USA > Tennessee > Hickman County > A history of Hickman County, Tennessee > Part 9
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Baptist spectator would feel an attack of " the jerks " coming on, but by the exercise of will power he gen- erally warded it off. As early as 1809 John Gill lived at the place where the late Daniel Smith last lived. The house in which Gill lived is still used as a residence. Here at an early date preached George Nixon, grandfather of the late Chancellor George H. Nixon. He was a Methodist, and Mrs. Gill was a member of this church. They having no church house at that time, services were held at the homes of the members. Mrs. Gill was an aunt of Richard A. Smith, of the Thirteenth District. A church was built on Dunlap Creek just below the Samuel Cochran place, but this was destroyed by a hurricane in 1830. In 1839 Wyley Ledbetter, father of Rev. Henry S. Ledbetter, of the Sixth District, preached at the home of Nehemiah Nichols. About the same time the funeral of Mrs. Weems was preached at the William McEwen place by Rev. - Erwin. "The Mormons have no organized church in the county, but in this district there are about thirty members of this church. When an elder preaches here, it is at the residence of some member. As to the doctrines of this church or their practices in Utah, we know nothing, but, as citi- zens of Hickman County, the Mormons of the Third District are hospitable and industrious.
At Shady Grove is located the finest, best, and most conveniently arranged school building in the county. It has many modern conveniences, and was erected at a cost of $2,000. Here in recent years have taught
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Professors Salmon, Parrislı, Carraway, and Marshall. About 1887 Elder R. W. Norwood, of the Christian Church, taught school at Shady Grove. Elsewhere an account is given of the closing of George Peery's pioneer school by government rangers. The first permanent schoolhouse in this section was built out on the ridge toward Buck Branch about 1820. It was an imposing structure for those days. It was built on government land, and was built of hewn logs. The seats were made of split logs, made smoother by a broadax. The legs were long wooden pegs driven into auger holes in the half logs. A writing desk was made by boring holes in the wall and driving long wooden pegs into these holes. On the pegs was placed a plank or board. Writing was done with goose-quill pens made with a penknife by the teacher or some of his " large scholars." Gold pens and steel pens were not then in existence. A good goose-quill pen would last well when proper care was taken of it, and did as well as a steel pen or a gold pen of the present day. Some of those who taught here were Nicholas P. Simms, John C. Kelley, James Winns, Dr. Joseph Shields, - Branch, William Dickey, Samuel Ba- ker, William Willey, and William Leiper. Simms was a Methodist preacher, and came here from Will- iamsport. Shields was an Irishman, and was edu- cated at Edinburgh College. He was a fine mathe- matician and rigid disciplinarian. In punishing his pupils he used papaw bark, which he kept at the schoolhouse for the additional purpose of bottoming
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chairs at recess. He taught school at Columbia be- fore coming here in 1831. Willey was the adopted son of John Willey, who helped to cut out the Natchez Trace, and who lived at the big spring on Dunlap Creek where Cochran now lives. John Willey was the father-in-law of Craig Anderson. William Leiper was a brother of the late Green D. Leiper, of the Tenth District, and married Amanda Nicks.
Beyond this schoolhouse from Shady Grove lived Archibald Ray, the father of Hal, "Hy," and "Dick" Ray. It was Ray who remarked, after the seventh baptism of Capt. "Lam" Kelly: "Next time we baptize 'Lam' we'll use warm tar, so that it will stick or make him stick." Hal Ray was killed by a
negro at the Jewell place. In 1858, about three- fourths of a mile from Shady Grove on Buck Branch, William Brinkle stabbed and killed Elijah Deaton at the home of Deaton's daughter, who was a widow. Brinkle was never arrested. He, at the breaking out of the Civil War, enlisted in the Confederate Army, and after the close of the war he did not return to the county. In 1865 or 1866, at Henry G. Nichols' store in Shady Grove, Griff. Nichols stabbed and killed Artin Hassell. In 1897 Winfred Cotton, an old and respected citizen of Shady Grove, committed suicide.
Dr. Greenfield Smith was the pioneer physician of this section. Here at an early date was Dr. McPhail, who was a brother-in-law of John W. Whitfield, a man long prominent in the military and political af- fairs of the county. From 1830 to 1840, and for
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many years afterwards, Dr. Samuel B. Moore, of Cen- terville, was the family physician of many citizens of this district. Dr. John Reed was located here in 1847. Dr. D. B. Cliffe, of Franklin, was at one time a physician here. In 1897 the physicians of Shady Grove were Dr. Q. A. Dean and Dr. Charles Walters. Dr. Quintin Abel Dean was born in Centerville on March 23, 1847. He is a son of Ransom Dean, who came from Kentucky to what is now the Eleventh Dis- trict prior to 1820, and for years lived with Squire Kimmins, of Beaverdam. In 1846 Ransom Dean went to Mexico as color bearer of Capt. John W. Whit- field's company.
In 1825 William Savage and Gilbert Nichols occu- pied lands on Dunlap Creek. In order to perfect their titles they were later forced to pay twelve and a half cents per acre for their land. The locations were made by a friend of Nichols, James Dobbins, a surveyor and land speculator. Elijah Emmons had located here, but, being unable to pay the required number of cents per acre, Dobbins paid it and took the land. Dobbins was the locator of other lands on Dun- lap Creek, but the most valuable were the lands around Shady Grove, which he located for John Pruett, of . Virginia. The land upon which Shady Grove now stands, and some lying on the present road from the village to the bridge at the site of Gordon's Ferry, was located for Johnson and James Miller. Gilbert Nichols was born in Maryland in 1768, and married Ellen Charter, of Pennsylvania. He came to Ten-
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nessee in 1819, and in 1825 settled at the place where his son, Christopher Nichols, now lives. This house, which is still a good one, was built in 1823 by Nimrod McIntosh, who was the champion rail splitter of that section. Christopher Nichols was born in Bedford County, Va., on September 10, 1812, and came with his father to this district. He married Prudence Manerva Nicks, one of the seventeen children of William Nicks. She was born on Mill Creek on De- cember 1, 1816, and is the mother of nine children. James Miller, who located here about 1810, was the father of Simpson, Francis, and James Miller. The latter two are citizens of Shady Grove, and have had much to do with the building of this thriving little village.
On a portion of the original Miller tract of land now lives John Minor Anderson, who was born on March 17, 1848. He has been county surveyor since 1883, previous to which he taught school. He is a son of " Big Dick " Anderson. " Kettle Dick " An- derson, brother of Robert Anderson, who was the first settler of Anderson's Bend, was his maternal grand- father. David Anderson, who lived in Bedford County, was a brother of Robert and " Kettle Dick " Anderson, and was the father of " Big Dick " Ander-
son. The children of " Kettle Dick " Anderson, who lived in Maury County in the Kettle Bend of Duck River, were: John, who married Mary, daughter of John Gill, of Dunlap Creek; David, Henry ; Craig, who married a daughter of John Willey; and Mary,
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HISTORY OF HICKMAN COUNTY, TENN.
or Polly, who married John Y. Smith, father of Rich- ard A. Smith. After Smith's death she married her cousin, " Big Dick " Anderson, the father of John M. and David Henry Anderson. David H. Anderson was born on June 5, 1841. He has in his possession a powder gourd raised in North Carolina in 1773. It will hold about a pound of powder. It was brought to Tennessee by " Kettle Dick " Anderson, and was inherited by his nephew and son-in-law, " Big Dick " Anderson, at whose death it became the property of his son, David H. Anderson. The pioneer brothers, Richard and Robert, belonged to different, political parties. Richard (" Kettle Dick ") was a Whig, and Robert was a Democrat.
In 1836 Simpson Miller had a wood shop where Shady Grove now is. He had a turning lathe, and made for the people of the surrounding country many bedsteads, bureaus, sugar chests, cupboards, side- boards, spinning wheels, reels, etc. Henry G. Nich- ols, the first merchant, commenced to sell goods here about 1844. Nichols was a deputy under Sheriff W. H. Carothers. In 1849 a man named Pruett had a shoe shop here. A few years ago T. B. Walker, now of Whitfield, and J. B. Walker, now cashier of the Centerville Bank, were merchants here. In 1897 the merchants here were J. D. Evans and J. H. Houser. D. H. Anderson had here at the same time a shoe, saddle, and harness shop; John Leek, a saddle and harness shop; and John Thornton and D. Chamber- lain, blacksmith shops.
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As early as 1815 Joel Pugh had located at the Grimes place, near Shady Grove. He was born in Kentucky, and came to Mill Creek in 1810. Here George Pugh was born on May 12, 1812. Other children were Sally (born on September 15, 1815), who married Henry Cummins; Jane (born on March 30, 1818), who married Joseph Webb, of the Seventh District; John W. (born on April 11, 1820) ; and Mary Melissa (born on May 12, 1825), who married M. H. Puckett, who was at one time County Court Clerk of this county. Henry Cummins was at one time a deputy sheriff, and was the father of Samuel and John Cummins, two of the county's substantial citizens. Samuel Cummins is now one of the magis- trates of the Third District, and says what he thinks, and thinks what he says. The other magistrate is James Grimes, who is also a descendant of one of the pioneers of the Third District. Joel Pugh was a millwright and wood-workman, and cleared about the first land west of Shady Grove. Some of his early neighbors were: John Grimes, Samuel Montgomery; George Gannt, a lawyer; and George Harvill, an uncle of the late Elder Y. J. Harvill. Evans Shelby lived at the B. B. Bates place, near Buck Branch.
On the Natchez Trace, between Pruett's Spring and Duck River, Samuel Alderson Baker located in 1816. He was born in Virginia on June 16, 1792. His wife was Frances Walker, who was also born in Virginia. He located where his son, Samuel Giles Baker, now lives. Samuel G. Baker was born here on June 25,
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1833. He is the owner of his father's lands, through which the Natchez Trace runs. Samuel A. Baker located 160 acres here, and afterwards bought 240 acres more. The sons of Samuel Alderson Baker were: John (born in 1823), who was sheriff of Hickman County immediately after the Civil War; Thomas, William, Samuel G., and James P. Alice, the wife of George Church, was his daughter.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE FOURTH DISTRICT.
T / HE Fourth District is bounded on the north by Dickson County; on the east, by Williamson and Maury Counties ; south, by the Thirteenth Dis- trict; and west, by the Second and Fifth Districts. It includes the valley of Lick Creek, from the mouth of Hassell's Creek up to the lines of Dickson and Williamson Counties, which lie beyond the head waters of the northwestern tributaries of this creek. The line of the Fourth District, however, does not cross Lick Creek until it reaches the mouth of Dog Creek, where it crosses and embraces in the Fourth District all of this creek, save a small tributary, Sugar Creek, which lies in the Thirteenth District.
Zebulon Hassell the First, from whom the creek took its name, settled at the Lambert place, on Has- sell's Creek, a short time after the Indian treaties of 1805 and 1806. The next tributary of Lick Creek above Hassell's Creek is Morrison's Branch, named for a family which lived on it at an early day. Jesse Peeler, who died a few years ago in the Eleventh Dis- trict, lived on this branch in 1836. Frank Killough lived here in 1835. A fork of Morrison's Branch is Jones' Branch, upon which John Groves now has a mill and dry goods store. It received its name from Alston Jones, father of O. A. Jones, who settled upon
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it about 1825. At its mouth Harvey Giles lived in 1835. Ned Carver, a noted gunsmith and black- smith, had a mill at the Tatom place in 1835. Ferdi- nand B. Russell owned the Little Rock Mills, now owned by Groves, in 1858.
Above Morrison's Branch is Gin Branch, which re- ceived its name from the fact that Frank Worley had a gin here in 1825. Col. Alfred Darden lived here in 1836, and from this place he went, ten years later, to Mexico as a member of Whitfield's company. J. H. Nichols, of the Fourth District, was also in the Mexican War. On this branch, in 1846, lived Will- iam Jefferson Bond, who was born at Hillsboro, Williamson County, on July 26, 1826. He was a son of William Bond, of Virginia. He married Clara Mayberry; a daughter of Gabriel Mayberry, who was born in June, 1828. William J. Bond was the father of John T. Bond, who was born on January 9, 1851, and of Albert J. Bond, who was born on January 29, 1863. In 1867 a negro woman, Nancy Mayberry, was shot and killed by unknown parties in Gin Hollow. The shot was fired through a window one night. The gin has long since disappeared, and only the name recalls the fact that here the farmers of the upper portion of Lick Creek brought their cotton to have it ginned, preparatory to passing it into female hands to be, by the cards, the spinning wheel, the reel, and the loom, transformed into clothing for the family.
Just below the mouth of Gin Hollow (or Branch),
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near a good spout spring, lives Jerome Reeves, one of Hickman County's best citizens. He is a son of John Reeves, who was born in Kentucky on August 13, 1800. John Reeves was'a son of James Reeves, who was born in Greene County, Tenn., in 1778, and who married Peggy Ayres, of Kentucky. John Reeves came with his father to Maury County in 1805. He came to the Fourth District in 1836 and settled on the John Overbey place, which he bought from Robert Oakley, who had bought it from Henry Potts, who had located here about 1815. Hugh Hill then owned the place where Jerome Reeves now lives. Hill after- wards sold it to James Oliver, father of Captain Oli- ver, C. S. A. Sons of John Reeves were S. Jerome Reeves (born on September 28, 1829), and Leonard Reeves (born in 1839). His daughter, Cleander, married William Dean, of Dog (or Cedar) Creek. Ophelia Reeves married Joseph Holmes, who, while a soldier in the Confederate Army, was killed at Ma- rietta, Ga. Garrett Turman, Jr., lived at the W. T. Warff place in 1836, and about the same date James Anglin lived at the Blount Turman place. At what is now known as Martin's shop, Phelps Martin lived in the long ago, and his near-by neighbor was Benja- min Vaughan. Turman Parker lived on this, the Bar- ren Fork, about 1835. George W. Hicks, who lives at the mouth of the Barren Fork of Lick Creek, was born on April 22, 1835, on Lick Creek. He is a son of William M. Hicks, who was born in Virginia. on January 9, 1804, and who married Margaret, the
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HISTORY OF HICKMAN COUNTY, TENN.
daughter of Josiah Davidson, who was a North Caro- lina soldier in the Revolutionary War. Margaret Davidson was born in Rutherford County, Tenn. The Hicks family came to Lick Creek in 1815. Jerre Ingram laid a soldier's warrant at the Hicks place in 1815. The land upon which W. T. Warff lives was granted to Butler, the grant embracing 640 acres. An adjoining grant of the same number of acres was to Grant. The Grant lands are on the Trace Fork, and have since been known as the Tidwell or Dean lands, and lie adjoining to the Ingram lands. The Butler lands, which were also for military service in the Revolutionary War, were located about 1810. The Tidwell above referred to was Eli Tidwell, father of the late Levi J. Tidwell, who was for many years one of the Fourth District's magistrates. Levi J.
Tidwell was a man of determination, firm in his views upon all questions, whether personal, political, or re- ligious. He was a Missionary Baptist, having joined that church at Union Hill, Henderson County, Tenn. In politics he was an unflinching Republican, and was at one time a candidate for Representative. He was beaten only eighty-four votes by Col. Vernon F. Bibb, who was considered the strongest Democrat in the county. Tidwell was born on March 14, 1825. He lived in what is called " The Barrens," above the head waters of Lick Creek, on the Tannehill entry, which was made in 1826. This entry embraced sev- eral thousand acres. A near-by entry was one made by John Stone in 1820. Alfred Tidwell, a son of
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Levi J. Tidwell, was a deputy under Sheriff John V. Stephenson, and another son, Johnson Tidwell, is at present one of the magistrates of the Fourth District. The Tidwells came from North Carolina in 1843. There is a large family of them in the flat country along the county line, and they have built up a thrifty settlement, known as the " Tidwell Settlement."
At the Hicks place Lick Creek forks. The Barren Fork, already referred to, rises near Martin's Shop. The other fork, known as the Trace Fork, rises in Williamson County and runs about twelve miles be- fore entering the Fourth District of Hickman County.
The first place on Lick Creek in Hickman County was settled by John Mayberry, who came from Vir- ginia, near the Peaks of Otter. He was here as a hunter as early as 1800, and made a permanent settle- ment here about 1806, he being the first settler on Lick Creek in Hickman County. He was a farmer and blacksmith, and has hundreds of descendants through- out Hickman, Maury, and Williamson Counties. He was the father of a large family, all of whom were older than the present century. His sons were Mike, Job, John, George, and Gabriel. He was the grand- father of Walker and Sim Mayberry. A daughter of John Mayberry married a Kinzer; another mar- ried Alston Jones, and was the mother of O. A. Jones ; and another married Pleasant Russell, and was the mother of Ferdinand B. and Washington B. Russell. Gabriel Mayberry, after the death of his father, lived at the old Mayberry place, where John T. Morton now
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lives. It is said that when an old man he kept as one of his most valued treasures a pair of trousers which his mother had made. These he kept folded carefully and laid away in an old-fashioned chest. Occasion- ally he would take them out, gaze on them reverently, and say: " Mother made these for me, and I want to be buried in them." When he died, friends granted his wish.
Farther down the creek, on the lands entered by Grant, Stockard settled at an early date. Hardin, a soldier of the Revolution, lived here a few years later. This is the place at which Tidwell and Dean later lived.
In 1807 Robert E. C. Dougherty settled on the creek below the Stockard place. He was a school- teacher and was one of the early magistrates of the county. In 1819 he resigned his seat in the State Legislature and removed to West Tennessee. At the place where Dougherty settled there now lives Garret Turman Overbey, who knows much of the history of the Fourth District.
Daniel Overbey, early in the present century, emigrated from North Carolina to Sumner Countv, Tenn., and in the autumn of 1814 he came to Hick- man County, settling in the following spring at the head of one branch of the Barren Fork of Lick Creek. His wife was Emily Tyler, who was related to Presi- dent John Tyler. Overbey and his wife both died in 1869. Daniel Overbey, Jr., a son of Daniel Over- bey, Sr., on March 15, 1832, married Sarah Parker,
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and they became the parents of eight children. He died on February 2, 1865, his wife living until De- cember 15, 1890. Sarah Parker was a daughter of Elisha and Rebecca Parker. Rebecca Parker was a daughter of Garret Turman, Sr., who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and who was at one time held a prisoner by the Indians for six months. This was during the Revolutionary War, when North Carolina and Georgia were overrun by the Tories and the fron- tiers devastated by the Indians. Garret Turman Overbey, a son of Daniel Overbey, Jr., was born on October 13, 1834, and, on December 23, 1858, mar- ried Emily J. Moss, who was born on September 11, 1837. He is the father of six children-John T., W. W., America L., James D., T. F., and Annie C. The wife of G. T. Overbey is a descendant of the Foote family, of Virginia, a member of which was at one time Governor of Mississippi.
No portion of Hickman County is more closely con- nected with the early history of Middle Tennessee than is the Lick Creek country. "Lick Creek of Duck River " was one of the first streams of Middle Tennessee to receive a name. It derives its name from the black sulphur spring on the south side of the creek, on the old Russell (and later Beale) place, now . owned by John T. Overbey. Here buffaloes, deer, and other wild animals congregated in large numbers. Such places as this were called, in the pioneer days, " licks." The buffaloes coming from across Duck River to this lick crossed at the mouth of Leather-
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wood Creek, and the path they made was used by the Chickasaws when they came into the Cumberland set- tlements. According to the late Maj. Bolling Gor- don, the route of the Chickasaw Trace, the path by which the whites and Indians traveled to and from the Chickasaw country, was as follows: "Up Trace Creek in Lawrence County, down Swan Creek, and across Blue Buck somewhere near the residence of Jo. M. Bond; then over to the spring on Robertson's Creek, where Mark Robertson was killed by Indians; then over to Lick Creek, near Mrs. Beale's residence ; thence to Nashville by way of Johnson's Lick, on Richland Creek near Charles Bosley's; then on to French Lick, now Nashville." The Chickasaw Trace ran for several miles up the Trace Fork of Lick Creek. When James Robertson, in 1780, made the first expe- dition from the Bluffs against the Indians, he came upon them near this lick on Lick Creek. When the Coldwater Expedition went out from Nashville in 1787 to avenge the death of Mark Robertson, it went west from Nashville to the mouth of Turnbull Creek, and up that creek to its head. They then went to the head of Lick Creek, and traveled several miles along the ridge, leaving the creek to their right. They then, turning into the creek valley, came down Trace Fork to the lick on the John T. Overbey place, described as " an old lick as large as a cornfield." They then crossed Dog Creek, went up the Gee Hill, over to Leatherwood Creek, and down this creek to its mouth, where they crossed Duck River. Then leaving the
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Chickasaw Trace, which ran up Robertson's Creek, to the right, they went to the head of Swan Creek. From this point they went the route described in pre- ceding pages.
John Dean, father of William, Robert, Ephraim, and Mark Dean, came to Hickman County on March 24, 1844, and located at the T. J. Oakley place. Soon after locating here he commenced the manufacture of plug tobacco, the first industry of the kind ever operated in the county. The factory was near the Oakley place. The reputation of the "Dean To- bacco " as a high-grade tobacco is yet remembered by many, and this reputation was sustained by William Dean, who in 1857 erected a factory at the mouth of Dog (or Cedar) Creek. John Dean was born in East Tennessee on August 7, 1803, and in 1825 married Eliza Andrews, of Williamson County. Dean died at the T. J. Oakley place, and is there buried. His father was William Dean, who married Alice Wood- ward, of East Tennessee, from which place Dean came, in 1811, to Maury County. William Dean died in 1819 on his return from Missouri, where he had been to locate land. Robert A. Dean, son of John Dean, was thrown from a mule and killed near Little Lot on February 25, 1880.
In 1836 Josiah Davidson lived at the John W. Mayberry place. Here, during and after the Civil War, lived Joseph Bizwell, a hospitable man and a Christian gentleman. Before the war he was tax
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collector for Hickman County, and was at one time deputy sheriff.
At the John T. Overbey place, in 1835, lived the widow of Pleasant Russell, the father of F. B. and W. B. Russell. This place is frequently called the Beale place, as it was once owned by Capt. Charles Wesley Beale, who commanded a company in the Twenty-fourth Tennessee Infantry, and who died at Bowling Green, Ky., in the latter part of 1861. In 1836 Vincent Irwin lived where H. G. Primm now lives, and later sold the lands to F. B. Russell. -
In 1830 John T. Primm, who was born in Mary- land on September 22, 1790, located at the place so well known as the Primm place. Primm married Cecilia C. Gannt, also of Maryland, who was born on May 6, 1803. Other daughters of Mrs. Elizabeth Gannt married Alten Massey, Captain Clagett, and Rev. George Hicks. In 1834 Hicks went to Missis- sippi, where he died. Primm was a school-teacher, and taught here, as did also his brother-in-law, Gannt. He was also a merchant, and was one of the first to sell goods on the creek. This place, noted as one of the earliest settled in this vicinity, was first owned by William Lytle, who laid a soldier's warrant here in 1811. The Primms, Smoots, Smiths, Gannts, Cla- getts, Tylers, and Berrys came here from Maryland at an early date and formed a Maryland colony near the lines of the Second, Fourth, and Thirteenth Dis- tricts, where they had schools of their own. They
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