ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO IN OBION COUNTY.

Written by Robert Thomas Curlin – published in the Union City Commercial on July 4th, 1924

A few years before my father, Thomas R. Curlin, died I asked him to tell me about Obion County when his father came here, and the conditions in his boyhood. As this is centennial year, I thought a copy of some of these notes would be interesting reading to descendants of old settlers.

One among the first pioneers of Obion County was my grandfather, Samuel P. Curlin, who came from Halifax County, North Carolina, to Lebanon, Tenn., in 1822, where he married Charlotte Edwards, whom he had known in their former home in the old North State. They came to Obion County in the fall of 1822, with him came John Harpole and family, ancestor of Mr. Andrew Harpole. The names of some of the old settlers who came near that time were Reuben Jackson, Isham Conner, Jones, Hill, Thornton and Bettis. Bettis put up the first home mill in the county. You took a sack of corn and furnishing the horse, ground your corn, then paid toll for the use of mill.

Elisha Parker was the first settler of upper part of county and Allen Boon the first settler of the lower part of county. These men were trappers and hunter. When my father was a young man he often talked with these old men. The first child born in Obion County was the son of Allen Boon who lived below Troy. This boy did not live to manhood.

As in all pioneer settlements the schools were very poor. The closest school was a log cabin schoolhouse five miles from my father’s home. When he was six years old he walked this distance with his sister who was two years older. His father plowed a furrow through the forest so the children would not lose their way. As yet there were few roads. The first good road was the Hickman and Dresden Road.

Ben Totten came to Obion County in 1824, put up the first store and kept the post office. The place was called Totten Wells. It was not very far from Harris Station. Ben Totten was ancestor of Mrs. J. F. Gregory. When father was about ten years old he went to a barbecue and heard David Crockett speak and saw him play his famous joke of buying drinks for the crowd, twice with the same coon skin.

The first wheat was planted by Lemuel Curlin and John Harpole. They cleared the land together. The forest was so very heavy, clearing land was no easy task. The people subsisted chiefly on bread made of corn and wild meat, such as deer, elk, bear and smaller game was plentiful. My father has hunted elk and deer where Union City now stands, finding his way thru heavy cane breaks, sometimes fifteen feet high. West Tennessee was the last hunting ground of the Indians east of the great river. On the land now known as the Pleasant Farm, Calhoun built a race track and a cotton gin. They called it Fairfield. It was the gathering place for pioneers when they had barbecue. The first court was held at Fairfield. In two years after that they held court under an old horse shed somewhere below Troy. Then the next year they built a log courthouse at a place afterwards called Troy.

When R. T. Curlin was a boy his father took him to Fairfield and showed him where the first court was held. I never heard this disputed until after my father’s death. I don’t think any one had a better opportunity than he of knowing the facts.