Trancribed by Mary Knight

November 6, 1952

* Cal's Column *

"Wed., June 23, 1802. Court met according to adjournment. Members present: James Gwinn, Elmore Douglass, John Looney and William Kavanaugh, Esquires."

This is the opening item in the old records for the third day of Court, held at the home of William Saunders in the vicinity of Dixon Springs.

"Ordered that the Inventory account of the estate of Bennett Rogers, deceased, returned into Court by William Saunders, administrator, be recieved, and ordered to be recorded." We do not have any information as to Bennett Rogers, although there was an Indian trader named Rogers, who was taken prisoner in one of John Sevier's Indian excursions, and was later released by Sevier. This Indian trader secured the release of a son of Jon. Jennings, one of the number on the fleet that came down the Tennessee River and later arrived at the present Nashville. The account of the episode concering Jonathan Jennings' son and the Rogers episode, as taken from Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, is as follows: "We have now passed through the Whirl. The river widens with a placid and gentle current; and all the company appear to be in safety except the family of Jonathan Jennings, whose boat ran on a large rock, projecting out from the northern shore, and partly immersed in water immediately at the Whirl, where we were compelled to leave them, perhaps to be slaughtered by their merciless enemies. Continued to sail on that day and floated throughout the following night.

"Thursday, 9th (March, 1780)- Proceeded on our journey, nothing happening worthy of attention today. Floated till about midnight, and encamped on northern shorts.

"Friday, 10th - This morning, about four o'clock, we were suprised by the cries of "Help poor Jennings," at some distance in the rear. He had dicovered us by our fires, and came up in the most wretched condition. He states, that as soon as the Indians discovered his situation, they turned their whole attention to him, and kept up a most galling fire at his boat. He ordered his wife, a son nearly grown, a young man who accompanied them, and his Negro man and woman, to throw all his goods into the river, to lighten his boat for the purpose of getting her off, himself returning their fire as well as he could, being a good soldier and an expert marksman. But before they had accomplished their object, his son, the young man and the Negro jumped out of the boat and left them. He thinks the young man and the Negro were wounded before they left the boat."

A footnote makes the following statement relative to the above event: "The Negro was drowned. The son and the young man swam to the north side of the river, where they found and embarked in a canoe and floated down the river. The next day they were met by five canoes full of Indians, who took them prisoners and carried them to Chickamauga, where they killed and burned the young man. They knocked Jennings down and were about to kill him but were prevented by the friendly mediation of Rogers, an Indian trader, who ransomed him with goods. Rogers had been taken prisoner by Sevier a short time before, and had been released; and that good office he requited by the ransom of Jennings."

We have given these accounts for their general interest. They are found on pages 190 and 200, Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee.

James Rogers was on one of the John Sevier's expeditions against the Indians. He was from Knox County, Tenn. Another early Rogers in Tennessee history was John Rogers, who gave testimony to the efforts of the French to get the Indians to make war on the early Tennesseans.

Nancy Rogers, daughter of Jonah Rogers, was the second white child born south of the French Broad River in East Tennessee. She was born perhaps as early as 1783. The first court house in Hawkins County, Tenn., was on a lot west of and adjoining the home of S. R. Rogers, Esq.

Rogersville, the county seat of Hawkins County, is in East Tennessee, and was the last town established while Tennessee was still under the direction and government of North Carolina. This was in 1789.

Now we have no idea whatever as to whether Bennett Rogers was a relative of any of the above early Tennesseans, but would supposed that one or more in the above list might have been related to the dead man whose property was inventoried and made a part of record.

We will now return to the old records of Smith County, after a "wide detour."

"Deed, 100 acres, Jacob Hawick to John Lovelady, acknowledged and ordered to be registered." The name, Hawick, is another new one to the writer. We have never before seen it in print. The other name, John Lovelady, is not known to the writer so far as our ability to identify him is concerned. We do know that Susan Lovelady married Jeremiah Gammon in the long, long ago. She survived her husband a nunmber of years and finally becme blind. She was the grandmother of Mrs. Sue Meador, who died a few years ago four miles south of Lafayette, near Meadorville, at the ripe old age of 92 years. She was a very fine woman whom we knew personally, having been her pastor for a number of years.

Perhaps the John Lovelady above mentioned was the father of Susan Lovelady, who married Jeremiah Gammon about 150 years ago.

"Deed, 100 acres, Ammon Davis to Jacob Hawick, proven by the oath of William Martin, one of the subcribing witnesses thereto." One new name appears here, that of Ammon Davis. Here we are again in the "dark," not knowing on thing of this man.

"Ordered that Daniel Mungle be Overseer of the road from the forks above Samuel Carothers' to Daniel Alexander's, and that the same hands work under him as worked under Richard Brittain, late overseer." We do not know that this Daniel Mungle was the same party, but one Daniel Mungle was a member of Captain Evan Shelby's company that fought in the Kenhawa which was one of the fiercest fought between the Indians and the whites. It took place in northern Kentucky on Oct. 10, 1774. Another in that company of brave pioneers was Frederick Mungle. But we have no information as to what relation they were, if any. Capt. Shelby's men were from East Tennessee. We read also that "W. Johnston and Daniel Mungle, hunting together on Barren River, the former was killed and the latter escaped by flight." This was in 1780, but we do not know that Daniel Mungle, the overseer of 1802, was the Daniel Mungle, Indian fighter, or the Daniel Mungle, who hunted on Barren River. Our guess is that all were one and the same man. Mungle's gap, near Good Will church, between the waters of upper Lick Creek and Big Goose Creek, a few miles south of Lafayette, is believed to have taken its name from Daniel Mungle, who settled on a square mile of land on the waters of Big Goose Creek, about a mile west of the Gap. The big corner stone markers put up by him on the four corners of his original farm are still to be seen. There is some doubt as to what is now called Mungle's Gap being the original Mungle's Gap, some believing that the original Mungle's Gap lay a few hundered yards futher to the south than the present Mungle's Gap, through which a black-top highway, extending from Hartsville to Cato, now runs. We hope to get this straightened out soon. We do not know exactly where Samuel Carothers lived, but it was somewhere on the waters of the present Big Goose Creek. Richard Brittain, the former overseer, we are almost certain, lived in the vicinity of the present Meadorville, four miles south of Lafayette. We do not know where Daniel Alexander lived 150 years ago.

"Ordered that the late amendment made on the road from Charles Kavanaugh's toward Nashville, as far as the Wilson Co. line, be established as the public road, and that Elijah Gaddi be Overseer of same, and that the same hands work under him as did by order of the Wilson County Court." Comment was offered recently concerning Charles Kavanaugh. That road evidently started somewhere in the vicinity of the present New Middleton in Smith County, and extended westward to the Wilson County line, which is not far west of the present Grant in Smith County. We know nothing of Elijah Gaddi, this being the first time we ever saw the name.

"Ordered that John Gordon, William Hughes, John Haney, William Smith, Matthew Payne, Jesse Smith and Thomas Lancaster be a jury to view, mark and lay off a road agreeable to law, from Walton's Ferry to Lancaster's Mill." So read the next item in the old records. This road evidently began near the mouth of the present Caney Fork River and led southward to the vicinity of the present Lancaster. We read of a Captain John Gordon, who in 1780 pursued the Indians in the vicinity of Buchanan's Station and succeeded in killing one of the Indians. The same Captain Gordon led a group of men in pursuit of Indians not far from the present Columbia, Tenn., in 1793. On Aug. 6th, the same year, Captain Gordon, with Captain Raines, pursued a party of Indians, who had killed Samuel Miller, near Joslin's Staton (sic), not far from Duck River. The same Captain Gordon was also in the Nickajack Expedition, but we do not know if the John Gordon on the above jury was the same man. We rather doubt it, but felt that readers might be interested in the Captain John Gordon, who so bravely fought the Indians in the long, long ago.

"Ordered that John Campbell, Joseph Collins, Zadoc McNew, Isaac Moore, Robert Smith, Zachary Ford and Ennis Herrold be a Jury to view, mark and lay off a road from Charles Kavanaugh's down Hickman Creek, passing Joseph (Collins?) to a certain ford near Thomas Smith's, and from thence by the nearest and best way to intersect Walton's Road at the most convenient point." This ties in with the idea above expressed that Charles Kavanaugh lived in the vicinity of the present New Middleton, perhaps to the south. We do not have any information as to John Campell (sic), except that in early Tennessee history, there were the following John Campbells" Expuire John Campbell, Captain John Campbell, and perhaps others.

The man, Ennis Herrold, is believed to have been a relative of the present Herald family in Macon County. The family has never been able to agree on the correct spelling of the family name, some spelling it Herrell, some Herald, some Herold, with other spellings, Herrold. Harrell. Harold. Herrill. Harrold and Harroll. Ennis Herrold is* presumed to have come out of East Tennessee where the fam-*

(*rold is presumed to have come out *ers, ) John, Drewry and William Herrell, are said to have come to America from Scotland in the long, long ago, perhaps 250 years ago. From these three brothers most of the members of the family trace their descent. John Herrell had a son, Cador Herrell. We recall that "Cade" Herald lived in time of the Civil War on upper Peyton's Creek on the same farm now occupied by Harvey Kemp, some eight miles southeast of Lafayette.

The place of intersection with the Walton Road would most probably be somewhere in the vicinity of the present Chestnut Mound in the east part of Smith County.

(To be continued)

Transcriber note:

* the errors that occurred were mostly likely a typeset error.

Repeated sentence does not make sense, previous line ends with fam- which is probably part of the word family? The next line begins again with rold- the remainder of the last name Herrold and then it repeats the words "is presumed to have come out" and the next line begins with "ers" which I believe is the ending of the word brothers, in which the paragraph continues to discuss.