USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee the making of a state > Part 26
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But soon a new element of discord was thrust between the inhabitants and the proprietors, involving greater in- terests than the loss of timber. The origin of this went back to the time when the town was first laid off and cer- tain tracts of land designated for public purposes. The Promenade was the broad strip of land between Missis- sippi Row (now Front Row) and the river. A part of this is now occupied by the custom-house. This had been intended for a public promenade or park. The bluffs at that time ran out to the river, not having been cut away to make a wharf or cut through by streets. There was no way of getting to the river from the lower part of the town. The growing flat-boat and steamboat trade of the now thriving little town rendered it difficult to get along without a landing lower than Jackson Street. At this
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juncture it was proposed that the city should take the responsibility of cutting a street through the promenade. Having been appropriated for public purposes, of course it could be disposed of as best suited the public. This stated the case from the standpoint of the citizens. Over- ton, returning from New Orleans and landing at Memphis in 1828, found the street already ent. He at once ad- dressed a protest to his agents. This was the beginning of the entanglement that was not ended till nearly twenty years later. The fact that the promenade was directly upon the river added a disturbing element to the contest. The privileges were becoming valuable, and these of course went with the ownership of the land. It is possible that these questions would have been amicably settled had not the Mississippi River in one of its freaks injected a still inore perplexing and discordant factor. This was the cel- ebrated batture or mud-bar which, like Aaron's serpent, swallowed up the rest.
In 1828 the water of the Mississippi River was higher than ever known before. One of the inevitable results of high water is that it completes changes already begun by the action of the current in ordinary years, and begins changes which perhaps would not otherwise begin for many years. From 1786 to 1828 the mouth of Wolf River had been going steadily up stream. Previous to 1811, the year of the great earthquake, the mouth of Wolf River had been about the foot of Jefferson and Adams streets. Around and above it was a bar. Upon this bar the Indians had at one time built cabins, and in 1782 Benjamin Fooy. by command of Governor Gayoso, had here quartered Spanish troops. He cleared a few acres of the willow and cottonwood growth that covered it, and raised corn. The Indians had also at one time a quarter mile track upon which they tested the speed of their ponies. The bank north of the mouth of Wolf River ran in a northwesterly direction, and was at that time con-
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stantly washed by the action of the current. The earth- quake of 1811 is supposed to have created changes which sent the current of the river against this bar. It soon dis- appeared, and for many years the narrow strip of ground above Jackson Street was the only landing above Fort Pickering. According to the statement of Jesse Benton, a north course from the point of intersection of the Mis- sissippi and Wolf rivers in 1786 would run over what was the current of the Mississippi in 1821. This shows very clearly, if correct, that the Mississippi above North Mem- phis had at one time been much farther west than it was before 1811, that it had worked its way towards the east, bending into the country above Wolf River, and had then again shifted its bed towards the west where it now is. It is now, and has been since 1828, about where it was in 1786. The overflow of 1828 caused the westward move- ment and left a kind of bar or harbor at the mouth of Wolf River, which was not in the direct flow of the current. The rapid rush of a vast body of water by it, however, created an eddy which in turn gradually formed, by the settling of sediment. a hard and compact bit of earth. This remains to this day and by municipal geographies is called the navy yard.1 In the earlier days it was called by the accurate and the polite, the batture. To the great public, however, it was known only as the mud-bar. The winter of 1831-32 is given as its historical date. It had taken a little over three years to form, and the distinc- tion of having discovered that it had formed is claimed by James D. Davis, the author of the " Early History of Memphis."
It is not going too far to say that a profound sensation was created among the inhabitants of Memphis when the
1 Within the last few years, the current appears to have set in to- wards the point as it did in or previous to 1811, and unless pre- vented by the engineering skill of those who have the work in hand, it is probable we shall have a repetition of the events of that year.
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formation of the mud-bar, became known. Only those who had recently arrived were ignorant of what a bar meant, or of the difference between a sand-bar and a mud- bar. The effect of the mud-bar upon the river commerce was primarily bad, but ultimately good. The great ne- cessity of a landing convenient for steamboats and acces- sible for the citizens of Memphis caused various attempts to be made to remedy the damage done to navigation. A wooden wharf was built by W. A. Bickford for a com- pany from the foot of Winchester Street to the edge of the mud-bar. In a few years, however, this proved futile. The Memphis and La Grange Railroad agreed to build a kind of earthen quay from the foot of Washington Street, but failed. An attempt was made to run a wagon road from Market Street diagonally across the bar, striking the water at a point about opposite Poplar Street. This was stopped by Winchester. It was then run straight across from the foot of Market Street, but a change in the river soon rendered this unserviceable.
For some months after the forming of the mud-bar, it was a matter of hot discussion as to who owned it. But no active steps were taken to settle the question. In May, 1834, the Supreme Court of Tennessee, in the case of the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Memphis r. Wright, decided that the mayor and aldermen were the representa- tives of the original proprietors and as such had vested in them all the right to dispose of or apply to any use they might think proper, the public promenade and squares which existed in the proprietors originally. The lawyer who represented Wright in this case, which had arisen in reference to some ordinance affecting the river landing, was R. C. McAlpin. In August of the same year, we find him trying to induce the corporate authorities to make a conveyance of the publie promenade to trustees for the benefit of the railroad. The question of right was to be decided by an agreed case. This case appears
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to have attracted McAlpin's attention to a new way of settling the mud-bar case, and in this year we find McAl- pin, John D. Martin, and several others laying their war- rant on this geographical windfall, through the land of- fice of Colonel Tipton of Tipton County. W. D. Dabney tried to obtain a warrant for a part of the river front that was below the mud-bar, but the only claim of serious im- portance was that of Martin and McAlpin and their as- sociates. As soon as they obtained the grants they made application to the county court for the right to establish a ferry. The question of wharfage was left in abeyance for the present. The ground upon which Martin and McAl- pin based their claim was the fact that the Rice grant did not call for the water's edge. The course given undoubt- edly marked the meanders of the river as it had been when originally surveyed. This the claimants admitted, but contended that inasmuch as the course had been laid down specifically, it would not shift with the river. The western boundaries of the Rice grant, therefore, had been left by the receding of the river, and new formations as a result became the land of the State and as such could be granted. The proprietors, on the other hand, contended that the specifications of the grant called for the water's edge, and. as a matter of fact, went to the channel of the river. The phrase, " beginning one mile below the mouth of Wolf River." could mean nothing else than beginning on the bank of the Mississippi River. More than this, the first line of the Rice grant had in some places actually caved in, and although the alluvial deposit extended west of where the line had been at one time, yet originally the line, apart from the river meanders, had been farther west than the western line of the bar just formed. More even than this, the Rice tract had been processioned and resur- veyed in 1820. and the certificate of the survey called for the river's edge. These were the two sides of the ques- tion as between the proprietors and the warrant holders.
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The city's claim involved the question of the promenade as just mentioned. The details of the contest are not only long and comparatively uninteresting, but had but little effect upon the making of the city itself. When the question of the ferry rights was brought before the su- preme court, they decided that they belonged to the pro- prietors and had never passed from their possession. This somewhat disheartened the MeAlpin claimants. At this juncture the United States came forward and raised a storm of laughter by proposing to buy a large part of the mud-bar for a navy yard. The idea was first broached in a letter published in the " National Intel- ligencer " over the name of " Union Jack." When the " Enquirer " of Memphis republished this letter it excited among the clear-headed Memphians merely an expression of amusement. This was followed by other communica- tions to the press signed " Harry Bluff," who was the cele- brated Commodore Maury. Finally the plan began to assume shape. In 1843 a committee of naval officers, three in number, were sent to inspect the premises and es- pecially to report on its fitness for a naval depot and dockyard. The people of Memphis, with a shrewd eye to the main chance, carried out Overton's idea of making them pleased with the place by polite attentions. The report was favorable, and it was decided to locate a navy yard upon the mud-bar itself. This brought about a com- promise between those who were contending for its owner- ship. The proprietors submitted the following proposi- tion : All parties should donate to the United States such part of the bar as was necessary for the navy yard. The rest should be sold and the proceeds divided in such man- ner that the proprietors should receive one half, the city one sixth and the warrant holders one third. The pro- prietors agreed to give the space between Poplar and Washington streets for a centre landing, and to allow all cross streets and alleys to be extended across the prom-
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enade to the water's edge. The question of wharfage was to be submitted to the arbitration of three able jurists to be selected by the governor of Kentucky. This proposi- tion was accepted, and Seth Wheatley, whose glib tongue had once defeated old Isaac Rawlings for the mayoralty, was appointed trustee to carry it into effect. This changed the popular name of the mud-bar to that of Com- promise Addition to the city of Memphis, and was the end of the contest between the eity and the proprietors rela- tive to the promenade and between all parties relative to the ownership of the mud-bar.
The fate of the navy yard is soon told. It dragged its slow length along for many years, beset on one hand by unwillingness, on the other by incompetency. When the question of sectional preference was injected into the de- bate upon internal improvements, the Memphis navy yard was at once flung into the face of the Southern members. F. P. Stanton, the member from the Memphis district, found it each year more difficult to obtain the necessary appropriations for continuing the work in a proper man- ner. Eventually the subject became a matter of jest. Those whose untimely fate it was to be doomed to the mud-bar of Memphis on the banks of a muddy inland stream, whilst their companions were on the high seas en- joying the tropical splendor of the East or loitering around the beautiful bays and harbors of the Mediterranean, were not reticent in expressions of disgust. They too ridienled the navy yard. A commission was sent by the navy de- partment, who returning made an unfavorable report. At length, in 1853, at the suggestion of ex-Governor James C. Jones, at that time in the United States Senate, the government cut the knot of its entanglement with the Memphis mud-bar by donating it back to the city.
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CHAPTER XXXI.
SOUTH MEMPHIS AND FORT PICKERING.
ONE of the peculiar manias which obtained in the early days of Southwestern history was that of city-building. A favorable location on a river bank, a railroad, and a map of the city with streets laid off and a public outery of lots was supposed to constitute the necessary ingredi- ents for the making of a town. The fundamental error was prevalent that a city drew population. The necessary antecedence of population was not known. Overton was the solitary exception among those who made the experi- ment. He looked to the gradual growth of the surround- ing country and a distant future. The law which directs the currents of city movements, and which acts slowly and almost imperceptibly but surely upon the causes which decide its fate, was entirely ignored. The undercurrent of prejudice, of local preference. of pride, the apparent shifting of the stream of population which, like that of a river, is only indicated by its results, these and many more determining factors were unknown to the city-ma- ker's philosophy. One of this kind was Robert Fearne, the wily and energetic intriguer, on whom Overton kept a constant and suspicious eye. He originated and devel- oped the South Memphis scheme, and so successfully that his city eventually obtained a charter of incorporation. though after his own disappearance from the scene. In July, 1827, he issued a prospectus under his seal as pro- prietor of a certain tract of land, in which he undertook to accommodate himself to the wishes of many citizens.
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The tract of land in question was 414 acres, being the northern part of the Ramsey grant. His proposition was to form a stock company under the name of the Memphis Auxiliary Company. He was to issue eighty shares, re- taining five himself and selling seventy-five. The stock- holders were to appoint commissioners to attend to the necessary details of surveying, selling, etc. In Septem- ber, 1828, he made the agreed conveyance to five commis- sioners. Here the project halted for many years. Some of the commissioners left the State, among them Fearne himself, and others refuse l to act. In 1838, after some legislation, new commissioners were appointed who carried out Fearne's original ideas. In 1846 the town of South Memphis was incorporated by the legislature. Union Street was the northern boundary of the new town. Sub- sequently the southern line was extended to Jackson Street to include Fort Pickering. Town officers were elected. Sylvester Baily was elected mayor. There were eight aldermen. This was the culmination of the up-town and down-town rivalry which characterized the history of those days.
When the act of 1826 was passed, no limits were pre- scribed for the new town. In 1832 Jefferson Street was made the southern boundary. There is a tradition that the bitterness which existed between Pinch and Sodom surpassed that of Carthage and Rome. The origin of these niek-names has been preserved. Pinch is the sur- vival of a term of ridicule applied by Craven Peyton, one of the earliest Memphians, to those who lived upon the banks of Cat-Fish Bay, a lake-like body of water north of Jackson Street filled with cat-fish, dead and alive. These people were poor and Peyton spoke of them as Pinch- Gut. In the course of time the appellation was applied to that part of the town and then eventually to the entire north part of Memphis. Sodom was the name given by the Pinchites to South Memphis to indicate their utter
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abhorrence of the place. The geographical application of Pinch shifted. In Memphis it was confined to all the town north of Washington Street. But it gradually crept south until it was generally recognized as extending to Market Street. Those who lived between Market and Adams repudiated the term. The city was at that time divided into three wards of which that was the third. The other two, being in a majority, overrode the third ward in the matter of municipal improvements and ap- propriations of city funds so ruthlessly that it finally beeame almost a personal matter between those who rep- resented these wards in the city council. This feeling of exasperation was encouraged by Sodom. One of the chief causes of complaint was the refusal of the council to allow a street to be cut to the river through the bluff for the convenience of this part of the city. It was wittily remarked by one of the wags of that day that if he wished to turn a man of sense into a jackass, the first thing he would do would be to make him an alderman. This ob- servation was caused by the action taken by the board of mayor and aldermen in reference to the landing. In 1837 a large wharf had been built from Winchester Street across the bar for the purpose of a steamboat land- ing. But the increase in the bar made it difficult for large boats to land at this point. A steamboat captain let his boat land several hundred yards lower down where the water was deeper, but was promptly ordered by the indignant rulers to return to the proper landing. The absurdity of this proceeding became more apparent in view of the fact that there was much more freight than the boats could handle. A heated diseussion arose, which ended by the captain dropping his boat below the city limits. This encouraged the South Memphis people, and filled them with sanguine hopes of soon oatstripping their rival. But it had the good effect of bringing the first and second wards to a better sense of public duty. The third
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ward was divided into three, thus giving them a majority in the city government. The South Memphis people, who had always taken sides with the oppressed ward, saw in this a victory for themselves. The steamboats had been in a measure forced to their wharf. They hoped to see the inhabitants of the third ward district come to them in like manner. It is a common and amusing illustration of the potency of prejudice that the Sodom people imagined they could accomplish this end by making the name of Pinch cover all the region from Market to Adams Street. Their belief appears to have been that this part of Mem- phis proper would resort to any expedient to escape the reproachful term. But in so far as it had any effect, it rather consolidated the contending factions. A still more efficacious cause of a mutual drawing together was, in ad- dition to the removal of absolute grievances, the desire to retain the lucrative trade of the flat-boats, the landing of which extended all the way from Wolf River to Adams Street. South Memphis maintained a separate corporate existence for three years only. In December. 1849, it and Memphis became an incorporated town of six wards, gov- erned by a mayor and twenty-four aldermen, under the name of the city of Memphis.
Another rival of Memphis was Fort Pickering, now its southern suburb. At one time its rivalry became a seri- ous matter. This was due to railroad expectations. Among the railroads projected during the mania for inter- nal improvements was the La Grange and Memphis Rail- road. This became the subject of discussion about 1831. The enterprise appears to have taken shape at La Grange itself. La Grange was not far from the Indians in north- ern Mississippi, and it hoped by building a road to the Mississippi River to attract enough trade to make it a great inland city. Such were the extravagant ideas of those days. As soon as the building of this road became a matter of general discussion, it was suddenly discovered
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in Memphis that the fate of that place depended upon its becoming the western terminus. Even before the first cross-tie was laid, the enterprising thought of the commu- nity was already looking to the ultimate extension of it to the eastern seaboard. In 1834 Winchester mentions the fact that the stock of the Jackson Company was taken and that the Columbia Company have agreed to unite with them. This was designed to be a Middle Ten- nessee road, and was the germ of the idea which, after two ante-bellum failures, is at last being pushed to completion. The contest for the western terminus was primarily be- tween Randolph and the country north of the Big Hatchie, and secondarily between Memphis and Fort Pickering. The first was soon settled. The second was long and hotly waged. Fort Pickering has long since ceased to offer any rivalry to Memphis. Now that the latter has waxen into a comely city. Fort Pickering has pursued that line of development which makes it a necessary com- plement of the larger place. But during the first years of the thirties it was still a rival and indeed a formidable rival. In 1836 Winchester wrote, "So far as our imme- diate prosperity is concerned, it matters little whether the railroad terminates at Fort Piekering or at some point above us- say Randolph or Fulton. In either event, the young Memphis must be merged into its greater rival." Comparing Memphis and Fort Pickering, he says : " As a town site, it is not probable that we have anything the advantage over Fort Piekering. As a land- ing, that place has decidedly the advantage over the one we now use." But his fears were groundless and were not shared by Overton. The idea of making Fort Pick- ering a rival of Memphis had been entertained for some years, and more especially by one of the proprietors of Memphis - John C. McLemore. In the La Grange rail- road, MeLemore thought he saw his opportunity to build up a town in which he would have as great a preponder-
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ance over Overton as Overton had over him. The latter owned 181 acres of the Ramsey grant and MeLemore 995. The connection of MeLemore with Memphis had from the first been a disadvantage. He possessed great energy, but he had a speculative turn, which loaded him with a heavy debt at the very time when he could have been of greatest service to the infant town. He left the management entirely to Overton, and could rarely be per- suaded to go to Memphis after its incorporation. When the first real prosperity of Memphis set in, about 1830, there was an active demand for lots, and publie sentiment insisted upon the proprietors supplying the demand. Overton, writing on the 29th of January, 1832, said : " All future sales, at least for some time to come, are likely to fall entirely on my unsold lots." McLemore on the 24th of November, 1831, writes to Winchester, " Now, while the judge is willing to sell, you must find pur- chasers. I will urge the judge to instruct you to sell, and when the instructions reach you, act - get the property out of his hands -it is his interest as well as the town's that he sell. He is getting very infirm and can't last long. My lots are not for sale at present prices." Over- ton's confidence in MeLemore was unbounded. On the 20th of December, 1832, he says : " He is certainly a most excellent man, and his exertion is far beyond one in ten thousand. He is so honorable a man and of such in- defatigable industry that I have no doubt that he will come out."
But Overton with his usual caution appears towards the last to have begun to feel uneasy about Mclemore and Fort Pickering. Still, old and infirm as he was, the indomitable will and sagacity of the old man asserted itself, and for all MeLemore's indefatigable industry and his scheming letters to Winchester, he was outwitted. Having erushed Randolph, he, at the last, let fall the weight of his hand upon Fort Pickering - to this day it
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feels the blow. In 1830 he proposed to McLemore that they should mutually grant to each other the right to es- tablish ferries at Fort Pickering. Shortly after this, the scheme to " make Fort Pickering a city" began to assume tangible shape. On the 12th of May, 1832, the old man writes triumphantly to Winchester, "I think with you. that even if they were to begin the execution of the proj- ect of laying off lots, ete., to-morrow, they can't affeet Memphis materially It is too far advanced to be arrested in its progress now. Putting off a year or two making a town below will be better. So much so that none but a simpleton would think then of it. Especially as I own nearly half the landing at Fort Piekering and that the best part of it." The year following Overton died.1
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