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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Ga.
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01713 0441
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE
THE MAKING OF A STATE
BY JAMES PHELAN
AGRICULTURE
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY (Che Liftersite Press, Cambridge 1883
1557446
DEDICATED TO H. M. DOAK,
OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE.
DEAR MR. DOAR, - Your great - grandfather, Samuel Doak, built upon Tennessee soil the first school-house erected in the Mississippi Valley. His influence has, in a meas- ure, left an impress upon the entire social fabric of this State. You yourself are a native born Tennessean. You have been in turn a brave soldier and a worthy citizen. As a journalist, as editor-in-chief of the Nashville Ameri- can in Middle Tennessee and the Memphis Avalanche in West Tennessee, you have liberalized the minds of the people of our State, and elevated the tone of public discussion. You have filled many positions, and all with efficiency, honor, and dignity. Your friends see in you a noble type of the true Tennessean. You have taken deep interest in the preparation of this work. You are one of my dearest friends. We have been associates in business. It has seemed to me, in view of these things, to be both natural and appropriate that I should dedicate to yourself this, the first attempt to write a History of Tennessee covering a later period than the earliest settlement of the State. Please accept this dedication as a tribute of respect and a pledge of friendship.
JAMES PHELAN.
CONTENTS.
-
PAGE . 1
INTRODUCTION
.
CHAPTER
I. THE FIRST APPROACH OF POPULATION . 5
II. THE FOUNDING OF THE HOUSEHOLD . 20
III. THE WATAUGA ASSOCIATION FORMED 32
IV. THE REVOLUTION AND INDIAN WARS
38
V. ANNEXED TO NORTH CAROLINA, AND LIMITS DE- FINED . 46
VI. NEW COUNTIES FORMED
52
VII. KING'S MOUNTAIN . 57
VIII. SEVIER'S INDIAN WARS 63
IX. CEDED BY NORTH CAROLINA .
67
X. STATE OF FRANKLIN FORMED
76
XI. STATE OF FRANKLIN . 81
XII. END OF THE STATE OF FRANKLIN 93
XIII. FIRST SETTLEMENTS ON THE CUMBERLAND 105
XIV. JAMES ROBERTSON . 118
XV. DAVIDSON COUNTY . 130
XVI. TROUBLE WITH THE INDIANS
. 139
XVII. TERRITORY AND NICKOJACK EXPEDITION 143
XVIII. SPANISH INTRIGUES
. 163
XIX. MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND MODE OF LIFE 169
XX. ADMISSION TO THE UNION . . 186
XXI. TENNESSEE INSTITUTES
190
XXII. LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT . . 203
XXIII. RELIGION IN TENNESSEE . 215
XXIV. SCHOOLS
·
. 233
XXV. SEVIER TO CARROLL
241
XXVI. BANKS OF TENNESSEE . 258
1
14
25
OHIO
RIVER
3
Cumberland
Tenga
Rid Feet
Light Soil, Long Grass, Lude Tomba, and Broken, Ground
on Bu Heads of these Rivers.
200
Duck
SUIS SISSIPPI
High Breken
River
back bluff
35
Explanation.
Public Rouils .. Induin Boundaries
Mafsel Shoa
The Figures on the Rivers derste thar width .
harpo R
15
7
F
RIVER
Txa R.
Engraved for Sinlay's American & Tofugraphy.
35
14
12
8
7
OHIO
Fort Hasnic
35
RIVER
Dio R.
R
T
K
N
South Fo
Stinking
Cumberland River
:
R&t Rir
Clarksville
Mountains
12 224.
Cumberland
Chach'
d.n71
Heichers ir.
Military Reservation
h Bron
a face
Big Laurel
Louuta
Gra
there
Talasse
wanano Or.
Mount?
River
High Broken Ground
Mountain
Appallachean
3
A Map ofthe
30
Esterfanhly
Explanation
Nickajack Town
Kionce R
Public Prads ..
Indian Boundaries
Crow Town
Liugele R.
The Figures on the Rivers
Grieks Gussing Place
Geese Haver
formerly part of NORTH CAROLINA. taken chiffy Kom Pozergs by Gene! D. Smith & others.
derste ther wulth .
Tombrobe
Lecacharro
Maisel Shoals
12
. Cherokee ++ Town
To Pinsacola, the Way nearly Level.
Lut
Nolachucky River
R.
on the Heads of these Rivers.
Thorville
Holston . River
2
Coyetas
French
Duck
Have
Rock à
Trunafsee
Great Irou,
1
Sik Hiver
Water
R
15
21
Longitude West from
Philadelphia
7
Katınac K
Po!
RIVER
Dev Great
Lime Jana Úr.
Lick G
SUISSIS SITT
Light Soil, Long Grass, Linde Tomber, and Broken, Grund
River
iven
Cumberland
1
TENNASSEE GOVERNMENT.
Bro Procon Gr
INTRODUCTION.
-
ALTHOUGH the annals of Tennessee are not filled with accounts of the revolutions which have changed the com- plexion of the world, yet her history, in addition to the interest which it possesses for her children as giving an account of the achievements of their ancestors, has one claim upon the attention of the thoughtful student of his- tory which is peculiarly her own. In it can be studied, as under a glass and in an hour, the process of development which in other States is either imperfectly displayed or is spread over a long stretch of time, the periods of which are indistinctly understood, or marred by extraneous and disturbing causes. In the Thirteen Colonies the chief causes of disturbances were the cupidity of colonial propri- etors and the despotism of rulers. In the younger States, excepting Kentucky, and perhaps Vermont, the line of advancement began at or after a point where the full development of American principles had been attained. Au T'abez . we have within the limits of a century a picture of estional life as complete as that of England through its two thousand years, or that of Rome from the kings to the emperors. We can study the process by which wildernesses were turned into gardens, and observe the stages of development from primitive rudeness to civ- ilization and refinement, - from disorganization to organ- ization ; from the absence of all law, through all the grades of a complete system of laws imperfectly obeyed, to a time when a community of nearly two millions of
2
INTRODUCTION.
people live together in the bonds of a sober, indus .. and law-abiding citizenship. In a study of her ann sball find that her instruments were often uncout] her progress was often slow, that many blunders wer mitted, and that there was much violence and fr shedding of blood for evil and disgraceful cause. those of us who are proud of our native State shall : rewarded by finding at times, and often in most unex places, exhibitions of those qualities which constitut is most noble and admirable in the human character
The history of a State, judged by the political sions between aspirants for state offices, is merely a ing incident of the history of the United States. have been in the history of Tennessee questions o policy important enough to cause division among the of the State. But, apart from the state debt, th and attention accorded the discussion of this class c tions has been altogether insignificant in comparisc the overwhelming importance attached to questi national politics. The reason of this is neither h find nor of remote origin. The ultimate decisior local questions is in the immediate power of the Any mistake can easily be rectified, and results . promptly changed. But the case was and is diffe: national affairs. Here the State is but one of many i . and any decision involving its welfare is more per in its nature and less liable to be changed, should a be desirable. This is the main reason. In addi this, there is more fascination in the discussion of tion which occupies the minds and hearts of for lions of people than in the discussion of a questior merely involves one and one's neighbor. This bei case, a state history cannot entirely ignore national } But the opposite extreme is more vicious still. T history of a state, especially Tennessee, is to be within its own limits. Each State having an org
3
INTRODUCTION.
goveri.ment, an advanced state of society, a general diffu- sion .º knowledge, and a measurable quantity of commer- cial prosperity, has necessarily had stages of development, or, in other words, a history. There was a time when those who inhabited the geographical division now called Tennes- see dwelt in log-cabins, and ate from wooden plates with iron knives and horn spoons. They attended the worship of God either in the open air or in a large barn. They wore cotton cloth spun by the women of the family and woven at home, or brought from beyond seas to Charleston in ships, and from Charleston across the mountains on pack-horses. The men as a rule wore caps made of the skins of the raccoon, generally with the tail hanging down behind. The head-dress of the women was a kind of bon- net made of calico sewed on strips of whalebone or white pine, which stuck forward six or eight inches beyond the face. All articles of feminine adornment were of the sim- plest materials. The men used muskets which a Kaffir of the present day would not think fit for decent savages. Co. sugar, and tea, the staples of the housewife of this
da are considered precious and costly luxuries. Every- th as rude and primitive. Let a stranger compare this
pi
· of ninety years ago with what he will see in walking
th ... 1 Main Street in Memphis on a bright spring morn- in ·d, remembering the words of the Psalmist on the sh .,oss of human life, let him refleet that there are men in : State enjoying a green old age who were then living ar .. Weathing human beings. Even the least reflective m :. . . emembering these things, will picture to itself the co ora t, and will realize that the interval between then and no jus been rife with changes, and that the present is in , 1
SC. ... vay, and under the influence of some law of devel-
1
t, the logical sequence of that past. This law of 01 pment, its processes and its results, form the real hi. of Tennessee. It is the story of this history which 1 .: attempted to narrate without going unduly into
4
INTRODUCTION.
detail, and not passing over wholly in silence the ind uals who have been the factors of this law, or the oceas adventures which surround them with the golden lig a mediaval romance. This story, if accurately and partially told, the author imagines may not be altoge without interest ; showing to the outside world the ju of this State's claim to a place of honor among the monwealths of the Union, and recalling to the mind her children the fact that their forefathers were me brave hearts, of pure ambition, and of great achievem worthy to be ranked among the noblest of those by undaunted courage, calm foresight, and liberal st manship, founded in the midst of danger, solitude, even desolation, the empire which is now greater tha the rest. National politics in such a narrative play a ordinate though important part. It gives a certain 1 to the history of a State, a certain mixture of light shade, which must be taken into reckoning. But nat: history is treated of only where it directly affects .. directly affected by the State. Even slavery, whic. deed profoundly influenced the social life of this as as all other Southern and Southwestern States, was al. a national and never a state issue.
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST APPROACH OF POPULATION.
Tennessee as a distinctive individuality
ne E
bering mit ! ion in 1769 of William Bean's cabin, e junction or the Watauga and Boone's Creek, in 'ennessee, or, as it was then. in the western part of Carolina. In this cabin, the most important and t known if not the first of those which were built, the germ of a future political organism. From , there is a new and an independent growth. Be- 's, though there are mentions of matters which took pon the soil of what subsequently became Tennes- ere was nothing coherent or consistent within to le activity of the organized and restless world with- Che fort which La Salle, returning from the voyage le vainly hoped would add new lustre to the crown Grand Monarch, built on the Chickasaw Bluffs and h he gave the name of Prud'homme,1 was, apart . he association of ideas, of no more importance in ustory of Tennessee than the death of an Indian
th WE no fo .. pl: . ser m( .. . ou wl of to fr‹ th ch a atı 1 sey (p. 39) says that this fort was built on the first Chickasaw It was the fourth.
or the significance of the mysterious symbols on ... of wampum. Even the trading post which he ted to establish there. and the treaties of commerce
BI
6
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
which he entered into with the resident Chickasaws dw into insignificance when viewed in the light of subseg; failure which left no trace behind. Of the same na is the fact that a few years earlier a Canadian missio named Marquette, with several companions, descended Mississippi River " to plant the banner of France sid side with that of Spain on the Gulf of Mexico; " and Marquette's journal describes several bank elevations w correspond very nearly with what is now known as Chickasaw Bluffs, and an island, the description of w leaves no doubt of its identity with President's Island infamous notoriety in the annals of local criminal juris dence.
But adventurers like La Salle and Marquette me saw the western borders of the State. Tennessee was tant from the coast line from which its future popula was to come. Hence, like all interior regions, it was exe from the visits of European adventurers and the w raee, until the increase of population, by confining more restless spirits of the original colonies, caused t to overflow the boundaries of social limitations and barriers of daily life to seek new homes in the wilder; The interval from the grant of Queen Elizabeth to Ral until the erection of William Bean's cabin was the pc of preparation for this overflow. Before taking up history of Tennessee it will be profitable to review, ever succinctly, the events which fill the period from > to 1769, or such part of them as throw light upon the sequent development of the then unformed State.
There is a tradition, founded upon ingenious suppos and a certain superficial resemblance of topograp, features, that De Soto, on that wonderful march of quest and discovery which is at once the brightest-, the saddest page in the history of American colonize entered the eastern part of the then undistinguishe . triet which now bears the name of Tennessee, and, tr. i
.
7
THE FIRST APPROACH OF POPULATION.
westward across the continent, continued his progress until it firally brought him to the banks of the Mississippi. It is even conjectured that the village near which he encamped, to which the Indians gave the name Chisea in honor of their chief, and which stood on a high embankment, oc- cupied the site of the present city of Memphis, which is known in the familiar language of the present day as the City of the Bluffs. This may be true. But it is a matter of speculation. We know indeed that De Soto erossed a tedious range of mountains, that he came into a region of country rich in harvests and thickly settled, full of val- leys, brooks, rivers, and forests, and that after many days' marching, during which he passed through the provinces of some tribes of Indians who are known to have inhabited parts of this State, he came to the banks of the Missis- sippi River. Several laborious attempts have been made to establish the exact line of this march by the aid of topographical maps of the present day and contemporane- ous accounts of De Soto's adventurous course, but without satisfactory result. It is not impossible that the great Spanish captain, who had seen so many of the wonders of the young world, may have trod upon the soil of Tennessee. Imagination must do the rest. Queen Elizabeth, whose generosity towards Raleigh was not less tempered with pru- dence than her generosity towards the Bishop of Ely, gave him by royal patent the right to discover, view, and take pos: ession of such remote heathen and barbarous lands not possessed or inhabited by Christian people as to him should seem good. In pursuance of this gracious allow- ance, Raleigh at his own expense made three several at- temnts to colonize what is now Virginia and North Caro- lina, but failed signally in all. A later attempt under Jan es having been more successful, the attention of the Lo 'oners - for London furnished the motive-power of col · ization - was called to the southern coast line, and rest , ted in a rapid influx of emigrants to the new settle-
8
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
ments. The grant of 1630 to Sir Robert Heath having been forfeited, another charter was granted to another company. Charles II., in 1663, careless of the condition of the colonies, ignorant of their growing wealth, and eager to repay substantial services rendered him during the dark days of his exile and the doubtful days of the Res- toration without sacrificing the means of royal dissipa- tion, granted to Clarendon, General Monk, Lord Ashley, and others, all of the New World that lay between the thirty-first and thirty-sixth parallels of latitude, and subse- quently increased his profuse munificence by so extending the grant as to include all between 36° 30' and 29°. The northern line of Tennessee ran substantially with the 36° 30' parallel. The proprietors, conforming to the spirit of the grant and actuated no doubt by the clear and lumi- nous intellect of the statesman-like historian who was one of them, as well as by the vacillating and brilliant Shaftes- bury, applied to Locke, who with Spinoza was to revolu- tionize the intellectual methods of Europe, to frame a form of government for the new colony. In compliance with this request, Locke devised a scheme which was hailed by the intellects of Oxford and the coffee-houses as the "Grand Model" of what a government should be, but which, for practical purposes, was not much superior to that in which, the law-making power being vested in bar- bers, official rank and social grades were dependent upon the growth of the beard and the color of the hair. The Grand Model still remains as an enduring monument of the kinship of human wisdom and human folly. The infant colony never fully adopted it, and the attempts of various successive governors to introduce it were the cause of almost uninterrupted internal dissensions for twenty years. Finally, during one of the domestic rev-
olutions which, though as a rule bloodless, were : . nt enough to delight a Jacobin, it was completely sul ... el and then abrogated. In 1719 the government
9
THE FIRST APPROACH OF POPULATION.
from the hands of the proprietors into those of the king, and South Carolina and North Carolina, being separated about this time, beth became independent royal colonies.
The relations existing between the colonies and the In- dians were on the whole variable, and liable to quick and violent changes. At times the colonies would unite with one tribe to chastise or exterminate another. A combina- tion of this kind between the Cherokees and the colonies against the Tuscaroras was the cause of the migration of the latter to the northern lakes. A few years later we find the Cherokees themselves at the head of a conspiracy of all the adjacent tribes, having for its object the com- plete annihilation of the colonists. During this time were sown the seeds of hatred which subsequently produced many a harvest of rapine and butchery. Nor were the Indians the most dangerous or the most malignant foes of the colonies. While the English were spreading into the interior, and securing themselves as they went by the build- ing of villages and forts and the extension of agriculture, the Spaniards had been gaining firm foothold in Florida, and the French in the Mississippi Valley. It was the bitter complaint of the colonists to the mother country during the Cherokee-Catawba conspiracy, that St. Augustine was used by the Spaniards as a point for the distribution of guns and ammunition to the hostile tribes. England did nothing to stop the outrage. A hundred years later, the Spaniards adopted the same method of harassing the United States during the War of 1812. It was a Ten- nessean who put a stop to it. He caught two of them and shot them.1 The French especially, after having planted themselves upon the banks of the northern lakes, had succeeded in founding a new empire at the mouth of the Mississippi, and, borne along by the inspiration of con- quest caught from the victorious arms of Luxembourg and
1 Arbuthnot and Ambrister claimed to be British subjects, but were in Spanish service.
10
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
Turenne at home, were already dreaming of uniting the North and the South in one grand Western dominion, confining the English and the Spanish to the narrow strip of land actually occupied by them at that time. Their plan was boldly conceived, but the history of the Western hemisphere has been an exemplification of the difference between conquest and colonization. The idea of La Salle, Talon, and Montcalm was to take the Mississippi River, which was even then a theme of wonder and admiration, as a centre, and, gradually subduing the adjacent territory, to extend the French sway across to the Pacific Ocean. The first necessity of this plan was of course the downfall of the English. The general outline of the method to be adopted for the carrying out of this scheme was to estab- lish trading posts along the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries, to make treaties of friendship with the natives where possible, to exterminate or overawe them where treaties could not be brought about, and to instigate their allies to continual warfare against the English. In pursuance of this plan forts were erected at the mouth of the Kentucky, on the Ohio, at the mouth of the Wabash, at the meeting of the Ohio and the Mississippi, on the Chickasaw Bluffs, near the mouth of the Arkansas, and on the Cumberland. There were probably as many more at other points, with these as eentres. The instruments for the accomplishment of their object were bribery, artifice, cunning, and cruelty. The colonies, fearful of the en- croachments of their old and dreaded enemy, adopted the policy of their antagonists, and the friendship of half- naked savages, who danced war dances and painted their bodies to frighten their enemies, became an object of eag rivalry between the two most powerful and enlightened races on the globe. The English secured the Creeks and Cherokees, - the French, the Choctaws and minor tribes. The Chickasaws, who inhabited the region of Memphis and North Mississippi, remained neutral. The contest went in
1
11
THE FIRST APPROACH OF POPULATION.
- the English from the first. They not only made .aties of peace with them, but took advantage of the Indians' fear of their villages being attacked by the French, during their absence on the war-path, to erect forts among them, and create permanent settlements to hold them to their professed allegiance to King George, the Great Father. The French under Bienville, finding the neutral- ity of the Chickasaws as great an obstacle in their way as active hostilities would have been, made an expedition against them, but were repulsed. A repetition of the at- tack shortly afterwards under the same commander, who made the Memphis Bluff's - called Fort Assumption - his camping point and basis of supplies, ended literally in smoke, for, according to Bancroft, " in the March of next year a small detachment proceeded towards the Chickasaw country ; they were met by messengers who supplicated for peace, and Bienville gladly accepted the calumet."
During this time the English were gradually extending their forts toward the Catawba region and the beautiful valley of the Appalachian range. Fort Dobbs, situated probably in Rowan County, North Carolina, was built in 1756. In 1758 Colonel Bird built a fort opposite Long Island, on the banks of the Holston. Fort Prince George was built about the same time on the Keowee, a tributary of the Savannah. These brought the tide of emigration to the base of the hills which skirt the eastern extremity of Tennessee ; and Fort Loudon, which was built on the Little Tennessee, near the mouth of the Tellico, by Andrew Lewis at the instigation of Lord London, governor of Virginia, brought it across the mountains and fairly into the boundaries of the State. Fort Loudon was garrisoned by royal troops, and the Cherokees, regarding it as a pro- tection against the vengeance of the French, offered dona- tions of land to artisans as an inducement to come there. The warfare between the English and the French which raged in all parts of the world was too far from the region
12
HISTORY OF TENNESSEE.
of East Tennessee to affect it otherwise than indirectly. In addition to this, in all parts of the world, the armies of England, under the administration of the Great Commoner, were uniformly victorious. The power of the French was broken in both hemispheres. They were confined in America to their Canadian possessions in the north and to the delta region of the Mississippi in the south. With the capture of Fort Du Quesne the French disappeared as an important factor in the difficulties which beset Virginia and the Carolinas, but left as a discordant legacy a feeling of bitter hostility between the Indians and the colonies, which filled the annals of that time with sickening and uninterest- ing details of vengeance, rapine, and butchery.
The immediate cause of the outbreak of hostilities was the killing of several of the friendly Cherokees who had assisted in the reduction of Fort Du Quesne. Having lost their horses, the Indians supplied their loss from a herd which they found running at large in some part of Vir- ginia. The exasperated Virginians, regarding them as horse thieves, captured and put several of them to death. The Cherokees retaliated. and in a few weeks the horrors of an Indian war had broken loose. Fort Loudon, which was manned by twelve cannon, was captured, and, in defi- ance of the terms of capitulation, those in it were massa- cred.1 Fort Prince George was besieged, and was saved only by an accident. All the whites who at the beginning were unable to reach some adjacent fort or station were massacred. Troops were sent from the north and from the seacoast. The Cherokees were eventually defeated at Etchoe by Colonel Grant, a British officer.
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