USA > Tennessee > Early history of Middle Tennessee > Part 2
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EARLY HISTORY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE
To the licks in the region now embraced in Sumner and David- son came at regular intervals the animals from over a large terri- tory, and these in their journeys to and fro formed beaten paths or trails, all centering in this locality like the spokes of a wheel. As with the ancients all roads led to Rome, so with the con- querors of this boundless and uninhabited wilderness, all traces led to central licks which spots were destined to become the scene of earliest activity. Hunters, both Indian and white, roam- ing at will through the forests came upon these narrow paths, and turning about threaded them to the end. Here these mighty Nimrods fell upon and mercilessly slaughtered the game, large and small, which was usually found assembled in great abundance. After feeding upon the flesh of the slain animals, they carried away the hides or pelts from which they made clothing for them- selves and their families, and in the case of the Indian hunter, covering for their tents, or "tepees." Such as were not thus applied to personal use were sold for trade in the colonies east of the mountains, or for export to the countries of Europe.
In the course of time as a result of the natural evolution and growth of traffic, foreign-made clothing, blankets, boots and shoes, wares and trinkets were brought by enterprising traders to such localities and there exchanged for pelts. The Indian hunter, who, in such transactions, was sure of the worst of the bargain, readily exchanged the most valuable buffalo robe for a string of glass beads or a daub of red paint with which to be- streak his visage when he went forth to war.
The French were the earliest tradesmen in Middle Tennessee. The first of these to appear was a young man, Charles Charleville by name, who, in 1714, built his post on a mound near the present site of Nashville. This mound has been mentioned already in connection with a sketch of the Mound Builders. . Here, besides the hunting and trapping done by himself and his companions, an
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extensive trade was carried on with the savage hunters from all the tribes frequenting the hunting ground. However, Charle- ville's station did not long remain, and in 1740 Middle Tennessee was again without a single white resident. The establishment of this and subsequent posts by men of the same nationality gave to the locality around Nashville the name, French Lick, by which it was known to early historians. Some of the old logs from the walls of the Charleville storehouse were found on the mound by the settlers who came to Nashville sixty-five years later.
From the departure of Charleville and his band to the year 1748, no white adventurer came to disturb the peaceful serenity of the hunting ground, but in the latter part of that year Dr. Thomas Walker led a party of hunters across the mountains from Virginia. Walker was an explorer and surveyor of renown, and is described as a man of mark among the pioneers. With his com- pany came Colonels Wood, Patton and Buchanan, and Captain Charles Campbell. After giving the name Cumberland to the lofty range of mountains crossed, they pursued their journey by way of Cumberland Gap through the counties of Campbell, Scott. Fentress, Overton and Jackson. Finding a beautiful mountain stream flowing across their course they called it Cumberland River in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, who was then Prime Minister of England. The latter had taken his title from the county of Cumberland, a picturesque region of lakes and moun- tains in the northern portion of his native land. Previous to this time Cumberland River had been called Warioto by the Indians and Shanvanon by the French traders. It is probable that Walk. er's party hunted along the river as far as French Lick, and from thence returned to Virginia through Kentucky.
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EARLY HISTORY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE
CHAPTER V.
TIMOTHY DEMONBREUN.
Late in the autumn of 1760 a strange craft appeared on the Cumberland just below French Lick. With a single sail flutter- ing from a low mast it was creeping up with noiseless motion along the western bank of the river. On deck stood a tall, ath- letic man with broad shoulders, long arms, and an eagle eye. Over his face was an expression of daring and adventure. He was clothed in a blue cotton hunting shirt with red waistcoat, and leggins of deer skin, and on his head he wore a fox-skin cap with the tail hanging down his back. With him were several companions. The craft proved to be a French trading boat heavily ladened with wares and merchandise, and the strangely attired individual in command was Timothy DeMonbreun, a French soldier who had come to establish a post in the Wilderness, as the Cumberland country was then called.
The Indian hunters loitering on the bluff where Nashville's countless mills and factories now stand had never before seen a vessel like this, and supposing it to be a "war boat from the Great Spirit's lake" prostrated themselves in an attitude of hun- ble worship.
Slowly the party moved up the river, and on coming to a small tributary now known as Lick branch, they decided to enter and trace it to its source. A little way up they found a spring and around it the tracks of much buffalo, bear and deer. At this spring they landed, cooked their evening meal, and retired for the night, sleeping on their arms lest they might be attacked by the natives. However, they were undisturbed, and in the morn- ing after having stretched a line between two trees, they hung out bright red blankets, strings of beads, shining trinkets and other articles with which to attract the Indians. They were care ful to show by their actions that the mission on which they had
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come was one of peace. and made such signs as they were able indicating a desire to trade their wares for pelts and furs, such as the savages possessed.
DeMonbreun had come to Canada with the army of his native land during the war between England and France. He fought bravely at the battle of Quebec, which took place on the Plains of Abraham in 1759, and upon the restoration of peace con- cluded to make America his home. In the spring of 1760 he journeyed from Quebec to Kaskaskia. Illinois, and thence to the French Lick. His trade with the Indians proved profitable, and here. except at brief intervals, he spent the remainder of his life. For some years he lived during the winter months in a cave above Nashville on the bank of the Cumberland between the mouth of Stone's River and Mill Creek. After the first season his family came to live with him in the cave, and here was born his son, William DeMonbreun, long an honored citizen of Wil- liamson County, where some years ago he died, leaving a large family and a fine estate. William De Monbreun was probably the first white child born in Middle Tennessee.
In the summer of each year DeMonbreun, the elder, would return to Kaskaskia, taking with him a cargo of buffalo hides and furs which had been laid by in store during the winter and spring. Later he would come back to his station with a new supply of goods for the trade of the following season.
At the beginning of the Nashville settlement he built two cabins of cedar logs : one near the northeast corner of the Pub- lic Square, and the other at the juncture of Broad and College Streets. The first was used as a storehouse and the other as a dwelling for himself and family. Later he erected a farmhouse on Broad Street near High, and in this he died in 1826. at the advanced age of ninety-six years. It was in honor of this brave and venerable pioneer that the city of Nashville gave the name "DeMonbreun" to one of its principal streets.
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CHAPTER VI.
WALLEN, BOONE, CALLAWAY, AND SCRAGGINS.
The solitude that for ages had rested like a protecting can- opy over the great national park of the Red man was again about to be disturbed. The fame thereof had crossed the moun tains and reached the fartherest limits of the colonies, now slowly but surely turning the tide of emigration this way.
A party of men known as "Wallen's Company," composed of Wallen, Scaggs. Blevins and Cox, together with fifteen others whose names are unknown, came over in 1763. This company had been formed in Virginia two years before for the purpose of exploration and trade, and had spent two winters thereafter in Kentucky and East Tennessee. This season they followed the route previously taken by Dr. Walker and party in 1748. Pass- ing through Cumberland Gap they hunted during the whole sum- mer along the Cumberland River, later recrossing the mountains with an abundance of game.
In 1764 Daniel Boone, the renowned hunter and explorer, who is popularly accredited with having led the vanguard of civiliza- tion into western wilds, came on a short expedition into the east- ern portion of Middle Tennessee. Boone was a typical pioneer, loving as he did the solitude of the forest and usually making his journeys alone. On this occasion, however, he had with him his kinsman, Samuel Callaway, the ancestor of a distinguished family by that name, pioneers of Tennessee, Kentucky and Mis- souri. As they came in sight of the Cumberland Valley Boone looked down from the summit of the mountain on the vast herds of buffalo grazing beneath and exclaimed: "I am richer than the man mentioned in the Scriptures who owned the cattle on a thousand hills, for I own the wild beasts of more than a thou- sand valleys." At this time Boone's home was upon the Yadkin
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River in North Carolina, whither he had moved from Virginia many years before. He returned to the Cumberland in 1771, and later played an important part in the settlement of Kentucky. With the establishment of courts of justice at the admission of the latter State into the Union in 1792, Boone lost possession of nearly all the lands he had secured in Kentucky, his titles thereto being contested and declared invalid. Disgusted at this treat- ment by the commonwealth he had done so much to found, he emigrated to Missouri and built for his abode a cabin in the wilderness forty-five miles west of St. Louis. There he remained until his death in 1822. By order of the Legislature of Kentucky his remains were removed to Frankfort in 1845, and re-interred in the city cemetery on a beautiful site above the Kentucky River and now just across the valley from the new capitol building. Above this new grave a fitting monument was erected, on either of the four sides of which were scenes wrought in bas-relief, com. memorating the heroic deeds of Boone's eventful life. This mon ument still stands, though now much defaced by the ravages of time and the hand of the vandal. Other monuments to the mem- ory of Boone have since been located at various places through out Kentucky, notable among these being a statue in Cherokee Park at Louisville, the latter a gift to the city by Mr. C. C. Bickel. Following Boone and Callaway came Henry Scraggins, who ex- plored the lower Cumberland in 1765, and for a while had a station near the present site of Goodlettsville in Davidson County. Of him but little is known save that he was a representative of Henderson & Company, of North Carolina, who were large deal. ers in western lands, and of whom we shall learn more later on. The explorations made by Scraggins were the most extensive yet undertaken west of the mountains. During the summer of 1766 Col. James Smith, accompanied by Joshua Horton, William Baker and Uriah Stone came hither for the purpose of exploring along
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the Cumberland and Tennessee. Some of this party were from the north, Baker being from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They en- tered the region they proposed to traverse by way of East Ten- nessee, having first explored the Holston Valley. They brought with them a mulatto slave, a boy about eighteen years old, the property of Horton, and the first slave ever seen in Middle Ten- nessee. Stones River, near Nashville, was explored, and named by this party, being so called in honor of Uriah Stone. They traversed a large portion of the section now included in Sumner and Davidson Counties, and then going west, followed the course of the Tennessee River to its mouth at Paducah, Kentucky. There they separated. Smith, with the slave for company and protection, returned to North Carolina. The other members of the party went north into Illinois. Uriah Stone returned the following year, and in partnership with a Frenchman. spent the season trapping on Stones River. One day late in the spring when they were loading their boat with furs preparatory for a journey to market, the Frenchman, in the absence of his partner, stole off with the boat and cargo. Stone having thus lost the fruits of several months of labor returned empty-handed to his home in Virginia.
Next in order came Isaac Lindsay and four others from South Carolina. They crossed the Alleghanies westward and hunted along the Cumberland as far as French Lick. Here they met Michael Stoner and a companion named Harrod, both of whom lived in Pittsburg, having come by way of Illinois on their way to the hunting ground. These parties were hunting for pleasure. and met by accident. It is quite probable that each also had an eye on valuable tracts of land upon which, in the future, they hoped to obtain concessions. After remaining together for some time in the region about French Lick they separated and returned to their respective homes. Later on Lindsay was an important factor in the early settlement at Nashville.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE LONG HUNTERS.
The year 1769 witnessed the coming of the largest party of white men yet seen in Middle Tennessee. They were organized in June for the purpose of hunting game and exploring in the country west of the mountains, and were afterwards called "Long Hunters" because of the length of time they were away. Among them were Kasper Mansker, John Rains, Abraham Bledsoe, John Baker, Joseph Drake. James Knox, Obadiah Terrill, Uriah Stone, Henry Smith, Ned Cowan. Robert Crockett, Thomas Gordon. Cash Brook and Humphrey Hogan. Some of these were from North Carolina, some from the neighborhood of Natural Bridge. and others from a small settlement near Inglis' Ferry. Virginia. The party was well equipped with guns, ammunition and all other supplies necessary for a protracted hunting and exploring expedi- tion.
After having met at the town of New River in southwestern Virginia, they proceede'l to the head of Holston River, traversing the north fork of same. Traveling on from thence they crossed Clinch and Powell Rivers, and passing on by way of Cumberland Gap, journeyed through Kentucky to the headwaters of Cumber- land River. Proceeding down this stream they camped at a place since called Price's Meadow in Wayne County, Kentucky, six or seven miles from the present site of Monticello. This camp they agreed to make a station or rendezvous, for the deposit of their game and peltries. The hunters then dispersed in many directions, a part of them crossing what is now the Tennessee line, and exploring the country as far south as Caney Fork River and along its tributaries in Putnam, White and DeKalb counties. Most of the hunting. however, was done on Roaring and Obey Rivers in Clay. Jackson, Overton and Pickett Counties. Obey
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River, as it is now called, was at that time given its name, the same being in honor of Obadiah Terrill, a member of the party.
A sad event of this outing was the death of Robert Crockett which occurred on the headwaters of Roaring River in Overton County. While returning to camp at nightfall he was fired upon and killed by a band of six or eight Indians who were hid in ambush. This is the first recorded death suffered by the whites at the hands of the Indians in the territory now embraced in Middle Tennessee.
The country at this time abounded in small game, and the expedition was very successful. The entire landscape was cov- ered with high grass, tall trees and low undergrowth, the whole forming a boundless wilderness hitherto untrodden by the foot of civilization. Most of the game they got by what was called "still hunting." Some deer, however, was killed after having been lured within gun shot by imitating the bleat of a fawn. Some also were fired upon from scaffolds when they came to the salt licks at night. In mid-winter the hunters donned snow-shoes and followed the practice of "crusting" the game -- that is, run- ning it down in the snow. Of this practice, however, many of the hunters did not approve.
They continued in the region above mentioned until the spring of 1770, when some of them returned home. Others, led by James Knox, went further north into the Kentucky country where they hunted for a season before recrossing the mountains. The remainder, consisting of Stone, Baker, Gordon, Brook, Hogan and three or four others, all under the leadership of Kasper Mansker, having built two flat-boats, and hollowed out of logs two pirogues, or dug-out canoes, began a river journey with the proceeds of the hunt to Natchez, Mississippi. On their way down the Cumberland they stopped at French Lick, the present site of Nashville. There they saw enormous herds of buffalo, elk and
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EARLY HISTORY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE
deer, and great quantities of other game. The country surround- ing was crowded with wild animals, the bellowings of the buffalo resounding from the hills and forests. They had found but little big game in the upper country, so some of this they now killed, and of the hides made coverings for their boats. At this place also they met Timothy DeMonbreun, who, as before related. had erected his trading station there ten years before. This visit by Mansker to French Lick marked his advent into a region in the subsequent settlement of which he was destined to play a con- spicuous part.
Rowing on down the river they came at length to the Ohio. There some of their boats were looted by a band of Indians, but Mansker and his party fell in with some French traders who were generously inclined, and in return for what they had lost, gave them a supply of flour, salt, tobacco, and taffa, the latter a drink which was especially prized.
Proceeding down the Ohio and Mississippi they arrived in due season at Natchez, then an outpost of the Spanish headquar- ters at New Orleans. There they sold their cargo, consisting of hides, furs, oil and tallow, after which Mansker and Baker re- turned to their home at New River, Virginia. Others went around by ship to North Carolina, and the remnant of the party settled in Natchez. Those who returned to the colonies gave such glowing accounts of the abundance of game and fertility of the soil on the Cumberland that the desire for western explora- tion became very intense.
At Natchez Uriah Stone found his boat which had been stolen from him by the Frenchman on Stones river several years before. The latter had descended to that place by water and then disposed of the boat and cargo, departing thence for parts un- known.
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CHAPTER VIII.
MANSKER'S PARTY. FIRST INDIAN KILLED.
In the fall of 1771 Kasper Mansker led another party of adventurers into the wilds of Tennessee. Among them were Isaac Bledsoe, John Montgomery, Joseph Drake, James Knox, Henry Suggs, William Allen, Christopher Stoph, and William and David Lynch. There was with them also an old hunter named Russell whose eyesight was so poor that he was obliged to fasten a piece of white paper on the muzzle of his gun in order that he might thus direct his sight to the game. Despite this hindrance, however, he killed a large number of deer.
Arriving at what is now Sumner County, Mansker's party pitched its station or camp close to a creek near where Dr. Ander- son formerly resided, on the turnpike leading from Gallatin to Nashville. It was in this way that Station Camp Creek got its name. This camp was made headquarters for the party, while they hunted over Sumner, Robertson, Davidson, Wilson, Smith and Trousdale Counties. The winter was exceedingly cold, and they built skin houses for protection from the ice and snow. Some one of the hunters was usually left behind to guard the stores. However, on one occasion when all were away on the chase, a party of twenty-five Cherokee Indians made a raid on the camp. They carried away all the pots, kettles and ammuni- tion they could find, besides about five hundredl deer skins, and a large amount of clothing. The trail by which they came into camp was plainly to be seen, but they were careful to leave none on their retreat. It is supposed that they left the camp singly in different directions, or waded up stream in Station Camp Creek.
During this memorable hunt many of the licks and streams of this locality took the name of their discoverers, which names they have since retained. Among these are Mansker's Lick and
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Mansker's Creek, Bledsoe's Lick and Bledsoe's Creek, Drake's Lick and Drake's Creek, so called in honor of Kasper Mansker the leader of the party, Isaac Bledsoe and Joseph Drake. At other periods in the history of early explorations Stoner's Lick and Stoner's Creek were named in honor of Michael Stoner, a Dutchman from Pittsburg, previously mentioned. Flinn's Lick
BLEDSOE'S LICK
and Flinn's Creek were discovered by George Flinn. Barton's Creek in Wilson County was so named in honor of Col. Samuel Barton.
This year, as in that preceding, the country was full of all kinds of game, large and small. When Isaac Bledsoe discovered
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the lick which bears his name, the location of which was the present site of Castalian Springs, the herds of buffalo in the bottoms surrounding the sulphur spring were so numerous that he was afraid to alight from his horse lest he might be trampled beneath the hoofs of the restless beasts.
Mansker discovered two licks near Goodlettsville, they being distinguished as the Upper and Lower. They were about three hundred yards apart. On the day this discovery was made Mans- ker is said to have killed nineteen deer in passing along the path from one to the other. At length the ammunition of the party was exhausted, and having already enjoyed the fruits of a most successful hunt they took the long trail for their homes east of the mountains, arriving late in the spring.
In company with other hunters, two of whom were named Bryant, Mansker came a third time to the Cumberland country in November, 1775. Traveling the well known route through Cumberland Gap, and passing down through the river counties the party camped at Mansker's Lick, which had been discovered by the latter in 1771. . Most of them soon returned to Virginia, but Mansker and three others whose names are unknown to history, remained at the camp and began hunting and trapping on Sulphur Fork and Red River in Robertson and Montgomery Counties. Finding that a party of Blackfish Indians were hunt- ing in the same neighborhood the whites thought it the part of wisdom to discover their number and the location of their camp. Mansker was selected as the spy and proceeding forthwith on his mission, came upon the rendezvous of the Indians near the bank of Red River. Slipping nearer and nearer from tree to tree he soon came in full view and discovered there were only two of them in the camp. These were seated on the ground by the fire: the rest of the party he supposed were hunting in the distance. He decided to remain in hiding and await their return. A few moments later one of the Indians arose and taking his
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tomahawk crossed the river to the opposite shore. The other shouldered a gun and started directly toward the tree behind which Mansker was standing. That was an eventful moment in the life of this mighty hunter, but there was no alternative. Mansker leveled his rifle and shot the Indian through the body. The latter gave a yell, threw down his gun, turned, and rushing by the camp pitched headlong down the bluff, dead, into the river. Mansker and the Indian on the other bank of the stream then had a race for the camp, but Mansker outran his adversary, and seizing a gun which had been left on the ground tried to fire, but it flashed in the pan and the Indian made his escape. Mans- ker broke the gun and returned with all haste to his companions. Next morning they all went back to the camp, but found that during the night the surviving warrior had returned, recovered and buried the body of his dead comrade, and loading his horse with furs and the camp utensils had gone toward the west. They followed him for a long distance, but finally gave up the chase, Returning to the camp at Mansker's Lick the hunters soon there- after began their journey to Virginia. The Indian killed in this affray was probably the first of his race to be killed by the whites in Middle Tennessee.
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