Thomas Sharp Spencer
Thomas Sharp Spencer came next as an
adventurer into the Cumberland Valley. Having heard from his
neighbors, Mansker and Bledsoe, of the rich lands and abundance
of big game throughout this region he came over from his home in
Virginia in the spring of 1776. Besides other companions he
brought with him a man named Holliday, and together they fixed a
station at Bledsoe's Lick, probably having been directed hither
by Isaac Bledsoe, who had discovered it several years before.
During the summer following, Spencer and Holliday hunted over
and explored the country for many miles around. In the bottom
adjoining Bledsoe's Lick they cleared a few acres of land which
they planted in corn. This they cultivated and gathered in
autumn, thus being the first crop of grain raised in Middle
Tennessee.
Later on Holliday became dissatisfied and decided to return to
Virginia. Spencer accompanied him to the Barrens of Kentucky,
near where Glasgow now stands, and through which in those days
there ran a trail leading back across the mountains. When they
had bidden each other adieu and were about to separate, Holliday
discovered that he had lost his hunting knife, whereupon Spencer
broke his own knife in two and gave half of it to his departing
comrade. The latter was never heard from thereafter and it is
supposed he was killed by the Indians on his journey homeward.
Spencer returned to Bledsoe's Lick and spent the winter alone in
a hollow sycamore tree which stood in the bottom near the
present site of the post office at Castalian Springs. This tree
perished many years ago, but so long as it stood it was called
by the settlers ''Spencer's House." Sometime after the events
above mentioned Spencer went back to Virginia, his native State,
but returned to the Cumberland country in 1780.
During the time of his residence in the sycamore tree he
explored the country side from Bledsoe's Lick to the mouth of
Red River, near Clarksville, always keeping a sharp lookout for
choice tracts of land to which, in the future, he might lay
claim. Because of a false impression as to the provisions of the
pre-emption law under which he was laboring, he supposed that by
clearing a few acres and building a cabin on each section of 640
acres an individual would thus be able to possess himself of as
much land as he might desire. In pursuance of this idea he
selected for himself four fine tracts in Sumner County. Three of
these were in the region around Castalian Springs, and the
fourth was near Gallatin, it being the same as that subsequently
owned by General Miller.
Spencer's Tree
In 1781 the State of North Carolina, to
which the territory embracing Middle Tennessee at that time
belonged, defined by enactment its pre-emption law, which
allowed only one section to each head of a family or single man
who had reached the age of twenty-one. Spencer was thereby
forced to make a choice of the four tracts previously staked
off, and he accordingly selected the one near Gallatin. This
splendid body of land has ever since been known as "Spencer's
Choice." It bounds the corporate limits of the town on the
south, and comprises the land now occupied by the heirs of the
late Capt. J. B. Howison, together with the farm just south of
it, the latter the property of Mrs. John H. Oldham, and a part
of the farm owned by Mr. R. P. Hite.
The description of this tract, when granted to Spencer, called
for natural boundaries which were supposed to embrace a section,
but when an actual survey was made many years later it was found
to contain about eight hundred acres. The records on file in the
Register's office of Sumner County show that on August 17, 1793,
Thomas Spencer conveyed to Stephen Cantrell two hundred acres of
the above tract, the consideration being ''two hundred hard
dollars." The remainder of the tract was inherited by William
Spencer, brother of Thomas Spencer, at the latter's death.
Spencer was a man of great physical strength, a giant in his
day, well proportioned, broad shouldered, huge in body and limb,
and weighing nearly four hundred pounds. His traditional feats
of strength were numerous. On one occasion, shortly after the
beginning of the settlement at Nashville, he was hunting with a
fellow sportsman on Duck River in what is now Humphries County.
As evening came on they sought a secluded spot where they might
build a fire, cook a deer they had killed, and camp for the
night. While they were preparing the meal a skulking party of
Indians espied them, and creeping up to within range of the camp
fired at them, killing Spencer's companion. Spencer, who was
unharmed, gathered up the dead body and gun of his fellow hunter
and with the added weight of his own arms and ammunition dashed
into the thick cane and was soon beyond the reach of danger. The
Indians, seeing his great strength and activity, and knowing
that he had with him two loaded guns, followed at a respectful
distance. He succeeded in carrying off and burying the remains
of his comrade, after which he returned in safety to French
Lick.
That veteran pioneer of Sumner County, John Carr, who has
written so entertainingly of the early period of our history,
says that on one occasion he rode through a parcel of ground
which Spencer had cleared. There were five or six acres in the
field, around which was a rail fence. The timbers used therein,
each of which was equal in size to ten or fifteen rails, Spencer
had cut from the clearing and carried on his shoulder to where
the fence was being built.
Spencer's Choice
Another instance of his strength is
related. He was sick and lying on a blanket by a fire near where
two of the settlers were building a cabin. For a long time he
watched them both struggle under the weight of a log trying in
vain to put the end of it in place. Finally he arose from his
blanket, walked to the cabin, took hold of the log and brushing
the men aside threw it into position with apparent ease. Spencer
had a large foot, huge even in proportion to his immense body.
During his first winter at Bledsoe's Lick, Timothy DeMonbreun,
as previously related, was conducting a trading station near
Nashville, and had associated with him a party of hunters from
Indiana and Illinois. One morning just at daybreak Spencer, who
was himself a mighty hunter, and who happened to be in that
neighborhood chased a herd of buffalo close by the door of a hut
in which one of these Frenchmen was sleeping. It had been
raining and the ground was very soft. The sleeping hunter,
aroused by the noise of the chase, came out and seeing Spencer's
footprint in the mud near the door, became frightened, swam the
Cumberland River, and ran north through the wilderness until he
reached the French settlement at Vincennes. There he related his
experience and declared he would never return to a country that
was inhabited by such giants.
Spencer was of a quiet and peaceable disposition, and being
possessed of a good face and gentlemanly manners was held in
high esteem by all the settlers. Like Daniel Boone and others in
kind who blazed the way of civilization on its westward march,
he loved the solitude of the forest and often in times of
greatest danger would for weeks hunt through the woods alone,
and seemingly without fear. In this way he supplied food to the
settlers in times of great need. He was never married, and after
the settlements began to be established in Sumner and Davidson
Counties, he had no abode of his own. When not away on an
expedition it was his custom to spend the night at any station
most liable to be attacked by the Indians. In the fall of 1793
Spencer returned to Virginia for the purpose of winding up an
estate and receiving therefrom a legacy which was his due.
Returning with a party on horseback by way of Knoxville, they
had reached an elevation which, because of this event has since
been called Spencer's Hill, near the headwaters of Caney Fork
River. True to his custom Spencer was riding alone some distance
in advance of his party, when at a gap near the top of the hill
he was fired upon and instantly killed by a band of Indians who
were lying in wait. Thus ended a career than which in all the
annals of early history there is no more shining example of
undaunted courage and heroic self-sacrifice. His horse, which
was a splendid animal, took fright from the fall of his master,
and dashing through the line of howling savages which had
surrounded him, fled back to the party and thus escaped capture.
Spencer's early advent into the region of Bledsoe's Lick proved
to be a connecting link between the roving bands of hunters and
adventurers who first came hither, and that hardier company
whose annals we are about to consider, and who through toil and
bloodshed, with trowel in one hand and sword in the other laid
broad and deep the foundation of a mighty commonwealth.
Early History of Middle Tennessee
Early History of Middle Tennessee, BY
Edward Albright, Copyright, 1908, Brandon Printing Company,
Nashville, Tennessee, 1909
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