USA > Tennessee > Williamson County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 13
USA > Tennessee > Maury County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 13
USA > Tennessee > Rutherford County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 13
USA > Tennessee > Wilson County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 13
USA > Tennessee > Bedford County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 13
USA > Tennessee > Marshall County > History of Tennessee, from the earliest time to the present; together with an historical and a biographical sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall counties, besides a valuable fund of notes, reminiscences, observations, etc., etc. Vol. 1 > Part 13
USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee from the earliest time to the present , together with an historical and a biographical sketch of from twenty-five to thirty counties of east Tennessee, besides a valuable fund of notes, original observations, reminiscences, etc., etc. V. 1 > Part 13
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While these events were taking place, numerous traders were making their way from the Atlantic coast to the south and west. In 1690 Doherty, a trader from Virginia, visited the Cherokees, and in 1730 Adair, from South Carolina, extended his tour through the towns of this tribe. . In 1740 other traders employed a Mr. Vaughn as packman to transport their goods. These traders passed to the westward along the Tennessee below the Muscle Shoals, and there came in competition with other trad-
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ers from New Orleans and Mobile. Those who returned to northern markets were usually heavily laden with peltries which sold at highly re- munerative prices. A hatchet, a pocket looking-glass or a piece of scarlet cloth and other articles which cost but little and were of but little intrin- sic value would command among the Indians on the Hiwassee or the Tennessee peltries which could be sold for forty times their original cost in Charleston or Philadelphia. It is worthy of remark that most of these traders were Scotchmen who had been but a short time in the country, who were thus at peace with the Indians, and the commerce which they carried on proved a source of great profit and was with them for a time a monopoly. But this monopoly was not to be permitted long to continue. The cupidity of frontier hunters became excited as they perceived the heavily laden trader or packman returning from the far Western wilder- ness which they had not yet ventured to penetrate; and as game became scarce in their own accustomed haunts east of the mountains they soon began to accompany the traders to the West and to trap and hunt on their own account.
But these hunters and traders can scarcely be considered the precur- sors of the pioneer settlers of Tennessee. In 1748 Dr. Thomas Walker, of Virginia, in company with Cols. Wood, Patton and Buchanan and Capt. Charles Campbell, made an exploring tour upon the Western waters. Passing Powell's Valley he gave the name "Cumberland " to the lofty range of mountains on the west of the valley. Tracing this range in a southwest direction he came to- a remarkable depression in the chain. Through this depression he passed, calling it " Cumberland Gap. " West of the range of mountains he found a beautiful mountain stream to which he gave the name of "Cumberland River, " all in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, then Prime Minister of England. The Indian name of the river was Warito. On account of the supposition that the Virginia line, if extended westward, would run south of its present location, a grant of land was made by the authorities in Virginia to Edmund Pendleton of 3,000 acres lying in Augusta County on a branch of the middle fork of the Indian River, called West Creek, now in Sullivan County, Tenn. The original patent was signed by Gov. Dinwiddie, was presented to Dr. Ramsey by T. A. R. Nelson, of Jonesboro, and is probably the oldest patent in the State.
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In 1760 Dr. Walker again passed over Clinch and Powell Rivers ou a tour of exploration into Kentucky. At the head of one of the parties that visited the West in 1761 " came Daniel Boone, from the Yadkin in North Carolina, and traveled with them as low as the place where Abing- don now stands and there left them." This is the first time the name of
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Daniel Boone is mentioned by historians in connection with explorations into Tennessee, but there is evidence that he was in the State at least a year earlier, evidence that is satisfactory to most writers on the subject. N. Gammon, formerly of Jonesboro, and later of Knoxville, furnished to Dr. Ramsey a copy of an inscription until recently to be seen upon a beech tree standing in the valley of Boone's Creek, a tributary of the Watauga, which is here presented:
D. Boon Cilled A BAR on Tree in the
yeaR 1760
If Daniel Boone wrote or rather cut this inscription on the tree, as is generally believed to have been the case, it is not improbable that he ac- companied Dr. Walker on his second tour of exploration, which was made in 1760, and it fixes the date of his arrival in this State. But this, appar- ently, is not demonstrable. The New American Cyclopedia says in ref- erence to Daniel Boone: "When he was about eighteen his father re- moved to North Carolina and settled on the Yadkin. Here Daniel mar- ried Rebecca Bryan and for some years followed the occupation of a far- mer, but about 1761 we find that his passion for hunting led him with a company of explorers into the wilderness at the head waters of the Tennessee river;" and Collins, in his History of Kentucky, writes as though Boone's knowledge of and interest in the wild-woods of Kentucky began upon hearing reports of their beauty and value by John Findley, who did not make his exploration until 1767, which will be referred to in its proper chronological connection. However, with regard to the inscription it would seem legitimate to inquire why did not Boone spell his own name correctly on the tree ?
In this same year, 1761, a company of about twenty hunters, chiefly from Virginia came into what is now Hawkins County, Tenn., and hunted in Carter's Valley about eighteen months. Their names have not all been preserved; a portion of them, however, were Wallen, Scaggs, Blevins and Cox. Late in 1762 this party came again and hunted on the Clinch and other rivers, as was also the case in 1763 when they penetrated further into the interior, passed through Cumberland Gap. and hunted the entire season upon the Cumberland River. In 1764 Daniel Boone, now in the employ of Henderson & Co., came again to explore the country. He was accompanied this time by Samuel Calla- way, ancestor of the Callaway family in Tennessee, Kentucky and Mis- souri. After Boone and Callaway came Henry Scaggins, who extended his tour to the lower Cumberland and fixed his station at Mansker's Lick,
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the first exploration west of the Cumberland Mountains by an Anglo- American. In June, 1766, according to Haywood, Col. James Smith set out to explore the rich lands between the Ohio and Cherokee Rivers, then lately ceded to Great Britain. Traveling westwardly from the Hol- ston River, in company with Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone and William Baker, and a slave belonging to Horton, they explored the country south of Kentucky, and the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers from Stone River, which they named after Uriah Stone, down to the Ohio. Arriving at the mouth of the Tennessee Col. Smith, accompanied by Horton's slave, returned to Carolina in October. The rest of the party went on to Illinois.
The recital by Co !. Smith of what he had seen on the lower Cumber- land, the extraordinary fertility of the soil, its rich flora, its exuberant pasture, etc., excited in the minds of the people in the Atlantic States which he visited an ardent and irrepressible desire to emigrate to that country. In 1767 John Findley, accompanied by several persons, visited the West. Passing through Cumberland Gap he explored the country as far as the Kentucky River. Upon his return his glowing descriptions of the fertility of the country beyond the Cumberland Mountains excited the curiosity of the frontiersmen of North Carolina and Virginia no less than did those of Col. Smith. With reference to this journey of Findley, Collins says:
--
"In 1767 the return of Findley from his adventurous excursion into the unexplored wilds beyond the Cumberland Mountains, and the glow- ing account he gave of the richness and fertility of the new country. excited powerfully the curiosity and imagination of the frontier-back- woodsmen of Virginia and North Carolina, ever on the watch for adven- ture, and to whom the lonely wilderness with its perils presented attrac- tions which were not to be found in the close confinement and enervating inactivity of the settlements. To a man of Boone's temperament and tastes, the scenes described by Findley presented charms not to be resisted; and in 1769 he left his family upon the Yadkin, and in company with five others, of whom Findley was one, he started to explore the coun- try of which he had heard so favorable an account.
"Having reached a stream of water on the borders of the present State of Kentucky, called Red River, they built a cabin to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather (for the season had been very rainy), and divided their time between hunting and the chase, killing immense quan- tities of game. Nothing of particular interest occurred until the 22d of December, 1769, when Boone, in company with a man named Stuart, being out hunting, was surprised and captured by the Indians. They
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remained with their captors seven days, till having, by a rare and power- ful exertion of self-control, suffering no signs of impatience to escape them, they succeeded in disarming the suspicions of the Indians, effected their escape without difficulty. On regaining their camp they found it dismantled and deserted: the fate of its inmates was never ascertained, and it is worthy of remark that this is the last and almost only glimpse we have of Findley, the first pioneer."
Ramsey says: "Of Findley nothing more is known than that ho was the first hunter of Kentucky and the pilot of Boone to the dark and bloody ground." He also says that in December of that year (1769) John Stewart was killed by the Indians (quoting from Butler) " the first as far as is known in the hecatombs of white men, offered by the Indians to the god of battles in their desperate and ruthless contention for Ken- tucky." Boone, therefore, except possibly Findley, was the only one of this party of six who, passing through East Tennessee, made this explor- ation into Kentucky and returned.
The events which immediately follow the above in chronological suc- cession have more or less relation to the Treaty of Paris, or the Peace of 1763, hence a brief account of that treaty is appropriate in this con- nection, and also from the fact that the territory, now comprising Ten- nessee, as well as a large amount of other territory, was by that treaty ceded by France to England. Of the effect of this treaty upon England, Bancroft says:
" At the peace of 1763 the fame of England was exalted in Europe above that of all other nations. She had triumphed over those whom she called her hereditary enemies, and retained one-half a continent as a monument of her victories. Her American dominions extended without dispute, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay, and in her older possessions that dominion was rooted as firmly in the affections of the colonists as in their institutions and laws. The ambition of British statesmen might well be inflamed with the desire of connecting the mother country and her trans-Atlantic empire by indis- soluble bonds of mutual interests and common liberties."
But this treaty, howsoever great may have been its effect upon the majesty and grandeur of the English Government, and howsoever great may have been the relief obtained by the French nation, neither French nor. English appears to have taken into account the rights or well-being of the independent Indian tribes, the real owners of the territory ceded by the one nation to the other. Not having been consulted by the great powers, having been in fact entirely ignored, the Indians naturally refused to be bound by the transfer of their country by the French to the
محر مات
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English, and hence every excursion into their hunting ground was looked upon with jealousy, and was finally met with resistance as an invasion of their country, and an unwarranted encroachment upon their rights. The Indians had been, in the years of their alliance with the French, pre- pared for this attitude toward the English, by the efforts of the people of the former nation to excite in the savage tribes fears of the designs of the English to dispossess them of their entire country. For the purpose of allaying as far as practicable, or removing these apprehensions, King George, on the 7th of October, 1763, issued his proclamation prohibiting the provincial governors from granting lands or issuing land warrants to be located west of the mountains, or west of the sources of those streams flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. And all private persons were strictly enjoined from purchasing any lands of the Indians, such purchases being directed to be made, if made at all, at a general meeting or assem- bly of the Indians, to be held for that purpose by the governor or com- mander-in-chief of each colony, respectively.
But no matter what may have been the intention of King George, of England, in the issuance of this proclamation, its effect upon the west- ward tide of immigration was imperceptible. The contagious spirit of ad- venture and exploration had now risen to the dignity of an epidemic. An avalanche of population was being precipitated upon these fertile valleys, hills and plains, and the proclamation of the King had no more effect upon these eager, moving masses than had the famous fulmination of the Pope against the comet. And the proclamation of the King was looked upon even by " the wise and virtuous George Washington and Chancellor Livingston " as an article to quiet the fears of the Indians while the oc- cupancy of their country went on all the same. In addition to the na- tural stimulus to this tide of immigration, of the immense advantages of the soil and climate, was the artificial stimulus of special grants of land by the provinces of Great Britain, with the approval of the crown, to offi- cers and soldiers who had Arved in the British Army against the French and their allies, the Indi ..... Thus the King's proclamation was in di- rect contravention of the grants authorized by a previous proclamation of the King. By this latter mentioned, but earlier issued proclamation, · officers and soldiers were granted lands as follows: Every person hav- ing the rank of a field officer, 5,000 acres; every captain, 3,000 acres; every subaltern or staff officer, 2,000 acres; every non-commissioned officer, 200 acres, and every private fifty acres. These officers and sol- diers, with scrip and military warrants in their hands, were constantly employed in selecting and locating their claims. These continued en- croachments kept the Indian tribes in a state of dissatisfaction and
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alarm, but though thus exasperated they refrained from open hostilities. Because of these encroachments and alarms the royal Government in- structed the superintendents of Indian affairs to establish boundary lines between the whites and Indians, and to purchase from the Indians the lands already occupied, to which the title had not been extinguished.
Capt. John Stuart was at this time superintendent of southern In- dian affairs. On the 14th of October, 1768, Capt. Stuart concluded a treaty with the Cherokees at Hard Labour, S. C., by which the south- western boundary of Virginia was fixed as follows: "Extending from the point where the northern line of North Carolina intersects the Cherokee hunting grounds, about thirty-six miles east of Long Island, in the Hol- ston River; thence extending in a direct course, north by east, to Chis- well's Mine on the east bank of the Kanawha River, and thence down that stream to its junction with the Ohio."
To follow the instructions of the royal Government in regard to pur- chasing the lands already occupied by the Indians was not easy of ac- complishment, because of the uncertainty as to which Indian tribe or tribes were the rightful proprietors of the soil. At the time of its ear- liest exploration the vast extent of country between the Ohio and Tennes- see Rivers was unoccupied by any Indian tribe. Indian settlements ex- isted on the Scioto and Miami Rivers on the north, and on the Little Tennessee on the south. Between these limits existed a magnificent for- est park, abounding in a great variety of game, which was thus the hunting ground of the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Cherokees of the south, and of the various tribes composing the Miami Confederacy of the north. It also served as a kind of central theater for the enactment of desperate conflicts of savage warriors and deadly enemies. Why this great extent of valuable country was, as by common consent of all the surrounding Indian tribes, left unoccupied will probably always remain unexplained except by conjecture. But though not inhabited by any tribe or nation, title to it was claimed by the confederacy of the Six Na- tions, and this confederacy, by a deputation sent to the superintendent of Indian affairs in the north, on the 6th of May, 1768, presented a for- mal remonstrance against the continued encroachments upon these lands. Upon consideration by the royal government of this remonstrance, in- * structions were issued to Sir William Johnson, superintendent, to con- vene the chiefs and warriors of the tribes most interested. Accordingly this convention was held at Fort Stanwix, N. Y., October 24; 3,200 Indians of seventeen different tribes attended, and on the 5th of Novem- ber a treaty and a deed of cession to the King were signed. In this the delegates from their respective nations declared themselves to be "the
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true and absolute proprietors of the lands thus ceded," and that they had "continued the line south to the Cherokee or Hogohegee River because the same is our true bounds with the southern Indians, and that we have an undoubted right to the country as far south as that river." This was the first deed from any aboriginal tribe for any lands within the present boundaries of Tennessee.
The Watauga Settlement .- Dr. Thomas Walker was Virginia's com- missioner to the convention at Fort Stanwix. Upon his return he brought with him the news of the cession. At the treaty at Hard Labour the In- dians had assented to an expulsion of the Holston settlements, and as a consequence the nucleus was formed of the first permanent settlement within the limits of Tennessee, in the latter part of December, 1768, and the early part of January, 1769. It was merely an enlargement of the Virginia settlements, and was believed to be in Virginia-the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina not having been established west of Steep Rock. The settlers were principally from North Carolina, and some of them had been among the troops raised by that province and sent in 1760 to the relief of Fort Loudon, and others had wintered in 1758 at Fort Long Island, around which a temporary settlement had been made but broken up.
About the time of the incipiency of the Watauga settlement Capt. William Bean came from Pittsylvania County, Va., and settled with his family on Boone's Creek, a tributary of the Watauga. His son, Russell Bean, was the first white child born in Tennessee. Bean's Station was named after him. About a month after Daniel Boone " left his peaceful habitation on the Yadkin River, in quest of the country of Kentucky," a large company was formed for the purpose of exploring and hunting in Middle Tennessee. Some of them were from North Carolina, some from the vicinity of the Natural Bridge and others from Ingle's Ferry, Va. Some of their names are here introduced: John Rains, Casper Mansker, Abraham Bledsoe, John Baker, Joseph Drake, Obadiah Terrell, Uriah Stone, Henry Smith, Ned Cowan and Robert Crockett. They established a rendezvous on New River, eight miles below Fort Chissel, and passing through Cumberland Gap, discovered southern Kentucky and fixed a - station camp at what has since been known as Price's Meadow, in Wayne
County. Robert Crockett was killed near the head waters of Roaring River, and after hunting eight or nine months the rest of the party returned home in April, 1770. After their return a party of about forty stout hunters was formed for the purpose of hunting and trapping west of the Cumberland. . This party was led by Col. James Knox, who. with nine others, reached the lower Cumberland, and after a long absence,
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having made an extensive tour, returned home and won the appellation of the "Long Hunters."
The settlement on the Watauga continued to receive considerable accessions to its numbers, both from North and South Carolina and Vir- ginia. This was in part because of the comparatively unproductive hills and valleys of those provinces and because of the absence of courts in South Carolina outside of the capital of the State previous to 1770. In this latter province the people felt under the necessity of taking the law into their own hands, and punished offenders by organized bodies of regulators. The regulators were opposed by the Scovilites, so named after their leader Scovil, who was commissioned by the governor to operate against the regulators, and from North Carolina the inhabitants were driven in part by the determination of the British Government to quarter troops in America at the expense of the colonies and to raise a revenue by a general stamp duty. After the defeat of the regulators hy Gov. Tryon on the Alamance May 16, 1771, numbers of them proceeded to the mountains and found a cordial welcome in Watauga, remote from official power and oppression. While these movements were in progress the settlements were spreading beyond the limits established at Hard Labour and a new boundary had been agreed upon by a new treaty signed at Lochaber October 18, 1770. The new line extended from the south branch of Holston River, six miles east of Long Island, to the mouth of the Great Kanawha.
At that time the Holston River was considered the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. The Legislature of Virginia passed an act granting to every actual settler having a log cabin erected and some ground cultivated the right to 400 acres of land so located as to include his improvement, and subsequently extended the right to each settler to purchase 1,000 acres adjoining at a merely nominal cost. This generous action on the part of the Legislature of Virginia greatly stim- ulated immigration to the West, where every man could easily secure a valuable estate. Crowds immediately advanced to secure the proffered fortune, and afterward, when the boundary line was run, they found them- selves in North Carolina. But most of the new arrivals at Watauga came from North Carolina. Among those who came about this time was Daniel Boone, at the head of a party of immigrants, he acting merely as guide, which he continued to do until his death in 1820 or 1822.
Early in 1770 came James Robertson, from Wake County, N. C., who, henceforth, for many years was destined to be one of the most use- ful and prominent of the pioneers of Tennessee. He visited the new settlements forming on the Watauga, and found a settler named Honey-
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cutt living in a hut, who furnished him with food. On his return home he lost his way, and after wandering about for some time, nearly starving to death, he at length reached home in safety and soon afterward settled on the Watauga. During this same year hunting was carried on in the lower Cumberland country by a party composed of Mr. Mansker, Uriah Stone, John Baker, Thomas Gordon, Humphrey Hogan and Cadi Brook and four others. They built two boats and two trapping canoes, loaded them with the results of their hunting and descended the Cumberland, the first navigation and commerce probably carried on upon that stream. Where Nashville now stands they discovered the French Lick, surrounded by immense numbers of buffalo and other wild game. Near the lick on a mound they found a stock fort, built, as they thought, by the Cherokees on their retreat from the battle at Chickasaw Old Fields. The party descended the Cumberland to the Ohio, met John Brown, the mountain leader, marching against the Senecas, descended the Ohio, meeting Frenchmen trading with the Illinois, and continued their voyage to Natchez, where some of them remained, while Mansker and Baker returned to New River.
In the autumn of 1771 the lower Cumberland was further explored by Mansker, John Montgomery, Isaac Bledsoe, Joseph Drake, Henry Suggs, James Knox, William and David Lynch, Christopher Stoph and William Allen. The names of most of this company are now connected with different natural objects, as Mansker's Lick, Drake's Pond, Drake's Lick, Bledsoe's Lick, etc. After hunting some time and exhausting their ammunition they returned to the settlements.
In the meantime the Holston and Watauga settlements were receiv- ing a steady stream of emigration. Most of those who came were honest, industrious pioneers, but there were those who did not posess these char- acteristics. These had fled from justice, hoping that in the almost in- accessible retreats of the frontiers to escape the punishment due them for their crimes. Here, from the necessities of their surroundings, they did find safety from prosecution and conviction. The inhabitants north of the Holston believing themselves to be in Virginia, agreed to be governed by the laws of that province. South of Holston was admitted to be in North Carolina, and here the settlers lived without law or pro- tection except by such regulations as they themselves adopted .*
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