HISTORY OF
DEKALB COUNTY
TENNESSEE
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By WILL T. HALE

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Author of
"A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans,"
"The Indians and Tennessee Pioneers,"
"True Stories of Jamestown, Virginia,"
and Other Books

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NASHVILLE, TENN.
PAUL HUNTER, PUBLISHER
1915

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I have thought the virtues and affairs of the people of my native county worthy of chronicling and trust there is a place among them for this little book. It is finished with the haze and hush of Indian summer about me and under the spell of the old hills. It is easy to see once-familiar faces, to hear remembered voices, to recall the little activities on farms and in villages, and I cherish the fact that I was once a part of all this. It should not be a matter for wonder, then, that I often feel what Burns felt when he gave expression to his perpetually quoted wish:

That I for poor auld Scotland's sake
Some useful plan or book could make,
Or sing a sang at least.

The works which have been helpful are named where quoted. Very valuable, indeed, have been two musty account books referred to repeatedly herein; they have helped so much to illuminate a bygone time. The first is that of the Liberty physician and merchant, Ebenezer Wright, dated from April 22, 1832, to June 18, 1833. The second belonged to Dr. John W. Over all, of Alexandria, and dates from 1830 to 1834, but was afterwards used by his father, Col. Abraham Overall. While I never had much fondness for figures, these two documents, with all that they reveal in and between the lines, proved as interesting as romance. I must be pardoned for referring to them so often as

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well as for intruding my own recollections. Many individuals have offered data and suggestions, among them H. H. Jones, L. E. Simpson, Miss Effie Simpson, Mrs. Josie Davis, M. A. Stark, Rob Roy, Isaac Cooper, Dib Dinges, J. F. Roy, Alexandria; Mrs. Lizzie Hale, Mrs. Belle Overall, Mrs. C. L. Bright, W. L. Vick, T. G. Bratten, J. F. Caplinger, Liberty; Dr. R. M. Mason, Temperance Hall; Dr. T. W. Wood, Bellbuckle; Mrs. Rachel Payne, Watertown; Mrs. S. W. McClellan, Lieut. B. L. Ridley, Murfreesboro; Rev. J. H. Grime, Lebanon; Rev. J. W. Cullom, Triune; Hon. Norman Robinson, Allan Wright, Dowelltown; Ralph Robinson, Sparta; Rev. Van N. Smith, Laurel Hill; Horace McGuire, B. M. Cantrell, Smithville; Rev. G. L. Beale, Springfield; James H. Fite, Anthony, Kans.; John K. Bain, Shreveport, La.; Thomas J. Finley, Celina, Tex.; James H. Burton, Summers, Ark.; I. T. Rhea, M. L. Fletcher, Robert Quarles, Jr., H. Leo Boles, A. B. Hooper, Tal Allen, Isaiah White, Hon. J. W. Byrns, L. J. Watkins (a most competent proof reader for the Methodist Publishing House), and officials of the State and Carnegie Libraries, Nashville.

But for the following these annals could not have been written: My brother, H. L. Hale, Liberty, born about 1855, descendant of the pioneers Benjamin Hale and Abraham Overall; Ed Reece, Nashville, son of a hero of three wars, Capt. Jack Reece; Rev. Petway Banks, Dowelltown, born about 1857 and one of the purest citizens the county ever produced; James Givan, born in 1839, descendant of a first settler, a splendid

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type of citizen, and the best authority on local history around Liberty; Livingston Tubb, Alexandria, grandson of the patriot and pioneer Col. James Tubb; James Dearman, Smithville, born in 1851 of pioneer stock and the soul of helpful courtesy; Riley Dale, born in 1841 or 1842, grandson of pioneer William Dale and a man of correct walk; and Dr. J. B. Foster, born in Liberty in 1839, but now an honored physician of Meridian, Miss., a genius whose remarkable memory is as full and reliable as the famous diary of Samuel Pepys.

Nashville, Tenn.

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