The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-11-07
A MRury County Man Visits the West
ern YeisI rfcl,

lily through your Town en- FOUte IOr WoSt
Tennessee by private conveyance. We
took the Mt. Pleasant road, and found
a splendid road from Columbia to
Clifton, where the Hughes Bros, keep
a splendid ferryboat and careful ferry
man, who landed us safely on the other
side of the river, where we halted and
partook of cold dinner. We found
group of"ffteen amendments" and in
passing them, | asked if the road was
good from there to Lexington. They
looked at each other, and at last one
| spoke and said, "De road were berry
good when come along; l do not know
how it am now" We then travelled two
miles up the bank of the river, the road
still good. Here we left the river, turn
ing square to the right into nearly as
rough a road as L ever travelled for about
six miles, oyer rocks weighing from one
pound to one ton. When we had pass
ed half way through this rough road,
we found some household and kitchen
furniture lying in the bushes on some
rocks, which were very numerous, lying
| loose about part OF wagon, some corn
| on the other side OF the road, and TWO
women sitting near by smoking cob
| pipe, seemingly COntented. asked one
| of them whore they were from, and she
| answered, Lawrence county" then
asked where they We're going, and she
| answered, "Obion." After leaving this
| five or six miles of bad road, we found
| the road from Lexington to Jackson very
good, and should any OF your readers
| travel from Maury to any of the lower
counties of West Tennessee, to cross
| Tennessee river at Clifton, as the road
| is generally better than by way of Sa-
| vannah, except the five or SIX miles
named above.
We arrived at Jackson, Madison coun-
! ty, the fifth day, at noon, where we
! found Circuit Court in session, to our
| surprise, trying Criminal causes, having
no Criminal Court. We found the Court
! house and square alive with negroes,
and upon inquiry, found they were try
| ing three negroes for murder-all among
their own color. Here we found Dr. Il.
| r. Harris, formerly of Maury county,
who kindly assisted me in getting all'tho
| information about the most direct and
| best route to the place of our deStina-
| ton. We also met at this place the kov.
j. A. Heard, and formerly the popular
| Methodist pGacher, stationed at Jack
son, looking almost as young as whom
We last met him, during the late uns
pleasantnes9. We were kindly invited
| to house the night with him and his Ia
! DIV; but we passed on with promise to
| call, if convenient, on Our return.
| We left Jackson, took the SOmerYllle !
road. On our arrival at SomeFvllle, we |
| called at the Office of the Rev. Mr.. Rose !
! borough, station Methodist preacher at |
| this place, q relative OF A. NJ. Rose |
| borough, formerly of Columbia, and +,
quite nice gentleman. He kindlyas~ |
| sisted me in getting directions through /
the country, to noted Nj. T. Church in /
Shelby county, near the place of our .
destination, at which place we arrived |
the same evening, little after dark, on !
Saturday night. The next day the Roy. |
Mr.. Jones. of Memphis, had an appoint I
ment at the NJ. E. Church, Gratitude /
to preach. His subject was to have been |
on the possibility of apostacy; but owing |
to the yellow fever, he failed to come, |
but we were not wholly disappointed, |
for they have very large and flourish |
ing Sabbath school, with about los /
scholars on the roll, with very large at
tendance. The accomplished Superin-
tendent invited ME, in the absence Of a |
teacher OF one of the Bible classes, to
take charge of the same, which / de-
clined, and suppose the school did As
we'll as if | had taken charge of the
class, for don't think | ever saw more
system in a school. At the close of the
school, The children gathered around
the organ, and Miss &. and Miss - in
turn performed on tie organ. All the
children and old people sang several
Sunday School tunes. We intended 60
ing to Memphis, but owing to yellow
| fever, and having much business, con-
cluded TO visit the city. As there was
not much excitement about yellow fever |
| in the country, we remained in Shelby /
nearly a week. We took our leave of /
! kind friends and relatives for Union
| CITY, where | now write, visiting relaS
tives and friends i'll Haywood and Dy-
err counties. We found Brownsville
and Dyersburg fOurlshing towns, and |
| to our surprise, found two steamers ly>
| ing at anchor i'll little stream at by
| ersburg, the FOrked Deer, which did |
not look more than halfas large as Duck /
river but it is like all streams in West /
| Tennessee-yery deep and muddy. |
| There is a large amount OF fine land in |
these counties, but l think they are /
/ rather flat-tnO many chjIls,
We arrived safely at Union City on |
| Monday night. The Fair commenced |
! the next morning, and continued all /
through the week. We went to the !
| Fair, and found Il good attendance, and |
! good display of articles in the Floral !
| Hal. The stock was very good, consid- !
ering the city and vicinity had so re- .
Gently been scOUrged by powerful cpl /
demic The citizens seem to have re- |
covered, and are still pressing forward !
with energy, determined to make this /
place second to but few in the State.
1t is now far ahead of Troy, the county /
site. At this place can be heard the |
whistles of five or six steam mills. / be-
lieve three i'll the city are planning mills.
In travelling a street you will OCCASION
ally find a residence closed, all the taIni-
ly having died with cholera.
Having read and heard 50 much about
Miss Susan G. GOdsey, the "Sleoping
Beauty" we concluded, last Friday, to
visit her at her mothers residence, dis
tant from the city ten miles, not far
from the Kentucky line. We Travelled
over rough road, and arrived there 4
few minutes after ii o'clock 4, NJ, and
found her quite sick with Inflammation
OF the stomach. AS her case has 50 often
been described by much ADLER pens than
mine, l will not attempt it, but will say
her case is the strangost ] ever saw, and
am satisfied there never will be another
such in the world. She had lust gone
to sleep when we got there. We we're
told that she would wake Just at l.
o'clock. We awaited patiently until
twelve, at which time they said she
would awake precisely. She has not
deviated from her regular time OF arOus-
ing in "A years. She awakes at sunrise
and talks and breathes naturally for
five or seven minutes, then falls asleep
and does rot breathe for another hour |
From sunrise until L o'clock NJ, she
wakes every hour, after that until next
morning, every three hours. Twill not
to her support, and felt we had been
richly paid for our ride and money.
Don't understand by this they charge
it is not so. Every one pays or not as
he pleases; but | think all would be
willing to give something freely after
seeing how needy they are. We return
ed to Union City, and next day being
Saturday, our party, with some others
from the city, concluded to visit Hick
man, Ky. So we took the train at 1880
\. NJ, and in about one hour arrived at
the city, we found a circus IN full blast:
but as our visit was not to see the show,
we did not visit it, but rambled over the
town, which reminds me OF NatcheZ.
All the business houses on the blum are
near the river, then you go up flight
OF steps 100 in number, where you come
to some magnificent residences, also sew
eral churches, and this gives a good
view Of the Mississippi river, both above
and below town, The river being quite
low. You also see considerable dis
lance into Missouri on the opposite side
of the river. After strolIing over the
city, We came down to make few pur-
chases as presents for friends, ana went
to the store OF j. Amhcdrg. Here we .
met MIR, DAVE, who has some acouain- |
! tanGes in Columbia. He showed lis |
/ through their mammoth stock OF dry
goods, glazedware, etc. He informed us |
that the yearly sales OF the house