USA > Tennessee > Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches > Part 10
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Mr. Swaney learned that the Chickasaws and Choctaws enter- tained great fear of the Creeks, and were constantly making over-
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tures to them to preserve peace. Although the Chickasaw line extended a long way this side of the Tennessee river, there were no settlements of Indians East of that stream. Not only was this true of the Chickasaws, but was the case with the Cherokees and Creeks. This extensive tract of country was regarded as the common hunting grounds of the tribes, and held sacred to that use.
Mr. Swaney often talked with the Indians about the mounds which are so frequently found in this section, but they knew noth- ing of them, "the oldest inhabitant" having no tradition about them. Mr. Swaney learned that the mode of burying their dead as practiced by the Chickasaws and Choctaws was this: When one would die they would set poles in the ground from fifteen to twenty feet high, upon which a scaffold was erected. The body was placed upon this scaffold, and permitted to remain until the flesh was decaved, when the " bone-picker" would come and sep- arate the flesh from the bones, and then the latter were buried in a hole dug in the ground and lined with large pieces of stone. While the body was on the scaffold the relatives and friends of the deceased would come at sunrise and sunset and spend about fifteen minutes each time in wailing for the dead. If the de- ceased had a wife she always led in this demonstration of mourn- ing, and was loudest in her expressions of grief. The chorus was then taken up by another relative or friend, and so on until all took part in the wailing, but only one at a time would thus give expression to the sorrow felt at the death of the relative and friend. When the days of mourning had passed and the time had arrived for taking down the scaffold and consigning the bones to their final resting place, mirth and jolity succeeded. It was called a pole-pulling, and was a gala day with the Indians. On such occasions the widow was the gayest of the gay. She would dress in her best toggery, and bedeck herself with all the trinkets she possessed. Mr. Swaney saw as many as several hun- dred Indians meet on such an occasion, and if the weather should prove favorable they would spend a number of days in frolicking. They would often have their green-corn danees at these funerals, if the friends were able to furnish the green coru for the crowd. Mr. Swaney regarded it as highly amusing to hear them sing and see them dance. They would also run races with their ponies.
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When the ponies were unequally matched as to speed, they would run the race over, but would put an extra rider on the fleetest pony, which caused great amusement to the spectators. These funerals generally wound up with a big drunk and a fight, which resulted in a good many broken noses and bruised heads.
The early settlers of Middle Tennessee had to fight the Chero- kees as well as the Creeks. Old Jack Walker, a Cherokee, was the leader of most of the parties of his tribe who made raids into Davidson and Sumner counties to steal the stock of the inhabitants, and to kill men, women, and children whenever opportunity pre- sented. Occasionally they would take prisoners with them to the Indian Nation, but these were always women and children. The negroes they captured they prized very highly, and regarded them as the whites did, as so many dollars added to their wealth. Old Jack Walker was the leader of the party that captured Zig- ler's Station. He surprised the Ziglers and Wilsons, who were living at the station, killed several, took some of the Wilson family prisoners, together with a number of negroes belonging to the Zigler family, and carried them to the Cherokee Nation, where the white children were kept several years. Some years after he quit carrying the mail, Mr. Swaney was employed by the late Charles Morgan to go to the Cherokee Nation on some busi- ness, and while there he met the negroes that once belonged to the Ziglers. They were then claimed by old Jack Walker. This same Jack Walker was in command when the Cherokees made a raid on the Bledsoes. Old Jack Walker told Mr. Swaney that the bravest men and women he ever fought were the Bled- soes and the settlers in what is now Sumner county.
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VI.
PERILS AND PLEASURES OF THE SOUTH-WEST SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.
HAVING been personally favored with a glace at some thirty or forty pages of manuscript in the large and fair hand of Mrs. Thomas Martin, of Davidson county, when eighty-three years of age, descriptive of events witnessed or shared in by herself sixty- five years ago, the privilege of the following references for pub- lication is granted.
Her husband had bought a plantation on Bayou Teche, Loui- siana, and left Nashville to occupy it with his family on a flat- boat February 4, 1811. They had a tedious passage of eight weeks down the rivers, frequently annoyed when stopping at night at the riverbank by Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. What is now Memphis was then called Chickasaw Bluff-Vicks- burg was called Walnut Hills. Passing through the bayous and over the lakes of Louisiana, it looked as though no boat had ever floated in that wild region before. There were thousands of alligators all around, and all on board were constantly shoot- ing them. Reaching their plantation, Mrs. Martin was delighted with the orange trees in full bearing, the abundance of vegeta- bles, and the prairie appearance of the land most suitable for growing cotton and sugar. She says the mode of making sugar in those days was by grinding the cane with mules, and two or three barrels was considered a good day's work. The price of sugar advanced during the war with Great Britain, and cotton declined, but the latter rose again very suddenly at the close of the war. When they reached their place they found that nearly all their neighbors were French, Spanish, and Indians, but they were soon joined by families from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, some of whom were Irish, who gave the name of Irish Bend to the settlement, which name the locality on the river still bears. Their communication with New Orleans was by small schooners across Berwick Bay, and up the La Fourche to the Mississippi, seventy-five miles above the city. They were
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only ten miles from the Gulf and two from the lake, and fish and game of all kinds were abundant. A schooner in which Mr. Martin had gone to get some supplies that were very scarce there during the war, was wrecked in a storm and the cargo lost, but he was relieved by a man who he afterward found to be La- fitte the Pirate. The outlaw took him aboard his vessel, gave him breakfast, provisioned a boat, and sent him home, sending to Mrs. Martin a demijohn of Madeira and the first pineapple cheese she had ever seen. After a year in Louisiana, Mrs. Mar- tin accepted a pressing invitation from her father, Joseph Phil- lips, who lived near Nashville, to revisit Tennessee, and com- menced the journey in June. Her own narrative of that trip, with some omissions of personalities, is as follows:
" The first night we spent with our friend Mr. Crow. When we reached Berwick Bay next day we could not cross until night, the winds were so high, and even then on a platform of plank upon two barges, not getting over till two o'clock in the morn- ing. We heard at the city that Lafitte, who had been taken and sent to New Orleans, had escaped from prison, and a large re- ward was offered for him. We took supper on landing with a mixed company of French, Spanish, Americans, and Indians, and all slept in a room with berths round the sides like those on steamboats. When we reached Donelsonville Mr. Martin said he had some private business with a gentleman which would not detain him long, but he would not tell me what it was. Some time afterward he told me that the man he stopped to see was Lafitte the Pirate, who was concealed there, and who had en- trusted him with private letters to be delivered at Donelsonville. Lafitte, on meeting him, had said, 'Sir, I think I can trust you.' The reply was, 'You can ; your kindness to me when I was ship- wrecked will never be forgotten, and whatever I can do for you I will do with pleasure.' Lafitte then said, 'I have just heard of your arrival ; I have determined to trust these letters for per- sons at Donelsonville to your charge; I know they will be safely delivered.' To which Mr. Martin responded, 'They will be de- livered promptly.' He was always silent and quiet on that sub- ject. The next we heard of Lafitte the Pirate was that he was fighting with Jackson's forces at New Orleans against the British. " In consequence of accidents, we did not reach Natchez until
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September, and then in a wagon with two horses. We started on a journey of four hundred miles to Nashville through the Indian country. At that time many white families lived with the Indians, sent there by the Government to learn them to spin and weave. Wherever we stopped we were treated with great kindness, if we were kind to them. One night we heard them howling and mourning, and on approaching them found about fifty sitting on the grass in a circle, with their blankets over their heads, lamenting the death of a chief they had just buried near the line between the Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations. The agent told us they were to have a war-dance that night, and were to leave the next morning for Pensacola. We stayed there, and it was truly a sight to be remembered. Males and females joined in the dance, and they kept it up till after midnight. At sunrise they were assembled to depart; all hands joined, men, women, and children, all going round and round in a ring crying and mourning; and when the braves took leave of their wives and children, their sorrowful yells were loud and shocking.
"The Indians on the route were very hospitable. Although we had plenty of our own provision, they gave us suppers of venison, potatoes, and coffee; and the white families amongst them were all kindness and attention to the travelers. We took breadfast one morning with James Colbert, the Indian Chief, and his wife, both of whom had just returned from Washington, with others of their tribe, where they had been to talk with their 'Great father, the President.' He said the talk was about fight- ing the British. Mrs. Colbert was delighted with her trip to Washington ; said the President gave them a dinner, and had all the fashionable ladies and gentlemen there. She was dressed in the latest Washington fashions, but was bare-footed! She gave me a lunch for us all when we left. We camped in the woods one night, and as we were lighting our fire, the mail-carrier came along on horse-back, and getting down, took his coffee, ham, and crackers with us. He told us we were fortunate in not coming along two days before, as a party of Creek Indians had been that way, killing every one they met. Seven boatmen who had been down the Mississippi in their flatboats, and sold out at New Or- leans, were returning home, when five of them were killed at the Big Spring near that plce. The old Indian who entertained
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us with a good supper of turkey, corn, and potatoes at Big Spring, pointed out the graves of the five flatboatmen, killed by the Creeks, near his house. He would not let me and my child sleep. in his own house, but assigned us to another, where slept not less than fifty Indians, and many of them drunk, while my husband and others sat up all night. It is not their custom to permit strangers to sleep in the house with their families.
"Arriving at Nashville, we were met by my father and little brother, and taken out home. Two beloved sisters had passed away during my absence. We all wept together, but there was no little joy left in my own heart that we had at last reached the home I had toiled so long to get back to.
" In 1816 a disease prevailed in and about Nashville called the cold plague, which was more fatal than cholera. Very few that were attacked by that terrible disease ever recovered. In 1817 many new houses were built in Nashville. Our merchants were principally Irishmen, who realized handsome fortunes in a few years from their large mercantile transactions.
" When a child seven years of age, my mother took me into town to witness the obsequies of Gen. Washington, and I never had seen so many people together. I really thought his mortal remains were in the coffin. Where now could I find another that was there on that occasion ? A few years afterwards my father had all the army officers stationed at Nashville out to dine with us. They were accompanied by their wives. There was Gen. Jackson, an elegant gentlemen, with his long queue and powdered hair (the fashion of that day), always noble in his manners and appearance, and others, all of whom seemed to enjoy their dinner, and especially the old peach brandy, of which my father kept a large supply.
" Mrs. Rachel Jackson lived but a short time after her husband was elected President, and he never had that happy and cheerful face of his afterwards. He stopped at our house on his way to Washington after his re-election, and asked my daughter to play Auld Lang Syne for him. He looked very sad. When he reached Washington he sent my husband his likeness, which I still possess. When last I visited him at the Hermitage, he was unable to leave his room. After dinner, and just before leaving, I took a stroll in the garden, and picking a rose entered his room
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and gave it to him. He took me by the hand as I came away, saying, ' Farewell, my dear-God bless you.' Two weeks after- wards I attended his funeral. Dr. Edgar preached from Reve- lations vii, 14.
" In the spring of 1825, Gen. LaFayette visited Nashville. Well do I remember his noble bearing, and his happy manner of receiving all who were introduced to him. My husband was one of those who were appointed on the reception arrangements. There was a handsome arch over and across the street near the Public Square, and a large platform on which to welcome the guests. Gen. LaFayette and George Washington LaFayette were with Gen. Jackson in a carriage, drawn by four handsome gray horses. Dr. Philip Lindsley delivered the address of welcome with much feeling. The old revolutionary soldiers came from all parts of the State to shake hands with LaFayette. One old soldier threw his arms around him, exclaiming, ' You have not forgotten the soldier, my dear General, that killed a bear and brought it to your tent when you were out of provisions, have you?' The General embraced him, responding, ' Mr. Hager, is it possible you are still with us?' That night the city was illuminated. The next night there was a splendid ball. The old and the young were there, and the scene was one of beauty, fashion, and smiles. On a dias at one end of the hall were the guests and the old ladies- Gen. LaFayette with Mrs. Rachel Jackson, Gov. Carroll with Mrs. Shelby, Gen. Jackson with Mrs. Priestley and Mrs. Carroll, George W. La Fayette with Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. McNairy, and Dr. Shelby with Mrs. Minnick and myself. Mrs. Andrew Erwin (nee Miss Webster) danced the first set; Miss Susan Trimble and Miss Ramsey afterwards, and then Miss Elizabeth Williams and Mrs. McIver were also in the first sets. Not less than twenty were on the floor at a time.
"The morning before the ball a large party went up to the Hermitage with Gen. La Fayette in a steamboat (a new method of conveyance at that time), and in passing the residence of Dr. Priestley, who had died a few years before, they fired a salute, and at the ball that evening his widow made a beautiful acknowl- edgment to Gen. Jackson (who was of the party on the boat) of his kind remembrance of her husband. That night the guests
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left for Louisville. This brilliant affair gave our Nashville peo- ple something to talk about for a long time after it was over."
In the eighty-sixth year of her age, Mrs. Martin is still in ex- cellent health, and all her mental faculties are most remarkably preserved. She enjoys her green old age on her place near Nash- ville, where she has resided for sixty years, and where she still gracefully receives her numerous relatives and host of friends. May she live to celebrate her own centennial. We hold not to the poetical falsehood that "whom the gods love die young," but rather to the wholesome truth that " whom the gods love die old; go through their appointed career, fulfill their appointed duties, and sink to their rest, knowing no more of death than of birth, and leaving no death-stricken mourners at their tombs."
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VII.
SOME REMINISCENCES OF THE BAR-HOW AN OVERBEARING JUDGE WAS TAUGHT AN IMPORTANT LESSON.
ABOUT the year 1833, James C. Mitchell was elected by the General Assembly one of the Circuit Court Judges of the State. Judge Mitchell first settled and commenced the practice of the law in the Sequatchie Valley. He represented the county of his residence in the Legislature, when that body met in Murfreesboro; then he was elected a member of Congress, and afterwards re- moved to Rutherford county. He was a tall, well-proportioned man-vain, presumptuous, and tyrannical. He possessed a fair knowledge of the law, which he had acquired more by observa- tion than from books. He had no regard for the feelings of others ; was coarse and rude in his manners, and overbearing and insulting to the bar, but was devoid of the instincts of a true- hearted, brave man; in other words, he lacked the courage to back up his indefensible course.
I commenced the practice of the law in Sumner county, and had extended my circuit so as to embrace six counties, among them Smith, the bar of which county was represented by Judge Rucks, Col. Overton, McClain, Wade Hubbard, and others, all good lawyers and men of ability. In the early days of Tennes- see large circuits were taken by lawyers, all riding on horseback, each taking his branding-irons. A lunch was also taken along, which was eat at some cool spring on the road. These associa- tions were the happiest days of the lawyer's life, as they served to break off the rough corners and smoothe the asperities growing out of the frequent collisions at the bar. In those early days the circulating medium consisted mainly of calves, steers, and milch cows. I have said that each lawyer carried his branding-irons with him. Their fees were paid in a calf, a two-year old steer, or a cow, and each lawyer applied his brand to the animal, so he could identify his property, and it was then turned out in the range under the care of a trusty shepherd. John H. Bown, an eminent and popular lawyer, practiced in the entire mountain
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circuit, and at one time was the owner of two hundred and fifty head of cattle running at large in the range. He was elected to Congress in 1810, and died in the fall of 1822.
I put in my first appearance before Judge Mitchell at Carthage, who held the court at that place by interchange with the Judge of the circuit. I arrived early in the forenoon of the first day of the court. I wore a wine-colored coat, which was somewhat the worse for wear. It retained its original color under the arms, but showed " the sear and yellow leaf" on the back. I was shak- ing hands with the citizens in the court-house yard, and running on with jokes and pleasantry, as Judge Mitchell passed into the court-house. It was reported to me that the Judge stopped and inquired who was that " swaggering young fellow, who was mak- ing the people laugh." He was told that it was young Guild, a lawyer from Sumner county. " Well," said he, " look at his sun-burnt coat and swaggering manner; I'll bet he is an impu- dent fellow, with more brass than brains." This remark stuck in my craw, and I meditated how I should be revenged.
After the opening of court, the grand jury was organized, and the Judge charged them all along the line with a diarrhea of words. He carried a large hickory stick, and he frequently knocked it against the bar, commanding silence. He then com- . menced fining the sheriff and lecturing the bar about the most trivial matters. His manner was ferocious, reminding one of " a bear with a sore head." There were many small cases of cer- tiorari bringing up the judgments of magistrates. He made a rule dismissing every one where the amount involved was less than five dollars. He would say, "Mr. Clark (clerk), strike that nasty, contemptible case from my docket." John H. Martin ap- peared as attorney in one of these cases, and protested against its being dismissed. Mitchell asked him, with much asperity of manner, " Do you want to violate my rule ?" Martin replied that his client had a right to have his case tried without reference to the amount involved, and that he did not understand the rule to be the law. " Well," said Mitchell, " I am not responsible for your want of sense. Your intellect is as obtuse as those large- eared animals grazing on the commons, and all such should be transported to Cuba, where, I understand, there is a good market for them."
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The next person Judge Mitchell tackled was the late Judge Marchbanks, of McMinnville. Marchbanks wore a pair of heavy boots and carried a gold-headed walking-cane, and while court was in session, commenced promenading behind the bar, and necessarily made some noise. The Judge inquired of the sheriff who was that man wearing heavy boots and carrying a cane, who was making such a pompous display of himself behind the bar. He was informed that the gentleman was Mr. Marchbanks, of McMinnville. " Well," says the Judge, " his manner is that of a corn-field negro striding over the bricks. Tell him if he does not cease walking there I will put him where he can't walk and where the dogs wont bite him."
John B. Forester, who was then a member of Congress, did not arrive until the third day of the court. He had one of the certiorari cases. I was employed on the opposite side, but did not make a motion to dismiss the suit in his absence. Forester was told what Mitchell was doing with these cases, and he de- clared that he would not submit to such conduct on the part of the Judge. I called up the case, expecting some fun. Forester read the petition, and when he came to describe the judgment complained of, he lowered his voice when stating the amount. Mitchell said, "Mr. Forester, you read very low. What is the amount of the judgment complained of?" Mr. Forester replied, " six and one-fourth cents." Mitchell said, " Mr. Clark (clerk), strike that nasty, contemptible case from my docket." Mr. For- ester said, " The amount in dispute is much greater than the judg- ment, and the court has no right to dismiss the case." The Judge, turning sharply on the counsel, said, " You do not know who you are talking to. I am Judge Mitchell, from Sequatchie. Sit down, sir." Forester made a movement as if about to sit down, but did not. when the Judge railed out, " You are not down, sir ; sit down, I say ! Now, sir, if you give me any of your impudence I will send you where the flies and mice will keep you company."
The next case ealled was one in which I was interested as counsel. Old man Goodall owned a tract of fine, heavily-tim- bered land in Smith county, and many persons had trespassed upon it by cutting timber. I was employed by him to bring suit against one Mungle for such trespass. The declaration was filed. Gen. Robert L. Caruthers was employed to defend the case, and
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he had put in the plea of libereum tenementum, which was entered upon the Judge's docket. When the clerk had finished reading, Judge Mitchell struck the bench with his heavy hickory stick with a vim that told plainly he was upon the war-path, and then in a very decided tone remarked, " Mr. Clark (clerk), this case is for trespass on land. What animal is this that appears upon my docket?" Mr. Hart, the clerk, one of the best I ever knew, was a little deaf and did not catch the remark of the Judge, and showed some embarrassment. The Judge railed out, " What animal is this you call libereum tenementum that has crawled upon my docket, and how came it there ?" Gen. Caruthers, seeing the embarrassment of the clerk, rose with a pleasant smile, which he usually wore, and stated that it was his plea of libereum tenemen- tum, which, by courtesy, had been accepted in brief. This gave the Judge an opportunity to put on his war-paint, and he said with great asperity, " Courtesy should never be used to cover up ignorance. Mr. Clark (clerk), strike the nasty thing from the docket." Then glaring fiercely at Guild, he added, "Such actions are a nuisance to the courts. They are mere trial strains upon the title, which establish nothing. Some poor, briefless lawyers encourage and get up such suits, thereby producing disturbances and litigation among the ignorant people. Now, Gen. Caruthers, if you have not law knowledge enough to draw up the plea of libereum tenementum, you, as an honest man, should either pay back the fee you have received, or go out and pay a lawyer to draw it for you. I take it that you cannot draw it; nor does the opposite counsel know how to reply to it. A good lawyer can draw it up in ten minutes, and it can be replied to in five minutes ; but, considering the ignorance of both of you, I will give you fifteen minutes to make up the pleadings, and (pulling out his watch) the lawyer in default shall pay the costs of the suit." We now bulged out of the court-house for Wade's law office to find a precedent, neither of us having before drawn in form such pleadings. All the lawyers followed us. Guild outran Caruth- ers, got Chitty's Pleadings, in which he found the replication and drew it off. Caruthers wanted the book, but as we were running against time, it could not be surrendered. Judge Rucks, a fine lawyer, then drew the plea for Caruthers. We " made the trip" and came to time. This increased the ire of the Judge, for he
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