White County TN Archives History - Books .....Chapter 1 1935
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com October 21, 2005, 5:22 am

Book Title: History Of White County

CHAPTER I



An Almost Unbroken Silence.



  White County's land had reposed in an almost unbroken silence, except for

Indians, while European nations played on the checkerboard of chance for it. The

French and the Spanish crossed Tennessee, and as White County was a paradise for

hunters, with her numerous buffalo, bear, and deer, they must have crossed our

territory. There is some evidence perhaps that they did so. Less than a mile

north of Mount Gilead there is a grave of a white person. The oldest settlers

were asked about it and replied that it was here when they came. The sigh of the

winds, the music of the waterfall, the bellow of some hugh buffalo leaving the

heard, the neigh of the wild horse, the terrifying scream of the panther, or the

sullen whoop of the aboriginal, or perhaps wolves yelping in the chase echoed

through the timber of the hills of the vast canebrakes and stretches of tall

grass. Wild nature was everywhere.



Indian Trails.



  Indian trails by which they traveled for war, commerce, hunting trips or for

social purposes, and which later became roads for the white man ran from sea to

sea. Two concern us most; the Black Fox Trail, and the Chicamauga Path. Our

early settlers came over these trails. Our Broadway of America which was opened

by North Carolina in 1785, was an Indian trail. The Black Fox Trail began in the

Hiwassee settlements, ran by Salt Lick in Rhea County, by the Indian mounds five

miles of Pikeville across the Cumberland plateau, reaching the Caney Fork River

a few miles upstream from Rock Island, and crossing the Chicamauga Path a few

miles South of Rock Island. The Chicamauga Path began in the North Georgia and

Chattanooga settlements, crossed the Tennessee River, crossed the Cumberlands by

Beersheba Springs (discovered by Beersheba Coin) on to Rock Island where it

crossed the river. It ran a little West of the present town of Sparta and on to

a fortified Indian town on Cherry Creek. There it branched, one branch going to

the settlements of the Cherokees at Officer's Mounds near Algood, thence to

Carthage; the other branch going to Mayland and beyond Jamestown. Those settling

in the North of the County came over the East branch of the Chicamauga Path by

Sand Springs or over the train which is now the Broadway of America. Those

settling earliest in the Southern part of White County came by the Black Fox

Trail, or the Chicamauga Path. This trail was the first white man's road built

across the Cumberlands. The Walton Road was not opened until seventeen years

later. Another important trail over which white men came into the Calfkiller

valley ran by Ravenscroft through Blue Spring Cove and connected with the

Chicamauga Path where Yankeetown now is.



Indian Remains



  Besides the fortified Cherokee town on Cherry Creek in the center of which was

a mound used for council located between the Morris and Wilhite places, there

was also a fortified town near Ravenscroft, and another near the present site of

Rock Island. There was a village in Wild Cat Cove and a village or camping place

in Blue Spring Cove. There was a village in Anderson's Cove and two mounds. The

mound at Cherry Creek was opened a few years ago and beads and pottery were

found. There is a mound on Sink Creek which was once thirty feet high and almost

one hundred feet across its circular top. It has now been reduced by being

plowed over. There is another mound six miles below Rock Island.



Prehistoric Burial Grounds



  There is a prehistoric burial ground near Ravenscroft, another in upper Cherry

Creek, another in Blue Spring Cove, another three miles South of Sparta, another

North of Doyle, another in Wild Cat Cove, another near Bickford's Mill, another

near the mound on Sink Creek which is connected to the mound by a gravel walk

running from the mound to a hill. There are two mounds in Hickory Valley, one of

them covering eighty acres. Early hunters or Indians camped in a cave near

Bickford's Mill. There was a stone near there which had characters or letters on

it which none of the whites there understood. There is a cave on the Clarence

Gillen place near the old Cumberland Institute, and another three-fourths of a

mile Northeast of the old Cumberland Institute. At different periods two tribes

lived in these large caves, the Cherokees lived there when the white men came.



  All these burying grounds are undoubtedly Cherokee. In addition, at many

places in the County there are small graves. These small graves are supposed by

some to have been made by a pigmy race which inhabited this region before the

coming of the Cherokees. There has been much argument among ethnologists on this

point. Some of them contend that these graves are only the graves of children.

Others contend that they are the graves of a long-forgotten race. Many of the

skulls found in these graves have a full set of adult teeth, which lends some

color to the claim that they were pigmies. A curious thing about these graves is

that they are all lined with stone and that the bodies were buried face down. In

many of these graves are bowls which must have been filled with food, which

indicates a belief in immortality. Shells and other trinkets have also been

found in them. Some of the places where large numbers of such graves have been

found are Wild Cat Cove, Blue Spring Cove, Hickory Valley, Lost Creek, and the

Terry Cove on Cherry Creek. These graves are usually not more than thirty inches

long.



Indians and Chiefs



  I find few traditions of any Chief named Calfkiller. He was Chief over the

Indians of this section. There is a tradition that an early settler drove his

cattle into this river and the swift water carried them away, drowning them,

hence the name, Calfkiller. Practically all writers on the subject say that the

river was named after an Indian Chief. It was called Holly River in 1812

(Morse's geography). Further North on the mountain was a Chief named Nettle

Carrier, a creek at Alpine being named after him. James Cox, longtime an honored

member of the County Court of Overton County, told me that when he was a lad, he

had seen Chief Nettle Carrier. This must have been after 1830. Mrs. Mollie B.

Johnson says her grandmother Horn knew a man named Calfkiller who lived at the

head of the Calfkiller valley. Black Fox, a Chief of the first rank, hunted in

our bounds. A camp on Lost Creek is thought to have been his. There was some

amalgamation of whites and Indians, their descendants now being white people.

There are a dozen families which now show the Indian traits of physique. This

mixture usually gave an inheritance of oratory.



Wild Animals



  Some of the wild animals now extinct are buffaloes and wild horses, but in

other days the Western part of the County was overrun by them. Grass about eight

feet tall grew there. There are small samples of this grass now in the County.

Buffaloes mixed with common cattle. I have seen descendents of these, perhaps a

dozen or so. The buffalo disappeared early. The bear were numerous, some being

in the County as late as 1930. Otter were plentiful on the Caney Fork River, and

in the Mitchell Mill Pond, and up stream in the gulch. Wolves came to this

county from Van Burean as late as 1880, making inroads among the sheep and

leaving half-breed descendents. Early settlers suffered much because of panther.

These, too, have disappeared. There was an old hunter's tradition that no woman

about to give birth to a male child was ever harmed by a panther. But if the

child were to be a girl, the attacking panther, if possible, always slew the

woman. Once a large wolf was killed which when standing, came to the waist band

of a six-foot man. An old lady told me that she remembered when the wolves would

come to their home, run the dogs under the house, and then fight over the bones

thrown out of the window. Deer were also very numerous. Barlow Fisk in that day

was recognized as the champion deer hunter in the County.



Scenery



  One thing that attracted high grade people to locate here and in the mountain

counties was the scenery. It is often spoken of as rivaling Italy or

Switzerland. From Sunset Rock one may see parts of seven counties, and from the

top of this rock, one may see parts of three states.



The First Settlers



  In the latter part of the year 1789, a bold adventurer, a veteran of the

Revolution, who played the fife for three years during the struggle for freedom

came from Amelia County, Virginia, to the wilds of White County as the first

settler and afterwards to give his name to the County. He was in the battle of

Brandywine, Germantown, and Stony Point. Circumstances as well as traditions

attest that he came before the second treaty of Holston. This treaty, made in

1791, confined the Indians to the plateau of the Cumberland mountains. The

treaty of Tellico in 1795 removed the Indians from the mountains. This section

had become known as the Indian Territory of the Wilderness, it being a strip of

land about sixty miles wide which cut the white settlers of the East off from

those of the West. This adventurer was John White, born March 2, 1751, died

October 12, 1846. He was what is called a "squatter." With him were his wife and

his son, Woodson, six years old, who later represented White County in the State

Legislature, and a daughter Martha, born 1764, died 1842. This Martha never

married. There were other children also. This John White cleared the first land

in White County and built the first house. This land was a seven acre tract

lying between what is now the Luther Moss place and the Hickory Valley

Presbyterian Church. The house was built in the autumn of 1789 with port holes

which remained in the house until it was remodeled some thirty years ago. It is

now owned by Luther Moss.



  While White was clearing this land, which was then a canebrake, for his first

crop, his daughter, aged seventeen, took a pail and started to the sinkhole

spring. When she came near the spring, two hostile Indians jumped out of a hole

and gave chase. The girl screamed and ran a race worthy of a "Bonnie Kate."

White came from his work, took the gun from the porthole, which had bluffed the

Indians, and hunted in the thick canebrake, but in vain. White men encroached on

the wilderness when their own game became scarce and there was constant trouble

until the Treaty of Tellico. Pauline Weaver, born here in 1800, told of numerous

conflicts between whites and Indians during his boyhood. Even after Tellico

there were numerous skirmishes between whites and Indians. Indians were ordered

removed from Tennessee in 1834, but Buckland lingered, wintering at my

grandfather's until 1854, the last Indian in White County. The White family by

the coming of kindred became very numerous, especially in that part of the

County which soon after became Warren. The County seat at first was near the

White settlement so the County was named after John White.



Early Settlers



  A few other settlers came soon after the coming of John White. And after the

Treaty of Tellico the country settled up rapidly. By 1800 the territory North of

what is now known as Yankeetown was thickly settled. In or near the Horseshoe

Bend Reuben Roberts came to a small settlement in 1794, perhaps in what is now

Warren County. At Young's Mill and at Sparta settlements were made. Perhaps one

or two settlers came to the former place before there was any settlement at the

latter but there were settlers in both places before 1800. At the old Emory

place are two stone chimneys built before 1796. Sparta was laid out in town lots

in 1802. John Templeton, a Revolutionary soldier, cut his way through the

canebrakes of Moore Cove and settled on the Templeton place about 1800. He was

the great, great grandfather of our popular ex-sheriff Templeton. There was an

early settlement also at or near Walling. David Goodwin settled near Duck Pond

in 1808. He came from South Carolina with his wife and thirteen-year-old son,

John T. Goodwin. David Goodwin died in 1838. Solomon Dodson came to Hickory

Valley and settled on a hill East of the Jake Mays place, later moving to Big

Bottom. He cleared the canebrake North of Dodson's Chapel and cultivated it in

corn for twenty-two successive years. His method of cultivation was this: He

laid off the land, covering it with two furrows; later he plowed up the middles.

This was the only cultivation and the tassels would show just a little above the

weeds. In the fall he would gather large ears and take a supply of them to a

still up the river and bring back a barrel of whiskey. Then he would live

happily until the spring time planting.



  Some of the early settlers were the following: Second district: John Felton

and five brothers from the Carolinas, Benjamin Lewis, William Lewis, a

Revolutionary veteran who settled in Hickory Valley, Tom Lewis, Ike Lewis and

Benjamin Lewis, their father. These owned most of Hickory Valley and part of the

Jim Hatfield Cove. William Wilson, Sr., Andy Rogers, Rev. John Yates, Jacob

Cole, Hiram Shockley, and Merrill Doyle. The four Wallace brothers, John,

William, Laban (father of Jim Wallace), and Lias. These were cousins to four

other brothers, Stephen, John, William and Laban Wallace. William moved to

Kentucky, then to Texas and became one of the ancestors of the famous Ma

Ferguson. Laban lived in Hatfield Cove and is the ancestor of the Wallaces of

Lost Creek.



  Lost Creek. Zachariah Anderson, Jackie Green, Dan Sutherland, Edmond

Cunningham, Jacob Cole, and Squire John Parks. Z. Anderson was a minister.



  Big Bottom. Asa Frazier, Ephriam Davis, Solomon Dodson, and William Graham.



  Cherry Creek. Jacob Robinson, Billy Glenn, Billy Lee, Benjamin Wilhite, John

P. Graves, Dave, James, and Tom Snodgrass, and Ransom Greer who made the nails

in his shop to fasten the roof on his house, recently torn down on the Belle

Mitchell place; William Little, who was the representative of a New York land

company, came here about 1800. About the same time came John Knowles, George

Ailsworth, a Revolutionary soldier, as was also Archibald McDaniel, William

Greenfield, Abel Hutson (Hudson), Armistead Stubblefield, Isaac Swindell, Lewis

Ford. It was said of this Lewis Ford that he drank for an occupation. Once he

started home with a jugful and in crossing a fence the jug fell on one side and

he on the other. The stopper came out and the contents seemed to him to say,

"Good, good, good." He yelled out, "Oh, yes; I know you're good but I can't get

to you." Other early settlers of the Cherry Creek section were Rev. Thomas

Little, Lewis Petit, Thomas Storm, John Ramsey, Ed Harris, Elijah Chism,

Nicholas Gillentine, Archibald Overton, George Allen, Nathan Anderson, Joe

Moseley, George Ogden, Jesse Allen, Samuel Allen, Thomas Allen, David Ames,

Nathanel Bramlett, Jesse Brewer, Thomas Barnes, Finch Worley, Philip Bethan,

Peter Baker, Aaron Brew, John Howell, William H. Campbell, Abraham Crowson, Joel

D. Comfort, William Denny, Asa Denson, Mr. Leftwick, Tom Farley, Timothy Faran,

John Flinn, Jesse Lincoln, William Grant, Edward T. Garner, John Graham, William

Hammond, Ben Haggard, Jesse Hunter, William Hunter, John Henry, Christopher

Hoffman, Joseph Holt, Joseph Herd, John Isham, Charles Isham, Judge Issacs,

Joseph Jarred, George Miller, John Medley, Thomas Meek, Shadrack Monahan, Elisha

Mooney, Elijah England, James McClarren, Jonathan Scott, Cornelius McGuire,

Jonathan Nicholas, and Joseph Neely, Robert Officer, John Austin, William

O'Dare, George Price, Levi Perkins, John Parker, John Poteet, Green Richards,

Milton H. Reynolds, Elick Sayers Simpson, Thomas Shirley, Capt. Joseph Shaw,

Benjamin Sapp, John Shanks, David Tuley, Henry Taylor, Robert Frammel, Robert

Vanbibber, Edward Wilkins, John Weeks, Barrlow Fisk, Lige Golden, who settled

Golden Mountain, Dr. Madison Fisk, Benjamin Lampton, William Anderson, Mathis

Anderson, Lewis Fletcher, John Hancock, T. B. Rice, Thomas Bounds, Anthony

Dibrell, Alexander Lowery, Nathanial Davis, Montgomery Carrick, William

Ledbetter, Thomas May, David May, Thomas K. Harris, James Simpson, Caleb Farley,

who sold the land on which Sparta was built, John Turner, Charles Nelson, Peter

Houston, Benjamin Cooper, Reuben Cooper, Thomas Hill, Eli Sims, Bob Townsend,

John W. Mitchell, William Glenn, Thomas Hickman, Turner Lane, Dr. W. M. B. Hall,

Dr. Cox, Mark Lowery, Byrd Jones (born 1782, died 1885), Squire Tom Jones, John

Young, Rev. Stubblefield, Rev. Burden, wounded in war 1812, Abram McGee, William

Dale, Reuben Roberts, John and Samuel Weaver. Elsewhere in the County. Abraham

Saylors, who owned the land from Post Oak Creek to Baker's Cross Roads. Philip

Yarbrough, Philip Dalton, who moved West because his farm was too small to

support his family. Since then this farm has been cut up into sixteen families.

James Kuhn, Moss, Dock Shepherd, both being exhortors holding big revivals,

Samuel Brown, Dick Crowder, John Crook, John Broyles, Abraham Broyles, Dr. Sam

Young, Tom Walling, J. S. Hogg. This is only a small list of those I have

collected, it would unnecessarily swell the size of any volume to print the

entire list.



The Formation, Size and Shape of White County



  On September 6, 1806, the Legislature erected White County out of Smith

County, which had previously been erected largely out of Sumner County. Its

boundaries were, "Beginning at the late Indian boundary line at the Southwest

corner of said Wilson County, thence Eastwardly with the said counties of

Wilson, Smith, Jackson, and Overton, to the West boundary of Roane County;

thence Southwardly with the line of said Roane County to the South boundary of

this State; thence with the said South boundary line to the Southeast corner of

Rutherford County to the beginning aforesaid." This extended to Walden's Ridge,

thence Southward along the Cumberland mountain so as not to include Bledsoe,

County, except what was later cut off of Van Buren County in the neighborhood of

the present State Farm about the time of the Civil War and none of Sequatchie

County nor Marion. White County was almost a rectangle. Warren County, almost a

square was cut off of White County. In 1807 Warren had been reduced to almost

round by parts being cut off to Grundy, Coffee, Franklin and Cannon Counties.

DeKalb was cut off of White County in 1837. Van Buren was formed out of White

County in 1840, a portion of it later being cut off to Grundy County. Putnam was

taken almost entirely from White County in 1842, but that County did not

function until after a lawsuit in the Courts of Overton County which furnished a

small strip of territory for the new County. The Act creating Putnam County was

reaffirmed by the Legislature in 1852. And in the same period Cumberland County

was cut off from White County.



  The County seat of White County was at first Rock Island, which was designated

a temporary seat of county government. A boom came in real estate in Rock Island

when it became the County Seat and some predicted that a large city would grow

up there. The home of Joseph Terry was designated as the legal Courthouse. A log

jail was built, but none too soon, as a man waylaid another at Shell's Ford,

killed him, was jailed, tried and hanged.



  The cutting off of so many Counties threw White County to one side of Rock

Island and a new County Seat was necessary. On October 18, 1809, the Legislature

designated a permanent County Seat on the Calfkiller River. The new town was

named Sparta after an ancient Greek town on a small river. The boon at Rock

Island fell flat and our three years' stay there hold the only history of the

town of interest. The question came up as to which side of the river would be

the new town site. A town had been laid off on the East side in 1802. The

Legislative Committee left the question to a vote which was taken on the first

Monday and Tuesday in January, 1810. The East side won. The people elected

Commissioners as follows: Thomas Bounds, Aaron England, Benjamin Weaver, Turner

Lane, James Fulkerson, Alexander Lowery and Nicholas Gillentine. Lowery was a

colonel in the War of 1812. Turner Lane ran for representative of White,

Overton, and Jackson Counties against James Chism, Moses Fisk, Ike Plumley, and

one other in 1823. Chism was elected. A lot sale was held just after the

location of the County Seat and the proceeds were used to pay for the building

of a log jail and a log Courthouse. This jail was replaced in a few years by one

of brick which stood until the present structure was erected in 1894:. The log

Courthouse was replaced by a small square brick building in 1815, which was

replaced by the present one in 1896. Many additions have been made since the

town was first laid out. In 1820 Jacob Lane gave six acres to the corporation of

Sparta. West Sparta was built on the old Alex Lowery farm.



Manner of Living



  The manner of life of the pioneer is hard to conceive of at the present. It is

as if he lived a millennium ago. He came into the new country walking, riding,

in a sled, or with a wagon or cart. He had few things to bring along with him.

Our first settlers came mostly from Virginia and the Carolinas. Some came

directly from Europe. The racial stock was mostly Irish and Scotch, with a

sprinkling of English, Welsh, German, French, and some others.



  The first thing on arrival was to clear a piece of land, canebrakes covering

the richer land, and then to build a house. The usual house was built of logs,

hewn with a common ax, although a broad ax was not unknown. I saw one made in a

blacksmith shop of this era. The floors were made of puncheons, except where the

flooring, joist, wallplates, and doors were made with a rip-saw, a man being

under the log, another man above, with a saw, not unlike a cross-cut saw, the

man above lifting the saw, the one below doing the sawing. The first frame house

in Hickory Valley was built by William Wallace in 1824. It collapsed in 1932.

Tables, stools for chairs, cupboards, benches, etc., were hewn puncheons.

Bedsteads were hewn posts with railings of wood and corded each way, from end to

end and side to side, with ropes made of flax, cotton, or the inner bark of the

linn tree. The fire-place was large, usually six or more feet wide, made of rock

where the fire was located and with logs on the outside, six or eight feet high,

then sticks and clay the rest of the way to the top. So large were some of these

that panthers tried to come down the chimneys, being prevented often by the wife

burning the straw in a bed tick. There were usually two doors and a window

sixteen by eighteen inches each way opening into the chimney corner. One door

was usually left open for light. Sometimes the window was covered with a greasy

cloth or paper to admit the light. Sometimes the mattress was made of grass or

leaves. Sometimes a chimney was all stone, as for example, two still standing on

the Pose Willbanks place, built when this was a part of North Carolina. The

lights were made by grease lamps; but the most fancy ones were made in a kiln.

Sometimes a saucer was used. Candles were also used, being run from tallow

poured into a candle mould. A few near accidents happened when coal oil came

into use, and a man attempted to burn it with a rag wick as in the case of the

grease burner. Pine knots were sometimes used for making light.



  The fire was well covered at night before retiring. If it went out, the man

took a flint and struck fire on punk with a little powder on it, or he shot a

cotton rag out of his gun, or flashed powder in the pan of his flint lock gun,

or worse still, sent one of the children through a three or four-inch snow to

borrow a chunk of fire from one of the neighbors two miles away. There was

usually a pole across the fire-place three or four feet above the fire to which

a potrack was hung. It had a hook at the bottom on which a pot could be hung and

swung over the hottest of the fire for boiling. Not all families had chinaware

dishes. Some had wooden plates, called "trenchers," wooden spoons, and knives

made of steel, wood, or cane, and forks of cane. There were usually two butcher

knives in each family, an ax, an augar, chisel, saw and drawing knife. From the

railings of the bed there hung a curtain of cloth, a frill, reaching to the

floor. Under this bed were found boxes made of thin sheets of buckeye wood about

eighteen inches tall and bottomed with the same material and fastened on with

strings through holes. A large gourd, called a peck gourd, held the powder. In

box or gourd was the knitting, for the women knit sox for the family, crochet

needles, quilt pieces, and rags for patching. Medicine, such as blue mast,

ipecac, sulphur, asafetida,—the latter two were often used in a little bag

around the children's neck to prevent them from catching contagious diseases.

Children were often made to eat sulphur and molasses for health, after molasses

came into use. A good supply of herbs was dried and laid away. Over the

fireplace was a stick or two placed horizontally for drying pumpkin, meat and

the like. Meat was kept without salt until a salt spring was found below

Taylor's Mill and one six miles below Rock Island. The meat was killed, cooled,

washed, then dipped into hot water, hung over the fire and dried. Red corn cob

ashes were used for soda.



  The men cleared the land, broke it up with a bull tongue plow, or bullikin,

which was a kind of a twisted shovel or a crude kind of turning plow. Those who

had no horse dug up the land two feet across and planted the corn in the middle,

then tended it with a hoe. The tinker came along before our country was very old

and made the housewife pewter plates, dishes, basins, and spoons. If a man came

with nothing, his neighbors supported him until he could raise a crop. If sick,

they worked his corn. They had plenty to eat. Vegetables, tame or wild meat,

honey from the woods, dried fruit and nuts for the children. Fruits rarely ever

failed. Wild animals made their depredations on cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry

of the farmer, and some of them were dangerous to human life.



Tomatoes were grown for their beauty, being planted in boxes, and were called

love apples. They were supposed to be poison. Potatoes were kept in holes in the

ground, sweet potatoes were kept in cellars. Turnips were kept in holes.

Pumpkins, beans apples, peaches, and pears were dried.



  Woman's work was sometimes strenuous. Families were usually large. Those who

claim that women killed themselves early by too profuse childbearing will have

to go out of White County for the facts. Numerous instances could be given, the

tombstone record of the County being sufficient. Grandmother Seals, after

bearing eleven children, was so old and emaciated over the ordeal that she could

lift but two and one-half bushels of wheat onto her shoulder while standing in a

half bushel measure. Women's work was cooking, caring for the children, making

linen or cotton or woolen clothes for the whole family, spinning, weaving and

making the clothes, knitting the socks of woolen yarns, and sometimes they

worked in the fields. Then they would perhaps dance on a puncheon floor until

midnight to the music of a gourd banjo and a gourd fiddle. The woman of that day

needed no cosmetics to give her a glow of health. She dressed in clothes of her

own making, she made her sundowns of oat straw, plaited four plait and sewed

together, then the rims on each had a ribbon sewed to it, the ribbon then was

drawn, bringing the rims down, and was tied under the chin. Men made moccasins,

or shoes, the leather being tanned in a trough. Their Sunday suits were made of

linen, the flax being raised on the place, coat, vest, and pants being

immaculately white. Their hats were of coon skin or fox skin, with the tail

hanging behind, or, sometimes a fox tail was substituted for the coon tail, or,

perhaps the man had a century hat made of buckeye splits.



  Sometimes old men wore their hair bobbed and falling to their shoulders. They

drank water from a gourd, out of a pail, a piggin being a miniature pail. A

person could come to a home and stay all winter and on leaving would be asked to

come again. Maple trees furnished the sugar. Women of the best type went

barefoot to church, putting on their shoes just before arriving at the church.

Roads were muddy and almost impassable half the time. Women wore their hair in a

knot on the back of their head. A Grecian band was worn on the back and above

the hips, a bundle making the dress at the hips out several inches at right

angles to the body. They wore bonnets a foot and a half long, coming from the

head at an angle of forty-five degrees. Then there were hoopskirts. It took only

about twenty of them to fill a church. On getting into a carriage a woman

pressed the hoops together on opposite sides until she could get in. An old

settler described the hoopskirt as the "running gears of a partridge nest." It

was common to see the best of women going barefooted at home. Women at home, if

they wore headdress, wore common bonnets.



  Ashes were poured into an ash hopper and lye leached from the ashes. Then the

grease scraps were thrown into a kettle of lye and boiled at the time of a

waning moon to prevent the soap from boiling over at frequent intervals. Soap

made in this manner served for washing clothes, hands, and face. Women washed

clothes under difficulties. A kettle in the open, smoke flying, children crying,

because the oldest who cared for them was helping wash. Washing was done on a

flatblock, which was a block of wood eighteen inches square set up on legs. The

manner of washing was this, the clothes after being boiled were thrown out on

this block and a child using a paddle beat the clothes until they were clean. An

old song ran, "The devil's in women on wash-day."



  Harness was made of raw hide, also bridles and clevises. Collars were made of

platted shucks. Reed Hurd (colored), made them as late as 1877. The people cut

their wheat with a sickle, a sharp hook cutting about an acre a day; then came

the cradle with which a man could cut three or four acres a day. The wheat was

treaded out with horses or oxen, then held up and poured while the wind blew the

chaff out of the wheat. Sometimes they used a flail, which was a hickory pole

beaten with an ax eighteen inches or two feet from the large end to make that

end work as if on hinges. With this they thrashed out the wheat. If the wind

were not blowing, two men would take a sheet, a corner in each hand, holding

their hands high then with one hand moving one corner and the other moving the

other corner rapidly up and down the wheat was separated from the chaff. This

was called "winnowing." Cotton was usually hand-seeded and carded with a pair of

hand cards. It was then spun, reeled, warped, and woven. Wool was used to make

winter clothes. Negroes and poor whites wore clothes of tow. Men early wore

leather breeches. While hunting they wore a hunting shirt over their other

clothes. It was something like a night shirt. Corn was cultivated more with a

hoe than with a plow. Midwives more than doctors attended childbirth. That there

was a great deal of malpractice is pure assertion. Lydia Seals attended 1,753

cases without a mishap.



  When company came, they usually came wagon load at a time, and usually stayed

from Saturday evening until Monday morning. At bed time the men would go out for

a walk while the women retired and blew out the lights, then the men came in and

retired. Hogs were kept on the mast which never failed. One man located near the

mountains at one time kept 400 head. It was necessary to take a trained dog

along to round up the hogs. While the man approached the herd cautiously, the

dog would sit about fifty yards away and the hogs would rally around the dog.

This frequent round-up kept the hogs from going wild. In those days the

customary price for hogs was two cents a pound, the owner often driving them

fifty miles to market. In 1855 a drove of hogs was driven from Sparta,

Tennessee, to Sparta, Georgia, for market. Hogs were of the razor back variety

and were not killed until they were two years old or over. A drove of hogs could

be driven from two and a half to ten miles a day. The money of that day was

often Spanish, Mexican, or English. I have heard old settlers from the Carolinas

count English money, pronouncing three-pence as if it were thripence, and

four-pence as if it were fopence. People beat their corn into meal in a mortar

or in a hollow rock, Indian fashion, until our first mill was erected on Lost

Creek in 1808, and Scarbrough's Mill on the Caney Fork in 1812. Some times

before corn became hard they grated the corn into meal with a grater made of a

piece of tin. Turkeys were driven to market in droves of five hundred or a

thousand, two or three men being required. Men often gathered corn in sleds,

especially if the corn grew on a hillside. Gathering nuts was great sport for

the children. A total abstainer was almost unknown. As late as 1877 my father

and Rev. W. P. Smith were two of three total abstainers in the second district.

Fighting was not uncommon, drinking being vastly more common then than now, but

they were usually fistic encounters. Helpfulness was the rule. Corn huskings,

log rollings, and house raisings were occasions when if you did not invite a

neighbor, he regarded it as an insult. These were the great social occasions.

Quiltings were often held by the ladies at the same time as the workings, then a

social or dance was held at night, the champion lifter being lionized by the
ladies.



  Corn meal was baked in a skillet, oven, or on a board turned up to the fire. A

cake cooked on such a board was called a johnny cake. Sometimes a hoe was used

instead of a board. Such a cake was called a hoe cake. There was an old song of

the time ridiculing a greenhorn coming courting which had two lines which ran

thus, "The first thing he said when he sat down was, 'Girls, I think your johnny

cake is most too brown.' " A steer sold for ten dollars, a horse for fifty. Land

of the best kind could be bought for one bit an acre. In 1840 one thousand acres

of almost level land was offered for one horse. People bought their supplies

from the States from which they came. Later they bought from Knoxville or

Nashville, a village in 1840, which hauled its goods through Sparta from Knoxville.



  From the beginning of 1811 to the close of 1815 was a period of intense

excitement. In December, 1811, there was an earthquake that startled our

inhabitants. It had been raining for three months and the Calfkiller River was

running muddy water. The earthquake was at night. There was a smell of sulphur

in the air before the shock. There was a wave of the land accompanied by a roar,

then the most frightful thing occurred in an accompanying crackling sound that

sent terror to the stoutest hearts. A dozen people who were in the quake said

that rents were made in parts of this County that were wide enough to receive a

tree and they seemed bottomless Mud and steam shot out of the ground as high as

trees. Water spouted out of the ground. Up the Calfkiller River a knoll

containing about two acres was moved off its base without upturning a single

tree, being moved from one to eight feet a day by the repeated shocks that came

six or eight times a day. These were strong enough to rattle the dishes in the

cupboard. These shocks continued for six months. There are half a dozen springs

coming up through holes so deep that cords made of three boss balls do not reach

the bottom. They are thought to have been formed by this earthquake. Some have

fish in them. There was the brightest aurora borealis ever known in this County.

Excitement reached its climax when a blazing star spread its tail across the

sky. When it arose, people could be heard praying in almost every part of the

neighborhood. They said it was a sure sign of war. When the War of 1812 broke

out, our wise ancestors shook their heads and said, "I told you so."



The First Highway



  A highway was constructed from Knoxville to Nashville in 1785 which has now

become a part of a national highway. From Rock Island it followed mainly the

Chicamauga Path. This road finally became turn pike, a link at a time. It was

the main road of travel from Virginia, the Carolinas, and the East for those

going West or to New Orleans. A hundred wagons might be seen at one time coming

down the mountain with small trees tied behind them for brakes. Hotel keepers

and merchants reaped a fortune. Inns sprang up on the route, as Bon Air Springs

which became in 1840 the first summer resort in the South. The celebrities of

the State stopped there as Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk and many others. The

Crook Inn near where Pomona now stands was another celebrated inn. As many as

four and five hundred people sometimes took dinner at the old Crook Inn. Another

famous old inn was the brick house now decaying at Crab Orchard. Stage coaches

drawn by four horses would arrive with fifteen or sixteen passengers, some

inside and some outside the coach. Grand balls were given at Bon Air attended by

four or five thousand of the elite from all parts of the State. The road was not

a turnpike at first. Links of it were piked and owned by the man who piked it,

who charged toll for his link. Robert Burke, who married the widow Hailey and

whose grandson is now living, built the old Crab Orchard Inn, the most popular

inn between Nashville and Knoxville. John Sevier, Polk, Jackson, Grundy, and

David Crockett stopped there. Crab Orchard was then in. White County.



  Burke built and operated the turnpike through what is now Cumberland County

about 1828. He always drove his own stage coach, using four horses. In 1850 Mr.

Burke was driving his horses when they became frightened and threw him from his

seat and broke his neck. The pike at that time came through Bon Air and Sparta.

At this time Nashville hauled her goods through Sparta from Knoxville.



Keeping Time



  The early settler had a hard time keeping time. There were hour glasses shaped

like a figure eight, with a hole in the middle. Just enough sand was put in the

top part of the glass to take an hour to run through. Now and then a sun dial

was made on the top of some nearby stone or stump. There were a few old wooden

clocks among the early settlers.



  The first almanac in the County was Wilson's Tennessee Almanac, in 1826. The

next one was the Cumberland Almanac, 1832. Then soon after there was the

Christina Family Almanac, a pamphlet of 150 pages with religious reading and

prose and poetry for the family in addition to the regular calendar. It was

priced ten cents.



  Daniel Hollandsworth came to White County over an hundred years ago. He

settled in what is now Northern Van Buren County. He built a house which is

still standing and owned by a negro. On the outside upper facing of the door

there are two rows of holes made with a very small augur. There are thirty-one

holes in the upper row, and thirty-two in the lower row. By sticking certain

pegs in certain holes he could tell the month for each quarter of the year. One

peculiarity of time keeping of the pioneers was that they dated things after

some noted event, as, seven years after the flood, or nine years after the big

snow. Seeing the great need of time pieces in the new country enterprising men

from the North came into Tennessee to sell clocks. Sales to the amount of about

two hundred thousand dollars had been reached when someone in the Legislature

became alarmed, fearing the State would be bankrupted, passed a law in 1829 that

anyone selling clocks should pay a license of twenty-five dollars for each

County in which he sold. Tim Goff sold more clocks in White County than anyone
else.



Old Teachers



  Some of the teachers who taught in White County before 1861 were the

following: Bennie Mays, E. D. May, G. W. Anderson, whose nephews secretly put a

polk stalk on his desk to anger their uncle who was for Clay, Hiram Taylor, who

taught at Mt. Pisgah in 1843, Fletcher Jackson, Milton Hickman, who taught at

Wild Cat Cove Springs, Dewitt Croly, Miss Nancy A. Seals, Ely Sims, David Ames,

Dr. Priestly, Rev. Memucan Wade, Rev. William Jarred, Jabus Mitchell, David

Mitchell, Jr. Some of the most noted teachers of the County immediately

following the Civil War were: W. N. Billingsley, James Williams, McDowell,

Martin White, T. L. Mitchell, Rev. W. P. Smith, the best mathematician in the

County for his day.



Preachers of the Other Days



  Some of the oldest ministers of White County whose work was mainly before the

Civil War were:



  Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Baptists, Rev. Zechariah Anderson, Seagraves, Ozlas

Denton, Isaac Denton.



  Methodists, Isaac Woodward, William Burden.



  Baptists, Rev. James Hickey, Rev. Stubblefield.



  Presbyterian and Cumberland Presbyterian, Rev. M. Y. Brockett, Rev. Thomas

Little, Rev. M. Wade, Rev. Dr. Priestly, Rev. Jesse Hickman, Rev. Wash McConnell.



  Church of Christ, Abner Hill, Reuben Cooper, Rev. L. Stone.



  Denomination unknown to writer, Rev. Peter Boram, Rev. Thomas Hudson, Rev.

John Yates, and the three Mitchells.



Doctors



  Some White County doctors are the following: Dr. W. M. Hall, Dr. Madison Fisk,

Dr. Cox, Dr. Sam Young. These are those whose names have come down from the

early days of the county. In later times some of the doctors have been, Dr.

Findley, Dr. Mack Snodgrass, Dr. W. B. Young, Dr. Trapp, Dr. Cotton, Dr. Baker,

Dr. Cowden, Dr. Davis, Dr. Page, Dr. Brock, Dr. Gist, Dr. Lansdan, and Dr. James

Sims.



  Women who achieved local fame as midwives or herb doctors were the following:

Sally Ditty, Hannah Jones, Creasy Broyles, Patsy Broyles, and Lydia Seals. Each

of these attended more than 1,500 childbirths witlTno malpractice charge and no

mishaps.



The Slave Driver



  Slave driving was a profession. The negroes sold, or being driven for sale

were not as a rule driven like men, but like cattle. Sometimes they were rudely

kicked and cursed just at the time they were in greatest trouble, perhaps

leaving wife, children, and home. White Countians as a rule were good to their

slaves, often buying the wife or the husband so both could be together. They

often refused to sell one away from the other. An attachment grew up between the

slaves and the master, which during the Civil War was manifested by the master

risking his life for his servant, or vice versa. The slave was allowed time at

the week-end to be with his family, and if he were caught out without a pass the

patroler caught him and returned him to his master. But the important duty of

this patroler was to see that the negroes had good treatment and plenty to eat.

This was made necessary by the activities of the "underground railways," which

ran through a nearby State, agents sometimes working up passengers in

slaveholding States. Murrel, a famous bandit, who had his headquarters on Lost

Creek, at one time, schemed with certain New Englanders in this regard. The

old-time slave was remarkable for his politeness.



  White County proper is noted for being free, so far as the negro is concerned,

from the "nameless crime," there being' no case on record. White County had a

superior type of negro. The negroes had their own ministers, although many of

them went to the white churches in early days and occupied back seats. A negro

hack driver was allowed to sit in a closed stairway, but he would interrupt the

eloquent minister with an occasional "Amen." The old "missus" promised Sam a red

coat if he would not say amen any more in church. He promised, but the sermon

happened to be about the "Golden City." Sam twisted. He turned. He grunted as if

lifting a heavy load, but when the minister came to the innumerable throng, all

shouting and singing, Sam bawled out, "Amen, coat or no coat."



  Some ex-slaves have been remarkable for their eloquence. The negroes had a

church after the Civil War opposite where the Cherry Creek Road branches off the

Sparta-Cookeville Road. Here Asberry Green, Rev. Whitley, and Rev. Price, swayed

their dusky audience with an eloquence that was moving, sometimes thrilling,

even to white people. Among the negroes who have been esteemed highly are, Hal

Harris, who has accumulated some wealth, John McClure, a fine stone mason as

well as bricklayer, Will Burden, stone mason, and others. Sam Matlock seems to

be a jack of all trades and good at all of them. The negroes' part in building

White County is no small part. The negro who reached the greatest age of any one

in this County was Abram Officer, who came with his master from Virginia in

1816. He was eight years old when the Revolutionary War broke out. He died at

110 years old. Suze Matlock lived to be 103. Very few white people have reached

such a ripe old age. Vina Fancher lived to be 106, James Robinson, 104, and

Martha Gist, 103.



  When R. L. Jones was superintendent of this County he gave the same

examination to the colored teachers as to the white ones. The teacher of the

colored school in Sparta made the best grade of any teacher, white or black. Now

Professor Jones is six feet and six inches tall. When the colored institute

ended speeches were in order. This colored teacher called on Superintendent

Jones to speak, saying, "I always delight to hear people talk who are in

highstanding." Tom Woodfin, who had several birthdays every year, was the father

of forty-seven children.



  The negroes had their own doctor, W. F. Waters, who after seven years

practice, died in 1933. He stood well with white doctors. He was here before

this as a minister of the gospel.



Wild Pigeons, Etc.



  About 1845 wild pigeons made their appearance in the Northern part of White

County. There must have been millions of them. Boys would take horses and

lanterns and kill them with sticks. Pigeon Roost Creek in Putnam County got its

name from the fact of pigeons roosting there. No one knew whence they came.

There was a pigeon roost at what is now called the State Farm, which was then in

White County. Large tree limbs were broken down where they would roost.

Sometimes they would come over in covies a mile and a half wide and about as

long, and in ten minutes another covey perhaps one-fourth as large would come

over. This would continue from about an hour before sundown until ten at night.

They came to their roosts from every direction. Guns could be heard at all times

of the night shooting them off their roost. Hogs fattened on the squabs that

fell from limbs broken by the wind or by pigeons rising to fly. It is said that

the second covey coming to roost would roost on the backs of the first ones. The

hunters and also periodic failure of the mast finally destroyed these birds. I

have seen a few small covies since 1875.



  A small invasion of army worms came into White County in 1890. They destroyed

about an acre of millet a short distance from Mount Gilead. There have been two

invasions of locusts since 1867.



  Droughts have affected White County a few times. There was a drought in 1854,

another in 1881, two dry years, 1931 and 1932, with a short dry season in 1933.

These caused short crops. The drouth of 1881 caused great suffering. Corn sold

as high as $2.00 a bushel. To relieve the poor Joe Taylor shipped in two

carloads of corn which he sold cheap.



Land Marks and Curiosities



  1. The old Rock House, built in 1844 or 1845 by William Hunter for Barlow Fisk

is a famous old land mark. Some say Sam Denton built it earlier.



  2. One of the greatest curiosities in the United States is a river which under

certain conditions runs one way a while, then runs the other. At the Frank

Mitchell Ford in the Caney Fork River there is a high place in the bed of the

river. Upstream from the ford is a deep hole in the river bed. About a mile up

the river is an underground passage through a cave which takes part of the water

from the river. After a dry season the water ceases to flow over the high place

in its bed. With the coming of rain the cave takes the first water and the river

actually flows the opposite direction from its natural course. When the water

becomes so swollen that the cave will not take all of it, it then rises above

the high place and flows in its regular channel. Sometimes the water will run

southeast for half a day and then run northwest the remainder of the time.



  3. About half a mile from Dodson's Chapel is a sink hole over which there used

to be a house where milk and butter were kept. On entering this house, one had

to hold his hat to prevent it being blown off his head by the stream of cold air

rushing up from the bottom of the hole.



  4. There are two caves, one east of Hickory Valley, the other on Gum Spring

Mountain, where ice may be found in August after a hard winter. People used to

go to these caves for ice in cases of sickness.



  5. From the base of Sunset Rock one may see parts of seven counties and from

its summit parts of three states. During the Civil War a Federal soldier carved

on this rock the words of the song, "Just before the battle, mother." These

words proved prophetic, for on the next day there was a skirmish in which this

soldier was "numbered with the slain."



  6. A large chestnut tree was cut down near the railway not far from Bon Air

which was eleven feet and four inches in diameter. There is a chestnut tree in

Petit Cove which is probably as large or larger.



  7. A fine piece of sculpture may be seen near Price's Switch. George Price

without any instructions in sculpture cut his mother's face from stone. It is

not entirely complete.



  8. The following monuments have been erected in White County: A monument to

Hugh Lowery over a spring, erected by citizens of Bon Air; on the same road near

the top of the mountain is a monument to the builder of the road; near Rock

Island on the White County side of Caney Fork is a monument commemorating a

battle with Indians in the early days of our section.



  9. Caves with wonderful stalactites are numerous. Some of these run under

spurs of mountains as the Garlsbad Cave in Hickory Valley, the cave in the hole

where the Lost Creek Mill is located, and others. Echo Cave, east of Hickory

Valley, is wonderful for sound. A drop of water falling at the back of it can be

heard at the front. There are caves with salt petre in them. One near Key has

blind fish in it. One cave in the County has a lake in it. There is at least one

cave in the County which has historical interest. This is the Bone Hole Cave in

Blue Spring Cove. In one of the chambers at the back of the cave is a round,

deep hole about the size of an ordinary well. In this hole have been found great

quantities of human bones. These have been accounted for from the fact that a

famous robber band in the early days of our County used this cave as a hiding

place. The mouth of the cave is by the side of the old trail over which many

immigrants came into Calfkiller Valley. These bandits would waylay caravans at

this point, Mil the people, and throw their bodies into this hole, then take

possession of the booty.



  10. There is a salt spring below the Taylor and Burroughs Mill.



  11. There used to be a freak poplar in southeastern Hickory Valley which had

white leaves. This could be seen for two or three miles.



  12. The old stone fort on the land of the Tennessee Power Company was erected

as a defense against the Indians. It is built of crag rock and is now about

three or four feet high.



  13. There are many beautiful waterfalls in White County. Among these are the

falls of the Caney Pork River where the water tumbles down a series of falls, or

rapids, a hundred and sixty feet; Fancher's Falls, where the creek tumbles over

a bluff an hundred and ten feet high, and the beautiful falls of Falling Water.



  14. Milk-sick Mountain. In the early days this mountain was much dreaded by

the people living near from the fact that cattle which grazed on the mountain

frequently died of a strange disease called Milk-sick. So much destruction was

caused to cattle that the County Court fenced the mountain off for miles around

it with three strans of wire to keep cattle out, hogs not being affected by it.

It is now supposed that Milk-sick is a poisonous weed.



  15. Caney Fork Lake formed by the dam at Fall City is a paradise for fishermen.



  16. Caney Fork Gulch is a splendid piece of rugged nature.



  17. Lost creeks and short creeks are numerous. Some of the lost creeks run

into some cave and out again, repeating the operation two or three times.



  18. Hell Hole is a hole in the ground a thousand feet deep with an opening

into it from each side. High rocks are on the sides of the sloping hole which

make it a wonderful bit of scenery.



  19. The old Horton House is claimed to be the oldest brick house in the County

but it is not known when it was built. The Eli Sims brick house, for which the

same claim is made, was built in 1830. One of the land marks of Sparta is the

Anthony Dibrell house in East Sparta, built in 1811. Another land mark of the

County is the old Thomas Little house in Blue Spring Cove which was built in 1823.



The Stars Fall



  On November 13, 1833, the meteors fell. It was a time of great excitement.

Men, women, and children ran to and fro. They thought the Judgment Day was at

hand. People prayed. Negroes, especially women, could be heard saying, "Glory

hallelu, de judgment day am come and I's ready to go, hallelu." White men went

and made friends with their enemies. It is said that the meteors falling had the

appearance of snow. Everybody was more or less excited with the exception of an

old bachelor who went about leisurely smoking his pipe. He was a tough old

sinner. An excited, but sympathetic sister, a neighbor, called to him, "John,

why are you not praying, don't you see it is the Judgment Day?" He replied, "Be

quiet, Sarah, no Judgment Day, or any other day is going to come and it night."

It is said that meteors that looked as large as the moon came near the earth and

made it quake perceptibly. In 1836 there was another meteoric shower, but no

such display as that of 1833. There was a small shower of meteors in 1802.



  The County has suffered at different times from floods. In 1902 three clouds

came together and in twenty-four, hours there was eleven and one-half inches

precipitation. In the flood of 1845 a Mr. Gore had marked the Caney Fork's high

water mark by going out in his canoes and sawing off a sycamore at the water's

edge. The rise of 1902 was ten feet and two inches higher than that of 1845. A

number of houses near the river were washed away, and land was badly washed. The

greatest flood in our history was the one in 1928 when the Caney Fork River rose

ten feet higher than the high water mark of 1902. The Tennessee Power Company

bridges were washed away. This gave rise to a law suit to make the corporation

rebuilt these bridges according to their contract. The County paid a fee of six

thousand dollars to Joe V. Williams, their attorney. The suit was compromised

when the corporation agreed to rebuild part of the bridges.



  On October 23, 1873, a tornado swept across Hickory Valley, sweeping an almost

clean track where it went. Household articles from the house of Dan Sutherland

and parts of the house were found twenty miles away.



  On the night of March 26, 1841, there fell a snow four feet deep. It remained

on the ground six weeks. Many quail starved to death, while others became bold

enough to come and eat with the cattle. People used it as a date, as "so many

years after the big snow."



  September 17, 1877, there was a heavy frost. In 1884 men cut wheat with their

coats on. March 20, 1876, a snow two feet deep fell. On March 14, 1891, a snow

came which was eighteen inches deep.



  Climate was more even in our early history than now. There were more snows

then than now and less extreme weather. Fruit and mast hit every year. Even

sixty years ago a snow six inches deep was common. Gardens were made in part in

February.



Politics



  Political excitement has sometimes been great in our history. The Polk and

Clay race was perhaps the greatest. People gathered in groups on both sides of

the Caney Fork River, one side being for Polk and the other side for Clay, and

began to sing and yell. One side would sing, "James K. Polk is long and tall,

we'll rake him down with a hickory pole." Then the others answered, "Hooray,

hooray, the water's rising, drown old Clay and Free Nigger Hison

(Freling-huyson). Then from the other side came, "James K. Polk and George M.

Dallas, one for the devil and the other for the gallows." Then there were angry

words that ripped: the night winds, until it seemed that a fight was sure. But

the river was between them.



  In 1843 a vote was taken on what town should be the permanent capitol of the

State. Some of the towns voted on were McMinnville, Woodbury, Murfreesboro,

Lebanon, Sparta, Shelbyville, Athens, Knoxville, Cleveland, Columbia, and

Nashville. Nashville was selected. The vote is not on record, but it is said

that our Representative, John Deering, voted against Sparta, which lacked but

one vote of winning. He was accused of selling out for five hundred

dollars,—some say for a drink of whiskey. He was defeated for Representative in

the next race.



  Free negroes could not vote until 1830. A free negro coming into the State

before that could not stay over twenty days. Whipping, branding, pillowing, and

cutting off ears for crime were abolished for white people in 1829, and for

negroes in 1831.



  Another time of political excitement was at the rise of the Farmers Alliance,

which reached the culmination of its power in the election of Buchanan for

Governor. The movement was especially strong in White County and it had a weekly

newspaper published at Sparta called the Alliance Democrat. The alliance

movement brought forth many orators. C. T. Hasten was chairman of the convention

which nominated Buchanan, Jack Price ran for representative of White County and

was one of the speakers for the state ticket along with Cotton, another White

Countian. The Alliance organized stores which sold everything at ten per cent

profit all over the State. Three of these stores were in White County, one at

River Hill, another at 0'Conner, and the third at Cherry Creek. White County was

overwhelmingly for Buchanan. The Regulars became alarmed. Three of their men met

behind barred doors, called it a convention, and instructed the county for

Turney for governor. Excitement ran high in White County. Buchanan was elected

governor.



  Perhaps the greatest period of political excitement was that following the

introduction of the prohibition issue into Tennessee polities. This question had

been an issue for a great many years, but about the year 1884 a temperance order

was organized with the parent lodge at Doyle. This order was called the

Independent Order of Good Templars. Some of the leading spirits in the

organization were Honorable T. L. Mitchell, Dr. Douglas, Dr. Rascoe, and Dr. W.

S. Findley. This organization, formed first in White County, became a state-wide

movement. T. L. Mitchell was the first candidate on a prohibition platform. He

had been a lifelong democrat. His opponent was Honorable L. D. Hill who defeated

Mitchell for Representative. By 1887 the Good Templar movement had become

powerful in the State. The wets had to organize to hold their ground, but the

Good Templars were also well organized. The contest was especially bitter in

White County. Honorable John L. Nolan, a silver tongued orator of Nashville and

Judge Frizzell, leaders in the Good Templar or prohibition movement, came to

White County to make three speeches. They came first to Doyle. It was a

momentous occasion. H. C. Snodgrass and E. Jarvis met the speakers in debate at

Doyle. Snodgrass was at the height of his powers. He had made his audience weep,

including jurors, and even learned judges. He was considered the greatest lawyer

in the South. Nolan also had a great reputation as a speaker. He had the

reputation of bringing audiences to their feet by the time he had spoken three

minutes. Jarvis and Snodgrass arrived in a buggy. Jarvis took out a grip, opened

it, and took out a quart bottle. Each took a drink, Snodgrass opened the debate.

He was the finest in ridicule, sarcasm, invective, and in resourcefulness that I

have ever seen. He used as history what I now know to be fabrication. He

stressed the asertion that the whole temperance program was gotten up to break

up the democratic party. Nolan arose. He made a short introduction, then said

with great emphasis, pointing to Snodgrass, "I never bolted the straight

democratic ticket in my life." This thrust was made because Judge Dave Snodgrass

had led seven hundred delegates out of the democratic convention and nominated

S. F. Wilson for Governor, and H. C. Snodgrass had voted for Wilson. Nolan had

been speaking just two and a half minutes and two-thirds of his audience were on

their feet yelling. The next day the debate was to be at Union Church in Hickory

Valley. Snodgrass sent enough men from Sparta to fill the house and crowd out

most of those who came from the neighborhood. Snodgrass, defeated in argument

the day before, now came back with all his resources. He was out for victory at

any price. He used forged history at will. His best thrust was this: Nolan had a

paper with very black lines of different lengths showing the cost of different

commodities, alcohol being in the center of the upright lines, and the longest.

Snodgrass had a dimunitive one printed in lines, very pale. He flung it up

saying, "Here is Caesar's bloody mantle. Look, yesterday, when Nolan displayed

it, there was a great commotion, I never saw the like. Tom Mitchell fainted, Dr.

Rascoe had a fit, and Dr. Findley swooned away." The people outside who could

not hear all that was said, thought from the cheers of those who had crowded out

the natives that Snodgrass was "cooking Nolan's goose for him."



  Snodgrass made unbecoming remarks about Judge Frizzell's personal appearance,

the Judge said, "I have never had such remarks made to me about my personal

appearance in my life." But he didn't know Snodgrass heretofore. The debate

ended in Sparta. After this General Dibrell and Columbus Marchbanks went to

Cookeville to debate with Snodgrass and Jarvis. Before the debate began the

Dibrell boys told Snodgrass that if he made such remarks about their old father

as he had made about Judge Frizzell that there would be something doing, and

that he had to treat the General courteously. Snodgrass was a perfect gentleman

on this occasion. I still remember two-thirds of the arguments of each side and

speaker and I am surprised at some of these arguments. The temperance cause

lost, but this debate made a deep impression on many who remembered and thought

about the issues and years later the temperance cause won. Snodgrass made

capital of the immediate success and went to Congress, aided by those whom he

had helped. Though the Good Templars were defeated in this campaign of 1887 the

movement was not dead. Lodges were organized all over the State, which carried

on for many years. The Good Templar lodge at Cherry Creek held together under

the leadership of D. L. Lansden, afterwards Supreme Judge of Tennessee, after

the others had all gone to pieces.



  One other notable political campaign caused great excitement in White County.

Andrew Johnson, Horace Maynard, and General B. F. Cheatham were to speak at the

Courthouse at Sparta. Cheatham could not come, but sent instead the fiery John

H. Savage. Savage said, "Johnson is a murderer. He hanged Mrs. Surratt without

just grounds, and if anyone will indict him, I will volunteer to prosecute him

and I'll hang him as I did Presswood at Smithville." Johnson replied, "I never

tried to do anything worthy or worthwhile, but that some little fice dog was

always barking at my heels." This angered Savage, and it was with difficulty

that a fight was prevented.



Newspapers and Authors



  The first newspaper was the Gazette, founded in 1820. Next came the Sparta

Review, founded by the law firm, Haggard and Nelson in April, 1822. There were

very short-lived papers founded between 1820 and 1840. The Index was founded

before the Expositor. The Expositor was founded by the Honorable L. D. Hill and

brother in 1877. The State and Farm was founded by Morrison in 1886, and the

Mountain Democrat was founded by Bochard and edited by Honorable E. L.

Gardenhire in 1872 and 1873. The Favorite was founded by B. P. Baker and ran

successfully until it was consolidated with the Expositor. The Alliance Democrat

was founded by Judge F. T. Fancher and Judge D. L. Landsden in 1891 and ran

until July, 1892. The Sparta News was founded by Brown Brothers in 1917.



  Some of the White County authors have been Bev. Lannie Stewart, three volumes;

Rev. Bud Robinson, thirteen books; Prof. R. L. Jones, co-author of two State

adopted arithmetics; Byron Hoover Dement, author of "The People's Life of

Christ"; C. L. Lewis, author of half dozen books and coauthor of a dozen more

articels in books and encyclopedias; E. Hatch, one volume on Christian Science;

Dr. W. M. Taylor, author of a dozen more articles in books and encyclopedias;

books; E. G. Rogers, one book published, and another soon to be published; M.

Seals, one book; Honorable Columbus Marchbanks, one entitled "Harp of a Thousand

Strings"; R. L. Jarvis, three books; Q. M. Smith, one book; Rev. Robert Donnell,

one book; Honorable L. D. Smith, one book. These are some of those who have

written poetry: Prof. H. S. Proffitt, Mrs. Marcus S. Eagle, Major W. C.

Grimshaw, E. L. Gardenhire, and Dr. Waters (colored).



Revolutionary Veterans



  More than half of this County was granted to Revolutionary War Veterans to pay

them, what the Government owed them for services rendered during the war. Many

never came to their grants. I list a few, but perhaps half are not now known

here, being in forgotten graves. Benjamin Hickman, Elijah Weaver, Elijah

Olverson, John Chism, William Lewis, Archibald McDaniel, William Greenfield,

Abel Hutson, John W. Simpson, John Templeton, Rev. James Hickey, Robert Cook,

Elijah Williams, John Williams, Edward Harris; and the following who were living

in 1840; Patrick Hewitt, John White, Turner Lane, John H. Miller, Edward Helton,

Thomas Hill, Elijah Anderson, Thomas Crawley, Burgess Clark, George Alisworth,

John Ditty, John Elison, Thomas Welch, Alexander Cooper, Samuel Weaver, Henry

March, William Bertram, Isaac Graham, John Weaver, Solomon Yearger, Thomas

Moore, Abel Pearson, Thomas Shockley, Jesse Hopkins, Samuel Moore, and Dudley
Price.



Additional Comments:
From:



HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY

by

REV. MONROE SEALS.





Copyrighted 1935

by

Mrs. Monroe Seals



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