USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 69
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Robert Foster was elected clerk ; Charles Cavenaugh, chairman ; Charles Rosborough, sheriff; Wm. Gray, rangers John Allcom, Register ; B. Seawell, Esquire, was appointed county solicitor.
Oct. 26 .- The southern part of Davidson county was formed into a new county.
The new county was named Williamson. John Johnson, Sen., Daniel Perkins, James Buford, William Edmonson and Captain James Scurlock, were the Commissioners to lay off
* Blount Papers.
+ Afterwards elected Clerk, which office he held for many years, His son, J. S. Mclain, afterwards was elected, and still continues Clerk of Wilson county- 1852.
708
BONS OF TENNESSEE IN OT
and erect public buildings in the Court was held at Franklin. Wil clared to be part of Mero District.
Caption of the principal Acts pas Tennessee, at its session commencin
1. An act increasing the jurisdiction of J
8. To suppress excessive gaming.
9. To prevent the wilful or malicious kil 10. Making provision for opening a ro District across Cumberland Mountain, thr kee Indians, as stipulated by the Treaty of
26. Establishing Kingston, near South-1 under the direction of David Miller, Ale Preston, John Smith, Wm. L. Lovely, Mer N. Clark.
33. Establishing the town of Franklin. thral, Joseph Porter, Wm. Boyd and Da Commissioners.
34. Authorizing John McNairy, Joser Joseph Philips and David McGavock, to Court House in Nashville.
36. Establishing Haysborough, in David 38. Establishing Dandridge, in Jefferson 46. Making provision for electing Elec President of the United States.
" That the said Electors may be trouble to the citizens as possible, selected three citizens in each of tl Districts of Washington, Hamilton : was to meet at Jonesboro', Knoxvill tively, and elect one Elector for eac Electors were then to meet at Knoxy dent and Vice-President of the Unite
Besides the distinguished sons of ' these pages, and others still surviving, mentioned many others who have go elsewhere fame and character-as he Clung, and Clay and Parsons of Al: Anderson, Lea and Dunlap of Mis Gaines of Louisiana ; Houston, C Texas ; Sevier of Arkansas ; Burne Gallaher and King of Missouri; ]
709
GOVERNOR SEVIER'S COURT.
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Reynolds of Illinois. The list could be much enlarged, but the limits of this volume will not allow the writer to in- dulge himself in that grateful duty.
SEVIER'S COURT.
The laws of Tennessee required the Governor of the State to reside in Knoxville. In compliance with this requirement, Governor Sevier kept the Executive office at that place, but had his domicil in the country, a few miles from the capital. To this he was driven, not less by necessity than his own taste, for rural quiet and the unrestrained habits, which use had imposed upon him in his intercourse with men.
After the organization of the State Government, the aspect of affairs at the capital underwent a change. There was no longer the source of power and patronage. These were no longer lodged in one individual, but were thrown broad-cast over the whole State, and were confided to the people themselves. The same court was, of course, not paid to Governor Sevier, that had been usually offered to his pre- decessor. There was discernible, too, less of courtly usage, and less deference to magisterial dignity and patronage. Se- vier was, however, equally cordial, hospitable and generous. His private fortune was small. Like Clarke, Boon, and other pioneers, his public services had not been requited with pecuniary compensation. He was, indeed, a poor man. The inadequacy of his salary, forced him to adopt the most frugal and inexpensive habits. His attire was plain, but neat-his household limited, and his dwelling most simple, primitive and unpretending ; but even when thus restricted by the iron hand of poverty, his heart was generous and his feelings liberal. With less of the display of hospitality, with perhaps a smaller appreciation of some of its manifestations than Gov. Blount had shewn, the Governor of the State of Tennessee strove hard, for a time, to maintain the conse- quence of the Executive office, and at least not to allow it to fall beneath that of the Territorial administration. The effort was unavailing. His official duties he discharged, according to law, in town ; those of the citizen and gen- tleman, were transferred to his home in the country. The civilities due to all from the Governor, were dispensed at
710
SEVIER'S COUNTRY RESIDENCE.
his plain residence, south of the river, on a plantation still known as the " Governor's Old Place," and now occupied by Mr. George Kirby.
Upon the great road leading from Knoxville, the first Capital of Tennessee, and still the metropolis of the Eastern section of that State, and connecting it with Sevierville, Newell's and McGaughey's Stations, may be seen, at the dis- tance of five miles from the former place, the ruins of an old station, now in a deserted and worn-out field. In early times it had given protection to several families adjacent to it. Before Knoxville was laid off, this station was a frontier post, which was reached by emigrants passing the trace from the mouth of French Broad to the lower settlements on Nine Mile and Pistol Creek. Near that trace, and after it crossed Bay's Mountain, at the foot of one of its rugged spurs, gushed forth a beautiful spring, surrounded by a hilly and rocky country. In this secluded spot stood the cabin of Governor Sevier. He enlarged the building, and made it, if not commodious and elegant, convenient and comfortable.
Here he received his guests in the olden style of primitive hospitality and backwoods etiquette. His house was always open, and not unfrequently crowded with his old soldiers and comrades in arms. A wandering pilgrim from Natchez or the Missouri, or his countrymen from Cumberland or else- where, passing anywhere through the country, would find out the abode of their old captain, and was sure there to re- ceive an old-fashioned welcome. Amongst his visitors were some of the Cherokee chiefs, with whom he recounted past success to one, and defeat and disaster to the other. In his neighbourhood were his compatriots, White, Gillespie, Jack, Cozby and Ramsey, all of them once officers of Franklin, members and officers now of a well-regulated government, and of their mother church.
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It is not true, as has been sometimes asserted, that Gov. Sevier was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church. It was far otherwise. He was a member of no church. With his fa- mily, he attended public worship at Lebanon, four and a half miles east of Knoxville, then under the pastoral care of Rev. Samuel Carrick, where he was a constant and respectful
711
CHARACTER OF SEVIER.
hearer. On these occasions, he doffed the soldier and com- mander-his hunting shirt and his sword-wearing only his three-corned cocked hat, with citizen's clothes. He greeted his old friends with his accustomed cordiality. In the church, his demeanour was grave and reverential." He always oc- cupied the pew of his well-tried and trusty friend, Doctor Cozby. This pew, in all its antique model and proportions, is still preserved, and can be seen on the left of the principal aisle, near the front entrance of the present old stone build- ing. While at church, Sevier exhibited the well-bred Wil- liamsburg gentleman, rather than the pioneer citizen. But his demeanour, though characterized by the greatest propri- ety and gravity, was never understood to imply any personal interest in religious truth. Sevier's "ethics did not run in that line." Gallio-like, "he cared for none of these things." He was too conscientious to appear to be what he was not. This was not only the purest day of the republic, but the soundest period of the church. The conscience of the indi- vidual would have been outraged by, and revolted at, a false ·profession, and public sentiment, far from tolerating, admin- istered its severest rebuke of unworthy membership in any .communion.
JOHN SEVIER.
The Annals of Tennessee, after the period to which this volume extends, will abound with further incidents in the public service of Governor Sevier. But it may not be deemed out of place to say here, that it was his destiny to wear out his life in that service. After his first series of six years as Governor had rendered him ineligible, he remained in private life two years. Becoming again eligible, he was biennially elected to the Gubernatorial Chair for another se- ries of six years. He was then (1811) elected to the Con- gress of the United States from the Knoxville District, and re-elected to the same place in the succeeding Congress (1813). This period embraced the twelfth and the thirteenth Congress, in which the war of 1812 was declared and car- ried on. During this time, though usually a silent member, Governor Sevier was active and efficient. He was placed
712
DECREASE OF SEVIER AND ROBERTSON.
.
upon the Committee of Military Affairs, where, from his long experience, he was able to render essential and important services on subjects referred to his committee. Mr. Monroe, in 1815, appointed him a Commissioner to run the boundary of territory ceded by the Creeks to the United States, in that year. He left his home near Knoxville, in June, upon that duty-was taken sick of a fever in September, and died in a tent, on the 24th of that month. He was buried with the , honours of war, by the troops under command of Captain Walker, U. S. A., on the east bank of the Tallapoosa River, at an Indian village called Tuckabatchee, near Fort Decatur in Alabama. He was in his seventy-first year.
During his absence from home, at the August election of that year, Governor Sevier was re-elected to Congress with- out opposition-an evidence of his undiminished popularity to the end of life. The Legislature of Tennessee noticed his decease, and attested the appreciation by the State of his great services and high character, by the customary reso- lution to wear crape as a badge of mourning and respect for his memory. For more than forty years, Sevier had been constantly, and actively, and successfully occupied in the public service-civil, military and political ; and the intelli- gence of his death diffused a general sorrow throughout the State and the West, where his memory is still respected, and his great services highly appreciated.
More will appear in the further Annals of Tennessee, rela- - tive to General James Robertson. Here it is proper to 1800 - state, that this father of Tennessee-this founder of the settlements on Watauga and Cumberland; this most successful negotiator between his countrymen and their Indian neigh- bours ; this citizen, who so well united the character of the pa- triot and the patriarch; continued to the close of his useful life, an active friend of his country, and possessed, in an eminent degree, the confidence, esteem and veneration of all his co- temporaries ; and his memory and services to the Western settlements, in peace and in war, are recollected with grate- ful regard by the present generation. He died a little ear- lier than his compatriot and colleague, Sevier. This event took place at the Chickasaw Agency, September 1, 1814.
713
THEY DESERVE A CENOTAPH.
Robertson and Sevier both were pioneers on Watauga; what the one was to East, the other was to West Tennessee. Each, after a long life of activity and usefulness in civil and military affairs, died in the public service, and within Indian territory. A duty remains to be performed, in further honour of her two great founders-Robertson and Sevier-by the people of Tennessee. Their place of entombment is beyond its boundaries, and it is, perhaps, proper that their remains should not be removed from the field of their labours, their conquest and their glory, where they now repose. But Ten- nessee gratitude and public spirit should resolve, that near the proud Capitol at Nashville, a cenotaph should be erected, princely and magnificent, in memory of the founder at once of the State and of its flourishing Metropolis.
Not less imperative is the further duty, of adorning and dignifying the ancient capital of Tennessee with a similar structure, in memory of Sevier. Let one of the historic places within old Knoxville, or in its environs, be chosen, on which a cenotaph shall be erected, commemorative of the achievements, military and civil, of the pioneer on Watauga, the hero of King's Mountain, the Governor of Franklin and of Tennessee. May the writer suggest respectfully, though earnestly, to the able and enlightened press of his State, to appeal-as he does himself here appeal-to the public spirit and liberality of his countrymen, thus to perpetuate the fame of these worthies in the places already consecrated by their noble and patriotic services.
For the present, these Annals will stop here. Before closing the volume, however, it may be proper to add some general remarks, which could not be so well introduced elsewhere, upon Frontier Life, Frontier Manners, Frontier Society and Frontier Education.
Besides the enterprise, fearlessness and courage, already mentioned, as characteristic of the first settlers of Tennessee, we may mention other features in the character of these pioneers. In all the relations of life, their position being new and peculiar, their manners and customs, their costume, amusements, pursuits, &c., are worthy of brief remark.
The settlement of Tennessee was unlike that of the pre-
714
PRIMITIVE TIMES IN TANXEMEL.
sent new country of the United States. Emigrants from the Atlantic cities, and from most points in the Western interior, now embark upon steamboats or other craft, and, carrying with them all the conveniences and comforts of civilized life-indeed, many of its luxuries-are, in a few days, with. out toil, danger or exposure, transported to their new abodes, and, in a few months, are surrounded with the appendages of home, of civilization, and the blessings. of law and of society. The wilds of Minnesota and Nebraska, by the agency of steam, or the stalwart arms of Western boatmen, are at once transformed into the settlements of a .commer- cial and civilized people. Independence and St. Paul's, six months after they are laid off, have their stores and their workshops, their artizans and their mechanics. The mantus maker and the tailor arrive in the same boat with the car- penter and mason. The professional man and the printer quickly follow. In the succeeding year, the piano, the drawing-room, the restaurant, the billiard table, the church bell, the village and the city in miniature, are all found, while the neighbouring interior is yet a wilderness and a desert. The town and comfort, taste and urbanity, are first; the clearing, the farm-house, the wagon road and the im- proved country, second. It was far different on the frontier in Tennessee. At first, a single Indian trail was the only entrance to the eastern border of it, and for many years admitted only of the hunter and the pack-horse. It was not till the year 1776, that a wagon was seen in Tennessee. In consequence of the want of roads-as well as of the great distance from sources of supply-the first inhabitants were without tools, and, of course, without mechanics-much more, without the conveniences of living and the comforts of house-keeping. Luxuries were absolutely unknown. Salt was brought on pack-horses from Augusta and Richmond, and readily commanded ten dollars a bushel. The salt gourd, in every cabin, was considered as a treasure. The sugar-maple furnished the only article of luxury on the fron- tier ; coffee and tea being unknown, or beyond the reach of the settlers, sugar was seldom made, and was only used for the sick, or in the preparation of a sweetened dram at a
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715
THE FRONTIER DWELLING HOUSES.
wedding, or the arrival of a new-comer. The appendages of the kitchen, the cupboard and the table, were scanty and simple.
Iron was brought, at great expense, from the forges east of the mountain, on pack-horses, and was sold at an enormous price. Its use was, for this reason, confined to the construc- tion and repair of ploughs and other farming utensils, Hinges, nails and fastenings of that material, were seldom seen.
The costume of the first settlers corresponded well with the style of their buildings and the quality of their furniture. The hunting shirit of the militiaman and the hunter was in general use. The rest of their apparel was in keeping with it-plain, substantial, and well adapted for comfort, use and economy. The apparel of the pioneers' family was all home- made; and, in a whole neighbourhood, there would not be seen, at the first settlement of the country, a single article of dress of foreign growth or manufacture. Half the year, in many families, shoes were not worn. Boots, a fur hat, and « coat with buttons on each side, attracted the gaze of the beholder, and sometimes received censure and rebuke. A stranger, from the old States, chose to doff his ruffles, his broadcloth and his queue, rather than endure the scoff and ridicule of the backwoodsmen.
The dwelling-house, on every frontier in Tennessee, was the log-cabin. A carpenter and a mason were not needed to build them-much less the painter, the glazier or the up- holsterer. Every settler had, besides his rifle, no other in- strument but an axe, a hatchet and a butcher knife. A saw, an augur, a froe and a broad-axe, would supply a whole set- tlement, and were used as common property in the erection of the log-cabin. The floor of the cabin was sometimes the earth. No saw-mill was yet erected, and, if the means or leisure of the occupant authorized it, he split out puncheons for the floor and for the shutter of the entrance to his cabin. The door was hung with wooden hinges and fastened by a wooden latch.
Such was the habitation of the pioneer Tennessean. Scarcely can one of these structures, venerable for their
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716
HOMES OF THE PIONEERS.
years and the associations which cluster around them, be now seen in Tennessee. Time and improvement have dis- placed them. Here and there, in the older counties, may yet be seen the old log house, which sixty years ago sheltered the first emigrant, or gave, for the time, protection to a neigh- bourhood, assembled within its strong and bullet-proof walls. Such an one is the east end of Mr. Martin's house, at Camp- bell's Station, and the centre part of the mansion of this wri- ter, at Mecklenburg, once Gilliam's Station, changed seom- what, it is true, in some of its aspects, but preserving even yet, in the height of the story and in its old-fashioned and ca- pacious fire-place, some of the features of primitive archi- tecture on the frontier. Such, too, is the present dwelling house of Mr. Tipton, on Ellejoy, in Blount county, and that of Mr. Glasgow Snoddy, in Sevier county. But these old buildings are becoming exceedingly rare, and soon not one of them can be seen. Their unsightly proportions and rude architecture, will not much longer offend modern taste, nor provoke the idle and irreverent sneer of the fastidious and the fashionable. When the last one of these pioneer houses shall have fallen into decay and ruins, the memory of their first occupants will still be immortal and indestructible.
The interior of the cabin was no less unpretending and sim- ple. The whole furniture, of the one apartment, answering in these primitive times, the purposes of the kitchen, the din- ing 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 sometimes a loom, finished the cata- logue. The wardrobe of the family was equally plain and simple. The walls of the house were hung round with the dresses of the females, the hunting shirts, clothes, and the arms and shot-pouches of the men.
The labour and employment of a pioneer family were dis- tributed, in accordance with surrounding circumstances. To the men, was assigned the duty of procuring subsistence and materials for clothing, erecting the cabin and the station, opening and cultivating the farm, hunting the wild beasts,
717
PURSUITS OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
and repelling and pursuing the Indians. The women spun the flax, the cotton and wool, wove the cloth, made them up, milked, churned, and prepared the food, and did their full share of the duties of house-keeping. Another thus describes them :- There we behold woman in her true glory ; not a doll to carry silks and jewels; not a puppet to be dandled by fops, an idol of profane adoration, reverenced to-day, dis- carded to-morrow ; admired, but not respected ; desired, but not esteemed ; ruling by passion, not affection ; imparting her weakness, not her constancy, to the sex she should exalt ; the source and mirror of vanity. We see her as a wife, parta- king of the cares, and guiding the labours of her husband, and by her domestic diligence spreading cheerfulness all around ; for his sake, sharing the decent refinements of the world, without being fond of them ; placing all her joy, all her happiness, in the merited approbation of the man she loves. As a mother, we find her the affectionate, the ardent instructress of the children she has reared from infancy, and trained them up to thought and virtue, to meditation and be- nevolence ; addressing them as rational beings, and preparing them to become men and women in their turn.
" Could there be happiness or comfort in such dwellings and such a state of society ? To those who are accustomed to modern refinements, the truth appears like fable. The early occupants of log-cabins were among the most happy of man- kind. Exercise and excitement gave them health ; they
· were practically equal; common danger made them mutually dependent ; brilliant hopes of future wealth and distinction led them on; and as there was ample room for all, and as each new-comer increased individual and general security, there was little room for that envy, jealousy and hatred, which constitute a large portion of human misery in older societies. Never were the story, the joke, the song and the laugh, better enjoyed than upon the hewed blocks, or punch- eon stools, around the roaring log fire of the early Western settler. The lyre of Apollo was not hailed with more delight in primitive Greece, than the advent of the first fiddler among the dwellers of the wilderness ; and the polished daughters of the East never enjoyed themselves half so well, moving to
718
GREAT ADAPTATION OF THE SOIL
the music of a full band, upon the elastic floor of their or- namented ball-room, as did the daughters of the emigrants, keeping time to a self-taught fiddler, on the bare earth or puncheon floor of the primitive log cabin. The smile of the polished beauty, is the wave of the lake, where the wave plays gently over it, and her movement, is the gentle stream which drains it; but the laugh of the log cabin, is the gush of na- ture's fountain, and its movement, its leaping waters."*
On the frontier the diet was necessarily plain and homely, but exceedingly abundant and nutritive. The Goshen of Ame- ricat furnished the richest milk, the finest butter, and the most savoury and delicious meats. In their rude cabins, with their scanty and inartificial furniture, no people ever en- joyed in wholesome food a greater variety, or a superior quality of the necessaries of life. For bread, the Indian corn was exclusively used. It was not till 1790, that the settlers on the rich bottoms of Cumberland and Nollichucky, disco- vered the remarkable adaptation of the soil and climate of Tennessee to the production of this grain. Emigrants from James River, the Catawba and the Santee, were surprised at the amount and quality of the corn crops, surpassing greatly the best results of agricultural labour and care in the Atlan- tic States. This superiority still exists, and Tennessee, by the census of 1840, was the corn State. Of all the farina- cea, corn is best adapted to the condition of a pioneer peo- ple ; and if idolatry is at all justifiable, Ceres, or certainly the Goddess of Indian corn, should have had a temple and a worshipper among the pioneers of Tennessee. Without that grain, the frontier settlements could not have been formed and maintained. It is the most certain crop-requires the least preparation of the ground-is most congenial to a virgin soil-needs not only the least amount of labour in its culture, but comes to maturity in the shortest time. The pith of the matured stalk of the corn is esculent and nutri- tious, and the stalk itself compressed between rollers, fur- nishes what is known as corn-stalk molasses.
This grain requires, also, the least care and trouble in preserving it. It may safely stand all winter, upon the stalk, * Kendall. + Batler.
719
TO THE PRODUCTION OF CORN.
without injury from the weather or apprehension of damage by disease, or the accidents to which other grains are subject. Neither smut nor rust, nor weavil nor snow storm, will hurt it. After its maturity, it is also prepared for use or the granary, with little labour. The husking is a short process, and is even advantageously delayed till the moment arrives for using the corn. The machinery for converting it into food is also exceedingly simple and cheap. As soon as the ear is fully formed, it may be roasted or boiled, and forms, thus, an excellent and nourishing diet. At a later period it may be grated, and furnishes, in this form, the sweetest bread. The grains boiled in a variety of modes, either whole or broken in a mortar, or roasted in the ashes, or popped in an oven, are well relished. If the grain is to be converted into meal, a simple tub-mill answers the purpose best, as the meal least perfectly ground is always preferred. A bolting cloth is not needed, as it diminishes the sweetness and value of the flour. The catalogue of the advantages of this meal might be extended further. Boiled in water, it forms the frontier dish called mush, which was eaten with milk, with honey, molasses, butter or gravy. Mixed with cold water, it is, at once, ready for the cook-covered with hot ashes, the preparation is called the ash-cake ; placed upon a piece of clapboard, and set near the coals, it forms the jour- ney-cake; or managed in the same way, upon a helveless hoe, it forms the hoe-cake ; put in an oven, and covered over with a heated lid, it is called, if in a large mass, a pone or loaf, if in smaller quantities, dodgers. It has the further advan- tage, over all other flour, that it requires in its preparation few culinary utensils, and neither sugar, yeast, eggs, spices, soda, pot-ash or other et ceteras to qualify or perfect the bread. To all this, it may be added, that it is not only cheap and well tasted but it is, unquestionably the most wholesome and nutritive food. The largest and healthiest people in the world, have lived upon it exclusively. It formed the principal bread of that robust race of men-giants in minia- ture-which, half a century since, was seen on the frontier
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