The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-05-15
cuAPTER l

CHATTER l.
There is a county in the State of
Tennessee named Shelby; it has in
it a city called Memphis, which has
many railroads centering in 1t,
bringing business to it from all the
distant world, and carrying back
the products of the large country
which comes there to trade.
The possession of so important a
mart tor trade should be of great
benefit to the people Of the interior
of this county. To have such
is a great consideration with most
communities, in order that all the
surplus which the land can be made
to yield can have near and cheap
market in point of transportation.
Forty years since Shelby county
was nearly a wilderness, covered
with dense forests of fine timber,
underneath which was dense thick
cts of weeds, grass and hazle, de-
noting a soil superabundantly fruit
full and easy to till
1t is a high table land, just level
enough, and with drainage suffi-
cient to keep the lands dry and
healthy. No country at that time
was more inviting to immigration,
and as soon as its advantages were
known it came, not slowly but one
surging that swept the forests away
as the winds displace straw.
The emigrants came TO raise
cotton, and for several years it was
raised Of that most superior quail
ty, and profitably; poor men grew
rich, rich men became wealthy. All
this was done with slave labor, and
without the least regard for the
preservation of the soil. Lands were
SO cheap only little further ives
the settlers thought it made no dlf
ference how soon these Shelb.
county fields were worn out. ii
could with the labor he had NOV
west and have new fields. Adde
to this. carelessness for the land
was the peculiar Sg e9mR9psalttiY9arpl mR9patYaplS OF NIB Se
low and rich for a few inches o
the surface; underneath a yello
l CLAW. with scarcely more adheslo
than a hill Of brown sugar, and
soon as the roots which held 1T Z
: getber has been broken by the plo
/ It commenced to melt away in grei
chasms and gulleys, and in man
fields where stumps still stood the
! were as SCARED and disfgured q
if the rains of centuries had spe1
: their wrath upon them.
Just at this crisis the war came
The Iaborer which was to hav
cleared the field for the owners @
these corrugated fields had bee
; freed, and the proprietor now ha.
an elephant on his hands" Al
ready in debt perhaps, without la
bor or money to hire it, withou
even a team, if he could get labor
what must he do-what could h
do2 Many desponded and di'
nothing. Many took hold OF wha
seemed the only alternative-mort
gagged the worn fields and starte'
on that pilgrimage by the side o
which that journey commemorate
, in the old song, Jordan is n hare
road to travel" is nothing at all.
There lived at this time a yerl
aged man by the name OF wills
He owned when the war commenced
several hundred negroes, and owe
: three thousand acres of land. Whei
il closed he had neither horse, COW
hog or living animal Of any kinC
on all the bleak waste which nov
spreads around his once animated
r home. Houses were decaying,
corner block rotted away here,
! roof torn away there, and all sign
/ of fence being a single panel her
E and there, where the briars haC
. stood too thick for pillagers to in
e trude.
, No wonder, then, when the wa
closed, the old man, with teariu
and despalrIng eyes, had surveys
the scene around him. He calle
his children around him, bade ther
r, divide the land among themselve
and do the best they could. lie ha
no other inheritance for them
not even a morsel of bread.
The old man died; the land
were divided among his three som
Then commenced the system OF u
building, of entire reconstruction
not alone of this family, but OF a
entir. people, the entire Soutl
without capital or labor.
John, James and Peter Will
were the sons, each having bee
reared as was almost unlversi
~ the sons of the wealthy, with incon
plete education, with no profession
with no idea of labor-in a wor'
as helpless as children. They WEI
. tn work. however IN a way. Inc
? fouud little difficulty in mortgagin
s. their respective shares Of the ol
"a plantation. Families of the recen
us iy freed negroes were induced
% come and work, or at least preten
u to. The plan of shares not hayiI
ID been tried the first year, wages the
g being the rule, the trial was on
s. TO add dlsater TO previous emOa
G rassment. The policy still follow'
n of cropping on shares was th'
to substituted.
Ill The three brothers had dlVld'
IL the estate by this time, had parti'
n; ly rebuilt fences, and houses, az
20 had alike succeeded just as u
ed whole county had--that is they M
tried by raising crops Of cotton al AZ
nothing more to relieve their a.
- tress and had found that instead
A. doing so they were only a lit'
on farther. behind
ce Peter Willis was an active, mt
'er ligent man, and intent on retrievil
his fallen fortunes, both prnde
and cautious; but these quailti'
lar with no Acquaintance with this M
iP- arrangement Of labor, did not pI
vent heavy losses the first t'