Dropped stitches in Tennessee historyAllison, John
History
Dropped stitches in Tennessee history
Allison, John
Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845 -- Homes and haunts -- Tennessee; Tennessee -- History
Seated together, a little farther back, were the two men who signed the
act ceding “the territory south of the Ohio” to the United States (19,
20); the Virginia statesman in whose honor, at the suggestion of Andrew
Jackson, a county was named, in recognition of his earnest advocacy
of the admission of Tennessee to the Union (21); the man who gave in
the Senate the casting vote which secured that admission (22); and the
commissioner who was sent by the Confederate government to effect the
withdrawal of Tennessee from the Union (23).
Chatting pleasantly together, in one corner of the hall, was a notable
group of women, comprising the wife of whom her husband left the
record that she was “a being so gentle and yet so virtuous, slander
might wound, but could not dishonor” (24); the only female for whom a
Tennessee county has ever been named (25); the pioneer maiden who, in
endeavoring to escape from Indians, fell into the arms of the soldier
who afterwards became her husband (26); and the beautiful Irish girl
who was the cause of the disruption of a President’s cabinet (27);
while near them “the Pocahontas of the West” (28) stood silently
listening.
A remarkable group was composed of the famous general whose name was
bestowed on the largest area ever embraced within the limits of a
single county (29); a nobleman whose ancestral name, in abbreviated
form, is borne by a Tennessee county (30); the explorer who named the
Cumberland mountains and river (31); the governor by whose misspelled
name a large part of Tennessee was known for many years (32); the
revolutionary soldier in whose honor the first settlement on the
Cumberland was called (33); and the famous explorer whose mysterious
death, within the limits of the county which now bears his name, has
never been satisfactorily explained (34).
A picturesque trio consisted of the leader of the first body of white
men who ever set foot on the soil of Tennessee (35); the first white
man who erected an edifice within its limits (36); and the nobleman
whose titular name was given to the first structure built therein by
English-speaking people (37).
Grouped modestly in the rear of the hall were several men whose dress
and accoutrements proclaimed them pioneers. There were the famous
“big-foot hunter” who lived in a hollow tree (38); the man whom the
Indians called the “fool warrior” on account of his reckless bravery
(39); the commander of a marvellous expedition by water, of which it
has been said that “it has no parallel in modern history” (40); the man
for whom the oldest town in the state was named (41); the first white
child born in Tennessee (42); the first white child born in Nashville
(43); and the bridegroom of the first marriage ceremony performed west
of the Cumberland mountains (44).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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