The first Tennessee grant to land in Cades Cove was registered March 23, 1821 in the name of William Tipton for 640 acres. William “Fighting Billy” Tipton was the son of Colonel John Tipton and fought along with his father in the Revolutionary War. He was 15 years old when he signed up..In 1818 William and Joshua Jobe persuaded John and Lucretia Oliver to become the first settlers in the Cove in return for enough supplies for the trip and funding for their own farm once the land grant was approved. Over the next several years William and many of his friends and relatives moved to the Cove. .Colonial Hamp Tipton, a veteran of the Mexican American War, had this house built a few years after the Civil War. .