The milling tradition in Trade goes back to at least 1802 when Thomas Jones homesteaded on nearby Roan Creek and built a mill. Pleasant May and his wife Callie bought the property sometime after 1850. A grim event in that mill’s history occurred in 1892 when Callie May got her dress caught in the mill’s revolving shaft and was fatally dashed against the floor. “She was an excellent Christian lady and beloved by all who knew her,” the Johnson County News reported. “Our sympathy goes with the family as they follow her remains to the lonely grave.”
The mill was purchased by the Snyder family in 1915. A son, Peter Snyder, later learned to operate the mill and ran it until around 1989. He said he never liked to be in the mill alone for fear of encountering the ghost of Callie May.
Trade Community Center & Gristmill Park, 228 Modock Road (off Hwy. 421 South, between Mountain City, TN and Boone, North Carolina) in Trade, Tennessee.
Call (423) 727-5574 for information.
Trade is the oldest town in Tennessee. In the early 1770s it was a trading area for Indians and fur traders and is located on an old buffalo trail. Daniel Boone also followed this trail into East Tennessee and later to Kentucky. Today Trade is still a very small town on the road between Boone North Carolina and Mountain City Tennessee.
Trade is the oldest town in Tennessee.