Cronan

Written by Larry Cronan

The first village of any size between Reelfoot Lake and the Mississippi River was a village that later became known as Cronanville.   All of the early settlers chose to live either on the bank of the river or on the shore of Reelfoot Lake. The boats plying the waters of the Mississippi used wood for fuel and stopped at the landings that wwere established along the river bank to buy it. Many settlers became wealthy and acquired land from their humble beginning as a woodcutter with a woodyard on the Mississippi.

The early records credit Stephen Mitchell as being the first man to establish a permanent home on the river, eight miles below New Madrid in 1818, but during the next few years many families made their home on the land the Chickasaws called their “happy hunting ground.”

We can assume that Stephen Mitchell was public spirited and had a desire to take part in the shaping of the country he had chosen for his home, for in 1824 when Obion County was organized under an act of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee,Stephen Mitchell was one of the first Justice of the Peace.   We can also assume that growth in the area was rapid for on the 5th og January, 1835, the Obion County Court appointed Richard T. Meriweather,  Jessie Daugherty, Joseph Fulk, Stephen Mitchell, G.B. Colyer, E.M. Hutchinson, and William Payne as a Jury of Reveiw to mark out a road from Troy, the county seat, to Richard T. Meriweathers on the Mississippi River.

The district west of  Reelfoot Lake was district #4, according to the minutes of the Obion County Court in Jan. 1844, Mr. C. Hale, Samuel C. Henry, James Davis, Blackman H. Bird, Richard B. Brown, Terril L. Camp, William Caldwell, Moses D. Harper, and William Crittenden, the Justices of the Peace present, voted that civil district #4 be made into two districts by “running a line from Reelfoot Lake straight past John Crockett’s house to the Mississippi River to strike said river at the number 13 bar at the house of Michael Peacock, leaving said Crockett’s and Peacock’s houses to belong to the upper district, upper district to include all territory north of the said line now belonging to district #4 and remain to be known as district #4 and that the precint and musterground therein be and remain at the same place, being the old steam mill place and that the lower district be known as district #10 and that the precint and musterground be at the house where Blackman H. Bird  now lives.”

Later changes in the district of the county were made and by 1850 Michael Peacock’s home was the first one enumerated in district # 9. It still being west of Reelfoot lake.   Although there were many families living west of Reelfoot Lake in 1850, there are no post offices mentioned. the mail was still being delivered by the boats and left at the many landings. There was still no villages of any size. The area was inhabited by large landowners and they were very isolated.

We are deeply indebted to Mr. C. M. Peacock  who kept a dairy during the year of 1856. it gives us an insight into the many facets of their daily lives that we would never have known.   The isolation of the settlers is pointed out by the fact that he often reffered to leaving home early and stopping by a friends house for breakfast and later at another to rest and visit a while and then taking dinner with another family all in a course of a trip to Troy of a distant visit. Nowhere in the records left for us is there any mention of a village west of Reelfoot Lake prior to the settlement at what later became known as Cronanville.

The records show that the first Masonic lodge, Harmony Lodge # 184 was granted a charter at Cronanville on the 11th of October 1851 with J. B. Burnett as first worshipful master. The first school house in the area was a room log building, built in 1845 near Island # 10.

Also the records in Obion County in 1858 show that due to the difficulty in traveling to the county seat at Troy, a special court was established for the portion of Obion County west of Reelfoot lake and the first court was held June 14, 1858 at the Masonic Hall in Cronanville, a village north of Tiptonville.

Tiptonville was becoming well established due to the fact that it was on the bank of the river and was an important landing.

The oldest marked grave in this area is in Cronanville Cemetery. It is the grave of Dr. Thomas Rivers, born Sept. 1, 1803 and died March 30, 1838.

Mr. R. C. Donaldson, Former Lake County Historian, who left the citizens of Lake County a wealth of recorded history, writes that although Dr. Rivers lived at Mills Point (now Hickman, Ky.) when he was killed, his brother, Jones Rivers, went to Mills Point and after killing his brother’s murderes, placed the body in a coffin and the coffin in a skiff and with two Negros at the oars, transported it to Cronanville for buriel. This was 1838.

Mr. James Cronan, who gave the village his name, was a merchant. He was born in Ireland and it is unknown by his present descendents when he came to America.   This enterprising young man traveled by boat up and down the Mississippi, stopping at the landings and selling his wares. He might never have settled in the western district of Tennessee but for the fact that young lady by the name of Sophronia Taylor captured his heart and on the 11th of October 1853 he went to Troy to obtain a license to marry the young lady.   They were married on the 13th day of October 1853 by the Rev. James J. Brooks, a minister of the Gospel.In those days, someone had to sign as a bondsman, ensuring that to their knowledge both parties were free to marry, and the bondsman was usually a relative or a very close friend.   Robert Nolon Lewis was the bondsman who co-signed with Mr. James Cronan.

It is interesting to note that Mr. Lewis had a son born in 1847 that he named Taylor, Sophronia’s maiden name, therefore it is highly probable that Sophronia was related to the Lewis family.

In 1860 there were two post offices in the area, Silvertop and Compromise. Both received mail by boat.   Although Lake County was organized under an act of the General Assembly passed June 9, 1870 and the first Lake County Court was held Sept. 5, 1870, land-locked Cronanville did not have a post office.   The 1876-77 Tennessee Gazetteer listed four post offices in Lake County. Hathaway, Marr’s Landing, Reelfoot, and Tiptonville, all receiving mail by boat.

It must be noted that Tiptonville began to be a thriving village before the War Between the States, at which time it was completely destroyed by Federal gunboats. After the war, one of the men who helped rebuild the town was James Cronan. Willis Jones,also from Cronanville, established a business in Tiptonville and in 1868 the Masonic Lodge was moved from Cronanville to Tiptonville.

In 1887 Cronanville was a thriving village. James Cronan owned a large store, a cotton gin, and a first mill. There were other business places, also, including a saloon. It was still the largest village in the Lake County.   It was not until 1895 that Cronanville had a post office. James T. Griffin was postmaster. In the years from 1887 to 1895 Tiptonville’s population far outnumbered Cronanville, even the villages of Reelfoot and Hathaway had grown larger.   Cronanville’s population steadily diminished and now it is no longer a village. There is only a church and a cemetery and an area north of Tiptonville referred to as Cronanville.

James Cronan and his wife Sophronia reared nine children: Mary, John, Eliza “Lydia”, James, Luna, Fredrick, Sophronia, Ira, and Lilly Belle. Lilly Belle is the only one of the nine children that is buried at Cronanville Cemetery