1820s, Crutchfield migrated with his family and father-in-law, Samuel Cleage (alternately spelled Clegg), from Virginia to the Hiwassee District in East Tennessee, an area that had legally opened to white settlement in 1819. Crutchfield and his father-in-law became business partners, forming the Cleage and Crutchfield firm, a brickmaking and contracting business. Cleage and Crutchfield were enslavers and used enslaved people to manufacture bricks and construct numerous brick municipal buildings and private homes across East Tennessee, particularly in McMinn County.

Crutchfield moved with his family to Chattanooga in the late 1830s at the time of the forced removal of the Cherokee by the federal government in 1838. He helped survey and clear land in what was formerly the Cherokee trading post and community of Ross’s Landing, which was incorporated into the city of Chattanooga in 1839. Crutchfield bought land near the Tennessee River, established a brick kiln and continued his contracting business, building some of the town’s first brick homes for James Whiteside and Dr. Milo Smith. In addition to his brickmaking and contracting business, Crutchfield owned land in Jacksonville, Benton County (now Calhoun County), Alabama, which he used for agriculture, milling, and leasing. One record from the 1840s indicates that at one time Crutchfield enslaved seventy-six people, who were forced to work as farm laborers, brickmakers, cooks, and housekeepers.

In Chattanooga, Crutchfield was active in the city’s economic development and in city politics. Crutchfield built Chattanooga’s first hotel, Crutchfield House, completed in 1847. The hotel was built at Ninth and Mulberry Street (now Broad Street), across the street from the train depot for the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which was completed in 1850, connecting Chattanooga to Atlanta by rail. In 1848, Crutchfield was elected Mayor of Chattanooga for a one-year term in 1849. Crutchfield died on March 5, 1850 in Chattanooga, Tennessee and was buried at Citizens Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Citation:

“1849 Thomas Crutchfield, Sr.” Chattanooga.gov. Accessed December 4, 2023. https://chattanooga.gov/about-chattanooga/history-of-mayors/1849-thomas-crutchfield-sr.

Citation:

Allen, Penelope Johnson. “Leaves From the Family Tree…Cleage.” Chattanooga Daily Times (Chattanooga, TN), January 21.

Citation:

“Crutchfield House.” Tennessee Civil War Trails. Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Accessed December 4, 2023. https://www.tnvacation.com/civil-war/place/3405/crutchfield-house/.

Citation:

Entry for Thomas Crutchfield and Robert Crutchfield, 17 Jun 1820. Botetourt Co. Circuit Court Marriage Bonds for the Years 1820-1823. Accessed December 21, 2023. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:668W-WTW9.

Citation:

Entry for Thomas Crutchfield and Sally Cleage, 19 Jun 1820. Botetourt County, Virginia Marriage Register, Part 1: 269. Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia. Accessed December 21, 2023. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6N4R-R8DC.

Citation:

Guy, Joe. The Hidden History of McMinn County: Tales from East Tennessee. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2007.

Citation:

Livingood, James W. Chattanooga: An Illustrated History. Sun Valley, CA: American Historical Press, 2001.

Citation:

Map of McMinn County, Tennessee showing civil districts, 1836. Tennessee State Library & Archives Map Collection. Tennessee State Library & Archives, Nashville, Tennessee. https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15138coll23/id/8956/.

Citation:

Mines, Linda Moss. “Mayor Thomas Crutchfield Put Reputation On the Line.” Chattanooga Times Free Press (Chattanooga, TN), November 26, 2023.

Citation:

Wilson, John. Chattanooga’s Story. Chattanooga, TN: Chattanooga Times-Free Press, 2013.

Citation:

Wilson, John. “Crutchfield Log Cabin Home Was A Curiosity On Cameron Hill's Pine Street.” Chattanoogan.com, July 12, 2022. https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/7/12/442677/Crutchfield-Log-Cabin-Home-Was-A.aspx.

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