Nearly four decades of this column have provided opportunities to visit and learn the stories of the unique and different towns, villages, and citizens of our area.

As early as the mid-1600s, English-speaking traders would arrive in our area.

The French, Indian and Revolutionary Wars would find soldiers passing through our region.

Often paid for their service by land grants, some of those soldiers would return, along with others, to make this area their home.

Only a little over three 80-year life spans linked end to end would connect those pioneer setters to the land we inhabit today.

Prior to the coming of the English-speaking newcomers, Paleo and Woodland native Americans had lived in this area for 10,000 years.

Artifacts from those early peoples are still being found. As the earliest new settlers arrived, they would most often follow rivers or animal or trails made by the much earlier natives.

During that time a normal day of travel by a wagon pulled by draft animals would roughly cover 10 miles, with a station soon appearing to provide supplies and repairs.

Those stations would begin attracting schools, stores, inns, churches and the earliest small industries and would create villages that would often grow into towns. After three 80-year life spans laid end to end many of those settled areas would have become our current towns.

A recent cold and rainy day provided the reason to pick up buddies Clark Aikins and Ronnie Yount for a trip to Greeneville, a beautiful town of more than 15,500 citizens. Greeneville is located not far from where Big Limestone Creek runs into the Nolichucky River.

We knew that we had made a good choice when we kept running into parts of the town’s story. Big Spring is located at Greeneville and at first would provide a major water source for the coming town. Greeneville would officially be recognized as a town in 1786, joining Dandridge, Rogersville and Nashville in a claim as Tennessee’s “second-oldest town.”

Since Tennessee wouldn’t become a state until 1796, Greeneville would be active in the failed State of Franklin.

By 1850 Greeneville would have a population of 660 citizens. With the town having a strong abolitionist population, a Quaker citizen, Elihu Embree, would print the “Emancipator,” which would be the nation’s first abolitionist newspaper.

The coming of the Civil War in 1861 would see Greene County joining a number of other Tennessee counties in an attempt to form the separate “State of East Tennessee” and remain in the Union. This attempt would fail after a quick Confederate army occupation.

That occupation would be challenged by a group of local citizens who formed to burn the railroad bridges down to Knoxville.

Several of those bridge burners would be executed.

During the Civil War, and after the Union takeover of Knoxville in late 1863, portions of James Longstreet’s Confederate army would fall back to Greeneville.

A standout story for the town would be when Confederate General John Hunt Morgan was killed in Greeneville on September 4, 1864. Having been a leader of a Confederate cavalry division, Morgan had used guerrilla tactics to penetrate as far north as Indiana and Ohio before being captured. After escaping, Morgan was in Greeneville to reform his unit for a raid into Knoxville when his death occurred.

Perhaps the most noted Greeneville citizen was President Andrew Johnson, who had escaped an apprenticeship to come to Greeneville to open a tailor shop.

There he would marry Eliza McCardle in 1827 in a ceremony performed by Mordecai Lincoln, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln.

Along with his business, Johnson would also hold several elected positions.

In the 1864 presidential election, Johnson, a southerner, was chosen by President Lincoln to be his Vice President in an effort to bring the country back together. Johnson would become the President of the United States upon Lincoln’s death.

A number of Greeneville sites are tributes to the President having lived there.

Prominent early black educator George Clem is also celebrated in the town, along with at least four black “Buffalo soldiers,” and World War II Medal of Honor recipient Elbert Kinsler.

The Twentieth Century would bring much change to the town, especially with the arrival of the Magnavox Company in 1947. With employees that once numbered 5,000, the company would finally close in 2005.

Today a Magnavox television, the last television set made in America, is featured at the Greeneville/Greene County History Museum.

The new century would see two large tornados hit just south of the town in 2011 which would bring much destruction.

A successful downtown revitalization from 2018 to 2023 has left the town a joy to be visited.

During our visit, we got a taste of the town’s charm and friendly culture while looking for a suggested sandwich shop on Depot Street.

Unable to find the shop, we were driving down the street when we were waved at by a gentleman with a red hat standing beside a lady in front of a window that advertised Tipton’s Café.

We would soon learn that the man would be Ray Darnell, formerly retired and who had been drawn by the café’s friendliness to return to work and serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the business.

The lady would be Michelle Cutshall, an owner of the café. My own hometown had once had a number of cafés where a quick meal could be had, and that memory would pull us over to visit Tipton’s.

Once inside, we were treated as part of an extended family.

A plate of homemade biscuits and gravy was brought to our table without even being ordered.

The gravy was homemade and obviously not produced from a commercial package while the hot fluffy biscuits were tasty.

While enjoying that food, we put in our orders for hamburgers, and were happily surprised again.

The hamburgers were handmade from fresh beef patties and would include a nearly half inch slice of a ripe tomato, along with leafy lettuce.

The hamburger was so large that half of it was taken home for a later meal.

The side order of hash browns was topped with chopped onion and covered with a slice of melted cheese.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a business adjacent to the café was obtained and would become the café’s dining room which featured memorabilia along the walls and a 10-cent soft drink in the corner. During our visit we were able to hear the story of the café and meet several of the employees who work together as a close team.

Originally opened as Linton’s Restaurant in 1942, the business was owned by the Gentry family for a short time before being acquired by the Tipton family in 1966 to become Tipton’s Café.

One honored guest at the café was 85-year-old Mary Jo Tipton who told: “My mom bought it in 1966 when it was just the narrow portion. This café put four children through college.”

Another Tipton employee was Joe Aldridge, an Andrew Johnson decedent who still retains a strikingly appearance of the former President.

Aside from his job, Joe is an interpreter for President Johnson as well as the town’s Santa Claus and can spout out an encyclopedic knowledge of Johnson and the town’s Civil War history.

With the coming of franchised fast-food restaurants, family-owned eateries are becoming rarer. Tipton’s Café is an exception.

While Michelle is the granddaughter of the Tipton’s founders, she and husband Tony are the café owners.

Other family members and friends have worked at the café which has become a part of their path through life.

Some of those present and former employees that were named off were Christy Marshall, Lindsey Duke, Samuel Payne, Kristen Cutshaw, Becky Davis, Kari Carter, Amber Smith and Chelsea Duke, while the café would become a second home to their grandchildren.

For Clark, Ronnie and myself, the visit to Tipton’s Café was a trip back home away from home.