A history of Hickman County, Tennessee

Front matter

PROVO, UTAH

W. JEROME D. SPENCE

976:- £734

Preface

In this Preface to that which is perhaps a History, the authors desire to make some explanations, that those who would criticise may, after reading them, be just to themselves by not being unjust to us.

In the preparation of this book our source of information has been largely oral tradition, with but little documentary testimony at our disposal as to names and dates. Often statements made to us by different parties as to the same facts have differed radically. In many cases we have possibly accepted the wrong version. After an investigation of several years we are of opinion, however, that the things herein stated are in the main true. Where misstatements and errors occur we, in advance, express our regrets. To many Hickman County families we have not given the space which we desired to give them, solely on account of our inability to procure from these families the full information which we desired. We have used the most strenuous efforts in an attempt to secure a perfect list of Hickman County’s soldiers, especially a correct list of those who wore the gray. In this we have been partially successful; and if those who read this knew how difficult it is, even after the lapse of a few years, to procure a correct and complete list of

Preface.

Hickman County’s Confederate soldiers, they would realize that in the list which we publish alone they have a full return for the price of this book. We hope those who are about to criticise will hesitate for a moment, and tben conclude that, as this is the only History of Hickman County ever published, it is, after all, the best.

Chapter I. Early History Of Tennessee

1]ST 154.0, forty-eight years after the discovery of America by Columbus, F erdinand De Soto, a Spanish explorer, after fighting his way with disastrous loss through successive Indian tribes from the shores of Florida through Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, crossed with his army the Mississippi River at the Indian village of Cliisca, which stood upon the present site of Memphis. These were the first white men who trod upon the soil which is now Tennessee. It has been claimed that De Soto, in his wanderings, traversed a portion of East Tennessee. This contention, however, is not supported by authentic proof. De Soto found a burial place in the Father of Waters nearer its mouth, and until 1682, when Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle built the French fort of Prud’homme, on Chickasaw Bluffs, now Memphis, the savages held undisputed control of what is now Tennessee. In 1714 M. Charleville, a French trader, came from Crozat’s colony, at New Orleans, and built a store “ on a mound on the west side of the Cumberland River, near French Lick, in the Shawnee country.” While the exact location of this store is not known, it was within the present corporate limits of the city of Nashville. The presence of Charleville and other French traders gave to the salt lick a on the west side of the Cumberland River” the name of “ French Lick.”

Despite the fact that English possessions in America were not recognized by Spain till 1670, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and others petitioned Queen Elizabeth, in the spring of 1574, “ to allow of an enterprise for the discovery of sundry rich and unknown lands fatally reserved for England, and for the honor of your Majestie.” In 1578 Queen Elizabeth complied by granting to Sir Humphrey Gilbert a patent “ to undertake the discovery of the northern parts of America.” Gilbert lost his life in 1583, and during the following year his grant was renewed to his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh’s grant included the present State of Tennessee. The failure of the attempt to plant a colony on Roanoke Island; the birth of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America; the final fate of the gallant, yet unfortunate, Raleigh ; and the story of what Spencer called “ the fruitfulest Virginia ” are all too well known to be further referred to here. No successful attempts were made by Raleigh to explore the interior, and his attempts at American colonization were fruitless, save that it was he who introduced tobacco and the Irish potato into England. Others less worthy than he profited by his mistakes and succeeded where he had failed.

In 1665 Charles II., King of England, granted land in America to Edward, Earl of Clarendon; Monk, Lord Craven, Lord Ashley Cooper, Sir John Colleton, Lord John Berkeley, Sir George Carteret, and Sir William Berkeley. Tennessee was included in this grant, it being until 1790 a part of North Carolina. The Lords Proprietors, as Clarendon and his associates were called, employed the celebrated philosopher, John Locke, to prepare a Fundamental Constitution. The “ Grand Model ” which Locke produced, providing for an intricate system of government by landgraves, caziques, and barons, was not suited for the swamps and poor and scattered people, and was therefore never more than a theory. A partial attempt to put it into execution completely failed after a trial of twenty-two years. North Carolina became a royal province in 1729, it having been ruled by a governor until that time.

In 1748 Dr. Thomas Walker, of Virginia, and a party of explorers penetrated Tennessee and gave the name of Cumberland to the mountains and river of that name, they being named in honor of the Duke of Cumberland.

In the granting of lands in America by the sovereigns of England, the claims of the Indians to these lands had been ignored. In 1756 a treaty was made with the Cherokees by Governor Dobbs, of North Carolina, which allowed the establishment of forts on

Indian lands. As a result, Fort Dobbs, in Rowan County, North Carolina, was built this year. In the following year Fort Loudoun (Loudon) was built at the junction of the Tellico and Little Tennessee Rivers'by the English under Gen. Andrew Lewis. “This was the first fort built by the English-speaking people on Tennessee soil,” and was named in honor of John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun. This fort remained in the hands of the English until 1760, when the Cherokees, enraged by an unfortunate collision with Virginians, attacked it and massacred the entire garrison with the exception of one “ messenger of defeat,” who escaped. This was avenged by Colonel Grant, who, in the following year, burned the Indian town of Etchoe. In this campaign against the Indians Gen. Francis Marion saw his first service. He was a lieutenant in the company commanded by Capt. William Moultrie.

The following inscription may yet be seen on a beech on Boone’s Creek, near Jonesboro: “D. Boon cilled A BAR on tree in The year 1760.” In this year Timote de Mont Breun (Timothy Demonbreun), a French soldier who had served under Montcalm in Canada, came to the French Lick, on the Cumberland, lie was the first white settler of Nashville, and has hundreds of descendants in Tennessee.

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave to England the sovereignty of that region of the LTnited States east of the Mississippi, a portion of which, including Tennessee, having hitherto been claimed by France.

In 1768 the treaty of Stanwix with the Six Nations

Early History of Tennessee.

gave Tennessee to the King of England. This treaty was probably ratified by a few Cherokees who were present, but its conditions were never complied with by them.

In 1766 Colonel James, Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone, and William Baker, of Carlisle, Pa., with a negro slave belonging to Horton, explored the country around Nashville and named Stone’s River after Uriah Stone. Three years later William Bean built a cabin at the junction of Watauga River and Boone’s Creek. His son, Russell Bean, was the first white child horn in Tennessee. During the same year (1769) Abraham Bledsoe, Casper Mansker, and others came from Virginia to where Nashville now stands. They found immense herds of buffalo and other game in abundance. In 1770 James Robertson, “ the father of Tennessee,” settled on the Watauga River, in East Tennessee. During this year Colonel James Knox and a party of hunters and explorers went as far west as the mouth of the Cumberland River. In the following year Casper Mansker established a station on Station Camp Creek, in what is now Sumner County.

In 1772 the settlements in East Tennessee combined under the name of the Watauga Association. This desire upon the part of the early settlers of what is now Tennessee for local self-government finally gave rise in 1784 to the establishment of the State of Franklin. The story of the State of Eranklin and of its Governor, John Sevier, the idolized u Nolachucky J ack ” of the mountaineers, is one of the most interesting to be found in the pages of Tennessee history.

In 1774 Tennessee made its debut as the “ Volunteer State,” when Capt. Evan Shelby and his company of fifty men participated in the battle of Kanawha, or Point Pleasant.

The trouble between England and the colonies was now coming on. The Korth Carolina u Regulators had, several years before this (1771), resisted British tyranny, the battle of Alamance being the result. Kumbers of the defeated “ Regulators ” sought freedom over the mountains in what is now Tennessee. How, when they saw that the struggle was surely coming on, they acted with the same promptness that had characterized their actions when they were called upon to resist Governor Try on’s tyranny.

On May 20, 1775, the patriots of Mecklenburg County, K C., met and adopted resolutions which have passed into history under the name of the “ Mecklenburg Resolutions.” This was over a year before J eff erson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and some of the very phrases found in the u Mecklenburg Resolutions ” are embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Later — April 4, 1776 — the Provincial Congress of Korth Carolina, having among its members men from what is now Tennessee, passed resolutions favoring the United Colonies declaring independence. Tennessee now had a population of 600. The Whigs had a sufficient majority to enable them to force the Tories of the Nolachucky settlement to

Early History of Tennessee.

take an oath of allegiance to the Revolutionary cause. To-day there are many families in Hickman County who can give the names of ancestors who fought for American liberty during the Revolutionary War.

The first white man to raise a crop in Middle Tennessee was Thomas. Sharpe Spencer — erroneously called by Phelan “James Spencer ” — who came to Bledsoe’s Lick, now Castalian Springs, in 1776. He was a very large man, but lived during his stay at the Lick in a hollow sycamore tree. Many are the stories that have been handed down to us regarding the gigantic Spencer. That he was as generous as he w^as brave is exemplified in the story that when his comrade, Holliday, became faint-hearted and desired to return, Spencer broke his own knife and gave one of the pieces to Holliday, who had no knife. It is related that one of Captain Demonbreun’s hunters, seeing one of Spencer’s large footprints and not knowing that Spencer was in the vicinity, deserted his cabin and fled in terror to the French settlements on the Wabash, thinking that he had wandered into a land of giants. Notwithstanding his great strength, Spencer was for peace. Upon one occasion, in order to pacify a belligerent backwoodsman, he picked him up and tossed him over a ten-rail fence. Spencer was one of the first settlers at Nashville, and there had several bloody encounters with, and hair-breadth escapes from, the Indians. It was from their hands, however, that he finally received his death wound. This occurred in a mountain pass, near the present site of Crossville, in what is now Cumberland County. One of his peculiarities was that he would always go several yards either behind or in front of his party. This peculiarity, doubtless, cost him his life. Hiding several yards in advance of his party, he was killed from ambush by Indians. The place where he fell has since that day been called “ Spencer’s Hill.” This occurred in 1794. Spencer, the county site of Van Buren County, is named for this “ big-foot hunter.” Jonesboro, the iirst town in the State, was established by an Act of the North Carolina Legislature in 1778, being named for Willie Jones, of that State. In 1779 Tidence Lane organized the first Baptist Church in the State and commenced to preach regularly to the congregation. This church was on Buffalo Ridge, in what is now East Tennessee. Seven years before this Charles Cummins, a Presbyterian preacher, had established a church at the Watauga settlement, the location of the church being, however, within the present limits of the State of Virginia. The Baptist Church was therefore the pioneer church of Tennessee. Samuel Doak, the celebrated Presbyterian, commenced to preach to the people in Washington and Sullivan Counties a short time after Lane made his appearance on Buffalo Ridge.

During the winter of 1779-80 James Robertson, Mark Robertson, Zachariah White, and others came through Southern Kentucky from East, Tennessee to the Erench Lick, on the -Cumberland. New arrivals soon increased the number to about 300. This was

Early History of Tennessee.

the beginning of the permanent settlement of what afterwards became Nashville. On December 22, 1779, John Donelson started “ in the good boat Adventure from Fort Patrick Henry, on Holston River, to the French Salt Spring, on Cumberland River.” Donelson’ s party was composed of the families and friends of those who had gone with Robertson’s company. After going down the Tennessee River to the Ohio River, up the Ohio to the Cumberland, and up the Cumberland to French Lick, the voyage ended on April 24, 1780. Of this expedition, it has been said: “ It has no parallel in modem history.” The winter of 1779-80 was one of unusual severity. The settlement at the Bluffs, near French Lick, was called “ Nashborough,” in honor of Gen. Francis Nash, a North Carolinian who had fallen in the battle of Brandywine. The fort of the settlement was situated on what is now Front street, Nashville, between the southeast corner of the Public Square and Church street (formerly called Spring street), near where the Davidson County jail now stands. Here the “battle of the Bluffs ” was fought on April 2, 1781. The condition of these pioneers was very precarious' until the close of the Revolutionary War, in 1782, and the advent of the commissioners appointed by North Carolina to run the Continental Line, which is referred to elsewhere. These commissioners were accompanied by a strong guard. From that time the permanency of the settlement on the Cumberland was assured, although the dangers and the hardships were far from being all removed.

Before the close of the Revolutionary War (October 7, 1780), 440 East Tennesseans, under Cols. John Sevier and Isaac Shelby, gave Great Britain a sample of what she afterwards received at Hew Orleans, by assisting in the defeat of Ferguson at King’s Mountain. King’s Mountain has been called “the turning point of the Revolution.” In this engagement the American loss in killed and wounded was 88 ; the British lost 505 killed and wounded, and 600 captured.

James Robertson (1783) was Davidson County’s first representative in the Horth Carolina Legislature. This year, Rev. Jeremiah Lambert came to the Holston Circuit, he being the first Methodist to preach in Tennessee. The following year a town was established at the Bluffs on the Cumberland by the Korth Carolina Legislature, the old name of Hashborough giving way to the present name of Hashville.

In 1789 the Horth Carolina Legislature passed the Act ceding to the United States territory embracing the present State of Tennessee. In the following year a deed was made, and on April 2, 1790, the territory was accepted by Act of Congress. William Blount was appointed Governor of this Territory, “the Territory South of the Ohio River.” The Territory was divided into two districts — Washington and Miro. The latter embraced the counties of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee; and, therefore, included a large portion of

Early History of Tennessee.

the present county of Hickman. The name of this district is spelled “ M-E-R-0 ” in all of the old records, but the name was given in honor of Don Estevan Miro (pronounced “ Mero ”), the Spanish Governor of Hew Orleans. This was done upon the suggestion of James Robertson, who was desirous of keeping on friendly terms with the Spanish, who then had control of the Mississippi River. James Robertson was appointed brigadier general of this district by President George Washington. In February of the following year (1791) he was made a major general in the United States Army. A few months later he was with Edwin Hickman, in what is now Hickman County, being present at the time of the Indians7 attack upon the party near the present site of Centerville.

The following year (June 26, 1792) Zeigler’s Station, in Sumner County, was captured and burned by Creek Indians. September 30 was the date of the attack on Buchanan’s Station, four miles south of Nashville. The. Indians were 700 strong, but were defeated by the fort’s fifteen gallant defenders..

On June 1, 1796, Tennessee was admitted into the Union. Previous to this (January 11) a Constitutional Convention convened at Knoxville, and, upon the suggestion of Andrew Jackson, a delegate from Davidson County, the name “ Tennessee ” was given to the State. On November 12 he was commissioned as the first Representative in Congress from the new State. The winter of 1796-7 is said to have been the coldest in the history of the State.

Chapter II. Some Pioneer History

IN the preceding chapter is given an outline of the early history of Tennessee in general and of the Cumberland settlement in particular. All of this is indirectly connected with the history of Hickman County. In this chapter those incidents more directly connected with its history will be referred to. A large number, if not all, of the early explorers of what is now Hickman County came from the Cumberland settlements.

In May, 1780, a few months after the commencement of the settlement at the Bluffs (now Nashville), Indians made a raid around Freeland’s Station and captured a number of horses, loaded with meat., from Thomas Sharpe Spencer, who was returning to the Bluffs from a hunting tour. A pursuing party, headed by James Bobertson, was organized. The party was composed of about twenty men, but the names of only three others are known — Alexander Buchanan, John Brock, and William Mann. Buchanan had come to the Bluffs from South Carolina, together with John Buchanan, Sampson Williams, Thomas Thompson, and others. He was one of the number killed by the Indians during the battle of the Bluffs on April 2, 1781. This pursuing party followed the Indians to a point near the old Tick, on Tick Creek, in the Fourth

Some Pioneer History.

District. Here they came within hearing distance of the pursued, who were building their camp fires. The whites dismounted and marched upon the Indians, who deserted their camp and escaped. The stolen property was recovered and returned to the Bluffs. This expedition was the first that went from Nashville against the Indians.

At the close of the Revolutionary War, North Carolina had no money with which to pay her disbanded soldiers. It was decided to give them, in payment for their services, land in the western portion of the State, in what is now Tennessee.

By an Act of the North Carolina Legislature, in 1782, Anthony Bledsoe, Absalom Tatum, and Isaac Shelby were appointed commissioners to lay off lands to be allotted to the soldiers of the Continental Line. They were to have guards not exceeding one hundred in number. In February, 1783, the commissioners went from Nashville to Latitude Hill, in Giles County, and, after having located the southern boundary of the State, they went fifty-five miles to the north and ran parallel to this southern boundary a line known as the “ Commissioners’ Line.” This was to mark the boundary of the land to be, given to the Continental soldiers. This party at the same time laid off the 25,000 acres of land given by North Carolina to Gen. Nathaniel Greene, they locating it in what is now Maury County. The Commissioners’ Line ran through Hickman County, passing near the present site of Yernon, and some of those who went this way in surveying and marking it weire*. James Robertson, Anthony Bledsoe, Daniel Smith, Isaac Bledsoe, Casper Mansker, Philamon Thomas, Elijah Robertson, Frederick Stump, Thomas Call, Andrew Casselman, William Davidson, William Loggins, Andrew Boyd, Patrick McCutchin, Samuel McCutchin, James Mc- Cutchin, James Hollis, Turner Williams, Sampson Williams, James Clendenning, David Frazier, Samuel Barton, Robert Branks, Ephraim McClain, Jr., Julius Sanders, William Collinsworth, David Hay, James Todd, Thomas Spencer, Edward Cox, William Bradshaw, Nathaniel McClure, Absalom Tatum, two men named Shelley, and three McMurrays. Many of these are names which often occur in the early annals of Tennessee,. No marks of this line, however, can now be found in Hickman County. It immediately ceased to be a line of notoriety and is not mentioned in any of the early grants. The reason is this : The officers and soldiers of North Carolina were not satisfied with the allotment of lands made by the commissioners, and the North Carolina Legislature immediately passed an Act fixing the boundaries of the Continental Reservation as follows: “ Beginning on the Virginia [Kentucky] line, where the Cumberland River intersects the same; thence south fifty-five miles; thence west to the Tennessee River; thence down the Tennessee River to the Virginia [Kentucky] line; thence with the said Virginia line to the beginning.” General Rutherford was selected to supervise the running of this line, and, in February, 1784, he

Some Pioneer History.

and party began on tbe Virginia (now the Kentucky) line and ran what they supposed to be fifty-five miles to the south to Mount Pisgah. Here the party divided, one portion going east, to the Caney Pork River, and the other portion going west to the Tennessee River. The party which went east became confused in the snow, found that they were declining too far to the north, changed compasses, but continued confused. The surveyors of the party went as far east as Powell's River. Having failed to commence at the starting point provided for by the Act when they commenced their measurements to the south, the eastern boundary of the reservation was never run by Korth Carolina. This was done in 1807, by William Christmas, surveyor of the First District of Tennessee. The southern boundary, although run several miles too far to the south, was recognized as the true Continental Line, and was so called; the other being known as the Commissioners’ Line. The surveyor, J ohn Davis, who knew the location of the two lines, said that the Continental Line (the line of 1784) was seven or eight miles south of the Commissioners’ Line (the line of 1783). The close proximity of these two lines — the one, legal; the other, not — caused much confusion, which was often worse confounded by designing land speculators, and the courts were often called upon to settle disputes as to land titles where the Continental Line was called for. Judge Parry W. Humphreys, in May, 1808, said: “ The line run in February, 1784, is the true Continental Line and no person can be per-

History of Hickman County, Tenn.

mitted to dispute it.” The party which went west from Mount Pisgah ran the line, which is yet found to be plainly marked, through Hickman County. There were about sixty in this party, but the names of only the following have been preserved: Thomas Wright,

John Hardin, Frazier, Henry Rutherford, John

'Fate (chain carrier), William Polk, Ezekiel Polk,

Ephraim McClain, Sr., Bradley, and John Hib-

bets. Ezekiel Polk was the grandfather of President James K. Polk. Mount Pisgah, where the party divided, was twelve miles east of where the line crossed Carter’s Creek, in Maury County. By some of this party this creek was known as “ Hardin’s Creek,” named for John Hardin, who was one of the old men of the party. The name by which it finally came to be known was in honor of Capt. Benjamin Carter, for whom William Polk made an entry here. This line was marked by mile trees, and its course through Hickman County is as follows: Running west from Maury County, the first marked tree in Hickman County is on the ridge south of Leatherwood Creek and near the head of this creek. Another marked tree is on the farm of Dallas Johnson, near Jones’ Valley. This tree is a beech. The line crosses Leatherwood Creek between the store at Jones.’ Valley and the Meadors place, crosses Duck River below the mouth of Leatherwood Creek, and runs into Anderson’s Bend, where it was marked by a tree which stood in the yard where the. pioneer, Robert Anderson, once lived. It leaves Anderson’s Bend at the lower end.

Some Pioneer History.

Her© a marked poplar tree on the Clifford Smith place, just above the mouth of Robertson’s. Creek, is still standing. After crossing the river at the lower end of Anderson’s Bend it runs through the O. A. •Tones farm and again crosses Duck River, running through the southern portion of Totty’s Bend, near the phosphate mines. It crosses Swan Creek, near the river, and runs between Duck River and the Centerville and Columbia road, until it crosses this road south of Centerville. Crossing Iudian Creek and Duck River, it runs through Shipp’s Bend, near the place owned bv the late John Thompson, and crosses Duck River above the Huddleston Bridge. It. crosses Beaver Dam at the Jack Malugin place, and Sulphur Pork of Beaver Dam at the Jim Malugin place. Crossing the head of Cow Hollow, it continues west, crossing Buffalo River between Beardstown and Lobelville. It strikes the Tennessee River near Denson’s Landing, in Perry County, the marked tree at this point being a sycamore. This line is well known from the point, where it crosses Duck River, near the mouth of Leatherwood Creek, to its end on the bank of the Tennessee River in Perry County, this portion of the line being a portion of the Congressional Reservation Line of 1806. The purpose of the latter line is explained in following pages. In addition to the persons named above, Gen. Griffith Rutherford, Anthony Bledsoe, and Captain Looney were with the party which ran the line west from Mount. Pisgah. Capt. John Rains was probably a member of this party, he having been a hunter for one of the parties'.

After reaching the Tennessee River they spent several days in camp, and members of the party made numerous entries along the Tennessee River and Buffalo River. These entries, were made for themselves and friends, and a list of those in whose names entries were made in this section would not necessarily be a list of the names of the surveying party. Entries were made on Duck River ; u Swan River, a branch of Duck River ; ” and es Cane Creek, a branch of Buffalo River/’ as the party went on its way to the Tennessee River, and by individual members on their return. The party divided into several small parties, who returned by different routes to Hashville. On April 29, 1784, an entry was made in the name of George Wilson between the twentieth and twenty-first mile trees — nine miles west of where the line crossed Carter’s Creek. This entry was transferred to William Polk. On April 80 an entry in the name of u Thomas Polk, son of Ezekiel Polk,” was made on Cane Creek, “ beginning at the place where Ezekiel Polk, Captain Looney, and others camped on their return from the Tennessee River in 1784, after having run the west line.” Entries near this were made on the same day in the names of Samuel Polk, William Polk, and John Polk. Samuel Polk was the father of President J ames K. Polk. On the same day an entry in the name of Thomas Sprot was made “ where the line struck Duck River the second time ” — that is, in Anderson’s Bend. Other entries were : April 30 — Robert McCree, on east side

Some Pioneer History.

of “ Swan River,” beginning at the thirty-second mile tree; George Wilson, at the month of Cane Creek; Adlai Osborn, two and a half miles above the month of Cane Creek; Adlai Osborn, “ on Duck River, one-half mile below where the west line of 1784 crossed the third time ; ” Adlai Osborn, “ on Swan River, a fork of Duck River, four miles above where the west line crosses it ; ” David McRee, on “ Swan River, ” two and a half miles above this; line ; Samuel McLea, on “ Swan River ; ” George Oliver, on “ Buck Creek,” two miles above this line; and Samuel McLea, on Cane Creek. Several of these entries were transferred to members of the Polk family. On May 7 this entry was made in the name of James Lindsey: “ In Greene County, on the south side of Duck River, joining the line run in 1784 and including the place where the commissioners and guards camped on the south side of said river in 1784.” On May 10 an entry in the name of John McFarland was made as follows : “ On the south side of Duck River, above the red bank, including General Rutherford’s encampment and a large Indian encampment.” On May 15 an entry in the name of Nicholas Long was made on both sides of Duck River where the line crosses the first time. On May 22 this entry was made : <k Thomas. Norris — On the north side of Duck River where the west line crosses the first time, including; a small branch and a spring, a tree marked J. R.” On the same date is this entry: “Griffith Rutherford, S*1- — On the north side of Duck River, opposite a