Beulah Linn is like a walking history book. Sevier County's historian tells of her connections to the roots of the settlement of Pigeon Forge. Linn's Great great great grandfather Phillip Gobble came to Pigeon Forge from Virginia in 1801. The farm where Linn lives is a portion of the 150 acres he owned.
Just prior to Gobbles arrival, Mordecai Lewis had settled on the property where the Old Mill is now situated. Both the Gobble farm, which included land at the site of the Gatlinburg Golf Course, and the Lewis holdings made up a large portion of what is now a playground for families visiting the Great Smoky Mountains.
E.J. Gobble, Linn's grandfather, owned and operated a water mill at the junction of Boogertown and Middle Creek roads near Pigeon Forge and, in later years, a gasoline mill on Middle Creek Road. Her mother, Ellen Gobble, taught at Williamsburg School nearby for taught or three years before marrying Linn's father, W.C. Duggan.
Linn's Duggan ancestry traces back to a great great grandfather, Robert Duggan, who was a Revolutionary War soldier. Closer to present day family, Linn has several relatives who were in the teaching profession. She is a retired high school teacher. Two people who influenced her career decisions were her sophomore biology teacher, Anna Weigle, who taught at Central High School in Knoxville, and Luther Burbank. Burbank was doing a lot of botany research in California at the time and he published a weekly article in the Saturday Evening Post that Linn "just couldn't wait to read."
Linn graduated from high school in 1928. She remembers that the big science news of the time was that Congress passed an act in 1929 to set aside lands for the formation of national parks. She gave a dime, as did many other Knoxville youths, toward the purchase of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Mrs. Beulah Linn County Historian has recorded many treasures.
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