News: Marker honoring Admiral Farragut removed from landowner's property

From KnoxNews.com: Marker honoring Admiral Farragut removed from landowner's property

The owner of what's widely considered to be the birthplace of noted U.S. naval figure David Farragut says she has given away a 111-year-old marker honoring the admiral.

Lylan Fitzgerald, who owns the Stony Point property off Northshore Drive, said she had no other choice but to have the marker removed.

Fitzgerald said she has had problems with vandals and trespassers, both official and unofficial, ever since a group of local historians started to discuss the historic significance of the site a few years ago. She felt compelled to act.

"It's a relief to me that it's gone," she said.

The Daughters of the American Revolution installed the stone in 1900, honoring America's first admiral amidst much fanfare.

The marker is in the hands of a historic collector who appreciates it and will take good care of it, Fitzgerald said. Rumors that the marker was moved to Texas are "a distinct possibility," she said.

West Knox County resident Margot Kline has been advocating development of a park or memorial at the site, which was deeded in 1796 to Farragut's father, Spanish immigrant and Revolutionary War veteran Jorge Farragut.

Kline said she was very disappointed to learn the monument had been moved.

"It's a big loss for our community," she said.

Kline said a friend of hers noticed the missing marker when he was boating off Stony Point on Fort Loudoun Lake in August.

The site and the marker are extremely historic, worthy of recent consideration by the National Park Service for inclusion as a National Historic Landmark, she said.

"Farragut is one of the most important military figures in the history of this country. He is known around the world." she said.

Farragut served during the Civil War. He died in August 1870 and is buried in the Bronx, New York.

At the dedication of the monument in 1900, parades were held, schools were closed and paddleboats carried visitors from Knoxville to the ceremony, attended by Admiral of the Navy George Dewey.

For at least 90 years, the public was allowed to visit the monument, possibly creating a "presumptive easement" that has since been disputed by Fitzgerald, Kline said.

Fitzgerald, who said she once tried to give the monument to the county, said historians have had over a hundred years to make proper arrangements for the preservation and display of the marker.

"They don't even have proof he was born here," she said.

TVA deeded to the county the land 50 feet above the waterline for recreational use. The length of the easement inland is about 25 feet short of where the marker stood.

The Bonny Kate chapter of the DAR recently voted to create a memorial park within the easement. The DAR is preparing to take steps to maintain public access to the park. Kline said.

An old boat ramp that could be used to access the site through a strip of land along the water has been closed due to safety issues. Fitzgerald lives on the property and controls all other access through the locked gates at the entrance to the Stony Point subdivision, Kline said.

The monument was about 4 feet tall by 3 feet wide and 2 feet thick and weighed as much as several tons, Kline said.

Kline said the DAR is very concerned about the marker and will try to establish historical ownership in order to have the memorial returned to Knox County or placed at a proper historic venue such as a museum.