The Early History of Tennessee

John Whitfield

Description

The Early History of Tennessee: From Frontier to Statehood by John Whitfield features detailed accounts of the state’s formation, contributing citizens, land and agriculture, the state’s greater roles in the nation, and much more. A perfect resource for Tennesseans, scholars, students, and history buffs alike.

Sujets

• Histoire
• John Whitfield
• State
• United States
• History
• Local
• Tennessee

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781618588098
• Langue: English

Extrait

TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY 412 Broadway P.O. Box 3101 Paducah, Kentucky 42002-3101 [phone]
 
Copyright © 1999 John Whitfield
Publishing Rights: Turner Publishing Company This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the Author and the Publisher.
 
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 98-89372
9781618588098
 
Printed in the United States of America.
Additional copies may be purchased directly from the Publisher.
Limited Edition.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Hedge Whitfield was born October 17, 1916 in Waverly, Humphreys County, Tennessee, the son of John Hedge Whitfield, Sr. and Arbie Teas Whitfield. He attended the local schools in Waverly, graduated from Falls Business College in Nashville. His first employment was at the Waverly Post Office, later spending some 44 years at the old Citizens Bank at Waverly. He married Margaret Rice on April 28, 1946 and they were the parents of four children; James Whitfield, Donna Gray, Margaret Whiteside, and John H. Whitfield, Jr.; also nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
John’s interest has been in civic and historical activities. He is currently president of the Humphreys County Historical Society (elected 1976); WWII veteran; three times commander of American Legion Post No. 34; past member of Humphreys County Court; Waverly City Council; Waverly Housing Authority; Masonic Lodge No. 304; Scottish Rites; Waverly Exchange Club; Humphreys County Library Board; Middle Tennessee Regional Library Board; and local Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is also serving currently on board of the Torrey Johnson Senior Citizens Center in Waverly. He has been active in the Waverly Methodist Church, having taught Winmore Sunday School Class for 40 years.
Through the years he has submitted many county and state historical articles for publication in the local newspaper in addition to the Humphreys County Histories.
John is currently employed part-time as Veterans Service Officer in Humphreys County.
Table of Contents
Title Page Copyright Page ABOUT THE AUTHOR PREFACE BEGINNINGS SCHOOL CUSTOMS THE FIRST DEFIANCE OF GREAT BRITAIN MECKLENBURG DECLARATION 1774 FIRST POLITICAL ORGANIZATION TROUBLES BEGIN A COMPASSIONATE FRIEND CONTINUING INDIAN WARFARE CHICKAMAUGA WARFARE WAR ENGULFS ALL WAR CLOSER TO HOME PRELUDE TO VICTORY KINGS MOUNTAIN BATTLE OF KING’S MOUNTAIN RENEWED INDIAN WARFARE NASHBOROUGH CHICKASAW ATTACKS FURTHER CHICKASAW ATTACKS BATTLE OF THE BLUFFS INCIDENTS FROM THE BATTLE OF THE BLUFFS CONTINUAL ATROCITIES EVENTS OF 1783 FINAL EVENTS OF 1783 TURMOIL IN 1784 STEPS TOWARD A NEW STATE AND FURTHER INDIAN INCURSIONS CONTINUING PERIOD OF CRISIS EVENTS OF 1786 EVENTS OF 1787 COLDWATER EXPEDITION COLDWATER EXPEDITION CONTINUED 1788 EVENTS OF 1789 EVENTS OF 1790 EVENTS OF 1791 PEACE HOPES IN VAIN - 1792 ATTACK ON ZIGLER’S AND BUCHANAN’S FORTS CONTINUED WARFARE AND ATROCITIES IN 1793 CONTINUED INDIAN WARFARE IN 1794 NICKAJACK EXPEDITION CLOSE OF INDIAN ATTACKS CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION BECOMING A STATE BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX - EXCERPTS FROM JOHN DONELSON’S JOURNAL
PREFACE
The purpose of this history, or any history, is to acquaint the reader with information as to former events. I have attempted to do that, as harsh and cruel times are revealed.
To the student of Tennessee history there may be nothing new in this accounting of events. Maybe the general reader will derive some benefit as the history unfolds. In the bibliography there are numerous titles which have been used extensively, and others not named.
You will find in the works some of the cruelest and harshest periods in our nation’s annals. Herein the families’ endurance is difficult to understand. As in all demanding times many did not endure and returned or remained in the established settlements.
You will see a firm set ideal of total independence and freedom highly esteemed. That is the reason Davidson County and other regions were not particularly interested in a collective government. To a certain extent, that high regard for freedom and liberty are emphasized as we struggle for freedom and equality. But now equality, in the complete sense of the term, eludes us.
We see the emerging of a political and economic system, a political arrangement that came about as people finally decided they could not survive alone; an economic system which shows they at last must trade and barter, realizing the full value and reward of honest toil.
Alone in the dark and almost majestic impenetrable forests, the lone hunters were only concerned about survival or the acquisition of pelts for their individual benefits. These lone hunters and lonely pioneer families displayed remarkable examples of physical courage and undaunted endurance. Some of those stern steadfast qualities must still be in our character, if we survive as a great nation.
In considering the rise and fall of nations, we can become too comfortable and a sense of ennui develops. To be great, a nation must desire to be great; and do what is necessary to meet the conditions of greatness.
Edward Gibbon writes in “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” that history is little more than the register of crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind. In this “Early History of Tennessee” you will consider perhaps whether or not he is correct.
Thank you for reading this book.
 
—John Hedge Whitfield
BEGINNINGS
Humphreys County is located in the western Highland Rim. The Rim as a whole represents a geographic frame of the Central Basin, 50 to 60 miles wide and 120 miles long. The basin might be considered the bed of a drained lake, the Highland Rim being its prehistoric shore. If the outlet of Cumberland, Duck and Elk Rivers were dammed it would again become a lake.
Judge Haywood in his attempt to prove the existence of huge prehistoric animals in Tennessee, gives illustrations of various fossils being discovered in Humphreys County: “At a sulphur spring 10 or 12 miles from Reynoldsburg, on the side of the Tennessee River, on a creek that discharges itself into the river, is a spring breaking out in the bed of the creek. In the water near the spout of the spring was found in the year 1820 the tusk of a huge animal, curved inwards considerably so as to form the segment of a circle. The end which has grown in the socket of the jawbone was decayed. The tooth was eight feet, six inches in length and is supposed to weigh from 100 to 200 weight. It is of a yellowish cast. Also was found there, the thigh bone. The part that turned in the socket is decayed. It was six feet in length and three feet in circumference. Also were found several parts of the backbone. The hollow which enclosed the spinal marrow measured six inches in diameter. Also was found there a part of the skull, which contained the cavity in which the eye rolled. It was eight inches in diameter. Also was found there a hip bone, the hollow of which that the thigh bone turned in, is capacious enough to receive a 15 gallon kettle. The bones were covered with mud. The spring is about 35 degrees 45’ north latitude. It is calculated from the appearance and size of the bones that the animal when living must have been 20 feet high.” (This is the only reference I have seen pertaining to the site or its discovery.)
Over the land that is now Tennessee, long before the white man came, there dwelt a numerous people. Practically without name and unknown, they built their mounds, worked in stone and clay, made places of burial for their dead, and passed into the darkness of oblivion still unknown and unnamed.
Perhaps 10,000 to 15,000 years ago the first people came into this region, their ancestors spending thousands of years in the great trek from Asia across the land bridge, what is now the Bering Strait, between Alaska and Asia, connects the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea.
These people were called Paleo Indians because they lived in ancient times, being Nomadic they wandered southward from Alaska, Canada and the northwestern United States. Excavations in the Kentucky Lake area indicate the lower Tennessee Valley to have been more densely populated by Paleo Indians than other parts of the United States.
The next inhabitants of Tennessee were named Woodland Indians, also known as “Mound Builders.” Probably most of the mounds, as we know them, were for burial purposes. It is perhaps debatable whether the Paleo Indians or the Woodland Indians were the principle builders. However, there are indications of an advanced civilization.
Here was the beginning of civilization that continued for many centuries. Here a people slowly and painfully emerged from a savage state to the first stage of civilization.
Some writers think their towns dotted the entire surface of Middle Tennessee and parts of East and West Tennessee. Undisturbed by conflict in the fertile, temperate areas, they worked slowly to better things. Maybe these Indians were related to the Aztecs—perhaps off-shoots of the same ancestors somewhere in Middle North America.
The first Indian Tribe known by name in this region were the Shawnees, a part of the Algonquins. They were known as “Gypsies of the forest.” The French name for the Cumberland River was “Chaouanon” their name for Shawnee.
They occupied the Cumberland Valley in Middle Tennessee after being driven by the Iroquois from their settlements in the narrow strip between the Iroquois nation and the Hunting Grounds. The Iroquois, being powerful and domineering, were able to exert enormous pressure on these wanderers as they passed through their region on their way to the Hunting Grounds.
Driven from their homes, some moved southward into the Hunting Ground region, others went westward into Indiana.
The southern part became quickly divided, one group wanting to enter the Hunting Grounds and wage all out war against the Iroquois, while the other, less daring and fearful of the power of the Iroquois, desired to depart in peace and secure a safe abode in t