April 24, 1839 – July 10, 1863
Edited by Newton Haskin James
A THESIS
Submitted to the Faculty of
the University of Mississippi
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Master of Arts
in the Department of History
University, Mississippi
August, 1939
Olden Times in Tennessee
The Memphis & Arkansas Advocate
Messrs. Editors: Having been born in what is now called Middle Tennessee some fifty-three years since, or in Jan (ua) r (y), 1801, educated and brought up to the years of maturity or manhood among the early (sic) settleers (sic) by parents who were the first pioneers of that portion of Tennessee, and having passed through the different (sic) scenes and customs of bygone days to witness the various changes and improvements in the last half century — I may be able to give some of your numerous readers an interesting sketch of the customs, maxims, fashions, amusements, and avocations of those who lived in that day.
My father (Simeon Hinds) was born in North Carolina in the year ’69. My grandfather (Joseph Hinds), an Englishman, was one of those patriots who rebelled against the tyran (n) ical oppression of the mother country, and, being a man of property and influence (sic), was doomed to suffer the veng(e)ance of a foreign for and their treacherous and brutal associates (the Tories), by whom and through whom his barnes (sic) and grain was burned and destroyed, his property stolen and runn (sic) off,
and a riffle (sic) ball lodged in the wall of his house just over his head while sleeping under his own roofs. After the close of the war he was one of the delegates that drafted and adopted the first Constititution (sic) for the State of North Carolina. His name now stands recorded as one of the chosen delegates on that occasion, which may be found in the archieves (sic) of the State. He soon, however, emegrated (sic) to East Tennessee, Knox County, where with others he had to fort as a protiction (sic) from the barberous (sic) and brutal attacks of the Indian riffle (sic) tomahock (sic) and scalping knife.
My father mar(r)ied a Miss (Elizabeth) Stone and emegrated (sic) to what was then called West Tennessee (now Middle Tennessee), and settled in a portion of Jackson County. Since the new organiztion it is in the limits of Overton, which was then bounded by Wayne County, Kentuckey (sic), on the north. A new country, however, has been formed between Overton and the Kentuckey (sic) line called Fentress. My father’s location was in one mile of what was known as Jackson Old Court House, on Flat Creek, near its junction with Roaring River, a tributary of the Cumberland, 15 miles from the latter — a mountanious (sic) and healthey (sic) country abounding
with never failing limped (sic) bluff springs, some good valley land, and portions of fertile upland.. Some iron ore has since be found and a forge erected; salt petter (sic) caves were found in abundance and worked to profit by the fist settleers (sic) as a luxury, but a necessesary (sic) conveniance (sic) to many of the first emegrants (sic), and a source of entertaining enjoyment to those who were fond of hunting. The streams afforded fine mill seats. My father erected one with a 20-foot water wheel (overshot), and a cotten (sic) gin, the first in that portion of the country, and this without any such thing as press and screw, as cotten (sic) was only cultivated for home or domestic use, from 1/2 to 1 acre being an average crop to each farm, and that packed in bags or sheets on a horse or horses for 20 or thirty miles to the gin. The manner of picking cotten (sic) will be attended to more fully as I prosede (sic) with my nar(r)ative. Corn, wheat, rye, oats, hemp, flax, & potatoes where (sic) the principal products of the country, rice and indigo for domestic use, and sugar tree, or maple sugar & melasses (sic) was made to spercede (sic) the necessasary (sic) expense of havingto purchase sweet(e)ning. Rye, coffee, chocolate, sage, balm, & sassafras (sic) tea was quite a common beverage, the coffee now in use being used onley (sic) by the more wealthey
(sic) for breakfast on Sunday morning or when the occasion required something extra. A pound cake on those days would have been as strange a sight as an elephant nowadays. Yes, Messers. Editors, 45 of 50 years ago a table spread in Overton County on Roaring River, at the expense (sic) of some of the wealthiest planters in that day and country, eaqual (sic) to the luxurious tast(e) and extravagance of some of our most humble and destitute citizens in the presant (sic) day, would have created a scene of extravagance and wonder that would have astonished the natives. Horses, cattle, hogs, & sheep was raised with very littke expense, having fine range and a good outlet. The bear, panthers, wolves, and wild cats was prettey (sic) destructive to pigs, sheep, and claves; and the foxes, minks, & opposums (sic) to poultry; coons & squirrels to corn; crows and blackbirds mostley (sic) a great source of annoyance in taking up the young corn. Corn cultivated with barshare (sic) and shovel plows. New land broke with Coulters (sic) . Corn well hoed and hilled, planted in hills from, 2 1/2 to 4 feet apart, from th(r)ee to 5 or 6 stalks in a hill. Wooden singletree, hickory (sic) clevis, rope or rawhide traces (called tugs). No iron about the harnes, shuck (?) or bark coller (sic) . Rope or rawhide bridle and lines, sometimes hichery (sic) or leatherwood bark. Wheat cut with reap hooks, thrashed or tromped out. Corn halled
(sic) in by many, in a large slide or one-horse cart. In fact, the entire crop, wood, & house logs halled (sic) on a slide lizard or truck wheels. Sweet potatoes planted in hills, not from drawings as now, but by cutting the potatoe (sic) in two or three pieces, opening the top of the hill, dropping three pieces to each hill, sticking down and covering. Every frarmer of any note built a barn, by raising double log pens with a stable in each end pen, & between, a space sufficient for a threshin floor, where the small grain was beat out with flails & runn (sic) through a slit si(e)ve or riddle made for the pupose out of white oak splits, and the chaff blown away by a sheet being used with a hand at each end.
Roaring River
The fist settlers, after building a double log cabbin (sic) , kitchen, & loom house (both being the same in most cases and not unfrequently (sic) used as a smoke house also, with a dirt floor), and opening a small farm orchards were planted by almost every farmer, such as peach, apple, pear, and cherry, making it a plentiful fruit country, which served not only for food but was a great luxury and yielded to many a handsome profit, being converted into brandy & cider. Unfortunatley (sic) , many became habitual drinkers, and not a few confirmed drunkards. Still houses soon became numerous and whiskey and brandy plenty and with such el(e)ments, fueds
(sic), broils,, gameing (sic) , quarrels, and fights became so common, that it would have been remarkably strange to attend an election or muster without seeing some two or three, and not unfrequently (sic), half a dozen fights (not with deadley (sic) weapons, for in that day a man that would draw a weapon was stigmetized as a coward and kicked or hissed out of companey (sic) . They took it in the fistcuffs (sic) style, knock, kick, bite,, gogue (sic) scratch; and cases or murder or manslaughter was rare; and prosicutions (sic) for fighting thought to be mean and cowardly (sic). Sometimes an eye was pulled out; a ear, nose, or finger was bitten off; but this was a small matter in comparison to taking life. Pitched battles were fought, the parties going into a lot, or ring, with their seconds, and being strip(p)ed of all their garments but their pants, their hair trim(m)ed, greased or soaped, they fought untill (sic) one said “Enough” or “Take him away.” When they were parted, made friends if satisfied, if not, fought again some future day. Horse racing, foot racing, jumping, wrestleing (sic) shooting, pitching quaits (sic), fishing, hunting, swimming wer(e) the principal amusements of the males; & males & females, dancing and plays, &c.
Log rolling, corn husking, house raising, & reapings were frequentley (sic) accompaneyed (sic) by quilt-
ings, sowing, or spinnings, and a dance or frolick (sic) at night. Corn huskings were sometimes very exciting and wound up with one or two fights, the heap being divided by a pole, with two captains and an equal division of hands. There would be corn thrown in the crib unhusked, and sometimes thrown back among the shucks, or the pole moved, and then look out for a fight. Log Roolings (sic) sometimes ended in the same way. I was at one myself on Roaring River where the girls had attended a quilting, and a frolick (sic) was antisipated (sic), but a fight commenced betwe(e)n two young men, w(h)ich caused some three or four more, and broke up the dance. Cotten (sic) was picked by fingers, by having picking parties. The cotten (sic) was placed before the fire to dry, divided by captains, hands divided by throwing up cross or pile wet or dry, and the winner had first choice; and then for separating (sic) the lint from the seed, and some would be found in a crack, or in the jam, or behind the house next day, and sometimes on suspicion a young lady was searched and her boosom (sic) was found well stuffed with unpicked cotten (sic). After the close of dance or a play and selling of ponds (pawns) would take place, and all would pass off in high glee.
Reapings were not so exciting, being very laborious, but whiskey and brandy was not forgotten. And sometimes
the girls would meet on such occasions and pull the flax, and then at night a dance, but public balls or parties was not known. Churches was a strange thing; meeting houses and school houses were the only known places for preaching, except private houses,, which were used frequentley (sic) in that way. The Presbytereans (sic) and Baptist being the most numerious (sic), but the Methodist soon took a start, and then the Cumberlands, and Unitarians (alias Christians, alias Schismaticks (sic), alias Stoneites (sic), and then the Cam(p)bellites, &c. The first camp meeting I ever attended was near Old Monroe, the former seat of justice in Overton County (Livingston being the presant (sic). This was, I think, in 1818. Therre [sic] were several conversions; I had a sister among the number. A Methodist preacher was in my estimation a strange kind of a being at one time. And when preaching and revivals began to spread the jerks became very prevelant (sic) in Overton, and when a boy I have witnessed persons exercised with the jerks frequently (sic), not onley (sic) at meeting but on visiting a neighbour, and it would seem as if they would throw their necks out of joing, fall over chairs, benches, &c. — or some would have the dancing exercise. This was strange to me, and is to this day. In 1811 or ’12, on Sunday night, we had a hard shake, causeing (sic) the earth to reel to & fro, with so much violence that the bricks were thrown from the tops
of chimneys, chickens from their roosts, and in some places large rents made in the earth. Monday morning we had another light shock, and such a gloomey (sic) looking morning I do not remember ever to have witnessed. People assembled in groups, and neighbors visited neighbors, to talk fo the strange phenomina (sic) and the probable end of world. We have some other shocks. Preaching, singing, praying, Bapiteseing (sic), & religious exercises were in high repute; the drunkard forsook his bottle; the swearer, the gambler, the Sabbath breaker, & the cold-hearted professors were either penitent or wending their way to the meeting house to hear what the preacher would say about the impending storm which they supposed near at hand. ?any were added to the church; some done well; others went back. Men are very brave while danger is at a distance, as they think, but le it starr (sic) them in the face, and they quake Beltishazer (sic) like. Remember the shaking earth and the falling starrs (sic)?
Roaring River
Almost every farmer tanned his own hides, and made or had the leather made into shoes, males and females wearing home-manufactured shoes on almost every occasion. For Sunday shoes, they were of the thin(n)est leather and lined with cloth and bound with calf or deer skin. Shoes were seldom worn at home by either sex in
the summer, and it was no uncommon thing to see males and females at preaching bare-footed, and the males in their shirt sleeves. The women would sometimes walk to meeting from two to four miles with their shoes and stocking in their hand or tied up in a handkerchief, and just before going up to the place of worship sit down on a log, brush their feet, and put on their shoes and stocking(s). Those who could afford fine morocco shoes would walk in their course (coarse) shoes near the meeting house, and then place them under an old log, and put on their morroco (sic) until their return, and then for their old shoes; and by this means a pair of morocco shoes would last some four or five years.
Some would ride where horses could be had that was not worked down, and then two and three would be seen on one horse, viz., a man and his wife and child, a brother with his sister behind him, or two sisters, or a beau with his sweetheart (this was very common). In this way they would ride double ten or fifteen miles. The males’ dress in winter was linsey woolsey (sic), janes, or double wove (sic) woollen (sic) pants, and vest and hunting shirt & coat of the same, cotten (sic) shirt, woollen (sic) stockings, corse (sic) home made shoes, a woollen (sic) net comfort around the neck and over the breast, and drawers was not worn at any time. Some would wear buck skin pants or briches (sic), summer
and winter, and in the winter, hunting shirt, vest, and leggings of the same.
Princiapl [sic] summer wear: stiped, checked, or copras (sic) cotten (sic) cloth, or flax and tow, the finer for Sunday, and course (sic) to work in; briches (sic) (pants) cut as tight as they could be got into, leaving a split of four to six inches open at the ancle (sic) to admit the foot to pass, with broad flaps from hip to hip in front. This was by and bay made to button up and after further improvement pants were as large at the angle as a common bee gum; the tights worn without gallassas (sic) (suspenders) and the socks with; broad tail coats, and sharp tail coats that came down to the hams, sharp-toed shoes, and then round, and then square. Some old men and dandies wore short briches (sic) that buckeled (sic) around the knee, long stockings, long fair top boots, with a silk tassle (sic) in front; cambric shirts worn by some with a broad ruffle boosom (sic); moccosins (sic) worn by many in the summer; wool hats, after a while tip(p)ed or knaped (napped) with coon or fox furs, and some even made of all fur; striped cotten (sic) neck handkerchiefs, then cambrick (sic), &c., but comforts most common in the winter.
Female attire: for winter & summer, petticoats and short gowns made of wool or cotten (sic), striped or checked. The petticoat was made to meet tight around
the waist and button. The short gound (gown) was made separate (sic) to fit the body, sholders, arms, & c., and buttoned on like a short coat or round jacket so as to come just low enough to cover the waist band of the petticoat. The under dress was a cotten (sic) shift (shema (shimmy/), cotten (sic) checked apron, and bonnet of the same, with splits. After a while females wore frocks all of a piece, i.e., the skirt and boddy (sic) sowed (sic) together. Four yards in a dress of homespun cloth, or six yards of calico, with open boosom (sic) and a cape of the same kind of cloth, and a n under coat or skirt, shift, &c. (shema); but a loady with a six-yard calico dress, bobonet (sic) cape, cotten (sic) stockings, morocco shoes, straw bonnet or fir (fur) cap, &c., was looked on as being elegantley (sic) dressed, and then a waist band with a large brass buckel (sic), a brass ring or two on the fingers, and in the ears, and they were quite grand. A cambrick (sic) or silk dress was almost superfleous (sic), and only to (be) worn by the bon ton of society.
Grass skirts, hoops, stays, corsetts (sic), whale bone, false sleeves, bussles (sic), tuneoes (tournures), and the cart load of skirts & jackets and other tomfoolery since worn by females to improve their shapes would have been to those ladies as great a sight as the orange-o(u)tang.
There were no snuff eaters; some old gentlemen and ladies would snuff it up their nose. But little time spent in novell (sic) reading, or before the glass. A young mar(r)ied lady with a small family would do all the washing, cooking, and other house work, and clothe the family, and not unfrequentley (sic) sell cloth or socks enough to buy her Sunday dress, or her sugar & coffee, or some other article for family use, such as a cap or coat for the baby, &c. Young ladies would spin from four to 12 cuts p(e)r day, weave from 4 to 12 yards, and frequentley (sic) attend to other matters such as making up beds, sweaping (sic) the house, milking the cows, &c. Old ladies would knit, sow (sic), spin on the flax wheel, churn, make the cheese, dye the yarn, attend to the cooking, making soap, rending the lard, attending to the poultry, &c.; and with the assistance of the girls everything was done about the house, and the family comfortably clad without any expense to the man. He furnished the tools, the shelter, the supplies in a crude state, and it was manufactured in due time and in abundance. The boys worked with and obeyed the parents, until they were 21, and thought it no hardship. If they went sparking (courting) in the week, it was at night after the day’s work was done, and then they must wait on their sweetheart (un)til her day’s work was done, which was not unfrequentley (sic) nine or ten o’clock. And they done their courting whilst
the family were sleeping, and either went home the same night or by sunrise in the morning. There was no lounging about until breakfast except on Sunday morning. If cought out (un)til Monday morning, they were home by daylighr, and thus matches were made without any loss of time.
Roaring River
Love speeches were made in the night when all the buisey (sic) moise of the day was hushed into silence, and the family were (except the lovers) all taking sweet repose; or on some occasions, matches were made on the way to or from meeting, or at a frolick (sic), or cotten (sic) picking, but divorces were few and fare (sic) betwe(e)n. The young married couple commenced the world with a small pittance, say in most cases one horse, one cow & calf, one feather bed, one sow, and not exceeding 15 or 20$ worth of furniture all told, and indeed the most of earley (sic) settlers had but little of value in their houses, except wearing apparrel (sic) of home manafacture (sic), bedding, bed clothing, &c. Bedsteads were on the cheap order; and frequentley (sic) nothing but a scaffleboard (sic) shelves, or corner (sic) cupboard made of board to hold the dishes, which were either made of wood (wooden trenchers) or puter (sic), puter (sic) spoons, puter (sic) dishes large enough tohold a turkey or shoate (sic), puter (sic) basons (sic) to
hold the milk in, tin cups, or wooden bowls. And by and by they got to manafactureing (sic) earthenware, such as crocks or irns (sic), tugs (?) plates, bowls, pitchers, &c., and finally to queen’s ware, chine (sic) & glass. This was, however, in the days (of) broadcloth, silk, ribbon, lace, &c. After pedlers began to take the place of thinkers, pride got the assendancy (sic) of trenchers and puter (sic) plates; and tinkers with their moulds soon found the moulding of old puter (sic) on the shares a lean business (sic). Buttons were made by many families by moulding puter (sic) or gourd moulds were cut and covered. Horne (sic) moulds soon superseeded (sic) the gourd, and mettle (sic) buttons the puter (sic). Almost every family had a chest they could lock. Chairs were of rude construction with skin or bark bottoms; stools & benches were common; the table made of boards or planks sawed by hand, but I’ll let you know the eating was not bad. Light bread, milk, butter, cheese, poratoes, mutton, beef, pig, turkey (for wild turkeys were plenty), venison, veal, eggs, chicken pie (a favourite and common dish), and after a time, peach pie, apple dumplin(g)s, tarts, milk and peaches, and vegetables of every kind, cooked dunn (sic) and seasoned well, and served up by hail (sic), bounding, laughing, sprightley (sic) females, whoes (sic) pleasant conversation and cheerful countenances would give a relish or zest to the whole feast.
And as (for) physick (sic), or physicians, the horses needed more physick (sic) than the citizens, and doctors were scarcley (sic) known, except horse doctors, witch doctors, and old lady midwives. The people (some, at least) beleived (sic) in witches, and there were some strange occurrances (sic). But I never saw a physician except one or two, until I was 21 years old, and never took a dose of medicine except some Indian physick (sic) until I was 23 years old, and that was in South Alabama; and if I ever saw a case of fever or chills and fever duraing (sic) that time, I do not now recollect it, and my father raised 5 sons and 6 daughters on Roaring & Cumberland Rivers. They had ague and perhaps some fevers, but out on the hills sickness was rare. There was no swamps, lakes, stagnated water, and the branches, creeks, and rivers were all showley (shoaly) with rock or gravelly bottoms and considerable falls, which caused the water to runn (sic) off with rapidity. The banks or cliff which generally bound it on one side, and not unfrequentley (sic) on both, and to the heighth (sic) of some two or three hundred feet, being a perpendicular wall of solid rock, or sometimes jutting over the bed of the river, with a cedar or spruice (sic) pine standing on a large flat rock covered with earth and placed on the top of the precipice as if designed by nature for some grand object, made it to a passer-by a
picturesque scene of beauty and grandeur. And the echoes of the waterfalls and rushing tor(r)ents confined and precipitated over shoals and rocks closed in by cliffs or high banks on Roaring River will at once strike the mind of the beholder with the appropriateness of its name. Cliffs close in only on one side in many places, and the river dashes its foaming billows against the rugged rocks, and then bend(s) its course in another direction and strike with fury another cliff on the opposit(e) shore, and then again turn its course and meet with like resistance, whilst in each bend it is confined onley (sic) by steep banks, and there dwells some family who is stilling the rich soil. And in many of those bends there was in the days of yore a still house, peach, apple, and sugar orchard, and hogs, horses, cattle, and sheep in abundance, and corn cheap and plenty, and a farm in every bend, which was not a few. The settlers, however, were not so refined and civle (sic) as those on the planes (sic). And by this time the reader has no doubt made up his mind that all were semi-barbarians. Be it as it may, some of them have been honoured, and some of their children are still being honoured with high places in society, and as public servants by those who have witnessed a more improved state of fashionable society. You will reccollect (sic): A. Huntaman, Hop & Sam(ue)l Turneys, Marchbanks and Tolton (fathers to the new judges of the same name), Williams, Chisolm, Severe (sic), Matthews’s (sic), Gardenhires, Williards, Officers McRoberts, McConnells, Mitchels, Bates, Crawford, Copland, Killions, Hinds, Masters, Forbus, Dillingham, Fisk, Goodpaster, Hendricks, Bowens, Harris, Quarrels, armstrongs, &c. I will not trouble your readerswith names known only to a few, but will now say that I am conversant with sons and daughters raised up by parents who were among the puter (sic) plate,, puter (sic) spoon, & tin cup gentry, and whose (sic) mothers and grandmothers wore petticoats that buttoned around the waistand no other under nor over garment, but a cotton shift (Shemy (shimmy)), without shoes or stockings, but in most cases the short gound (gown) accompaneyed (sic) the petticoat. And some of their children and grandchildren now look on persons who are equally as well or better clad with contempt, and such society they would scorn in the presant (sic) state of refinement, and such occupations as they wer employed in would be degrading & revolting to the now rising generation, even in Overton County, Tennessee, on Roaring River, Obeys River, Mill Creek, Spring Creek, Morrison’s Creek, Flat, or Hopper’s Creek.
Roaring River
In my former communications, I have endeavoured to show to your readers the crude state of society in Overton County, Ten(nessee), 40 or 50 years ago, their
habits, customs, fashions, &c. In my presant (sic) communication I propose to examine some of the improvements since, and one of the most important, that of education and religious worship, and then to contrast the presants (sic) citizens with the pioneers of the country, and see if we can arrive at anything like a correct conclusion as to which were the happiest people.
Among all grades, and in all states of society, mankind are prone to runn (sic) into extremes. Amongst the first settlers of Middle Tennessee, there were to be found many differant (sic) traits of character, but the greater portion were poor, industrious, frugal, social, hospitable, and even benevolent. If a neighbour [sic] needed help he onley (sic) had to make it known. But their unbounded hospitality and universal sociability led them into some fatal errors, and their children into bad habits and ruinous associations, such as dram drinking, gameing (sic), fighting, &c., and demoralizing associations among the sexes. There was a great lack of moral and religious training on the part of parents; in fact, until Sabbath Schools were introduced, there was a total neglect with many. The education of children was very meager and superficial, being confined mostley (sic) to boys, and the rudiments of spelling, reading, writing, and arithmatick (sic), onley (sic) taught then. English grammer (sic), geography, history,
and the higher branches were seldom taught at a country school, and girls never, or very seldomattained [sic] to any knowledge of figures. But in latter days they have greatley (sic) improved, and lawyers, doctors, statesmen, judges, and ministers have been the result. The improvement in morals have (not) kept pace with the mental improvements, and idleness, vanity, pride, and fashion has found conveniant (sic) food, as the people became prosperous and their means accumulated. The great necessety (sic) for labour and toil seased (sic) to exist; consequentley (sic), there are more idlers, more pride, more fashion, more extravagance, less sociability and hospitality, and more envy. Marriages are more a matter of speculation & less mutual affection among parents and children, husbands and wives. Whilst they have improved in manners, improved in looks (artificially, by outward adorning) and in mental cultivation, increased in wealth and domestic comforts, they have lost
much of that simplisity (sic), hospitality, sociability, moral candour, and openness that characterized our fathers, brothers, and sisters. Artificial husbands and wives were not in demand, parties were seldom dissappointed (sic), and attachments were more mutual. But takeing (sic) into consideration the rising & future generations, the advancement in morals, the advantages among all classes for mental improv(e)ment, the improved
state of society, and the encouragement to religious associations, I am indused (sic) to think that the future prospects and noral condition of the present and rising generation in that portion of Tennessee will greatley (sic) enhance their prospects for immortality and eternal life, and their comforts, conveniences, and facilities for living have been improved. But I doubt very much whether their social enjoyments and domestic happiness have kept pace with their fashionable improvements and other accumulations. There is not much wealth in that section of country, but a sufficiency to pamper pride and encourage idleness and extravigances (sic), which is calculated to beget selfishness and a wrestless (sic) disquitetude which is detremental (sic) to social and domestic happiness; and besides, idle habits engender irregularities that are anything else than conducive to health, and that, together with the fashionable change in dress, diet, &c., has produced ill health, disease, and fatality not known 40 years ago. This I look on as the natural result which does and will ever follow idleness and irregularities, and if an evil, a necessesary (sic) one, was mankind permit(t)ed to bask in the sunshine (sic) of plentious [sic] prosperity, unmolested by afflictions of any kind, they would soon forget their obligations to one another, their dependance (sic) and responsibility to God; and
and (sic) their great abundant prosper(i)ty would prove to them a curse instead of blessing; consequentley (sic), afflictions have a tendancy (sic) to make us humble, and should be regarded as blessing in disquise. [sic]
And now to sum up the whole catalogue, I would remark that our fathers with their children in the first settlements of Tennessee enjoyed the pleasures afforded in this life with a zest fare catalogue superior to that enjoyed by the presant (sic) inhabitants, with all their comforts, convaniences (sic), and tast(e)ful improvements, and saveing (sic) their lack of facilities for religious improvements, and religious privaleges (sic) and enjoyment, future prospects for heaven and eternal happiness their condition would have been the most enviable. But though much tribulation, anxiety, and affliction, theor [sic] descendants have greatley (sic) the advantage in point of moral and mental improvement, and with the restraints thrown around them by the rod of affliction and the improved moral code of laws they now are governed by, their prospect of future and eternal happiness in another mode of existance (sic) is greatley (sic) enhanced. If ever I enjoyed life destitute of religion, it was in my youthful days in Overton County, Ten(nessee), and aside from religious enjoyment, those were the happiest days of my life, and the onley
(sic) remorse brought to my mind in the reflection of the past is that of misspent and misimproved (sic) time. I was earley (sic) taught, and sensibly impressed, with the truths of divine revelation and importance of religion; and notwithstanding the crude state of society then existing in Ten(nessee), religion was taught and practiced by many, but owing to the cold, formal man(n)er in which it was presented by some and the doubting hope-so kind of faith embraced by others, and the total denial of the witness of the spirit by those who called themselves Christians, and the fatherley (sic) advise (sic) of old veterans in the cause to wait God’s good time and pleasure, I was caused to hesitate and even doubt the tangability (sic) of an experamental (sic) knowledge of sins forgiven in this life, and at one time, had set myself down as one of the reprobates, and consequentley (sic) became more hardened in sin.
Roaring River
A favourite copy with one of my teachers was this: “Evil Communications Corrupt Good Manners,” and I have long since realized the truth contained in said copy, and I have learned many useful and important lessons that might prove useful to the young if they would reflect and practise [sic] in referance (sic) to time and eternity.
Pride and idleness are the precursors of many evil practices which are not unfrequentley (sic) visited by sore afflictions of body and mind, which, by divine grace, lead men to repentance. But some venture out into the stream of wild disopation (sic), and are drawn into the rapids ere they are aware of the danger, and are swiftley (sic) drawn by the whirlpool, and precipitatley (sic) engulphed (sic) in the dark abyss of eternal night, heedless of the timeley (sic) warning of friends, or the correcting rod of afflictions.
The days of riding double on horseback, and on pack saddles and and [sic] cruppered saddles, with iron stirrups, or walking with shoes in hand, in a full suit of home manufacterey (sic), cut and fitted so as to develop the beauties of nature without so deforming the noblest creature of God, as practised in latter days, have long since passed away in Overton; and it is considered exceedingley (sic) vulgar not onley (sic) to practice former customs but to speak of them in the language used by our parents; and the change of fashion have been commensurate with the change in circumstances; and the customs, maxims, manners, fashions, and domestic economy peculiar to the first settleers (sic) are almost forgotten. Comfortable dwellings have been reared; churches and school houses built; Sabbath Schools introduced; children are educated according to the cus-
toms & fashions of the age in which they live. What is lost in personal be(a)uty and sym(m)etry by nature is tried to be remedied by art and the deformity and ill health entailed by fashionable attire. Idleness and dissipation are tried to be remided (sic) by the use of physick (sic), hence doctors are no strong beings; and the toilett (sic) & mirror, paint and perfumary (sic), are as familiar to the ladies now as the spinning wheel and battleing (sic) stick was to our mothers in the days of yore; and boys at 15 speak of their plans and future arrang(e)ments, smole [sic], drink, chew, swear, carry pistols, &c., call their fathers “the old man,” and mother, “the old woman,” and Mayor Jones, “Old Jones,” Captain Wilson, “Old Wilson”; labour they think ungenteel {sic], and onley (sic) suitable for the poor, or old men and negroes; at 18 they want to marry; before they are 20 they set up for themselves or contrac debts on their father’s account, and runn (sic) into dissipation and contract idle habits and irregularities which disqualify them for the social duties of life; and if they marry now, it is onley (sic) a matter of convenience, and dollars and cents has more to do in fitting them out with a wife than pure affection, for they have become almost callous to all that is virtuous and loveley (sic). And the domestic fireside will become cheerless, and where happiness was
want to reign, thier (sic) will be strife, and all the evils that follow such alliances.
This is not the case with all, and perhaps applies to fewer young people in Overton County, Ten(nessee), than in many other portions of the state, and take some portions of Miss., and the half has not been told. But having been raised in Ten(nessee), grown with Ten(nessee), witnessed the various extremes in fashion, customs, amusements, &c., I am satisfied that there does not exist that equality and uniform sociability, old-fashioned hospitality, and frank, generous open-heartedness that characterized the first settlers (sic) [sic], and as fare (sic) as the real enjoyments of the present (sic) life is concerned (sic), taking into consideration health and domestic happiness and all that pertain to this life, they undoubtedly in their crude state of society enjoyed life and all its attendant blessings more fully than the now riseing (sic) generation, with its improved facilities.
APPENDIX B
An Incomplete Genealogy of the Hinds Family
Since the American Revolution^1
Joseph Hinds
Joseph Hinds of North Carolina, the ancestor of our family lived in North Carolina during most of his life, but moved to Knox County, Tenn. about 1790. The dates and places of his birth, death, and marriage are not known. From various records it appears that he died in Knox County about 18;2 [sic], and was born about 1725. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention which met at Halifax N. C. Nov. 12, 1776, representing Guildord County [Guilford County]. He was owner of large tracts of lands in Knox County and in Maury County, Tenn., obtained partly by grant and partly by purchase. He lived for seven years in a block house in Knox County, and was from time to time engaged in fighting the Indians. He married a Miss Grider.
I have not been able to get a list of his children with certainty. I give the list below as I have it,
^1 This is an exact duplicate of a copy furnished the editor by the Cossitt library of Memphis, Tennessee. but there in uncertainty about some of them, especially the last three:
Children of Joseph Hinds:
- Simeon, born Aug. 11, 1769, in North Carolina; married in Knox County in 1796 to Elizabeth Stone, daughter of John Stone. Elizabeth Stone was born June 18, 1773. She had brothers Enoch Stone in North Carolina and John Stone in Indiana, and James Stone in Tennessee. He died in Overton County, Tenn., Dec. 13, 1840
- A daughter, married Iredelle Stone
- Abby, married Joseph Bond
- Levy, married in Washington County, VA
- John, lived in Knox County, Tennessee
- Joseph, lived in Kentucky
- Daughter, lived in Knox County
- Samuel ?
- William ?
- Asa ?
Simeon Hinds
Simeon Hinds, son of Joseph Hinds, was born in North Carolina April 11, 1769, and died in Overton County, Tenn. Dec. 13, 1840/ He moved with his father to Knox County, Tenn. where he was shot in the knee by an Indian. Soon after his marriage (see above) he moved to Overton County and settled on a farm on Flat Creek, near Hilham. Though a cripple from the wound in his knee, he was for several years captain of the militia. He had a family of eleven children, six girls and five boys.
Children of Simeon Hinds:
- Anne, or Nancy, born July 5, 1797, died She was married to Weaver.
- Mary, or Polly, born in Overton County, Dec. 9, 1798, died She was married to Stirling Harris.
- Josiah, born Jan. 30, 1801, died May 6, 1864, was married first to Sophie Moore who was born in 1806 and died Feb. 1, 1859. He was married second to Mary Hardy in 1859.
Johnson who was born in 1813 and died ? - Susannah, born Aug. 15, 1802, died Aug 16, 1875 was married to Davis Masters who was born May 10, 1796 and died Nov. 23, 1882
- Claiborne, born Aug. 8, 1804, died [?] was married to Goodpasture who was born [?] and died (write W. C. Hinds & Sons, Guntown, Miss)
- Elizabeth, born Feb. 6, 1807 died [?] Married Laughlin who was born [?] and died [?]
- John Hinds, (my father) born Oct. 1, 1809, died July 26, 1802 [must be 1902]. Was married May 22, 1841 to Rhoda Webb, who was born in N.C. April 1, 1817 and died at Muskogee, Okla. June 10, 1905.
- Sarah, born Aug. 31, 1811, died July 12, 1881, was married May 10, 1832, to T. Sherrill Anderson, who was born Nov. 23, 1811, and died May 18, 1854.
- James Clinton born Sept. 11, 1815, died Married [?] to [?] who was born
- Caroline, born April 25, 1816, died [?] married Pharris
- Simeon, born Mar. 29, 1818, died Aug. 10, 1892, married last, on April 16, 1843 to Margaret Gardenshire, who was born Nov. 21, 1822, and died Aug. 26, 1854. 2nd to Mary Masters, Jan. 5, 1856, who was born Dec. 23, 1831, died Feb. 1, 1907.
FAMILY OF JOSIAH HINDS M.D.
HERNANDO, MISS.
Josiah Hinds, son of Simeon Hinds of Overton County, Tenn. was born Dec. 30, 1801, and died May 6, 1864 at his home in Mississippi. He was buried at Hinds Chapel, a Methodist Church near his home. His first wife was Sophie Moore who was born at Middle, Tenn. in 1808, and died at the home Feb. 1, 1859. She is buried at Hinds Chapel.
Dr. Hinds was educated [?] and took the medical course at [?]. He moved to Mississippi in 1846.
He was an active member of the Methodist Church, was a physician of note and had an influential place in the community in which he lived. His second wife was Mary Hardy, who was born in 1813 at [?] and died [?].
Children of Dr. Josiah Hinds:
- Frances E. was born Aug. 23, 1827, at Selma, Ala. and died at [?] in 1891. She was married in Memphis, Tenn. to Piercy who was born [?] and died (see William Piercy, RFD #1 Memphis, Tenn.) She is buried at Hinds Chapel.
- Martha Caroline was born at Selma, Ala., Oct. 30, 1829 and died at Selma, Ala. Sept. 4, 1846. She was not married.
- Washington LaFayette was born at Selma, Ala. July 6, 1832 and died at Hernando, July 1, 1857. He was not married. he is buried at Hinds Chapel.
- Lucy Annie, born at Selma, Ala., Nov. 13, 1834, died at Hernando, Miss. Nov. 7, 1857. She was married to Jessie Johnston.
- Orlabdo Livingston, born at Jiles, [Giles] Tenn. Feb. 3, 1837, died at Jiles, Tenn., July 15, 1837.
- Josiah Livingston, born at Jiles, Tenn. Sept. 17, 1838, died at Hernando, Miss. Oct. 22, 1900. Married Frances Murrah, who was born July 29, 1839 and died Oct. 27, 1918. She is buried at Hinds Chapel. He was a physician, educated at Memphis, Tenn. He lived at Hernando, Miss. and is buried there at Hinds Chapel. He was a prisoner of war, served in the medical department until the close of war at Point Lookout. Afterwards was specialist on Pneumonia.
- James Orlando, born in Selma, Ala. April 18, 1841, died at [?] Oct. 3, 1847.
- Alonzo Fletcher, born Oct. 23, 1843, died Oct. 24, 1847.
- Mary Spicer Virginia, born March 27, 18 (paper says 1864 which must be wrong)
Died at Memphis, Tenn. May 17, 1917.
She was married to James R. Cotton who was born [?] and died [?]
She is buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Tenn. - Mariah Catherine, born in Selma, Ala., Oct. 10, 1848, died at Selma, Ala., in 1844 [death year must be wrong. maybe 1944]. She was married NO to who was born [?] and died [?].
(My grandfather had a family Bible with all of his records in it; some member of the family has it. As soon as I can find it, I can give you more information. R. H. H.)
Family of LUCY ANNIE HINDS
(If she was married; give husband and children)
She was married to Jessie Johnston, Batesville, Ark.
Children:-
- Stephen Johnston, Batesville, Ark.
- Fannie Johnston
FAMILY OF JOSIAH L. HINDS M.D.
- Annie Elizabeth, born [?] 1860, died July 4, 1898
Buried at Hinds Chapel
Married to Oscar Seckt who, was born [?] and died [?] he is still living; address R.F.D. #4, Memphis, Tenn. [R.F.D. stands for Rural Free Delivery] - Carrie P. born Feb. 24, 1862, still living
Married to Henry Baxter who was born May 9, 1851 and died (Still living) Address Memphis, Tenn. R.F.D. #1, Box 24 - Sallie Virginia, born [?] 1864, died July 4, 1897, buried at Hinds Chapel
Married to W. S. LaGrill
Who was born [?] and died [?]
Still living, address Lake Cormorant, Miss.
Write Mrs. D. E. Wilson, Nexbitt, Miss. - Fannie M. born 1866, died 1869. Buried at Hinds Chapel
- Joseph Karr, born Nov. 1, 1869, married to Ella May Crouch, Jan. 17, 1903 who was born May 17, 1883 Residences Post offices – Overton Park Ave. Memphis Business meat market
FAMILY OF FRANCES E. HINDS PIERCY
DAUGHTER OF JOSIAH HINDS
- William Piercy, address, R.F.D. 1, Memphis, Tenn.
Norris Ave. - Lillian Piercy
FAMILY OF WASHINGTON LAFAYETTE HINDS
(If he was was [sic] married give his children)
He was not married.
FAMILY OF MARY SPICER V. HINDS COTTON,
DAUGHTER OF JOSIAH HINDS
- Arthur Cotton, Address, Roth Produce Co., Memphis, Tenn.
- Clarence Cotton, Los Angeles, Calif.
- Gladys Mason, born May 31, 1899 Married ? NO.
- Joseph Livingston, born Sept. 16, 1901
- Francis Johnson, born March 6, 1904
- Virginia Leon, born July 23, 1906, died July 31, 1906; buried at Hinds Chapel
- Wilbur Harris, born April 4, 1909
- Leonard Louis, born Sept. 7, 1912
FAMILY OF B. C. HINDS, BORN Oct. 1, 1880
(Can this be the E. P. Hinds No. 8, of the family of Robert Harris Hinds? If not, whose son was he?)
He was the son of Josiah L. Hinds, M.D.
- Milbur, born Dec. 14, 1900
- John Murray, born Nov. 4, 1903
I should like to have the place of residence and occupation, of all so far as you can give it, also the present post office address of those that are living. Any interesting items of history will be very acceptable. Place of death and burial are items of great importance.
(There is a S. B. Hinds at Tupelo, Miss., who may be related to the family.)
R. H. H.
NOTES: This excerpt is from my 5th great grandfather’s journal. His granddaughter, Mary Frances Piercy Nichols, wrote a diary for her daughter, my aunt. You can read the diary here.