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HISTORY OF
DEKALB COUNTY
TENNESSEE
WILL T. HALE
IVERSITY.OF
.THE .
LIGHT
.SEAL
LET THERE BE
OF . CALIFORNIA
1868.
THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofdekalbc00hale
HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY TENNESSEE
BY WILL T. HALE
Author of " A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans," "The Indians and Tennessee Pioneers," "True Stories of Jamestown, Vir- ginta." and Other Books
NASHVILLE, TENN. PAUL HUNTER, PUBLISHER 1915
PAESS OF PUBLISHING HOUSE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH, NASHVILLE, TENN.
440 D3H2
Dedicated to CHARLIE, HERBERT, HILDA AND HOWELL
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
LIBRARY SETS
I HAVE thought the virtues and affairs of the people of my native county worthy of chronicling and trust there is a place among them for this little book. It is finished with the haze and hush of Indian summer about me and under the spell of the old hills. It is easy to see once-familiar faces, to hear remembered voices, to recall the little activities on farms and in villages, and I cherish the fact that I was once a part of all this. It should not be a matter for wonder, then, that I often feel what Burns felt when he gave expres- sion to his perpetually quoted wish :
NOV 25 '42
That I for poor auld Scotland's sake Some useful plan or book could make, Or sing a sang at least.
ALDINE BOOK CO.
The works which have been helpful are named where quoted. Very valuable, indeed, have been two musty account books referred to repeatedly herein ; they have helped so much to illuminate a bygone time. The first is that of the Liberty physician and merchant, Ebe- nezer Wright, dated from April 22, 1832, to June 18, 1833. The second belonged to Dr. John W. Overall, of Alexandria, and dates from 1830 to 1834, but was afterwards used by his father, Col. Abraham Overall. While I never had much fondness for figures, these two documents, with all that they reveal in and be- tween the lines, proved as interesting as romance. I must be pardoned for referring to them so often as
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
well as for intruding my own recollections. Many in- dividuals have offered data and suggestions, among them H. H. Jones, L. E. Simpson, Miss Effie Simpson, Mrs. Josie Davis, M. A. Stark, Rob Roy, Isaac Cooper, Dib Dinges, J. F. Roy, Alexandria ; Mrs. Lizzie Hale, Mrs. Belle Overall, Mrs. C. L. Bright, W. L. Vick, T. G. Bratten, J. F. Caplinger, Liberty ; Dr. R. M. Mason, Temperance Hall; Dr. T. W. Wood, Bellbuckle; Mrs. Rachel Payne, Watertown; Mrs. S. W. McClellan, Lieut. B. L. Ridley, Murfreesboro ; Rev. J. H. Grime, Lebanon; Rev. J. W. Cullom, Triune; Hon. Norman Robinson, Allan Wright, Dowelltown; Ralph Robinson, Sparta; Rev. Van N. Smith, Laurel Hill; Horace McGuire, B. M. Cantrell, Smithville; Rev. G. L. Beale, Springfield; James H. Fite, Anthony, Kans .; John K. Bain, Shreveport, La .; Thomas J. Finley, Celina, Tex .; James H. Bur- ton, Summers, Ark .; I. T. Rhea, M. L. Fletcher, Robert Quarles, Jr., H. Leo Boles, A. B. Hooper, Tal Allen, Isaiah White, Hon. J. W. Byrns, L. J. Watkins (a most competent proof reader for the Methodist Publishing House), and officials of the State and Car- negie Libraries, Nashville.
But for the following these annals could not have been written : My brother, H. L. Hale, Liberty, born about 1855, descendant of the pioneers Benjamin Hale and Abraham Overall; Ed Reece, Nashville, son of a hero of three wars, Capt. Jack Reece; Rev. Petway Banks, Dowelltown, born about 1857 and one of the purest citizens the county ever produced ; James Givan, born in 1839, descendant of a first settler, a splendid
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
type of citizen, and the best authority on local history around Liberty ; Livingston Tubb, Alexandria, grand- son of the patriot and pioneer Col. James Tubb; James Dearman, Smithville, born in 1851 of pioneer stock and the soul of helpful courtesy ; Riley Dale, born in 1841 or 1842, grandson of pioneer William Dale and a man of correct walk; and Dr. J. B. Foster, born in Liberty in 1839, but now an honored physician of Meridian, Miss., a genius whose remarkable memory is as full and reliable as the famous diary of Samuel Pepys.
NASHVILLE, TENN.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER.
- PAGE. 1
I. WHEN TENNESSEE WAS YOUNG
Once a County of North Carolina-Becomes a State-Memorials of a Vanished Race-Indian Tribes and Their Depredations-First Settler of DeKalb County-Indian Battle Near the Site of Liberty- Game.
II. DEKALB COUNTY ESTABLISHED-OFFICIALS 9
Bill to Erect the County-Sundry Changes in the Line-Organization of County, Circuit, and Chancery Courts-Topography-Resources and Leading Crops- Live Stock-Principal Streams-Early Mills-Poli- tics-County Officers-Senators and Representatives.
III. THE OLDEST VILLAGE
22
First Settler Arrives at Liberty-Sketch of Adam Dale-First Merchants-Rise of the Dale Mill Settle- ment-Present Business Directory-Changes Since Early Times-Reminiscences of Mrs. Payne and Dr. Foster-Postal Affairs-Professional Men-Land- marks.
IV. PASTIMES OF THE FOREPARENTS. 39
Social Matters-Primitive Music-Horse-Racing- Ariel, Noted Racer-Musters Great Occasions The Chase-Hospitality-A Bibulous Generation-Cheap- ness of Intoxicants.
V. FARMING AND MERCHANDISING. 48
Land Warrants-Hemp and Cotton Crops-Breeds of Stock-Prices for Produce-The Day of Home- spun Clothes-The Village Stores and Long-Ago Prices-Men's and Women's Fashions.
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
CHAPTER. PAGE.
VI. RELATING TO EDUCATION 56
Old Field and Other Schools-Textbooks of Old Times - Punishments in School - Games - Earliest School in the County -- Early and Latter-Day Tutors- Educational Institutions at Liberty, Alexandria, and Smithville.
VII. RELIGIOUS HISTORY 67
Salem Baptist Church-First Ministers, Deacons, and Clerks-Exhorters-Other Baptist Churches- Methodism and Its Two "Wings"-Interesting Per- sonal Mention-Cumberland Presbyterians and Disci- ples-Memories of Rev. J. W. Cullom.
VIII. ANNALS OF ALEXANDRIA. 88
The Pioneers-Incorporation-Business Men of Past and Present-Professional Men-Banks-Jour- nalism-Milling Interests-A. and M. Association -- Colored Fair-Personal References.
IX. CONCERNING SLAVES AND FREE NEGROES. 98
Negro Insurrections-Some Owners of Slaves- Locally Popular Types-A Colored Infidel-Three Notable "Runaways"-A Pathetic Story-Family of Free Negroes-Ante-Bellum Laws-Negroes in the War.
X. STAGECOACH AND TAVERN DAYS 106
The Turnpike Company Incorporated-The Route Surveyed-A Tragedy-Old Stage Road-Noted Tav- erns-General Jackson and Other Notables-Balls- Sligo-Scenery.
XI. THE COUNTY SEAT.
"Macon" First Name Selected-Public Buildings- Incorporation-Names of Lawyers and Judges- Early and Late Business Men, Physicians, Postmas-
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
CHAPTER. PAGE.
ters, and Others-Banking and Journalism-Hotels- Necrological.
XII. HISTORICAL JETSAM. 128
Physical Giants-Tall Men and Short-Two Erudite Physicians-Mysterious Disappearances-Story of a Monument-Study in Names-Noted Expatriates- Folk Stories.
XIII. SMALLER VILLAGES OF THE COUNTY. 139
Temperance Hall-The Stokeses and Other Fami- lies-Merchants, Physicians, and Others-Sketch of Dowelltown-The Gray Graveyard-Schools-Laurel Hill-Past and Present History-Forks-of-the-Pike and Keltonsburg.
XIV. IN THE EARLY WARS. 151
Revolutionary Soldiers-Veterans of 1812-Cap- tains Tubb and Dale-Was There a Third Com- pany ?- Black Hawk War Veterans-DeKalb Troops in the War with Mexico.
XV. SECESSION-DEKALB CONFEDERATES 162
The Question of Secession-How DeKalb County Voted-Period of Intense Excitement-Call for Con- federate Troops-Muster Rolls of DeKalb Confed- erates.
XVI. STOKES'S CAVALRY 185
Companies from DeKalb County-Promotions, Resignations, and Deaths-Muster Rolls-In Many Engagements in Various Parts of the State-Sketch of General Stokes.
194
XVII. BLACKBURN'S AND GARRISON'S FEDERALS. .. Sketches of Colonel Blackburn and Captain Garri- son-Blackburn a Captain at Eighteen-Officers and Privates-Affair at Shelbyville-Casualty List.
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
CHAPTER. PAGE.
XVIII. PROGRESS OF THE BIG WAR. 208
Battles in the County Named-Morgan's Command- Camps at Liberty-Capt. Thomas Quirk-Battle of Milton-Scouting from Liberty-Exciting Days.
XIX. PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 218
Noncombatants in War Times-Allison's Squad- ron-A Race and a Skirmish-Anecdote of Reece and Allison - Minor Tragedies - Skedaddling Stories - Boyish Memories.
XX. REGULAR AND GUERRILLA WARFARE. 229
Battle of Snow's Hill-Wheeler Arrives at Alex- andria-Scouting around That Town-Morgan Starts on His Northern Raid-Death of Morgan-Battle of the Calf Killer-Wheeler's Raid-Stockade Taken- Pomp Kersey's Men.
XXI. PEACE AND THE AFTERMATH 244
Friction between Former Neighbors-The Freed Negroes-Loyal League and Ku-Klux Klan-Stokes's and Senter's Canvass-Makeshifts of the Citizens- Wonderful Latter-Day Progress.
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
CHAPTER I.
WHEN TENNESSEE WAS YOUNG.
As a definite district bearing its present name, De- Kalb County is not old, since it was erected in 1837 and not organized until 1838. But the territory in- cluded within its boundaries has a history we need to know something about, along with that of the State, and this will be treated before taking up its organiza- tion.
The entire domain of Tennessee was once a part of the State of North Carolina. Between 1750 and 1775 the first settlements were made in that portion of the State now known as East Tennessee. When the colo- nies there numbered several hundred whites, North Carolina in 1777 asserted jurisdiction over the west- ern part of her lands and formed it into Washington County. In other words, the whole of the State of Tennessee became Washington County, N. C.
In 1780, after Col. James Robertson with seven of his friends-William Overall (an uncle of Col. Abraham Overall), George Freeland, William Neely, Edward Swanson, James Hanley, Mark Robertson, and Zachariah White-had come over the mountains from East Tennessee and selected the site of Nashville for another settlement, a party of from two hundred to three hundred of his relatives and acquaintances ar-
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
rived on the Cumberland River and built homes and forts. In 1783 a new county was laid off by North Carolina. It was, of course, taken from Washington County, included a large scope of country west of the Cumberland Mountains (which were called the Wil- derness), and became Davidson County. In 1786 Sumner County was laid off, its eastern boundary being the Wilderness; but in 1799 it was reduced by establishing Smith and Wilson Counties out of its eastern territory. Smith County at first included what later became Jackson, White, Warren, and Cannon Counties-or at least a great part of Cannon. Mean- while, in 1790, North Carolina ceded all the Tennessee country to the United States, and it became, to use the short name, Southwest Territory, with William Blount appointed Governor by President Washington. In 1796 Southwest Territory was admitted into the Union as a State and was given the name of Tennes- see.
DeKalb County was not erected until 1837, but of course settlers came and occupied the land while it was a part of some of the other counties. In what part of the country that was to become DeKalb County did the pioneers first make a settlement? It is believed by some of the older citizens that they reached the Alexandria neighborhood first, about 1795; others say the first settlement was made at Liberty by Adam Dale about 1797. Each contention has merits. There had been a settlement at Brush Creek, within two and a half miles of Alexandria, early enough for Rev. Cantrell Bethel, of Liberty, to constitute a Baptist
2
HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
Church May 2, 1802. Might there not have been some settler to locate two or three miles southward of Brush Creek some years earlier than the institution of the Church? On the other hand, the colony of forty souls who came from Maryland to Liberty about 1800 on hearing from Adam Dale had to cut a wagon road through the forest and canebrakes from a few miles out of Nashville to Liberty. All the traditions are to that effect, and no hint from the pioneers has come down to indicate that they passed any settlement in the vicinity of Alexandria. It is possible, however, that the road opened by the colony ran considerably south of the old stage road and turnpike upon which Alexandria is located. This point will probably never be settled and may well be left alone.
To go back many years, upon the arrival of the first whites in what is now East Tennessee, a vast portion of Middle Tennessee was unoccupied by Indians, though hunting parties camped here or passed back and forth in their tribal wars beyond the borders. It seems to have been agreed among the red men that it should be held as a common hunting ground. As a result it was a wilderness well stocked with buffaloes, bears, deer, and other wild animals. No one knows how long it had been uninhabited ; the numerous bury- ing grounds, mounds, and traces of forts prove that some race in the past had lived here. They had proba- bly disappeared before stronger hostile tribes. For want of a better name, and because of their custom of building mounds and burying their dead in stone-walled graves, that vanished tribe were called the Mound
3
HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
Builders, or Stone Grave race. Some ethnologists believe the Natchez Indians were a branch of this for- gotten race.
The mounds and other remains indicate great age and a civilization more advanced than that of the tribes seen when the American explorers came. Judg- ing from the location of the forts, mounds, and ceme- teries, the Mound Builders selected the most fertile sections for habitation and near streams. These land- marks are numerous in Middle Tennessee, and the Smith Fork Valley, in DeKalb County, once echoed to the voices of the lost people. In the graves and some of the mounds have been discovered pipes, bowls, ornaments, weapons, and toys. In one place four miles south of Nashville three thousand graves were found and not far off one thousand more. From these were taken nearly seven hundred specimens of burned pottery-some of them semiglazed-representing ani- mals, birds, fish, and the human figure. On the farm once owned by C. W. L. Hale, north of Liberty, is a very large Indian mound, which had perhaps been used for religious or observation purposes. Many graves adjacent have been plowed into. Graves have also been found on T. G. Bratten's farm, just west of Liberty, in the vicinity of the buffalo trail on which a battle was fought between Indians and whites in 1789. Mr. Leander Hayes, who had lived from boy- hood four miles southwest of Liberty on Smith Fork, gave the writer in 1894 this description of the Mound Builders' graves on his farm: "A great number were rock-lined, square, and contained skeletons in a sitting
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
posture. At our old home, which I own now, there are two of these graves which have not been molested since their discovery- one near the front gate and the other in the garden under an old apple tree."
The Cherokee and Chickasaw Indians lived in Ten- nessee when the first settlements were made-not in the "hunting grounds" proper, however. The former lived mainly along the mountains of the eastern bor- der ; while a portion, the banditti known as the Chicka- maugas, had their villages near the present Chatta- nooga. The Chickasaws, who became friends of the whites after attacking the settlers on Cumberland River in 1781, claimed all West Tennessee. The bit- terest enemies of the settlers were the Cherokees, as- sisted by the Creeks, who lived south of Tennessee.
When Adam Dale, James Alexander, Jesse Allen, and other pioneers came to what is now DeKalb County, the spirit of the Indians had been broken by the Nickajack expedition southward from Nashville in September, 1794; but there were still hostile tribes in the State. Adam Dale arrived on the site of Liberty in 1797, just three years after the Nickajack expedi- tion. Until 1805 a part of the Cumberland Mountains was an Indian reserve known as the Wilderness. As late as 1791 Nettle Carrier, an Indian chief, lived there with his tribesmen. About 1800 a band of Cher- okees, under the lead of Chief Calf Killer, had their homes in the present White County. These were called "friendly," but the savages were easily stirred to deeds of violence and readily took the warpath. Then, even after the Nickajack expedition, the In-
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
dians committed depredations. At noon November II, 1794, an attack was made on Valentine Sevier's fort, near the present site of Clarksville, forty red- skins being in the raid. Several whites were killed and scalped. With this state of affairs before us, shall we imagine that the Indians did not camp in or pass through some portion of DeKalb County after the first few settlers arrived ?
For many years after Tennessee became a State roving families of vagabond Indians journeyed over the trails and highways. Subsequent to the War be- tween the States the writer saw them go through Liberty. They were friendly and made a few cents target-shooting with bows. It was supposed that they came over the mountains from their old East Tennes- see haunts. Prior to 1840 the Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Creeks relinquished all claims and were removed across the Mississippi River.
History records one Indian battle on DeKalb County soil. This was on the buffalo trail down Smith's Fork and up Clear Fork. Hon. Horace A. Overall assured the writer that, according to tradition, the bat- tle field was near where the Bratten lane turns south a quarter of a mile west of Liberty. John Carr, a pio- neer of Sumner County, says of the fight in his book, "Early Times in Middle Tennessee," published in 1857 :
In 1789 General Winchester went out with a scouting party; and on Smith's Fork, a large tributary of the Caney Fork (I believe now in DeKalb Couny), he came upon a fresh trail of Indians. He pursued them down the creek on
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
the buffalo path, and no doubt the Indians were apprised they were after them and accordingly selected their ground for battle. The path led through an open forest to the crossing of the creek, and immediately a heavy canebrake set in. The General's spies were a little in front. They were Maj. Joseph Muckelrath and Capt. John Hickerson, a couple of brave men.
Just after they entered the green cane a short distance the Indians, lying in ambush, fired upon them. They killed Hick- erson at once, but missed Muckelrath. Winchester was close behind, rushing up. The action commenced, lasting some time. Frank Heany was wounded; and the Indians having greatly the advantage, General Winchester thought it proper to retreat, thinking to draw them out of the green cane. In this attempt he did not succeed.
There is no doubt but that Capt. James McKain, now [1857] eighty-five or eighty-six years old, killed a celebrated warrior and, I believe, chief called the Moon. He was a harelipped man, and it was said that there was but one hare- lipped Indian in the nation. No doubt the same Indian shot down and scalped Capt. Charles Morgan a year or two be- fore (at Bledsoe's Lick).
One of my brothers was in this expedition. The Indians gave an account of the battle afterwards and said it was a drawn fight, that they had a man killed and that they had killed one of our men.
Carr says two of the whites were John and Martin Harpool, Dutchmen. Martin was foolhardy, and his brother suggested to him, after Winchester withdrew, to rush into the canebrake and drive the Indians out while he killed one. With a great whoop Martin en- tered the cane, making it crackle at a terrible rate, and the Indians fled.
On the first settlement of the county there may have been far inland a few bears and buffaloes left. We have no records. Just twenty years previously Tennes-
7
HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
see was overrun with them. About 1781 twenty hunt- ers went from Nashborough Fort up Cumberland River as far as the present Flynn's Lick and soon returned with one hundred and five bears, more than eighty deer, and seventy-five buffaloes. The late Elbert Robinson, of Temperance Hall, once said that when his grand- father came to that settlement bears were frequently seen. Dr. Foster says that when he was an infant (he was born in 1839) his parents removed to Dry Creek, but they were so disturbed by wolves howling at night that they moved back to Liberty within three days. John K. Bain writes that when he was a lad, about 1835, he ran three deer out of his father's cornfield in one day. That was in the eastern part of the county. He adds: "My uncle, Archibald Bain, killed a bear be- fore I remember. Squirrels were so numerous as to destroy cornfields thirty feet from the fence. I killed forty in one day, and one fall (I kept tab) the num- ber I killed was over three hundred." Doubtless game was sufficiently abundant to make hunting and the chase worth while to the first comers.
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CHAPTER II. DEKALB COUNTY ESTABLISHED-OFFICIALS.
IN 1837 Hon. H. L. W. Hill, of Warren County, introduced in the Tennessee House of Representatives a bill to form a new county out of parts of Warren, Cannon, Jackson, and White Counties, to be named for Baron DeKalb, a Bavarian, who fought for Ameri- can independence during the Revolution.' The bill was amended in the Senate, then passed, specifying the following boundaries : Beginning at the corner between1 Smith and Cannon Counties on the Wilson County line near Alexandria and running thence south twenty- three degrees east with the old line between Wilson and Smith Counties eight miles to a point on said line ; thence south forty-eight degrees, east eleven and three- quarter miles to the Warren County line at John Martin's ; thence north eighty-three degrees, east seven miles to a point twelve miles north from McMinnville ; thence south eighty degrees, four and three-quarter miles to Caney Fork River at the mouth of Barren Creek; thence down said river with its meanders to an oak on the road from Sparta to Dibrell's Ferry, four miles from said ferry; thence north thirty-seven and a half degrees, east nine and three-quarter miles to a point on the stage road from Sparta to Carthage ; thence north two miles to a corner between White and Jackson Counties on Cane Creek; thence south seventy-five degrees, west sixteen and a half miles so as to strike the northwest corner of Cannon County,
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
on the Caney Fork River; and thence with the line run by Thomas Durham between Smith and Cannon Counties to the beginning.
From time to time the line has been changed, slight- ly, however, in most instances. On January 2, 1844, for instance, the Alfred Hancock property was taken from DeKalb and added to Cannon County. The Hancocks came from Virginia about the time the Over- alls, Turneys, and others arrived, and have been among the foremost citizens of their section for more than a hundred years .* On February 1, 1850, the legislature so altered the line between Smith and DeKalb as to in- clude the residences and farms of Nicholas Smith, Andrew Vantrease, John Robinson, and others in the latter county, as well as the farm and residence of John F. Goodner, near Alexandria.
On Monday, March 5, 1838, the following citizens, holding certificates as magistrates of the county, met at Bernard Richardson's, on Fall Creek, and organ- ized the county court by clecting Lemuel Moore chair- man: Lemuel Moore. James Goodner, Jonathan C. Doss, Reuben Evans, Joseph Turney, Watson Cantrell. Thomas Simpson, John Martin, Watson Cantrell, David Fisher, William Scott, Samuel Strong, Henry Burton, Martin Phillips, John Frazier, Joel Cheatham, Jonathan Fuston, Peter Reynolds, and James Beaty.
The various county officers elect exhibited their cer-
*It is told of Alfred Hancock's kindness to the poor that in times of drought he refused to sell his corn to those who could pay cash, but sold it on time to the needy at much less than he could get from the well-to-do.
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
tificates of election, qualified, entered upon the dis- charge of their duties, and the county was organized.
The county court continued to meet at the home of Richardson until a log courthouse could be completed. The circuit court was also organized at Richardson's, the first term beginning on the second Monday in Au- gust, 1838, Judge A. J. Marchbanks presiding. The chancery court was organized in 1844 by Chancellor B. L. Ridley. (See the chapter headed "The County Seat.")
The county is bounded north by Smith and Putnam Counties, east by Putnam and White, south by War- ren and Cannon, and west by Cannon and Wilson. Its population in 1840 was 5,868, ten years later it was 8,016, and by the commencement of the War between the States it was 10,573.
About two-thirds of the county lies on the Highland Rim. The Highlands occupy the eastern and north- ern parts. The western part lies in the Central Basin and embraces several valleys of considerable size and great agricultural value, separated from each other by irregular ranges of hills, while there are some peaks and ridges which mount up to a level with the High- lands. The valley of Caney Fork is long, winding, and irregular. It begins below the falls between Warren and White Counties near the southeast corner of De- Kalb; runs toward the northwest, then westerly, till it opens out in the Basin in the northwestern part of DeKalb. It is narrow at the upper end ; below Sligo Ferry it has an average width of half a mile. Its greatest width is about a mile; its length, following the
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