USA > Tennessee > Sullivan County > Historic Sullivan; a history of Sullivan County, Tennessee, with brief biographies of the makers of history > Part 3
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The first account of permanent settlers was of those
5James George was a man of great physical strength. Tests of strength were common in the early days and challenges frequent. Those old warriors that
were fearless in battle were almost desperate in brawls. One day George sent for the old pioneer doctor, Elkanah Dulaney, and told him he had sent for him to pull all his teeth. The doctor protested, saying, George's teeth were too sound to be pulled, whereupon the latter replied: "If you don't pull 'em I'll bite Blevins' ear or nose off the very next fight we get into." The law against biting and maim- ing was more strictly enforced then than now and meant a penitentiary term. The doctor humored the inevitable and extracted all his teeth. The George family keep these teeth in a pearl case as heirlooms and molar evidence of a mighty strength. The family is also remarkable for its longevity as were many of the families whose ancestors lived out-door lives. Dr. John George, now in his eighty-fifth year, is a son of James George and says the latter died in his ninety-sixth year, when the former was but a few months old. These two lives reach back one hundred and eighty-one years, making the elder twenty-three years of age when accompanying Boone.
6 I have seen this kettle and while all such evidences, like it and the famous beech tree, are more or less apochryphal and, while I am not so moved by the emotional surprises of relic dicoveries as to accept everything as absolute proof, at the same time I do not belong to the ultra-sceptic class who will accept nothing circumstantial. I am ready to believe the carving on the tree and also on the kettle is genuine and the work of the same man. These evidences are along the line of the trail and deserve some consideration and may have some providential value.
23
THE PIONEERS-EXPOLRERS-FIRST SETTLERS.
who came here in 1765. In the spring of this year John Sharp, Thomas Sharp and Thomas Henderson came from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, cleared some land and raised a crop of corn on the farm once owned by D. O. King in Holston Valley. In the fall at harvest time they improvised cribs of poles and put up their corn.
They then returned to their homes in Pennsylvania, and in the spring of 1766, came back with their families only to find their previous season's crop almost totally destroyed by the wild animals that roamed at will during their absence. They settled upon three different tracts of land-the one later owned by King, another once owned by Gen. John R. Delaney, and the third, formerly the property of Ireson Longacre. These farms were about five miles apart and were all bordering upon the Holston river.
In the spring of 1767, two years after the first settlers made their homes in the county, Jacob Womack built a fort two miles east of Bluff City on the land once owned by Sam Miller.
Andrew Crockett brought his famly from Ireland in 1769 and forted at Womack's during Indian raids. It was here Margaret Crockett was born November 20, 1770, and is supposed to be the first white child born in Sulli- van County. These Crocketts were the ancestors of Davy Crockett.7-8
Following these people came a large number of others of wider experience and wealth-men whose names were destined to illume the pages of history, give strength to the community, and to make possible lasting peace upon the border.
7Deery MSS.
8Limestone, the reputed birth place of Davy Crocket, has no absolute proof of this birth claim. His first biographer stated it and those following fell in line with the idea. Sullivan was the home of his ancestors and while there is no record, so far known, of his birth in this county, it is more than probable he was born here.
Among the county records at Abingdon, Va., is a will of David Crockett's and this is witnessed by Sullivan County men-among them Congressman McClel- lan. This Crockett was an ancestor of Davy Crockett
CHAPTER IV. THE CAVALCADE.
It is a wise yet sometimes strange provision that what is most needed and most beneficial is most plentiful. The stage coach with all of its attendant grandeur is gone, but the old wagon that carried our forefathers over the mountains and along the little rough trail remains. There is less change in the make of this vehicle than of any mode of conveyance yet introduced. The man who first designed this wagon's bed evidently gave it to the world complete, for there seems to have been no change in it for a century.
It is built after the manner of an ancient battle ship, galley shape-a dip in the middle and the rear built much higher than the front.
The high back was evidently intended as a precaution against robbers as well as protection against a lurking foe. These beds,1 with their contents placed against the sides, have often been laid seige to and big battles have been fought from within their reinforced sides and rear. When going into camp travelers would place their wagons in a circle for protection.
The tar bucket and one dog were tied to the rear axle while the remainder of the pack followed. Early in the day the dogs following would give chase to wild game, much to the discomfiture of the dog that was tied to the axle, but toward the close of the day's march all of them were content to follow close, being fagged out.
The lead horse, and sometimes others, had bells on them. These seemed to add cheer to all the caravan. When the horses were hitched and the bells began to tinkle the dogs leaped in delight that the day's journey was to begin again.
1 Wagons with these beds are still known as "North Carolina wagons"- the first travelers from that state used them, and the name clings to this day.
.
25
THE CAVALCADE.
Check lines were unknown in the early days and were not introduced until the eighteenth century was far ad- vanced. The team was guided by the rider who rode the lead horse.
The cattle were nearly always driven behind the wagons. Bells were tied to them too and, unless in case of men outriders, the horses with the packs followed the wagons also. Very often young children were placed upon the horses and carried, one on either side, in large baskets- papoose style.
The pack saddle was made out of limbs of trees that forked at the proper angle, much in shape like the wish- bone of a chicken. Two of these having been cut the proper length and the prongs being rounded to fit the animal's back, short boards were placed across, fastened with wooden pegs and the saddle was complete. A good fork was not always to be found and any tree that had one was carefully noted.2
AROUND THE CAMP FIRE.
Should the cavalcade meet a traveler going in the oppo- site direction-which, however, did not often occur-after the surprise greetings they plied him with questions: "Can we reach - by night?" or "how far is it to meadows?" and like interrogatories, their aim being always to reach a suitable camping spot before sundown, one near a spring and grazing. The pioneers had a peculiar knowledge of the country just as in some unaccountable way they had of events. News traveled with almost incredible swiftness, considering their means of transmission. Stopping for the night, the horses were unhitched, the bell-horse and bell-cow being tethered, while the remainder of the herd was allowed to forage at will. Then the men of the party built a fire and the
2So highly prized were these saddle forks that on one occasion an old minister, preaching to his flock in a grove and seeing one of the coveted limbs in a nearby tree, without stopping .his sermon, said, in a sing-song tone, 'brethren . I see a fork in yonder tree."-Williams.
26
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
women began the cooking. A skillet or frying pan, coffee pot, minus the coffee and a kettle in most cases com- pleted the vessel list. Meat was very often cooked upon the coals, while the corn meal was either boiled as mush or made into "johnny-cake."3 Sometimes when baked in the ashes it was called "ash-cake."
When a stampede of stock occurred during the night, generally caused by prowling wild animals or Indians, they were with difficulty corralled the next day.4 It often took hours to do this, and in some instances the Indians stole the horses and made away with them. When the cavalcade found a suitable place to settle down for a home there was great relief that the journey was over and a new life begun.
While the log cabin was being erected, temporary shelters were made by standing poles slant-wise and thatching them thickly with pine boughs.
The bed and other furniture of the home was simple and crude. A dogwood sapling, with a strong fork at the proper height from the floor, was used as a post for a bedstead. One end was fastened to the joist and the other end let into the floor by an auger hole. Hickory withes laid across were used as slats, while elm bark held them in place. Other household effects were made in the same crude fashion. Their hand-made baskets and other wickerwork, however, excelled the manufactured article.
Thus did the borderers make their first appearance to people the solitary places and continue, in a settled way, the half gypsy life of these wanderers in the wilderness.
3"Johnny-cake" is a corruption of "journey cake," this name being given because it was baked in a hurry .- Phelan.
4"Over night we are now at the trouble of hobbling them out and often of leading them a mile or two to a convenient place for forage, and then in the morning we are some hours in finding them again because they are apt to stray a great way from the place where they were turned out. Now and then, too, they are lost for a whole day together, and are frequently so weak and jaded that the company must be still several days, near some meadow or highland pond to recruit them."-Col. William Byrd's Journal, 1733, page 71.
27
THE CAVALCADE
Thus those determined men, rough handed and hope- ful, slowly transformed the wild life into a self-sustaining State. In the train of these forerunners came others. The white covers of the wagons went over the undulating surface of the country like sails over heavy seas-now up -now down. Scarcely had one turned the hill when far in the distance could be seen another coming. The echo of the advance trumpeter was caught by those following and an unbroken chain of sound reached from the new settlement far back into the midst of the old-back to Londonderry and the Boyne! and heralded the creation of a new civilization in the far wilds of the frontier.
CHAPTER V.
THE FRONTIER WOMAN.
In the annals of all countries there is no age nor race that has given to the world more sterling valor than that displayed by the frontier woman of Tennessee. She shared with the men all the dangers of the wilderness, with all its toils. She came with the first settlers and bore with fortitude the privations of a forest cabin.
No other border life of recent times, in our territories, presents such a wonderful growth and change from wild backwoods to the dignity of a state in twenty six-years. To her presence more than any one influence, to her moral worth and example is due the high rank attained and the end achieved in so short a time. She did not wait for the clearing and the building of the cabin and the planting of the crops-she went along and helped do these things.
She rocked the cradle in the home-she swung the cradle in the field. She spun the flax and carded the wool and made the clothing for the family.
She has gone to the aid of a sick neighbor and returned to find her own home in ashes.
When rumors of Indian raids reached the settlements she went into the fort prepared to do a man's part should the exigency of the hour demand. In such a test of courage she stood, gun in hand, beside the dead body of the man who had fallen, the victim of a besieger's bullet.
And still the mother's thoughtful care over her children never left her. She trained them at her knee.
The frontier woman of Sullivan never lacked for courage nor opportunities to prove it.
There was a peculiar trait which seemed to be born in the children of that day, or which mothers had taught
-
TYPE OF TENNESSEE FRONTIERWOMAN "Aunt" BETSY CARLTON (right) Her daughter, "Aunt" POLLY HAWK (left)
29
THE FRONTIER WOMAN.
them-to make no show of fear nor make alarm-much like the young of birds, which, at a call, seek the cover of the wing. It was a "hush" of caution rather than of fear.
TESTS OF COURAGE.
Once the men of Holston settlement were called to Shelby's station, an Indian raid being expected. Should the Indians come from an unexpected quarter, as they often did and as was the case in this instance, it left unprotected a large number of families.
A Mrs. Roberts living at King's Mill, on Reedy creek, whose husband had responded to the call, heard the Indians were coming by their home. Gathering up her three children, a bundle and a weapon, whose service would ill avail, she started for the station and had gone but a short distance when she was made aware of the approach of the savages. Stepping aside from the path and crouching beneath the undergrowth, the Indians came by within a few feet of her and even stopped as if suspicious of a presence. The children at once under- stood the meaning of her cautious warning, nestling close and keeping very still.
After the savages had passed on she gathered up her little family and trudged along, arriving at the fort the next day.
About this time there was a still more remarkable example of the "hush" habit, in the Snodgrass settle- ment near Blountville. The Indians made their appear- ance in the neighborhood during the absence of the men of the homes. The women, being warned in time, took their children and sought refuge by digging out a place under a large haystack. Small babes were among them yet no sound disclosed their whereabouts. They instinc- tively fell into the hush that had previously marked the behavior of the others. On coming out they found moccasin tracks all about the place.
30
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
The lofty regard and admiration for these women was almost idolatrous and is best told in the tributes paid them by the men of their times.
The country's esteem was no more sought by these fearless and rugged frontier men than were the approval and praise of their own women. When the term of enlistment in their country's service was over, the men would hasten to their homes and lay what laurels they had won at the feet of those women, craving no richer reward than their approbation.
Thus, in part, wrote Col. Fleming, to his wife, from the battlefield.1
My Dearest Nancy:
* * * * that you & Lenny are daily in my thoughts you need not doubt but as much as I love & Regard you both I can not Allow myself to wish me with you till the expedition is finished know- ing it would sink me in your esteem & that you would despise a wretch that could desert an honorable Cause, a Cause undertaken for the good of his Country in general, and more immediately for the Protection of his Family as included amongst the Frontier settlers let thoughts like these Animate you and support your Spirits and remember my Dr Girl that the Divine Being is Omnipresent as well as Omnipotent.
* * * I have heard of sympathizing thoughts possessing the breasts of Two Distant Lovers if there is anything in this fond Opinion you must know what passess in my breast at present and not accuse this letter of coldness. * * More I need not say nor would it be prudent to commit more to paper.
Nor did this admiring fealty confine itself to any one age-youth and maturity alike paid her the tribute of their tenderest solicitude. In the days when the scalp- ing knife and the tomahawk showed no respect for sex or age regular reports were sent in of the condition of each settlement.
From one of these comes this pathetic example of * youthful courage and maternal love:
* * The boy that was scalped is dead2 he was an extraordi-
1September, 1774, Kanahwa Expedition.
2Manuscript letter. Col. Arthur Campbell to Col. Wm. Preston, Oct. 6, 1774.
31
THE FRONTIER WOMAN.
nary example of patience and resolution to his last, frequently lamenting 'he was not able to fight enough for to save his mammy'."3
From such women came the men who won for Tennes- see the name of "Volunteer." She left them the heritage of a rugged simplicity, integrity and valor, and an unswerv- ing loyalty and love for any place she called her home. For her these men have gone down through the untrav- eled ways and wrested a place for civilization from a savage hold; for her they have stood in the open and faced the charge, through the long stretch of desert sands and under suns that had no shade; for her they fill icy sepulchers in the far North country; for her they lie beneath unmarked mounds all over the waste plains of the West; for her they have crossed the deep and in strange climes met death with a dauntless courage that told of their fidelity in foreign lands; and for her they stand ready today to answer to the call of their country, remem- bering what she taught them at her knee-the sacredness of duty.
In the homes throughout Sullivan County are old pictures hanging upon the walls and under the folds of old albums are faded types of a time that is gone. Once those pictures were looked upon and laughed at-the old lace cap and the tie and the strangely made dress were so quaint, so far away from custom, so out of fashion
3Colonel Arthur Campbell accustomed to the cruelties and hardships of frontier life, happening in the neighborhood, went to see this boy and wrote to Col. Preston, a portion, only, of his letter being preserved.
"Upon whose first appearance, my little hero ran off, his Uncle called, he knew his voice and turned and ran to him rejoiced; his Uncle questioned him and he returned sensible answers. Showed his murdered parents and sisters, his Brother is not found, and I suppose is captivated. He received but one Blow with a Tomhake on the back of the Head, which cut thro his scull, but it is generally believed his brains is safe, as he continues to talk sensibly and being an active wise Boy, what he relates is Credited. For my part I don't know as I ever had tenderer feelings of compassion, for anyone of the human species. I have sent for him, and employed an Old Man that has some Skill to attend him. I wish I could get Doctr Loyd to him. If he cannot come please try if the Doctor could not send me up some medicines with directions.
I have been to tedious and circumstantial in relating the little hero's story, but as it seems to be a singular instance I am persuaded you won't be displeased with it." (Draper MSS.)
Letter quoted in note 3 was written previous to excerpt of letter referred to in note 2.
32
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
with the times. But as the years went by they became the shrine to which the eyes of homage turned, and now no possession is more cherished or more revered.
"Let them take my furniture and all my household goods, but leave me my pictures-I love them best of all," said an old gray haired woman when threatened with a foreclosure on her home. They were her deeds of inherit- ance from out of the dead past-more treasured than lands or herds or princely dwelling places. They were the ties that bound her to those vanishing years when martyrdom made possible the civilization of today.
"Times are not what they used to be," they tell us, and the alarmist deplores the lack of chivalry in our men and the decadence of old fashioned virtues in our women. But time's pendulum never swung so far out that it did not come back again. Those old pictures are still hanging upon the walls-those old faces are still peering out of the past. In our direst need of them, and when the time most calls for them, their kindly old eyes will rekindle the knightly bearing of our men and restore to the hearth- stone, that old abandoned altar, around which hovered the holiest womanhood.
CHAPTER VI.
COMING OF THE SHELBYS.
The energetic, enthusiasitic and safety life in the lower Holston settlements began with the arrival of the Shelbys.
Evan Shelby's father, who also was Evan Shelby, came from Wales and located in Frederick county, Maryland, at a place called North Mountain. Evan, Jr., was then a small boy. Here he grew up and married Letitia Cox, by whom he had five sons and one daughter. His wife died in 1777 and is buried at Charlottesville, Virginia.
Isaac Shelby, the most eminent of the name, was born in Maryland.
Evan, the father of Isaac, had seen considerable military service before coming to Holston, having fought in many Indian battles. He had the title of Captain.
How he was regarded at his old home may be seen by the following letter from Gen. William Thompson, bearing the address, "Carlisle, 6th July, 1775." It was written to Capt. Shelby and the manuscript bears many mutilations.
" Had General Washington been certain that you could have joined the army at Boston without first seeing your family [you] would have been appointed Lieut. Colo. [of the] Rifle Battalion and an express sent. * * * but you being so the general concluded it [not-] ble for you to take the field before seeing your family.
* * I leave for Boston on Monday night."
In 1771 Shelby brought his family to the Holston country, settling at Sapling Grove, or what is now Bristol, Tennessee.
Here he built a fort which was known as "Shelby's
34
HISTORIC SULLIVAN.
Station." It was quite commodious, many hundreds being forted there at times during Indian raids.1
This fort or station was located on what is now Seventh street, on the hill overlooking Beaver creek, between Anderson and Locust streets.
Shelby's military services will be reviewed in another chapter and the same statement applies to his sons. Their lives in peaceful times, domestic and political, will be disposed of in this chapter.
The Shelbys kept a store at their fort. On the fac- simile of a leaf from the store ledger will be seen the names of some of their distinguished customers-the Seviers, James Robertson and Daniel Boone. It is also interesting on account of the price of different com- modities at that time.
Evan Shelby has been described as a man of command- ing appearance, stout and stern. A scrap of an old ledger, dated Staunton, Va. Nov. 22, 1773, has some amusing entries to the account of Shelby, made no doubt on a trading visit :
€
S
d
Nov. 22 To 1 Bowl tody
1
3
To 3 gal oats
1
3
Nov. 23. .
brk
To 1 Mug Cider
14
To 1 Bowl Bumbo
2
6
To 6 diets.
6
0
To Club in Wine
1
10号
The Seviers had been induced by Shelby to locate in the Holston settlements. John Sevier was out here on a trading expedition in 1772 and attended a horse race at the Watauga Old Field. While there he witnesed the
1"I find four hundred forted at Shelby's Station."- Col. Wm. Preston letter, 1776.
Tem 727th Lamis Malention ato han shelly
33 . 73
$1.6 ..
To 2 Blank # 2 ist Lot
To 4 / poref filomeny @ 4/ hers & 01.18.0 To 10 years of Lemon 4/ her 9. 2.000 To 20 years of agondigo of 1/6 1 . . 10 . 0
51,14.10
by cooth?
.
To Balance Due.
0.014.10
14
Jim 72 6th Dawill Bison, to Pan Shelley
·
.
73
to Mij powinien one half of Loafavungen fe 2.8.2
2/10 pert.
0.6.0
To 2 quantiof themis
- 2. I valentine Janviayer to Wandhelly.
770
To one found of a samlings the
To 15 yearsof Living of of her? 3,10 .. 0
26 13 8. Negen 2 1/2 pin 8 0 11 15 1. 2 To 39/4 years of Carton of 3/6 fever 2 - 0 . 13 . 0 1 . 12 So s trop Laaper tures) 2/10 pers. r _ 6. 8.6 "So 1/2 pound of ted. . .. . ....
To 2 yeardoof asenligt. - 0.3.18 " To one command haft of Noise ho stilin - 0. 16:00
111 .. 1. - 10- 12.
WHEN SHELBY KEPT STORE AT SAPLING GROVE
35
COMING OF THE SHELBYS.
theft of a horse by a burly fellow named Shoate.2 The horse belonged to a stranger, but the thief pretended he won the animal in a bet. Sevier was about to leave, disgusted, when the senior Shelby said to him, "Never mind these rascals, they'll soon take poplar,"-meaning take a canoe and get out of the country. The Seviers came out next year and located at Keywood, about six miles from the Shelbys', but afterwards removed to Washington county.
In 1779 this part of Virginia was found to be in North Carolina and the division threw Evan Shelby's estate into what was, the following year, Sullivan County. Gov. Caswell at once appointed him Brigadier- General-the first to receive such military rank on the Western waters.
Late in life he married Isabella Elliot, the records showing that she required one-third of his estate to be deeded to her before marriage. She survived him and married again-one Dromgoole, who later tried to satisfy a spite of some sort by desecrating Shelby's grave, for which he was severely punished.
The Shelbys gave the name "Travelers Rest" to their home, indicating a hospitable people.
Evan Shelby was seventy-four years of age when he died in 1794. He was buried in Bristol, Tennessee, on the lot now occupied by the Lutheran church, (1908) on the corner of Fifth and Shelby streets. At the time of his burial seven massive oaks grew there-a fit resting place for this pioneer and soldier. Commerce, with little sympathy or sentiment, decreed the oaks must be cut down to make way for a street. Apparently not satisfied with the old general's restless career, the caretakers carted his remains about from place to place. They were first removed in 1872 and for a while lay in the Tennessee calaboose for safe keeping-preparatory to put-
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