USA > Tennessee > Sullivan County > Historic Sullivan; a history of Sullivan County, Tennessee, with brief biographies of the makers of history > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
1800
ISAAC SHELBY
Ihave to
the's hands for
you with ve The acti hund ward Money
Zorn / forget
Queneed for - Going Tothe
(That the Gre parent of nations ry always have I Protect you happily Theo this per plexing world, is the linceen wish of your suche afectionales friend are well fare Theelin
Martin
5- oct. 82 - de Face Shelby
FACSIMILE OF SHELBY'S HANDWRITING
* * I have lodged a letter in my father's hands for you with some papers for you, which dont forget to ask him for. I have also left in his hands hard money to pay you what you advanced for me Going to the Assembly
That the Great Parent of Nature may always Guard & Protect you hapily thro this perplexing world, is the sinceer wish of Your Truly affectionate friend
Col. Jos. Martin
fare well Isaac Shelby
HISTORIC SULLIVAN
A History of Sullivan County, Tennessee with brief Biographies of the Makers of History
BY OLIVER TAYLOR 11
BRISTOL, TENN. THE KING PRINTING CO. (Le Roi Press) 1909
Copyright 1909 by OLIVER TAYLOR
6 Oct. 14.1909 0 A 218529 SEP 16 1909
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE FRONTIERWOMEN OF TENNESSEE AND TO A DESCENDANT OF THOSE WOMEN MY MOTHER
"Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice -
Othello-Act V, Scene 2.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
The author here acknowledges his gratitude for the many courtesies extended him during the preparation of this history. Below is a list of some of those, from whom has been received valuable assistance, in the way of suggestions and data: B. L. Dulaney, J. Fain Ander- son, E. A. Warren, L. H. Denny, Wm. St. John, C. H. Slack, John B. Brownlow, W. G. Rutledge, George T. Hammer, J. McK. Phipps, J. M. Salts, N. J. Phillips, Robert Pile, J. E. Arrants, Guy DeVault and the Wis- consin Historical Society.
A grateful recognition is also extended to the many others who have furnished bits of information, making this work possible.
The original painting of the Battle of King's Mountain hangs in the lobby of the Imperial hotel, Knoxville, Tennessee, and I am greatly indebted to the artist, James Wallace, and to the owner, R. W. Farr, for permission to use a copy of same.
Special acknowledgment is due Col. Sam L. King and Claude R. Taylor for reviewing manuscript.
INTRODUCTION.
For a long time an impelling influence hung about me that finally pulsed into an idea that something should be done to preserve the history of Sullivan County. It was a rich mine of undeveloped memories. In my talks with our old people I found those memories falling into deplorable and pathetic decay. The written records of the county had been burned during the battle of Blount- ville in 1863.
With a limited experience and other limited essentials I dared not permit myself to give existence to an effort so rash as the writing of a history, for well I knew it meant the tyranny of merciless truths.
The beginning was a store of boyhood recollections- a green spot in all our lives-of the traditions and legends and stories told in front of back-log fires. I thought by linking these with the accepted and more substantial facts I might be able to furnish a chain strong enough to carry us to another generation where some one better equipped could bring our chronicles to a more fruitful completion. Encouraged by this I decided to call what- ever my pen should bring forth, "Folk-lore of Sullivan County." But when I submitted this title with my in- tentions to a consulting friend, rather expecting ap- proval, he looked at the floor for a while and then passively inquired: "let me see, now, which one of the Lores is that?" This provocation is my apology for giving you a history of Sullivan County.
It will be seen I have devoted more space to Isaac Shelby than to any of his compatriots. This, of course, is because he made his home in Sullivan, was identified
viii
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
with its interests and his followers were Sullivan County men. The names and fame of Sevier and Campbell and their associates are secure and I would in no way detract from them. But confined as I am to the limits of one county my entries cannot cover the ground of a general history.
I have not allowed myself to enter into the regretful controversy which took place in regard to Col. Camp- bell's position during the battle of King's Mountain. Posterity has accorded him the place he so valiantly won during his brief but thrilling career and is not in sympathy with the censure visited upon any of the men who followed him.
The secret of the affair, I believe, is that none of the men who went through that campaign ever dreamed their exploits would go sounding down the centuries or even beyond the mountains that encircled them like a barrier from the world without.
They did not look for the glory of arms nor booty after the battle, but made an aggressive defense of their homes and firesides. When, in after years, the survivors saw that this battle would be included in the list of decisive battles of the world's great wars, a species of envy crept into their bosoms and some felt they had not been dealt with fairly in the bestowal of praise. Col. Shelby's feelings in the affair were no doubt aggravated by his traducers in Kentucky. He had removed there and in 1792 was a candidate for Governor. His opponents tried to defeat him with reports discrediting his valiant services in behalf of his country, even going so far as to create a doubt that he commanded a regiment at King's Mountain.
This resulted in a breezy correspondence between Shelby and his old time friend and companion, John Sevier. And, while the revival of Campbell's tardiness was one of the topics, it has never occurred to me that the origin of Shelby's attack upon him was to question
ix
INTRODUCTION.
Campbell's bravery, but rather to sustain his own claims that he was one of the commanders and at the fore when the fighting was hottest.
But whatever the faults of these men may have been, and no one denies that they had faults, this generation will allow no censure now and should those old warriors of the wood come forth in line review a grateful nation would grant them any wish-every man of them.
For space devoted to a review of the life of "Raccoon" John Smith apologies will hardly be necessary. While little heard of at the present time, still I regard him as the rarest human product that ever sprung from the soil of Sullivan County. Born in a log cabin in Holston Valley-a poor boy and one of a large family he lived a knock-about life in his early days and had but five months school training during his entire career. He was tried by the severest tests of time; he was scourged by a living death, but with a masterful courage and unwaver- ing devotion to the call of duty he arose to a rank that made him a power throughout great portions of Kentucky, Tennessee and the Middle West. He was a full measure man and you will be glad to know more about him.
At the close of my work, when I reviewed what I had written, there came sounding back to me one ringing regret-that I could not devote more space to the many worthy families of Sullivan County. I have dwelt in their midst all my life. Their ancestors were good people; they lived peaceful lives; they broke no laws; they bade their neighbors good night and good morning and God- speed. But there are no deeds of extreme self-denial to their credit; they dared nothing; they dreamed their lives away.
History is for posterity and that posterity prefers the valor of war to the virtues of peace; it clamors for those scenes of conflict where battle shreds make burial shrouds.
It has always seemed to me an unkind decree of fate that what is best in life is often deepest buried in forgetfulness,
X
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
while some cruel act that jangles us rolls on down the years, gathering a little moss of sympathy here and there to soften the harsh places. By and by it reaches a people who, wanting to remember and ready to forgive, exalt the deed as one of heroic daring until it finally puts on the burnished armor of the ages. And so our "village Hampdens" and our "mute inglorious Miltons" must rest in one long silent sepulcher. They pass from view like a shadow on the dial of a day.
In the preparation of this work I had much assistance in the way of suggestion and advice-some caustic it is true, but all evidently kindly intended, certainly in such a spirit received-and, what was available, appropriated. But had I attempted to reconcile all the various opinions advanced as to how this book should be written I might still be struggling over the mastery of any kind of con- struction. And this I have learned and this I am pre- pared to say: it is much easier to sit down in a circle of friends and talk history than to sit down by one's self and try to record history.
I rejoice that it has been my privilege to give this work, with whatever merit it may have, to posterity as an expression of the love I have for my native county and state, the sentiments and traditions of whose people have been such an inspiration and the deeds of whose heroes I have always adored.
OLIVER TAYLOR.
TRINKLE'S VALLEY, SULLIVAN COUNTY, TENNESSEE, August, 1909.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I .- BEFORE THE PIONEER 1
II .- THE CHEROKEES 5
III .- PIONEERS-EXPLORERS-FIRST SETTLERS IV .- THE CAVALCADE . V .- THE FRONTIERWOMAN
24
VI .- COMING OF THE SHELBYS 33 ·
VII .- A FEW DAYS FULL OF TROUBLE . 39 VIII .- THE BATTLE OF THE GREAT KANAWHA 45 IX .- "SPIRIT OF '75"" 51
X .- THE TRANSYLVANIA TRUST ·
53
XI .- BATTLE OF ISLAND FLATS . 59
XII .- CHRISTIAN CAMPAIGN 64
XIII .- THE TREATY OF LONG ISLAND
.
68
XIV .- THE SHELBY CAMPAIGN
73
XV .- DONELSON'S VOYAGE
75
XVI .- SULLIVAN COUNTY
89
XVII .- KING'S MOUNTAIN CAMPAIGN 100
XVIII .- THE STATE OF FRANKLIN . 109
XIX .- BLOUNTVILLE 137
.
XX .- INDUSTRIES . 151
XXI .- OFFICIAL LIFE .160
XXII .- THE CHURCH 176
XXIII .- WAR TIMES-TENNESSEE VALOR
203
XXIV .- TRAVELWAYS-TRANSMISSION OF MES- SAGES 224
XXV .- THE BOUNDARY LINE
239
XXVI .- HUNTERS OF THE HOLSTON 248
XXVII .- THE OLD FIELD SCHOOL 262
XXVIII .- SLAVERY DAYS 272
XXIX .-- AGRICULTURE 281
XXX .- THE REMOVAL 286
XXXI .- THE NEWSPAPER-POLITICS . 296
.
20
28
xii
CONTENTS.
XXXII .- BRISTOL .312
XXXIII .- ODDS AND ENDS . . 318 XXXIV .- THE LAST LEAF-PASSING OF OLD FAMILIES 323 .
INDEX
.
.
.
325
BIOGRAPHIES.
ADAIR, JOHN
98
ANDERSON, JOSEPH R.
. 305
BLOUNT, WM. .
120
BROWN, ABEL J.
254
CALDWELL, GEORGE A.
308 . 157
CLAIBORNE, W. C. C.
DULANEY, ELKANAH R.
218
GAINES, EDMUND PENDLETON
195
GREGG, NATHAN
200
KETRON, JOSEPH H.
268
KING, JAMES
149
MARTIN, JOSEPH
17
MCCLELLAN, GEORGE R.
237
NETHERLAND, JOHN
292
RHEA, JOHN
221
SMITH, "RACCOON" JOHN
166
SNAPP, JAMES P.
. 279
SULLIVAN, JOHN
85
TADLOCK, JAMES D.
· 258
WARD, NANCY
57
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FACING PAGE
ISAAC SHELBY
Frontispiece
FACSIMILE OF SHELBY'S HANDWRITING
Opposite Frontispiece
THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY 4
TYPE OF TENNESSEE FRONTIERWOMAN 28
WHEN SHELBY KEPT STORE AT SAPLING GROVE 34
FACSIMILE OF ORIGINAL MUSTER-ROLL OF THE FIRST VOLUNTEER COMPANY TO LEAVE SULLIVAN COUNTY 44
LONG ISLAND
58
RACHEL DONELSON
74
JOHN SULLIVAN
84
MAP OF SULLIVAN COUNTY (1836)
88
BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN
100
WILLIAM BLOUNT
120
BLOUNTVILLE
136
JAMES KING
148
W. C. C. CLAIBORNE
156
"RACCOON" JOHN SMITH .
166
EDMUND PENDLETON GAINES
194
NATHAN GREGG
200
WILLIAM R. DULANEY
218
JOHN RHEA
220
GEORGE R. MCCLELLAN
236
ABEL J. BROWN
254
JAMES D. TADLOCK
258
OLD FIELD SCHOOL-TEACHER'S CONTRACT
262
JOSEPH H. KETRON
268
JOHN ROSS
286
JOHN NETHERLAND
292
JOHN SLACK
296
.
JOSEPH R. ANDERSON
304
GEORGE A. CALDWELL
308
HISTORIC SPOTS
320
.
.
CHAPTER I.
BEFORE THE PIONEER.
The South is a land of sentiment. Our forefathers leaned upon it and were guided by it and we are not so far removed from the frontier as to make us forget them.
Sullivan is still a young county. The father of today will tell you-"I have heard my father say that his father" -and there the story ends. Our white life is but four generations old.
There are two eras in the life of any country-one look- ing forward, the other looking backward. There was a time in the history of Sullivan County when our fore- fathers yearned for the day when they would be free from the ever-present dangers, the surprise attack, the fire- brand, the massacre-all kept them in a state of alarm and they longed for the peace that would bring safety and happiness. They rarely recorded the stirring tragedies of those days. They did not even try to remem- ber them -- they tried to forget them. What made history for us meant horror for them. They blinded their eyes and deafened their ears to scenes and sounds and kept many sorrowful experiences from their children, thus cheering them on their way.
They did not know they were making history-they came here to make a quiet living. They preferred the wild freedom of the forest to the political and religious persecutions of their old homes. The spirit of independ- ence led them here.
The uberous years came on.
Today the descendants of those people are prosperous nothing disturbs their happiness, all are safe. But, in the midst of thrift and luxury, they are looking backward. They feel they owe a debt to some one somewhere in the long ago and reaching back through the stretch of the fast
2
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
receding century they are trying to restore scraps of records that tell of those people and of those times. Now and then the faded and musty fragments of an old manu- script is recovered and the owner treasures it as would a prodigal that bit of parchment bequeathing him a rich legacy, unexpected and undeserved.
There are those who go beyond the one hundred and thirty-five years of our settlement's life and seek to learn something of the people who antedate the pioneer. Concerning this, two theories are advanced. One, that this section was an unbroken forest, containing no villages or permanent habitations; that it was held in reserve by Indians as a hunting ground.1 The other, that in the midst of this forest were sun-places, plains along the river and creek bottoms covered with cane brakes that needed only the torch to transform them into fertile farm lands; that the wigwam and hut were here and the spiral smoke of campfires ascended throughout the valleys.
The latter is more plausable on account of the various relics that have been found throughout the county.
This book was printed over an Indian grave. On an adjacent lot have been found, not only perfect arrow heads, but others in various stages of the making, and an abundance of flint chips indicating they were made upon the spot. There have also been found, in various excavations for buildings in this vicinity, pieces of Indian pottery, beads and bones that were in a sufficient state of preservation to be recognized as belonging to a pre- historic race; mussel and periwinkle shells that showed contact with fire, and it is known the Indians esteemed these for food, as coast tribes did the oyster and the crab.
OTHER RELIC DISCOVERIES.
On the Rutledge farm, one and a half miles east of Blountville, are two excavations that have always been
1It is a common but mistaken notion that Indians had regular battle grounds. Indians fought by stealth and surprise.
3
BEFORE THE PIONEER.
considered flint mines out of which the local tribes secured material for their arrow-heads and other weapons.
A representative of the Department of Ethnology2 in his researches throughout the county, among other things, found at Beidleman's mill on the Holston a mound containing copper implements of Indian make. The various tribes, on their hunting and trading3 expedi- tions, were in the habit of exchanging wares, which accounts for copper being in this section.
At Benjamin Wexler's, on the top of a near-by knob, the representative found two graves containing the same kind of material as that found at Beidleman's.
Cyrus Thomas,4 one of the chiefs of the Department, that pertaining to Indian mounds, instructed the agent to go to the Shipley farm, near Cawood ford on the Holston and examine a large mound reported found there. Upon opening it twelve skeletons were found. These skeletons were in a sitting posture. One sat in the center while the eleven others were in a circle around it-all facing the center as if in council. Over each skeleton had been erected a crude vault of large river bowlders. The mound had the usual accompaniment of charcoal and ashes and corn found in all Indian graves. Lying beside the center skeleton were two large steotite pipes, such fine specimens of the kind as to attract much inquiry. They are now on exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution, the fifth annual report giving an illustration and description.
At the John Morrell farm, in the adjoining county of Carter, is a field of ashes, in such evident quantity that
2J. W. Emmert.
3It was customary, and still is, to a limited extent in the West, for large parties, sometimes a whole band or a village, to make long visits to other tribes, dancing, feasting and trading. Regular trade routes crossed the continent and inter-tribal commerce was as constant and well organized a part of Indian life as is our own railroad traffic today .- Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee, p. 235.
4Cyrus Thomas is a Sullivan County man and formerly lived at Kingsport. In his youth he clerked in the Netherland store; later he taught school near the Ross place. In his young manhood he went to Illinois and there married the sister of Gen. John A. Logan. He became connected with his present work many years ago and is today (1908), although about eighty years of age, still in the service.
4
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
would require all the timber in the neighborhood to make an equal sized heap. This indicates a permanent village or a camp of long and constant use.
Dr. Thomas Walker, in his journal, says he found unoccupied Indian cabins of substantial structure when exploring this country in 1748.'
The Cherokees were the aborigines of Tennessee, or perhaps should be described as the tribe of Indians in possession of this land when the first white people came here.
Their warlike deeds, their fierce, revengeful spirit, the massacres they perpetrated have been described by many historians. This work will, therefore, describe the interior of their nation-explaining their religion, super- stitions, their myths, their games and hunts; how they loved and how they worshipped, how they were influenced, how they lived in peaceful times.
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL' HI
SUR LAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
02
WLx bestery
leaburť
SIANOTO
Ancenne
Petersburg
CHARLES
Evarinitei
FRANKFORN
1
PÅzaBethtown
RICHMOT
Cumberland
Lynchburg
Farunal
Pinevulc !!!
Dungillet
Embora
Montytowiy
Winston!
der enshop
hardy ho
shalt
Parypie
M.til
Newton
Salisbury
Unclinton
PAMLICO SOUND
know
Habur Cap
Prtymhallé
Lookout
Anderson
Darlingyin
Abbeville
Roberty
Elberton
Plorend
J'i Leandon't LAMBU
LODGY
Talladega
Croutononly
R
jornal
--
Fringe
selledeviled
OLBRIDALO.
3
lot line MAN LIMIT OF OBIULMAL CHEMOZES CLAIM
presion
Orygin
Unslinea CHEROKEE BOUNDARY AT CLOSE OF REVOLUTION 3+2 line CEROTIES BOUNDARY AT TIRAL CESSION
MONTGONE
Scala
-
T
THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY
DY JAMES NOONEY
1900
Sanders
rulle
70*
piatton
¡Moproe
CHAPTER II. THE CHEROKEES.
The Cherokees are the mountain red men of the South.
Their original boundary included the northern parts of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Western North Caro- lina, nearly all of Tennessee and Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and part of West Virginia. They were con- sidered the most important and most intellectual tribe and, excepting perhaps the Iroquois, the most powerful. They numbered about twenty-five thousand. Their boundary line, which to an Indian was seldom plainly defined, was always in dispute and tribal aggressions occasioned many wars.
In Virginia, the Powhatans and Monacans contended against the Cherokees for territory. They were held in check in North and South Carolina by the Tuscarora and Catawba. The Creeks would have none of them in North Georgia. To the west, the Chicasaw and Shawano, along the lower Tennessee and Cumberland, repeatedly hurled their forces against them, and the bold and ferocious Iroquois denied them any pass way to the North.
The Cherokees were the first to feel the onward march of the white man and little by little, either by war, treaty, or by purchase, were pushed back until, by their final cession, they were huddled together in small portions of Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
The Cherokees, though generally supposed to be, were not migratory, except on hunting and trading voyages and in wars. They were an agricultural people, cultivating orchards and large fields of corn and potatoes. Their nation comprised more than fifty towns, the capital, Echota, being situated near what is now Tellico, Tennessee.
The name which this tribe knew itself by was Yun-wi-ya or Ani-yun-wiya, meaning "principal people," which
6
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
they considered themselves. The name Cherokee has no meaning in the tribe's language1 and is either a cor- rupted name or a nickname. A dialect name in the tribe is Tsar-i-ga, meaning "cave people," because they were mountain dwellers among the cave regions. The English corrupted this name into Cherokee and the Spanish into Chaloque.
Linguists declare the dialect of the East Tennessee Cherokee is the softest and most musical of this tribe's musical language
RELIGION OF THE CHEROKEES.
There is a general impression the Indians worshipped one god called the "Great Spirit." This impression is supported by discoveries among the contents of graves where, along with the dead, are deposited evidences of a belief in the immortality of the soul. The dead pony and the broken bow are lain upon the departed warrior's grave-mute testimony of the service they will render him in the "happy hunting ground."
According, however, to A-yun-ini or "Swimmer,"2 the keeper of the traditions of his race, many gods were worshipped by the Cherokees-they had no idea of heaven or hell or the hereafter-all their invocations were made for temporal use and addressed to tangible gods. The most important of their animal gods are the rabbit, squirrel, dog, hawk, terrapin and rattlesnake.
The "Long Person," meaning river, is addressed on all occasions, no ceremony being complete without it.
In plant life the chief god, ginseng or "sang," is called
1Mooney.
2Mooney is the most convincing authority on Indian history I have examined. He appears to have been satisfied to hide behind a salary. "Swimmer" is a dis- covery of his and from whom most of the myth material was secured. The author mourned the Indian's death, declaring "he was buried like a true Cherokee on the slope of a forest-clad mountain. Peace to his ashes and sorrow to his going, for with him perished half the traditions of a people." During the Civil War, "Swim- mer" was second sergeant in a company with Thomas' Legion. He was born in 1835 and was sixty-five years old at his death. James Keelan, known as the "hero of the Strawberry Plains bridge, " was rescued by this company after he had been left for dead.
7
THE CHEROKEES.
"Little Man" on account of its appearance. Digging it, the Indian passed by the first three plants selecting the fourth.3
One form of prayer is addressed to the "Red-headed woman with hair hanging to the ground," but it is not clear just what the entreaty is or what the response. The rattlesnake, deer and ginseng form a weird trinity. To kill the first would cause the other two to disappear from the wood. The deer is the most prized of animal food.
The Cherokee regarded the snake with reverential fear and, unless compelled, would never kill one. If he did kill one in self-defense he immediately sought the service of a priest to appease the spirit of the snake lest the relatives of the deceased should come and avenge the death. If an Indian dreamed of being bitten by a snake he is treated in the same manner as if he had been bitten. When an Indian is bitten by a snake, in addition to singing a formula, tobacco juice is rubbed on the wound, the patient going round four times and always turning toward the left because the snake, in coiling, turns toward the right. The reversal of movement means uncoiling it.
When a snake is killed the head is chopped off and buried an arm's length under ground and the body is placed in a hollow log to hide it from the view of other snakes and to prevent a long wet spell.4
The Indians also spared a wolf, venerating it as the hunter and watch dog.
In the animal myths the rabbit figures most prominently and is called the mischief maker, being also considered malicious. A broth made of him and sprinkled along a path where a runner is to make a race confuses him and causes him to become timid.
The aid of the beaver, on account of his well-known
3The numbers 4 and 7 are talismanic in the Indian lore. 4 is especially sacred in ceremonial observances and in medicine.
4Probably the origin of the habit, among superstitious whites, of hanging & dead snake on a fence or tree to bring rain during a drouth.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.