Events Of 1782. David Hood Scalped
About the close of the year 1781 the
settlers enjoyed a brief season of quiet, but early in February
following, signs of the enemy again appeared. Soon thereafter
John Tucker and Joseph Hendrix were fired upon near the sulphur
spring while returning by the buffalo trail from Freeland's to
the Bluff. Each had an arm broken, but in the race which
followed they reached the fort ahead of the savages. Having
grown careless they had on this occasion gone out unarmed, a
mistake seldom made by the settlers.
From this attack it was evident that the Indians were again on
the warpath, and a signal gun was fired to warn the residents of
Freeland's and Eaton's. A party of scouts set out at once from
the Bluff in search of the band which had made the attack on
Tucker and Hendrix, but they had made good their escape.
A few days later David Hood was traveling the same road from
Freeland's to the Bluff. When in the sulphur spring bottom
several Indians who were hiding in the cane gave chase, firing
at him as he ran. Thinking there was no chance for escape Hood
fell forward on his face, feigning death. The savages, coming
up, gathered about him, and concluding that he was dead, one of
them twisted his fingers in the hair of their victim and with a
dull knife deliberately sawed off his scalp. This operation Hood
endured without moving a muscle or uttering a groan. His
tormentors then stamped him several times on the back with their
feet and journeyed on toward the fort. When their footsteps were
no longer heard he raised his head cautiously and seeing no sign
of danger, got up and started toward the Bluff.
For some reason the Indians had halted just over the hill and
Hood, following them unawares, suddenly found himself again in
their presence. They promptly fell upon him the second time, and
after inflicting what they supposed to be mortal wounds, threw
his body on a brush heap and left him for dead. Next morning he
was found by some of the settlers, who, thinking him dead,
carried him to the station and placed him in an outhouse
adjoining. Some of the women went out to see him and insisted
there were signs of life in the body. At their direction he was
taken into the fort, his wounds dressed and restoratives
administered. He soon recovered and by midsummer was able to be
about his work.
Hood was a cooper by trade and a bachelor. He was long and lank
of body, a great wag, and withal a noted character among the
early settlers. He lived at Nashborough for many years after the
events above described. The settlers at Kilgore's Station, in
Robertson County, had so far been undisturbed. They had come to
suppose that because of their distance from the other forts they
were free from attack. In this, however, they were doomed to
disappointment. The sharp eye of the avenging savage had spied
them out. Late in the summer of 1782 Samuel Martin and Isaac
Johnson, two occupants of the station, were captured nearby and
taken prisoners into the Creek Nation. Johnson soon escaped and
returned to the fort, but Martin remained with his captors for
about a year. He came home elegantly dressed, wearing silver
spurs on his boots and bringing with him two valuable horses. It
was currently reported and generally believed that during the
period of his alleged captivity he had accompanied the Creeks on
some of their marauding expeditions and shared with them the
captured booty.
In the fall two young men by the name of Mason went from
Kilgore's to Clay Lick to watch for deer. They hid in a
canebrake close by, and while thus in waiting seven Indians came
to the Lick, probably for the same purpose as themselves. The
Masons fired and killed two of them, the remainder of the band
retreating. Elated at this easy victory the young men hastened
back to the fort and there were joined by three or four of the
settlers with whom they returned to the lick and scalped the
dead Indians.
Late the same evening John and Ephraim Peyton, en route from
Bledsoe's Station to Kentucky stopped at Kilgore's to spend the
night. When they arose to pursue their journey next morning they
discovered that their horses together with some of those
belonging to the settlement, had been stolen. Suspicion at once
pointed to a band of Indians who at that time were prowling
around the neighborhood. Pursuit was made and the thieves
overtaken on Peyton's Creek, a stream afterwards so called
because of this incident. The whites opened fire, killing one of
the band and retaking all of the horses. On their return, and
while they were encamped for the night, the Indians made a
circuit and lay in ambush at a point in the road between them
and the fort. As the whites were going on toward home next
morning the savages poured into their ranks a deadly fire,
killing Josiah Hoskins and one of the Masons. The bodies of
these were carried to the fort and buried nearby. The settlers
at Kilgore's now became so much alarmed that they moved to the
Bluff, thus breaking up their station. Among those residing at
Kilgore's Station at the time it was broken up were the Kilgores,
Moses and Ambrose Maulding, Jesse Simons and others.
The occupants of all the forts were at this time so much
harassed that they could neither plant nor cultivate their
fields. Sentinels must be stationed on every side, and even
while one person knelt at a spring to drink another must stand
ready, rifle in hand, to shoot a creeping savage who might
suddenly appear. If three or four were assembled on the open
ground on business or for social visitation, they dared not face
each other, but standing back to back, they looked north south,
east and west, watching in every direction for the stealthy
approach of a skulking foe. A general council was now called to
consider the best interests of the settlement. Many favored a
removal to a place of greater safety. This, however, was
vigorously opposed by Colonel Robertson. He pointed out to the
assembled colonists the impossibility of escape either to East
Tennessee or to the forts in Kentucky, as all the roads thither
were now known to be heavily guarded by the Indians, in evident
anticipation of such an attempt. He argued that a journey could
not be made by water to Natchez or Kaskaskia. There were no
means of transportation. Nearly all the boats belonging to the
Donelson flotilla had been dismantled and the material used in
building cabins and out-houses adjacent thereto, and it would be
imprudent at this time to venture into the woods for material
with which to build another fleet. Thus in whatever way they
might begin the journey they would be surely stalking into the
jaws of death. Indeed, this meeting marked a crisis in the
history of the settlement. Before its adjournment all came to
recognize the fact that conditions and not theory must guide
their deliberations, and the idea of removal was abandoned.
Later in the fall of this year General Daniel Smith, Hugh Rogan
and William McMurry were traveling the buffalo trail from
Bledsoe's to Mansker's Lick. When near the present site of
Cragfont, the ancient home of Gen. James Winchester, in the
First Civil District of Sumner County, a party of Indians opened
fire upon them, killing McMurry and wounding General Smith. The
gun of the latter fell from his hands, but he caught it up
again, and, with Rogan, began a fusillade with the enemy, who
soon got the worst of it and ran, making their escape into the
tall cane. General Smith recovered and afterwards became
Secretary of the territorial government and later succeeded
Andrew Jackson as Senator from Tennessee in the Congress of the
United States. He was born in Fanguier County, Virginia, October
29, 1748; was a skilled civil engineer, and by actual survey
made the first map of the State of Tennessee. Coming to Middle
Tennessee at an early period in its history, he married a
daughter of Col. John Donelson, and selected a fine body of land
on Drake's Creek, near Hendersonville, in Sumner County. Here in
1784 he built "Rock Castle," his historic residence,
Rock Castle
which Still stands. Under General
Smith's own supervision it was built from stone taken from a
quarry a few hundred yards away. The land on which it stands is
now the property of his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Horatio Berry,
of Hendersonville. General Smith died at Rock Castle, June 16,
1818, and was buried ill the family cemetery nearby.
Early History of Middle Tennessee
Early History of Middle Tennessee, BY
Edward Albright, Copyright, 1908, Brandon Printing Company,
Nashville, Tennessee, 1909
|
