GATEWAY TO THE WEST
By J. M. Moseley
Cumberland Settlements
The history of Lee County is inseparable from the
early Wilderness Road. Its influence affected not only Kentucky, but also
middle Tennessee and other parts of the west. The first who may be called a
permanent settler on the Cumberland in middle Tennessee was James Robertson, in
1779. He and his companions passed through Powells Valley and Cumberland Gap,
and followed buffalo trails to the great bend of the Cumberland.
Kasper Mansker and others had gone there no hunting
trips before, over a period of ten years. A man named Spencer had lived there
in a great hollow sycamore tree. Mansker joined Robertson there a few days
after his arrival, and they built cabins, and planted corn, which was the usual
beginning of every settlement. These, like the Kentucky settlers all followed
Boone’s Wilderness Road through what is now Lee Co. The next year, John
Donelson took a new route by water down the Tennessee and thence up the Ohio
and the Cumberland Rivers, a very long and dangerous route. Others had gone
over the river route in canoes. But this route was impractical.
John Lipscomb, an old soldier, was a happy-go-lucky,
waggish fellow. He amde the trip through Lee Co. in the spring of 1784. With
him were four others, also soldiers. Captain William Watson, John Gatling,
James Cryer and Henry Salisbury. They were on the North Fork of Holston on the
12th after starting from near Kingsport on the 11th of
June. They crossed Clinch Mountain and on to Blackwater. They crossed Powells
Mountain over a bad route. They reported a creek where there were buckeye trees
four feet through. Cane grew on the mountain side very thick. This was
doubtless Wallens Creek. They crossed Powells River on June 19th.
They traveled in woods and canebrakes until near Martins Station west of
Jonesville. There they camped at a large spring. Colonel James Robertson had
joined the party before they crossed Clinch Mountain. They crossed Cumberland
Mountain at Middlesboro the 20th of June. The next day they crossed
Cumberland River. They arrived in the neighborhood of Nashville twenty days
after starting, having made quite an interesting trip over part of the
Wilderness Road, and through new territory in Lee Co. part of the way.
By the end of the year 1785, the Ohio River had become
quite a highway for reaching the west by boat. After this route was made
comparatively safe, there were perhaps twice as many passing by the Ohio as by
the Wilderness Road. In the year 1788 there were nearly 20,000 passed down the
Ohio, and perhaps half as many through Powells Valley. But there was also a
steady but smaller stream returning along the same routes, back east, because
of failures or discontent. Not all who went remained as permanent settlers.
There were land speculators, home seekers, criminals
fleeing from justice, and honest people seeking a way to make a living - all
pursuing freedom. Frontier life was pleasant, but at best a hard life.
It is a difficult task to learn about those remote
times. Tradition at best is risky. Early historians who were scholarly scorned
to give credit due the Indian fighters who were uncultured backwoodsmen.
Writers for the masses put too much stake by their favorite hero Indian
fighter. These were the two extremes followed by early historians.
As the history of Kentucky was vitally connected with
the Wilderness Road through Lee Co., so was the history of the Cumberland
Settlements in Tennessee. After Richard Henderson was forced by the Virginia
Assembly to relinquish his claims on Kentucky, he turned his attention to the
Cumberland settlements near Nashville, operating from North Carolina. His
movements in that direction in 1779 was still through Powells Valley in Lee
Co., across Cumberland Gap and the Cumberland River, and thence southwestward
to the great band of the Cumberland where Nashville now stands. Many of the
settlers bound for Kentucky and middle Tennessee thus continued for some time
to flow through Lee Co.
This connecting link of road through Lee Co. was
prominent until as late as 1800, when the Indian powers were finally broken and
the Ohio was made safe for travel by boat. Then migration over this part of the
Wilderness Road dropped off rapidly. Quoting Professor A. B. Hulbert, we
present an excellent tribute to the Road:
The footsteps of tens of thousands who have passed over
it, exhausted though each pilgrim may have been, have left a trace that a
thousand years cannot eradicate. And so long as the print of these many feet
can be seen in dark Powells Valley, on Cumberland Gap, and beside Yellow and
Rockcastle Creeks, so long will there be a memorial left to perpetuate the
heroism of the first Kentuckians - and the memory of what the middle west owes
to Virginia and her neighbors. For when all is said, this track from tidewater
through Cumberland Gap must remain a monument to the courage and patriotism of
the people of old Virginia and North Carolina.
People passed through Lee Co., and the mountain
Gateway, to settle not only Powells Valley, Tennessee and Kentucky, but also
the northwest territory including parts of Ohio, Indians, Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin and Missouri and even on to the Pacific coast.
Isaac Shelby from Sapling Grove was Kentucky’s first
Governor, June 4, 1792. He had often traveled the old Gateway route from his
father’s home at Sapling Grove (Bristol) to his estate at Travelers’ Rest south
of Danville, KY. One of his first acts as Governor was to try to improve the
Wilderness Road between Crab Orchard and Cumberland Gap, by small
subscriptions. Men worked 22 days on the Road.
Again in 1796 Shelby had greater improvements made on
the Road, at a cost of $10,000, to accommodate wagons. Such a move was against
the interest of the packhorse business which was thriving at that time.
The general Federal Postal System had been established
in 1789. The first mail route through Cumberland Gap was established August 20,
1792, from Bean Station in Tennessee to Danville, KY. Thomas Ross was the first
mail carrier. He was killed by Indians, near Little Laurel, KY, March 21, 1793.
The Harp Outlaws
On the Wilderness Road, a good tavern along the way
was rare. Up in Rockcastle Co., KY, John Farris, Sr., ran a small place where
travelers often stopped for overnight accommodations. Farris was from Virginia.
On the evening of December 12, 1797, just five years after Lee Co. was
organized and Kentucky had been made a state, Farris had a guest he was pleased
to see. Thomas Langford from Virginia spent the night with him, not only as a
lodger, but as a close friend and old boyhood acquaintance.
At breakfast next morning five new arrivals rode up,
two men and three women, all swarthy, slouched and unkempt. But Farris never
turned anyone away who sought accommodations at his place, rich or poor. The
new corners were invited to breakfast, but replied that they did not have any
money. The young man Langford offered kindly to pay for their breakfast to help
them in evident need.
The strangers ate with starved appetites. Tom Langford
paid the bill for them from gold coins he carried in his purse. The strangers
eyed him closely. Then all went on their way along the Wilderness Road
together. Langford had confided to the Farrises that the contents of his saddle
bags were worth 500 pounds sterling.
A few days later, some drovers with cattle found a
man’s body hidden by a log in the woods near the Wilderness Road and covered
with brush and leaves. They buried the mangled body, and then reported it. The
body was taken up and identified as young Tom Langford. He had been robbed and
his clothes, saddle bags and horse had all been taken.
The five suspects who had left Farris’s Tavern with
Langford were trailed down and captured and put in Stanford jail. The men gave
their names as Roberts brothers. But they were soon identified as the famous
Harp outlaws from North Carolina. One was large and the other small, and they
were known as Big Harp and Little Harp. They were accompanied by three women,
Susanna, Sally and Betsy, whom they had picked up at Beaver Dam in Tennessee.
A number of murders, thefts and robberies were traced
to the Harps along the Wilderness Road. They had been in Tennessee, Virginia
and Kentucky. They were removed to the Danville Jail and every precaution was
taken to prevent their escape. But the men took it all easy in the log jail,
though they were chained by the feet, and the door was strongly padlocked.
On February 7, a midwife had to be called, and Betsy
Walker gave birth to a baby boy. One month later, Susanna Harp gave birth to a
baby girl. Ont he 16th of March the men got loose, overpowered their
guards, cut a hole through the log wall and escaped in the night. Three weeks
later the worried jailor once more had to call the midwife. Sally Harp gave
birth to a baby girl. At length the women were released, and charity fitted
them out with clothes and a horse to make their way to East Tennessee where
they said they lived.
The Harps continued to terrorize the country. They
made their way to Cave-in-Rock on the Ohio River. The women did not go home,
but sold the horse that had been given them and rejoined the men in their
hide-out on the Ohio.
But the babies were in the way. One day Big Harp
killed Little Harp’s woman’s baby by slinging it against a tree. Soon he paid
the penalty. He was shot and killed by officers. Little Harp escaped to
Missouri and carried on in crime until he was finally captured and hanged.
Part Three
Lee in the Line of Counties
To trace our position in the line of Virginia
counties, we may begin with Augusta Co., VA, the first territory reached by Governor
Spottswood in 1715, west of the Blue Ridge. Augusta was carved from Orange Co.
and organized as a separate county in 1738. It then included the land that
extended to the western limit of the State, which was then unknown and
undefined. This is to say that at that time Lee Co., as yet unknown and
unnamed, was a part of Augusta Co.
Thirty years later, Botetourt Co. was formed from
Augusta, including the land later to be Lee Co. Fincastle was made the county
seat of Botetourt. Lee Co. territory then passed into Botetourt. This was in
the year 1769. At that time, Daniel Boone and several others were beginning to
pass over the Kentucky Road through Scott and Lee Co. territory, of course as
yet unformed as separate counties. That same year the first settlement in Scott
was made on Big Moccasin by Thomas McCulloch. Joseph Martin started his
settlement in Lee Co. at Martin’s Station near Rose Hill on the Wilderness
Road. Uriah Stone, Casper Mansker, Abraham and Isaac Bledsoe, passed on the
Wilderness Road through Lee Co. the same year.
Later there was a rough wagon road worked out through
the eastern half of Lee Co. which led through the mountains to Fincastle the
county seat. It was called the Fincastle Road, though it is now only a memory.
A few points along the old Fincastle Road can yet be located. It extended
eastward from Jonesville by Schafers Ford, through Woodway and on by Green Hill
south of Dryden. East of Green Hill it ran along the north side of Wallens
Ridge by the John P. Orr house, above the present highway. It passed along the
lower part of the Lovelady Road which ascends Wallens Ridge and crosses to the
Wild Cat Valley north of Duffield. The Fincastle Road did not cross that Ridge,
but extended on eastward by the Washington Young house, and passed near the
Yokum Fort, and on up Powells Valley by Big Stone Gap.
Fincastle Co. continued but a short time, from April
8, 1772 until December 7, 1776. It was divided up into three large counties,
and itself became extinct. These counties were Kentucky, Montgomery and
Washington. Here Lee Co. Territory passed into Washington Co. Ten years later,
Russell Co. was carved from Washington Co. and included still considerable
territory from which other counties and parts of counties were later formed.
On October 12, 1792, Lee Co. was carved from Russell,
and included more land than at present. In 1814, Scott Co. was formed, taking a
portion of land from Lee, Scott and Russell. Finally, in 1856, portions of Lee,
Scott and Russell were taken to form Wise Co. as it is today. We may clarify
these changes by a table including only those counties in direct line from
Augusta to Lee.
The first Lee Co. Court is said to have been held at
Nimrod Chrisman’s house in Turkey Cove, supposed to have been the Jonathan
Wyatt house a part of which still stands at the present time in 1950. This was
near the center of the county at that time. Nimrod Chrisman’s grave is in Ely
Cemetery east of the L. & N. Bridge over the North Fork at the eastern edge
of Pennington Gap.
Table showing Lineal Extension of Counties west of the
Blue Ridge to and including Lee and adjoining counties: (Date of Beginning
refers to legislative act providing for new counties.)
County:
Augusta
Date
of Beginning: December 15, 1738
Made
From: Orange
Named
For: Princess Augusta
County:
Botetourt
Date
of Beginning: November 28, 1769
Made
From: Augusta
Named
For: Lord Botetourt, Gov. Of Virginia
County:
Fincastle
Date
of Beginning: April 8, 1772
Made
From: Botetourt, Rockbridge
Named
For: Country Estate in England
County:
Washington
Date
of Beginning: December 7, 1776
Made
From: Fincastle (Kentucky was for three years a county of Virginia, then made a
district in 1779 and became a state in 1792.)
Named
For: George Washington
County:
Russell
Date
of Beginning: January 6, 1786
Made
From: Washington, Montgomery
Named
For: General William Russell (fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain)
County:
Lee
Date
of Beginning: October 21, 1792
Made
From: Russell
Named
For: General Harry Lee, Gov. Of VA
County:
Scott
Date
of Beginning: November 24, 1814
Made
From: Lee, Russell & Washington
Named
For: Gen. Winfield Scott (Had command of forces which removed the Indians to
Indian Territory in 1838-39)
County:
Wise
Date
of Beginning: February 16, 1856
Made
From: Lee, Russell & Scott
Named
For: Gov. Henry A. Wise
Land of Lee County
Lee Co. is triangular in shape, about 48 miles in
length and some 15 miles in width at the widest part, and contains about 446
square miles, about 285,440 acres. More than half of its area is farm land,
including crop and pasture land, and about one-fourth in forest land, most of
which has been cut over, and much of the best timber removed. About one-fourth
of the area is in mineral and rough unusable land. The county is bounded on the
north by Harlan and Bell counties of Kentucky, on the east by Wise and Scott
counties of Virginia, and on the south by Claiborne and Hancock counties of
Tennessee.
Number
of Farms in 1930: 2,439
Average
Size in 1930: 75.6 acres
Crop
land harvested in 1930: 41,447 acres
Pasture
Land in 1930: 16,245 acres
Forest
Land in 1930: 49,667 acres
All
other lands in 1930: 10, 848 acres
Population:
1930
White: 24,610
Colored: 683
Total 25,297
Population:
1940
White: 29,872
Colored: 547
Total: 30,419
Average
precipitation of Lee Co., 50 inches. Of this 21 inches is from snow fall.
Average temperature if 54
Turning Point - 1800
The year 1800 may be considered a great turning point
in our history. The Indian power had been broken, and comparative peace and
safety had been at last accomplished by that date. There was still some danger of marauders, but not on
so large a scale as before. At that time there was a new impetus to the flow of
settlers. Many homes began to be established in Powells Valley, and a less
number of home seekers passed on to the west than formerly. Evidence of this
rise in settlement may be observed in the considerable number of substantial
old houses still standing, after a century and a half, which were erected
around the year 1800. Many cabins and houses of all types that had been erected
before that date, have perished. Some were burned by the Indians, and some have
fallen to decay and been removed. In fact all but a very few of the earliest
buildings have been removed by the ravages of time or the hand of improvement,
and no trace of their exact location can now be found.
It would be of great interest to now locate the exact
spot where Scott’s Fort and cabin stood near Kane’s Gap, one of the first
settlements in the county. However, there are some buildings that date back to
near that time still standing. Some of the very old buildings at the middle of
the twentieth century may be pointed out, and some early settlements which have
undergone changes may be located. We have spoken of the Havely House at Natural
Bridge, the Mumps Fort of 1775. Then the Aaron Fletcher house on Wallens Creek,
five miles west of Stickleyville, a two-story hewed log house, is still
standing and in good repair. It was erected about the year 1787. This was on a
land grant of 300 acres entered by Aaron Fletcher, whose descendants still own
and occupy the place. This is one of the oldest houses still standing.
The Peter Fulkerson house at Rose Hill seems to be one
of the earliest. It was erected in 1793. Tradition has it that Daniel Boone
once lodged there in passing through the locality.
The Andrew Fitts house at the mouth of Wallens Creek,
is a typical pioneer house dating back to 1795. A further description of this
house may be found in this work as a pioneer type of building still standing.
The Neal Fitts house, at Fitts Gap, is a two-story
hewed log house built around the year 1795.
Major George Gibson, a soldier of the Revolution,
settled at Gibson Station, giving the place its name. He owned 300 acres of
land there, and built a two-story log house which is still standing and has
never left the ownership of his descendants. That house was built in 1790.
Archibald Scott entered more than 1,000 acres of land
in the cove at the head of Wallens Creek on the north and west side of Powells
Mountain at Kanes Gap in 1782. This was the next settlement in Lee Co. after
Martins Station and the two forts east of that place. As we have already seen,
that cabin was destroyed in the massacre by the Indians in 1795.
Patrick Kane purchased a part of the Scott estate with
his vast entries around Flat Lick (Duffield). He used the pass there to reach
his land on either side of the mountain, and this gave rise to the name of
Kanes Gap. Patrick Kane settled in that locality about 1795. This will be
discussed later.
Robert Duff bought part of the Scott lands and also
entered a large boundary north of Kanes Gap. He settled there in 1787. Hundreds
of acres in this fertile cove have been known as the Dock Duff Farm, the Tommy
Duff Farm and the Fred Steele Farm since that time. Many historical events have
transpired there. Daniel Boone once spent two weeks there while on militia duty
and his wife was sick at Fort Blackmore.
John Yokum settled at Yokum Station in Powells Valley
southeast of Dryden, in 1790. Yokum lived there ten years, and then moved on
with the stream of emigration into Kentucky. He was a great hunter, and like
Daniel Boone preferred the wilds and did not want to be crowded by neighbors.
The Jonathan Wyatt house in Turkey Cove has already
been referred to as the place where the first court of the county was held. It
was erected in 1790.
Thomas Flanary settled near Yokum Station in 1790. He
married a Miss Blubau. Edward Pennington came to Yokum Station that year, and
married Flanary’s daughter. Pennington and his wife soon removed to the
mountain pass north of Pennington Gap, bought some land of a man named Butcher,
and entered other lands. They built a three-pen two story log house which stood
until 1880. John Pennington, Edward’s son, built and operated the Pennington
Furnace and Forge just north of the base of Nigger Head Rock.
Mitchael Friel settled where the town of Pennington
Gap is now located. He took up a large boundary of land there in 1790. His land
extended up Cane Creek Valley toward Ben Hur. In 1793 he sold most of the land
on Cane Creek to John Zion and Michael Myers.
Abraham Jones settled on Sugar Run in 1790. He entered
a large boundary including the site of the town of Jonesville and surrounding
territory. Frederick Jones, Abraham’s son, gave 65 acres of land on which to
build the courthouse. The town and county seat was named for him in 1793.
James Graham, a red-headed Irishman, settled in the
neighborhood of York, in 1795. He entered a large boundary of land there,
probably the usual of 300 acres. He came from Ireland, and was the
great-grandfather of James V. Graham and Mary P. Kelly of Pennington Gap.
The Crabtree house in Long Hollow, two miles southwest
of Pennington Gap, was erected in 1798. A further history of this place is
given elsewhere. This is the birthplace of Chester Haburne, the first American
soldier from Lee Co. killed in World War I.
The Shelton House north of Cane Creek and west of Ben
Hur, was built about the year 1800. It is still standing, but a larger house of
whip-sawed lumber was built nearby almost a century ago.
The Graham house on the George King place, on Cane
Creek, one mile west of Pennington Gap, was built around 1800. Likewise the J.
V. Graham house between this and Ben Hur at the Narrows was erected near the
same date. Another of the same age is the Russell house on Cane Creek north of
the Texas Company Gas Tanks.
The Sammy Tritt house, three miles southwest of Dryden
on Powells river was erected in 1809.
The George Washington Young house, two miles southeast
of Dryden was built in 1812. This was located on the old Fincastle Road, near
the Yokum Fort.
The Cornelia Spencer Hamblin house, three miles west
of Jonesville dates from the year 1800.
The John Barnett house, in Poor Valley, one mile north
of Dryden, dates from about 1800. It is a story and a half building made of
poplar logs. It is owned and occupied by Mrs. Pat Livingston.
The Nathan Cox house one mile east of Jonesville is
made of a combination of frame and brick, and is nearing the one and one-half
century mark. It is one of only two places in the State of Virginia where a tree
fountain was made, by running wooden pump logs from the spring into a living
willow tree.
The Jonathan Ball house on Wallens Creek five miles
southeast of Jonesville dates from around 1800. It was owned and occupied by
William R. Mosely for nearly half a century.
The Joseph H. Peters house on the south side of
Wallens Ridge near Lovelady Gap has long since passed the century mark.
A Champion Boxer
In early days before the organization of the boxing
ring, there was pugilistic practice on a free lance basis. Anyone who took
interest in the art of boxing or just rough and tumble fighting could hold out
a perpetual challenge to anyone who wished to match strength with him. There
was an approved and unwritten code which was expected to be followed with honorable
fairness.
Lee Co. had such a “prize fighter” who made a
considerable impression in fistic practice. William Bailey who lived in the
vicinity of Yokum Station south of Dryden prided himself in the art of
fighting. He defended himself well, and was never mastered by an antagonist. He
was the champion over the country south of the Ohio River, defeating all who
heard of him and chose to match strength with him.
There was a similar champion north of the Ohio River.
The two heard of each other and promptly set a time and place to meet, in
Rockcastle Co., KY. Bill Bailey rode on horseback three days to reach the
place. When he arrived, there was a large crowd awaiting the event, his
opponent having already come. A cheer went up from the crowd.
The two champions met, shook hands, backed off ten
paces according to established unwritten rules, stripped off their hunting
shirts, and then came together. After a severe trial of strength and skill,
Bailey defeated his opponent. When he announced “enough”, Bailey was quite glad
to hear it.
The two played the game honorable and fair, shook
hands and parted with high respect for each other. No boxing gloves were used,
just bare fists. When Bailey could get at a man with his first, it meant a mule
kicking wallop, and no man could stand up against it. He once faced an unfair
frameup and foul play and defeated all who took part in it, coming out
victorious against great odds.
A Duel
Few people are aware that a duel was ever fought in
Lee Co. Two colored men, one supposed to belong to a Pennington and the other a
Flanary, were rivals over a colored girl. All were slaves, each belonging to a
different owner. The two became so enraged over their romance that they decided
to fight it out in a regular duel.
On Sunday, December 7, 1823, they met with their
rifles, by secret arrangement, in Becklen’s Gap on Stone Mountain two miles
east of Pennington Gap. The two man proceeded in orderly fashion, according to
accepted rules of dueling at that time, though they had no seconds. They
stepped off fifteen paces and took their positions. By a signal given by one of
them, they both fired. One fell dead instantly, being shot through the heart.
The other fell severely wounded by a shot through the right breast.
The survivor crawled to a path some distance away, and
lay there in pain for two days and nights, until a passerby found him on
Tuesday. He died a few days later. We see in the affair a high spirit of fair
dealing, in approved procedure recognized at that time especially by slaves.
Pioneer Spirit
Beginning with
pioneer days, and continuing for more than a century, there was a close drawn
neighborly spirit among the settlers. The mountaineer in his clearing would cut
timber from his field which was to be planted to corn. The trees would be
trimmed, and then cut into logs, at first with an axe, and years later the
cross-cut saw came in as a labor saving device. When the logs were ready to be
rolled together to be burned off the land, all the neighbors for miles around
would be invited to a log rolling. They would gather at the appointed time, and
all hands would go to work in earnest rolling logs into great heaps for
burning. At noon a bounteous feast would be ready for the jolly workers. In the
afternoon the log rolling would continue. Then would come the great bonfires
which consumed brush and logs, much of it valuable timber as we would now view
it.
The same kind of social event would be worked up for
the house-raising. The neighbors would gather and do the heavy work of raising
the walls of the cabin for a new home. There would be expert choppers and notchers
who would “take up a corner” each, while others waited on them, skidding up the
logs into place and assisting in handling the work until the roof was reached.
Then the ridge poles would be notched into place, beginning at the outer wall
and drawing in the roof to a “comb.” The clapboards would be carried and handed
up and the roof would be put on, at first with weights, then in later years
square cut nails came into use.
When the beans were ready to harvest, there would be
bean stringings, the beans being strung or freed from strings, and then strung
on threads into long strings for drying. Thus dried, they were called “shuck
beans”. When the corn was gathered into great heaps, then would come the corn
shucking. Each of these, and the quilting were made social occasions at which
there would be plenty of cheerful work and then plenty of food and merriment,
and usually plenty of drinking.
Corn was the most important crop in pioneer farming.
If small grain, such as wheat, had been the dependence, as in Europe, there
would not have been much headway in the settling and development of the
country. The newly cleared land would be rough and full of stumps which could
under no circumstances be removed at once. The corn could be planted right
among the stumps and rocks and other obstructions on new land, and readily
grown and harvested from the rich soil. This would have been impossible with
small grain, until the land might at last have been freed of stumps. Corn
constituted the chief item for feed for animals and for food for man.
There were friendly contests at work at any time and
of any kind. This spurred young and old to the best that was in them. They were
husky and enduring workers, never shirking or quailing from any task. This tended
to make and maintain a sturdy race of people. When defense was needed, there
was no time nor occasion to look to the government beyond the mountains for
quick emergencies. Men volunteered at once for needed services and made their
own armies. Later, there were militia leaders appointed who raised armies as
needed and acted under the leaders who were responsible to the government,
though there was much initiative expected of the leaders themselves.
There were a few slave owners in Lee Co. They were mostly
people of east Virginia origin. The common class to whom we have referred
seldom owned slaves. But at that time scarcely anyone gave a thought to the
possible criminal nature of slavery. Now most people realize that the bringing
of slaves from Africa was fully as short-sighted as criminal. It only left us a
great difficulty to settle, a very lasting difficulty with many phases.
Among the pioneers there was an abiding religious
fever. Among the colored people there was strong emotional worship. The pioneer
felt the great need of devotion, and all knew and loved the old soul-stirring
songs such as Jesus, Lover of My Soul; What a Friend We Have in Jesus; Amazing
Grace; Nearer, My God, to Thee; O for a Closer Walk With Thee; Pass Me Not, O
Gentle Savior; and Take the Name of Jesus With You.
Such songs as these have soothed and sustained the
pioneer in many a dark and trying hour during the early history of our country.
The lowly cabin of the pioneer, surrounded with toil and faced with danger,
rang with these uplifting melodies.
Plans for Improvement
The raising of cattle, hogs and horses in Kentucky led
to drove driving over the Wilderness Road to eastern markets. Corrals were
built along the Road to care for livestock over night. Small farmers along the
way sold produce they raised to drovers. At the same time Kentucky began to
develop her interest in fine horses. It was more and more urgent to raise some
plan for improvement of the Road and find a better means of passing the bottle
neck of Powells Valley and Cumberland Gap. A toll gate was erected by Virginia
authorities, in Cumberland Gap.
Major Robert P. Baker, Kentucky engineer once planned
a waterway connecting the Cumberland River with Powells River by a system of
canals and locks and a tunnel under the Gap. It was to be an immense and unique
project consisting of 256 miles of canals and 670 miles of slack water, running
into millions of cost. This was to relieve the heavy pressure on the inadequate
Wilderness Road. At the same time there were strong advocates of a railway
through the section, connecting the Ohio country with the south and on to the
east coast at Charleston by way of Cumberland Gap.
Exile of the Indians
Among many white people there has been the impression
that the Indian was lazy and shiftless. The facts do not sustain this idea. It
is true that those who were removed from their native haunts and their freedom,
and placed in the new and strange confines of a reservation have been more or
less dispirited and morose. What else could be expected of an exiled people?
It has been observed that some of those who were
permitted to remain in the atmosphere of their environment have adjusted
themselves rapidly, and adopted the new methods, implements, crops and
management of the white man. They have proven themselves industrious, capable
and useful in all branches of endeavor. A broken spirit is a ruined life.
Discouragement is perhaps the devil’s most dangerous weapon. A free and
contented person of any race or color can be much more useful to society.
The Cherokees began war with the British in the
Carolinas in 1759, and continued their struggle against the encroachment of the
settlers through the Revolutionary War, and until 1794. They even expanded
their own domain along the Tennessee River as far as Chickamauga.
Due to missionary and educational efforts among them,
they at length undertook a plan of government among themselves patterned after
the United States Government, in 1820. They expanded their own settlements
beyond the Mississippi into what is now Arkansas. In about 1822, they developed
an alphabet and began making records in writing. (For history of removal see
“The Cherokee Nation” by Marion L. Starkey, Alfred A. Knoff, Inc., New York,
1946.)
At most the Cherokees had never numbered more than
perhaps twenty thousand, as estimated in the year 1730. Some say only twelve
thousand. Thirty years later they were estimated at about one-third to one-half
that number. When they were removed in 1838, they had risen to perhaps 16,500.
Losing one-fourth their number in the migration, and suffering losses in the
Civil War, and by smallpox, still they recovered in number later, and by 1902
they numbered more than 28,000.
Echota had 100 wigwams. Near these was the council
house, the house of the Chief, and the house of the prophetess. The grand
council house was 20 feet high and 90 feet in circumference. It was built of
stout poles, and plastered with clay. There were no windows. The entrance was
covered with two buffalo skins. There were no windows. There were low cane
benches arranged around the walls in the council lodge. These would be removed
for the Green Corn Dance. Echota was also a city of refuge. A criminal or even
an enemy could feet safe in Echota, but to venture outside of the town was
fatal. Some tried to make practical a plan that would allow a substitute to be
held for an offender as a scapegoat. A chief had got his nephew substituted in
his place. The young man finally shot his uncle, and the tribe honored him as a
hero.
In February, 1828, New Echota, Georgia, 30 miles
southwest of Knoxville, became the Indian capital of the Cherokees. The first
newspaper ever printed in any Indian language in North America was the
“Cherokee Phoenix.” It was a weekly, printed in English and Cherokee, and
edited by Elias Boudinot, a native Indian. This was made possible by the
invention of a Cherokee alphabet by Sikwayi (Sequoya), a half-breed. He was
also called Geroge Gist. His father was a white man and his mother a Cherokee
woman. His work stands in bold contrast to another half-breed, the much dreaded
Benge, 35 years earlier.
Sequoya spent three years contriving the Cherokee
alphabet. After one year his wife burned his first efforts. He only said,
“Come, this will have to be all done over.” He spent two more years remaking
the perfecting it. He taught it to his six year old girl Eye-okah first. Then
it spread rapidly. This was in 1826. There were eighty-four characters. Type
was set for it in 1828. Sequoya was given $500 dollars for his work by the
government. One thousand dollars was also paid for a press. Sequoya, the name
of redwood trees was given in his honor.
The Scriptures were translated into the Cherokee
language, and when a passage was read to old Chief Drowning Bear, he said, “It
seems to be a good book. It is strange that the white man, who has had it so
long, is no better than he is.”
Another mixed-breed, John Ross, was chief of the
Cherokees, from 1828 until the removal of the Indians in 1839. His father was a
Scotchman and his mother a quarter Indian. He was called “Little John,” but
later the Indians called him Cooweescoowee, which meant large white bird (swan
or egret). He played an important part in Indian affairs with the government.
He died at Washington, D. C., August 1, 1866, at the age of 76.
Just about the time the Cherokees had reached the
zenith as a powerful tribe, gold was discovered in Georgia. This led to a
strong measure to have them removed from the region to a part of what now
constitutes the state of Oklahoma. It was called Indian Territory. This
culminated in the purchase of their lands and their removal in the winter of
1838-39, after a considerable struggle. The forced removal by the army resulted
in the death of many Indians who were forced to try to make the trip all the
way on foot.
General Winfield Scott was sent with 7,000 troops to
remove the 17,000 Cherokees. They were forced to leave their native land by
brutal hands. In Andrew Jackson’s and Martin Van Buren’s administrations was
this carried out. 13,000 were removed on foot in the winter of 1838-39. Of the
total of 17,000, about 4,000 were left in unmarked graves along the way. This
was the saddest trail in American history, the “Trail of Tears.” (The Cherokee
Nation by Marion L. Starkey).
About 1,500 escaped into Great Smoky Mountain. Tsali
(Charley), a middle aged Cherokee was driven from his little cabin with his
wife and two sons and a brother. The wife did not walk as fast as the guard
wished, and he prodded her with a bayonet. Tsali seized the gun and shot the
guard. His brother grappled with a soldier and killed him, and all the Indians
got away. Later, forced to surrender from their cave, Tsali was to be put to
death. No greater fortitude could be imagined than was shown by his brother and
two sons, who voluntarily went with him. But imagine what it showed when his
brother and oldest son were shot with him, fellow Indians being forced to serve
as the firing squad! The small son was allowed to return to the Smokies.
Fragments of the tribe drifted into Texas from
Arkansas. These in time were driven out by the Mexicans. A number of Cherokees
escaped into the mountains of North Carolina and lived as fugitives for a
number of years. In 1842 they were granted the privilege of remaining in a
reservation in Sway and Jackson and nearby counties.
Finally most of them were concentrated in the western
Reservation, where they developed a form of government. But there they were
divided into factions among themselves, those who signed the treaty for their
removal, against those who did not. This factional difference continued into
the Civil War, some joining the Confederacy and some fighting for the Union.
The Cherokees were declared civilized (there were five
tribes of Indians which became civilized: Cherokees, Chocktaws, Creeks,
Chickasaws and Seminoles) in 1876, when they had a constitutional government
with legislative, executive and judicial branches. On March 3, 1906, the nation
ended when they became citizens of the United States. Their nation was
dissolved as a political body at midnight, June 30, 1914.
The tribal funds amount to $600,000. This was divided
among the 41,000 Indians of the tribe. A Cherokee was a senator from Oklahoma
at that time, and he received as his share $15.00.
Political Rally
The pressing need of road and transportation
improvement became more and more apparent. The various plans for improvement
became a political issue between the Whigs and Democrats in the 1840 campaign.
The Whig party saw the advantage of advocating economy, as those were days of
economical distress in the government. Their candidate for President and Vice
were Harrison and Tyler.
Under the management of Senator John C. Crittendon, a
great political rally was held at Cumberland Gap, September 10-11, 1840, and
the tri-state gathering became a big affair. Crittendon’s father had gone to
Kentucky through Cumberland Gap in 1788. Two camps were established, one on the
Kentucky side and one on the Tennessee side. There were more than a thousand
people assembled in each camp. The people gathered from the mountains along the
burdened Wilderness Road, from the three states, in wagons, carriages, on
horseback and on foot. There were men, women, and children, a jolly crowd. There
were fiddles and banjos, coon skin caps and barrels of hard cider. There was
singing, and a spirit of freedom and fun.
On the Kentucky side of the Pass a speakers’ stand was
erected. A banner 20 x 40 feet bore the inscription, “Kentucky-Virginia-Tennessee;
Harrison and Tyler; One more Fire and the days is ours.” Back of the stand was
a banner with a picture of three sisters embracing to represent the unity of
the three states. A 15 pound cannon was fired from the Pinnacle to announce the
rally.
Crittendon was the leading speaker. The rally was a
great success for the mountain people. But with the election of the Whig
candidates and early death of the President, all efforts at transportation
improvements were neglected and the old Wilderness Road continued to groan
under its heavy burden for other decades.
We have seen how geographical conditions in Lee Co.,
and the various influences of her early history all worked for a long
isolation. The early settlements were widely scattered. The isolated unit of
the Wilderness Road, traversing the entire length of the county, saw the
passing of hundreds of thousands to the level and more desired lands westward.
Now and then an emigrant family would stop by the wayside in the mountains, and
start a home in isolation, often due to the breaking down of a wagon or the
sickness of a traveler. Such delays would lead to the erection of a cabin in
some likely place, and thus new homes would be started. Then others would join
them, and a settlement would be established.
The chance settlers were of the same Scotch-Irish,
German and English lines as the settlers father west. They were and are a great
liberty loving people, a hardy, enduring class who have survived the rugged and
long isolated mountain rigors and trying times. They cleared and cultivated the
steep land, and developed grazing and grain growing, and floated much timber
down Powells River to market while awaiting progressive improvements long
delayed.
By the end of the century the drover business had
grown to considerable proportions. In 1800 the traffic moving eastward was
almost equal to the westward movement, but the Cumberland Gap and Powells
Valley route through Lee Co. was still of perhaps more importance than the Ohio
route. Many horses, cattle and hogs were driven along the Road to eastern and
southern markets. Kentucky was reaching her famous reputation for fine horses.
Once some Russians had bought several stallions in
Kentucky and were driving them on the Wilderness Road on their way to the
shipping point at Charleston, South Carolina. Near Cumberland Gap, one of the
best stallions broke away and made off up the Pinnacle side. Men followed him
to the top. When hemmed there, the horse plunged and fell several hundred feet
to his death.
It was becoming an evident and glaring need that the
means of travel should be improved through the mountains. Major Robert Parker’s
proposed waterway canal and tunnel would cost eight and one-half million
dollars, and was turned down by the Legislature. But another feeble effort was
made by spending $24,000 on the Road.
To Be Continued.......