That Johnson City Statue

Reader Billy Coomer remembered a statue of pioneers somewhere between Kingsport and Johnson City. I remembered it, too, and it made me realize that the statue is no longer there. It was a statue of a pioneer family and it was located in north Johnson City, where the road splits and one goes to Kingsport and one goes to Johnson City. After a conversation with Johnson City native Gorman Waddell, I found out it was the Massengil Monument - only one "l" on Massengil. After a little research, I discovered that road construction had sent the statue packing...down the road. It was moved in 1990 to the Winged Deer Park, three miles down Bristol Highway. Winged Deer is the old J. Norton Arney farm. (Arney was one of the first car dealers to go on TV in Tricities. I think he was the original sponsor of the Bonnie Lou and Buster Show on WJHL-TV back in the mid-fifties.

I found two old postcards showing what the monument looked like in the forties. (It was erected in 1937.)


I remember it well because it was next to the old Texas Steer, my favorite place to visit in Johnson City.