Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1897-01-13

the company and he in company with
Scaggs, Cox, Blevins and several 9TH
ers forced their way into the district
now known as Carter's Valley and
thence through Mocassin Gap in Clinch
Mountain and established a camp on
branch Of Powell's River which they
named Walters Creek giving the same
name to the valley and also to the
river.
Now comes story of the origin Of
the name Clinch, which is novel at
least. In crossing the river, then un-
named, Fitzgerald, an Irishman, fell
off the raft, and being unable to swim
yelled out, "Clinch me, clinch me. "
That episode, says iBreazeale, gave the
name "Clinch" not only to the river
but to the. adjacent mountain. Wal
lens or Walden's Ridge was named at-
ter Walden, and Newman's Ridge
Scagg's Ridge and others were named
after members of that famous party.
Wallen or Walden the name is spelled
both ways) came from Cumberland
County, Virginia, and he it was who
named the Cumberland River, and af.
ter its headwaters had been visited the
same name was given to the plateau,
without mention of which no history
of Tennessee could be correctly written.
Probably the name was given careless
ly to designate the spot where Walden
had noticed some natural. popularity
or had killed some game, or something
OF that eort, so they called it Cumber-
land Mountain, a misnomer certainly,
but it sticks all tho same. And here
more than one hundred and thirty
years afterwards the eyes of the world
are directed to that Cumberland table
land, land teeming with milk and
honey and where nature has stored her
treasures till the very bowels of the
earth are full of richness. Here is the
coal and the timber, the iron and the
oil, and thousands upon thousands of
broad acres waiting to give forth their
increase. 1t were better to have given
the lands of the Cumberland to the
world than to have founded an empire.
This company of hunters made sew
eral visits to this territory, penetrating
further and further every year and the
glowing descriptions they gave of all
they saw induced others to follow
them, and in the summer of 1866, "the
middle section of Tennessee, first call
ed Cumberlnd," began to be explored.
Among those who entered this territory
in the year named were Col. James
Smith, Uria Stone, Joshua Horton and
William Baker; they entered at the
headwaters of the Holston and travelled
westward, "exploring the land south of
Kentucky" Not sign of the habita-
tion of white man was to be seen in
the territory that they explored, which
reached from the head of Stones
(Uriah) River to the mouth of the Ten
nessee. Little more is known of the ex-
plorations of this company, except that
they eventually reached Illinois.
In the winter of 1853, Gilbert Chris
tian, William Anderson and John Saw
yer (Col. Sawyer, afterwards of Knox
came to the head of the Holston from
Augusta County, Virginia. This party
found a number of cabins on the banks
of the north fork of the Holston and
that was the beginning of the settle
ment of that section. The following
year 1859, a party of Virginia hunters
travelled down the Holston and eventu-
ally established camp at Prices
Meadow, in what is now Wayne Coun.
ty, Kentucky. Some of these hunters
camppd on what is now called Caney
Fork, and one of them, Robert Crock.
EFT, was killed near the headwaters of
Roaring River. They found no cabins,
no settlers, but what is of great deal
more Importance they found human
bones piled up in the caves and rock
houses in which had dwelt race now
lost to earth. The treasures they found
were, many of them, handed down as
heir looms and will be exhibited at the
Tennessee Centennial, and will tell an
other tale OF an exodus and sojourn
in strange land. "a land whose
stones are iron, and out of whose hills
thou mayest dig brass" In the autumn
of 1771 another company, including
some of those already named, came
again into Tennessee and made camp
on creek that they called Russell's
Creek, after one of their number who
was lost for three weeks on its banks.
When the time arrived for them to
leave this territory five agreed to re
main till the others returned with more
ammunition. They were Isaac Bed-
soc, William Lynch, William Allen,
Christopher Stoph and David Hughes.
Lynch became i'll and Bledsoe went out
to the settlements with him and in
their absence the Indians attacked the
other three and took two of them pris-
oners.
In 1866 Casper Mansco, Thomas
Sharp Spencer and others, built cabins
on the Cumberland River and Spencer
and man named Holiday remained
in that section for three years, Brea
zeale tells very interesting story of
the advent of the first white woman