Transcriber’s note
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
Dropped Stitches
——IN——
TENNESSEE HISTORY.
——BY——
JOHN ALLISON.
1897:
MARSHALL & BRUCE CO.,
NASHVILLE.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1897,
By John Allison,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
DEDICATION.
To the Memory of My Mother,
WHO, WHEN I WAS BUT A YOUTH,
FIRST INTERESTED ME IN AND TAUGHT ME MUCH
OF THE
Early History
OF THE
PIONEERS OF MY NATIVE STATE.
PREFACE.
This little volume, as will appear to the reader, is not a history of anything norof anybody, and is not so intended. The whole is simply an effort to put together inreadable form some facts in the very earliest history of Tennessee not hitherto fullyshown, if even mentioned.
I was born and brought up at Jonesboro, in Washington county, Tennessee, andresided there until 1889.
My mother, when I was a mere boy, first interested me in and taught me muchabout the pioneers and early history of my native state. Following up much learnedfrom her, I frequently visited old gentlemen and aged ladies in Eastern Tennesseeand a few in North Carolina, and conversed with them about “old times” and theirearly lives, and from them obtained much information not to be gotten in any otherway. By a formal order of the County Court of Washington county, made manyyears ago, I was given custody and possession of the very earliest court recordsmade at Jonesboro (records from 1778 up to 1800, as I now remember), and had possessionof them for two or three years, and at odd times went through and copiedmuch from these old records. I had, however, become interested in, and read much,from these court records before the order of the court giving me possession of them.
I made, as best I could, original investigation as to facts plainly suggested by theproceedings of the courts, as to the men who constituted the court, their lives,character, etc., and also as to the events surrounding, or involved in, the entries asindicated by the substance of the “motions,” “orders,” etc.
Where authorities consulted and information obtained in my original investigationhave conflicted as to a date, I have given that which seemed most probably thecorrect one: where no date at all could be found or fixed, I have followed the “illustriousexample of distinguished historians,” and said, “about this time”—withoutgiving any date at all.
By permission of my long, long time scholarly friend, Dr. R. L. C. White, theauthor, I publish with the volume “A Centennial Dream” with the Key thereto.The “dream” and interpretation are put in an app