CHAPTER X.

STAGECOACH AND TAVERN DAYS.

QUITE a bulky debt was saddled on the State when the mania for internal improvements in Tennessee was on. But it brought us good roads, and no State can properly develop without these. It also brought an era of romance which made the people in isolated places better and happier and mentally broader.

It was a great event, as great as the construction of a railroad to-day, when the turnpike was extended from Lebanon in the direction of Sparta. On December 2, 1837, a company was incorporated with the following commissioners: John Hearn, John Muirhead, W. L. Martin, Joseph Johnson, O. G. Finley, J. P. Wharton, Solomon Caplinger, Wilson T. Waters, James Young, George Smith, J. M. Armstrong, Jonathan Bailey, and William Lawrence, of Wilson County; Abraham Caruthers, John Gordon, Francis Gordon, William McCain, and Nathaniel Ward, of Smith County; T. W. Duncan, Leonard Lamberson, E. Wright, Jacob Fite, James Goodner, James Tubb, and Joseph Clarke, of Cannon County (afterwards DeKalb); William Glenn, William Simpson, Jesse Lincoln, and S. V. Carrick, of White County.

The commissioners were to open books for receiving subscriptions to the amount of $120,000, to be used in building the pike, "commencing at Lebanon," the charter not specifying at what point it should terminate. The $120,000 was to be divided into shares of

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$50 each. The chief surveyor of the State marked the route, and that part going over Snow's Hill, a mountain in DeKalb County, the gorges and peaks of which suggest Alpine scenery, is said to be an extraordinarily fine example of surveying, with the exception of a few hundred feet. This variance was due, explains Mr. John L. Lamberson, grandson of one of the commissioners, to the fact that it was left to an assistant, the chief surveyor, becoming ill, having been carried to Lamberson's, where he died. For some reason, probably because of a lack of funds, the road for some years was completed only to the top of Snow's Hill; but the grading was completed to Smithville after the War between the States.

As soon as possible after securing the charter and making the survey work was begun. The route must have presented a bustling appearance, with the camps and the great ox teams (shod with triangular pieces of iron on each toe, we are told) drawing stone, sand, and gravel, and the toiling slaves and their overseers. The work was given out to various contractors- Nicholas Smith, James White, Daniel Ford, Leonard Lamberson, James Tubb, Abraham Overall, and others. It is said that the part running under the Allen bluff and beside the creek west of Liberty was constructed by Colonel Overall.

But one tragedy resulted during the building of this highway, so far as the writer can learn, though in some instances those upon whose premises the survey was made became very indignant. One farmer in the Alexandria neighborhood went gunning; but as the

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route was changed for the better in his neighborhood, no blood was shed. The tragedy was the drowning of a youth named Blades. "There under the roots of that big tree," said the widow White to the writer one day when he was visiting the old Gray cemetery in Dowelltown, "is buried Charlie, the only son of Benjamin Blades. He fell through the Liberty bridge before it was finished and was drowned. Near by is the grave of James White, who contracted to build a portion of the turnpike."

That women had an eye to business even so early as 1837 is indicated by the fact that Mrs. Sinia Foster superintended the building of the road some way up Snow's Hill. With her sons and employees, she bossing the job, a section of the road was built that was probably unexcelled.

Mr. Caplinger, possibly one of the commissioners, constructed the old bridge north of Liberty, a covered wooden structure with two driveways; probably also that over Dry Creek, as both were alike.

The stagecoach was a familiar sight prior to the building of the turnpike; while the pike did not always follow the first highway. To illustrate, the old road passed along the western and northern brow of the Daniel Smith hill a quarter of a mile north of Liberty, and after a large half circle eastward came out near Dowelltown. The trace is clearly visible to-day. With the coming of the big, red, rocking coach there had to be stage stands and wayside inns providing "entertainment for man and beast." As far back as the oldest inhabitants can remember, Col. M. A.

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Price was the mail contractor, an old one-eyed gentleman, who smacked his lips enjoyably over a glass of gin and was strictly business. Horace McGuire, an early stager, says the mail was carried from Nashville to Knoxville. Isaiah White, son of one of the road builders and now a citizen of Nashville, avers that the Colonel had mail contracts covering twelve thousand miles, and this particular route extended from Nashville via Knoxville to Richmond, Va. The coach was drawn by four horses a large part of the time, says James Dearman, another stager, and horses were changed every fourteen miles. "Colonel Price grew wealthy," says Mr.White. "My father had the contract to make the road from the foot of Snow's Hill to the top, taking the contract off the hands of Mr. Duncan and Dr. Wright; but they became bankrupt, and he received very little compensation. It was finished to the top of the hill, I think, about 1845."

After Price's time the route was gradually shortened, finally becoming insignificant. Sam Black followed Price. Other contractors have been: Jesse Walling, Colvert & Lewis, Hale & Lewis, Overall Bros., and Taylor & Robinson. From Watertown to Smithville a number of automobiles now run.

There were taverns at Liberty nearly a century ago-the Duncan at the north end of the village, and one somewhat south of the first-named, probably erected by a Mr. Fite. The latter was at various times occupied as a residence by W. G. Foster, John F. Moore (a Vermont immigrant), Frank Foster, and William Blackburn, father of Col. Joe Blackburn. It was at

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last torn down to give place for Will A. Vick's residence.

The pioneer, Josiah Duncan, had the Duncan Tavern built, and it was conducted by his son, T. W. Duncan. Some of the Duncans removed to Nashville. It is believed that the Duncan Hotel, in the capital, was named for one of these Duncans. They came originally from Maryland. Isaac Whaley, postmaster at Liberty for about forty-four years, once stated to the writer that within his memory Gen. Andrew Jackson was a guest at the Duncan. He added: "The General used to pass here in his carriage on the way to Washington and other points. One time he purchased some negroes and was bringing them to Tennessee. While here a young slave died. It was between 1834 and 1839. I made the negro's coffin. Of the Duncans who left Liberty, I believe the one to become best known was Cicero."

T. M. Givan, a relative of the Duncan family, has heard his father tell of a large delegation going as far as Snow's Hill to welcome Old Hickory on one occasion. Some genius had improvised a sort of cannon, and when it was "touched off" it escaped from its fastenings, disappeared somewhere down one of the gorges near the road, "and has never been seen since." On Jackson's arrival the county broke all records by the size of its crowd. Jackson was social and pleased his hearers by expressing admiration for the great hills and predicting a wonderful future for that section.

Mrs. Rachel Payne, daughter of Frederick Jones,

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Facing page 110, drawing captioned:

OLD DUNCAN TAVERN, LIBERTY

Drawn from memory by Will T. Hale.

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who bought the Duncan Tavern too late to entertain the hero of New Orleans, says she heard Mrs. Duncan tell how she once prepared a great feast for Jackson, but he would partake of nothing but milk and mush. Mrs. Payne states further: "When I was a child fifteen young men and the same number of girls passed through the village from Alexandria to Smithville to attend a ball. Coming back to the village with the purpose of having a dance at the Overall home, they found the creek past fording and stayed overnight with us, and that dance was the first I had ever seen. I recall two of the young ladies, Colonel Stokes's daughters, Miss Melissa (afterwards Mrs. Haskins) and Miss Leath (called 'Bug,' who became Mrs. James R. Calhoun). The fifteen couples were horseback, which would be a wonderful sight now."

Latter-day hotels at Liberty were conducted by Joshua Hollandsworth and Mrs. Cannie Whaley.

About the middle of the nineteenth century there was an excellent and popular tavern at Alexandria kept by Capt. J. S. Reece. "I remember a few balls at the tavern," writes Mrs. S. W. McClelland, formerly of Alexandria, "and among other attendants were Misses Ellen Johnston, Tump Sneed, Mary, Fannie, and Lorena Davis, Matt and Harriet Batts, and Messrs. Pope Rutland, John Sneed, William Bone, Joshua Floyd, and Capt. John F. Goodner, the gayest of the gay and a soldier of two wars. Next day we stood on tiptoe listening to a recital of the joyous events. When the circus came the old tavern was quickened into new life, and nothing was more de-

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lightful to us children than to get a peep in on the show folks, especially the show girls, this being accomplished through the friendship of Mary Reece, the innkeeper's amiable daughter."

Ed Reece, of Nashville, who was brought up in the Reece House, but who is now a prosperous Nashville man, says the building stood where Lester's department store now stands, on the south side of the principal street. "I think," he continues, "it was formerly conducted by Jack Baird, Sr., father of James and the late Jack Baird. My father exchanged property with James Baird for it and had it put in fine repair, opening it to the public in 1851 or 1852. My father was a Whig, and the Whigs all stopped with him. Among the guests of more than local repute I mention Jordan Stokes, Sidney S. Stanton, Gen. Bill Cullom, and Bird S. Rhea. There were balls there a plenty prior to the big war, and young people from Carthage, Lebanon, Gordonsville, and Nashville attended. An event I distinctly remember was the marriage of Horatio Betty-probably the grandfather of Willie Betty Newman, the distinguished Nashville Artist-and Miss Mary Lawrence, daughter of William Lawrence, who lived in Wilson County, west of town. Betty lived at Gordonsville. The young married folks and their friends, about thirty couples in all, were horseback, and stopped for dinner on the way to Gordonsville for the 'infair.' As there was then no very great opposition to intoxicants, some of the gentlemen merrymakers imbibe d freely. Two guests at the tavern when we had balls were the Misses Roulstone, relatives of the pub-

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lisher of the first Tennessee newspaper, the Knoxville Gazette. One of them on one occasion highly incensed a guest by refusing to dance with him because he did not wear pumps."

The old people name John Vantrease as Alexandria's earliest innkeeper. Mrs. Sallie Browning kept a tavern prior to the days of the Reece House. The Reece House was in later years conducted by T. Williams and then by Joseph Lawrence. The present well-patronized hotel is owned by Byron Bell.

In 1846, or thereabout, a stock company built a large tavern at Smithville, the first host being Dr. G. W. Eastham, possibly. On January 2, 1852, it was incorporated. The incorporators were: Ransom Youngblood, John B. Tubb, Alex Goodwin, T. B. Fite, R. C. Sanders, Charles Schurer, Samuel Turner, Elect Tubb, James Tubb, William Floyd, Elias Barbee, W. H. Magness, W. B. Lawrence, W. W. Wade, William A. Duncan, and M. M. Brien. Was it leased at this time by Col. John H. Savage? The oldest member of the Tennessee Conference, Rev. J. W. Cullom, says Savage was in control of it in 1854. The builder of the tavern was said to have been David Morrison, the architect of the State prison. It changed proprietors frequently. It was once purchased by David James, who sold it to Matt Lee, then by B. M. Webb, and is now owned by B. M. Cantrell.

Beckwith Place, just east of Snow's Hill, became very popular in ante-bellum days, and is one of the best-known landmarks of DeKalb County. Mrs. Beckwith was a Miss Roulstone, of the Knoxville family

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just mentioned. Beckwith was in its prime when Bon Air Springs, on the mountain, was in its heyday. Travelers to and from that resort liked to spend a while at Beckwith Place. Many very notable guests have been sheltered there.

On Snow's Hill, four miles west of Smithville, Thomas Bradford kept a famous inn at the sign of the Two Cranes. A distinction claimed for the proprietor is that he had the earliest orchard in that section, not excepting that of Giles Driver, the pioneer, who lived to the age of one hundred and four. Luke McDowell's tavern was not far from Beckwith Place, a mile westward. After the War between the States, John L. Boyd occupied the McDowell Inn.

No doubt there was a tavern at Sligo Ferry, on the eastern side of Caney Fork River and on the stage road. It was a very important point at one time. Bird S. Rhea and A. L. Davis, who owned a large store and warehouse, operated the ferry and that end of the stage road. Sligo was the head of navigation, and the firm was able to do a very heavy business by loading boats at Nashville and transporting merchandise and other freight to Sligo. Price's stagecoaches traveled that way. The travel by stage, carriages, and freight wagons was tremendous. But when the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad was constructed to McMinnville Mr. Rhea saw that it would injure White and DeKalb Counties and left the place for Nashville, where he became a factor in business circles, as is his son now, Isaac T. Rhea, President of the St. Louis and Tennessee River Packet Company.

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In this East Middle Tennessee section there is much picturesque scenery. Off the turnpike some miles are the Caney Fork "Narrows," where the river makes a nine-mile bend, but comes so close together at one point that one can stand on the ridge between and toss a stone into the current on either side. The views at Fall Creek and Culcarmac Falls, also in the boundaries of DeKalb County, are magnificent and inspiring. From the top of Snow's Hill (the turnpike passes over the summit, a distance of two miles) the sight may traverse long distances, especially south and west, taking in a bewitching panorama in winter or summer. On each side are deep valleys, gloomy and forested, and miles to the south the long, hazy crest of Short Mountain, suggesting the back of leviathan afloat upon the ocean surface. Traveling westward, there was once the well-kept Trough spring. The water, gushing out of the hill, was brought down to the pike in wooden "spouts" to a very capacious trough. Here the stage horses were checked to allay their thirst, and it is doubtful if any passenger could pass without desiring to quaff. If in the night, the trickle and murmur awoke his thirst; if in the daytime, the sparkling streamlets dashing over mossy stones had the same effect.

Between Dowelltown and Liberty one of the noisiest streams, reminding you of Browning's "How the Water Comes Down at Lodore," issues from the Gin Bluff cave and finds silence in the Crowder Hole of Smith Fork. It used to run a cotton gin long ago. On Dry Creek the stream cast out of a cave has for

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three-quarters of a century furnished the power to run Crips's Mill.

Then you arrive at Liberty, resting like a sleeping hound at the feet of a dozen lofty hills-the Barger and Evans hills to the east, the Gin Bluff and Dismal hills to the north, to the west the Bethel and Lamberson hills, and to the south the Bratten, Givan, and Clarke hills-cultivated to the tops and hazy in summer, in winter drowsing to the winds' singing, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." And in their embrace this: Smith Fork Creek forming a silver horseshoe, great bottom fields, the pioneer graveyard on a rise covered with pennyroyal and gashed with gullies, the battle ground where General Winchester fought the Cherokees, the more modern cemetery with three thousand sleeping inhabitants, and a village so queerly arranged that the son of a pioneer once described it as being three miles long and thirty feet wide.

Still going westward, the road crawls by the beetling Allen Bluff, then through other picturesque hills until Alexandria is passed and the Wilson County line reached, where the low grounds set in.

As a general thing, the stage drivers were "characters." Didn't they have a right to feel their importance and to exercise their prerogative of letting a boy swing onto the boot or driving him away with a great swipe backward with the whiplash? Uncle Sam depended upon them to be on schedule time with his mail; the traveling public was also beholden to them; and, sitting behind four horses, manipulating

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the lines cleverly if not pompously as the milestones were left behind, they certainly had some part in the nation's affairs. The names of a few have been preserved, and for the sake of the old-timers who knew some of them in the flesh and of the one-time boys whose cherished ambition was to be a stage driver and at night toot the bugle as the announcement of his approach to the post office they shall be recorded here: Ben Blades, Yance Lamb (a dandy), Tom Hearn, Josiah Youngblood, Mr. Angell, Mr. Kelley, Mr. Bridges, Mr. Sadler, Bob Witt, Abe Witt, Mr. Potts, " Scotch John," Horace McQuire, Jim Little, Mose and Charles Vannata, James Dearman, J. H. Meacham, Tom, Jim, and William Dearman, Isaac Borum (who drove about twenty years), William Lewis, Sr., William Lewis, Jr., and William Robinson (who drove about fifteen years).

So, while the first notes of the bugle on the famous old stage road was a reveille, the last sound, lingering mournfully among the hills, meant taps forever, the old order giving way to the new.

The mail is now delivered to the four principal towns twice a day and once on Sunday. The postal system must have been very unsatisfactory to the people a century and less ago. It is said that the residents of Liberty for a long while had to go to Carthage, which was laid off in 1804, and other points to mail letters. As late as 1797 the mail to Knoxville, then the State capital, arrived only twice a month. It must have been several years later that there was a mail route to Liberty. In 1789, about eight years before the first

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settler came to Liberty, there were only seventy-five post offices in the United States. Postage was so high and ready money so scarce, as stated elsewhere, that letters often remained in the post office for weeks because the person addressed could not pay the portage. In the daybook of E. Wright, a Liberty merchant, his customers are frequently charged postage. It may be he was an early postmaster. Thus under date of June 23, 1832, is this memorandum, " Liberty Lodge No. 77, Dr., to postage paid on letter from G. States Secty., 66 cents," and this under date of August 20: " Lemuel H. Bethel, Dr., to cash to pay postage, 18 ¼ cents." The adhesive postage stamp was not used in America until 1847. The method was to fold a letter, fasten it with sealing wax (no envelope), and mail it, the receiver to pay the postage. The rates of postage from 1789 to 1816 were: For any distance under forty miles, 8 cents; under ninety, 10 cents; under one hundred and fifty, 12 ½ cents. From 1816 to 1837 they were: For distances under thirty miles, 6 ¼ cents; under eighty, 10 cents; over four hundred, 25 cents; and these rates were quadrupled upon letters which weighed an ounce.

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