Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-12-19
HEROES OF THE LOG CABIN.
Story of James Robertson and the
Cumberland Settlers.
The Way of Life of the Handful of Men
who First Penetrated Into Tennes-
see and Maintained Themselves
Against Savage Foes in AL
most Overwhelming
Numbers.

Sne auVdnCe OF our Angl0-Sax0n race
from its rude barbarian condition to its
present high state of civilization. And
in that history We may see each success
sive step of the progress-the work of
nearly two thousand years com pressed.
We perceive first the half faced cabin,
enclosed on three of it's sides with a
blanket or buffalo skin; next, the
domicile of rough logs, surrounding by
palisade, and watched over by block
house; then when John Sewer, after
twenty five years of victory, had sub
dued the savages to peaceable behavior,
the same log dwelling standing in the
open field, with waving corn and we'll
filled granaries aboutit; then the house
OF timber frame aud planed and paint
ed weather boarding; and, at the last,
the more or less palatial mansion of
brick or stone, with its Eastern adjuncts
of gin palaces, high steepled churches,
political professions, and Fourth of
July Junketing.
All these outward and visible signs"
of material advancement have existed
beyond the Alleghanies within a single
century; but it must not be supposed
that they are any indication of the men
tai or moral progress of the Western
people. They were simply tho neces-
sary result of their physical surround
ings. Those Western pioneers did not
begin on the barbarian plan. They
were not the same men who, some fif-
teen hundred years ago, emerged in the
highest style of savage half nakedness,
from the forests of Germany, to build
up, through blood and toll, our free
institutions, and create our magnificent
race, whose manifest destiny" it is to
girdle the globe with enlightened lib
erty and Christian civilization. They
were the last descendants of that stall
wart race, in all respects the counter
parts Of our Puritan ancestors, except
that they did not have that bulwark of
our freedom, the town meeting, nor eat
pork and beans for their Sunday dinner.
They were Scotch Presbyterians and,
like the Puritans, they feared God and
honored their rulers, when these hap
pened to he Of their own choosing. l
hear also that their sermons were in
tolerably long, that they sang "Old
Hundred" with a nasal twang, and
roasted new born infants over a hot
fire, keut forever burning in an under
ground locality styled Gehenna.
But they were an heroic race and they
did a most important work in our early
history A mere handful, they ventur.
ed beyond the Alleghanies, and there
held the rear of the country against
the combined British and Indians all
through the Revolutionary war, and
when that war was only half over, $50
of them-256 men and 124 women and
children-migrated under James Rob-
ertson to the wilds of Tennessee, 800
miles west Of the remotest white settle.
ment, and there took possession of q
vast territory then in dispute between
the United States and Spain. There
in the vicinity of the present city of
Nashville - they were outnumbered
nearly 100 to one by hostile savages;
but they held their ground, and after a
bloody conflict of fifteen years, beat off
their enemies, and laid, broad and deep,
the foundations of the great empire
that is growing up in the Valley of the
Mississippi.
1t was a remarkable struggle. So far
as know, there is nothing to be com.
pared with it in modern history. At
one time reduced to seventy riflemen,
and never counting over one thousand.
they met and Overcame twenty thous-
and savages, backed by great Euro
pean monarchy; but at the close of the
long fight only fifteen of the original
two hundred and fifty six were left
alive to rejoice over the victory. But
do not propose to recount that conflict.
l merely aim to describe the way of life
of those men as l have been able to
trace it from the files of certain old
newspapers in my possession, and from
other printed and written documents
that are not generally accessible.
1t is All interesting study because it
shows what the civilized Anglo-Saxon
will do when subjected to savage sur
roundings; and also because it exhibits
a state of society which can never again
be reseated in this country, where now
the railway rushes on in advance of
the pioneers cabin, and bears to his
door all the appliances of Eastern civ.
ilization. 1t was not 80 when, amid
ice and snow and the intense cold of
the winter of 1880, James Robertson
built his half dozen log forts and pali-
saded stations on the remote Cumber.
land. He carried with him all that he
had of the conveniences of civilized
life, and what more he received during
fifteen years was laboriously borne on
pack horses from a distance of 700 miles
beyond the mountains.
The first law of our nature is self PIE
servation. Robertson acted on this law
in at once building forts and organic.
ing the settlers into military body for
defense against the Indians. This done,
he proceeded to frame code of laws
and establish government to preserve