USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 48
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"Here, certainly, I found a state of things, which, of all I had ever contemplated, I least expected. I had left France in the first year of her revolution, in the fervor of natural rights, and zeal for reformation. My conscientious devotion to these rights could not be heightened, but it had been aroused and excited by daily exercise. The President received me cordially, and my colleagues and the circle of principal citizens, apparently with welcome. The courtesies of dinner parties given me, as a stranger newly arrived among them, placed me at once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe the wonder and mortification with which the table conversations filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a pref- erence of kingly over republican government, was evidently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypo- crite; and I found myself, for the most part, the only advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among the guests there
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chanced to be some member of that party from the legislative Houses."
From these conditions two schools of political and social thought sprang immediately into existence, and were the origin of two well defined political parties that were widely separated on the funda- mental principles of civil government. One of these schools, in the main, taught the Jeffersonian creed of popular government, while the other inculcated the Hamiltonian theories of a strong central- ized government, to be upheld and conducted by a wealthy and high-born class of citizens. The application of Hamilton's theories would have excluded Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln from the Presidency. Jefferson held rigidly to the doctrine, afterwards enunciated by Lincoln, that "this is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Hamilton contended for the doctrine, that this should be "a government of the people, by a part of the people," as William Howard Taft declared it to be in his abortive campaign for re-election to the Presidency in 1912.
It was hardly possible for the Tazewell pioneers, then living, or their sons, to do otherwise than join the great Jeffersonian polit- ical legion when the county entered the State and National govern- ments as a political unit. The spirit which led them, or their ancestors, to migrate from monarchical Europe in quest of political and religious freedom, and to leave the eastern colonies, where the colonial governments were dominated by extreme royalists, had grown in intensity after they came into the wilderness to make their homes. His cabin was for the pioneer settler a castle of freedom; and none of the first generation of men born in Tazewell had ever breathed the atmosphere of privilege; but each and every one of these had inhaled the precious ozone of the young democracy that Thomas Jefferson sought to place in charge of the new Republic.
Thus it will be seen that the political thought and characteristics of the people of Tazewell were in perfect harmony with the Popular Government and State Sovereignty theories of Thomas Jefferson. And at the very first opportunity given them as citizens of a dis- tinct county, they so recorded their convictions. This was at the Presidential election in 1804, when Mr. Jefferson was elected Presi- dent for a second term. The number of votes cast in the county at
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that election was very small, but the entire vote was given for the electors that were the known supporters of Thomas Jefferson.
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From that time until the present day the people of Tazewell have cherished and stood firmly for popular republican government. At the Presidential election in 1828, when Andrew Jackson had become the leader and was the candidate of the Jeffersonian Democ- racy, a very large vote was polled, and the "Jackson Ticket For Electors" received every vote polled in the county, save three, that were cast for the electors of the Whig party. The Whigs had John Quincy Adams as their candidate for President, and Richard Rush was their candidate for Vice President. I have two of the Jackson Tickets in my possession that were used at the election in Tazewell County. One of these was voted by my father, his name being written on the back of the ballot, as required by law in that day. I have also one of the Adams Tickets which was used by James Mahood, as his name is written on its back. Politicians in 1828 were as apt as they are today in making false and alarmist appeals to the voters. The ballot used by James Mahood was taken from the Lynchburg Virginian, a Whig paper, and at its head is printed the following stirring appeal :
"This Day Fortnight, the great and eventful contest will be decided. All we need say to our friends, is, Go To The Polls on that day, and record your votes for John Q. Adams, Richard Rush, and Civil Liberty, against Andrew Jackson and Military Rule, John C. Calhoun, and Disunion."
The demagogie appeal of the Whigs was repudiated by the freemen of Tazewell, and generally by the voters of the mountain region west of New River. Andrew Jackson was elected President in 1828, and was elected for a second term four years later. He became the political hero of the mountaineers; and it was told, that for some years after his death the older men would frequently vote for Andrew Jackson at Presidential elections. Jackson was a consistent and persistent disciple of Thomas Jefferson.
THE SOCIAL CUSTOMS.
In their social thought and relations the people of Tazewell were, comparatively, as democratic as they were in their political characteristics. The adoption and cultivation by the pioneers of a
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community feeling and spirit created a social system that has not entirely disappeared from the county. The first settlers had come here to get away, if possible, from the distasteful political and social customs of Europe, that were the spawn of monarchy and aristocracy. In 1774, Governor Dunmore declared, in a report to Lord Dartmouth, that it was the purpose of the frontier settlers "to form a Set of Democratical Governments of their own, upon the backs of the old Colonies; a scheme which, for obvious reasons, I apprehend cannot be allowed to be carried into execution."
Clearly it was the purpose of our pioneer ancestors to exclude from the society they were founding in the wilderness, the old distinctions of caste and privileged classes ; and to establish among themselves a condition of wholesome social equality, devoid of unrighteous individualism. They sought to form a community where popular freedom could be exercised on the widest basis consistent with the general good; where each man could say what he thought, unchecked by religious creeds, and untrammeled by despotical gov- ernment. That they had any desire to fashion a community that would be featured with unlicensed freedom or dominated by ruf- fianism, is negatived by the excellent social and domestic order that was maintained in the Upper Clinch settlements before they were incorporated with and conducted by the civil government of Vir- ginia.
In a social way all the first settlers stood upon the same plane. They had come here seeking homes and freedom, and they, each, had precisely the same occupation, that of home-makers. Their duties as members of the community were identical-to build cabins for their families, clear fields from the forests, and from the fertile soil win an abundant subsistence for their dependents. They all, alike, had another important common duty to perform, that was to help defend the settlements against the savage enemy. If idlers or criminals tried to fasten themselves upon the community, they were forced to move on into the remote wilderness, or to return to the place from whenee they came.
There were no ariscrats among the pioneer settlers; but they were not illiterate boors, as some historians would have us believe. They were intelligent and fairly well educated farmers and artisans, and in many instances combined both occupations. The common purposes, interests and duties of the pioneers invoked amongst them
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a state of social equality as nearly perfect as it can be found in organized human society. Thus were they and their sons prepared to receive, accept, assimilate, and uphold the great social truths written into the Virginia Bill of Rights by the fathers: "That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity ; namely the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquir- ing and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."
The men of Tazewell came from the people, and, when they became a factor in the politics of the country, they heartily embraced the popular cause.
THE INDUSTRIAL CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE.
The three physical agents-climate, soil, and the aspects of nature-have been generally accepted as the most potential factors in originating and shaping the industrial character of a nation, or the communities of which it is composed. These agents necessarily fixed for the Tazewell pioneers the vocations they and their children should adopt and follow. They had been attracted to this region by its rich lands, splendid forests, numerous fountains and streams, abundance of game, and magnificent scenery. But the supreme attraction was the fertility of the soil, which naturally produced the most nutritious herbage for both wild and domestic animals; and where heavy yields of cereals could be produced when the forests were cleared away and fields prepared for cultivation. Hence, when each settler moved in, he brought along with his family the necessary implements for making clearings and cultivating the soil-axes, hilling and grubbing hoes, colter plows, and so forth. They came here to be farmers and graziers; and from the time of their arrival all their energy was directed to agricultural pursuits.
It is a singular coincidence that the men of Tazewell not only accepted his political and social doctrines, but adopted the vocation that Thomas Jefferson, the father of American democracy, most highly esteemed. When he was minister plenipotentiary to Europe, withi authority to negotiate commercial treaties with the govern- ments of that continent, there was a very grave question connected with his work. It was, whether, in making commercial treaties
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with foreign countries, the maritime and manufacturing interests of the United States should have first consideration. In a private letter, written from Paris on the 23rd of August, 1785, to John Jay, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the Confederated States, Mr. Jefferson gave expression to some very interesting convictions on the disputed question. He said:
"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty and inter- ests, by the most lasting bonds. As long, therefore, as they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into mariners, artisans, or anything else. But our citizens will find employment in this line, till their numbers, and of course their productions, become too great for the demand, both internal and foreign. This is not the case as yet, and probably will not be for a considerable time. As soon as it is, the surplus of hands must be turned to some- thing else. I should then, perhaps, wish to turn them to the sea in preference to manufactures, because, comparing the characters of the two classes, I find the former the most valuable citizens. I consider the class of artificers as the panders of vice, and the instru- ments by which the liberties of a country are generally overturned."
Mr. Jefferson then tells Mr. Jay, that the people of the United States, at least in those States that had deep water transportation and bordered on the sea, "are decided in the opinion, that it is necessary for us to take a share in the occupation of the ocean." He conceded that this had to be done, and then prophetically announced:
"But what will be the consequence? Frequent wars without a doubt. Their property will be violated on the sea, and in foreign ports, their persons will be insulted, imprisoned, etc., for pretended debts, contracts, crimes, contraband, etc., etc. These insults must be resented, even if we had no feelings, yet to prevent their eternal repetition ; or, in other words, our commerce on the ocean and in other countries must be paid for by frequent war."
The resolve of the people of the Eastern States to make this a maritime and manufacturing nation, did provoke war; but not "frequent war," as Mr. Jefferson feared and anticipated it would.
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Our war with England in 1812 was occasioned by her gross violation of our commerce on the seas, and the insults and outrages inflicted upon our seamen. But we gave Great Britain a sound drubbing in that war, and no nation has sinee, until the recent horrible world- wide war, dared to interfere sufficiently with our rights upon the seas to drag us into a conflict.
We have a right to presume that the pioneers, in making choice of a life vocation, were animated by the same spirit that induced the Sage of Monticello to so dignify agricultural labor, by declaring that "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens." The experience of our country, accumulated during the past hun- dred and twenty-five years, has confirmed the absolute verity of Mr. Jefferson's opinions. But, if the pioneers had not become farmers and graziers from choice, they would have been compelled to follow these pursuits from necessity. They had established their homes in a region so isolated and remote from the older settlements, that they would have found it impossible to furnish their families with ample supplies of food, except by getting it, with their own labor, from the rich lands on which they had settled.
The Clinch Valley settlements were then the most inaccessible west of New River. All approaches from both the New River and the Holston Valley were rough and dangerous. There were no roads that could be traveled with vehicles of any kind; and the bridle paths were steep and perilous. Over high mountains and along narow paths everything taken to and brought from the distant settlements had to be transported on pack-horses. Even as late as 1799, when certain citizens of Wythe and Russell petitioned the General Assembly for the erection of a new county (Tazewell), the first reason urged in the petition, was, that: "Our Roads also are Intollerably bad; Many of Your Petitioners have to cross four Large Mountains, the least of which chain, would in the Interior parts of the State, be considered almost Impassible, And, between each of these Mountains there are Rapid Water Courses, which in common with all the streams Among Mountains are Quickly made Impassible by Rains, and Renders the passage Dangerous, as well as Fatigucing & Expensive." The petitioners had to endure these severe hardships and dangers when traveling to and from their respective court houses, where they said they were compelled to go to transact their "Ordinary Business, besides Regimental Musters,
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Elections &c, in which cases the Laws of the State Require our attendance."
Thirty years had passed since the first settlers came to the Clinch Valley, and with the population sufficiently increased to warrant the erection for them of a new county, the region still remained isolated and difficult of access. The existing conditions fixed inexorably the industrial status of the people of Tazewell. They were decreed, from choice and by their physical surroundings, to make agriculture their chief business; farmers and graziers they became, and their descendants and successors have wisely continued to pursue the same honorable and lucrative calling.
After the organization of the county, the attention of the land- holders was primarily directed to the breeding and raising of live- stock for market-cattle, horses, sheep, and swine. There were several cogent reasons for the adoption of this plan. One was, that, with the abundance of bluegrass that sprang up in the clearings, and the grass and pea vine that grew abundantly in the forests, it required much less labor to raise domestic animals than to produce grain. But the principal reason for making grazing their occupa- tion was that they had no available markets for their surplus grain, on account of a lack of transportation facilities. On the other hand, they could feed their surplus grain to their cattle and horses in the winter season, and after grazing them in the summer, drive them to eastern markets and get good prices for them. From the very beginning the live-stock raised and grazed in Tazewell has been esteemed as of the best produced on the continent.
Situated four hundred miles from the ocean, and one hundred miles from the nearest navigable stream, the Ohio River, nature decreed that Tazewell County should not be what is known as a manufacturing community. But remoteness from marts, and inade- quate means of transportation, made it imperative that the first settlers should be manufacturers for home consumption. They had to make fabrics for their clothing, furniture and furnishings for their homes, farm implements, etc. These articles were really home manufactures, as they were made in the homes and shops of the settlers. Gradually men in each community found it profitable . to engage chiefly in mechanical pursuits, and to establish shops
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for custom work. But weaving, the most important industry, was still confined to the homes, and was done by the wives and daughters of each household. The manufacturing habits of the first settlers were ahered to by their descendants for several generations. Writ- ing in 1852, under the heading, "Home Manufactures," Dr. Bickley said:
"Linsey, jeans, tow-linen, flax-thread, hose, and carpets, are the principal home manufactures of this county: the value of which, according to the census report, is twenty-five thousand four hun- dred dollars. I have no data from which to estimate the amount of either, but am satisfied that jeans and linsey, stand first in value- ation. Tow-linen, which sells for about ten cents per yard, does not cost the Tazewell manufacturer far short of thirty cents. A like statement might be made about the whole list.
"These articles are manufactured at the houses of the farmers, their plantations supplying all the materials, except cotton, which is imported from North Carolina, spun and put up in bales. Wool is carded by machines in the county, and spun by hand. The weav- ing is done on the common hand-loom. House furniture, of nearly all kinds, is manufactured in the county. Saddles, boots, shoes, iron-work, etc., is also done here. Lumber of the finest quality, may here be had, for the trouble of cutting it."
Bickley thought it was a serious mistake for the farmers to have their wives and daughters give so much of their time to domestic affairs, especially to spinning, weaving, and manufacturing fabrics for clothing and other family uses. He claimed that this was done at the expense of the education of the youth of the county. If that result did follow, of course it was very unfor- tunate. But, if the manufacturing at home of necessary clothing and other articles for one's family is an economic error, it is also a mistake for a nation to manufacture such things for its own people, if they can be purchased from foreigners cheaper than they can be made at home. At any rate; the people of Tazewell manu- factured what they could at home for a period of more than fifty years after the county was erected, and that they were happy and prosperous is beyond dispute.
There were many useful things woven by the pioneer mothers and daughters that. Dr. Bickley failed to enumerate. . Table linen,
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napery, smooth and bleached as white as snow, made from flax grown on the farms-broken, scotched, and hackled by the men, boys and girls, and spun into thread as fine as hair-was a part of the fruits that came from the looms of our foremothers. And counterpaines or coverlets, made from cotton or finest wool, and blankets fleecy white, were woven on these same looms. Some of the counterpaines were of as exquisite design and as carefully woven as any similar piece that ever came from an Oriental loom.
Last large walnut log exported from Tazewell County.
The walnut log shown above was cut and exported from Taze- well about fifteen years ago. Its size can be estimated from the horse power used to pull it over well graded roads to the railway station. This log, however, was almost a sapling as compared with the immense trees that were found in the Clinch Valley by the pioneers. In the early days of the county a walnut tree stood on the J. W. Sheffey place at Pounding Mill. It was hollow at the butt, and was blown down; and its size was so immense that a man on horseback rode through the hollow of it. A poplar tree stood at the head of Thompson Valley on E. R. Thompson's land
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that measured 36 feet in circumference. It was very tall and well proportioned. Some fifty years ago a poplar tree stood on Rich Hill near Pounding Mill. It was hollow at the butt. This tree broke off eighteen or twenty feet above the ground, and it was more than 10 feet in diameter inside the hollow. Isaac and Robert Patrick had a contract with Capt. Jno. P. Sheffey to clear a boundary of land where this trec stood. They were engaged on the job about two years; and they reduced the height of the stump about half, covered it and lived in the hollow for the two years.
See some of the implements the pioneer women used for manu- facturing fabrics to make clothing for their families. The woman standing by the loom is Miss Nannie Gregory, one of the very few expert weavers now left in the county. She is wearing the poke bonnet her grandmother wore many years ago. The loom, which was her grandmother's, is a hundred years old, as are also the spinning wheels and reel seen in the picture.
Fortunately weaving had not become a lost art in Tazewell when the Civil War came on. Spinning wheels and old hand-looms were brought into active use during that eventful period. The men from Tazewell who were engaged in military service for the Confederacy were well supplied with clothing made from webs of cloth woven by their mothers, wives, and sisters at home. And the old-time linsey gowns did splendid service for the rosy-cheeked daughters of Tazewell. It was my good fortune to see some of the fair girls wearing these gowns, as pretty as any made from the most gorgeous Scotch plaids.
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There was but little change in the industrial habits and eondi- tions of the people of the county when the eensus was taken in 1850. At that time there were in the county 10 physicians, 8 law- yers, 36 tcaehers, 22 merchants, 9 clerks, 2 printers, 3 tavern keepers, and one barber, a total of 91 persons engaged in non-pro- duetive eallings. There were 163 persons employed in meehanieal and manufacturing pursuits, as follows: 10 saddlers, 1 painter, 2 hatters, 10 shoemakers, 7 briek masons, 41 earpenters, 9 millers, 11 wagon makers, 21 blaeksmiths, 16 tanners, 18 cabinet makers, 2 gunsmiths, 8 tailors, 2 coopers, I tinner, and 1 watchmaker. According to the eensus there were 1,922 farmers in the county in 1850, and Tazewell County was still a pronounced agricultural community.
T.H .- 34
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CHAPTER V.
THE ROADS OF TAZEWELL COUNTY-GROWTH IN POPULATION AND WEALTH, ETC.
From the very outset one of the most serious drawbacks to the progress and development of Tazewell was the lack of good roads. Even when the county was formed there were very few, if any, roads in the settlements over which wagons and other vehicles could pass; and there was nothing but bridle paths that crossed the moun- tains. If one will examine the records of the county court, it will be seen that the roads within the county limits for some years after the county was organized were a very vexing question. One of the most important reasons assigned by the petitioners for the creation of Tazewell County, was: "Our Roads also are Intolerably bad."
The first highway that was built across Clinch Mountain was the road through what was then called Thompson's Gap, and where a bridle path had previously traversed the mountain. This road began at the northern base of Clinch Mountain, at or near the house of William Thompson, in Thompson Valley. It crossed that moun- tain to Poor Valley, entering the valley at the present hamlet of Tannersville. The grades were very steep and the road-bed was narrow and exceedingly rough. This was for many years the only route persons could use when going from Tazewell to, or coming from, the Salt Works, or other points in the Holston Valley. Before writing his history of Virginia, Henry Howe visited Tazewell County. When he left the county he made his exit by the road through Thompson's Gap. He was so impressed with the grand scenery that he made a picture which showed a section of the road, and which was published in his history. Here is what Howe said about the scenery and road:
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