Chapter XXV: Elizabeth Kenton, 428 (6)

“The division lines between those whose lands adjoined, were generally made in an amicable manner, before any survey of them was made by the parties concerned. In doing this, they were guided mainly by the tops of ridges and water courses, but particularly the former. Hence the greater number of farms in the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia bear a striking resemblance to an amphitheatre; the tops of the surrounding hills being the boundaries of the tract to which the family mansion belongs.”

Besides the exposure of the emigrants to Indian depredations and massacres, “they had other trials to endure which at the present day cannot be appreciated. One of the most vexatious was the running away of their horses. As soon as the fly season commenced the horses seemed resolved on leaving the country and crossing the mountains. They swam the Monongahela, and often proceeded a hundred and fifty miles before they were taken up. During the husband’s absence in pursuit of them, the wife was left alone with her children in their unfinished cabin, surrounded by forests, in which the howl of wolves was heard from every hill. If want of provisions, or other causes, made a visit to a neighbor’s necessary, she must either take her children with her through the woods, or leave them unprotected, under the most fearful apprehension that some mischief might befal them before her return. As bread and meat were scarce, milk was the principal dependence for the support of the family. One cow of each family was provided with a bell, which could be heard from half a mile to a mile. The matron on rising in the morning listened for her cow-bell, which she knew well enough to detect, even amidst a clamor of others. If her children were small, she tied them in bed to prevent their wandering, and guard them from danger of fire and snakes; and guided by the tinkling of the bell, made her way through the tall weeds and across the ravines until she found the objects of her search. Happy on her return to find her children unharmed, and regardless of a thorough wetting from the dew, she hastened to prepare their breakfast of milk boiled with a little meal or hominy; or in the protracted absence of her husband, it was often reduced to milk alone. Occasionally venison and turkeys were obtained from hunters.”

An anecdote is related in the “American Pioneer,” of Gov. McArthur, on his first visit to the West, which throws light on the situation of the early settlers. He stopped some time at Baker’s Station, about twenty miles below Wheeling. There was war with the Indians, and the settlers about Fish Creek were occupying the station for security; so long, however, had the enemy been absent from that section of country, that the inmates went and came when they pleased. A young lady of great beauty, who lived at the place, had acquired proficiency in the art of shooting with the rifle. “I think her name was Scott, but it may have been Baker. Early one morning she went to the run, some fifty or sixty yards above the post, to wash linen, taking her gun along, and young McArthur accompanied her to stand guard while she was employed at the wash tub. Before long a small dog that was with them commenced barking, and gave such manifestations of alarm that the young lady desired her companion to make a hasty reconnoissance of the adjacent grounds. The motions of the dog had awakened fear that Indians might be lurking close by, but McArthur discovered nothing to confirm the suspicion. The washing was resumed and in due course completed; after which they both returned to the station. Just as they were about to enter the gate, a tall athletic looking Indian sprang from behind a tree not more than thirty paces beyond the spot where they had been washing, and darted off rapidly into the woods. Pursuit was instantly made, but he was not overtaken. He must have posted himself behind the tree during the previous night, with the intention of shooting the first person that ventured out of the works in the morning. The appearance of two disconcerted his plan. McArthur’s gallantry on this occasion was the means of saving the young lady’s life.”

De Hass describes a station as a parallelogram of cabins united by palisades, so as to present a continued wall on the outer sides, the cabin doors opening into a common square on the inner side. A fort was generally a stockade enclosure, embracing cabins, etc., for the accommodation of several families. Doddridge says, “a range of cabins commonly formed at least one side, separated by divisions or partitions of logs. The walls on the outside were ten or twelve feet high, with a roof sloping inward. Some of the cabins had puncheon floors, but the greater part were earthen.

“The blockhouses were built at the angles of the fort, and projected about two feet beyond the outer walls of the cabins and stockades. Their upper stories were about eighteen inches or two feet every way larger than the under one, leaving an opening at the commencement of the second story, to prevent the enemy from making a lodgment under their walls. In some forts, instead of blockhouses, the angles were furnished with bastions. A large folding gate, made of thick slabs, nearest the spring, closed the fort. The stockades, bastions, cabins, and blockhouse walls were furnished with portholes at proper heights and distances. The whole of the outside was made completely bullet proof. The families belonging to these forts were so attached to their own cabins on their farms, that they seldom moved into the fort in the spring until compelled by some alarm; that is, when it was announced by some murder that Indians were in the settlement.”

Butler describes the dwellings of the first settlers of the West as composed of the trunks of trees, bared of their branches, notched at the ends and fitted upon one another in a quadrangular shape, to the desired height. Openings through the logs left room for doors and shutters. A capacious opening, nearly the whole width of the cabin, made the fire-place. By this ample width economy of labor in cutting fire-wood, as well as comfort in houses, was consulted.

“The furniture of the table, for several years after the settlement of the country, consisted of a few pewter dishes, plates and spoons; but mostly of wooden bowls, trenchers and noggins. If these last were scarce, gourds and hard-shelled squashes made up the deficiency. The iron pots, knives and forks were brought from the East, with the salt and iron, on pack-horses. These articles of furniture corresponded very well with the articles of diet. ‘Hog and hominy’ was a dish of proverbial celebrity. Johnny-cake or pone was at the outset of the settlements the only form of bread in use for breakfast and dinner; at supper, milk and mush was the standard dish. When milk was scarce, hominy supplied its place, and mush was frequently eaten with sweetened water, molasses, bear’s oil, or the gravy of fried meat.

“In our display of furniture, delf, china and silver were unknown. The introduction of delf ware was considered by many of the backwoods people as a wasteful innovation. It was too easily broken, and the plates dulled their scalping and clasp knives. Tea and coffee, in the phrase of the day, ‘did not stick by the ribs.’ The idea then prevalent was, that they were only designed for people of quality, who did not labor, or for the rich. A genuine backwoodsman would have thought himself disgraced by showing a fondness for such ‘slops.’

“On the frontier and particularly among hunters in the habit of going on campaigns, the dress of the men was partly Indian. The hunting-shirt universally worn was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape was large, and sometimes fringed with a ravelled piece of cloth, of different color from the hunting-shirt. The bosom of this dress served as a wallet to hold bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the barrel of the rifle, or any other necessary for the hunter or warrior. The belt, always tied behind, answered several purposes; in cold weather the mittens, and sometimes the bullet-bag, occupied its front part; on the right side was suspended the tomahawk, on the left the scalping knife in its leathern sheath. The hunting-shirt was generally made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deer-skin; these last very cold and uncomfortable in wet weather. The shirt and jacket were of the common fashion. A pair of drawers, or breeches and leggins, were the dress of the thighs and legs; a pair of moccasins answered for the feet much better than shoes. These were made of dressed deer-skin, and were mostly of a single piece, with a seam along the top of the foot, and another from the bottom of the heel, as high or a little higher than the ancle joint. Flaps were left on each side, to reach some distance up the legs. These were nicely adapted to the ancles and lower part of the leg by thongs of deerskin, so that no dust, gravel, or snow could get within the moccasin. In cold weather this was well stuffed with deer’s hair or dried leaves, to keep the feet comfortably warm; but in wet weather it was usually said that wearing moccasins was ‘a decent way of going barefoot;’ and such was the fact, owing to the spongy texture of the leather of which they were made. Owing to this defective covering of the feet, many of our hunters and warriors were afflicted with rheumatism in their limbs. Of this disease they were all apprehensive in cold or wet weather, and therefore always slept with their feet to the fire, to prevent or cure it as well as they could. This practice unquestionably had a very salutary effect, and prevented many of them from becoming confirmed cripples in early life.

“In the latter years of the Indian war, our young men became more enamored of the Indian dress. The drawers were laid aside, and the leggins made longer, so as to reach the upper part of the thigh. The Indian breech cloth was adopted. This was a piece of linen or cloth, nearly a yard long, and eight or nine inches broad, passing under the belt, before and behind, leaving the ends for flaps hanging before and behind over the belt, sometimes ornamented with coarse embroidery. To the same belt which secured the breech cloth, strings, supporting the long leggins, were attached. When this belt, as was often the case, passed over the hunting-shirt, the upper part of the thighs and part of the hips were naked. The young warrior, instead of being abashed by this, was proud of his Indian dress. In some few instances I have seen them go into places of public worship in this dress.” De Hass adds, that old hunters have said it was the most comfortable, convenient, and desirable that could have been invented for the times in which it was used. Linsey coats and gowns were the universal dress of the women in early times.

A description of a wedding among the pioneers may serve to illustrate their manners. The following is taken from Doddridge’s Notes:

“In the first years of the settlement, a wedding engaged the attention of a whole neighborhood, and the frolic was anticipated by old and young with eager expectation. This will not be wondered at, as a wedding was almost the only gathering unaccompanied with the labor of reaping, log-rolling, building a cabin, or planning some warlike expedition.

“On the morning of the wedding day, the groom and his attendants assembled at the house of his father, for the purpose of reaching the home of his bride by noon, the usual time for celebrating the nuptials. Let the reader imagine an assemblage of people, without a store, tailor, or mantuamaker within a hundred miles; and an assemblage of horses, without a blacksmith or saddler within an equal distance; the gentlemen dressed in shoepacks, moccasins, leather breeches, leggins, linsey hunting-shirts, and all home-made; the ladies in linsey petticoats and linsey or linen bedgowns, coarse shoes, stockings, handkerchiefs, and buckskin gloves, if any. If there were any buckles, rings, buttons, or ruffles, they were the relics of olden times, family pieces from parents or grandparents. The horses were caparisoned with old saddles, old bridles or halters, and pack-saddles, with a bag or blanket thrown over them; a rope or string as often constituted the girth as a piece of leather. The march, in double file, was often interrupted by the narrowness and obstructions of the horse-paths, for there were no roads; and these difficulties were often increased by fallen trees and grape vines tied across the way. Sometimes an ambuscade was formed by the wayside, and an unexpected discharge of several guns took place, so as to cover the wedding company with smoke. Let the reader imagine the scene that followed this discharge; the sudden spring of the horses, the shrieks of the girls, and the chivalrous bustle of their partners to save them from falling. If a wrist, elbow, or ancle happened to be sprained, it was tied with a handkerchief, and little more was thought or said about it.

“The ceremony of the marriage preceded the dinner, which was a substantial backwoods feast of beef, pork, fowls, and sometimes venison and bear meat roasted and boiled, with plenty of potatoes, cabbage, and other vegetables. During the dinner the greatest hilarity always prevailed, although the table might be a large slab of timber hewed out with a broad axe, supported by four sticks set in auger holes; and the furniture, some old pewter dishes and plates, eked out with wooden bowls and trenchers. A few pewter spoons, much battered about the edges, were seen at some tables; the rest were made of horn. If knives were scarce, the deficiency was made up by the scalping knives which every man carried in sheaths suspended to the belt of the hunting-shirt. After dinner the dancing commenced, and generally lasted till the next morning. The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by what was called ‘jigging it off;’ that is, two of the four would single out for a jig, and be followed by the remaining couple. The jigs were often accompanied with what was called ‘cutting out;’ that is, when either of the parties became tired of the dance, on intimation, the place was supplied by some one of the company, without any interruption to the dance. In this way it was often continued till the musician was heartily tired of his situation. Towards the latter part of the night, if any of the company, through weariness, attempted to conceal themselves for the purpose of sleeping, they were hunted up, paraded on the floor, and the fiddler ordered to play ‘Hang out till to-morrow morning.’

About nine or ten o’clock a deputation of the young ladies stole off the bride and put her to bed. In doing this it frequently happened that they had to ascend a ladder instead of stairs, leading from the dining and ball-room to a loft, the floor of which was made of clapboards lying loose. This ascent, one might think, would put the bride and her attendants to the blush; but as the foot of the ladder was commonly behind the door, purposely opened for the occasion, and its rounds at the inner ends were well hung with hunting-shirts, dresses, and other articles of clothing--the candles being on the opposite side of the house, the exit of the bride was noticed but by few. This done, a deputation of young men, in like manner, stole off the groom, while the dance still continued, and late at night refreshment in the shape of ‘black Betty’--the bottle--was sent up the ladder, with sometimes substantial accompaniments of bread, beef, pork and cabbage. The feasting and dancing often lasted several days, at the end of which the whole company were so exhausted with loss of sleep, that many days’ rest was requisite to fit them to return to their ordinary labors.”

Sometimes it happened that neighbors or relations not asked to the wedding, took offence, and revenged themselves by cutting off the manes, foretops and tails of horses belonging to the wedding company.

The same writer thus describes the usual manner of settling a young couple in the world:--“A spot was selected on a piece of land belonging to one of the parents, for their habitation, and a day appointed shortly after their marriage, to commence the work of building their cabin. The materials were prepared on the first day, and sometimes the foundation laid in the evening. The second day was allotted for the raising. The cabin being furnished, the ceremony of housewarming took place before the young couple were permitted to move into it. The house-warming was a dance of a whole night’s continuance, made up of the relations of the bridegroom and their neighbors. On the day following, the young couple took possession of their new premises.

“Many of the sports of the early settlers of this country were imitative of the exercises and stratagems of hunting and war. Boys were taught the use of the bow and arrow at an early age; but although they acquired considerable adroitness, so as to kill a bird or squirrel, yet it appears to me that in the hands of the white people, the bow and arrow could never be depended on for warfare or hunting. One important pastime of the boys--that of imitating the noise of every bird and beast in the woods--was a necessary part of education on account of its utility under certain circumstances. Imitating the gobbling and other sounds of the wild turkey, often brought those ever watchful tenants of the forest within reach of the rifle. The bleating of the fawn brought its dam to her death in the same way. The hunter often collected a company of mopish owls to the trees about his camp, and amused himself with their hoarse screaming. His howl would raise and obtain responses from a pack of wolves, so as to inform him of their whereabouts, as well as to guard him against their depredations.

“This imitative faculty was sometimes requisite as a measure of precaution in war. The Indians, when scattered about in a neighborhood, often collected together by imitating turkeys by day and wolves or owls by night. In similar situations our people did the same. I have often witnessed the consternation of a whole neighborhood in consequence of the screeching of owls. An early and correct use of this imitative faculty was considered as an indication that its possessor would become in due time a good hunter and a valiant warrior.

“Throwing the tomahawk was another boyish sport in which many acquired considerable skill. The tomahawk, with its handle of a certain length, will make a given number of turns within a certain distance; say in five steps it will strike with the edge, the handle downwards--at the distance of seven and a half it will strike with the edge, the handle upwards, and so on. A little experience enabled the boy to measure the distance with his eye when walking through the wood, and to strike a tree with his tomahawk in anyway he chose. A well grown boy at the age of twelve or thirteen, was furnished with a small rifle and shot pouch. He then became a foot soldier, and had his port-hole assigned him. Hunting squirrels, turkeys, and racoons, soon made him expert in the use of his gun.

“The athletic sports of running, jumping, and wrestling, were the pastimes of boys in common with men. Dramatic narrations, chiefly concerning Jack and the Giant, furnished our young people with another source of amusement during their leisure hours. The different incidents of the narration were easily committed to memory, and have been handed down from generation to generation.” The singing of the first settlers was rude enough. “Robin Hood furnished a number of our songs; the balance were mostly tragical; these were denominated ‘love songs about murder.’ As to cards, dice, backgammon, and other games of chance, we knew nothing about them. They are among the blessed gifts of civilization!

“Hunting was an important part of the employment of the early settlers. For some years the woods supplied them with the greater amount of their subsistence, and it was no uncommon thing for families to live several months without a mouthful of bread. It frequently happened that there was no breakfast till it was obtained from the woods. Fur constituted the people’s money; they had nothing else to give in exchange for rifles, salt, and iron, on the other side of the mountains. The fall and early part of the winter was the season for hunting the deer, and the whole of the winter, including part of the spring, for bears and fur-skinned animals. It was a customary saying, that fur is good during every month in the name of which the letter R occurs.

“As soon as the leaves were pretty well down, and the weather became rainy, accompanied with light snows, these men, after acting the part of husbandmen as far as the state of warfare permitted, began to feel that they were hunters, and became uneasy at home, their minds being wholly occupied with the camp and chase. Hunting was not a mere ramble in pursuit of game, in which there was nothing of skill and calculation; on the contrary, the hunter before he set out in the morning, was informed by the state of the weather where he might reasonably expect to find his game, whether on the bottom, the sides, or tops of the hills. In stormy weather the deer always seek the most sheltered places, and the leeward side of the hills. In rainy weather, when there is not much wind, they keep in the open woods on the high ground. In every situation it was requisite for the hunter to ascertain the course of the wind, so as to get the leeward of the game. As it was necessary, too, to know the cardinal points, he had to observe the trees to ascertain them. The bark of an aged tree is thicker and much rougher on the north than the south side; and the same may be said of the moss. From morning till night the hunter was on the alert to gain the wind of his game, and approach them without being discovered. If he succeeded in killing a deer, he skinned it and hung it up out of the reach of the wolves, and immediately resumed the chase till the close of the evening, when he bent his course towards his camp; when arrived there he kindled up his fire, and together with his fellow hunter, cooked his supper. The supper finished, the adventures of the day furnished tales for the evening, in which the spike-buck, the two and three pronged buck, the doe and barren doe, figured to great advantage.”[20]

“A place for a camp was selected as near water as convenient, and a fire was kindled by the side of the largest suitable log that could be procured. The ground was preferred to be rather sideling, that the hunters might lie with the feet to the fire, and the head up hill. The common mode of preparing a repast was by sharpening a stick at both ends, and sticking one end in the ground before the fire, and their meat on the other end. This stick could be turned round, or the meat on it, as occasion required. Sweeter roast meat than was prepared in this manner no European epicure ever tasted. Bread, when they had flour to make it of, was either baked under the ashes, or the dough rolled in long rolls, and wound round a stick like that prepared for roasting meat, and managed in the same way. Scarce any one who has not tried it, can imagine the sweetness of such a meal, in such a place, at such a time. French mustard, or the various condiments used as a substitute for an appetite, are nothing to this.”[21]

VII.

ANN HAYNES.

It is mentioned in “The Women of the American Revolution,”[22] that on the approach of Cornwallis to Charlotte, the family of Mr. Brown sought refuge at the house of James Haynes, who lived upon the road leading north of Cowan’s Ford on the Catawba River. While they remained here, the British in pursuit of Morgan stopped at the house, plundered it, and made the owner a prisoner. Mrs. Haynes, despoiled of everything in the way of provision, herself conducted family worship that night, and praying for the restoration of her captive husband, entreated earnestly the interposition of Providence to protect _the right_. This pious and exemplary matron, whose heart bled for the woes of her oppressed country, and who encouraged her sons to struggle bravely in its defence, was little aware of the extent of the beneficent influence her noble character was to exercise on succeeding generations. The death-bed gift she received from her father--a copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith printed at Edinburgh in 1707--was bequeathed by her as sacredly to her son, John Haynes, and is kept as a venerated relic in his family. Eight of the descendants of Mrs. Haynes are now ministers in the Presbyterian church, devoted to the exposition and extension of the true and simple doctrines of the gospel, while others are engaged in the same good work in other denominations--all carrying out and exemplifying the sterling principles derived from their independent ancestors of the era of Cromwell’s Protectorate.

One of Mrs. Haynes’ descendants has favored me with some notices of the matron and her family, from the recollections of her widowed daughter-in-law, Margaret Haynes, who was for some years a resident of Cornersville, in Tennessee. Her maiden name was Ann Huggins. She was the daughter of John Huggins, a Scotch Presbyterian, who emigrated from the north of Ireland to America about 1730. She married James Haynes about 1748. In a catalogue of the Pioneer Women of the West, her name may well find a place. After her marriage, she settled upon the verge of civilization, in the county of Dauphin, Pennsylvania, where she was exposed to the frontier troubles of that colony, but stronger attractions soon drew her family to the South.

In 1752, James Haynes and two brothers, and many kinsmen with their families, ventured out to the then Far West, in the valley of the Catawba, in the colony of North Carolina. Here, upon the very borders of the hostile Cherokees and Catawbas, they established themselves, building a fort as a defence against Indian incursions, and maintained their position by the strength of their arms. For several years, cooped up within the limits of a frontier station, they courageously opposed the marauding parties of the hostile tribes in their neighborhood. It was in this year that the settlement of the upper country, both of North and South Carolina, began. At that time the frontiers of Pennsylvania were east of the mountains; and Fort Duquesne was a French trading post. The settlements in Virginia were still confined to the Atlantic slope, and it was several years later, when Col. Bird of the British army, advanced into the wilderness, and established Fort Chissel, as a protection to the advancing settlements. Still later, Gov. Dobbs, of North Carolina, succeeded in establishing Fort Loudon, in the midst of the Cherokee nation. Notwithstanding its exposed situation, the settlement grew rapidly, so that in a few years the entire valley of the Catawba was occupied. At this time there were so many buffaloes in this region, that a good hunter could easily kill enough in a few days, to supply his family for the year. Wild turkeys, bears, deer, wolves, and panthers, were also abundant. Every little mountain stream abounded with otters, beavers, and musk-rats. Each pioneer could raise as many head of cattle as he thought proper; the profusion of canes and grasses, rendering stock-raising so easy, that the means of plentiful living was almost to be had without labor. A few skins usually sufficed to purchase upon the seaboard all the necessary supplies of iron, salt, etc., for the year.

This kind of life, requiring the daily use of the rifle, and much exercise on horseback, and exposure to the open air in the woods, made these hardy men the best of soldiers, and enabled them to cope with the wild warriors of the savage tribes who dwelt on their borders. The axe, and the rifle, and the horse, were their constant companions. Each settler sought a home near some clear spring or stream, convenient to the _range_ and susceptible of defence against the Indians. In such a settlement the means of education were limited, and but for the religious zeal and pious labors of a few educated ministers who cast their fortunes with the colonists, would have been unattainable. The Rev. Hezekiah Balch, afterwards a signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, was one of them.

In all the trials and disorders of the transition state of society peculiar to the frontiers of the West, these pioneers never forgot the principles, nor gave up the practice of those Christian virtues which they had received from their ancestors. Here, in the midst of the solitudes of their deep pine forests, they reared their sons and daughters in the fear of God and in the love of liberty, and when the storm of civil war burst forth, and they were called upon to sustain the cause of an oppressed people, they did not hesitate to send their sons forth to battle for “the right.”

An aged citizen of Marshall County, Tennessee, often described the appearance of his own father and James Haynes, both prisoners in the hands of the British the night after Gen. Davidson’s death at Cowan’s Ford. He saw these aged men and many other prisoners driven like sheep into a corn-crib, the door of which was filled with rails, and a sentinel placed, over it; and thus without blanket or fire, they passed a long winter night in 1781.

The venerable Mrs. Haynes survived her husband but a short time. True to the principles of her faith, upon her dying bed she gave to each of her children her parting words of advice with one of the religious books contained in her library. To her son John, she gave the Westminster Confession of Faith; to another, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress; to a third, Flavel, etc., works usually found in that day in the library of every Christian. She died about the year 1790.

Her husband was no less stern and inflexible in his religious principles. When the question of the introduction of the new version of the Psalms was agitated in the Church at Centre Meeting-House, after much debate, it was put to the vote, and Haynes was left alone as the advocate of the old version. His brethren tauntingly asked him if he was going to stand out alone. He replied, “yes, as long as the world stands;” and so he did to the end of his life.

A rude and humble stone now marks the last resting place of both, at their own home, near Centre Meeting-House, Iredell County, N. C., where, more than a century ago, they sat down amidst the dim solitudes of the western wilderness. The old homestead is now the residence of James Sloan, a relative of the family.

The three sons, Joseph, John and James, and the son-in-law, Capt. Scott, bore arms against the Cherokees, and against the British and loyalists. They were brave young men, of active habits, and accustomed to hard service; rode much about the country, and were always ready for any enterprise requiring toil and exposure, or skill and daring. In proportion as they made themselves useful to the whig party, they were of course persecuted by the loyalists. Their irregular life in military service never caused them to do aught contrary to the strict principles of their faith; they never travelled, except when rigid necessity required it, on the Sabbath, being Puritans enough to look upon profanity and Sabbath-breaking with as much abhorrence as upon horse stealing. They served--John bearing a prominent part--in the first battle fought in North Carolina in which the whigs were victorious, after the suspension of hostilities succeeding the fall of Charleston; that of Ramsour’s Mill, in Lincoln County.[23]

Capt. Scott, the son-in-law of Mrs. Haynes, was killed at Cowan’s Ford, at the same time with Gen. Davidson, who had been stationed there by Gen. Greene, with a small force, to delay the passage of the British army across the Catawba. Joseph Haynes barely escaped with his life in this action. Soon after, the British passing, as already mentioned, near the house of the elder James Haynes, stopped and plundered it, took him prisoner, and boasted in the hearing of his family, that they had killed his son-in-law at the Ford, hinting that his sons also were either killed or captured. The old man was over sixty, and in feeble health; his venerable appearance and Quaker habiliments should have secured their respect, but the crime of sending so many brave sons to battle was not to be forgiven. Family tradition, confirmed by the recollection of his daughter-in-law, states that they pulled off his coat, overcoat, and silver knee and shoe-buckles, and made him dismount and walk on through mud and water, urged forward by the prick of bayonets; also that the news of his capture and the pillaging of his house was carried to his sons by his daughter Hannah, who made her way through bypaths for forty miles, eluding the marauding parties scattered through the country, to the American army. Her brothers immediately set off in pursuit, found their father at length by the roadside, watched over by a wounded American soldier, and conveyed him home.

Another adventure is remembered, in which John Haynes figured, during that memorable retreat of Gen. Greene. He was sent as a scout, with three others, to give notice of the approach of Tarleton’s dragoons. While posted on a hill they were suddenly startled by the appearance of a squadron of his light horse turning round a clump of trees close at hand, with the design of cutting off their retreat. The only point left open was a lane, a mile or so long, through a wide plantation. The four whigs instantly commenced the race, closely pursued by the British dragoons with their drawn sabres, the parties near enough to hear each other’s voices--the royalists calling upon the rebel squad to surrender, and now and then discharging a pistol to enforce the order. The hindmost fugitive, one George Locke, was at length cut down by a sabre-stroke, and killed; the others, hotly pursued, reached the end of the lane, and instantly turned into the thick woods, where they could ride with ease, being practised woodsmen, while the progress of the heavy-armed dragoons of Tarleton was retarded. As they dashed into the cover, they discharged their pistols over their shoulders, killing the leading horseman, a subaltern, who had the moment before cut down their companion, and was almost in the act of performing the same office for them. Fearing an ambuscade, the party hastily retreated, leaving the body of the subaltern where he fell. His uniform was taken off by a negro, and often worn by him after the close of the war.

In his advanced age John Haynes often amused his friends by recounting this and other anecdotes of races with the British troopers. On one occasion he was alone, hemmed in by pursuing horsemen, and driven to the banks of Candle Creek, at a point where the height of the banks and the width of the channel seemed to preclude all hope of escape. Being well mounted and a fearless rider, he dashed to the stream, his enemies close upon him with drawn sabres, cleared the creek at a bound, and was safe from his pursuers who dared not make the leap.

The two other sons, Joseph and James, were with Gates and Greene, and in many of the most trying scenes of the war. Joseph was one of the first who broke the cane and hunted the buffalo in the valley of Duck River, Tennessee. He was a brave soldier and an ardent patriot. It was his boast, that of all his kinsmen who were able to bear arms, there was not one who did not fight on the side of the Republic. He survived most of them who served with him, and after a long and useful life in the land to which he had gone as a pioneer, he died in July 1845, at his residence on Silver Creek, Maury County, Tennessee, in the 96th year of his age.

His brother John was born in a fort or station in the valley of the Catawba, where his family had taken shelter from the incursions of the Cherokee Indians in 1759. All three brothers with their families emigrated to Tennessee in the beginning of the present century, and established themselves in the southern part of Middle Tennessee.

John Haynes and his sons opened the road from the north side of Duck River, near Cany Spring, to the south side of Elk-ridge, where Cornersville now stands. Here father and sons opened farms, aided in erecting churches and school-houses, and soon found themselves surrounded by crowds of emigrants from Carolina and Virginia. They never forgot the precepts of their venerable ancestor, nor neglected their duty to pander to the taste of a less rigidly moral population. John lived to the age of seventy-seven, and kept his character for rapid riding to the last. It was often averred by his friends that he never rode in a walk, but always in a gallop. He died in 1838, but his widow, Margaret Haynes, survived him many years, dying the 3rd July, 1851, at the residence of her son, James S. Haynes, Esq., in her 88th year. Even at that advanced age, she retained her physical and intellectual faculties so perfectly, as to render her reminiscences of the times of peril and bloodshed both reliable and interesting. She remembered to have heard Rev. James McCree preach the funeral of Gen. Davidson at Centre meeting-house soon after the war, at which were present more than a dozen widows of those who had fallen in defence of their country. Her chief employment was reading religious books and studying the Scriptures. She gave food to the hungry and clothing to the needy, encouraging, reproving, and admonishing those around her, and diligently following every good work.

There were other children, daughters of James and Ann Haynes, who married worthy men in Rowan and Mecklenburg, North Carolina, where most of them continued to live. Their descendants are now widely scattered through the West and South, probably numbering three or four hundred, and many of them have been active in the service of their country. Several were engaged in the war of 1812; others subsequently in the Florida or Seminole war, and in the recent war with Mexico; Milton A. Haynes being a subaltern in the Florida war, and a Captain of Tennessee Volunteers in the Mexican war, and two of his brothers serving as subalterns. One of them lost his life in the service. The Rev. Cyrus Haynes, of Illinois, and the Rev. John Haynes of Mississippi, are the grandsons, and several other respectable clergymen of different States are descendants of the subject of this sketch.

VIII.

RUTH SPARKS.

Ruth Sevier was the second daughter of Gen. John Sevier, by his second marriage with Catharine Sherrill. She was born--the precise date is not known--at Plum Grove, their residence on the Nolachucka in that part of North Carolina now known as East Tennessee those settlements then forming the extreme borders of the country inhabited by civilized Americans.

During some five and twenty years, the greater part of the time from 1769 to 1796, the settlers--as it has been seen--were troubled more or less every year by Indian depredators, and murders and bloody battles were common occurrences. It cannot be wondered at that females born and reared in the midst of such perils should be imbued with a sturdy courage, and a self-reliance acquired only by familiar acquaintance with danger and hardship. Boldness and force of character might be expected, with the occasional manifestation of a daring more than feminine, and a love of wild and romantic adventure; while the cultivation of the gentler graces, and the refinement which is such an ornament to womanhood, might be supposed to be frequently neglected. It will not be rational, therefore, for modern judgment to condemn too rigidly what in the manners of that period did not accord with the ideas of etiquette in vogue at the present day. The heart and the morals of our ancestors were uncorrupted, and we should not mark for disapproval their non-observance of external properties. “Times change, and we change with them,” is an admitted truth; whether for the better or not, perhaps it would not be easy to decide.

Throughout Western Virginia and North Carolina but few opportunities or advantages were then offered for the education of children, and the duty of instructing them, particularly daughters, devolved chiefly upon the mothers among the frontier settlers. This duty was in general attended to as diligently as circumstances permitted, and women who had themselves enjoyed in a very limited degree the privilege of schooling, but had graduated under the rough but thorough tutoring of hard experience, did not often fail to impart to their little ones, with a portion of their own energy, perseverance, and spirit of enterprise, such a knowledge of practical matters at least, as proved sufficient for all purposes of life. Often too, they incited their children to avail themselves of opportunities presented to acquire even what might be termed learning. Such training had the parents of our heroine, and such they gave her; and thus without any regular schooling, she made rapid attainments, having been gifted by nature with a powerful and active mind, a ready apprehension, and great energy and strength of purpose. The condition of society in those unsettled and eventful times, and the stirring incidents in which her parents and their associates were continually forced to participate, had also much effect in forming her character, imparting a force, decision, and promptness which she might not otherwise have possessed.

During the Indian wars in which Gen. Sevier commanded the troops and was the leader in so many expeditions and successful encounters, being acknowledged as “the friend and protector of the exposed settlements,” Ruth evinced a strong interest in the history and character of those warlike tribes. She learned not only the names of the chiefs, but of many of the common warriors. Some of them she saw at her father’s house in the intervals of peace, and availed herself of the opportunity to become well acquainted with them, and acquire a knowledge of their manners and customs. She manifested a particular curiosity to learn as much as possible of their mode of living and domestic habits. All the information she sought was readily communicated to her by the Indians, who were influenced by grateful feelings towards her father for his generous kindness to the friendly savages who had visited him, and to some thirty prisoners whom he brought to his house and took care of liberally at his own expense. These had been selected from about one hundred captives taken in the year 1781. Ten of these thirty remained for three years at the residence of Gen. Sevier. Ruth was a great favorite with them all, and not only learned the Cherokee language, but so completely won the regard of every one of them, that on their return to the nation they named her to the chiefs and warriors with such expressions of commendation as amounted to a pledge of safety to the family, in case of any future difficulty, to be considered more sacred than the guarantee extended to other settlers. The kindness shown by “Nolachucka Jack” and his wife to the captives and other Indians, was mentioned the more frequently, as it gave occasion to speak of “Chucka’s Rutha.” “She will be chief’s wife some day,” was the prediction of many.

Mrs. Sevier had been accustomed to place much confidence in her friends among the children of the forest, which she never found betrayed. While the captives were at her house she permitted the Indian girls to play with Ruth and accompany her in errands and visits to the neighbors. The watchful solicitude they manifested at all times for her safety, and their desire to please her by any little service in their power, convinced the mother that the little girl was entirely secure in their company, while the unlimited trust she placed in the savages was returned on their part by gratitude, and a determination to merit her kindly regard. Thus, prisoners as they were, they lived contented and happy, bound to their host more strongly than bonds or imprisonment could have fettered them. The effect of these mutual good offices was seen long afterwards, and repeatedly acknowledged in various negotiations and treaties, where the presence and “talks” of Gen. Sevier exercised a decisive influence in persuading the savages to accede to the wishes of the whites for the extension of boundaries and the promotion of peace.

Many instances are mentioned which caused alarm to the family of Gen. Sevier and the settlers living on the Nolachucka, in which Ruth’s courage and spirit were of service. Once she gave notice of the approach of tories in time for her mother to have the most valuable articles removed from the house, and concealed in an old lime-kiln. On another occasion, while playing or bathing in the stream with one of the captive Indian girls, she fancied she saw enemies lurking near the banks, and hastened to give warning. Once an attempt to cross the river with the same or another Indian maiden, had nearly proved a fatal experiment, when two young men of the same band of Cherokee captives, came unexpectedly to their relief. Ruth learned in her earliest childhood to shoot well with the musket and rifle, and could take a surer aim than many an ordinary huntsman.

The prediction of the Indians that “Chucka’s Rutha” would become the wife of a chief was fulfilled singularly enough, as we proceed to explain. In the early settlement of Kentucky, when violent and destructive attacks were made on the settlements--during frequent incursions by the tribes living north of the Ohio river, a number of children had been captured, and for the most part carried off to the Indian villages near the Lakes. Among others thus taken, was a child four years of age, who was either captured or purchased by one of the principal chiefs of the Shawanese, upon the head waters of the Scioto River. This Indian had two sons nearly of the same age with the youthful captive, who was adopted as a third son, and immediately placed with them as a companion and brother, rather than as a slave, being treated with unusual kindness and indulgence. He received a new name on his adoption--Shawtunte--a cognomen which was changed after his release for that of Richard Sparks; though whether the latter was his true and original name or not, we have no means of ascertaining. His Indian playmates were Tecumseh, and his elder brother the Prophet. Both these were afterwards well known as chiefs of power and influence, and as resolute and dangerous enemies of the United States. Tecumseh was ambitious, bold and energetic, and withal of a more amiable disposition than his brother; but neither of them was deficient in the qualities necessary to form the brave and successful warrior. By their enterprise and exertions the plan was organized for an extensive combination among the tribes of the West and Northwest, including some of the Southwest, for the purpose of a general war upon the Americans. This mischievous conspiracy among the tribes was got up chiefly through the influence of agents of the British government, and threatened a vast amount of misery and bloodshed to the extensive and exposed American settlements on the frontier. The confederacy was broken up by the victories gained by Gen. Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe, Nov. 6th, 1811, and upon the Miami River, followed by that of the Thames, Oct. 5th, 1813. The British Government had conferred upon Tecumseh the commission of a Major General. He lost his life in the battle of the Thames.

To return to Shawtunte. He remained in the family of Tecumseh about twelve years, till he was sixteen years old, acquiring the habits of the Indians, and becoming a proficient in their language; for he had, indeed, little knowledge of any other. Some time before the victories of Gen. Wayne over the Indians on the Miamies, gained in 1794, he was exchanged or released, and having bid adieu to his Indian friends, returned to Kentucky. Thence he proceeded to the settlements on the Holston and Nolachucka. His relatives did not recognize him, particularly as he could not speak English. His mother only knew him by a mark she remembered.

Having heard of Gen. Sevier, and being inspired with profound respect for one who had obtained so high a reputation as a military officer, he ventured at length to seek his acquaintance. The General became deeply interested in the history of the young man, and was anxious to obtain from him some account that could be depended on, of the numbers and disposition of the northern tribes of Indians. He desired also an accurate description of the country stretching between the Ohio and the Lakes, over much of which Shawtunte had passed in his various travels while domesticated among the savages. He was quite willing to gratify his friend by stories of Indian life and adventure, and his accounts of the perils and hardships he had encountered in his sojourn in the wilderness, awakened the lively sympathy of his auditor. It may be supposed that the General was not the only listener on such occasions, to these tales of adventure wilder than romance, as he had without hesitation admitted Shawtunte to the acquaintance and hospitality of his family. The interest expressed in fair faces at his narration, could not fail to encourage vivid details of “most disastrous chances,

Of moving accidents by flood and field,”

such as might well enchain the hearing of those who had seen enough of Indian life to take an interest in all that concerned their savage neighbors. As an evidence of his regard, Gen. Sevier promised to exert his influence in procuring him a military appointment; and did so with such good effect that he was honored with a captain’s commission. He performed service as a spy, and it is said was very useful in Gen. Wayne’s army; also, that he stood high as an officer and a gentleman. Meanwhile he had been aiming at a conquest of another sort in the family of the Governor-General, having become deeply enamored of his fair daughter, Ruth. Her appearance at this time is described as being very prepossessing. In symmetry of form and grace of attitude she was unrivalled. It was said, “she was never in the least awkward; she never sat, stood, or walked, but with a natural ease and grace that was perfect; and she was always a figure for a painter.” She had regular and delicate features, with a complexion extremely fair, blue eyes, and a chiselled mouth, expressive of intelligence and lively humor. Her personal attractions were enhanced by a cheerful and sociable disposition, a self-possessed and unembarrassed manner, and a faculty of accommodating herself to any situation or circumstances, with powers of entertaining conversation which made her society sought eagerly by both sexes. It will not be wondered at that she never failed to make an impression, or that she was an acknowledged centre of attraction; yet as she was entirely free from vanity or arrogance, and seemed animated not so much by a love of display as by a cheerful and kindly spirit, and a desire to enjoy and contribute to the enjoyment of others, she was not so much envied as loved.