In going from Jonesboro to the courts in Greene, Hawkins and Sullivan counties, Jackson always took with him his shotgun, holsters and saddle-bags, and very often his hounds, so that he was always ready to join in a deer chase or a fox hunt. He was an unerring marksman, and was always the centre of attraction at the “shooting matches,” at which the prizes were quarters of beef, turkeys and deer. He would dismount anywhere on these trips, in order to participate in such a contest; and messengers were frequently sent from remote parts of the settlements, inviting him to come out and join in a hunt or a “shooting match.” He invariably accepted such invitations.
In those early days, when a new settler came into the community, or a young man married, as soon as the place for the “clearing” and the erection of a cabin was fixed upon, the neighbors “gathered in,” and they had what was called a “house raising” and a “barn raising.” They felled the trees, hewed the logs and built the house and barn—all in one day, or in two days at most. It was said that Jackson attended more of these house and barn “raisings” than any other one man in the country. They usually wound up with a fox hunt, a deer chase or a shooting match. He was said to have been “a horseman without an equal, the boldest and most fearless rider that had ever crossed the Alleghanies.” He would ford or swim his horse through a river wherever he came to it, if he wished to get to the opposite side. His aggressiveness and restlessness were often the subject of remark, and led to the opinion, which was freely expressed, that if ever there was a war, he would be a great general.
He began life among people who had views and opinions of their own on all questions of the day and subjects of public interest; yet his judgment was consulted and his views sought on almost all public affairs, notwithstanding his youth. He was recognized from the first as a man who “would fight at the drop of a hat, and drop the hat himself”; but in all the personal difficulties which he had while he resided in Washington county, save one—a duel with Col. Avery, an account of which will be given in another chapter—public opinion was generally largely in his favor.
It may, and it should, be interesting to those who love and revere the memory of Andrew Jackson to know something of the life, habits and characteristics of the people among whom he first settled at Jonesboro, as well as of those with whom he afterwards made his permanent home at Nashville; for whatever can be said to the credit and glory of either the early settlers on the Watauga or those upon the Cumberland can be truthfully said of the others. Therefore, a brief account of the dominating characteristics of the people among whom he first settled will be given. This will, it is believed, throw some light on the formation of Jackson’s character, methods and course throughout his life.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Major Bird Brown, Abram Taylor and John Allison.
CHAPTER II.
THE PICKETS OF CIVILIZATION.
The first settlers in Tennessee: what did they do?
They founded and administered the first free and independent government in America. They established the first church, the first institution of learning, and the second newspaper, in “the new world west of the Alleghanies.”