SOME OLD PAPERS.

The two contracts which follow, the originals of which are in the collection of the Tennessee Historical Society, are interesting on account of their age, and as indicative of values in Tennessee at the time the contracts were drawn.

That between Mayfield and Campbell is in the clerkly handwriting of Andrew Ewing, with strokes and lines so delicate that a magnifying glass was used in copying the paper. Mayfield is stated by Putnam (p. 473) to have been an early settler of Middle Tennessee, who had been in many encounters with Indians; he was killed July 6, 1794, in his own field, and his body shockingly mutilated. His land was probably near Brentwood.

Of the parties to the first contract, Russell Bean was the first white person born in what is now Tennessee. His father founded Bean's Station, and was a commissioner of the Watauga settlement. Russell Bean was the most perfect specimen of manhood, and without an equal on the frontier for strength, activity, endurance, and courage. He was a mechanical genius, a gunsmith by trade, and made wonderfully perfect weapons with few tools. He made an overland journey to Connecticut, bringing back a supply of tools with which he established at Jonesborough a factory. He had built a flat-bottomed boat, in which alone he carried a cargo of rifles, pistols, dirks, etc., of his own manufacture, down the Nolachucky, the Tennessee, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, to New Orleans, where he remained two years, an active participant in the sports of that great city.

He was the same Russell Bean who defied arrest by the officers of a court, but yielded to Judge Andrew Jackson, who left the bench to make the arrest, with the remark, "I'll surrender to you, Mr. Devil." (See "Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History," p. 119.)

James King, at the time of this contract, owned and operated an old-fashioned pig iron charcoal furnace near where Beaver Creek enters Holston River. His son, Rev. James King, owned "King's Meadows," the site of Bristol, Tenn., and established

and endowed King's College there. He has many descendants in Tennessee, among whom are Mrs. J. R. Anderson, of Bristol, and Judge William King McAlister, of the Supreme bench.

State of Tennessee,

Sullivan County.

Memorandum of an agreement made and concluded upon the nineteenth day of June, anno domini, one thousand seven hundred and ninety eight Between James King on the one part and Russell Bean on the other part: Viz: Whereas it is contemplated by the said parties to make an adventure of Iron and Castings to the Natchez at the joint risk and expense of said parties, the said James King agrees to furnish the said Bean with Bar Iron and Castings for the aforesaid purpose and to pay an equal proportion of the expense attendant on the transportation of the said articles to the aforesaid place. And the said Bean on his part agrees to take charge of the same in their transportation to the said place and to make sale of the same for which when sold he agrees to pay the said James King as follows, to-wit: for the Bar Iron at the rate of Fifty Pounds Virginia currency per gross ton and for the castings four pence Virginia currency per pound with an addition of one shilling like money on each piece of ware weighing less than twenty two pounds and one half; usually denominated hand ware and after paying for the said articles as above mentioned to divide equally with the said james King tlre profits arising from the sale of said Bar Iron and Castings.

In witness of which agreement the said parties have hereunto set their hands at the Beaver Creek Iron Works the day and year first above written.

JAMES KING.
RUSSELL BEAN.

In presence of

Jos. Bunch (?)

Mero District,
Davidson County.

This memorandum of an agreement made and concluded between Isaac Mayfield of the one part and John Campbell Sr of the other part Witnesseth that in consideration that the said John Campbell Sr shall within three weeks from the present

date remove himself and family, to, and settle on the plantation with the said Isaac Mayfield whereon he lately lived thereby the better to enable the said Mayfield to remain at home by their mutual defence against the common Enemy. That the said Mayfield will assist said Campbell with all the force or help he can raise within himself towards erecting and finishing a good sufficient block house for said Campbell and his family to reside in for the term of two years or such longer time as they may afterwards agree on. That he will find said Campbell for the first year commencing the first of March ensuing nine acres of cleared lands inclosed and called the new field, free and clear of any rent or demand for the same, and that he shall have the whole of said field being ten acres for the second year either rent free or for six bushels per acre according as it shall be adjudged by good men living on the frontier in favour of either party by reason of the exigency of affairs in this country at that time. That if the said Campbell shall within the said two years clear and inclose in a good sufficient fence any quantity of land not exceeding five acres he shall have the use of the same four years rent free, and that if said Campbell shall die or remove, himself from said Mayfields, after having cleared and inclosed the same that then he the said Mayfield will pay to said Campbell or his heirs Ten bushels per acre so cleared for each year that may then be remaining to him.

That said Campbell and Mayfield by mutually assisting each other shall inclose about one acre and a half about said Mayfield's houses which shall serve them in common for pasture for their horses, calves, sheep, &c. That said Campbell shall freely have and enjoy the benefit of water, and wood for firing; that he shall have one quarter of an acre of land from said Mayfield for the purpose of making a garden near the house, he giving said Mayfield as much in lieu thereof out of the aforesaid field. That said Campbell shall have the use and benefit of one of the stables already built for the purpose of keeping his horses therein. In witness whereof we have each of us hereunto set our hands and seals this 29th day of October 1792.

Teste

Andrew Ewing

Saml Barton

ISAAC MAYFIELD [Seal]

JOHN CAMPBELL [Seal]

ROUTE FROM KNOXVILLE TO NASHVILLE.

A paper owned by the Historical Society, and bearing no date, gives the following list of stopping places on the road from Knoxville to Nashville, and the intermediate distances.

The route is easily recognized; the Crab Orchard is a conspicuous land mark, formerly in Bledsoe, now in Cumberland county, and offered a gap for the passage of travelers across the mountains. When the writer saw it a few years since parts of the Crab Orchard mountain still showed an almost primeval forest. Daddy's Creek flows near its base.

The traveler thence bore north through the present Putnam or Overton, Jackson and Smith counties, to Sumner. Winchester's Mill was near the present Castalian Springs, in the last county. Kasper's Creek was, of course (Kasper) Mansker's Creek, now the dividing line between Davidson and Sumner; and the meeting house six miles from Nashville was unquestionably Parson Craighead's little Presbyterian church, which he established there soon after coming to Tennessee, in 1785, and which was also, for some years, the seat of Davidson Academy:

ANDREW GREER'S AFFIDAVIT.

Another paper of great interest is the affidavit of Andrew Greer, an eye-witness to that celebrated and bloodless encounter between Andrew Jackson, then holding the Supreme Court at Knoxville, and John Sevier, Governor of the State. Much has been written of this incident, and it has always been difficult to understand how two men of such indisputable courage could meet, armed, use toward each other such insulting language, and part without bloodshed.

This is particularly the case in view of the fact that a passionate altercation between them had taken place on the streets of Knoxville a few days before, and Jackson had challenged Sevier (Parton, I.. 234). It is almost unnecessary to say Parton's account of the incident differs radically from Greer's affidavit.

Andrew Greer was a man of some prominence, and had, in various ways, long been associated with Sevier; he was a member of the first court of Washington District, in February, 1778, and took the oath of his office with John Sevier, John Shelby, James Robertson, and others. He lived in that part of Washington which became Carter county, and is thought to have built the first water mill in that section. He, John Sevier, Wm. Cobb, and Thos. Houghton, were made commissioners of Washington county at the November term, 1780, "to be judges of the different kinds of paper emissions in circulation in this county, or may be hereafter, in order to prevent frauds and impositions. that might be committed on said county and for the purpose of detecting and suppressing coins of this kind, who shall be judges and viewers of all such monies" (Dropped Stitches, pp. 23, 46). State of Tennessee,

Knox County.

Personally appeared Andrew Greer of Carter County before me Josiah Nichol a Justice of the Peace for the county aforesaid and made oath: that on Saturday the 15th of this instant he started from Knoxville in company with his Excellency John Sevier and his son for to go to South West Point, that they reached the house of John Wood that night and the next morning started for the Point; that in the Hollow that leads down to Kingston as he this deponent and John Hunter was riding before the Governor and his son that they met Judge Jackson and Doctor Vandyke riding up the road armed with pistols;