USA > Tennessee > DeKalb County > History of De Kalb county, Tennessee > Part 3
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
ney, Augustin Vick, Thomas Underwood, Nathan Wade, John Candler, James Carney, Wingate Truitt, Littleberry Vick, Leonard Lamberson, James Perry- man, Lewis Ford, William Estes, Wiley Wilder, Crag Parsons, Leven Gray, William Brazwell, William Car- roll, Alfred Wales, Thomas West, A. W. Ford, Wil- liam Measles, Harriet C. Roulstone, John Conger, Joshua Ford, Wiley J. Melton, Samuel Hays, James Robinson, Mathias S. West, John Frazier, Alex Dil- lard, Friday Martin, Robert Wilson, Samuel Bryson, James Yeargin, D. H. Burton, Benjamin Avant, Ed- ward Sullivant, James Pistole, Washington Gos- sett, William Gossett, S. C. Porterfield, Gideon B. York, Green Arnold, Tilman Foster, Mrs. Kesiah Alexander, Thomas Bratten, U. G. Gossett, Moses Mathews, Sophia Givan, David H. Burton, Ed Evans, Gilbert Williams, Samuel Williams, Silas Cooper, John R. Dougherty, Goulding Foster, J. M. Farrington, John Reed, Mikel V. Ethridge, Dr. Samuel Tittle, Moses Spencer, Emerson M. Hill, Ed- mund T. Goggin, Giles Driver, P. C. Watson, Bryant Spradley, Peter Reynolds, Josiah Spurlock, Jonathan Fuston, John Curtis, Nathan Evans, A. Overall, J. A. Wilson, Thomas Bratten, O. M. Garrison, Matthew Sellars, Joab Hale, John Burton, W. H. Burton, Thomas Taylor, Sally Evans, Welles Adamson, W. A. Nesmith, Acenith Fite, Washington Bayne, Lee Braz- well, Coleman Johnson, James Bayne, Thomas Close, W. B. Stokes, Jane Lawrence, Joseph Hendrickson, Lewis Stark, Phillips Cooper, Henry McMullin, Sally Woodside, Robin Forester, Cantrell Bethel, Jesse B.
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HISTORY £ OF DEKALB COUNTY
Jones, Col. James Tubb, Jacob Page, Thomas Pack, John Dodd, William Botts, Thomas Whaley, Jacob Overall, John M. Leek, Adam Bratten, Abe Adams, Benjamin Pritchard, Isaac Bratten, Gilbert Williams, Nancy Burton, George Grizzle, Onessimus Evans, W. S. Scott, Joseph Evans, Solomon Davis, Edwin Shum- way, John Merritt, Matthew McLane, Benjamin Blades, F. S. Anderson, and Randall Pafford.
There is a certain pathos connected with the changes that have come about in the personnel of the popula- tion during the past fourscore years. For instance, a leading family of Liberty in other days was that of Gossett ; there is now not a person of the name in the village or in the county. The Dales, as shown, have also disappeared from the town.
Mrs. Rachel Payne wrote in 1914:
I well remember the Liberty of sixty-two years ago, my father, Frederick Jones, having bought Duncan Tavern in 1843. In that year the first schoolhouse was built, not far from the Methodist church. Mr. Chambers was the first teacher in it. I was one of the later pupils. Most of the houses were of logs back then. I went to school in the log church that stood by the graveyard. The seats were split logs, with holes in them for the insertion of legs. The first person buried in Salem graveyard was Major Lamberson's girl, Martha. Nearly all the old-time people are gone to their reward. Aunt Polly Youngblood is the oldest resident. She was a Miss Avant, of Dismal Creek. I was only six months old when she became the wife of William Youngblood, and I was sixty-eight years old September 23, 1913. There were about thirty houses in Liberty when I was a child, and nearly all the public travel was by stagecoach.
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
In a gossipy letter Dr. Foster names some of the residents of about 1850: Mr. Dean (blacksmith), Dr. J. R. Dougherty, Joshua Bratten and his son James, Dr. J. H. Fuson, Dr. J. A. Baird, Aunt Sallie Bratten, Len Moore, Bill Thompson (blacksmith), Jim Crook (wagon maker), Leonard and Clint Lamberson, Wil- liam Youngblood, Dr. G. C. Flowers, Isaac Whaley, Tom Price, Elijah Strong, J. P., Bob, Hilary, and other Dales, Frederick Jones (tailor), W. G. Foster, Arthur Worley, U. D. Gossett, Ben Blades, Eli Vick, Seth Whaley, James Hollandsworth, John Woodsides, William Gothard, Bill Avant (tanner), John Evans, John Reid, and John Perryman. Dr. Foster adds :
I can see other things as I look back to Liberty: Aunt Polly Blades's ginger cakes, set on a little shelf as a sign; Aunt Hettie Bratten selling good whisky for ten cents a quart; Dr. Flowers's John with his bowlegs; Jim Crook and his legs; Alex Bayne and his snow-white steers; and Sam Wooden as he hits and raises a knot on Bill Pack's head. I go around to Reuben Evans's farm and see his sons, Ed, Will, Ike, Mose, and Jim, and his daughters, Nancy, Matilda, and Martha, and his wife, Aunt Clara, as well as a dog named Danger, that bit Jim Youngblood on the hindmost part. Like- wise I see old Dr. Tilman Bethel and his black horse and his sons, Chess, Greene, Blue, Fayette, and John; Louis Vick, Jim Bratten, and Clint Lamberson (the last three died when yet young men). Then I look on Polly Stanley, the best "fisher- man" with a pole and line in the county and a good fiddler ; Sam Barger, fat and squat, who wore his shoes when he rode to Liberty, but came barefooted when he walked. Coming on down several years, I was in the village the night Montillius Richardson died. That was after the battle of Fishing Creek, and I was on furlough. (I belonged to the Fifteenth Missis- sippi Confederate Regiment.) Sixty-five years ago, when I
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
was a ten-year-old boy, changes were going on, of course. The physicians were George C. Flowers, E. Wright, John A. Baird, Horace Sneed, Samuel Little, J. A. Fuson, and J. R. Dougherty, with Tilman Bethel, a steam doctor, living a mile or two west. The magistrates for that district were Reuben Evans and Joe Clarke. The constables were William Black- burn and Josiah Youngblood. Church Anderson was one of the merchants. The blacksmiths were Bill Thompson and Greene Perryman, but preceding them were Goolsberry Blades and a man named Brooks. Later smiths were W. G. Evans and Bill Givan; miller, "Chunky" Joe Hays (who was not chunky), his wife being Aunt Sukey, mother of Mrs. William Blackburn; shoemaker, John Woodside; saddlers, W. G. Fos- ter, U. D. Gossett, John A. Carroll, George Warren, G. F. Bowers, and others; saloon keeper, James G. Fuston; cabinet workmen, James Hollandsworth, Bob Burton, and Isaac Whaley; brickmason, Berry Driver; tailors, Joe Perryman and Len Moore. The Lamberson boys were also millers, running the old Dale water mill. Liberty had a horse saw mill and a rope factory-the latter about where the tanyard was afterwards. Wagon makers were Jim Crook and Perry Wells. Perry and Jim Wells put up a store on Dismal Creek after the Clay and Frelinghuysen canvass, and some one got off this doggerel :
"Hurrah! hurrah ! the country's risin';
Perry and Jim are merchandisin'. One sells liquor, and t'other sells goods ;
And when they start home-get lost in the woods !"
Liberty was incorporated January 17, 1850. The boundaries were: Beginning at a sour oak near Leonard Lamberson's wellspring, thence south to Smith's Fork, thence down said creek with its mean- ders to the mouth of the branch west of the town spring, thence west to a chinquapin oak standing on the north side of the Liberty and Dismal Creek road,
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
thence south to the beginning; provided that the west boundary shall not include any of the land owned by Leonard Lamberson.
Revived after the war, the corporation was abolished soon after the passage of the four-mile law of 1877. William Blackburn and Elijah Bratten were post- bellum mayors.
The people of Liberty for some years had to go as far as Carthage to mail letters. This was changed when the stage began to run, maybe before. The earliest postmaster recalled by the old people was "Grandaddy" Dougherty, who carried the mail around in his hat, collecting the postage. Perhaps Dr. Wright preceded Dougherty, as in his daybook various persons were charged "cash for postage." Wright was a son-in-law of James Fuston, third host of Dun- can Tavern. In 1844 Isaac Whaley succeeded Dougherty, holding the position until 1888, with the exception of a few months when, at the beginning of the war, Frank Foster was postmaster for the Con- federacy and when, after the war, M. C. Vick held the office a short time. H. L. Hale succeeded Mr. Wha- ley in 1888. Mrs. Cannie Whaley was appointed some years later. C. L. Bright is the present postmaster.
It should be noted that there were no envelopes un- til a late day. The writer has before him now a letter addressed in 1827 to "Mr. M. S. West, Liberty, Smith Co., Ten." It is a sheet of paper folded and fastened with a small bit of sealing wax, the amount of postage, ten cents, being marked on the outside. It was mailed
3
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
at Haysboro, Davidson County, Tenn., and shows that postal rates were high.
In an interview with Isaac Whaley several years ago the writer obtained these facts bearing on the old times : "The letter postage was once six cents from Liberty to Alexandria, seven miles ; ten cents to Nash- ville, fifty-six miles; over four hundred miles the postage was twenty-five cents, double that if the let- ter consisted of two sheets. Like registered letters to-day, a record of every letter was made on a 'way bill,' each postmaster receipting for it to the post- master back on the route."
The physicians of Liberty have been numerous. These are recalled: Early, J. R. Dougherty, J. A. Baird, E. Wright, George C. Flowers ; Tilman Bethel and Dr. Little, herbists; Horace Sneed, George R. Givan, J. A. Fuson, Thomas Black, J. S. Harrison. Later, A. S. Redman, J. W. Campbell, T. J. Sneed, W. H. Robinson, W. A. Whaley, J. H. Johnson, J. G. Squires, W. A. Barger, Robert Estes, T. O. Brat- ten, J. R. Hudson. Present, T. J. Jackson, T. J. Brat- ten, Harrison Adamson.
Dr. Foster mentions the old miller, "Chunky" Joe Hays, whose service was after Adam Dale's time. The Lambersons and Daniel Smith owned the mill still later. W. C. Youngblood and Edward Robinson were owners of the steam mill when it was burned by the troops of Gen. John T. Wilder, Federal.
Allan Wright, of Maryland, came to Liberty in 1866 and built a mill on the site of the one which had been burned, the first to be erected in the county after
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
peace came. For many years the patronage of this mill was very great. Among those who have been connected with it since the war were: E. W. Bass, Jep Williams, George Wood, L. N. Woodside, J. H. Over- all, John L. Lamberson, and George Bradley.
A water mill was erected by Buck Waters about 1873 or 1874 a few yards below the site of the Dale mill, the dam which supplies the big turbine wheel being one hundred and twenty-five yards wide and twelve feet high. It was sold to Vannata & Hicks. Within the next few years it was owned by Vannata & Stark Bros., H. L. Hale & Stark Bros., and H. L. and Bruce L. Hale. About 1884 a stock company was formed and the roller process installed, the stockholders being R. L. Floyd, George Turney, R. B. West, Sams Sellars, T. G. Bratten, W. C. Youngblood, B. L. Hale, and C. W. L. Hale. The capital stock was $6,000. On the death of B. L. Hale, in 1898, R. B. Floyd and C. W. L. Hale bought all the shares. The property is now owned by Bradley Bros.
The earliest attempt at publishing in Liberty was made by H. L. and Will T. Hale. The paper was small, miserably printed, and called the Imp. Only one issue appeared (September 20, 1879) ; and had it been larger, its failure would have deserved what the father of the young men cheerfully called it, "a stu- pendous abortion." 1130174
The Liberty Herald was established April 1, 1886, by Will A. Vick. Mr. Vick spent considerable money on the plant, and the journal, existing several years,
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
became very popular in DeKalb and surrounding counties.
The Bank of Liberty was established by A. E. Pot- ter and J. J. Smith in 1898. The latter became Presi- dent, H. L. Overall, Vice President, and A. E. Potter, Cashier. Directors : D. D. Overall, J. J. Smith, H. L. Overall, H. C. Givan, C. D. Williams, E. J. Robinson, Will A. Vick, L. D. Hamilton, A. E. Potter, W. R. Robinson, and J. W. Reynolds. Mr. Potter was Cashier until 1895, when D. D. Overall became President and W. H. Overall, Cashier. The officers in 1914 were : John W. Overall, President; Thomas M. Givan, Vice President, T. H. Chapman, Cashier; J. C. Stark, As- sistant Cashier. Directors : T. M. Givan, W. H. Over- all, T. J. Jackson, J. F. Turner, B. W. Robinson, T. H. Chapman, John W. Overall, and Tom W. Overall.
The American Savings Bank opened for business December 8, 1905. This bank, like the other, has been successfully conducted. The first officers were: T. G. Bratten, President; W. H. Bass, Vice President ; J. M. Bradley, Cashier. Directors : G. B. Givan, D. B. Wilson, J. B. West, R. B. Vannata, S. J. Chapman, Mrs. M. J. Corley, J. R. Corley, W. L. Evans, W. F. Hooper, H. M. Evans, J. E. Williams, and J. L. Lam- berson. These officers, or all that were living, held their positions until 1914. The President's health be- came such that on January 10, 1914, the following officers were elected: L. A. Bass, President; G. B. Givan, Vice President; J. M. Bradley, Cashier. Di- rectors : L. A. Bass, G. B. Givan, H. M. Evans, R. B. Vannata, J. M. Bradley, H. A. Bratten, D. B. Wilson,
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
A. L. Reynolds, A. J. Williams, J. E. Hobson, J. L. Lamberson, W. L. Evans, and S. J. Chapman. H. M. Evans, T. M. Bright, and C. G. Givan, as finance com- mittee, have served since the organization.
Among landmarks reminding this generation of a past era are Lamberson's wellspring and the town spring. The former was on the southwest, with a sweep and the "old oaken bucket." Here on baptizing days the crowds going to and from the place of baptism higher up Smith Fork Creek would stop to quench their thirst and to gossip. The town spring, on the north side, was of more romantic interest. The pio- neers greatly appreciated a good spring. It for a while furnished drinking water for almost the entire village. It was walled up, while a long flight of stone steps led down to the entrance on the east side, where a bucket- ful of the sparkling fluid could be easily dipped up. For half a century it was a Sunday meeting place for the young folks. Seated in couples on the steps or under the big oak on the bluff, they engaged in light badinage or love-making. The spring is yet held in pleasant memory by many elderly people.
There is one other landmark demanding notice, the pioneer cemetery on the northwest edge of Liberty. It is referred to by H. L. Hale as the "old Methodist graveyard." It lies on a gentle slope facing the sunrise, and at one time it must have been a beautiful spot. Pathos now hovers over it. But few stones are stand- ing, and these are the stone pens covered with broad slabs of carefully worked limestone. Not a flower can be seen in the most gorgeous summer save the
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
wild rose. No one walks there to meditate over the departed. A century ago children's voices were heard, and relatives of the dead walked among the tombs to pay the tribute of a sigh. Now nobody cares. James H. Burton writes : "My grandfathers, Ebenezer Bur- ton and John S. Woodside, my father and mother, W. H. and Nancy Burton, and Uncle John Woodside are buried there." H. L. Hale writes: "Few names on the two or three tombs are legible. On a little 'house of rock,' the last home evidently of a husband and wife, this only could be read : '- Daugherty. Born 1770, died 1828.' Near by was this: 'Caroline Arnold. Died July 22, 1828.' On another tomb : 'D. E. S. Ken- ner. Died December 4, 1809; age seventy-seven years.' One other: 'Nancy Fite, born 1805; died July 22, 1828.' Judging from the grave of D. E. S. Ken- ner, the cemetery was used at least one hundred and five years ago, and the slumberer was born the same year Washington was, 1732."
Liberty, fifty-six miles east of Nashville, has suf- fered much from fires. It is in one of the finest agri- cultural sections of the State, with a population esti- mated at five hundred, and perhaps it is of more ro- mantic interest than the other towns in the county.
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CHAPTER IV.
PASTIMES OF THE FOREPARENTS.
WE should not think of the past in terms of the present, but remember that social advantages of a century ago were far inferior to those of 1914. The society of the grandparents, then, as in all primitive communities, was somewhat rude. The crudeness varied, being less apparent in the villages than farther in the backwoods. While there was some degree of refinement among those who could buy books and visit the outside world occasionally, the majority were plain citizens. Amusements were few. There were parties, sometimes called frolics. Candy-pulling and fru- menty boilings were often the outcome of a quilting, log-rolling, or corn-shucking. Such plays as "thim- ble," "snap," "slapout," and "Jake's a-grinning" would be engaged in. Others would be accompanied by songs on this order :
The higher up the cherry tree, The riper grows the cherry; The sooner you court a pretty girl, The sooner you will marry.
The dances were usually rough in outlying com- munities. The more cultured, especially near the mid- dle of the nineteenth century, enjoyed the Virginia reel and other less boisterous dances; their plays, too, were more refined.
With people of Anglo-Saxon stock the favorite musical instrument in the first stages of society is the
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
violin. General Stokes and Hon. Horace Overall per- formed on this instrument. In the mercantile account book of Dr. Wright General Stokes, Richard Arnold, and Green B. Adams are charged with "piano songs" in the first third of the nineteenth century. Does this mean that there were pianos in the county as early as that? Possibly the music was bought to be sung with- out piano accompaniment. The fiddlers in the county from 1800 to 1875, including black and white, would have no doubt numbered several hundred, and some were so popular that they were in demand on all near- by social and public occasions where music was a fea- ture.
The race course was encouraged and well patron- ized. There were quite a number of locally famous horses, and some had prestige beyond the borders of the State. Dr. Foster writes :
The stallions Old Pete, George Boyd, and Steamboat were as well known in the western part of the county about 1845 or 1850 as the most prominent citizens. William Gothard, of Liberty, was a great lover of horses. Lemuel Moore, the tailor, once sold a small "scrub" for thirty-five dollars. The animal turned out to be a racer and soon afterwards sold for eighteen hundred dollars.
Tan Fitts, of near Temperance Hall, owned Dock Alvin, Elizabeth Johnson, and Tom Hal, noted racers.
The most noted animal in the county was Ariel, a quarter horse. The owner was William B. Stokes. It was told that he won so many stakes that few would bet against him, and through a prejudiced cabal he was ruled off the tracks. Whereupon his owner
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
painted him a different color and won other races, but the paint eventually took off the hair. Of course this was apocryphal. Stokes's daughter, Mrs. Leath Cal- houn, told the writer that Ariel's leg was broken and that her father gave him to his brother-in-law, Horace Overall, then a lad. Horace and the little slaves put some sort of juice or homemade liniment on the af- flicted limb. As it did some good, boylike, they de- cided to anoint him all over, thinking a greater im- provement would result. This denuded him of his once glossy coat. In a conversation with the writer in 1899 Mr. Leander Hayes said: "I recall having passed Colonel Overall's one day and saw the animal stand- ing in the lot by the road. All the hair had slipped from him except that on his belly and the ends of his ears. He was a woeful sight."
What became of Ariel? The next heard of him is through Oliver Taylor's history of Sullivan County, East Tennessee. Taylor says in one place :
Sullivan County wheat took first prize over the world at the Vienna Exposition in 1872, and the bones of the swiftest horse of the racing days between 1845 and 1860 moldered on a field on the old Fain farm east of Blountville.
Farther along in his chapter devoted to politics are these notes :
When General Stokes and De Witt Senter were opposing each other for Governor [in 1869] they engaged in a discus- sion at Blountville. Stokes was the owner of Ariel, the famous race horse. He appealed to the horse-breeding and agricultural spirit of his countrymen. "The bones of Ariel," said he, "are moldering in Sullivan County soil." Replying to this, Senter said: "I grant you it is a great honor to have
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
the resting place of the fastest horse of the times; but, gentle- men, the bones of an ancestor of mine, who fought in the battle of King's Mountain, are sleeping in Sullivan; and what are the bones of the fastest horse in the world compared with the sacred dust of a man who fought for your liberties ?"
It is possible that Ariel, after recovering from the broken leg, was bought and carried to East Tennessee for breeding purposes. Dr. T. J. Jackson, of Liberty, says that he once read a description of Ariel in pam- phlet form, and his natural color was described as "snow white."
There were company, regimental, and brigade mus- ters in the first half of the nineteenth century. They became less frequent about 1855.
Solomon in his glory was not much more re- splendent than the superior officers at these gatherings. Especially noticeable were their long black or red plumes. When the time came to muster, some one would take a position at some point on the street and cry out : "Oyez, Oyez! All who belong to Captain -'s company form in a parade here." Another would call the same to a different company a hundred or two yards distant, and so on until all the militia was in action. After forming they, with drum and fife (field officers on prancing horses), would march to a commodious field and evolute and march to the ad- miration of the surging crowds. Dr. Foster writes :
As the muster at Smithville was a bigger affair than that at Liberty, it must have been a brigade muster. Colonel Cotton, Major Atnip, and Captain Perkins took great interest in these affairs. The officers' hats, as I remember, were of the stovepipe pattern. Horses not used to the noise and
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HISTORY OF DEKALB COUNTY
crowds reared and pranced, but Captain Perkins seemed to enjoy the prancing of his roan steed. In the language of old Tom Askew, all the officers "felt the weight of the argu- ment."
Mr. H. L. Hale, who was almost six years of age when the war began, recalls a muster he witnessed at Liberty and writes :
I think Peter Adams was then colonel of a DeKalb regi- ment. I can see Colonel Peter sitting his gray charger in a deep Spanish saddle, with high boots and spurs and three- cornered or crescent-shaped hat and large feather or tassel. He was, I thought, the finest and greatest man I ever saw or could expect to see. Tall and straight, he had a military bearing as long as he lived; and, small as I was when I saw him on this occasion, I thought he took special pains to "dad- dle" that plume by some movement of the head.
He says further : "These companies always marched to the stirring music of fife and drum. There was a Liberty company called the Blues and another the Greens. Ike Lamberson and Jim Bethel, negroes, were noted fifers and drummers."*
*Among the State archives are many commissions of mus- ter days. Thus, Thomas Patterson was made captain of the Forty-First Regiment September 18, 1812, George Turney lieutenant, and Josiah Spurlock ensign. Joseph Fite became a captain in the regiment January 28, 1813. Lemuel Moore was commissioned lieutenant of the same regiment June 14, 1813, and Moses Garrison September 14, 1814. In the last- named year Shadrack Moore was made a second major of the Sixteenth Regiment March 21, while Beverly Strange (or Strong) became captain April 13. James Malone figures as early as August 31, 1813, as lieutenant.
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HISTORY £ OF DEKALB COUNTY
Shooting matches were greatly appreciated, and there were crack shots celebrated throughout the county, W. G. Evans and John McDowell among others.
· The chase is appreciated in all new countries, and it was so in this county. Until long after the War be- tween the States some farmers kept packs of fox hounds. It would be interesting to know their breed. But they were black and tan, with an occasional gray- ish or pied animal, lank, with long pendulous ears, calling to mind Shakespeare's description : "Ears that swept away the morning dew, matched in . mouth like bells." Farm neighbors would meet each other with their packs on some high point in the hills and spend the hours from dark to dawn's approach and listen and listen and listen. The charm born of night in the woods around the fire waiting for the hounds to open up! The music of the trailing pack wafted over hill and hollow! The man who takes part in all this once soon finds the lure irresistible, and the chase becomes a habit.
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