USA > Tennessee > Old times in West Tennessee : reminiscences, semi-historic, of pioneer life and the early emigrant settlers in the Big Hatchie country > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17
-
234
Reminiscences of Old Times
teenth year. Of ardent and restless temperament, I joined an expedition fitting out for Canada, and will have lived in America on to-morrow-to-mor- row ! The light of my life has gone; my soul followeth to-morrow."
19472111
----
-
--- -
235
in West Tennessee.
CHAPTER XI.
Haywood County-Colonel Richard Nixon, the Pioneer Settler-N. T. Perkins-Hiram Bradford-The Taylor Family-Major William R. Hess-His Appearance be- fore the County Court-The Moody Excitement.
HAYWOOD-named for one of North Carolina's hon- ored and trusted sons, Judge John Haywood-was erected into a county in the year 1821. One of the second tier of counties from the Mississippi river, lying between the waters of the Big Hatchie and Forked Deer rivers, it embraces within its limits a larger area of rich and arable territory than any other county in West Tennessee. The early immi- grant settlers to it, were men of character and wealth, who shaped and modeled its institutions, and gave tone to society.
Among them were Col. Richard Nixon, L. Mc- Guire, Nicholas T. Perkins, the Sanders, Taylors, Bradfords, Bonds, Estes, and many others, whose brave hearts and inflexible will sustain them in the perils and hardships of pioneer life, and who stand as among the noble fathers of the land.
The first court was organized and held at the house of Colonel Richard Nixon, on the eighth of March, 1824, by Richard Nixon, Laurence McGuire, Nicholas T. Perkins, Jonathan T. Jacobs, William Dodd, Britton H. Saunders, David Jeffries and
236
Reminiscences of Old Times
Blackman Coleman, Ricard Nixon being elected Chairman. The following officers were then elected: Britton H. Saunders, Clerk; John G. Caruthers, Sheriff; Richard W. Nixon, Trustee; William Dood, Ranger; Reuben Alphin, Constable.
The following named gentlemen composed the venire from which the first grand and petit juries were formed : Richard Nixon, Edward Howard, Charles Howard, William H. Henderson, Alfred Kenedy, John Mc White, Jonathan Nixon, Thomas G. Nixon, Lewis Welerby, Julius Saunders, John Johnson, John R. McGuire, John Jones, Nathan Bridgeman, S. W. Farmer, Hardy Blackwell, Wyatt Twity, Willie Patrick, R. W. Nixon, William H. Dyer, H. A. Powell, James York and Thomas Ghent.
The first order of the court was to the Sheriff, requiring that he collect the sum of six and three- fourth cents per every one hundred acres of land in the county, as a "fund to pay the tallismen and jurors one dollar a day."
The first Circuit Court was held on the fourteenth day of June, 1824, at the house of Colonel Richard Nixon; Joshua Haskell, Judge, and Blackman Coleman, Clerk. The first settler in Haywood, was COL. RICHARD NIXON,
who blazed out his course and cut his own road from the settled vicinity of Jackson, to where he pitched his tent, on the creek which took his name (Nixon's creek), three miles east of Brownsville. The red men of the woods were encamped on the same creek-the noble Chickasaws-with whom he
237
in West Tennessee.
cultivated kindly relations, and for many weeks shared with them the hospitalities of their camp.
The first civil courts of the county were organ- ized and held in his house, as also, the first religious meeting where prayer was made. As the county began to settle up, the hardy pioneer boys and girls would meet at his house and enjoy the old time dance. He was at the birth and naming of the county site, acting as one of the commissioners in laying off the town (Brownsville).
A member of the Magistrate Court from its incep- tion, he was chosen as its chairman, which position he retained until his death in 1831. A novel case arising in the early courts of Haywood, involving a question of title to some land or free-hold, governed by the laws and adjudications of the courts of North Carolina, requiring a certain law book, which was not to be had or found in the law libraries of Ten- nessee, he mounted a courier on horse-back and sent him post-haste all the way to Raleigh, N. C., for the law book, and had it produced on trial of the case at its next term.
His last mingling among his fellow-citizens of Haywood, was as President of a Fourth of July cele- bration at Brownsville, a few months before his death, on which occasion the following volunteer toast was offered by a cotemporary settler, Mr. H. Haralson, and drank with hats off: "To Colonel Richard Nixon, President of the day. The FIRST SETTLER, AND MOST PROMINENT CITIZEN." Colonel Nixion was born in North Carolina in the year 1769. He represented the people of his native county,
238
Reminiscences of Old Times
New Hanover, with distinguished honor for many years. Noted for his genial hospitality, kind and generous heart as a neighbor, his name will ever be kindly remembered by all who knew him.
While it is not the purpose of the writer of these semi-historic reminiscences to become the biogra -; pher of all the old and worthy pioneer settlers in the Big Hatchie country, he cannot, without a breach of courtesy due the "old folks," whose long and eventful lives have come down to the more modern days, leave unnoticed the name of
ESQUIRE NICHOLAS T. PERKINS,
who, with a small colony of his name and kindred, immigrated from East to Middle Tennessee at an early day, and as soon as the way was opened up to the out-skirts of civilization, pressed on and settled in Haywood in the year 1823. .. In 1824 we find him one of the first acting magistrates, and one of the commissioners to lay off and estab- lish the site for the seat of justice for the county; which he, in conjunction with the other commis- sioners, named Brownsville, in honor, it may be? vanity to presume, of one of the North Carolina Browns.
In March, 1825, he acted as a commissioner with L. McGuire, Charles White, William H. Henderson, and Thomas G. Nixon, under appointment from the Worshipful Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, as it was then called, selling at public sale the lots in Brownsville.
'Squire Perkins was born in Nox county, Tenn., A. D. 1793, and died in Brownsville in 1872, having
-
1
239
in West Tennessee.
lived six years beyond the period allotted to man, and within a few months of a half century in Hay- wood. Most exemplary in the moral, and without spot or blemish in the social, always faithful in trust for himself, he became the executor, administrator and guardian of more of the widows' and orphans' property and estates, than any man in the county, which attested the truth of the saying, that " he who managed his own affairs well, could be trusted to the fiduciary management of others." He enjoyed, to the last day of his long and useful life, the confi- dence of everyone, never betraying a trust. He dis- charged the various duties devolved upon him with marked business tact and capacity, and sterling integrity and fidelity. He died as he had lived- highly esteemed, respected and venerated.
Brownsville "was without form and void" until the opening of spring, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five. “Goods, wares and merchandise" had been sold in Jackson from the establishing of the town, which was done in 1822-the town lots having been sold in Angust of that year. Brownsville was the next oldest county town, and had the honor of having the first store between the latter place and the Mississippi where a yard of tape or a paper of pins could be had, and
HIRAM BRADFORD
was the first store-keeper. He was long the leading merchant of the place and business man of the county. His long and eventful career is worthy, not only of a page in the early history and settle-
240
Reminiscences of Old Times
ment of Brownsville, but of imitation by all begin- ners in hewing out the rough and difficult path- way of life, when self-reliance is the only sustaining element. In his youth, he had made it his aim and object in life to become rich, and to brave whatever of peril and hardship it might cost him in its accom- plishment. He got his first start by trading in horses and mules, taking them to the old settled part of Louisiana, through the many miles of wild Indian territory, and often returning home to his father's house on the Cumberland, in Stewart coun- tv, on foot, when he would not see a white man's face from the settlement at Natchez until he reached Tennessee. In his frequent trips to Louisiana, he had examined the country, then in the cradle of the wilderness, from the Big Hatchie to the Yazoo, enl- tivated friendly intercourse with the Indians, and " talked injun" equal to a Chickasaw or Choctaw. Reaching the age when it becomes man's duty to "pare off" and assume the responsibilities of a good citizen, he married and resolved to fix his residence; among the Tunica hills of Louisiana, where he had seen cotton growing. He went to work, in part with his own hands, and built him a flatboat, against the earnest protestations of his father and neighbors. Getting his boat ready by fall, he loaded it with corn, leaving room for his young family and house- hold. So much opposed was his father and family, including his two negro men, to his moving to Louisiana, which was regarded as a sickly country, and to thwart his going, in the dead of night, before the morning fixed for his leaving, his flatboat was
-
241
in West Tennessee.
scuttled by the negroes and sunk in the waters of the Cumberland.
He rose early the next morning and repaired to the scene of his discomfiture. The people of Dover, a little town on the Cumberland where his father resided, gathered to the river bank. The boat was yet fast to the bank, and about one-half of the front part of it out of the water. Hiram pulled off his coat and with his two negro men went to work, throwing out the corn, which was in the after-part of the boat. Soon she began to rise, when he, with a face beaming with delighted hope, ran up on the bank, jumping high up and slapping his heels to- gether, cried out : "Hurrah for Louisiana!" His friends, taking inspiration from his ardent and undaunted spirit, though loth to see him go, fell to with him, and by noon had the boat afloat and ready for loading up again. Filling it again with corn, and putting aboard his young wife and one child, with such comforts as would be needed on the trip, he, with his two negro men, cut loose the moorings and floated out from Dover in the fall of 1817. Meeting with no difficulty on the voyage, he floated down the Mississippi, landing at Bayou Sara, meet- ing with the first steamboat he had ever seen on the way.
With his two negro men, he labored in the cotton- field, succeeding well in raising cotton. The hot sun and long summers of Louisiana, together with the unhealthy state of the country, determined him to move back to Tennessee. Familiar with the rich virgin lands west of the Tennessce river, he resolved 11
242
Reminiscences of Old Times
on fixing his future place of abode in Haywood. Learning the day fixed for the sale of the lots in Brownsville, he gathered together his accumulations. with which, and his cotton crop of ten bales of that season, he went to New Orleans and bought him a stock of goods, ordering his family to be ready on the bank of the river for the boat as she came up. Shipping his goods on the steamboat , and taking his family aboard as she passed up, he landed at Fulton in the latter part of February, 1825. His aim was to attend the sale of the lots at Browns ville. Procuring a couple of horses at Fulton, he mounted one of them, taking one child before him and another behind him. His wife rode the other, with the third child behind her. He started off for the lot sale, making his way as best he could along Indian trails, until he reached the neighborhood of Brownsville, stopping at Reuben Alfin's. He was among the first on the ground, when the sale of lots began, and bid off the first lot, No. 1, situated on the corner of the Public Square and East Main street, south side. Having his two men with him, he put them to work the next day upon a large oak tree that stood near the corner, which he had split into slabs, twelve by fourteen feet long, and built the first store-house erected in Brownsville. It was built over the stump of the tree that fur- nished the material for its construction. The Major, leaving his family with Reuben Alfin, returned to Fulton, and, by the time his new store-house was covered in and floored with puncheons, he had his boxes of goods ready on the ground to be opened.
243
in West Tennessee.
During that year he erected a saw-pit on the sainte lot, and had sawed out by hand lumber with which he built the first hotel in the town, adjoining his store-house, which, for size and respectability, was not equaled by any house of public entertainment in the district. It was continued as the finest and best hotel in Brownsville until within a few years past, when it had to give way for the more modern improvement in brick and mortar. In front of his hotel, he set out the first shade tree on the Public Square, which also fell a victim to the progress of the age, to make room for a shelter of dry boards, the stump of which still clings to mother earth, to remind the passer-by of the hand that put it there, where for forty-six years it bloomed and blossomed (it was the flowering locust) over the front windows of the hotel, under which the gay young men of the town stood and coursed loving talk to the beautiful young women, daughters and sisters of the proprie- tors, long, long ago, through the raised windows and flowing curtains.
Few men lived so long and blameless a life as Hiram Bradford, enjoying the fruits of a well-earned fortune and an honorable name, all of which he left as a noble heritage to his surviving children.
THE TAYLOR FAMILY.
Five brothers of them, Richard, Howell, John Y., Edmond, and Buck, with the old patriarch, their father, migrated from Virginia in the year 1827-8, and made permanent settlements in Haywood.
Men of parts and large property, zealous in the advocacy and vindication of law and order, noted
244
Reminiscences of Old Times
for their patriotic zeal and Christian virtues, none contributed more in the formning of sound morals and the general well being of society. Their lives were a noble example to posterity, illustrative of the passion that animates man in the character of a good citizen. The writer regrets his inability, for lack of sufficient data, to give such a personal sketch of the several members of the family as their long and useful lives so justly merit; as also, of many others of the old and first settlers whose names are worthy to be mentioned in these pages.
The first physicians who settled in Brownsville were William C. Bruce, Dorthel, Penn, Dillard, Johnson and Barby.
ALLEN J. BARBY'S
name as physician, citizen and benefactor stands alone in Haywood. One of nature's noblemen, he stands to-day without a living peer among his early professional associates. The writer, for lack of the, necessary data, is unable to give such a personali sketch of Dr. Barby as his long and useful life justly merits. Few men, whether in the professional or private walks of life, have enjoyed the uniform con- fidence and esteem of his fellow-man more than Doctor Allen J. Barby.
DAVID MCLEOD,
the pioneer tailor of Brownsville, is yet among- the living. Before the town had a corporate exist- ence, he worked at his trade in a shop built of logs. To afford the necessary light to his tailor's bench, a side-log was sawed out. . The old tailor, though bent a little with the weight of many years, takes
245
in West Tennessee.
pride in pointing out where the big stump stocd upon which he used to build a fire to heat his "goose," with which he pressed off the first suit of clothes he made, for Colonel Nixon, from cloth bought out of Hiram Bradford's " rail-pen store."
DANIEL CHERRY,
with other owners of land grants west of the Ten- nessee river, had a drawing for choice of locations. Mr. Cherry drew the first and second choice, and as early, perhaps, as 1821, visited West Tennessee, locating his first choice where he afterward settled, on the Forked Deer river, and his second choice at "Poplar Corner." It was not, perhaps, until 1823 that Mr. Cherry fixed his permanent residence on the south fork of the Forked Deer river, where he early made his mark as a man of enterprise and thrift. His first aim in opening up the country, was to provide well the "staff of life." His choice of lands were unsurpassed in fertility, and particu- larly adapted to the culture of corn. He soon became noted as the best corn grower in the dis- triet. Corn and meat he always had to sell. The writer, in looking over the files of the Jackson Gazette (a newspaper published in Jackson by Colonel D. C. McLean), finds an advertisement of Mr. Cherry's, which, with his teeming fields of corn, shows the fatness of the land. The advertisement reads thus:
" BACON.
'"I have about 15,000 pounds of bacon and 1000 pounds of lard for sale at Harrisburg, in Haywood county. DANIEL CHERRY.
"April 23d, 1825."
246
Reminiscences of Old Times
In another place in the same paper he advertises several thousand bushels of corn for sale. Ho showed great enterprise in the building of a mill on the Forked Deer, by which the surrounding set- tlements were supplied with good meal. Selecting his mill-site on a slough at the edge of the high land where he had fixed his residence, he built broad levee across the bottom above the overflow. upon which the public could travel at all seasons ot the year. To afford ample water for his mill, be contracted the width and consequent flow of the waters of the Forked Deer, causing an increased flow into his mill-pond.
By his probity and practical good sense he grew rich, and reared a large family of sons and daugh- ters, many of whom, with their sons and daughters, live to adorn the society of West Tennessee.
Mr. Cherry was a native of North Carolina. He lived a long and useful life. His memory will be venerated as long as the place (Cherryville) which bears his name shall be known through future generations.
THE FIRST EXECUTION.
The first execution issued against personal pro perty, and put in the hands of the Sheriff, Reuben Alfin, acting deputy was levied upon a male of the cow kind, a large red bull, belonging to the defen dant in execution. The acting deputy felt kindly toward the defendant, and had made it his special business to make it known to all the people of the country the day on which the noble animal would be sold, and had spoken much of the pro-
247
in West Tennessee.
perty in execution, of his blood and pedigree, for he was of the best stock of cattle from Middle Tennessee. His owner had taken great pains in his raising, and handled him easy. The kind- hearted deputy had practiced with him some, in order that he might handle him to advantage on the day of sale. The day, according to the notices . pasted up through the country, came around, and the bull was brought to town and tied to a large stump in the Publie Square, with many feet of rope, to allow him the use of himself as well as to graze around. It was summer, and not uncommon in those days for the grass to grow on the square, or in the streets.
As the hour for the sale approached, the people from many parts of the country began to pour in, and gather around the bull, to examine and take a look before the sale commenced. He was a monster bull, a dark mahogany-red, without spot or blemish, fat and sleek-a prize to a modern butcher. The time arrived for the sale to begin; the good-hearted deputy mounted the stump, to which the property in execution was tied, and made proclamation of the terms of the sale, etc., and called for bids. Many cattle-raisers were there, and soon an active compe- tition among the bidders sprung up. The good- hearted deputy sheriff kept up a lively crying of the bids, now and then pausing to expatiate on the fine qualities and immense value of the noble animal. In the meantime, the town folks gathered on the square and around the bull. Curiosity and interest on the part of the numerous bidders caused the
1
248
Reminiscences of Old Times
crowd to press in close and around the bull, thus pushing him out to the extent allowed by the rope-4 some thirty or more feet from the stump to which he was tied. Comprehending nothing of the gath- ering and excited interest around him, the bull began to grow restive, shaking his great head and tearing up the ground. . He was regarded as; per- fectly gentle and docile, however, and his becoming excited and animated only increased the interest of the surrounding by-standers. In the meantime the bidding increased in interest and rivalry, and was going on bravely, when a laboring man came out of a well that he was digging near, and, attracted by the crowd on the square, he pressed in to get a sight of the object of so much interest. The bull by this time had become infuriated. The well-digger. con- tinued to press through the crowd until he got within a few paces of him, as though he proposed " taking the bull by the horns!" No sooner did the infuriated animal get a sight of his red flannel shirt than he made a rush upon him. The man in the red flannel turned and made his best run to keep out of his way, taking his course circling around the stump, and for the most part on the outside of the bidders and by-standers. In the bull's run the rope slacked up, taking the crowd along about the knees. The bull had performed the circle, leveling every one to the ground who stood within it. The situa- tion was becoming painfully terrific. The man with the red shirt kept on the outside, beyond the reach of the mad bull. The kind-hearted deputy, to re- lieve the situation immediately around him, pulled
249
in West Tennessee.
out his knife and cut the rope, freeing the bull, when he broke for the red shirt. Away they went amid the excited shouts of the crowd, across the square, the bull gaining on him every jump, until the well- digger reached his well, only saving himself by swinging on to the well-rope and letting himself down out of sight. The bull, finding himself at liberty to go his way, broke for home. The injury and damage around the stump was purely inci- dental, lacking in malice, and the bull was freely forgiven.
The last and highest bidder was not remem- bered by the deputy sheriff. The day for return- ing the execution was close at hand, and how to make his return upon it was a puzzle.
Had Vol. Sevier been a resident of the town at that day, it would have been said that he had had something to do with the well-digger's coming out of. his well with a red flannel shirt on.
Prominent among the lawyers who early settled in Brownsville, was
MAJ. WM. R. HESS,
ingenuous and amiable in aspect, square in build and medium in stature; his hair, for lack of a bar- ber, usually fell low upon his broad shoulders. In dress he was careless, sometimes to slovenliness. A good dinner and full bottle pleased him much. He had wit, learning and elocution, sprightly in debate, with all the dignity of a professional man, yet he was modest and retiring. Admitted to the bar when quite young, he soon took a high position, and gave promise of a brilliant future. Few men, in so brief
·
1
250
Reminiscences of Old Times
a career, attained to a higher degree of eminence, or held within his grasp a power of mind that would · have insured the full measure of a laudable ambition. His genius and learning, however, were counterbal- anced by indolence and a too great fondness for personal ease and self-gratification. The public weal concerned him little, refusing on several occa- sions to accept positions, requiring him to mix with the vox populi; yet he was good company, and en- joyed the social of a small circle, and a good joke, not unfrequently perpetrating one himself.
It is remembered of him, that on one occasion he appeared before the Magistrate's Court-the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions-one winter day. He had just risen from a good dinner and an empty bottle, and remembering that he had a motion to make before the Court adjourned, he strode to- ward the Court-house. Losing nothing of his. accustomed dignity of manner, with measured steps he walked into the court-room. Unbuttoning his old green blanket overcoat, throwing back the heavy colar, and thrusting his left thumb in the arm-hole of his vest, he presented himself to the Court, announcing his wish to make a motion. The Court, being engaged in some matter then before it, paid no attention to him. He announced again that he wanted to make a motion, yet the Court heard, him not. Patiently he stood, the personification of the great Webster in the United States Senate. Raising his clear, ringing voice, he repeated, for the third time-
" May it please this most Worshipful Court, I
--------
1
251
in West Tennessee.
have a motion to make. Will you please hear ?"
Still no recognition. Putting on his hat, he turned upon his heel and walked out of the court- room, with the same steady step that he came in. Passing out to a pile of brickbats that lay in the court-yard, he filled the great pockets of his over- coat, and retraced his steps to the court-room, with a brick in each hand, as well as one in his hat, and again presented himself before the Court.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.