The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the., Part 1

Author: Ramsey, J. G. M. (James Gettys McGready), 1797-1884
Publication date: 1853
Publisher: Charleston : J. Russell
Number of Pages: 776

USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > 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.

Google

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.

We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http://books.google.com/

Stanford University Libraries 3 6105 118 174 569

916.8 RI3.

...

976.8 RI3 1

こ

ـبـ

-11

...

THE ANNALS OF TENNESSEE

TO THE

END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY:

COMPRISING ITS BEITLEMENT,

AS 7 THE WATAUGA ASSOCIATION, TRO A PART OF NORTH-CAROLINA, FROM 1777 TO 1784;

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN, FROM 1784 TO 1788; A PART OF NORTH-CAROLINA, FROM 1788 TO 1780 ; THE TERRITORY OF THE U. STATES, SOUTH OF THE OHIO, FROM 1790 TO 1786;

THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, FROM 1796 TO 1800.

BY J. G. M. RAMSEY, A.M., M.D.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY: HONOURARY MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, ETC.

CHARLESTON : JOHN RUSSELL, 256 KING-STREET. 1853.

STANFORD

LELAND

- .- LIBRARY

JUNIOR

NIVERSITY

A11763

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by J. G. M. RAMSEY, M.D. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Tennemse.

CHARLESTON : STEAM POWER PRESS OF WALKER & JAMES, No. & Broad-Street.

DEDICATION.

TO THE SURVIVING PIONEERS OF TENNESSEE, WHOSE ENTERPRISE SUBDUED HER DOMAIN, AND WHOSE VALOUR DEFENDED IT, MOST GRATEFULLY; TO THEIR IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS,

WKORE PATRIOTIUM, WISDOM AND VIRTUE, PROVIDED FOR AND BEQUEATHED TO POSTERITY, THE PATRIMONIAL BLESSINGS AND WISE INSTITUTIONS OF LIBERTY, OF LAW, OF LEARNING AND RELIGION,

MOST DUTIFULLY; TO THE YOUNG MEN OF TENNESSEE,

INHERITING SO MUCH THAT IS ESTIMABLE, MANLY, VIRTUOUS AND PATRIOTIC, AND TO WHOSE GUARDIANSHIP, FILIAL PIETY, ANCESTRAL AND STATE PRIDE,

ARE COMMITTED

THE PRESERVATION OF HER UNSTAINED ESCUTCHEON, HER ANCIENT FAME, HER HEROIC EXAMPLE, HER SOVEREIGNTY, HER CHARACTER AND HER GLORY- HER HIGH DESTINY AND FUTURE IMPROVEMENT-

MOST CONFIDENTLY;

"LET NO MEAN HOPE YOUR SOULS ENSLAVE ; BE INDEPENDENT, GENEROUS, BRAVE ; YOUR FATHERS SUCH EXAMPLE GAVE, AND SUCH REVERE!"

Is this Volume Dedicated, by their fellow-citizen,

THE AUTHOR.

CHARLESTON, S. C., February 22d, 1858.

. .

PREFACE.

THE writer is one of the first-born of the sons of the State of Ten- nessee. If this seniority brings with it none of the rights of primoge- niture, it certainly has imposed the duty of filial veneration and regard for the land of his nativity. With this devotion to his State, and to its worthy pioneers, has always been united the deep regret, that their early history has been so little known, and is now almost forgotten. Oppressed by this feeling, and impelled by the desire to revive and pre- serve the knowledge of past events in Tennessee, he determined, many years since, to collect such incidents of her history as were within his reach. At first, his object was merely to occupy, in these researches, the leisure hours which could be spared from professional engagements; but he soon discovered, that by extending his labours, he might add to his own pleasure, the high gratification of contributing something, how- ever humble, to the historical literature of the day, and thus do a ser- vice, at least, to the people of his own State.

For the collection of the materials of such a work, he has had some peculiar facilities. His boyhood and his youth were spent with the . pioneer and the emigrant. Later in life, he has not been without some share of intercourse, with the public men and principal actors in the early settlement of the country. His opportunity of conferring with many of them, has not been infrequent, and has been sedulously im- proved. He became, whilst yet a young man, the possessor of the journal and papers of his deceased father, the late Col. F. A. Ramsey- a pioneer of the country, whose life was identified with its interests, at every period of its growth, up to the time of his death, in 1820. He has, since, become the depositary of the papers of Sevier, of Shelby,

PREFACE.

the Blounts, and other public men. His position as Corresponding Sec- retary of the East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society, has given him the advantage of its collections and correspondence. In addition to these sources of valuable information, he has availed himself of others. The records of all the old Franklin Counties have been patiently ex- amined by him. He has also visited the Capitals of Georgia, North- Carolina, and Virginia, and, by the courtesy of Governor Towns, Go- vernor Reed, and Governor Floyd, of these States, has been allowed free access to the Public Archives at Milledgeville, Raleigh, and Richmond, from which has been procured, all that they contain on the subjects of his research. The Archives of Tennessee, preserved in the office of the Secretary of State at Nashville, he has also examined. Private and public libraries, the ofices at Washington, and the periodical jour- nals of the day-all sources, within the writer's reach, likely to contri- bute to his purpose, and add to the perfection of his work, have been carefully examined and culled from.

Haywood's History of Tennessee is the authority for many events detailed herein. In several instances, corrections and additions, impor- tant and valuable, have been made.

In the narratives-verbal and written-of the old soldiers and pio- Deers, and in the matter furnished by authors, correspondents, and public documents, the language of the original narrator is often re- tained, though his statements are very much abridged and condensed. The usual marks of quotation have not, therefore, been always given.

On some of the subjects of the volume, the writer may be charged with unnecessary prolixity. He has not felt at liberty to withhold the minutis of some of the topics, now published for the first time. The perishable condition in which they are found, in old and nearly illegible manuscripts, exposes them to an early destruction.

The biography of General Robertson and General Joseph Martin would have been more minutely given, but that their private files had been placed in the hands of L. C. Draper, Esq., of Wisconsin. This is the less to be regretted, as that competent writer has promised, in addition to the lives of these Tennessee pioneers, those of many West- ern adventurers, which cannot fail to make a valuable contribution to

VIT

PREFACE.

the biographical literature of the West. He has been indefatigable in the procurement of material for such a work. Its publication may be expectod within the next year.

The space devoted in this volume, to that section of Tennessee east of Cumberland Mountain, will not be considered disproportionate, when it is recollected, that it had a priority of ten years in its settlement; that in it were conducted the more important negotiations and treaties with the Indians; and that the scenes of the Revolution-as participated in by the Western soldiery-the Franklin Revolt and Administration ; the Organization of the Territorial Government, and that of the State of Tennessee, all occurred within its limits.

Thus much as to the plan and materials of the work, and the sources from which they have been drawn. As to the manner of it, the writer only further adds, that, earlier in life, it had been his ambition and his design, to have made it, not only more creditable to himself, but, which he desired much more, worthier of Tennessee and her patriotic and chivalrous sons. In the vain hope, and under the fond illusion, that some future day would allow him the necessary leisure to do so, he has postponed the preparation of these sheets several years. The pressure of other engagements-some of them in the service of Tennessee- some, more private, but not less imperative-has dispelled the youth- ful illusion, that, after his half century was passed, life would be without care or active employment, and has brought with it the conviction, that, if his work shall be published at all, it must be done in its present shape-written always currente calamo-at intervals of time, snatched from the continued succession of professional and public duties, and with little opportunity to revise or perfect it. In that condition, and under these circumstances, the volume now goes to press. Scarcely has a single page been re-written.

Many of the Sevier papers, and all those of Governor Willie Blount, being in the writer's possession, should the public voice seem to dernand a continuation of these Annals, to a more recent period, the materials being on hand, or within reach, a second volume will be prepared. The administration of Governor Blount, covering the period of the Creek War, and that of 1812, with England, is an exceedingly interest-

VIII

PREFACE.

ing period in the Annals of the Volunteer State. Since that time, the history of Tennessee has continued to be equally important, and is now national and fully identified with the history of the United States.

The writer cannot omit this opportunity of returning his thanks to such of his correspondents, in Tennessee and elsewhere, as have not been specifically mentioned in the volume, for their assistance in col- lecting and furnishing material for the work.

The Hon. Mitchell King, during the publication of the volume, has politely opened to the writer's use his large library and extensive col- lection of maps. Professor Dickson, of the Medical College of South- Carolina, and an honourary member of the East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society, has, heretofore, presented to its collections several valuable works on the history . of his State, and her early wars with the Indians of the interior. Both of these gentlemen have, from the first conception of this undertaking, given to the writer, under many and great discouragements, their friendly advice and countenance. To each of them, and to the members and officers of the Charleston Library, to whose privileges he was politely introduced, the writer begs here to make his acknowledgments.

The size of this volume has excluded much that had been intended for the Appendix.

Conscious, as he is, of the imperfections of his performance, the writer persuades himself, that he has rendered some acceptable service to Tennessee, in his attempt, thus, to perpetuate her Annals, and illus- trate the actions of her people. Consoled with this reflection, he con- fides it to his countrymen.

" Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus importi ; si non, his utere mecum."

J. G. M. RAMSEY.

MECKLENBURG, Near Knoxville, Tenn., Nov. 16, 1852.

INTRODUCTION .*

WHEN Columbus, in the name of their Catholic majesties, took formal possession of San Salvador, the natives of that island stood around and gazed upon the strange ceremony in silent admiration. A feeling, somewhat dissimilar, but scarcely less intense, would be excited in the bosom of an aboriginal inhabitant of Tennessee, could he now revisit this theatre of his nation's existence. Could he stand upon an eminence, near the ancient capital of the state, and survey the scenes now presented to his view, he would notice with surprise the magic changes effected in this land of his fathers. The soli- tude of his native forest has given place to the industry and enterprise of a strange people ; its silence is dissipated by the hum of business, and its quiet disturbed by the incessant toil and the active pursuits of civilized life. The ancient woods have been felled, and the wilderness converted to the purposes of agriculture. A town has risen up, as if by enchantment, presenting to his astonished view the evidences which sur- round him, of wealth, of commerce, of learning and the arts. Associating the awakened recollections of his boyhood with the transmutation before him, he would withdraw from the unwelcome contrast, and, chagrined and sorrowful, seek else- where some solace to his wounded spirit. Repairing to the place where once stood the wigwam of his father, "he finds erected over it the stately mansion of the white man. He recollects to have seen his chieftain recording his victories upon a tree, or perpetuating the annals of his tribe in rude hieroglyphics upon the mountain granite. These vestiges,

* Much of this Introduction is taken from the " Address" delivered by this writer at the organization of the " East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society."

INTRODUCTION.

too, have disappeared. The war-paths of his ancestors have been converted into the channels of a gainful commerce ; in the place of their extinguished council fires, are seen the courts of justice ; and amidst the ruins of their Pagan tem- ples, churches, consecrated to the worship of the true God, elevate their spires in the direction of the Christian's hope- to heaven.

This sudden transition from barbarism and rudeness to civilization and refinement, it is the business of history to ex- amine, investigate and record. Labouring in this extended field, the curious student will be carried back to that period when the "great West " was

" A solitude of vast extent, untouched By hand of art ; where nature sow'd herself, And reap'd her crops ;"

when, as yet, no Anglo-American had penetrated the dark recesses of the Alleghany, or explored the unknown wilds now embraced within the limits of Tennessee. He will be led to analyze the first promptings of that spirit of adventure which incited the pioneers of the country to leave their homes of peace, safety and comfort, to endure the toils and priva- tions of a mountain desert, to brave the dangers of an un- known wilderness, and to disregard the perils attending the formation of a remote and feeble settlement upon the bor- ders of numerous and warlike tribes, jealous of their ap- proach, and determined to resist it. Extending his researches, he will find that no section of the United States has fur- nished more of interesting and attractive incident, than is . presented from a review of the first exploration and settle- ment of Tennessee. The tales of romance are scarcely equal to the patient perseverance, enterprise and hardihood, the daring heroism and chivalrous adventure, of its inhabitants. Savage barbarity drenched the frontier with the blood of the first emigrants, and the hardy soldier, alike with the helples ; female and the child, became victims to the scalping knife and the tomahawk of the Indian. The industrious husband- man derived no immunity from the common danger, in his peaceful pursuits, but found a grave where he hoped to gather a harvest ; and the secluded and quiet cabin, lighted by

INTRODUCTION.

savage incendiaries, became the funeral pile of its occupants. Every valley became the avenue of Indian aggression, and every mountain a lurking place for the merciless Cherokee. Nothing intimidated by these circumstances, the constant attendants of the pioneers of the wilderness, they became, in their turn, the invaders ; and on the rugged banks of the Ken- hawa, in the wilds of Cumberland and on the plains of Coosa, we hear of their daring adventure, their prowess and their triumph.

But the proudest recollections are awakened, when we re- cur to the part taken by the infant settlements on Holston, Watauga, and Nollichuckee, in that " perilous conflict that tried men's souls," and at its darkest period, when the confi- dence of the firmest friends of independence was shaken, when British valour and the treachery of the disaffected in the South had given an ascendency to the royal army, and threatened an easy conquest of other sections of the Confede- racy. South-Carolina was scarcely longer considered an American state, but a subdued British colony ;- her lion- hearted and invincible whigs, indignant but not dispirited, retiring before the invading enemy, had sought an asylum in the frontier of the West. It was at this crisis the pioneers of Tennessee-though by their remote and insulated position secure from foreign invasion, and exposed at home to the cruelties of a savage foe-evinced their devotion to the cause of their country and of freedom. At this crisis, western patri- otism projected the most daring expedition, and western va- lour achieved the brightest victory, which adorn the page of our revolutionary history. Free as the air of their mountains, and indignant that the land of freemen should be polluted by the footsteps of an invader, the patriots of the West flew, uninvited, to the rescue of their bleeding country-ascending the Alleghany, and precipitating themselves from its summit, they overwhelmed the enemy with discomfiture and death.

The early civil and political history of Tennessee presents, also, a fruitful and interesting subject of investigation. A feeble and remote settlement of hunters, herdsmen and small farmers-dissociated from Virginia and North-Carolina by the intervention of a desert mountain, not embraced within

INTRODUCTION.

the ascertained boundaries, and beyond the reach of the ju- risdiction of either province, without its laws, its courts and its protection-this primitive, simple and virtuous commu- nity, formed a civil and military organization adapted to their peculiar condition, and, under the unpretending name of the Watauga Association, laid the foundation of the future Tennessee. Assuming for themselves the name of WASHING- TON District-the first thus entitled to the credit of doing this honour to the father of his country-at the dawn of Ameri- can independence these pioneers of the West applied to the Council of North-Carolina to be annexed to that province. They give as reasons, in support of their application, that "they had already organized their militia, and were willing to become a party in the existing war, acknowledging themselves indebted to the American colonies their full pro- portion of the Continental expense, and pledging their deter- mination to adhere "to the glorious cause in which we are now struggling, and to contribute to the welfare of our own or of ages yet to come." This pledge was most nobly redeemed,-the revolution was effected, and independence achieved.

Become thus a colonial appendage of North-Carolina, consisting of intrepid adventurers from every section of the country, and bound together by no principles of union but a sense of common danger, they were ceded by the mother state, soon after, to the Congress of the Confederacy, and thus reduced to a condition of political orphanage. Struggling with the difficulties attendant on such a state, its onward march may be traced, with much interest and curiosity, through the period of its existence as the State of Franklin. This incipient effort of the western people to exercise the "divine right " of self-government-this first combination of the discordant materials, of which the trans-montane com- munity then consisted-their crude and immature legislation, the disorder and tumult which resulted, their return to their former allegiance, and the overthrow of the new com- monwealth,-are all fruitful themes of research and enquiry. From the investigation of these, the philosophic historian will be furnished with irrefragable proofs of the adequacy of the

INTRODUCTION.

people, under the most unfavourable circumstances, to gov- ern themselves, and will be enabled to trace the important bearing these unhappy commotions had upon great national interests, till then not perceived in their true light.

Peace, order and law, succeeding to tumult, and chaos, and violence, the character of the partizan became merged in that of the citizen and patriot ; and throughout the subse- quent stages of political organization, whether as a territory of the United States, or as one of the independent sovereign- ties constituting the American Union, we are proud to find the impress of the valour, virtue and patriotism of the first emigrants, stamped upon their descendants, who, obeying the injunction,

" Let no mean hope your souls enslave; Be independent, generous, brave ; Your fathers such example gave, And such revere !"

have, in all after times, emulated the heroism exhibited by their ancestors in their own wilderness and on the heights of King's Mountain ; and animated by the same lofty spirit of freedom and independence, and glowing with the holiest im- pulses of patriotism, have displayed at Tohopeka and Emuckfaw, in the fastnesses of Florida, on the plains of the Mississippi, at the Alamo and St. Jacinto, under the walls of Monterey, at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco and Cha- pultepec, the same fearless disregard of danger, the same in- extinguishable love of freedom, the same pure devotion to liberty, the same undying thirst for glory.

The soldiery of Tennessee have, under the lead of her own Jackson, hallowed the plains of Chalmette with a renown as extensive and immortal as the channel and the sources of the Mississippi. The lustre of the escutcheon of Tennessee has grown brighter wherever they were present, whether serving in the ranks, or leading the battalions and columns of the Volunteer State to the assault of a fortress or against the bristling bayonets of an enemy. On the fields of battle where the riflemen of Tennessee have fought, new laurels have been won, fresh victories have been achieved, and un-

INTRODUCTION.

dying glory acquired, worthy of her ancient fame and her deathless renown.

Virginia has been called the mother of statesmen. Ten- nessee, with equal truth, has been called the mother of states. ·From her prolific bosom, more than from any other state in the Union, have been sent forth annually, for half a century, numerous colonies for the peopling of the great valley of the Mississippi. Her emigrants are found everywhere in Ala- bama, Florida, Northern Georgia and Mississippi. The early population of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, went from her boundaries ; while the entire Northwest of the United States, and the Pacific possessions, have been enriched from year to year by swarms of her enterprising and adventurous people from the parent hive.

Tennessee has already assumed an elevated rank among her sister republics. Her future must be prouder and even magnificent. From the amount of her population, now num- bering more than a million," from the extent of her territory,

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.

The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the., Part 1

Author: Ramsey, J. G. M. (James Gettys McGready), 1797-1884 Publication date: 1853 Publisher: Charleston : J. Russell Number of Pages: 776

Author: Ramsey, J. G. M. (James Gettys McGready), 1797-1884
Publication date: 1853
Publisher: Charleston : J. Russell
Number of Pages: 776