“Where is Gen. John Sevier’s head and hand?” That was the type of question that was asked on August 14, 2002, when it was discovered that Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, East Tennessee sculptor Edgar W. Bowlin’s masterpiece, had been vandalized.
On Sunday, November 17, 2024, the family of sculptor and other individuals who played a role in preserving this unique East Tennessee work of art unveiled what remains of Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, at the East Tennessee History Center. The first governor of Tennessee, one of only three life-size sculpture’s by Bowlin, can be seen at 601 South Gay Street, directly across from the Tennessee Theatre.
Bowlin was born in Hancock County in 1919. After service in World War II, he conducted a successful career as an artist and art instructor in Upper East Tennessee. His other life-size works include Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth president of the United States, unveiled on October 12, 1956, in the lobby of the Greeneville branch of Home Federal Loan and Savings of Upper East Tennessee (now the lobby of the Greene County Partnership), and Kenneth D. McKellar, United States senator and advocate of commercial aviation, unveiled on June 22, 1958, at the Tri-Cities Airport. Bowlin passed away in Sullivan County in 2001.
Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, was unveiled in the lobby of Home Federal’s Kingsport branch on January 2, 1960. After the bank was sold in 1996, the sculpture was gifted to Donald Ault, founder of the Governor John Sevier Bicentennial Association, who planned to display it in a replica of Tennessee’s first state capitol in downtown Knoxville. The construction of James White Parkway derailed Ault’s project, and he was ultimately forced to store Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, near The Foundry on the 1982 World’s Fair site. There, the sculpture was tipped over, beheaded, and behanded.
Was the vandalism a Rush Week dare carried out by fraternity pledges, as some believe, or was it simply a random act? Is John Sevier’s head sitting on a shelf in a fraternity house, or has it been discarded, perhaps at the bottom of the Tennessee River?
If you are in possession of–or have any information about–the sculpture’s missing parts, the team at the East Tennessee History Center would love to speak with you. Please call 865-215-8830 or email [email protected]. No questions asked. No charges filed.
In a 2010 interview with the Metro Pulse, William James “Jim” Cortese, a local arborist who helped protect the sculpture, reflected: “It doesn’t bother me that it doesn’t have a head. I’ve been to Europe many times, and in Europe there are thousands of headless, legless, and armless statues. It’s about time America had a few headless statues.”
The East Tennessee History Center, a facility of Knox County Public Library, is honored to be the new home of Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, whether in part or, perhaps, in whole, if his head and hand are located. The preservation of Gen. John Sevier, 1745-1815, was made possible by Mayor Glenn Jacobs and Knox County Government. Installation and interpretive signage were made possible by the East Tennessee Historical Society, Maryville Monument Company, T and T Signs, Inc., and Tennessee Marble Company. Special gratitude is also extended to the family of Edgar W. Bowlin, Sr., Donald and Wanda Ault, and Jim Cortese.
→
By Peter Wallenstein
published in the Journal of East Tennessee History, Vol 96, 2024
→
The Watauga Association: Self-Government on the Edge of Empire
→
The streetscape here at the Museum of East Tennessee History has undergone some changes and gained a few new additions to showcase. In particular, the three cases to the left of Trolly 416 are now inhabited by artifacts that give a glimpse into the rich history of radio in Tennessee.