CARTER COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – A centuries-old portrait of Landon Carter, the namesake of Carter County, will be shown to the public on Saturday, May 20.
A release from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), states that the portrait will be unveiled during a special ceremony at the Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park visitors center at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony is free and open to the public.
Landon Carter was an early settler who first came to what was then the frontier of the North Carolina colony before settling the Watauga Settlement with his father, according to TDEC. During his life, Carter was present for the Siege of Fort Watauga, fought in the Revolutionary War and served as both a Brigadier General of the state militia and a Tennessee State Senator.
Carter County was named in his honor when Washington County was divided in 1796. The city of Elizabethton is named for Carter’s wife, Elizabeth Maclin Carter, according to TDEC.
He died at the age of 40 in 1800 and was buried in a family cemetery on the grounds of the Historic Carter Mansion.
The portrait of Carter is believed to have been finished in the late 1700s and has been in the possession of the Seiler family, who TDEC described as descendants of Carter. TDEC stated that funds from the sale of the Gadsden Flag specialty license plate in Tennessee, the portrait was purchased and restored.
Kim Guinn, owner of the Essyx company in Johnson City, performed the conservation of the portrait.
The portrait and its accompanying exhibit will be displayed in the Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park museum.
