USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
Owing to the manifold inequalities of the ground upon which it is built the elevation of Nashville above the level of the sea ranges from three
26
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
hundred and sixty-five feet at the edge of low water on the Cumberland River to six hundred and eighty-one feet at the summit of Kirkpatrick's Hill; and there are several points within its limits that rise above five hun- dred feet. This fact makes it somewhat difficult to get a panoramic view of the city. But if the reader has time and strength to follow Doctor Win- chell to the cupola of the capitol, or to the top of the great circle of stone at the new reservoir, he will find himself amply repaid for the exertion put forth. An easier method of reaching the same result would be to charter space in a large balloon, and, picking some clear day, to sail to a point of observation about half a mile above the earth. Let us, as if from that high vantage-ground, undertake to describe the ample prospect:
The Cumberland River, sinuous as a snake, and here flowing to the north and north-west, is of course the first object to attract attention. Gliding along the bottom of its deeply furrowed channel as if it were trying to hide itself in the bowels of the earth, it cuts the city into two unequal parts. The smaller of these parts (formerly known as Edgefield) lies on the east bank of the river, and is itself subdivided by the rather broad and deep valley of an inconsiderable stream into northern and southern sec- tions. The southern section, which is one of great beauty, retreats with a gradual rise from the river-bank, till at a distance of something over a mile it terminates in an eminence two hundred feet above low water. The surface of the northern section is more nearly level, and extends back a much greater distance to a series of low ridges that sweep in graceful curves to the north-west.
The larger part of Nashville, lying to the west of the river, has with equal precision been marked off by the finger of nature into distinct dis- tricts. The separating lines between these districts are the valleys of Lick. Branch and Wilson's Spring Branch, two small streams which take their- rise in the chain of hills to the south of the city, and flow north-eastward to the Cumberland, their mouths being about one mile apart. " The city is thus divided topographically into three ridges or spurs, extending from the main ridge in its rear, each having for its termination a rocky bluff abutting upon the river."
The first of these districts is the one commonly known as South Nashville. It is bounded on the north by Wilson's Spring Branch, al -- ready mentioned; and on the south by Brown's Creek, which rises about seven miles to the south of the city, flows to the north until it almost reaches the city limits, and then turns to the north-east, and empties itself into the river about two miles higher up. Beginning at a bluff about one hun- dred and seventy feet above low-water mark on the river front, at a point where the old reservoir has long stood, this division of the city falls back.
27
NATURAL ADVANTAGES.
with an undulating surface for one mile, and then rises up to the summit of St. Cloud Hill, better known in recent days as Fort Negley. Thence, sinking down in the interval so as to make a passage for the Franklin turnpike, it mounts with something like abruptness to a height of two hun- dred and ninety-one feet on Currey's Hill (Fort Morton) and of three hundred and sixteen feet on Kirkpatrick's Hill (Fort Casino).
The second division, Central Nashville, is also for the most part a sort of ridge. It is included between Lick Branch on the north and Wilson's Spring Branch on the south. Starting from the bluff at the Edgefield bridge, which is there one hundred and twenty-five feet above low water, it keeps a westward direction and an almost unchanging elevation for one- third of a mile, and then ascends rapidly into the rounded hill upon which the State capitol is built. The lower platform of this capitol is one hun- dred and ninety-one feet, its main platform two hundred feet, and the main crest of the roof two hundred and eighty-two feet above low water. From this point there is a descent by very steep grades to the north and west; but on the south, running on the line of Spruce Street, the crest of the ridge maintains an average elevation of over one hundred feet for nearly a mile, and then forms a junction with the outlying slopes of Cur- rey's Hill.
The third division, North Nashville, embraces all that part of the city that lies to the north and the north-west of Lick Branch. As can easily be seen from a good map, it is almost entirely encircled by the bend of the river. The bluff of seventy-five feet which closely faces the river on the east retires inwardly a short distance below the corporation line, and leaves a bottom nearly one mile in width between its base and the river- bank. This bottom extends quite around the bend of the river. Between it and the valley of Lick Branch the surface is rolling, and has an aver- age elevation of from eighty to one hundred feet above low water. At Fisk University it reaches an altitude of one hundred and fifty-four feet, and at St. Cecilia Academy of one hundred and sixty-five feet.
"A fourth, or south-western, division comprises all that area which lies between the two prongs of Lick Branch-one of which, taking its rise near the West Side Park, is known as Cockrill Spring Branch; and the other, rising to the west of the eminence known as Currey's Hill, runs nearly parallel with the river, and unites with the Cockrill Spring Branch at a point nearly due west of the capitol. The territory thus bounded is undulating, intersected by numerous tributaries of one or the other of the two streams mentioned, and rises at first gradually and then more rapidly to the chain of hills extending from Currey's Hill to the Charlotte turn- pike. The summits of these hills have an elevation ranging from two
28
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
hundred and twenty to three hundred and eighty feet above low water, and they are separated at numerous lower points or gaps through which the different turnpikes and the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis railroad are built. Many prominent points are comprised within this area-one just astride the city limits, where Fort Houston was built, one hundred and seventy-eight feet above low water; another occupied by Vanderbilt University, the highest point in the grounds being two hun- dred and five feet above low water.
"Thus are briefly described the salient topographical features of Nash- ville and its vicinity. By describing more particularly the valleys herein mentioned a clearer understanding can be had of their relation to the city. The valley of Lick Branch is a nearly level area, about one-half mile wide at its broadest point, and narrowing to three hundred yards wide at the junction with the Cockrill Spring Branch, nearly a mile from the river. Its average elevation is thirty-two feet above low water back as far as the crossing of Spruce Street, from which point it rises to forty- seven feet at the junction of the Cockrill Spring Branch, and still more rapidly thence to the head of both branches. As the difference between low water here referred to and extreme high water is fifty-seven feet, it will be seen that at a time of high freshets the valley of Lick Branch is covered to a depth, at the junction of the Cockrill Spring Branch, of ten feet, and thence ranging to twenty-five feet deep at the lower points. This extreme height has been reached but once since Nashville has been known as a locality-to wit, in 1847. A height only five feet less, how- ever, has been reached frequently. The valley of Wilson's Spring Branch, which is about one-quarter of a mile wide a short distance above its mouth, and one hundred yards wide half a mile from the river, rises gradually from an elevation of thirty-nine feet above low water at its widest point, to fifty-seven feet above low water half a mile from the river. This valley has therefore been flooded to a depth ranging from eighteen feet to nothing half a mile back. It is therefore evident that at extreme high water there are two wide inlets or bays from the river-one of which is half a mile long, the other one over a mile-which separate the first, second, and third divisions of the city from one another." *
The difficulty arising from the fact stated in the foregoing paragraph is that it unfits a considerable part of the city for permanent habitation. This is a serious drawback. It is offset, however, by the other fact that the uneven and irregular surface of the rest of the city, descending in all
* Major W. F. Foster, in report of Board of Health for 1877. We are much indebted to this report for help in writing this whole section on the city's topography. In recent years the valley of Wilson's Spring Branch has been largely filled up.
29
NATURAL ADVANTAGES.
directions into these valleys, affords a natural drainage as excellent as that possessed by any city in the country. When this natural advantage shall have been perfectly utilized in the construction of scientific sewers, a work which has already been begun, we may reasonably expect to see a won- derful improvement in all the sanitary conditions of the city, and may hope that the death rate, which is even now exceedingly low, will be still further reduced.
Within the past few weeks the city engineer, Mr. Jowett, has reported a plan for constructing a sewer large enough to carry off all the water of Lick Branch from West End Avenue to a point near the north-western corner of the penitentiary. That, sooner or later, this plan will be adopt- ed there can be no doubt. In fact, it is only a question of time when such a sewer will be built down to the river itself. After that, the enter- prise of the city will be called upon to fill up the bottom in some way or other, and make it habitable and valuable ground.
CHAPTER II.
MOUND BUILDERS, INDIANS, AND FRENCH.
Origin of the Mounds in This Vicinity-Stone-grave Cemetery on the Present Site of Nash- ville-Other Cemeteries-General Thruston on a Recent " Find "-Collections of Relics of the Mound Builders-Dr. Joseph Jones on the Remarkable Preservation of Skeletons of Mound Builders-Speculations on Who Were the Mound Builders-The Natchez Indians- The Disappearance of the Mound Builders-The Shawnee Indians-Nashville as a French Trading-post.
T HAT the valley of the Cumberland was the center of a vast popula- tion long before it had met the gaze of any white man's eyes is one of the things about which there can be no dispute. In no part of the North American Continent do we discover more manifest indications of the former presence of that mysterious people who are known indiffer- ently as the Mound Builders or the stone-grave race. Concerning this people the voice of history is absolutely silent; and even tradition, that useful but untrustworthy substitute for written records, has not a word to say. The Cherokees and Shawnees, who were the occupants of Ten- nessee at the earliest historical period, informed General Robertson and Judge Haywood that the mounds were here when their ancestors first en- tered the country, and declared that they were entirely ignorant as to their origin and purpose. For all our actual knowledge on the subject we are indebted to the researches of archæology. There are many points on which this noble science has been able to throw only the faint- est light. Some things, however, it has made out quite clearly. "It is within the bounds of truth," says General G. P. Thruston, himself an accomplished and enthusiastic antiquarian, " to state that, after more than a century of occupation by the whites, the burial-grounds of its aborigi- nal inhabitants within a radius of fifty miles of Nashville contain the re- mains of a greater number of dead than the aggregate of the present cemeteries of the whites." In this opinion General Thruston is sustained by the unanimous judgment of all the investigators who have taken the time and the pains to give the matter adequate attention.
A large part of the city of Nashville itself has been built over an ex- tensive stone-grave cemetery, which lay around the Sulphur Spring and along the valley of Lick Branch. There was a second one, surrounding a chain of four mounds, on the immediately opposite bank of the Cum- berland. A third was situated on the same side of the river, and about a mile and a half farther down; a fourth at Cockrill's Spring, in West
-
31
MOUND BUILDERS, INDIANS, AND. FRENCH.
Nashville; a fifth on the Charlotte turnpike some six miles from the city ; a sixth near the mouth of Stone's River, twelve miles above; and a sev- enth at Hayesboro. In fact, the list might be multiplied almost indefinite- ly, for there is scarcely any part of Middle Tennessee, especially along the larger water-courses, where this ancient people did not rear their mounds and other earth-works and bury their dead. The work of re- search has been going on since the time of the industrious and inquisitive but rather credulous Judge Haywood, about three-quarters of a century ; but it is exceedingly likely that numerous discoveries yet remain to be made.
Within the past two years there has been a very interesting "find" on the waters of Brown's Creek, about five miles from Nashville. With re- gard to this cemetery General Thruston says ( "Ancient Society in Ten- nessee," p. 374): " It has recently been explored-in fact, pillaged and devastated-by relic hunters and collectors. Notwithstanding its rough usage, it has yielded many rare and valuable specimens-some four or five hundred pieces of ancient pottery, a number of them unique in form, and of such fine finish that they may be said to be almost glazed, cooking-ves- sels, water-jars, hanging vessels, drinking-cups, ornamented and plain sets of ware, apparently for the rich and poor, and for the little children, basins, plates, and indeed an ample store for a well-supplied aboriginal cuisine; also pipes, implements, and an infinite variety of articles illus- trating the domestic life of the ancient inhabitants of Tennessee. Among the treasures found are a number of articles indicating some com- mercial development, a pipe made of red 'pipe-stone' or catlinite, found only in Dakota Territory, more than a thousand miles distant, native cop- per from the shores of Lake Superior, ornamented sea-shells from the Gulf and South Atlantic coast, mica from North Carolina, exquisitely polished implements of cannel-coal, pearls from the Southern rivers, implements of polished hematite from distant iron mines, and of steatite and quartz from the Alleghany range; also a large number of images or idols, some of them doubtless types of the very features and lineaments of the prehistoric race buried in these graves."
A magnificent collection of relics of the kinds just above described is now in possession of General Thruston. A similar collection, said to be also of rare value, belongs to Mr. E. D. Hicks, who has for many years devoted much attention to the matter. The Tennessee Historical Society is also rich in this direction; and the Smithsonian Institute has gathered many fine specimens from the graves and mounds hereabouts.
One of the most remarkable facts is that, old as these graves certainly are, yet in many cases the skeletons which they contain are in a state of
32
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
almost perfect preservation, though they, of course, quickly crumble to dust on exposure to the air. This fact may be partly accounted for by the manner of burial, which is described by Dr. Joseph Jones ("Explo- rations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee," p. 8) as follows: "An excavation agreeing with that of the body of the dead was made in the ground, and the bottom carefully paved with flat stones. Flat stones or slabs of limestone and slaty sandstone were placed along the sides and at the head and foot of the grave. The body was then placed within this rude coffin, and with it were deposited vases, small ornaments, pearls, beads, bands of wampum, large sea-shells, idols, warlike imple- ments, stone hatchets and chisels, spear-heads, arrow-heads, stone swords, paint-bowls, and even copper ornaments. The top of the grave was then covered with one or more flat stones. The upper slabs cover- ing the graves were generally on a level with the surface of the ground. In some localities, however, and especially in the more carefully con- structed burial-mounds, the graves were covered with a foot of earth or more, and in order to discover their location I was obliged to sink an iron rod into the loose soil until it struck the coffin."
In regard to these stone-grave folk there are numerous questions which every thoughtful man will be disposed to ask. Utter indifference concerning them would be a sure sign of intellectual stupidity. The instinct which prompts us to find out whatever can be discovered con- cerning our brother men of distant ages is native to our minds. It is especially proper that we should go to the utmost limits of attainable knowledge with reference to the races that once tenanted the valleys and the hills in the midst of which we have now planted our own homes. The backward look is not only justified, but demanded.
Who, then, were the Mound Builders? To what great division or branch of the human family did they belong? In what direction must we look for their kinships? Many answers have been given to these questions, none of them entirely satisfactory to persons who demand scientific demonstration. It is to be noted, however, that the field of inquiry is constantly being narrowed by the disproval and rejection of hasty and immature theories. Nor is it too much to hope that in the years to come we shall be able to speak with a clearer and more self- confident tone. General Thruston's former view (which we understand he has somewhat modified, though the measure of the modification we are not able to state) is briefly this: "The stone-grave race and the builders of the mounds and earth-works in Tennessee and probably in the Mississippi Valley were Indians, North American Indians, probably the ancestors of the Southern red or copper-colored Indians found by the
4
33
MOUND BUILDERS, INDIANS, AND FRENCH.
whites in this general section, a race formerly living under conditions of life somewhat different from that of the more nomadic hunting tribes, but not differing from them in the essential characters of the Indian race." There are some who insist that the Mound Builders were an Hamitic stock, and closely akin to the Phenicians; but it may be safely said that the most competent scientific authorities scarcely regard this position as worthy of refutation. Dr. Jones, from whom we have already quoted, and whose almost exhaustive work has been published under the direc- tion of the Smithsonian Institute, says (p. 88): "My examination of the organic and monumental remains and of the works of art of the aborigi- nes of Tennessee established the fact that they are not the relics of the nomadic and hunting tribes of Indians existing at the time of the explo- ration of the coasts and interior of the continent by the white race; but that, on the contrary, they are the remains of a people closely related to, if not identical with the more civilized nations of Mexico and Central America. The question whether the Mound Builders of the Mississippi Valley were the primitive race from which the Toltecs and the Aztecs sprung or whether they were offshoots of these races cannot at present be definitely settled. A solution of this interesting question will depend upon a careful exploration of the aboriginal remains of the entire North American Continent. When this great work is completed it may be possible to decide as to the relative age and relationship of the remains in different sections of the continent, and thus to establish the lines of occupation and emigration of the Mound Builders." This temperate and perhaps correct statement is as far as Dr. Jones chooses to go. The substance of it is that the Toltecs and Aztecs and the Mound Builders were in their origin the same people; but whether the Toltecs and Aztecs went down into Mexico and Central America from the Mississippi Val- ley or the Mound Builders came up into the Mississippi Valley from Mexico and Central America is still a debatable matter. In another part of his treatise Dr. Jones indulges in some speculations concerning the identity of the Mound Builders with the Natchez, and adduces a number of considerations that look in that direction. The substance of his remarks may be best expressed under three or four consecutive heads :
I. Many of the crania of the stone graves and mounds bear a striking resemblance to those of the Natchez, described and figured in Morton's " Crania Americana."
2. There are many grounds for supposing that the Natchez were of the old Toltecan stock, chief of which are the two facts that they were probably worshipers of the sun, and were governed by hereditary rulers. 3
34
HISTORY OF NASHVILLE.
3. The Natchez in former times (say three hundred and fifty or four hundred years ago) extended from the river Manchez, or Iberville, which is about fifty leagues from the Gulf of Mexico, to the river Wabash, which is about four hundred and fifty leagues from the Gulf. It is likely, however, that they occupied the valleys of all the rivers that fall into the Mississippi between these two points, and consequently covered the scope of country in which the mounds and stone graves are found.
4. It is impossible to prove that the Natchez and the aborigines of Tennessee were identically the same people; but it is at least reasonably certain that they were related in their origin, and may at some remote time have been subjected to the same form of government, and have practiced the same religious rites.
That the stone-grave people of Tennessee were idolaters is beyond a question. They made many idols, cutting some from solid stone, and fashioning others from a mixture of clay and shells. The indications are that they built altars and offered sacrifices. On high and almost inac- cessible cliffs they painted the emblems of the sun and moon.
" The presence of large sea-shells of various species in great numbers in the stone graves shows that the race either had commercial relations extending to the shores of the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pa- cific; or that these shells had been preserved in their migrations from remote regions. This conclusion is sustained also by the representation of certain Mexican and Central American birds and animals on their pipes and culinary vessels, and the use of obsidian, fluor-spar, and ser- pentine in the construction of their idols and warlike implements."
It is natural for us to ask: When did the Mound Builders vanish away? It is also equally difficult to get a satisfactory response to our interroga- tion. Some of the mounds in Tennessee were constructed at least five hundred years ago, as is evident from the size and age of the trees that are found growing upon them; but we are not, therefore, shut up to the supposition that no Mound Builders have lived here since that time. On the contrary, it is believed by competent judges that some remnants of them were still inhabiting this section when Columbus discovered the Western Continent; but they did not tarry many decades later than that great event. As to the causes that finally swept them away we know nothing. The imagination is, consequently, free to do its best in ac- counting for such a catastrophe. There are many conceivable ways in which these earliest Tennesseeans may have been literally and utterly exterminated. Other races-less civilized, but stronger in the art of war- may have swooped down upon them, sparing neither rank nor sex nor age. It is not hard to imagine a contest in which quarter was neither
35
MOUND BUILDERS, INDIANS, AND FRENCH.
given nor asked, and which could terminate only in the annihilation of one or the other side. Or gaunt famine, following in the wake of con- suming droughts and destructive floods, may have invaded the thickly settled communities, and have left none behind to tell the tale of its doings. Or pestilence, with its breath of poison, may have played a part in the mighty transaction; for the very bones that are dug up from the stone coffins reveal the presence. and the workings of some of the most dreadful diseases with which humanity has ever been scourged.
It is impossible to think of these things without a certain sense of awe. If we are oppressed with a feeling of powerlessness as we stand by the death-bet of a single fellow-man, what kind of impression must be pro- duced by the contemplation of the extinction of a whole people. Aspir- ing as human beings are, great as are the works which they perform, wonderful as are the monuments which they leave behind them, they are yet unable to resist the process of dissolution and decay. On the banks of the Cumberland, as truly as on the banks of the Nile, we may read a lesson on the vanity of human hopes, and listen to a melancholy story of human disappointment and death. On the complete disappear- ance of the Mound Builders Judge Haywood moralizes as follows: " Voracious time has drawn them, with the days of other years, into her capacious stomach, where, dissolving into aliments of oblivion, they have left to be saved from annihilation only the faint glimmering chronicles of their former being."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.