Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches, Part 29

Author: Guild, Jo. C. (Josephus Conn), 1802-1883
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Nashville, Tavel, Eastman & Howell
Number of Pages: 1012


USA > Tennessee > Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches > Part 29


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In 1845, Dr. James Overton was nominated by the Demo- cratic party for State Senator from Davidson county-to himself quite unexpectedly, for he was a quiet citizen and not a poli- tician. The Whigs were largely in the majority, and knowing ones did not care to run and be so certainly defeated ; but the Doctor accepted the nomination nevertheless, for he was fond of public speaking and could air his eloquence. But all the old partisan issues of bank, tariff, internal improvements by the General Government, etc., had become obsolete, and he was puzzled to frame a platform for himself in the canvass. Stepping into the Union office one morning, he was congratulated by the editor on his nomination, when he gracefully acknowledged the compliment, and remarked that he was at a loss for a platform, and asked what questions it would be best for him to discuss on the stump. Col. Harris called his attention to the question of a railroad from Nashville to Chattanooga, there to meet the Georgia railroad to the ocean. But, said the Doctor, I have not the am- munition, the documents to work with ; if you will give me the data, I will make it my hobby. So the editor took from his


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book-rack some half a dozen volumes of Ilunt's Merchants' Mag- azine, containing all the railroad statistics that were extant at the time, pointing to the difficulties that had been overcome on dif- ferent routes, and the cost of every mile that had been made, with a complete history of the railroad enterprise in Europe and America, showing the feasibility of a railway towards Chatta- nooga, at least as far as Cumberland Ridge. Taking the volumes out to his home upon the hill, the Doctor went to work, and in a week or two he was chock full of it, when it was arranged to have a grand county meeting at the court-house to listen to his elaborate and well-prepared speech.


The attendance was large, and the speech was well delivered. Those who went from mere curiosity and for the purpose of rid- iculing the measure, were many of them convinced that the scheme was practicable, and soon became its advocates. The op- posing candidate thought he was half a century ahead of the age, and while he did not oppose it as a private enterprise, was opposed to the State taking any stock in it. Dr. Overton argued it in every precinct of the county, until the public opinion was very generally in its favor, and yet partisan feeling prevailed at the polls, and of course he was defeated; but the measure had taken birth, and still lived.


It immediately attracted the attention of capitalists and men of enterprise. The Legislature assembled in Nashville in the fall of 1845, and I had the honor to be a member of the House of Representatives at that session. Mr. Hayne, the great South Carolina orator, visited Nashville during the sitting of the Leg- islature, and was invited to address that body on the importance of connecting Nashville with the South Atlantic by a railway to Chattanooga, to meet the Georgia State railroad, thus giving us an outlet to the markets of the world by way of Charleston or Savannah. He delivered a great speech, which made a very favorable impression upon the members of the Legislature as well as upon the large number of citizens who heard it. He was certainly one of the greatest debaters and most eloquent orators in the United States. The Legislature granted a most liberal charter to the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Com- pany ; the city of Nashville endorsed the bonds of the company to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars, and a large in-


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dividual subscription of stock was made; V. K. Stevenson, a man of practical talents and untiring energy, took charge of the enterprise, and some ten or twelve years before the late "cruel war," had it in successful operation. It is now a great connect- ing link between the South and the North, and the East and the West.


Doctor Overton had put the ball in motion and given it the desired impetus, though he did not invest largely in the enter- prise. He was so identified with it at the time that he went by the sobriquet of "Old Chattanooga" wherever he was known; and as it was to his efforts before the people that the measure was launched on the tide of success, the road should be handed down in history as "The Overton Railway."


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XVI.


SOME ODDS AND ENDS OF EARLY HISTORY AND CUSTOMS .-- THE FIRST WEDDING "POUND CAKE" IN NASHVILLE.


THE first wedding in the colony which settled at the Bluff, near the French Lick (now the city of Nashville), was that of Capt. Leiper and his wife in the summer of 1780. They were married by Gen. James Robertson, who was the founder and a trustee of the colony. This wedding was followed by a feast and dancing. It is mentioned that roasting-ears were the great deli- cacy for the ladies on this interesting occasion. Mr. James Shaw was also a trustee and married Edward Swanson to Mrs. Carvin, James Freeland to Mrs. Maxwell, Cornelius Riddle to Jane Mul- herrin, and John Tucker to Jenny Herod, all in one day. These were probably the next marriages succeeding that of Capt. Leiper and his wife. Tradition has handed down some particulars touch- ing the marriage of Cornelius Riddle to the beautiful Jane Mul- herrin. The colony was then in its infancy and the settlers were not supplied with the means or appliances necessary to make a wedding occasion brilliant, either in the way of gorgeous dresses, a table laden with rich viands and luxuries to tempt the fastidious appetite, and a fine band to furnish music while the guests " trip- ped the light, fantastic toe," as the older settlements could do, or as their descendants in later years could do, but there was not wanting the disposition on the part of those more immediately interested to make the affair as grand and imposing as circum- stances would admit, especially as it was among the first weddings in the new settlement. They were well supplied with game of almost every description, with which to prepare the most savory and tempting dishes, but there was neither flour nor meal in the whole colony with which to make bread, nor had there been for six months. In this emergency two of the settlers were mounted on horses and hurried off to Danville, Ky., for a small quantity of corn in order to supply the wedding table with bread. Only a few days elapsed ere the couriers returned, bringing with them


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each one bushel of corn, which soon found its way to the mortar and pestle, where it was speedily converted into excellent meal, and from it was baked the first " bride's cake" of which this new colony boasted. It was made of pounded corn-meal, with no other ingredients than a little salt and water. All things were in readiness and the happy pair pledged their love and fealty to each other,


" And their lips and lives express'd The sacred vow that they profess'd."


Amid the dangers that environed the settlement, the hearts of this band of pioneers grew happy while celebrating this wedding with song, dance, and feast, rendered exquisitely delightful by the introduction of the wedding " pound cake," and perhaps no cake on a similar occasion, before or since, was enjoyed with more zest. 1


HARD TO KILL.


Some few years subsequent to the attack on Buchanan's Station, a party of Indians were prowling about in that neighborhood in the fall of the year. One Sabbath morning four of John Everett's children, three little girls and their still smaller brother, were. out on a walnut-hunting expedition but a few hundred yards from the house. They had been absent but a few minutes, when the family were horrified with the cry, "Indians! Indians!" and the screaming of the children. The men in the house snatched up their rifles and rushed to the spot whence came the alarm, to find that the Indians had made their escape, after wounding and scalp- ing two of the girls and the boy. The eldest girl, nimble and active as a young deer, outran the Indians and reached the house in safety, shouting as she ran, " The Indians are killing the chil- dren !" All the wounded children recovered, grew up, married respectably, and raised families from whom some of Tennessee's distinguished and honored citizens sprang. The little boy, Thomas H. Everett, besides being scalped, had his breast-bone badly broken by the heel of an Indian. Though roughly han- dled, the little fellow recovered and lived to a good old age. He married the eldest daughter of Maj. John Buchanan, and was the father of five sons and eleven daughters. He was a farmer, and resided two miles North of the present Asylum for the Insane. Perhaps no man ever enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his


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neighbors, and the community at large, to a greater degree than did Thomas H., Everett.


In the spring of 1782, three men were fired upon by a party of Indians at the French Lick. David Hood was shot down, scalped and trampled upon, and believing him dead, the Indians left him and gave chase to his companions, John Tucker and Joseph Hendricks, who were wounded. Being pursued until in sight of the fort on the bluff where Nashville now stands, they were rescued and their pursuers repulsed. Hood, supposing the Indians were gone, wounded and scalped as he was, got up softly, and began to walk towards the fort at the bluff. To his mortifi- cation and surprise, he saw, standing upon the bank of the creek before him, the same Indians who had wounded and scalped him, making sport of his misfortunes and mistake. They then fel! upon him again, and inflicting other apparently mortal wounds. left him. He fell into a brush heap in the snow, and next morn- ing search being made by the whites, he was found, and being taken home, was placed in an out-house as a dead man. To the surprise of all, he revived, and after some time recovered, and lived many years.


HOW APOSTOLIC BLOWS AND KNOCKS WERE STRUCK IN SUMNER COUNTY HALF A CENTURY AGO.


I am indebted to the Gullatin Examiner for this incident : About fifty years ago Old Shiloh Meeting-house stood on the big hill just back of the house on the Hartsville pike, about a mile East of Gallatin, now owned by John Branham. It was the Presbyterian meeting-house of that day. The membership was not very large. Preachers came from far and near to preach in it. The Presbyterians, a good ways ahead of the times, deter- mined to learn young negroes to read and write. It met with great opposition, especially at Cairo, on the river, five miles dis- tant from Gallatin. Cairo was the rival of Gallatin, and for a long time it was not settled which was going to get the mastery in trade and population, but Gallatin got ahead. So great was the popular indignation at the river town that a party was organ- ized there to "wipe ont" the negro Sunday-school, under the lead of the late Maj. William Harvey. Maj. Harvey will be re- membered by hundreds of our citizens. He was a Virginian,


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and first settled at Cairo. He was an Anak among men, and his arm was as powerful as a trip-hammer. He could take any two medium sized men and hold them up in the air at arms-length. We have no doubt that he could have ;mashed in a man's skull as easily as he could an egg-shell.


The raiding party on a bright Sunday morning assaulted the school-house, captured the white teachers-and all the little niggers, and set off with them to Cairo, nearly five miles off. Somehow intelligence had been conveyed to Gallatin of the warlike move- ment of Cairo, and a rescuing party was speedily made up, headed by Samuel Blythe, the uncle of the late Samuel M. Blythe, of this place. Blythe was a solid old Presbyterian of the blue stocking order-one who


" Proved his opinion orthodox By apostolic blows and knocks."


He built and lived in the brick house, nearly one mile East of Gallatin, and now owned by Van H. Allen, Esq., and it was in sight of Shiloh meeting-house. The Blythe party rapidly moved towards Cairo, and overtook the marauders with the prisoners, white and black, at the big hill overlooking Cairo. They imme- diately assaulted the enemy with every sort of missile at hand. Harvey raged like a roaring lion, like Goliath among the pig- mies, striking right and left with telling effect. Many were hors du combat and lay about on the ground wounded and bruised. The battle waxed fearfully, and the victory hung in the scales, when in dashed a fresh warrior on the Gallatin side and settled the fight. The little negroes had scattered like rats at the begin- ning of the battle. Cairo retreated to her gates, and the victory was with the Presbyterian Blue Stockings. Their "apostolic blows and knocks " carried the day, just as they did in the days of John Knox.


FIXING TAVERN RATES.


About 1787, tavern rates were established by the County Court of Davidson county as follows: "One-half pint of whisky, such as will sink tallow, two shillings; bowl of toddy, made with loaf sugar and whisky, three shillings and six pence ; one quart bowl punch, with fruit, ten shillings ; dinner and grog, four shillings and six pence." Corn was ordered to be received for taxes at


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two shillings and eighteen pence per bushel ; good fat bear meet, if delivered where troops are stationed, four pence per pound ; fine buffalo beef, three pence ; salt, two shillings and four pence per bushel.


At a later period the tavern rates were fixed as follows :


State of Tennessee-Davidson County Court, July Sessions, 1820, when the tavern rates for this county are established as follows : Jamaica spirits, per half pint, 373 cts .; wine, per half pint, 50 cts .; French brandy, per half pint, 373 ets .; peach brandy, per half pint, 123 cts .; whisky, per half pint, 123 cts .; breakfast and supper, each, 25 cts .; dinner, 37} cts .; lodging, per night, 123 cts .; stabling for a horse twenty-four hours, 50 cts .; single feed for a horse, 123 cts., as to the town of Nashville ; and in the county they are established as follows, to-wit: Liquors, the same rates as in town; breakfast, dinner, and supper, each, 25 cts .; lodging, per night, 6} cts .; stabling for a horse twenty-four hours, 373 cts .; single feed for a horse, 12} cts.


NATHAN EWING, Clerk.


THE NAME OF OUR STATE.


From information derived from all the sources within his reach, Ramsey believes that the Tennessee river was called by the first explorers and geographers, Reviere des Cheraquis. or Cosqui- nambeaux -- but by the aborigines, Kallamuchee, which he takes to be the aboriginal name of the stream from its confluence with the Ohio to the mouth of Little Tennessee. From this point to the mouth of the French Bread, it was called Cootela; and from there to the mouth of the Watauga, and perhaps to its source in Virginia, the Holston was known to the Indians as Hogoheger. The first mention he finds of the name Tennessee. is in a report of a council held by Sir Alexander Cumming with the Cherokees of the Lower, Middle, Valley, and Over- hill settlements, at Ne- quassee, in 1730. A "crown was brought- from Tenassee, their chief town, which, with five eagle tails and four scalps of their enemies, Moytoy presented to Sir Alexander, requesting him, on his arrival at Britain, to lay them at his majesty's feet." The town thus called was on the West bank of the present Little Ten- nessee river (then also called Tenassee by the Indians), a few miles above the mouth of Tellico, not far from where Fort Loudon


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was subsequently erected, and, adds Ramsey, " afterwards gave the name to Tennessee river and the State." He says of the Cherokees: " This tribe, inhabiting the country from which the Southern confluents of the Tennessee spring, gave their name at first to that noble stream. In the earlier maps, the Tennessee is called the Cherokee river." Speaking of the Convention of 1796, Ramsey says : " It is tradition that the beautiful name given to our State, in the Convention, was suggested by General Jackson. The members from the county of Tennessee consented to the loss of that name, if it should be transferred to the whole State. Its principal river still retains its aboriginal name, and the Conven- tion adopted it, in preference to others that were spoken of."


THE GENERAL MUSTER.


A feature of the early times in Tennessee was the general muster, and it retained many of its characteristics until thirty- five or forty years ago. It was the grand event of the year, and brought together more of all sorts of people than any meeting or "gathering" that occurred. And what a pride the men of that time, covering a period of nearly half a century, took in whatever related to their equipment and their instruction in the tactics! The officers were dressed in their gayest trappings- " plumed and belted warriors"-and even the "prancing steeds" which the field officers rode seemed to feel and act as though the occasion was a grand one; and then the "soldiery," the right- arm of the State-the tallest man heading his company, and so on down through the roll-their hardy looks, their athletic forms, their marching " with the light and noiseless step peculiar to their pursuit of woodland game," and their picturesque cos- tume-for in addition to being dressed in their best clothes, they wore the hunting-shirt, with its fringes, "the venerable emblem of the Revolution"-made them "the observed of all observ- ers," and awoke in them an honest pride in the hearty plaudits they won from admiring spectators. The hunting-shirt did not finally disappear from military parades in Tennessee until about the close of the first half of the present century. The hunting- shirt, once the dress of the commonality as of the elite, is now a thing of the past, and will be found, if at all, only in inuseums, "like ancient armor, exposed to the gaze of the curious."


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The rifle was the arm used in the exercise of the manual at these musters, and the men who carried them would have been a dangerous foe to meet anywhere, as was amply demonstrated at King's Mountain, Emuefaw, the Horse Shoe, and New Orleans, for they were not only cool and determined, and brave as men dare to be, but were among the most splendid marksmen the country has produced, and the "death-dealing aim of these matchless marksmen" made them a terror to the enemy on every battle-field where the yell peculiar to the Tennessee vol- unteer was heard. Accustomed to the use of the rifle from boy- hood, they became so expert with it that they could "drive the center" almost every shot at a distance of one hundred to two hundred yards. A favorite sport of the men of the early times in this State was the " shooting match," in which the old " flint- lock " rifle was used. A number of the best shots in a county would meet at some point for a trial of their skill, and it may well be imagined that some remarkably good shooting was done. It was a contest among "crack shots" to see who would come off victor and carry off the first prize, and these matches drew together large crowds, who manifested great interest in the suc- cess of their friends. Is it any wonder that the Tennessee rifle- men became famous and a terror to the foe in the Indian wars as well as in those with Great Britain and Mexico?


But we have wandered from the muster to follow our brave riflemen, not only to their shooting-matches, but to the scenes of their great triumphs. At these musters were to be found large numbers of people "plying their vocations" in the effort to "turn an honest penny." If a man had anything in which he took a particular delight, he was ouly too happy to exhibit it at the general muster; and if he had anything he desired to sell, he would never miss this occasion to exhibit whatever it might be. Here was the peddler displaying his wares and merchan- dise; there was a man with this thing or that to sell; and else- where we would find a sturdy old farmer dilating upon the fine points and remarkable performances of an exceedingly handsome ยท horse; and so on through a long catalogue. But the feature, the "institution," of these musters was the "cake-man," who displayed his tempting ginger-cakes to admiring urchins and "boys of larger growth," and sold them, too. There were usu-


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ally several of these important personages at these "gatherings," some of whom had established a reputation for the superiority of their cakes, not only in their own county, but in those adjoining. These men sold large quantities of cakes, which were either con- sumed on the ground or taken home to the "little ones ; " and how these young scions danced with very joy as the sire or brother displayed the tempting cake on his return from muster! It was a treat they knew how to enjoy, and they did enjoy it! The ginger-cake of to-day is a poor thing as compared with that of the muster-times of the long ago; but then-they were the first cakes which many of the boys and girls of that time had seen, and cakes of any kind were esteemed much greater luxu- ries in those days than the best, most delicious of to-day are !


Another feature of the muster was, that if an individual had any difficulty to settle with a neighbor, it must be done on this " chivalrous day. The knife or the pistol was not resorted to in those days, but it was a regular old-fashioned fisticuff. If a man had exhibited extraordinary prowess in this line at any of the gatherings along the valleys or among the hills; if he or his friends were disposed to boast of his manhood, when the general muster came round he would find that he would have to fight somebody, just to see which could endure the most hard knock- ing, in a ring, with a man each to see that all went off in accord- ance with the "code of honor" of those days of fisticutfs.


THE FLAT-BOATMEN.


Mention has been made in these sketches of the boatmen re- turning from New Orleans and Natchez through the Indian Na- tion, which was then a wilderness, to their homes in Tennessee and Kentucky. In the early days of the present century flat- boating became a favorite and profitable avocation of many of the people of this State who lived along the principal rivers. This continued for many years to be the only mode of transpor- tation by which the produce of the country could be got to market in the towns along the great rivers or in New Orleans. It was in this manner, and by this system of exchanges, that most of the money in circulation in Tennessee, especially the mountainous portions, found its way hither. But since the ad- vent of the steamboat and the iron-horse, the " broad-horns," as


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the flat-boats were called, have entirely disappeared from many sections where in years gone by they afforded the only means of reaching the Southwestern markets. The old-time boatmen were a jovial set of fellows, and merrymaking was one of the first impulses of their nature. And they were a generous, noble- hearted set of men as ever trod the face of the earth. Their oc- cupation, full of the hazards and dangers of the swollen, mad river-for it was only when the tides came that they could navi- gate the rivers of the mountain region-taught them the great lesson of dependence upon each other, and they would brave any danger to assist a fellow-boatman when his property or his life was imperiled.


THE LOG CABIN OF THE PIONEERS.


There are many men and women still living who retain a vivid recollection of the habits and customs of the early settlers, for they were handed down from father to son, and were in vogue in some portions of the State within the last forty years. The log cabin, with its puncheon floor and its door-sutter of the same material, hung with wooden hinges and fastened with a wooden latch, the string of which hung on the outside, was an "institu- tion" of the mountainous districts long after the pioneers had passed away ; and there are many men and women living to-day, sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters of the pioneers-honored for their sterling worth and respected for their intelligence, who have lived in just such cabins. In the pioneer days the floor of many of these cabins was the earth. "The interior of the cabin," says Ramsey, "was no less unpre- tending and simple. The whole furniture of the one apartment answering in those primitive times the purposes of the kitchen, the dining-room, the nursery, and the dormitory, were a plain, home-made bedstead or two, some split-bottomed chairs and stools; a large puncheon supported on four legs, used as occasion required, for a bench or a table; a water-shelf and a bucket; a spinning-wheel and a loom, finished the catalogue. The ward- robe of the family was equally plain and simple. The walls of the houses were hung around with the dresses of the females, the hunting-shirts, clothes, and arms and shot-pouches of the men." In one corner of the cabin stood the "dresser," which contained




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