Will McTeer Collection. (Personal Papers)

Andrew Bogle McTeer was born on September 5, 1820, in Blount County to William McTeer and Mary Bogle McTeer. He married Nancy Gamble on December 1, 1842, and the pair had 6 children, William Anderson McTeer, Elizabeth McTeer Gamble, Harriett Caroline McTeer, McCulloch, Mary Martin McTeer Trotter, Alexander Breckinridge McTeer, and Josias Gamble McTeer. He farmed and worked as a blacksmith. On September 18, 1862, he enlisted in the US Army in Maryville, as a private in Co. A., 3rd Regiment Tennessee Cavalry. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant and quartermaster on November 17, 1863, following Elias Goddard’s muster out. On September 24, 1864, Andrew was captured along with most of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry during the surrender of Fort Henderson in Athens, Alabama, by Confederate forces under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. He resigned his post because of bilious fever and chronic rheumatism on September 26, 1863, and was paroled to Camp Chase, where he was held until his release on November 13, 1864, at Memphis. After the war, he served as Ellejoy’s postmaster from 1876 until his death on June 14, 1885. He is buried in Eusebia Cemetery in Blount County. The Grand Army of the Republic Post 89 in Ellejoy was named in his honor.

William Anderson McTeer was born on September 16, 1843, in Blount County, Tennessee, to Andrew Bogle McTeer and Nancy Gamble McTeer. As a teenager, he worked in Alexander McBath’s mercantile store in Ellejoy and helped his father with his blacksmith shop and farm. He enlisted in the US Army on August 10, 1862, in Maryville, joining Co. A. 3rd Regiment Tennessee Cavalry. Beginning on March 1, 1864, he clerked for the unit’s adjutant. On April 4, 1864, Will was promoted to 2nd lieutenant while in Nashville. On July 18, 1864, McTeer was promoted to 1st lieutenant and adjutant for the 4th Tennessee Cavalry until he was transferred back in the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry in November 1864. He mustered out of the US Army on August 3, 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee as a major. Following the war, he started a merchant business with his uncle, Alexander Gamble, Gamble, McTeer & Company, but an infestation of rats and flooding doomed the venture. In 1868, he ran for and was elected Blount County Circuit Court clerk. While serving as clerk, he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1878. The same year he was appointed United States Commissioner. In 1880, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, defeating C. R. Love, 1588-866. He only served one term. He served as treasurer and director of Maryville College at various times from the 1872s until 1920s. McTeer helped organize the Bank of Maryville in 1885 serving as its president from 1902 until 1915. He served as Maryville’s first city recorder from 1907 until 1917. He married Mary Wilson in 1876 but she died on January 4, 1898, of tuberculosis. He married Lucy Tilden Wilson on August 12, 1903, in Maryville. The pair had one child, Wilson McTeer. In 1917, he was appointed to serve on the local selective service board. Will A. McTeer died on November 7, 1925, and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Maryville.