Gatlinburg's First Barber

Harve Reagan was the White Oak Flats first barber. White Oak Flats was later and still known to this day as Gatlinburg. Each Saturday he carried his barber chair which he had made from mighty Oaks, down from his farm at Roaring Fork, to Ogle's Store which was located in the center of town.

Nestled in the valley of the Little Pigeon River's West Fork and surrounded on three sides by the majestic National Park, Gatlinburg has evolved from a rural hamlet to a thriving gateway community.

Settled in the early 1800s, it was first named White Oak Flats for the abundant native white oak trees covering the landscape. It is believed a middle-aged widow, Martha Jane Huskey Ogle, was the first official settler here. She came with her family to start a new life in what her late-husband described as a "Land of Paradise" in East Tennessee. Soon after, such now familiar family names as McCarter, Reagan, Whaley, and Trentham took up residence along local streams and hollows.

In 1854, Radford C. Gatlin arrived in White Oak Flats and opened the village's second general store. Controversy soon surrounded him and was eventually banished from the community. However, the city still bears his name.