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Less well known than Harman Blennerhassett's romantic Ohio River home "Blennerhassett Island" is a second American “Blennerhassett Island”. Spelt that way until 1926 & later, the name was written “Blannerhasset Island” in 1939 but is now usually called “Blannahassett Island”. This is a small sandy island about 1/4 mile long, in the French Broad River at Marshall, Madison Co., North Carolina.
Although uninhabited and sometimes flooded by high water, a high school for Marshall was built on the island in 1926. This school was featured in Robert Ripley's “Believe It or Not!” newspaper column <date?> as the only school in the United States to be located on an uninhabited island. In 1980 it became Marshall Elementary School, the postal address being “1 Blannahassett Island”. In 1998 the first annual “River Fair” was held on the island. In the nearby town of Marshall is “Blannahassett Island Road”.
The reason behind the naming of this island is uncertain.
THEORY 1
“North Carolina: A Guide to the Old North State” (University of North Carolina Press, 1939) on p.463 tells us: “...Since there was no other suitable place, the high school was built on Blannerhasset Island, which is sometimes flooded by high water. The island is believed to have been named for Blennerhasset Island in the Ohio river, opposite Marietta, which figured in the ill-fated ambitions of Aaron Burr...”
THEORY 2
The island may take its name from Thomas Spotswood Blennerhassett (b.1813 Co.Kerry, Ireland) a well known American furniture maker working in New York, North Carolina (perhaps here?), New Orleans, Missouri, Ohio and Texas. |
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Blennerhassett Island, North Carolina
