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430 pages

English

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The history of the county and the families who lived in Clay County TN, 1870-1986

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Tennessee

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Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	01 mai 1987
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781681620572
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	11 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0898€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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T HE H ISTORY OF C LAY C OUNTY , T ENNESSEE
1986
Clay County Courthouse in the Early 1950 s

Publishers of America s History T URNER P UBLISHING C OMPANY
Copyright 1986 by Clay County Homecoming 86 Historical Book Committee Celina, TN 38551
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the Author and Publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 86-51319 ISBN 978-0-938021-06-3
First Printing 1986 - 1000 Copies Second Printing 1995 - 300 Copies Third Printing 2001 - 300 Copies
C LAY C OUNTY T ENNESSEE
1986
Building first bridge over Little Trace Creek on Highway 52 in the early 1900 s
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Clay County Facts and Legends
Celina, The County Seat
Community Histories
Family Histories
Business Histories
Tributes
Epilogue
A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Frances Donaldson - Co-Chairman

Margaret Reneau - Co-Chairman

Dayton Birdwell - Chairman History Book Committee
The Homecoming 86 Committee co-chairmen, Frances Donaldson and Margaret Reneau, selected as one of the major projects of the Homecoming 86 Committee the publication of a Clay County History, as Clay County has had no major historical publication since Isaiah Fitzgerald s History of Clay County was published in the early 1900 s. Dayton Birdwell was chosen to serve as Chairman of the History Book Committee and Publication Staff. This book was written by Clay Countians to preserve the heritage of the past and to be a treasure for those who own a copy.
History Book Committee and Staff: Dayton Birdwell, Chairman; Laquanah Crowder, Technical Editor; Brenda Kirby and Laura McLerran, typists; Mel Lee Head, Donnie Pealer, and Allen C. Birdwell, photographers; and committee members, Peggy Davis, Hilda Brown, Phyliss Boyce, Joy Key, Don Sherrell, Mary Etta Sherrell, Joyce Witham. The following people assisted with research and the collecting of pictures: Layne Boyce, Hilda Brown, Jeff Brown, Lona Capshaw, Blanche Carver, Lex Cherry, Tootsie Clark, Ray Clements, Jo Frances Craighead, Ralph Craighead, Annis Crawford, Carl Davis, Geneva Fowler, Bonnie Grace, Elaine Groce, Elsa Hampton, Doris Jackson, Ina Kemp, Mattie Kyle, Rachel Langford, Rebecca Leonard, Belva Pennington, Gwen Sadler, Lucy Sherrell, Paula Sidwell, Gerry Smalling, Martha Smith, Randall Smith, Betty Teeples, John Teeples, Billie Fay Thurman, Pearl Brown, Billie Stone, Lavelle Buford, Norma Jean Hawkins, Judy Groce, Don Napier, Robert Daniels, Mattie Kyle, Kevin Donaldson, Tammy Dulworth, Edwina Upton, W.B. Upton, and W.H. Reneau.
Homecoming 86 Committee Members: Frances Donaldson and Margaret Reneau, Co-chairmen; Geneva Spear, Wilma Jean Hayes, Joy Key, Beth Windle, Betty Jo White, Bobby Meadows, Jackie Lynn, Donna Burnette, Sandra Eads, Beth Gentry, Mike Gentry, Debbie Nevins, Phyliss Boyce, Sue Stone, John H. Stone, Al McLerran, Joe McLerran, Corinne McLerran, Mary Loyd Reneau, Jerry Burnette, Mary Emma Reneau, Jean Hill, Gale Thompson, Mary Ann Hamilton, Alan West, Margaret Birdwell, Anna Ruth Locke, Ann Dalton, Butch Burnette, Joan Burnette, Mayfield Brown, Thomas Watson, Doye Windle, J.H. Reneau, III, Randall Kimes, John Sparkman, Dale Birdwell, Shirley Meadows, Mike Richardson, Nell Stone, Russell Cherry, Rachel Langford, Debbie West, Anna Mae Coe, Bill Coe, Donna Smith, Linda Green, Virginia Dale, Paul Boyce, Sadie Napier, Junior Napier, Buddy Thompson, J.D. Donaldson, Bobby Bartlett, Butch Young, and Cobby Smith.
C LAY C OUNTY - F ACTS A ND L EGENDS

1929 - Gigantic snowfall with Haskell Neely - Homer Gates

Digging a water well on the courthouse square in the 1920 s.

E ARLY I NHABITANTS
Probably the cave dwellers, who settled along the water courses where fish and game were plentiful and overhanging cliffs afforded natural dwellings, were the first inhabitants of what is now Clay County. Caves showing signs of occupancy are especially numerous at the headwaters of the Cumberland River and its tributaries. In 1917, when the Cumberland River was at a very high stage, the river bank gave away just below the mouth of the Obey River and slipped into the river, causing a depression some ten or twelve feet deep and exposing various pieces of pottery and other relics of Indian habitation. On the east bank of the Cumberland River three miles above Celina is located an old campsite where pieces of pottery and Indian arrowheads can be found on the surface of the earth following heavy rains. Three miles north of the Willow Grove area and on the north side of the Obey River is located a river bluff called skull bluff because of the many human skeletons found there which clearly indicates that these caves were used for burial purposes. Along the Obey River, many rock shelters have been found which are very similar to the Pueblo Communal ruins in the Southwest. Many Indian relics and remains have been found in a cave located approximately three miles from Hermitage Springs. Two Indian mounds are located in the Old Town section of Celina.

The Mississippian Statues
In 1983, James Capps and Edward Arms discovered two Mississippian Indian statues. James Capps first discovered the female; and about one week later, Edward Arms discovered the male near the Cumberland River at the same site where the female was discovered. An archeologist guessed that they were carved between 1000 and 1400 A.D. by the Mississippian Indians who were forerunners of the Cherokees. These statues were used in religious ceremonies by the Mississippians who usually spent most of their lives in one general area near a river where they could hunt and fish. (Excerpts from the Clay Citizen , March 9, 1983.) Other Indian tribes who lived in the Clay County area were the Shawnee, the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, and the Iroquois.
A Frenchman, Martin Chartier, was believed to have been in this area as early as 1691. He was a Canadian who came South probably with a Shawnee wife. Chartier spent about two years on the Cumberland with the Shawnee, hunting and fishing. They may have stayed in one place long enough to raise a corn crop, as game was plentiful here; and even in the late 1700 s, the area had plenty of buffalo. (Mary U. Rothrock, Discovering Tennessee)
About the end of June 1766, Colonel James Smith, Uriah Stone, William Baker, Joshua Horton, and a slave, eighteen years of age belonging to Horton, came down the Cumberland River and explored the country south of Kentucky, and no white man could be found. On the second of June 1769, a company of adventurers was formed for the purpose of hunting and exploring in what is now Middle Tennessee. There were more than twenty men in this party. Some of them were John Raines, Kaspar Mansker, Abraham Bledsoe, John Baker, Joseph Drake, Obediah Terrill, Uriah Stone, Humphrey Hogam, Henry Smith, Ned Cowan and Robert Crockett. They camped for the summer at the mouth of Obed s River which was named for Obediah Terrill. Down through the years, the spelling and pronunciation of Obed s River has been changed, and at the present time, it is called Obey River. At the end of the year, most of these men returned home taking with them the peltry, dogs, and horses. However, Kaspar Mansker, John Raines, Isaac Bledsoe, Uriah Stone, Humphrey Hogam and others, ten in all, stayed several months longer and went into the meat packing business. ( Early Times in Middle Tennessee by John Carr)
Obediah Terrill stayed on for several years as a farmer-hunter before permanent settlement was made in Tennessee. A lonely creature, he had not children, perhaps no wife was the statement Daniel Smith made in his Journal after spending a night in Terrill s camp near the mouth of the Obed s River while on a buffalo hunt. The date of this journal entry was January 4, 1780. ( Seedtime on the Cumberland , by Harriette Simpson Arnow)
In the notes kept by Daniel Boone on his second trip from the earlier settled colonies into Kentucky is found an account of his having crossed the Cumberland River at a place he called Twin Creeks. This point is located seven miles south of Celina on State Highway Number 53, where the two Mill Creeks flow into the Cumberland River at the same point. ( History of Clay County , by Isaiah Fitzgerald)
Some of the first settlers within the present boundaries of Clay County were Quakers from Pennsylvania and Maryland. Hugh Roberts was supposedly the first white settler in the present town of Celina. His home stood on a knob elevated some 50 feet above the surrounding area. This building has been located in three states - North Carolina, Franklin, and Tennessee, and in seven different counties - Washington, Davidson, Sumner, Smith, Jackson, Overton, and Clay.

The Hugh Roberts Home built in 1780
John Plymley (Plumlee) is said to have been the first white settler west of the Cumberland River in the present Clay County. He came here from Pennsylvania while George Washington was President. Being a Quaker, he left the State of Pennsylvania because of religious persecution.
Another one of the early settlers of this section was Isaac Johnson, who came to the mouth of Obed s River from Virginia in 1797. He died in 1869 and selected the following epitaph for his grave marker: Remember, friends, as you pass by, as you are now, so once was I; as I am now, you are sure to be; prepare for death and follow me.
The Gearheart family settled near the mouth of Obed s River in 1795. They came from Pennsylvania and were of Dutch descent. Valentine Gearheart was born in 1775 and died in 1835. He was buried near Celina.
William Donaldson, who was born near Mt. Juliet in Wilson County, Tennessee, traveled partly by trail on horseback to a new settlement on Obed s River. This was a distance of about one hundred miles. He was a well-educated man of Scotch-Irish descent and a descendant of John Donelson who took an active part in the early settlement of Middle Tennessee. Donaldson married Nancy Hoard, the daughter of a family