History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

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The place became an asylum from tyranny in the old portion of the colony, and many who saw no immediate prospect of a redress of their grievances resorted thither for peaceful and quiet homes. The settlement increased rap- idly, and soon the people organized a form of government for themselves. Meeting at Robertson's in May, 1772, they adopted articles of association. The commissioners elected were John Carter, James Robertson, Charles Robertson, Zachariah Isbell, John Sevier, James Smith, Jacob Brown, William Bean, John Jones, George Russell, Jacob Wo- mack, Robert Lucas, and William Tatham. Those selected as judges of the court were John Carter, James and Charles Robertson, Zachariah Isbell, and John Sevier. William Tatham was chosen clerk. The reader will become familiar with some of these names farther on in our history.

The simple form of government thus established was sufficient for all practical purposes for several years. The articles of this association, which, it is believed, formed the first written compact of government west of the Alleghany Mountains, have unfortunately been lost. They were adopted three years prior to the association formed for Kentucky under the great elm-tree outside of the fort at Boonesboro', on the thick sward of the fragrant clover so graphically spoken of by Bancroft.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

CHAPTER II.

HENDERSON'S TREATY.

Col. Richard Henderson-Treaty at Sycamore Shoals-Transylvania Land Company-Thomas Sharpe Spencer-Kasper Mansker and Others of 1769-70-The Long Hunters-First Water Expedition on the Cumberland-Site of Nashville-Origin of the Licks- Boundary Line between Virginia and North Carolina.

BEFORE entering upon an account of the actual settle- ment of this portion of Middle Tennessee, it will be neces- sary to speak of the operations of Col. Richard Henderson and his treaty with the Cherokee Indians. In 1774, Col. Henderson and his associates of the " Transylvania Land Company"-a large corporation which had been formed for the purpose of speculating in lands between the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers-sent agents among the Cherokees to ascertain their views with reference to a cession of their claim to lands in "the Kentucky country." The chiefs were invited to the Sycamore Shoals, on the Watauga River, to enter into a treaty. Accordingly they assem- bled at the appointed time. Gen. Robertson was present to assist in the negotiations. " On this occasion," says Judge Haywood, " and before the Indians had concluded to make the cession, Oconnostata,* a Cherokee orator, called also Chief Warrior and First Representative, as well as Head Prince of the Cherokee Nation, delivered a very animated and pathetic speech" in opposition to the sale of the lands.

In spite of his eloquence and predictions, however, the treaty was concluded on the 17th of March, 1775. It con- veyed to Henderson and his associates all the lands lying between the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers, in consid- eration of ten thousand pounds sterling, payable in mer- chandise. Twelve hundred Indians are said to have been assembled on the treaty-ground.t A young brave at the treaty was overheard by the interpreter to urge in support of the Transylvania cession this argument : That the set- tlement and occupancy of the ceded territory would inter- pose an impregnable barrier between the. Northern and Southern Indians, and that the latter would in future have quiet and undisturbed possession of the choice hunting- grounds south of the Cumberland. His argument pre- vailed against the prophetic warning and eloquent remon- strance of Oconnostata. That aged chieftain signed the treaty reluctantly, and taking Daniel Boone by the hand, said, with most significant carnestness, " Brother, we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it,"-words which subsequent events but too mourufully verified.

The associates of Henderson were Thomas Hart, John Williams, James Hogg, Nathaniel Hart, David Hart, Leon- ard H. Bulloch, John Luttrell, and William Johnson. They proposed to establish a new colony by the name of Transylvania, and sent a petition to Continental Congress to be admitted as one of the united colonies, declaring themselves in hearty sympathy with the struggle for inde- pendence.

# This is the same chief whose elegant Indian treaty-pitcher was presented to the Tennessee Historical Society by Mrs. President Polk, of which more hereafter.

t Mouetto.

This treaty being made by a corporation of private in- dividuals was pronounced invalid by proclamations of Lord Densmore, Governor of Virginia, and Governor Martin, of North Carolina. However, before this decision was had it had created an immense furor along the froutier, and mul- titudes were eagerly pressing to cross the boundary and take possession of the "goodly land."

A portion of Henderson's purchase on the Lower Cum- berland was within the supposed bounds of North Carolina. It was at first reached through the old route by the way of Cumberland Gap, and explorers continued to pass through it on their way to Middle Tennessee. Among others Kas- per Mansker renewed his visit in 1775, and came to the Cumberland in company with the Bryants. They en- camped at Mansker's Lick. Most of them became dissat- isfied with the country and returned home. Mansker and three others remained and pursued trapping on Sulphur Fork and Red River.

Thomas Sharp Spencer and others, allured by the flatter- ing accounts they had received of the country, the fertility of soil and abundance of game, visited it in 1776. They came to the Cumberland River and erected a number of cabins. Most of them returned, but Spencer and Halli- day determined to remain. In 1778 they were joined by Richard Hogan, and in the spring of that year the party planted a small field of corn at Bledsoe's Lick, which was the first plantation cultivated by Americans in Middle Ten- nessee. Spencer was pleased with the country and with the prospect of rapid settlement, and determined to remain. He selected for his house a large hollow sycamore near the Lick, in which he resided for some time. Halliday, how- ever, decided to leave the wilderness, and in vain attempted to persuade Spencer to go with him. Having lost his knife, Halliday was unwilling to attempt the long journey through the wilderness without one with which to skin his venison and cut his meat. With true backwoods generosity Spen- cer accompanied his comrade to the barrens of Kentucky, put him on the right path, broke his knife and gave him half of it, and then returned to his hollow tree at the Lick, where he passed the winter.

"Spencer was a man of gigantic stature, and passing one morning the temporary cabin erected at a place since called Eaton's Station, and occupied by one of Capt. De Mum- brune's hunters, his huge tracks were left plainly impressed in the rich alluvial. These were seen by the hunter on his return to the camp, who, alarmed at their size, immediately swam across the river and wandered through the woods until he reached the French settlements on the Wabash."}

That he was stronger than any two men of his day the following incident will show : With the help of two stout men he was building a house on " Spencer's choice." One day he lay before his fire sick and disinclined to exertion. The others continued the work, but finally had to stop on account of their inability to raise the heavy end of a log to its place, though they had succeeded with the lighter end. Spencer tried to stimulate them by saying that he could put it up by himself, when one of them, who had fre- quently expressed the belief that he was a match for Spen-

# Ramsey, p. 194.

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HENDERSON'S TREATY.

cer, dared him insultingly to the trial. Spencer arose and lifted the log to its place with the greatest ease, and re- turned to his pallet. His opponent after this ceased to put in any claims of rivalry.

His peaceful disposition is illustrated in the following instance : Two young men were vigorously pummeling each other on some public occasion when Spencer stepped up and separated them at arms' length, mildly remonstrating with them on their conduct. Bob Shaw, a very stout man himself, wanted to see the fight, and dealt Spencer a sting- ing blow in the face for interfering. Spencer instantly turned on Shaw, and seizing him by the nape of the neck and the waistband of his trowsers, carried him bodily to a high fence not far off and tossed him over. This ended all fighting while he was present.

While on the scout or march he always preferred to go some distance in advance or rear, for safety as he thought, trusting to his own watchfulness to avoid danger. This peculiarity finally cost him his life. He had been to North Carolina to get a legacy of two thousand dollars in specie, and was returning with a train of wagons through the South Pass of Cumberland Mountains, now known as Spencer's Hill. As usual, he was far in advance, though it was one of the most dangerous localities on the route. A number of the whites had been killed or wounded here at different times, among the former Armistead Morgan, the best fid- dler in the Cumberland settlement, and withal an excellent Indian-fighter. On this occasion Spencer was fired upon at short range and fell dead ; his horse turned quickly, throw- ing off his saddle-bags containing his money, and made his way back to the train.

"THE LONG HUNTERS."

The following account of the " Long Hunters," with a few slight changes, is quoted from Ramsey's " Annals of Tennessee" :

" On the 2d of June, 1769, a large company of adven- turers was formed for the purpose of hunting and exploring in what is now Middle Tennessee. As the country was dis- covered and settled by the enterprise and defended by the valor of these first explorers, we choose to give their names, the places from which they came, and such details of their hazardous journeyings as have been preserved.

" May the time never come when the self-sacrificing toil and the daring hardihood of the pioneers of Tennessee will be forgotten or undervalued by their posterity. The com- pany consisted of more than twenty men, some of them from North Carolina, others from the neighborhood of the Natural Bridge, and others from the infant settlement near Inglis' Ferry, in Virginia. The names of some of them follow : John Rains, Kasper Mansker, Abraham Bledsoe, John Baker, Joseph Drake, Obadiah Terrill, Uriah Stone, Henry Smith, Ned Cowan, Robert Crockett. The place of rendezvous was eight miles below Fort Chissel, on New River. They came by the head of Holston, and crossing the north fork, Clinch and Powell's Rivers, and passing through Cumberland Gap, discovered the southern part of Kentucky, and fixed a station-camp at a place since called Price's Meadow, in Wayne County, where they agreed to deposit their game and skins. The hunters here dispersed in

different directions, the whole company still traveling to the southwest. They came to Roaring River and the Cany Fork at a point far above the mouth and somewhere near the foot of the mountain. Robert Crockett was killed near the head-waters of Roaring River when returning to the camp, provided for two or three days' traveling; the Indians were there in ambush and fired upon and killed him. The In- dians were traveling to the north, seven or eight in com- pany. Crockett's body was found on the war-track lead- ing from the Cherokee Nation towards the Shawnee tribe. All the country through which these hunters passed was covered with high grass ; no traces of any human settle- ment could be seen, and the primeval state of things reigned in unrivaled glory, though under dry caves, on the side of creeks, they found many places where stones were set up that covered large quantities of human bones; these were also found in the caves, with which the country abounds. They continued to hunt eight or nine months, when part of them returned in April, 1770 .*

" The return of Findley and Boone to the banks of the Yadkin, and of the explorers whose journal has just been given to their several homes, produced a remarkable sensa- tion. Their friends and neighbors were enraptured with the glowing descriptions of the delightful country they had discovered, and their imaginations were inflamed with the account of the wonderful products which were yielded in such bountiful profusion. The sterile hills and rocky up- lands of the Atlantic country began to lose their interest when compared with the fertile valleys beyond the moun- tains. A spirit of further exploration was thus excited in the settlements on New River, Holston, and Clinch, which originated an association of about forty stout hunters, for the purpose of hunting and trapping west of Cumberland Mountains. Equipped with their rifles, traps, dogs, blank- ets, and dressed in the hunting-shirt, leggins, and mocca- sins, they commenced their arduous enterprise in the real spirit of hazardous adventure, through the rough forest and rugged hills. The names of these adventurers are now not known. The expedition was led by Col. James Knox. The leader and nine others of the company penetrated to the Lower Cumberland, and making there an extensive and irregular circuit, adding much to their knowledge of the country, after a long absence returned home. They are known as the ' Long Hunters.'"

Following the long hunters in 1770 was the first water expedition down the Cumberland River. It was made by Kasper Mansker, Uriah Stone, John Baker, Thomas Gor- don, Humphrey Hogan, Cash Brook, and others, ten in all, who built two boats and two trapping canoes, loaded them with the proceeds of their hunting, and descended the beautiful Cumberland, before unnavigated except by the French pirogue or the gliding canoe of the Indian. Where Nashville now stands they discovered the French Lick, and found around it immense numbers of buffalo and other wild game. The country was crowded with them, and their bellowing sounded upon the hills and the forest. On the mound near the French Lick the voyagers discovered a stockade fort, built, as they supposed, by the Cherokecs

* Haywood.

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

on their retreat from the battle at the Chickasaw Old Fields. The voyagers proceeded down the river to the mouth of the Cumberland. Here they met a company of plumed and painted warriors on their way up the Ohio, about twenty-five in number, under John Brown, the old mountain leader; they replenished their guns and ammuni- tion from the store of the hunters, and, without offering them any personal violence, proceeded on the war-path against the Senecas. They were kindly treated by French traders to the Illinois, whom they met at the mouth of the Ohio, and continued their voyage as far down as Natchez, where some of them remained ; but Mansker and Baker returned by way of the Keowee towns to New River.

In the fall of 1771, Kasper Mansker, John Montgomery, Isaac Bledsoe, Joseph Drake, Henry Suggs, James Knox, William and David Linch, Christopher Stoph, William Allen, and others made further explorations on the Lower Cumberland. Among them was an old hunter named Russell, who was so dim-sighted that he was obliged to tie a white piece of paper at the muzzle of his gun to direct his sight at the game; and yet he was quite successful in killing deer. The winter being inclement the hunters built a house of skins, leaving five men in charge of it, while the others returned home for ammunition. During their absence, a company of Northern Indians attacked the camp and took Stoph and Allen prisoners. Hughes made his escape, and meeting the company returning they proceeded together to the camp, which they found undisturbed. This party, in extending their hunting excursions, built a camp upon a creek which still bears the name of Camp Creek. The camps of the hunters at this time were the only habi- tations in Middle Tennessee, there being no Indian lodges anywhere in the country visited by the explorers. There had probably been no permanent Indian occupation after the expulsion of the Shawnecs. Whenever a hunter in ranging through the country discovered a " lick" it usually took his name. Hence Drake's Lick, Bledsoe's Lick, Mansker's Lick, etc., given by the party of hunters of 1771. The many " licks" which still bear the names of daring hunters in Kentucky and Tennessee give evidence of the abundance of moose, deer, and elk which resorted to them; and the buffalo trails between these primitive " watering-places" served as the only roads to guide the traveler through the uninhabited wilderness.

In 1749 the boundary-line between Virginia and North Carolina was extended by commissioners of the respective colonies to the Holston River at a place directly opposite Steep Rock. Had it been then extended to the Mississippi, or even made to keep pace with the advance of settlements westward, it would have saved a great deal of trouble, dis- puting, and litigation. For many years the boundary be- tween Kentucky and Tennessee was in a state of uncer- tainty. In 1779 commissioners were appointed by both the parent States to extend the line to the Mississippi. They met in September of that year, and after due observa- tion agreed upon the point from which the line should be continued. After running to Carter's Valley, some forty miles, they disagreed. The commissioners from North Carolina insisted upon running the line two miles farther north than was approved by those from Virginia, therefore

they ran two parallel lines at that distance apart. The southern line was run by a surveyor by the name of Walker, and has ever since been known as " the Walker Line;" the northern one was run by Col. Richard Henderson, the great land-speculator, of whom more will be said hereafter. The disputed boundary was not adjusted till 1820, when the Walker Line was fully recognized. It is true that Col. Anthony Bledsoe, afterwards most favorably known and usefully identified with the settlements and perils on the Cumberland, had as early as 1771 examined the question of boundary, and being a practical surveyor, in whom much confidence was placed, he had extended the Walker Line some distance west, and thereby enabled many of the set- tlers to decide for themselves whether they owed allegiance to Virginia or North Carolina.

CHAPTER III.

THE INDIANS.

Aborigines-Prehistoric Races-Mounds and Relics in Middle Ten- nessee-Original Occupation by the Shawnees-Cherokees and Chickasaws-Conquest and Expulsion of the Shawnees-Conquest and Cession by the Iroquois Confederacy-Power and Dominion of the Six Nations-They make & Neutral Hunting-Ground of Ten- nessee and Kentucky.

ALTHOUGH the hunters when they came into Middle Tennessee found the country unoccupied except by wild beasts and covered by dense forests and cane-brakes, yet centuries before it had been inhabited by a race of people far more numerous than the Indian tribes who occupied the soil at a later date. The hunters and pioneers trod over vast cemeteries of an extinct race. immense numbers of whose remains are buried in all the caves and mounds, and at every living spring on both sides of the Cumberland River from its source to its mouth and generally throughout Middle and Western Tennessee. No doubt can exist in the mind of the archaeologist as to the identity of these people with the ancient mound-builders, who at a remote period spread themselves over a large portion of the con- tinent. The skeletons of these people appear in such num- bers as to warrant the conclusion that their population at one time must have exceeded the present inhabitants of the United States. Their most populous centres appear to have been in the great valley of the Mississippi and its tributary valleys, along which they spread from the Alle- ghany Mountains and from the lake region of the North- west to the Gulf of Mexico. It has been ascertained by careful observation that there are at least a hundred thou- sand skeletons of this ancient people within the limits of a single county in Iowa .*

Archaeologists, by comparative anatomy and by the study of the mounds and relics, have collected and classified a vast array of facts respecting the mound-builders and other prehistoric races. They are easily distinguished from the Indians by their skeletons, especially by the size and shape of the skull and by their structures and relics of art, which

* Lecture by IIon. Samuel Murdock, Garnavillo, Iowa.

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THE INDIANS.

indicate a higher civilization than has been found among the Indians. The great antiquity of their works is proved by the large trees found growing above their mounds and fortifications,-trees as large as any to be found in the forest, and indicating the growth of centuries. The oldest Indians had no traditions reaching back to the origin of these works. Respecting the mounds of Tennessee and the Southwest, the Shawnees and Cherokees informed Gen. Robertson and Judge Haywood that they were in the country when their ancestors came to it, and that no tradi- tion existed among them as to the origin and fate of the people who built them.

We cannot, of course, in a work of this sort, enter into a discussion of the prehistoric races, a subject which belongs to archeology rather than to history .*

The first Indians who occupied the Cumberland Valley within the historic period were the Shawnees. On the map accompanying Marquette's journal, published in 1681, many of their town-sites on the Lower Cumberland are in- dicated, and the river itself is called the river of the Shaw- nees. At an early time this tribe was scattered over a wide extent of country, a portion of them living in Eastern Virginia, and another branch on the head-waters of the Sa- vannah. In 1772, Little Cornplanter, an intelligent Cher- okee chief, related that the Shawnees, a hundred years be- fore, by the permission of his nation, removed from the Savannah River to the Cumberland. Many years after- wards, he said, the two nations became unfriendly, and the Cherokees marched in a large body against the Shaw- nees, many of whom they slew. The survivors fortified themselves and maintained a protracted war until the Cher- okees were joined by the Chickasaws, and the Shawnees were gradually expelled from the Cumberland Valley. This was about the year 1710. Charleville, the French trader, came to the Cumberland a few years after, and occupied for his house the fort which the Shawnees had built, near the French Lick, on the Nashville side of the river. Charle- ville learned from a Frenchman who preceded him that the Chickasaws, hearing of the intended removal of the Shawnees, resolved to strike them upon the eve of their de- parture, and take possession of their stores. For this pur- pose a large party of Chickasaw warriors posted themselves on both sides of the Cumberland, above the mouth of the Harpeth River, provided with canocs to prevent their es- cape by water. The attack was successful. All the Shaw- nees were killed and their property captured by the Chick- asaws. This, however, was only a small remnant of them, the main part of the tribe having previously removed to the vicinity of the Wabash, where, in 1764, they were joined by another portion of the tribe from Green River, in Kentucky. Of this tribe Tecumseh was subsequently the great chief and warrior, and also his brother, the famous Shawnee prophet. They were united with the Miamis and other Northwestern tribes in the wars with Harmar, St. Clair, and Gen. Anthony Wayne. Roving bands of them occasionally visited their old hunting-

" Those desirous of studying the subject will find valuable aids in Haywood's History of Tennessee; vol. i. ; Foster's Prehistoric Races, and Short's Americans of Antiquity.

grounds on the Cumberland and the Tennessee, and in- flicted great injury on the early settlers. They were a part of the banditti who committed enormous outrages on the emigrants and navigators while descending the famous passes of the Tennessee.

The Cherokees occupied only a portion of East Tennes- see,-that part south of the Tennessee River, from the point where it crosses the North Carolina boundary to where it enters the State of Alabama. Their settlements extended thence southward into Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina; but they claimed the right to lands on the Cumberland, and not only expelled the Shawnees, but at- tempted for many years to destroy the settlements of the whites in this region. The Cherokees, before 1623, dwelt upon the Appomattox, in the neighborhood of Monticello, but in that year were driven out by the Virginians, who killed all they could find, cut up and destroyed their crops, and caused vast numbers of them to perish by famine. They removed to New River and made a temporary settle- ment, and also on the head of the Holston, whence, in a few years, on account of the hostility of the Northern In- dians, they removed and formed the middle settlements on Little Tennessee. Cornelius Dogherty; who became a tra- der among the Cherokees in 1690, taught them to steal horses from the Virginians, which were the first horses the Cherokees ever had. Another tribe of Indians came from the neighborhood of Charleston, S. C., and settled them- selves lower down the Tennessee. The Carolina tribe called themselves Ketawaugas, and came last into the county.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013