Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1871-10-28

The following IL an extract from an
address delivered before the Alumni
Society Of the University of Nash
vile by Hon. w. H. Stevens of Mem
phis, Tenn. tits > graphic descrip-
ton of the perils, sufferings, hard
ships, hopes and heroism involved In
the first settlement of Nashville.
This history will be interesting to
native Tennesseeans and especially
to all who hail from the city of Nash-
Vile or its vicinity:
"In December, 1779, fleet of
barges, under the direction of Col.
John Donelson, set out upon the up
per waters of the Holston River,
destined for the infant Cumberland
settlement where Nashville now
stands by the long and dangerous
route down the Tennessee and. up the
Ohio and Cumberland rivers. This
emigrant fleet carried as precious a
store of human life as ever EN- barked
upon ship upon the great ocean, and
the germ of as noble u race Ms ever
trod the earth. Besides the brave
men who manned the fleet, and to
whom dangers were a pastime, it car
ried their wives and children, and the
families of those who with James
Robertson had shortly before proceed
ed overland, by way of Cumberland,
Gap and the Kentucky route, to this
point. where they were now suffering
the horrors of that dreadful winter OF
seventy-nine, SO memorable for its
unparalleled severity. l may re-
mark that on board of these boats
was that fair young maiden who was
destined to become the idOlized wife
of future most distinguished Presi-
dent of the United States, by whose
side she now sleeps In hOnOred and
sacred remembrance beneath the
shades of yonder Hermitage.
These vOyagers endured as much
suffering from fatigue, exposure and
hunger, and encountered as many
perils of navigation through the rap
Ids and mountain passes of the river,
as ever fell to the lot of any of the
original European emigrants to these
shores. During their passage, which
lasted four months, they were con-
stantly assailed by murderous sava-
ges, who fired into the boats from the
Overhanging cliffs or from their dark
am bush In the deep thickets along
the shore. 1t was in one of these at
tacks, as we are told, that the heroic
Ann Cover, the daughter of the
helsmen of one of the boats, took the
oar from her fathers hand to enable
him to join In the defense and though
exposed to all the fire of the enemy,
and though pierced by rifle ball,
continued to steer the boat, without
betraying her wound, until the dan
ger was passed.
After their long voyage through
such perils as these, they reached
their anxious friends at this bluff on
the 18th of April, 1850, and joined ut
once in the high mission of Founding
this Western Empire. Here, In the
midst of trackless wilderness, beyond
the protecting arm Of the govern.
ment, beyond reach of human help,
beyond even the voice of human
sympathy, surrounded and assailed
by tribes of ferocious foes, across
whose war path they had so defiantly
set their block house, they subdued
the forest, they sowed the fields of
industry, they built the towns, they
raised the humble schoolhouse, they
reared the modest church to the wor-
ship Of the Living God, making the
primeval forest resound with the
songs of Zion. Step by step they
pressed back the savage until the last
armed foe was vanished, and the will
derness smiled, an Eden of beauty.
And, then, dying, bequeathed to US a
free government, with religious tole-
ration and free Bible.u