USA > Tennessee > Hickman County > A history of Hickman County, Tennessee > Part 17
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In 1839 Cyrus W. Russell sold goods in the valley near where his widow, Mrs. Delphia Russell, now lives. Cyrus W. Russell was a rigidly honest man, who wanted all that was his, and nothing more. His
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wife is a sister of Jared C. and William G. Frazier. James H. Fowlkes, a son-in-law of William Flowers, sold goods at the Flowers place about 1855. John W. Walker & Co. commenced the mercantile business at Whitfield in 1852, and continued until 1860, when they were succeeded by James Walker and James Gray. After the war John T. Walker and - Pet- way sold goods here, and were succeeded by the Walker brothers-John T., David N., and James B. Walker. They were succeeded by their cousin, Thomas B. Walker, who is still in business here. One mile southwest of Whitfield, Flowers & Coble now sell goods near the mill of Cagle & Coble. The post office, Whitfield, was established in 1857, and was named in honor of John W. Whitfield, who was perhaps the most famous man who ever lived in Hick- man County. He commanded the Hickman County company in Campbell's " Bloody First," and, after the Mexican War, was several times a State Senator. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate Army as a colonel and brigadier general. Before the war he was connected with the Indian Bureau, De- partment of the Northwest; but at the breaking out of the war he cast his fortunes with his Southern brethren, and brought a regiment of Indians into the Confederate service. He died in Texas on October 27, 1879. His first wife was a daughter of Robert Charter, the Centerville merchant, and his second wife was a sister of Gen. George Dibrell.
The following are the names of some of the magis-
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trates of this district: William Flowers, William Woolard, Cyrus W. Russell, James H. Fowlkes, Jo- siah Cotham, Samuel Chesser, John A. Jones, D. N. Walker, W. L. Walker, S. G. Carothers, Samuel Ches- ser, Jr., and D. S. Chandler.
This district has furnished the following deputy sheriffs : S. A. J. Peeler, John T. Walker, and J. A. Cunningham. J. A. Cunningham's father, John Cunningham, was at one time census taker for Hick- man County.
Two widely known constables of this district were Lewis Bates and D. T. Pinkerton.
Dennis G. Jones, of this district, was a State Sen- ator in 1837 and 1839. His son, Samuel G. Jones, in 1889 represented Humphreys County in the Lower House, and his grandson, J. Grady Jones, is at pres- ent the Representative of the counties of Humphreys, Perry, and Wayne. In 1895 J. Alonzo Bates and W. Valentine Flowers, of Centerville, both of whom were born and reared in this district, were in the Sen- ate and Lower House, respectively. Flowers was succeeded in 1897 by Dr. W. L. Walker, of this dis- trict. Dr. A. J. Lowe was Hickman County's Repre- sentative in 1889. Levi McCollum, who was born and reared in this district, represented Hickman County in the Legislature in 1871 and 1873.
James D. Murphree, of this district, a gallant sol- dier who lost a leg while in the Confederate Army, was at one time County Court Clerk of Hickman County.
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In the Mexican War, Dennis Jones, James Walker, John S. Pickard, and others were soldiers in Whit- field's company. To the Confederate Army the Ninth District furnished Lieut. William Clinton Jones, who was one of the best-drilled men in the Eleventh Ten- nessee Infantry, together with a large number of pri- vate soldiers, who were as brave as any who donned the gray and as true as any who wore it.
The names of some of the physicians of this district not already mentioned are : Leroy Blackburn (1848), John S. Dickson, James A. Edwards, and Dr. J. C. Flowers.
Stephen Murphree, born in the Eighth District on January 3, 1823, came to this district on January 1, 1846. Between Murphree's house and the mouth of Cow Hollow there occurred, about 1820, a tragedy not altogether traditional, as for more than sixty years there could be seen nailed to two black oak trees two shoes of oak-tanned leather. Between the trees was a grave, and in the grave a stranger who lodged one night in the long ago with a settler near the mouth of Cow Hollow. Just at dawn the stranger was pre- paring to depart. He was standing in the cabin door, when a man came out of the woods with a gun nre- sented. The stranger attempted to flee, but the man fired and wounded him. The wounded man then rushed at his assailant, wrenched the gun away from him, and was preparing to brain him with it, when a second man came from the woods and shot the stranger, who fell dead. To the terrified settler the
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slayers of the stranger told the following story: They said that the dead man had, two weeks before this, killed in Kentucky a brother of one of them. He left Kentucky, and they had been on his trail for ten days. They immediately after the killing went away, and as to the truth of their story nobody knows. The identity of the dead man and of his slayers was never discovered. The dead man was buried near the place where he fell, and for over sixty years his shoes re- · mained nailed to the trees which marked his grave.
William Gilbert, a young man of Lowe's Bend, accidentally shot himself while hunting on Lovett's Island, in 1885. In Duck River, at Scott's Ferry, at the mouth of Taylor's Creek, Thornton Scott was drowned in 1856. His body was recovered four miles below. One Sunday in 1850, Edward Wright, a son of George Wright, was drowned at the head of Blakeley's Island. He, with an older brother and a negro boy, were returning from the island, when their canoe was overturned in the swift current. Verses composed by Dr. John L. Spence were sung at the funeral, and were for several years frequently sung in this portion of the county. Blakeley's Island re- ceived its name from the fact that a pioneer boatman named Blakeley ran his raft aground here and had to await another rise of the river before going farther. Reece Flowers, a negro, was drowned in Duck River, at the mouth of Beaverdam Creek, in 1892.
About 1835 the wife of Arthur Atkinson was drowned in Beaverdam Creek, just above McCollum's
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mill, over the dam of which her body floated. She was going to visit the sick wife of John Grimes, and was riding behind him on his horse, when, becoming dizzy, she fell into the slightly swollen streamn and was swept away.
On April 24, 1859, a hurricane of violence unparal- leled in the county's history swept across the Ninth District from southwest to northeast. Fences, or- chards, and outbuildings were destroyed. Maj. Lewis Lowe's residence was unroofed, and a tree falling across the residence of John A. Jones was perhaps what saved it from being blown off the bluff into the river. In Lowe's Bend the walls of Josiah Cotham's house were blown away, together with all of the fur- niture, except the chair in which Cotham sat. Bed- clothes and wearing apparel were found miles away.
In the northern portion of the Ninth District, be- low the mouth of Rocky Branch, is a fine body of land known as " Whitson's Bend," named for one of its first settlers, William P. Whitson, Sr., who died on February 25, 1892. Major Whitson was a tanner, and here so well plied his trade that he became a man of wealth and prominence. He was a son of George Whitson, of East Tennessee. Other sons of George Whitson were George Whitson, Jr .; Samuel Whitson, of Wartrace, Tenn .; Capt. Robert. M. Whit- son ; and David Whitson, who in 1833 was killed at Shelbyville by the storm which destroved that place. this storm being known throughout Hickman and Humphreys Counties as the " Bearden storm." In
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the upper end of Whitson's Bend, years before the Civil War, Robert Wright built a mill. Nancy, a daughter of Wright, married Major Whitson. Rob- ert Wright was the father of Robert, Jr., John, Levin D., and Thomas Wright. The latter was killed in Perry County, near Lobelville, by Dock Leiper, who had married his sister. Leiper claimed to have acted in self-defense. Wright was insane at the time of his death.
The early settlers of Wolf Creek, so named on account of the large number of wolves which infested its hills, were Henry Sawyers, John Duff, the Devi- neys, the Bakers, the Blackwells, Henry Powell, and Ammons, who was the owner of a small water mill. Rans Peppers, of this creek, was one of the principals in the "rough-and-tumble fight " which took place at the Lomax muster grounds in 1858. The other principal was Willie Forrester, who yet lives on Sugar Creek, where he is a highly respected citizen. Other participants were Maj. Lewis Lowe, Chambers, Thornton Scott, and a brother of Rans Peppers, on the Peppers side; and Bright Forrester (who was left-handed), Richard Forrester, Stephen Forrester, and Carroll Forrester, on the For- rester side. This was one of the many incidents of a like kind which almost invariably occurred on gen- eral muster days.
The Line of 1784 runs through the Ninth District, crossing Beaverdam Creek at the Jack Malugin place, and Sulphur Fork at the James Malugin place. It
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crosses Cow Hollow near its head. This information was furnished by the late Thomas Cagle, who entered fifty acres of land south of this line, which was his northern boundary. North of this line and north of Cagle's entry was an entry made by Henry Nixon, one of the pioneer lawyers of Centerville. Thomas Cagle, Sr., was born on June 2, 1814, on Taylor's Creek, in the Seventh District. His father, Charles Cagle, was born in North Carolina in 1779, and mar- ried a daughter of the pioneer preacher, Thomas Curb. Thomas Cagle settled in the Cow Hollow in 1823, and ten years later saw the thrilling meteoric display which, in pioneer chronology, made the year 1833 known as "the year the stars fell." He mar- ried Rachel Chesser, daughter of James Chesser. She was born on October 19, 1818.
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HISTORY OF HICKMAN COUNTY, TENN.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TENTH DISTRICT.
T HE Tenth District is bounded on the north and west by Perry County ; on the east, by the Ninth and Eleventh Districts; and on the south, by Lewis County. It includes Cane Creek from the Lewis County line down to the Perry County line, which runs near Enon Church, near the mouth of Lower Sinking. Upper Sinking and Lower Sinking, the valleys of which enter the valley of Cane Creek, arc so called on account of the waters of each disappear- ing before Cane Creek is reached. The disappear- ance of the waters of Lower Sinking is gradual, and is not so marked as is the disappearance of the wa- ters of Upper Sinking, which drop abruptly into the mouth of a cavern at the foot of a large and rugged hill. The place of disappearance is on the farm onco owned by Amos Edwards; the place of reappear- ance is supposed to be the large, bold spring near the A. C. McClaren place. Upper Sinking is about three miles above Lower Sinking. Cane Creek, which is about twenty miles long, rises in Lewis County, and empties into Buffalo River in Perry County, near Beardstown. In the Cane Creek valley are found some of the most fertile farms and some of the neatest and best-built farmhouses to be found in the county. Coming into Cane Creek, just above the Perry
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County line, and near where Robert C. Murray now lives, is Salmon Branch, named for - Salmon, who located here about 1820. Martin's Branch, which runs into Cane Creek above the mouth of Salmon Branch, was named for George Martin, an early set- tler. Where Mrs. Dudley now lives, William Whit- well and Eli Dyer once lived. James Salmon, a prosperous citizen, at one time lived on Salmon Branch. In his old age he became involved in debt, and, after brooding over this for some time, he went into the woods a few hundred yards west of Robert C. Murray's present residence, and there cut his throat with a razor. His body lay undiscovered in the woods for a week. It was finally found by the search- ing neighbors and buried on the spot. Salmon's wife and children paid his debts and retained possession of his lands.
One of the earliest and most important settlements in the Tenth District was made on that portion of Cane Creek between the mouth of Upper Sinking and the present site of Farmer's Exchange. The perma- nent settlement was made immediately after the with- drawal of the Indians, and locations were selected here as early as 1815, while this was yet in the In- dian country. The pioneers who settled here were Thomas Whitwell, Alexander Davidson, John D. Murray, John Mitchell, Lewis Dunning, and John Anderson. Whitwell located where "Bud " Joyce now lives; Davidson, just below the present site of
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Pleasantville; Murray, where Thomas Rodgers now lives ; Mitchell, near the fine spring on the Adolphus McClaren place; Dunning, on the lands now owned by James S. Bates; and Anderson, at the Wesley Jones place. On one of his trips into the Indian country, John Anderson camped one night in 1815 in Cow Hollow, in the Ninth District. His name, together with the date, was cut on a tree which stood near the Line of 1784. John Anderson was a hunter,
a shoemaker, and a cooper. He made and mended shoes for the pioneers ; made barrels, washtubs, water buckets, churns, etc., for them ; and made for himself the well-earned reputation of being one of the best hunters in the settlement. His children cleared his lands, while he worked at his trades. His daughter, Jennie, who was born on September 4, 1806, married Samuel Bates, who was born in Maury County on August 21, 1807.
Samuel Bates was the father of the late William Bates, who married a daughter of J. R. Sutton. Sutton, who is the father of Dr. K. I. Sutton, of Centerville, was at one time a magistrate of this dis- trict and a prosperous merchant at Farmer's Ex- change, to which place he gave the name. He was the first postmaster at this point. He now lives at Dickson, where he is, as he was in Hickman County, a prominent citizen. Samuel Bates was the father of James Samuel Bates (born on January 17, 1829), who yet lives in this district. J. S. Bates married
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Phœbe Turner. Their children are Andrew Jackson, John T., Daniel D., Susan J., Delia A., and Nora T. Bates.
James Bates, an old settler, lived at one time where the late Green D. Leiper lived. Green D. Leiper, who was a good and highly respected citizen, came to Hickman County from Maury County, and for sev- eral years lived in the Eighth District. About 1870 he came to the Tenth District.
At. the mouth of Cave Branch, so called on account of the large cave near its mouth, there lived another good citizen of the district, who came from another county to this-the late James S. Rodgers. Rodgers was born in Williamson County on July 20, 1825, and came in 1881 to the Tenth District, where he died on January 23, 1897. In 1844 he married Elizabeth Hughes, of Williamson County. She was born on October 24, 1828, and is yet living. When he first came to the county, Rodgers lived where W. A. Mc- Claren now lives, and owned the land from the mouth of Cave Branch down to near where Hughes now lives. He later sold a portion of this to W. A. and Adolphus McClaren, who own one hundred and twenty-five acres of fine land. The unsold portion of the Rodgers lands is yet owned by his son, Thomas Rodgers, who was born on February 9, 1860. On May 6, 1894, Thomas Rodgers married Sallie East- land, daughter of W. C. Eastland, of the Third Dis- trict.
The Rodgers lands were formerly owned by Shad-
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rach Lewis. One of the first settlers on Cane Creek was John Comer Lewis, who came from North Caro- lina in an ox cart soon after the removal of the In- dians, and settled near the present site of Farmer's Exchange, on lands entered by Reuben McClaren. McClaren was a land speculator who entered much land on Cane Creek and Beaverdam Creek. In making an entry on Cane Creek, he used the name of Lewis, who settled on the land, of which, in after years, by industry and economy, he became the owner. His first wife was Miss Forrest, a cousin of the Con- federate cavalryman, Nathan Bedford Forrest; his second wife was a daughter of Reuben McClaren. The sons of John C. Lewis were Shadrach, Fielding, and Henry Lewis.
One of the first mills built on Cane Creek was built by Shadrach Lewis. In 1830 he and his brother, Fielding Lewis, built a carding mill on the lands entered by John D. Murray. In 1854 this mill was bought by George S. Stephens, who died one mile below Pleasantville in 1884. The father of George S. Stephens was William A. Stephens, who was born near Henry Courthouse, Va., on March 15, 1802. A son of George S. Stephens is Sidney Stephens, a prominent farmer of the Eleventh District.
Col. James Lewis, of the First Tennessee Cavalry, C. S. A., was a grandson of John C. Lewis, and a second cousin of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, under whom he served. At the breaking out of the Civil War, Colonel Lewis lived at Linden, Perry County.
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A number of the young men of Cane Creek were members of Lewis' Regiment, they being under the immediate command of their neighbor, the brave and chivalrous Hartwell F. Barham, captain of Com- pany I. James S. Bates served in this company, as did also his brother, W. C. Bates. In 1864 two of Barham's company, John Cotham and Daniel Kelly, while at home on furloughs, were murdered by Perry County jayhawkers, the leading participants in the, murder being Alex. Guthrie and George Shelton. Cotham and Kelly were spending the night with Mor- ris Twomey, where Mrs. Rainey now lives. The jay- hawkers surprised them, and, after capturing them, murdered them. The jayhawkers were out after Commodore Cotham, a man by them much wanted and much feared. At the head of Cane Creek they attacked a party at a dance and killed James Peeler, a son of Jesse Peeler, of Beaverdam Creek. Com- inodore Cotham escaped with a few scratches ; but the jayhawkers, coming on down the creek, wreaked their vengeance on his brother, John Cotham, whom they clubbed to death with their pistols. After boasting that they left three dead Rebels behind them, these brave " homemade Yankees," who defended their country's flag by killing unarmed prisoners, went on their way to Linden, varying the monotony of their journey by killing another prisoner whom they had with them. Another attempt was made to capture Commodore Cotham, he being at that time with Da- vid Miller, in the Fifteenth District. When sur-
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prised by the Federals, Miller and Cotham were engaged in cleaning out a well. Miller was in the well, and Cotham was turning the windlass. Their pistols were in the house near by, and they surren- dered. However, they were allowed to go into the · house, whereupon they seized their pistols and imme- diately rescinded their recent action. When armed, so great was the terror of their names that the troop of Federals, during the confusion which followed, allowed them to escape unharmed.
W. H. Whitwell, of the Tenth District, was a cap- tain in the Tenth Tennessee Cavalry, C. S. A., and lost a leg in the service.
In 1840 William Bradley Cook sold goods near where George Williams now lives. He was the first merchant at Pleasantville and the first postmaster at this post office, which was established about this time. Andrew J. Dudley was the first mail carrier who brought the mail here, he carrying the mail from Lin- den to Franklin. A young man in his employ occa- sionally carried the mail for him, and on one of his trips the mail was robbed. Suspicion pointed to the young man, whom Dudley discharged. This inci- dent cost Dudley, who was a poor man, about three hundred dollars. At one time Dudley paid a security debt of seven hundred dollars, selling all of his prop- erty, except one horse and a pair of oxen, in order to do this. These he offered to sell, too, but the creditor refused to allow him to make the further sacrifice.
In 1820 Pleasant Whitwell, a Primitive Baptist
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preacher, taught school near where Beech Grove Church now stands, near Pleasantville. Whitwell was not only a good school-teacher, but was a good preacher and an upright man, who labored long and well in the Tenth District and surrounding coun- try. In 1838 Silas Record taught school at Beech Grove. The following year John Nolan, a Metho- dist preacher, taught here. The Tenth District has to-day good schools and churches, and some of the leading school-teachers of the county are to be found here.
The most extensive enterprise ever conducted in the Tenth District was the large sawmill operated at Pleasantville by C. L. Storrs. This mill was placed here about 1890, and continued in operation for four years.
In 1817 Aaron Anderson Edwards married Nancy Moody, this being the first wedding on Cane Creek. Eleven children resulted from this marriage. Their names were John Anderson, Andrew Jackson, Will- iam Thomas, David L., William J., Nicholas, Eliza- · beth A., Martha J., Malinda, Margaret, and Amanda. Aaron Anderson Edwards lived just above the mouth of Ivy Branch, which flows into Cane Creek from the north. The first marriage in the county was that of William Cotham and Sarah Shipp, in 1808.
John Anderson Edwards was born on March 9, 1824. He married Mary Ann Wilburn (born on December 20, 1822), a daughter of Burrel Wilburn, who came from Virginia to Perry County. Burrel
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Wilburn married Mary Lomax, a daughter of Samuel Lomax, of North Carolina. John A. Edwards, who was a prominent preacher of the Primitive Baptist Church, died on January 9, 1878. His brothers, David L. and Andrew Jackson Edwards, were also preachers of prominence in this church. John Ed- wards, a son of John A. Edwards, is at present a magistrate of this district. Another son of John A. Edwards is Thomas C. Edwards, who lives near Lobelville, Perry County, and who owns a fine tract of land, bounded on the north by the Line of 1784; another son is Dr. James A. Edwards, of Columbia, a man of whom Hickman County is justly proud. A. J. Pace, a son of Pleasant G. Pace, married a daughter of John A. Edwards and lives near the old Edwards homestead.
At an early date Amos Anderson Edwards lived on Upper Sinking, and the cavern into which the waters of Upper Sinking fall is on the farm on which he lived. He was born on October 27, 1814. He mar- ried Elizabeth Wilburn, who was born on May 12, 1826. He was the father of Wilburn Edwards.
John Lancaster and his brother, Gabriel Lancaster, of Beaverdam Creek, were Baptist preachers who preached in the Tenth District in the early days. Their father, Benjamin Lancaster, was probably the first preacher who held services in this district.
Isaac Cotham came from Georgia in 1807 and located on Sugar Creek, in the Eighth District. He located at what is known as the " Coleman place,"
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where, in 1809, Andrew Carothers erected a grist- mill, this being the second mill erected in the county. In 1815 Cotham removed from Sugar Creek to near the mouth of Ivy Branch, this then being in the In- dian country. Having doubts as to the title of his lands, he returned to Sugar Creek. After the treaty he (in 1818) returned to the Tenth District, and re- mained here until his death. His son, John Cotham, who was born on Sugar Creek on November 26, 1808, is yet living in the Tenth District, he being the old- est native citizen of Hickman County. The mother of John Cotham was Sallie Depriest, a daughter of Randall Depriest, who came from Georgia to Big Spring Creek, in the Sixth District, in 1812, and to Cane Creek in 1818. John Cotham married Eliza Sanders, who was born in 1812. She was the daugh- ter of Joseph Sanders, who was one of the pioneers of the Tenth District, he settling at an early date above the Walter W. Brown place. The aged John Cotham remembers the bottoms of Cane Creek when he first saw them as a dense canebrake, with here and there a settler between Buffalo River and the head
of the creek. One of these settlers was - - Petty, who lived at the Turner Depriest place in 1818, when the people of this section carried their corn to a mill near Vernon. Mr. Cotham's first teacher was Moses Nicks, who taught on Sugar Creek above the point where Lee & Gould later built their furnace. The sons of John Cotham are W. A. and Richard Cotham ; his daughters, Martha, Susan, and Mary.
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On the north side of Cane Creek, about one mile below the mouth of Ivy Branch, is one of the best mill sites to be found in the county. Here for many years have been run a gristmill and a cotton gin. The lands on which the mill stands have been owned suc- cessively by Jones Whitesides, John Sisco, Hiram Campbell, Martin McClaren, Jack McClaren, Adol- phus McClaren, James Rodgers, William D. Hum- phreys, and John E. Sisco, who is the present owner. John E. Sisco was born on July 6, 1842, and is a son of A. J. Sisco. The father of A. J. Sisco was John Sisco, who in 1820 came from North Carolina and settled near the mouth of Cane Creek.
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