USA > Tennessee > Sullivan County > Historic Sullivan; a history of Sullivan County, Tennessee, with brief biographies of the makers of history > Part 19
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 (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
A coach would accommodate nine passengers and when there were more they rode on top. The driver was rarely without company as many preferred an outside seat, especially in good weather.
If a breakdown occurred of such a nature that it could not be repaired with the tools carried along for the purpose the best conveyance that could be secured in the neigh- borhood transferred the passengers to the next stopping place. Blountville had an extensive repair-shop where there were workmen skilled enough to build a vehicle from tire to top. Long used to handling the lines the drivers became very deft.
229
TRAVELWAYS-TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES.
DOSS LEEDY'S DRIVE.
Doss Leedy, an old time driver, offered to bet ten dollars he could turn a four-horse coach on a silver dollar without allowing the wheel to slip off the coin.
The entrance of a stage into Blountville was spectacular. The town was then in the heyday of its business and social life. With no nearer competitor than fourteen miles, it had gathered into its circle some of the most exclusive and proudest names of the county's population.
The driver, as the stage approached the town, an- nounced his coming with a long horn and each driver had his peculiar alarum, much like locomotive engineers have today. This was repeated several times before coming to a stop. It was a cue to the horses who seemed to understand that the master of the lines would now make a wild dash through the streets. With a long sweep of his whip, cracked high above the horses heads-never intended to touch them-he came on at full speed, leaning back, his arms stretched their length, his body swaying from side to side with the motion of the coach, his hat brim turned up-the very summit of exciting life and hurling motion. Reaching the end of his journey he would toss his lines to a waiting groom and alight, sure of being surrounded by eager spectators, some in admiring curiosity, some inquiring the news, while the wondering small boy looked upon him as a living model of the heroes of his fiction world, and to these boys he often recounted "hair-breadth escapes in the imminent deadly breach."
While there was no telegraph or telephone by which the hotel keeper could be informed, he had a strange fore- knowledge of the number of passengers that would want meals-and rarely miscalculated.
Among the old stage drivers were Doss and James Leedy, John Curry, Bill Bolinger, Bill Jenkins, Pete Mon- tague and - Clark.
230
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
RIVER TRAFFIC.
Before the building of the railroads there was much shipping by boats. Boat-yards were strung along the river fronts through the county, the principal one being at Kingsport where there were also docks. When the timber suitable for gunwales became exhausted there or was too far inland for convenience in handling, contracts were made with builders to put boats together further up the river and start them down empty at the beginning of the tide, and by the time they were loaded at Kingsport the river was navigable and they could continue their journey.
These vessels were of the flat-boat pattern, with a small cabin. They were sixty to seventy feet long and sixteen to eighteen feet wide, and about five men were required to handle them. Each boat usually carried from one thousand to fourteen hundred bushels of grain. Large quantities of iron, salt and meat were also shipped. No accommodations or cabins were to be had for passengers except in special cases, as the boats made no return trips. Arriving at their destination and the cargo being disposed of the vessels were sold for whatever they would bring- from three to five dollars-the owner being at the mercy of the buyer.
Boating was begun with the spring tides and continued as long as the river was flush.
Among the old boatmen on the Holston were Jack Mil- horn, W. K. Cross, Tom Craft, Abraham Sanders, John R. Spurgeon, E. S. Millard, Hezekiah Lewis, Jacob Harkle- road, John Lindamood, James Webb and John McCrary. The boatmen sometimes returned home from a trading trip by stage; frequently they would buy horses and ride back, but the return journey was more often made on foot. Hezekiah Lewis, after taking his breakfast in Knoxville one day, would breakfast at his home in Kingsport the next morning, making the trip on foot in twenty-four hours.
231
TRAVELWAYS-TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES.
STEAMBOATS.
In the year 1850, when the building of the East Ten- nessee, Virginia and Georgia railroad was contemplated, some of the promoters-Thomas A. R. Nelson, Dr. Cun- ningham and others wanted the road to go the present route, by Jonesboro. The natural route was by Kings- port. The bison had gone that way; the Indian had his trading and war paths there, and the white man followed. Those interested in the other route approached the people of Kingsport with a proposition. They said to Netherland and O'Brien and Pierce and Ross, "You have a river for your transportation, give us the railroad and we will see that you get an appropriation for cleaning out a channel in the Holston that will makeit navigablefor steamboats."2 They even went so far as to send two steambots up there to prove the feasibility of the plan. The "Mary Mc- Kinney" and "Casandra" puffed into port. These were high-sounding names and were received with some cere- mony and still more curiosity. The former was named for a member of one of the leading families of Hawkins county. The boats came in on a tide and as they had not counted upon the rapid ebb of this mountain river, the receding water left the boats grounded on a sand-bar.
The event was exciting and served the object of the promoters' efforts. The Netherland hotel in the enthu- siasm of the prospect painted a few more words on its sign-"Head of Steamboat Navigation on the Tennessee River." The railroad went by Jonesboro, but the river appropriation never went anywhere.
During the building of the two roads, making the Vir- ginia and Tennessee air line, there was, for a while, increased stage travel, in transferring from one tempo- rary terminus to the other.
2Another version is that the engineers were bribed to make a false report as to the grades on both routes.
232
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
The completion3 of the two railroads in 1856-7 pushed the stage further west and the boat's occupation was gone.4 The abandonment and crippling of these two means of travel and transportation crushed for a time the social activity of the interior of the county. The absence of the busy scenes-bustle and rumble of heavy wheels and splash of oars created a lonesomeness and a longing to leave the country for the throngs that gathered in the cities.
Kingsport surrendered. It warped. So sleepful did it become that it reverted to the original owner-the unsought complacency of a quiet country life. The citizens planted corn patches where Oconostoto avenue might have gone. They did not seem to realize that the town was in the cycle of success and its turn must come.
It did come but it took fifty years to complete the orbit-in the completion of the Clinchfield road in 1908.
The bonding and building of railroads-The South Atlantic and Ohio in 1890 and the Holston Valley in 1891, together with the main trunk lines-discouraged the building of county dirt roads or even the improvement of them. The stage company had done much to keep their routes in good repair. The bond issue for the railroad had given trouble and the issuance of county road bonds seemed remote. But at no time since the act of John Adair have the people of Sullivan County feared the responsibility of an appropriation. They dreaded the responsibility of misappropriation; they were cautious.
In 1899 Hal H. Haynes, assisted by A. C. Keebler and J. H. Burrow, prepared a bill,5 which was passed by the
3When the two roads met in Bristol it was found that the grade of the Tennessee division was nearly two feet lower than the grade of the Virginia division.
When the first trains were run over the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, the engines drawing them were named instead of numbered.
The first-a work-train, laying track-was pulled by the engine "Washington," Capt. Underwood, engineer. The first passenger train was pulled by the "Greene- ville," Henry Salts, engineer and Dr. John P. Hammer, conductor. Other engines used at the time were "Bristol, " "Knoxville," "Jefferson" and "Tracklayer."
4One other attempt was made at steam navigation on the Holston. Maj. Henry Eakin, of Knoxville, ran a boat six miles above Rogersville.
5See Acts of 1899, Chapter 262, Page 598.
233
TRAVELWAYS-TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES.
legislature, providing for the issuance of county road bonds to the extent of one hundred thousand dollars. The newspapers and their county correspondents did much to encourage the appropriation. In order to convince the county court a train was chartered by Hal. H. Haynes, John I. Cox and John H. Caldwell and the members were invited to go to Hamblen county and examine the new road construction.
Several accepted the invitation and, from Morristown, vehicles carried the party over the roads. Everyone was pleased with what they saw, but when the court met to consider the question it was lost by twenty votes.
In 1907 the act of 1899 was amended so as to submit the question to a vote of the people.6 In 1908 the county voted upon it and Bristol's vote gave a safe majority for the bond issue.
The court appointed a committee-John H. Caldwell, chairman, John W. Swadley, secretary, and John G. Preston. This committee won the favor of the public and made a record for financiering by selling the county bonds at a premium of five thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars. The first good road building began west of Bristol, on the main road through the county. When an additional appropriation of two hundred thousand dollars was asked for, the motion carried. The same com- mittee was appointed for the handling of this appropria- tion, with an additional committee composed of John M. Fain, Joseph H. Burrow, Fred S. Thomas, James C. Brown and James S. Hawk, the duties of these men being only advisory-to suggest routes.
TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES.
The improvement of travelways and the increased speed of travel in conveyance quickened the trans-
6See Acts of 1907, Chapter 336, Page 1134.
234
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
mission of messages. The system of sending letters and other messages in the early days was unsatisfactory -they were sent by hand and the writer was careful to note on the corner of the fold by whose hand-sometimes in words of courteous recognition. Isaac Shelby writing from Point Pleasant to his uncle directed-
"To Mr. John Shelby, Holstons River, Fincastle county, favr. by Mr. Benja. Gray."
This was before the use of envelopes and the letters were folded so as to make a packet then a seal of wax was placed upon it to secure the contents. Even after the government took charge of the postal system there were no envelopes and stamps in use until 1847.
In 1802 the post-office at Blountville became very im- portant as a distributing point-one of the most import- ant in the South. This was due to John Rhea's influence -he later becoming chairman of post-roads and post- offices. James Rhea, the post-master, was directed to open all packets consigned to "Virginia State, Tennessee State, or Northern, Southern, Eastern or Western (except Kentucky) and extract and forward to their proper destination any letters from Virginia or Tennessee offices."
Jonesboro registered a complaint against this office and on September 23, 1802, the following letter was received from the department:
September 23, 1802.
John Rhea, Esq., Sullivan Court House, Tenn .:
Sir: I have just received'a letter from Jonesboro, which states that letters from the northward arrive at your office and lie there one week before they are sent on to that office, owing, it is said, to there not being sufficient time to distribute the northern mail before the depar- ture of the mail for Jonesboro. There is no fixed hour for the arrival of the northern mail at your office, but it ought to be there, provided it is carried regularly in proportion to t.me, and distributed at 10 a. m. on Thursday, and the departure of the mail by Jonesboro is fixed at 12 o'clock noon the same day. It is supposed that one hour would be fully sufficient for the distribution of the mails. I have now
235
TRAVELWAYS-TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES.
written to the contractor requesting him to deliver the mail from New Dublin every Thursday at 10 a. m., and to wait for it until noon. This, I hope, will enable you to always distribute the mails before their departure. A. B.
There were but three post-offices in the county at this time-Paperville, Blountville and Kingsport; George Burkhart, James Rhea and John Lynn being post-masters. These remained the only official post-offices in the county until 1850.
Some of the early post-masters received but little compensation for their labors and many offices were conducted for the convenience of the community. Dr. Andrew Shell was post-master at Piney Flats in 1855 and from October 1st of that year until March 31, 1860 the receipts were only twenty dollars and one cent. He got sixty per cent. of this for his salary.
In the early days government postage was high. The following address covers a good deal of the history of the postal service. It was written by Thomas Cawood, who was then (1840) at Kelley's Ferry, Meigs county, Ten- nessee, and was directed --
"Mr Campbell E Waren Blounville Sullivan County
Kellys Ferry E Ten
July 13
183",
The numerals were written on the corner of the folded and sealed sheet and indicated that the receiver was to pay that much postage before he could get the letter. It left Kelley's Ferry July 13th and arrived at Blount- ville August 4th, having been twenty-two days in transit Letters then were accompanied by a way-bill, by which the government checked its post-masters. The prepay- ment of postage was made compulsory in 1855, when the rates were reduced to three cents for every half ounce. There have been many innovations from time to time,
236
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
and now it is one of the best regulated public services in the world.
But the public that had once been satisfied with a message that traveled across the state in twenty-two days and later still in twenty-two hours, demanded more- and got the same messages delivered in twenty-two seconds by the telegraph and telephone. The telegraph followed the railroads. The first telephone line in the county was from Bristol to Blountville, organized and built for convenience in consulting with the county authorities. This was in 1887 and the promoters were John I. Cox, Hal H. Haynes and John H. Caldwell.
In 1889 the East Tennessee Telephone Company installed a system here, but a telephone war grew out of an endeavor to charge the same price for physicians' residence 'phones as was charged for office 'phones. Out of this war grew the Bristol Telephone Company --- J. A. Dickey, president, and Jere Bunting, secretary, which has since changed hands. This line absorbed the original line to Blountville.
The R. F. D. service was established in January, 1900, requiring twenty-four carriers and having nine distribut- ing points. Fourteen offices were dropped upon the introduction of this service.
GEORGE R. MCCLELLAN
GEORGE R. MCCLELLAN.
A BIOGRAPHY.
George R. McClellan was a ready soldier-the veteran of three enlistments in the army.
He was born on Beaver creek in 1815-was brought up on a farm and attended the best schools of the county, acquiring a good education. At the age of twelve he en- tered Washington College with the intention of completing his education, but there was a call for troops to aid in the removal of the Cherokees from their eastern homes to the allotted lands in Indian Territory and he enlisted.
In 1847 there came another call for men and he mustered a company at Blountville. The best means of transportation in those days was by water, so he car- ried his company down the Mississippi to New Orleans, thence across the Gulf of Mexico. In this war he became colonel of the Fifth Tennessee volunteers and saw much hard service, being in the battle of Chapultapec, where so many were killed and captured. He entered Mexico with the victorious forces under Gen. Scott.
When this war was over he returned and his regiment was honorably discharged at Memphis, July 28, 1848. At the time of his death Col. McClellan bore the distinction of being the last field-officer of the war.
In 1857 he was appointed, with Judge Samuel Milligan, a commissioner on the part of Tennessee to re-mark the boundary line between Tennessee and Virginia.
In 1859 he was elected state senator, which office he was filling at the beginning of the Civil War.
He enlisted again, organized the Fourth Tennessee cavalry and was in the battle of Greasy Cove. He was with Bragg at Knoxville and with Zollicoffer when that officer was killed, rendering valuable service in restoring assurance among the men and escorting them to Nashville.
238
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
He then joined Gen. Forrest and took part in the battle of Shiloh, 1862. When this battle was over he went with a detail of soldiers to gather up his wounded men. Coming across Capt. Gage of the Fifteenth Mississippi, in a dying condition, he gave orders: "take this man over the hill and have him cared for by my surgeons." Upon examination it was found that a ball had struck a silk handkerchief which the captain carried in his pocket and had carried it entirely through one lung. Surgeons W. T. Delaney and - - Cate pulled out the handkerchief, bringing the ball with it, and succeeded in saving his life.
At the close of the war he retired to his farm, east of Blountville, broken in spirit and fortune.
A few years later he was chosen a member of the county court and was afterward elected chairman of the court, occupying the office a number of years.
He was enthusiastic over good roads and when state senator offered his influence in getting convict labor to build them. The suggestion resulted in a newspaper con- troversy between him and Rev. William Robeson, the latter opposing the use of convicts on grounds that made the movement unpopular, and it was therefore abandoned.
Gov. Marks appointed him one of the railroad commis- sioners of the state. During Cleveland's first adminis- tration he was appointed deputy internal revenue collector.
While Col. McClellan cannot be ranked in the list of our greatest soldiers, he was a willing one. Whenever the country called for troops he answered, "here."
No man served longer or in more capacities in the public life of the county than he. He was born and reared-he lived and died a Sullivan County man.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE BOUNDARY LINE.
When Frye and Jefferson undertook to survey the line between Virginia and North Carolina they abruptly ended their work at a place called Steep Rock in Johnson county. This sudden termination entailed litigation and other troubles upon the generations that followed. The line was run about 1749 and the location of the end has not been found.
Joshua Frye and Peter Jefferson were the commissioners on the part of Virginia, while Daniel Weldon and William Churton were the commissioners on the part of North Carolina.
There had been many minor difficulties over the line, but the first acute controversy grew out of a contested election for representatives of Washington county, Virginia between Anthony Bledsoe, William Cocke, Arthur Campbell and William Edmiston, the two latter claiming that Bledsoe and Cocke had secured their election through votes of citizens of North Carolina. The con- test was not successful, however, as Virginia was declared to extend as far down as Long Island, now Kingsport.
A year later Bledsoe and Campbell were elected and the former offered and had passed a bill providing for the extension of the line between Virginia and North Carolina.
William Cocke, the many sided man, although he had previously been elected to the Virginia legislature and was supposedly a Virginian, now undertook to dispute with the Virginia tax collector, claiming his citi- zenship in North Carolina.
In 1779 the legislature of North Carolina passed an act similiar to that of Virginia and appointed as her commissioners Oroondates Davis, John Williams, James
240
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
Kerr, William Baily Smith and Richard Henderson, or any three of them, while Virginia appointed Thomas Walker and Daniel Smith as her representatives.
Thomas Sharp and Anthony Bledsoe, with a company of militia, acted as escort to the commissioners, who met as Steep Rock in the summer of 1779, and entered upon their duties.
Steep Rock, where Frye and Jefferson ended their survey, owing to the destruction of the timber, obliterating the markings,1 could not be located.
After much calculation, assisted by astronomical observation, in order to get the sun's meridian, they began the line, which they extended forty-five miles to Carter's valley. Here the commissioners disagreed vig- orously, the North Carolina party protesting that the line was running too far south and it was supposed the variation was caused by some iron ore influencing the needle of their instrument. It was suggested by the Virginia commissioners that two lines be run, the correct one to be determined later. This was at first agreed to, then declined, though two lines were run to the Cumber- land mountains.
The "no man's land" lying between the Henderson and Walker lines was the cause of much trouble. Those people occupying it declined to do military duty or pay taxes to either state. This tract of land was about two miles in width.
When North Carolina ceded her land to the United States and the territorial government was established, the officers, William Blount and Col. Gilbert Christian, the county lieutenant, insisted upon the Henderson line as their boundary.
After the territory became the State of Tennessee the Virginia legislature passed a law authorizing the appoint- ment of three commissioners to meet a corresponding
" Virginia vs. Tennessee," 1891.
241
THE BOUNDARY LINE.
number from Tennessee and settle the boundary line. The same was concurred in by the latter state in 1801 and their commissioners were Moses Fisk, Gen. John Sevier and Gen. George Rutledge, while Virginia was represented by Gen. Joseph Martin, Creed Taylor and Peter Johnson.
This commission decided to run a parallel line equi- distant from the Henderson and Walker lines. Brice Martin, son of Gen. Joseph Martin, and Nat B. Markland were the surveyors. The result of this survey was agreed upon by both states, but by the year 1856 the line had, "by lapse of time, the improvement of the country, natural waste and destruction and other causes, become indistinct, uncertain and to some extent unknown, so that many inconveniences and difficulties occur between the citizens of the respective states and in the adminis- tration of the government of those tsates."
The two states thereupon agreed to appoint two commissioners each to represent them in a re-survey of the line-Tennessee appointing Col. George R. McClellan and Samuel Milligan-Virginia appointing Leonidas Baugh and James C. Black. The line was known as the Baugh and Black line. A clause in the report of the commissioners to Gov. Isham G. Harris, of Tennessee, read: "We began the experimental work at the town of Bristol, a small village situated on the compromise line of 1802, at a point where there was no controversy2 as to the locality of the line, and our first observation at that point showed the latitude to be 36° 36'."
Accompanying these commissioners were Prof. Revel Keith, an experienced astronomer, and Charles S. Williams, a practical engineer, with an efficient field party.
2It has been charged, as an explanation of the offset in the line between Bristol and Step Rock, that the commissioners at that point visited a still-house and instead of going back to where they left off, continued the survey from the still-house. But this explanation, which has been applied to other state line surveys, is too ridiculous to be considered and is only mentioned here because it is retold each year.
242
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
The General Assembly of Virginia did not approve of this survey and in 1860 made provisions for the appoint- ment of another set of commissioners, asking Tennessee to do the same. The Civil War prevented the carrying out of these plans, but in 1871-2 Tennessee appointed another commission, which, after investigating, defended the compromise line of 1802.
On July 5, 1881, the mayor and council of Bristol, Tennessee-J. A. Dickey, mayor, and N. B. Hayes, G. C. Pile, John Slack, A. D. Reynolds, J. D. Thomas, N. M. Taylor and W. T. Sullivan passed a resolution, conceding the middle of Main street to be the dividing line.
The mayor and council of Goodson, Virginia-J. F. Terry, mayor, and Z. L. Burson, J. S. Good, W. W. James, S. L. Saul and E. H. Seneker passed the same reso- lution.
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.