Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches

Preface

In the intervals of leisure occurring during my official duties or while engaged in the practice of my profession, I have occasionally jotted down my recollections of historical and political events that have occurred in and about Nashville during the first half of the present century, and within the range of my own observation. It was a matter of mere pastime and for my own amusement, rather than for the edification of others. But some of my many old frieifds — contemporaries in politics, at the bar, and on the bench — have insisted that it is worth while to select some of these scraps and sketches and prevent their loss to history by printing them in a book. Of course I filed a demurrer; and yet, as the young lady in the play when persistently addressed, modestly hides her blushes behind her fan and gracefully consents, so do I.

Much that I had prepared for this volume has been crowded out, in consequence of having already gone beyond the limit of my contract of publication. Ii^ the pages that follow, I have given to the reader the first impression, without the after touch that might have added to the finish and beauty of the work. It is said that Lord Bacon was engaged for thirty years in maturing his great work, ‘^Novem Organum,” which he rewrote twelve times. I give to the reader these sketches hastily drawn, as they came from the furnace, without the polish of after-thought and labor, and hope they will afford at least some pleasure to those who take a glimpse through them at the olden time.

PREFACE.

I desire to say in conclusion, that these chronicles and sketches of the early days in 'and around the State capital are most respectfully dedicated

To THE Old Folks of Tennessee.

If they or their descendants enjoy the reading as much as I have the writing, then the book will not have been written and printed entirely in vain.

Jo. C. Guild.

Nashville, December, 1878.

Contents

I — Introduction 9

IT — Scenes of my Boyhood — Death of my Parents — A Lonely

Night-Ride 15

I. Introductoey

It is natural for one who has performed a long journey, starting out in life without an outfit, and without any of the advantages and opportunities that have been enjoyed by so large a portion of those who have impressed their names indelibly upon the times in which they lived, to pause near the end of this lifejourney and live over the halcyon days of youth and the sunny and pleasant periods of manhood, to review the few advantages he may have enjoyed, and the many difficulties that beset his path, and to revive in his memory many of the scenes and incidents which have reflected sunshine and shadow on that long journey. An unpretending but somewhat eventful life has developed much which, if not beneficial to those who may come after the writer, may at least interest such as follow him through these pages, while the recounting the same will prove a source of enjoyment to one whose way of life is fallen into the sear^ the yellow leaf.’’ There is much to interest, much to instruct and amuse, in the times through which I have passed, and I shall endeavor to cull a shrub here and a flower there for the generation that has come upon the stage since I was a boy among the pioneers who laid, here in the wilds of an almost unbroken wilderness, the foundations of a ^reat and populous State. After a great battle has been fought, it is natural, when the smoke has lifted itself above the ensanguined field, that the soldier should go over the ground to see who of his companions have been slain and who survive. When I look around for my school-mates and for the friends and acquaintances of my youth, I find that nearly all of them have paid the inexorable debt of nature. A few still exist on ^^this bank and shoal of time,” but they are scattered over this broad continent. Every landmark of the time when I was a boy has passed away ; no corner-stones now

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stand, and only the names, borne by a noble and gallant offspring, remain to mark the existence of generations that have faded from the earth. Truly, thus fades the glory of the world.

My father, Maj. Walter Guild, an educated Scotchman, immigrated to America, with his brother, about the year 1796. The latter settled in Baltimore, while my father chose Virginia for his home, where he married Elizabeth Conn, a daughter of a soldier of the revolution, who fought under Col. Washington. My father was a successful merchant for several years, increasing his establishment with the growth of business, the management of which he entrusted to an agent. The unfaithfulness of that agent brought ruin upon my father, and forced him to give up his establishment. He then removed to Stewart county, Tennessee, and settled upon a tract of land lying a few miles from the present town of Erin, the county seat of Houston county. It was mainly a Scotch settlement, the McMillians being the first. Those early settlers were the pioneers of the section lying between the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. My earliest recollections are associated with the county of Stewart, for it was in that county I was born, and where I spent several years of my early boyhood. Haysboro was then the rival of Nashville, but while the latter has grown to a large city, the former is numbered with the renowned places of past ages. In those early days all new-comers were received with open arms, and welcomed to their homes as members of the same great family. The welcome they received made them feel that they had not cast their lot among strangers, but that they had taken up their residence among old friends, if not relatives. A rude log house was put up by the joint labors of those who had settled in a neighborhood, with a puncheon floor and a clap-board roof, the boards being secured and held in place by weight-poles and cross-pieces. It was then chinked and afterward daubed with common clay made into morter. Windows were a luxury not enjoyed by the tenants of these cabins. The fire-place was large, occupying nearly the whole of one end of the cabin, and insured warmth in the coldest of weather. It was in such a house, hastily constructed, that the new-comer would be installed and made to feel that he was not a stranger. There were very few schools in those early days, while here and there was a meeting-house or a camp-ground, for

OLD TIMES IN TENNESSEE.

a strong religious sentiment pervaded the communities who subdued the wilderness and made it to blossom as the rose. These pioneers were the advance guard of civilization, and they were characterized by an open-handed hospitality, a noble and unselfish friendship, a broad and generous charity, unknown at the present day. Their wants were few and easily supplied.* The country abounded in game of all kinds, and families were bountifully supplied with wild meats of the most savory and delicious^ kinds. Small patches were cleared and cultivated, which produced corn, wheat, potatoes, and cotton in sufficient amount to meet the wants of the inhabitants. They also raised some hogs, sheep, and milch cows. The men and boys cleared the grounds, made fences, and cultivated the crops ; while the women did the house-work — cooked, milked, spun the cotton on the old-fashioned spinning wheel, wove the cloth on a hand-loom, and made all the clothing for the family. All lived contented, happy, and comfortable, and enjoyed a remarkable degree of health. There were very few lawyers then, for people settled their disputes among themselves, and had no occasion to go to law ; and doctors were among the curiosities, for the people were healthy, and had no use for them. Every family was well supplied with medicinal herbs and roots, especially what was called the snake-root, to be used in case any one should be bitten by a copperhead or rattlesnake, which, next to the Indian, were the most dangerous enemies we had to encounter. Vice, dissipation, and vagrancy were unknown in that locality. The people had their social gatherings, their house-raisings, log-rolfings, corn-huskings, and reapings. The reap-hook was alone used, the scythe and cradle being unknown to those early settlers. The wheat was threshed with a flail or trodden out by horses. Threshers and reapers are inventions of the present day. The ladies had their cotton pickings and quiltings, at the conclusion of which all present joined in the dance.

“ We danced all night by the bright moonlight,

And went home with the girls in the morning.”

These were enjoyable occasions, for they drew together whole neighborhoods, old and young, and each vied with the other to contribute to the pleasure of those present. The gossip, the bane of every community, was unknown in that region. Those sturdy

OLD TIMES IN TENNESSEE.

old pioneers were not only social in their habits, but they were eminently a hospitable people, and all who came within their influence experienced the genial warmth of these generous and noble impulses.

The trusty rifle was the companion of every man at that day, and the result was that Tennessee produced some of the best marksmen of that or any other age. The well-known crack of the rifle told that the noble stag of the forest had fallen, or that ' a prowling Indian had paid the penalty of his temerity. The military spirit, aroused by the revolution, and called forth by the skirmishes with the savages in which the pioneers had to engage in the work of protecting and extending the settlements, was cherished and cultivated by the descendants of those brave men, and this spirit was signally displayed by Tennesseeans in the war of 1812, in all the Indian wars, and in that with Mexico, and justly won for us the honorable distinction of the Volunteer State. The citizen soldier prided himself upon attending the periodical musters, each man bearing his arms, and the highest honor sought by the citizen was a command in the militia.

The first settlers of the State encountered privations that might well have appalled the stoutest hearts. Unprotected by the General Government, they fought their way West, extending the circle of civilization amid hunger, privations, and fierce rencounters with the Indians. The two great leaders of the pioneers of this section, Col. Anthony Bledsoe and Col. Isaac Bledsoe, also Capt. Hall, Maj. Winchester, and many others, fell in engagements with the Indians, and enriched the virgin soil with their blood in securing for themselves and for succeeding generations the noble heritage we this day enjoy. Their names have been embalmed in the hearts of their grateful countrymen, and their memory will be cherished with gratitude while time lasts.

As I have said, the wants of families, when the ^^settlements’’ were struggling for existence, were few, and easily supplied by an industry essential to health, and such as promotes virtue. There were no drones in the hive to eat up the honey of the working bees ; no corrupt rings formed, as they now are throughout the United States, to subsedise Congress, to create monopolies, to contract the currency in behalf of the bondholders, to secure the enactment of class legislation, to tinker with

OLD TIMES IN TENNESSEE.

the currency in the interest of the money power and those ruling the government; to change the debt of the country from the original contract, to be redeemed in the like currency received in its creation, to a gold-bearing debt, principal and interest; to demonetize half the currency of the country, the silver dollar; to create a currency for the people and another of higher value for the bondholder and the payment of government dues. We then had no tariff for the mere protection of New England manufacturers, making the consumers pay from forty to fifty per cent upon the article purchased. We did not then, if we purchased a blanket for three dollars, have to pay one dollar of that amount on account of the demands of the tariff, and in like proportion on other articles. The laws were then made and administered upon the Jeffersonian Democratic principle of giving like protection to all, and exclusive privileges to none. We then had no shoddy aristocracy bearing sway and absorbing the earnings of the toiling millions. All the property we had that was taxable were our lands, and the State and county taxes did not amount to more than one dollar on the hunded acres, and we could pay that in bear, buffalo, or deer meat, delivered at any of the military stations kept up for the protection of the people on the frontier. We had no credit and wanted none. The credit system is a curse to any State or government. It encourages extravagance, stimulates vice, and destroys, when badly or improperly used, as it is apt to be, the virtue and prosperity of any State or government. Look at the embarrassed and prostrate condition of the 'Southern States. It was not a sufficient misfortune that they should have lost all their property by the late civil war, but the virtue and intelligence of this section were disfranchised under the accursed system of reconstruction, and a parcel of irresponsible adventurers were elevated to high positions in these States. They became law-givers, and issued bonds of the Southern States and cities to the extent of nearly five hundred millions. The money for which these bonds were sold was squandered or stolen,

• and this enormous debt resulted in no practical good to the people. Since the war Tennessee has been cursed by an issue of twenty-four millions of bonds, and this, added to the other indebtedness of the State, hung like a mill-stone around the necks of our people. The South is languishing under the corrupt in-

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terference of the General Government, which has impoverished large numbers of families in every State, thrown the industrious out of employment, paralyzed every industry, and bankrupted the people. All their surplus produce was taken to feed the army of invasion; their farms were stripped of stock; their homes, in many cases, were taken or burned, and their farhilies left to meet the wintry blasts as best they could ; their fences> were burned and their timber taken or destroyed; in short, upward of four billions of their property was either destroyed or taken by the army, or appropriated by camp-followers and others. And when the Southern people ask for compensation for their property thus taken or destroyed — a debt on the Government asvalid as any bond that has ever been issued — their claims are repudiated, and they are coolly told that they never shall be paid.. It is in consequence of this immense loss that the Southern people are unable to pay the whole of their bonded debt, State and municipal, and the interest thereon ; yet they are willing to make* an equitable settlement and pay what they can. God has given them the right to live, and to enjoy life as best they can ; and they are willing to deny themselves many of the luxuries in the effort to pay their debts, public as well as private, but are unwilling to disobey the great mandate to provide for their own household. They intend to do just what they honestly can do, and no more, and if that be dishonor, make the most of it. The bonds are generally held^by the moneyed power, who have aided more or less in bringing this desolation upon the South. The claptrap of the bondholders about State credit, immigration, and honor, is all bosh. They should cast the beam out of their own eyes before attempting to remove the mote out of their brothers^ The chattering of the bondholder about State honor and State credit has a like effect to that of the fool in Lear or the nurse in Romeo and Juliet. It is as the judgment of the inexorable but interested tribune delivering over the victim to the stake, with the request that his execution shall be tenderly and kindly performed.

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