08/26/2025
We’re famous! Thank you Joey and Katherine for celebrating Clinton’s great history!
“William Samuel “Sam” Lewallen was born in 1860 and, in 1885, married Sarah Ann Moore. Miss Moore grew up in the Clinchmore Farm area, where today’s Eagle Bend Fish Hatchery sits beside the Clinch River. The couple moved “into town” in the 1890’s to a beautiful white home at 501 North Main Street in Clinton that was constructed in 1883. This amazing structure is today the home of Dr. Butch Oaks Dentistry. Mr. Lewallen worked at the Overton & Clear Dry Goods Store on Maire Avenue in North Clinton. The store later moved to Market Street as Kincaid & Overton. In 1901, Lewallen and H. F. Miller opened Lewallen-Miller Department Store at the corner of Main and Market…and that structure remains to this day as well. The Lewallen’s son, William Everett Lewallen, was a three-time mayor of Clinton, serving during the Clinton High School integration crisis. You’ll recognize Everett as the namesake of the old and new “Green Bridge” over the river into South Clinton. You can read more about the old Lewallen homeplace on its new Historic Walking Tour plaque!”
