First Capitol of the Territory of the United States West of the Allegheny Mountains and South of the River Ohio. (1790 - 1792)

William Cobb brought his family from North Carolina and built his two-story log home in the year 1770 and completed it in 1772. During the Revolutionary War, John Sevier called for volunteers in September 1780. Responding to the call to arms, William, William Jr., Pharaoh, Jerry, and Arthur Cobb answered to aid in the hunt to find the British officer Patrick Ferguson. William and Pharaoh supplied the Overmountain Men with gunpowder, horses, blankets, and food for their journey to the Battle of King’s Mountain - where the American Forces won a great victory.

There was a push by many settlers to split away from North Carolina in the year 1783. These individuals attempted to form their own state and named it Franklin, after Benjamin Franklin, and elected John Sevier as governor. The Lost State of Franklin was never recognized by the Federal government and was dissolved (reverting to North Carolina). Following the State of Franklin, the western lands of North Carolina were permanently ceded from the state in the year 1790. The land that William Cobb had settled was in this expanse of land which became known as the Territory South of the River Ohio, or the Southwest Territory.

William Cobb mostly kept himself above local politics, which seemed to make his home an ideal spot to house the Governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount. Blount was appointed governor by President George Washington and lived with the Cobb family from 1790 until 1792, making Rocky Mount the first Territorial Capitol of the Southwest Territory, which later became the State of Tennessee in 1796.

William Cobb and his wife, Barsheba, moved west to Bean’s Station in 1795. They left Rocky Mount to their daughter, Penelope, who had married Hal Massengill. Rocky Mount stayed in the family, passed down through the generations until 1958. Over the years, the log house has been modernized several times. The logs were covered with clapboard siding, and the original shingles had tin roofing over them. The original structure remained mostly intact beneath these exterior changes.

Pauline DeFriece, cousin of the owner of Rocky Mount, John Massengill, believed that the building should be preserved by the state and be opened to the public as a showplace to the memory of the early settlers of the region. She set in motion the chain of events that lead to the purchase of Rocky Mount by the state of Tennessee. She also established the Rocky Mount Historical Association, the organization that maintains and operates the site to this day.

Rocky Mount opened to the public with few visitor services on April 1, 1962. A small Visitor Center was built with space for a receptionist, 5000 square feet of gallery space and a caretaker’s apartment was added in the mid-1960s. A separate home for a caretaker was built in 1975 and the visitor center expanded to include a museum store in 1979. In 1990 a 175-seat auditorium with video output, library, and 4 classrooms were added.

The historic site was also expanded to include a kitchen, springhouse and slave cabin, barn, orchard, and gardens to enhance the living history atmosphere of the Cobb farm.