Our farm is situated on the same property that Richard Gammon received in the 1780 Revolutionary War Land Grant.  He was born in London, England in 1750 and came to America in 1765. When he was 30 years old, Richard joined with colonists from Sullivan County and Southwest Virginia to fight against the British in the October 7, 1780, Battle of Kings Mountain.  For his service in the Revolutionary War, Richard Gammon received a land grant of 640 acres from the State of North Carolina. In 1796, as a delegate from Sullivan County he attended the first Tennessee State Convention in Knoxville and was one of the 53 men who signed the constitution that formed the State of Tennessee. He was always committed to local government and was instrumental in building the first Sullivan County Courthouse and was also active in the establishment of the first educational institution in Sullivan County. He and his wife Sarah Gamble Gammon are buried in the Blountville, Tennessee Cemetery.  Cate Farms is located along the historic “Stagecoach Road” which was a major route for the tens of thousands of settlers who were moving westward over the Appalachians. On this road traveled Presidents Andrew Jackson and William McKinley, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Louis Phillipe, the exiled King of France.  Gammon was also a businessman who sold some of his land parcels to early settlers. John and William Yoakley were among those first settlers.  According to Blountville records from 1786 they owned a large tract of land in the Holston Institute Settlement.  In 1896, one of their descendants, Margaret Yoakley and her husband, Dr. Joseph Mackey began construction of the Victorian farmhouse. The farmhouse was completed in 1898. In 1975, Yvonne Yoakley Lyons and her husband, William renovated the house. The historic stables and rustic sheds remain as they were built and are maintained by the Cate family.  Our property on Wagner Creek was also part of Wagner’s Dairy Farm that was founded in 1923 by A.K. Wagner.  Today, the farm is a beef cattle business operated and managed by Robert Helvey.