Franklin County TN Archives News.....Early Recollections of Franklin County January 8, 1880 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Erick Montgomery Erickdmontgomery@gmail.com December 24, 2013, 2:36 pm Home Journal, Winchester, Tennessee January 8, 1880 Early Recollections of Franklin County Editor Home Journal: I am not a citizen, but a native of your county - having been born and partly raised in the good old county of Franklin. Being among the very first births in the county, and having spent the first fourteen years of my life in the neighborhood of old Goshen Church, I propose to give you a few of my early recollections of persons, places and things in that locality. My father, James McCord, Esq., together with Major John Cowan and Robert Cowan - who were my mother's brothers - with perhaps, one or two more families, were the very first settlers in that neighborhood, and perhaps in the county; having emigrated from Blount county in the fall of 1806. Major Cowan settled at the place called Cowan; Robert Cowan at the place where his son Ross now lives; and my father at the foot of the mountain, where a Mr. Looney lived two years ago - part of the old Foster place. Here my father used to go up the side of the mountain before breakfast and kill as much meat as he wanted - deer, bear, turkeys, &c. At this place I was born in January, 1808, and am, perhaps, the first person born in Franklin county who is now living. Who can dispute the palm? In a year or two after these first settlers, several other families from East Tennessee came out, and the first church organization at Goshen was composed mainly of these Blount county emigrants, who were all Presbyterians. This part of the county settled up rapidly during the next few years, and the impression was made on my youthful mind then, and has clung tome all my life, that among those early emigrants there were some of the best men I ever knew. Permit me now to give you the names, as I remember, of most of the early settlers there: Major John Cowan, Hugh Montgomery, James Montgomery, Wm Moore, Capt James Cowan, (Pond) Jim Cowan, Col George Caperton, John Caperton, Major Bill Russell, Archie Brooks, Robert Cowan, James McCord, Daniel McAllister, David Robinson, Jas Keith, Daniel Keith, George Wear, Benj Wear, George Davidson, Wm Hutton, Jas Martin, Little John Bell, Ambrose McCord, Samuel Norwood, Sherrod Williams, Wm Alexander, Nathaniel Davis, Mr Gross, Wm Street, Wm Foster, Rev James Farris, Capt Jim Taylor, Rev Andrew S Morrison, Charlie Wood, Mr Mellheron, Gen'l Trigg, Thomas Chilcoat, two or three Mr Holders and Bledsoes, Thomas D. John P & George P Wiggin, Wm Adams, Thos Kilgore, Nathaniel Bigham, Wm Brazelton, Isaac Hannah, Mr McCarley, Avery Reaves, Robert Dongan, Maj Joe Taylor, Major Farris, George Gray, and others. Nearly all these men I knew personally and remember well, and was intimately associated with a good many of their children in my childhood days. I knew also some of the early settlers near Salem, on Bean's Creek, viz: Capt Samuel Handley, (for whom I was named) Rev Robert Bell, the first pastor of Goshen Church, David McCord, David Ritchey, Thos Ross, David Bell, big John Bell, and others. I have heard my father say that Thomas D Wiggin was the first man that sold goods in a log cabin at or near Winchester, and built the first mill on Boiling Fork. He was not only the first, but also one of the leading merchants in Winchester for a number of years. The next oldest merchants I remember where old Col Crabb, Hayter, Spyker, Daughterty, and afterward the Dechards, Pryor and others. The first doctors I remember were Dickson, Higgins and Kincaid, before the time of Drs Wallace & Wm Estill and Dr Turner. The earliest lawyers I remember were Major Isaacs, Frank Jones, who was a member of Congress, Billy Martin, Joe Young and Argyle Campbell, before the time of Judge Nathan Green and others. The first whisky saloon (or "dogery," as it was then called) I ever saw was kept in Winchester by one Daniel Eanes and his sons. One Jonathan Burford taught the first school I remember, in a little log house near Mr George Davidson's spring. The first to which I went was taught by Rev Andrew S Morrison in a log house on the side of the Little Mountain, on Wm Alexander's place - afterward the Street place. The next to which I went was a three month's school, taught near Benj Wear's by Abram Shook, a young man from Bedford, who, about the end of the term married Miss Mattie Keith, eldest daughter of Jas Keith, Esq. The next school I attended was taught at the Little Mountain school house by Mitchell K Jackson. This I think, was the first of Jackson's series of school teaching in that neighborhood, which continued many years thereafter. After this I went to Jackson as the old Gross School House near where the Centennial now is, and again near his own dwelling on the old Lowrey road, a half mile east of Wm Street's. I remember well several young men who came into the country and afterward married some of the eldest daughters of these first settlers, who have raised large and respectable families in your midst, and who have nearly all passed away. Will name a few: Abram Shook, who married Esq. Keith's eldest daughter (as above stated), William Thurman, who married Wm Street's eldest daughter, Honor; James Bledsoe, who married Wm Street's second daughter, Betsy; Ira Kinningham, who married Robert Cowan's third daughter, Sally. Uncle Ira, as he is now called, is the only one of these four couples who still lingers on the shore of time. Henry Norwood, the oldest son of Samuel Norwood, was the first Captain of Militia I remember, and John Norwood, his brother, succeeded him, when Henry became a Major of a Battalion. The military musters in those days were noted places for drinking whisky and fisticuff fighting. Pistols and bowie-knifes hadn't then come in among the common people. I give these, merely as my boyish recollections, embracing the first fourteen years of my life. My father lived at the place where Harvey Brazelton now lives from about 1813 to the latter part of 1821, when he removed to Lawrence county, Ala. He was a leading member and Elder in the church at Goshen from its organization, camping at their yearly campmeetings from my earliest recollections; was a Justice of the Peace and member of the Quorum Courts wild old Captain Handley, George Gray and others, several years. I might extend these early recollections to an unreasonable length for a newspaper article, by giving you the names of a great many of the sons and daughters of these first settlers, the most of whom have long since passed away; and many incidents of my school-boy days - my boyish sweethearts, their names, etc., etc., but I forbear, lest it be uninteresting and your patience grows threadbare. SAMUEL H. McCORD, Fayetteville, Tenn. Additional Comments: Transcribed by Erick Montgomery from the original article published in the Home Journal, Winchester, Tennessee, 8 January 1880. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/franklin/newspapers/earlyrec24nw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/tnfiles/ File size: 7.4 Kb