On Sulphur Fork: Henry, John, and James Gardner; Isaac Dortch; Carr, Holland, and Jonathan Darden; John Hutchison; Col. Archer Cheatham and his brothers, John and Anderson; John Crane, William and Jeremiah Batts, Charles and William Miles, James Norfleet, Elias Fort, Archelaus Mahan, Nathan Clark, John Couts, James Appleton, David and James Jones, Dr. Richard Nuckolls, Benjamin Porter, Patrick Patterson, Martin Walton, Robert Kerr.

On Caleb's Creek: Caleb Winters, Joseph Washington, Azariah Dunn, Henry Ayres, George Murphy, Rev. William Carter, George Williams, Thomas Farmer, David J. Justice.

On Beaver Dam Creek: Thomas Woodard, Arthur Pitt, John Chambers, James Owens, Joseph Winfield, William Benson, John Krisle, John Draughon, Martin Walton, Meredith Walton, Thomas Baird, Waddy Stark.

On Carr's Creek: Michael Fiser, Matthew Day, James Connell, Jacob Binkley, James Culberson, Jacob Fiser; Henry Johnson, grandfather of Hon. Cave Johnson and William and John Huddleston; Henry Johnson, son of Hon, Cave Johnson.

On Brown's Fork: Henry Frey, Jacob Binkley, Henry Childress, Samuel and William Crockett, Patrick and Thomas Martin.

On Elk Fork: William Fort, James Mitchell, David Smith, Andrew Shanklin, Joseph Wimberly.

On Miller's Creek: Robert Head, Richard James, John Carr, James Bryan, Nicholas Conrad, Jesse Martin, Rev. John Lemaster, James Elliott, Samuel Walker.

On Brush Creek: Col. Benjamin Elliott, Benjamin Jordan, Giles and William Connell, James Atkins, John Stephenson, Mark Noble, Frank Grimes, Matthew Luter, Sr., Matthew Luter, Jr., John and James Yoes.

On Sycamore Creek: Hardy Bryan, James Ventriss, Anthony Hinkle, Shadrick Rawls, Lawrence Clinard.

On Spring Creek: Rev. Joseph Dorris, who built the first shingle-roofed house in the county; Daniel Hysmith.

On Battle Creek: James Jamison, Elisha Pilant, Elisha Bellamy.

On Buzzard Creek: Reuben Rose, William Mason, Joseph Perry, Howell Sellars.

On Wartrace Creek: James Bell, Matthew Rose, John McIntosh, John Chowining.

The first settlement made in what is now Robertson County was at Kilgore's Station, in 1779.

We learn that Thomas Kilgore was one of the first settlers in what is now Robertson County. In 1779 he, in company with Moses Mauldon, Ambrose Mauldon, Samuel Mason, Josiah Hawkins, and others, built a fort one mile west of where the village of Cross Plains, in this county, is situated, and called it "Kilgore's Station." Thomas Kilgore lived to be one hundred and eleven years old. He was never known to ride, except one time, always preferring to walk. He never took any medicines until just before his death.

The first settlement made in what is now Robertson County was on Red River, just below where the St. Louis and Southeastern Railroad bridge crosses said stream, by William Johnson, from North Carolina, in 1787. Soon after, Charles Miles, from South Carolina, built a blockhouse near the Sulphur Fork of Red River. Other settlements were made at the mouth of Sulphur Fork, then called "Richland Creek," by James Stewart and William Fort, about 1790. In the following year Kilgore's Station was established by Thomas Kilgore.

THE FIRST Circuit court, 1810.

"At a Circuit Court begun and held for the County of Robertson, at the Court House in the town of Springfield on the second Monday in April, 1810, being the 9th day of said month; agreeably to an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, passed at Knoxville on the 16th day of November, 1809, entitled 'An Act to establish Circuit Courts and a Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals.' Present the Honorable Parry W. Humphreys, Esq., Judge of the Fifth Circuit of said State of Tennessee."

Thomas Johnson was elected Clerk of said court; George W. L. Marr, Solicitor General.

The first Chancery Court was held in Springfield on Monday, April 1, 1844; Terry H. Cohal, Chancellor, and Edwin M. Reynolds, Clerk and Master.

THE RECORDS OF WASHINGTON COUNTY.

[The original manuscript of the records of Washington County are on file in the archives of the Tennessee Historical Society, having been do nated to the society by the County Court of Washington, largely through the instrumentality of Hon. John Allison. These records have never been published. They begin with the establishment of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions by North Carolina in 1778, and continue until the organization of the Southwest Territory in 1790. After the organization of the Southwest Territory, the court was continued with but little modification in name or powers. The character and historical value of these old records are clearly shown by Colonel Allison in one of the most interesting chapters of Tennessee history. By permission we reprint this chapter from his valuable work, entitled "Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History." In this issue of the MAGAZINE We publish the records of this Court for the year 1778. No liberty is taken with the text of the manuscript except, in a few instances, to condense details historically unimportant, and, in a few other instances, to omit the names of parties to criminal proceedings where the publication of the names could serve no historical purpose.]

A UNIQUE COURT.

[From "Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History," Chapter 3.]

There may be mistake, error, fraud, and injustice in court proceedings and judicial records; but when such records were made more than a century ago, and contain some part of the history of the people who made them, and have stood all these years unchallenged and uncontradicted, such records may be safely accepted as truth. In writing of a people more than a century after the period in which they lived-a people who did not have a daily newspaper in their midst to chronicle their deeds and views, and who were in a country between which and other parts of the world there was but little, if any, communication-it is easy indeed for a facile writer to ascribe to them characters which they did not have, views which they did not entertain, and accomplishments with which they were not entitled to be credited, without taking much risk of being contradicted.

The early history of the colonies and "new settlements" in North America is, and has been for many years, a fascinating field for writers; and it must be confessed that too often a little incident or

tradition has been so magnified by a too vivid imagination that it has appeared in print as a very readable, but colossal, falsehood. It is also lamentable that the plain, unvarnished truth of history has, in many instances, been so colored and distorted in the effort to make it romantic that many persons who could have contributed much valuable information in the way of simple facts have not done so, because of a lack of that faculty of imagination which some writers possess to such a degree that they can inform you beforehand that they are going to tell you a lie-in part, at least-and yet will tell it in such beautiful language and in so smooth and plausible a way as to make you believe the whole story.

The Tennessee pioneers did not have any one with them in their earliest days to write an account of their experiences or to portray their lives and characters; nor did they have any newspapers to make a record of their doings in the business concerns and affairs of life; and if they wrote any letters on these matters, they have not been preserved. They had, however, at Jonesboro, a "County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions," in which they made and left a record showing much that they did, and from which, even at this late day, we can get a very clear insight into their views as to the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, the power and duty of courts, as well as their notions concerning the business and social relations of life, and, indeed, on all matters which, in their judgment, pertained in any way to the peace, good fame, and welfare of the community and of individuals. I shall, therefore, quote literally much from these old, original records kept in Washington County, the quotations being taken from the records of that county only, for the reason that it was the first county established and organized in what is now Tennessee, and included for quite a time all of the early settlements in what is commonly known as "upper East Tennessee." The same character of entries will no doubt be found in the old records kept in Sullivan, Greene, Davidson, Hawkins, Sumner, Tennessee, and Knox Counties, in all of which Jackson practiced as an attorney or presided as a judge. The proceedings in the courts of the counties named, especially those that will be set out, will be of interest not alone to Tennesseans, but also to the descendants, scattered throughout the Southwest and West, of the men who made these records.

The first session of the court was held at the log cabin of Charles Roberson, near Jonesboro, February 23, 1778. It was composed

of the justices of the peace whose names have been given as subscribers to the oath set out in a preceding chapter. After the court had been organized by electing officers, its first act was to fine John Sevier, Jr., for some minor matter which was gravely denominated "a contempt to the Court." John Sevier, Sr., had just been elected clerk of the court, and was undoubtedly the most influential man in the country, on account of his meritorious character; but this did not shield the son. The fine was not remitted, and there is no evidence that John Sevier, the clerk, endeavored in any way to interpose.

On the second day "William Cocke by his counsel Waightse!l Avery moved to be admitted to the office of Clerk of this County of Washington which motion was rejected by the Court knowing that John Sevier was entitled to the office." This is absolutely the whole of the record. It was the first contested election case that occurred west of the Alleghany Mountains, and was between two citizens who became very distinguished--Cocke having been elected one of the first two Senators from Tennessee; while Sevier, after holding all the other offices within the gift of the people of that county, was elected a Representative in Congress and six times chosen Governor of Tennessee. The worthy justices, "knowing," as they said, that Sevier had been elected, without hearing Mr. Cocke, his counsel, or any evidence whatsoever, swore in Sevier as clerk.

These entries follow:

"Ordered that David Hinkley be fined 30 L. for insulting the Court.

"Ordered that Hump Gibson be fined 10 L. for swearing in Court."

Then, after passing upon a motion or two:

"Ordered that Ephriam Dunlap Atty. be fined 5 Dollars for insulting the Court, especially Richard White."

It is not likely that any member of this court had ever held any office prior to his appointment as a justice of the peace therein, and it is not probable that many of them had ever been in a court of any kind before they organized that which they constituted; and yet the record shows that, from the first day of the first term and on through all of the many stormy sessions which they held thereafter, they guarded and defended jealously the dignity of their court and enforced obedience to its mandates. It was a heinous offense, indeed, and visited with condign punishment, to "insult the Court."