MR. EASTMAN--Dear Sir: In your paper of the 22d ult. and the 5th
inst., I observed arrangements making for the celebration of the semi-centennial
anniversary of Knoxville. I am the only man, whom I know to be alive, who
was living there when the lots were laid off. It would be a source of unmixed
pleasure to be present at the celebration, if my health and the weather permitted.
I could not conceive a higher gratification than to meet at the festive board the
children of those adventurous and worthy men who first settled Knoxville, and
who were the more endeared to me by the very perils incident to its settlement.
At the treaty of Holston, in 1791, there were no houses except shantees put up
for the occasion to hold government stores. Gen. JAMES WHITE lived in
the neighborhood, and had a block-house to guard his family. At the treaty of
Holston they used river water entirely, until TROOPER ARMSTRONG
discovered the spring to the right of the street leading from the Courthouse to
what is now called Hardscrabble. He, at the time, requested Gen. White,
in a jest, to let him have the lot, including the spring, when a town was laid
off; and when the town was laid off the General preserved the lot and made
him a deed to it. These facts were told me by Gen. White himself, for I was
not present at the treaty.
I left Philadelphia, with my goods, in December, 1791, and did not reach
Knoxville until about the 1st of February, 1792. I deposited my goods and kept
store in the house used by the Government at the treaty, though I believe the
treaty itself was made in the open air. At the time I reached Knoxville,
SAMUEL and NATHANIEL COWAN had goods there, JOHN CHISOLM
kept a house of entertainment; and a man named McLEMEE was living there.
These men, with their families, constituted the inhabitants of Knoxville when I
went there. Gov. BLOUNT lived on Barbary Hill, a knoll below College Hill,
and between it and the river. It was then approached from town by following
the meanders of the river. The principal settlements in the county were on
Beaver Creek. All the families lived in forts pretty much in those days ; and,
when the fields were cultivated, there was always a guard stationed around
them for protection. There was a fort at Campbell's Station, which was the
lowest settlement in East Tennessee. The next fort and settlement were at
BLACKBURN's, west of the Cumberland Mountains; the next at Fort Blount,
on the Cumberland River; the next was a fort at Bledsoe's Lick; and then the
French Lick, now Nashville.
The land on which Knoxville is built, belonged to Gen. WHITE. In February,
1792, Col. CHARLES McCLUNG surveyed the lots and laid off the town.
I do not recollect on what day of the month. It excited no particular interest
at the time. The whole town was then a thicket of brushwood and grape
vines, except a small portion in front of the river, where all the business was
done. There never was any regular public sale of lots; Gen. White sold
anybody a lot, who would settle on it and improve it for eight dollars; and in
this way, at this price, the lots were generally disposed of.
In the year 1793, the Creeks and Cherokees leagued together and raised an
army under old WATTS, a half breed, the head of the Cherokee nation, to
destroy the white settlements. There were said to have been 1500 men under
WATTS. DOUBLEHEAD was a mere subordinate under WATTS, though
his fame has been more lasting and wide spread, because of his vindictive
and ferocious character towards the whites, and his turbulence among his
own people. They marched as far as CAVET's, seven miles from Knoxville,
and made an attack upon his house. After resisting for some time the assaults
of the Indians, CAVET, his son, and a militia man, the only men in the block
house, capitulated under a promise that the family should be spared. After
they surrendered they were murdered, and the mother, two grown daughters,
and perhaps some small children, were brutally despoiled and butchered.
This massacre, though horrid and heart-rending, was the salvation of Knoxville
and the whole circumjacent country, for their force was powerful enough to
have over-run and depopulated the white settlements. The Creeks committed
the murder, against the wishes of the Cherokees -- a dispute arose among
them about it. WATTS refused to proceed farther, and the whole army of
savages was virtually disbanded, and they returned to their villages and
wigwams.
A child of CAVET's was not killed at the block house. It was taken prisoner-
two Creeks claimed it - they had their tomahawks drawn on each other,
when a third party, to quiet the rival claims, tomahawked the child. It was
thought for some years the child was living, but the Indians afterwards told
all the circumstances.
In 1793, the first Government troops were stationed in Knoxville under the
command of Capt. CARR; a revolutionary officer; his Lieutenant, RICKARD,
had him arrested a few months after their arrival, for drunkenness. CARR
was chagrined at the efforts of his Lieutenant to supplant him and resigned,
and RICKARD was promoted to CARR's office. They built their barrack
where ETHELRED WILLIAMS has since erected a brick house, opposite
the Court house. I believe the Convention of 1796 sat in it.
In 1793, Col. CHRISTY, who was commanding the United States troops at
Knoxville, died, and was buried with martial and Masonic honors on what
is now College Hill. It was a magnificent procession - by far the most
splendid funeral that had ever been witnessed in the Territory. In the same
year died TITUS OGDEN, a merchant, and paymaster to the troops and
of the Indian annuities, which Gov. BLOUNT was Superintendent of, to
the four tribes of Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws. I mention
the death and burial place of these two men, as I have been told, that in
digging the foundation for the College, two skeletons were exhumed, and
supposed to have been those of Indians buried there. They were no doubt
the bones of Col. CHRISTY and Titus OGDEN. I was at the burial of
both, and did not suppose that the graves of two men, so noted in their day,
and buried "with all the pomp and circumstance of war," would have been
so soon forgotten. Col. KING and myself were, at the time, and for several
years afterwards, commissaries for all the troops stationed in East Tennessee.
After the county had increased in population sufficiently to protect itself, in
a great measure, from the incursions of the Indians, it was kept in constant
alarm for some time by the depredations of the HARPs, two men who were
fugitives from their native State. They made a crop on Beaver Creek, and
furnished the butcher in Knoxville, old JOHN MILLER, for some months
with hogs, sheep, and cattle they had stolen from their neighbors. They
afterwards secreted themselves and made marauding expeditions against
the lives and property of the citizens. One of them had two wives, sisters
of the name of RICE. The first man they killed in Knox County was young
COFFEE, on Beaver Creek. JOHNSON was their next victim, murdered
within two miles of Knoxville. I had attempted to take them on several
occasions, and they killed BULLARD under the impression it was me. They
killed BRADBURY afterwards, who, I believe, was the father of Gen.
BRADBURY of the Senate. They left Knox County in 1797 or 8, and their
villainies made their subsequent history notorious.
I beg you to excuse the length of this letter - I can not think of those early
times without, in some degree, living them over again. I understand a
distinguished literary gentleman of your county is collecting materials to write
the early history of Tennessee. I hope he may not falter in an undertaking
where the materials are so rich and the fame so certain.
Very respectfully,
HUGH DUNLAP
