USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 11
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By the way, it is rather remarkable that all the recent histories of Ten- nessee assume-indeed, assert-that while John Sevier became a more prominent figure in our State, having been six several times elected gov- ernor of the State and twice sent to Congress, his rival and opponent and captor, John Tipton, became more and more obscure and unknown. Now the fact is that after Tennessee became a State John Tipton was elected ten times a member of the Legislature, while that body consisted of not more than thirty or forty members, adding both House and Senate to- gether. He was eight times a member of the House, twice a member of the Senate; was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1811-12, President of the Court of Impeachment of Judge Haskell in 1831, and died October 8, 1831, while a member of the Legislature, in Nashville. His death occurring on Sunday, both branches of the Legislature con- vened in extra session, in honor of the deceased. His body was carried from the Nashville Inn, where he died, to the capitol, where his remains lay in state. The funeral services were held in the capitol, and the gov- ernor, both houses of the Legislature, the State officers, judiciary, city officials, and citizens generally followed his remains to the old city ceme- tery, where they now lie interred. The writer recently, looking over the monuments in that old grave-yard, came across one erected by the State of Tennessee to John Tipton. He was shocked to find that it had fallen down, and lies now in four or five pieces. It was therefore impossible for him to get the inscription, as it is carved on the detached pieces of marble, but he could see enough to make out that the monument was erected by the State of Tennessee in honor of John Tipton. It is to be hoped that the State will restore the monument to its former condition. But there John Tipton lies, midway between General James Robertson's and John Sevier's monuments. Requiescat in pace.
In 1818 the first steam-boat arrived at Nashville. It was built at Pitts-
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burg for General William Carroll, named "General Jackson," and was of one hundred and ten tons burden. Soon the river was filled with steam- boats, plying between here and New Orleans and all intermediate ports. At first it took thirty-five days to make a trip from New Orleans by steam- boat to Nashville, but subsequently it was often made in five days.
In 1819 President Monroe honored Nashville by a visit, arriving here June 6, 1819. He was the guest of General Jackson, as was also Gen- eral Edmund P. Gaines, who was also on a visit here at the same time. A public dinner and ball were given by the citizens of the town in honor of the President during his stay.
In 1822 a fine stone bridge was erected over the Cumberland River from the north corner of the public square to the Gallatin Pike, at a cost of $85,000.
In 1825 the cotton trade of Nashville was very flourishing, amounting to more than one million dollars' worth exported from this port that year.
On May 4, 1825, General Lafayette, making his second tour through the United States, arrived here, and was received with distinguished honor and great public demonstrations of joy. In the words of another, "an immense procession was formed, the streets were decorated with arches of evergreens, and patriotic mottoes were inscribed upon them. The general landed on the grounds of Major William B. Lewis, above the water-works, where General Jackson and a number of citizens re- ceived him, and Governor Carroll addressed him in behalf of the State, tendering him a welcome to Tennessee. The procession with the mili- tary escorted him into the city, where Robert B. Currey, Esq., the Mayor, addressed him in behalf of the city, and tendered him its freedom and hospitality. The joy of the people knew no bounds, and General La- fayette ever after spoke of his reception in Nashville as one of the most pleasant events of his life. He was taken to the residence of Dr. Boyd McNairy, who threw open his doors to the distinguished Frenchman and his suite. The next day the general went to the Masonic Hall, where he received the ladies of Nashville in that polite and cordial manner for which he was remarkable. A public dinner was given him at the Nash- ville Inn, at which General Jackson acted as president, assisted by Judge George W. Campbell and Major Henry M. Rutledge, John Sommerville and Judge Felix Grundy as vice-presidents. Old Timothy Mon Brun [De- monbreun] was at this dinner, and was toasted by Colonel Andrew Haynes as the patriarch of Tennessee and the first white man that settled in the country. General Lafayette visited the Grand Lodge of Ten- nessee, the Royal Arch Chapter, and the Masonic fraternity generally, and was welcomed by Wilkins Tannehill, Esq., as a friend and brother.
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A collation was furnished on the occasion, and all had a good time. Be- fore his departure the general called on Mrs. Jackson, Mrs. Littlefield (the daughter of his old companion and friend, General Greene, of revo- lutionary memory), Governor William Carroll, Rev. Dr. Lindsley, and others." For this statement the writer is indebted to his old friend, An- son Nelson, Esq., as indeed for many other facts contained in this sketch of Nashville.
In 1823 Nashville had a population of 3,460, and in 1830, 5,566, of whom 1, 108 were slaves and 204 free negroes.
In 1824 General Andrew Jackson, the most distinguished citizen of Nashville and in many ways one of the greatest men this country has pro- duced, was a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. He of course received the vote of Tennessee. But, although having a larger electoral vote than any other candidate, he did not have a majority of the college, and therefore the election devolved upon the lower house of Con- gress, voting as States under the Constitution. In the Congress a major- ity of the States cast their votes for John Quincy Adams. John C. Cal- houn had obtained a majority of the electoral college, and hence there was no election by the Senate for Vice-president, as otherwise would have been the case. In but one instance has the Senate been called upon to elect a Vice-president. In 1836 Mr. Martin Van Buren secured a majority of the electoral college for President, but, no one having a ma- jority for Vice-president, Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was chosen by the Senate.
In 1828 General Jackson was again a candidate for President against John Q. Adams, and received a large majority of the electoral vote, Jack- son having 178 votes, and Adams 83. He was again chosen in 1832, de- feating Henry Clay, who was the opposing candidate. In this race Jack- son had 219 votes, and Mr. Clay only 49, General Jackson having thus 74 more votes than a majority in the electoral college.
In December, 1828, before his removal to Washington City to take his seat as President, the people of Nashville were getting up a grand civic ovation for General Jackson; but the sudden death of Mrs. Jackson, the almost adored wife of the President, turned the day of the proposed ban- quet into one of universal mourning in the city of Nashville. All business was suspended, and all the bells in the city tolled from one to two o'clock, the hour of the funeral.
It is not intended to say more of General Jackson here, except to state that after returning to his home near the city, in 1837, after his eight years' service as President, he continued to live in dignified and hospita- ble retirement until his death, in the month of June, 1845.
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In the chapter on "Churches" the erection of Christ Church and other churches in this city will be detailed.
In 1832 the Union Bank of Tennessee was chartered and organized in Nashville, and in 1833 the Planters' Bank was chartered; but more will be said of these two great banking institutions and others in the chapter on "Banks."
In 1830-31 was erected near Nashville the penitentiary. Before that time Tennessee had no State prison, but punished criminals by hang- ing, branding, whipping, and the stocks.
In 1833 the State erected a lunatic asylum in the southern part of the city. It has since been carried seven miles into the country, and the State has also erected a very fine hospital near Knoxville, for East Ten- nessee, and another near Brownsville, for West Tennessee.
In 1832 the water-works for the city were erected. This subject will be more fully treated of in another chapter.
In 1834 the people found that a few of the provisions of the Constitu- tion of 1796 were unsuited to their condition. In 1796, when the State had only a few thousand inhabitants and land was cheap and unimproved, it was wise not to tax one piece of land more than another of the same acreage; but in 1834 some land was worth one hundred dollars per acre, and land in the mountains scarcely one cent an acre. To tax each acre alike was gross and manifest injustice. It was also found that the coun- ties and towns were not empowered, under the Constitution, to have au- thority for local self-government, as the growing needs of the time de- manded. Hence a convention was called for amending the Constitution of 1796. This convention sat in Nashville from May, 1834, until the completion of their labor of revision and amendment. Instead of simply making the two amendments, the necessity for which had required the calling of the convention, the whole instrument was gone over, and a much more democratic order of things established in the State than had existed theretofore. It would be out of place to discuss here the reasons of the writer of this paper for his preference of the old Constitution over the new one.
In the convention of 1834 Davidson County was represented by that able lawyer and great man, Francis B. Fogg, who had for his associate Robert Weakley, who had had much experience in affairs of State, hav- ing represented this district in the Congress of the United States, and held other important offices of trust and dignity. The Constitution, as amended, was submitted to a vote of the people of the State, and was ac- cepted by a large popular majority.
Nashville had now grown to be a place of some six thousand inhabit-
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ants, who were noted for their intelligence and cultivation. To see our- selves as others see us is always desirable and many times useful. So the writer of this paper does not think he could do a more acceptable thing than here to copy from rather a scarce book of English travels, written by the naturalist, Mr. Featherstonehaugh, from whose book an- other extract has been taken in the foregoing chapter.
Mr. Featherstonehaugh came from Knoxville across the Cumberland Mountains to Nashville by public conveyance, and met on his way Gen- eral Jackson, going by land to Washington City for the last time. After his arrival at Nashville our Englishman writes in his diary as follows:
" In the afternoon, after reading the numerous letters I found waiting for me at the post-office and taking a hasty look at the town, I walked out to a villa in the neighborhood, where my friend, Monsieur Pageot, of the French Legation, was passing some of the summer months with his lady, who is a native of the State of Tennessee. We were delighted to meet in this distant part of the world, and I remained chatting with them until sunset. On reaching my quarters I began the serious work of answering my letters, for I find it one of the very best habits of a man who has a great deal to do to leave, if possible, nothing undone that belongs to the day, and at any rate to make a clear week of it.
"' Nashville contains about 6,000 inhabitants, has a public square, churches, meeting-houses, markets, etc., and is built upon a lofty knoll of limestone, the fossiliferous rocks of which come to the surface. There is also a commodious bridge, which connects the town with the northern bank of the Cumberland River, on the road to Kentucky. Some of the streets are steep and incumbered with sharp pieces of limestone that punish the feet severely when walking. There is an excellent, spacious building in the vicinity called the 'penitentiary,' and another is erecting for a hospital. Coming from the wilderness, where we had been leading a rather rude life for some time, Nashville, with its airy, salubrious posi- tion and its active, bustling population, is quite what an oasis in the des- ert would be; and when the improvements are made in the navigation of the Cumberland River and in the public roads it cannot fail to become a populous town.
" One of my first movements was a walk to the college, to see Profess- or Troost, who is a great enthusiast in geology. It is to be mentioned, to the honor of the State of Tennessee, that it has been one "of the first American States to patronize science, by allowing him $500 a year as geologist to the State, in addition to his appointment at the college as pro- fessor of chemistry and natural history, to which a salary of $1,000 a year is attached; so that the worthy professor is thus enabled to enjoy all the
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comforts of life, and to make himself perfectly happy as the distributor of these sums, for, like all philosophic enthusiasts, he places no value on money, and willingly gives any of the country people $20 to bring him a live rattlesnake or any thing new or curious in natural history. Every thing of the serpent kind he has a particular fancy for, and has always a number of them that he has tamed in his pockets or under his waistcoat. To loll back in his rocking-chair, to talk about geology, and to pat the head of a large snake when twining itself about his neck, is his supreme felicity.
" Every year in the vacation he makes an excursion to the hills, and I was told that upon one of these occasions, being taken up by the stage- coach, which had several members of Congress in it going to Washing- ton, the learned doctor took his seat on the top with a large basket, the lid of which was not over and above well secured. Near to this basket sat a Baptist preacher, on his way to a great public immersion. His rev- erence, awakening from a reverie he had fallen into, beheld, to his unut- terable horror, two rattlesnakes raise their fearful heads out of the bas- ket, and immediately precipitated himself upon the driver, who, almost knocked off his seat, no sooner became apprised of the character of his ophidian outside passengers than he jumped upon the ground with the reins in his hands, and was followed instanter by the preacher. The ' insiders,' as soon as they learned what was going on, immediately be- came outsiders, and nobody was left but the doctor and his rattlesnakes on top. But the doctor, not entering into the general alarm, quietly placed his great-coat over the basket and tied it down with his handker- chief, which when he had done he said: 'Gendlemen, only don't let dese poor dings pite you, und dey won't hoort you.'
. "Dr. Troost is a native of Bois le Duc, in Holland, and is a short, thick man, with a physiognomy entirely German, but pleasing and benev- olent; his hair is white, and his dress not remarkably neat. He was a surgeon in the Dutch army, and when he landed in New York was on his way to Java with a commission from Louis Bonaparte, then his sover- eign, to examine the natural history of that island. Learning, however, that Java had been taken by the English, he proceeded to Philadelphia with an intention to settle there. Dissatisfied with the neglect he experi- enced, he went to New Harmony, in Illinois, with Le Sueur, another naturalist; "and becoming disgusted with the quackery of the socialist philosophers, who had assembled there to practice their insane theories, he in a happy hour came to Nashville, where his merit is acknowledged. His private room at his house is full of snakes, fossils, turtles, birds, fishes, Indian relics, etc., all thrown together in the greatest confusion.
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NASHVILLE FROM 1796 TO 1843.
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It makes no matter what it is, the doctor is such a confirmed virtuoso that every thing is fish that comes to his net.
" The museum of the college, of which I had heard a great deal, con- tains numerous objects collected and placed there by him-chemical ap- paratus, dead animals, stuffed birds, turtles, fossils, minerals, books-all stowed away without the least regard to order, and where none but the master-hand of all this confusion can possibly ferret out any thing that may be wanted. Although a man gifted with a strong intellect, yet the organ of order seems to be rather deficient with the worthy professor. I found him a most friendly and obliging person, and during my stay in Nashville went to see him as often as the public examination now going on at the college would admit of.
"Amongst his Indian relics I observed some [I had seen fragments of the like kind, found in the valleys near Sparta] bearing a close resem- blance to the Mexican idols, or Teutes. One of them was very interest- ing. Some portions of a large cassis cornuta, a shell found near Tampico, in the Gulf of Mexico, had been broken away, and one of these images, or idols, was placed upon the point of the colemella as a kind of altar. This was found in the Sequatchie Valley, in Bledsoe County, through which runs a tributary of the Tennessee, whose waters flow into the Mis- sissippi. This Sequatchie Valley seems to have been a favorite resort of the Indians in old times, for it contains great numbers of their graves and monuments.
" When the language of the Cherokee Indians comes to be analytically examined some affinities to the Aztec dialects may possibly be discovered, and it certainly is a fact of some importance to the inquirer after the ori- gin of the Indians that there are some points of resemblance between the Cherokees and Mexicans, and that the first had been seated, long before America was discovered, in the warm, sheltered valleys that debouched into rivers emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.
"I received a great deal of pleasure during my stay here in attending the examinations at the college. One of the days was appropriated to Dr. Troost, and a great number of ladies and gentlemen assembled in his lab- oratory. The students read essays on geology and natural history that deserved much commendation and afforded me, for the first time, such a gratifying spectacle as I had never before witnessed in any of the colleges of this country. The doctor says that although he has had some sensi- ble, clever youths under his care, he has not yet met with one enthusiast ; therefore I do not apprehend the science will make a very rapid progress here.
" The other branches of learning appeared to me to receive great at-
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tention. Mr. Hamilton, the professor of mathematics, is an able man ; and Dr. Lindsley, the Principal, seems worthy of his situation. The stu- dents, in several instances, had made very good progress in the languages, and what struck and surprised me was the purity of their elocution, which was divested of any thing like provincialism. I could not help compli- menting Dr. Lindsley upon this point, for it is not to be concealed that the vulgar corruptions which are silently taking place in the English tongue in the Southern States threaten to establish a sort of Creole dialect that, in concert with the effects of their popular institutions of govern- ment, may rapidly effect the total corruption of our language there. The dialects of Lancashire and Yorkshire are unintelligible enough to stran- gers, but the respectability of antiquity attaches to them; they are the ancient languages of the people of those districts, have been honestly transmitted down to them, and are slowly yielding to the progress of im- provement. Here the people have been furnished with one of the finest languages spoken in Christendom, yet they seem to be taking such pains to make it indecently vulgar and obscure that, although accustomed to it, I frequently am left almost ignorant of what they really mean to say. A liberal institution, like this college, conducted in the manner it is, is an inestimable blessing to the State, and will enlarge and purify the minds of hundreds whose shining examples will assist to keep down the vulgar- ities that must overrun every country where education is not worthily at- tended to. The gentlemen of Tennessee who patronize this college de- serve, therefore, to be mentioned with all honor as the benefactors of the coming generation.
"No traveler who comes into this country as I have done can feel any thing but respect for what he sees around him in this place. When I first visited North America, in 1806, the word ' Tennessee' was mentioned as a kind of ultima thule. Now it is a sovereign State, with a population of upward of 700,000 inhabitants; has given a President to the United States, and has established a geological chair in the wilderness. The first log hut ever erected in Nashville was in 1780; now there is a handsome town, good substantial brick houses, with public edifices that would em- bellish any city in America, and certainly, so far as architecture is con- cerned, one of the most chaste Episcopal churches in the United States. Beside these, there are numerous extensive warehouses-evidences of a brisk commerce-and an exceedingly well-constructed bridge thrown across the Cumberland River. It adds greatly to the interest of the place that a few of the hardy individuals who, with their rifles on their shoul- ders, penetrated here and became the first settlers, still live to see the ex- traordinary changes which have taken place."
NASHVILLE FROM 1796 TO 1843.
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But this is enough of this learned Englishman's view of Nashville. If space permitted, we would continue his very charming sketches of the so- ciety and people he met here. We can only refer the reader to the book itself.
Nashville continued to grow and improve. In 1843 the Legislature then sitting, in obedience to the mandate of the Constitution, which re- quired that a permanent capital should then be selected for the State, after a spirited contest on the part of other towns in the State for this great prize, wisely determined to remain at Nashville. The people of the town purchased and gave to the State the beautiful site upon which steps were soon taken to erect the grand building which now, as capitol of the State, is the pride and ornament of Nashville.
The old capitol building used for the meeting of the Legislature in 1812-15 still stands on Broad Street, nearly opposite to the magnificent post-office building recently erected by the United States Government. It is a curious fact that this old capitol has in recent times been wholly over- looked and forgotten in the rush of building and improving the city. The writer is indebted to Dr. C. D. Elliott for calling his attention to the fact that this interesting building now stands where we have above stated. A picture of the old capitol of Tennessee as it now appears is here given. The writer doubts if five people in Nashville are aware that it has thus been handed down from former generations, that Heaven has bounteous- ly lengthened out its days, or that it exists at all in our midst.
1 1-8 8
G.E. MURPHY ENG. NASHETENN
STATE CAPITOL BUILDING 1812-1815
CHAPTER VIII.
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
Beginning of Corporate Existence-First Survey of Town Lots-Jail Notice-Secret Sessions of Aldermen Opposed-Early Expenses-First Board of Public Works-Market-house- First Division into Wards-List of Officers-The Post-office-Water-works-Board of Health-Value of Meteorological Observations-Wyatt's Filtering Apparatus-Yellow Fever-Statistical Tables-Fire Department-Police Force-Board of Public Works and Affairs-South Nashville-Edgefield Corporation.
T' HE quasi-corporate existence of Nashville commenced in April, 1784. At the April session of that year the Legislature of North Carolina passed an act of which the following is a part:
"Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Caro- lina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that the di- rectors or trustees hereafter appointed, or a majority of them, shall, so soon as may be after the passing of this act, cause two hundred acres of land, situate on the south side of the Cumberland River, at a place called the Bluff, adjacent to the French Lick, in which said Lick shall not be in- cluded, to be laid off in lots of one acre each, with convenient streets, lanes, and alleys, reserving four acres for the purpose of erecting public buildings, on which land, so laid off according to the directions of this act, is hereby constituted and erected, and established a town, and shall be known and called Nashville, in memory of the patriotic and brave General Nash." The town had before the act been called Nashborough.
By other portions of this act Samuel Barton, Thomas Molloy, Daniel Smith, James Shaw, and Isaac Lindsay were appointed directors and trustees, and Samuel Burden treasurer, of the town. The directors pro- ceeded to lay off the two hundred acres into lots as directed by the act, and to make a map or plot of the same. On a day appointed for the purpose, these lots were drawn by ballot, each subscriber taking the number or numbers drawn, upon each of which lots ££4 was required to be paid by the treasurer into the hands of Ephraim McLean, Andrew Ewing, and Jonathan Drake, to be applied to the purpose of building a court-house, prison, and stocks, upon the reserved lots, for the benefit of Davidson County. The bond required of the treasurer was in the sum of £1,000 for the faithful performance of his duties. The trustees had power to fill all vacancies caused by death or resignation by the appoint- ment of successors from among any of the freeholders of the town.
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