both sides of the river, and that he be allowed the customary toll for grinding." Afterwards, on the same day, it was "ordered that Jacob Overall have leave to build a grist and saw mill, on Smith's fork of the Caney Fork, it being suggested that he owns the lands on both sides of the stream, but upon this express condition, that he does not dam up the water so as to injure the mill already granted to Leonard Fite, and that he be authorized to receive the customary toll." Fite's mill was built, and did good service till about the year 1840, when it was swept away by a high rise. This old court seems from its minutes to have been for the first four years ambulatory in its sittings, part of the time at the house of Maj. Dixon; then at Wm. Saunders', the place where Dr. J. L. Alexander now lives; then at Fort Blount; then at Col. Walton's, at the mouth of Caney Fork; then on Peyton's Creek, and alternating around at these places, till in 1804 the county site was fixed at the place where Carthage now stands, which was laid out on the lands of William Walton, one mile below the mouth of Caney Fork, on the north side of the Cumberland. Col. Wm. Walton had, at an early day, made a settlement on the north bank of the Cumberland, at the mouth of Caney Fork, and had erected houses of entertainment at convenient distances for travelers moving from Virginia and North Carolina, and had cut a road, yet called after his name, from the junction of the Cumberland and the Caney Fork eastward across the mountain. These houses he supplied with grain from his Cumberland farm, and with meat furnished by hunters whom he kept in his employ for this purpose. This was then, and is yet, a great highway for persons moving to what was then called the "Cumberland country."

The following letter from a practical farmer, and one familiar with the country, will give some additional information:

GORDONSVILLE, April 16, 1874.

J. B. Killebrew, Secretary, Nashville, Tenn.:

Cumberland River runs through the county from the east to the west, dividing it into two unequal parts, the larger one being on the south side. The surface is in hills and valleys, trending north or south according as they are on the one or the other side of the river. These valleys are remarkably fertile, and so are the hills to the tops, especially on their north, east and west sides. Caney Fork, the largest tributary the Cumberland has, enters the county at its south-east corner, and running nearly north, empties into the Cumberland one mile above Carthage, the county seat. Besides these two, the other streams of the county become nearly dry in summer, and consequently are of but little use in driving machinery. Corn, wheat, oats, rye, hay and tobacco are the principal crops cultivated, for all of which

the soil is well adapted. Timothy, herds-grass and clover are the chief hay grasses, though a number, especially of tobacco farmers, still persist in the folly of sowing annual grasses for hay. Blue-grass does well as a most valuable pasture grass, but notwithstanding it was introduced here forty years ago by the late Dr. F. H. Gordon, and has been a perfect success, still but few have their lands sodded, when all could have them so without expense and with but little labor. Every hill in the county might be covered with this beautiful and profitable grass. Orchard grass has done well in the few instances in which it has been tried. The most valuable timber is poplar, oak and black walnut. Poplar is most abundant, and is used for lumber and shingles, and in that form has been exported in considerabie amounts. As to which is more profitable, raising stock or cultivating the money crops, there is a difference of opinion among the farmers in this county. My own opinion is, that with proper attention to grasses, hay, etc., with the cereals, taking into consideration the preservation of the soil, stock raising is greatly the more profitable. The small experiments in sheep husbandry have proved that, but for the dogs, that department of stock raising would be very profitable. If the time should ever come when we could have civilized legislation on this question, then the hills of Smith county would be covered with wealth-producing flocks. There are no nurseries of any importance in the county; only one or two on a very small scale, and limited to a few kinds of fruit. Orchards have been extensively planted in the last few years. Lands are too high here to invite agricultural immigrants. They range from ten to sixty dollars per acre, according to improvements. Our people would welcome sober, industrious immigrants of all classes. There is a good deal of emigration from the county to the West and South-west.

Very respectfully,

JOHN W. Bowen.

Towns. Carthage, the county seat, situated on the Cumberland River, is fifty-one miles above Nashville. It has a population of 500. Among the business establishments are three dry-goods stores, one drug-store, a hotel and several groceries. It is a good shipping point. New Middleton, seven miles from Carthage, has a population of 250, three stores, one drug-store, two groceries and a woolen mill. Dixon Springs has about the same population as the latter, three stores, one grocery and a good school. Rome is an old, dilapidated town with two stores and a drug-store. Gordonsville, with a population of 100, has two stores. Chestnut Mound has a population of 100, two stores, two groceries and one hotel. Difficult and Grantville are small post villages.

Schools. The county is not so well provided with schools as is desirable. But few really good schools exist, and but little encouragement has been given to free schools.

Social Status. In no county is there more real honest worth among the masses than in Smith. Occasional feuds spring up between those occupying different sides of the river, but with this exception the coun

ty is noted for the kindly intercourse that exists between its citizens. Honesty in the payment of debts is necessary to a man's social standing. The people, however, sadly need enterprise. They cling to the old ways, which, though highly conservative, are not suited to the habits and tendencies of the age. Railroads are greatly needed, and it is hardly possible to hope for a change for the better until more markets are made accessible by means of good railroads. The greatest stimulus which agriculture can receive is to have a ready market for all the products of the soil. Destitute of manufactories, the farmers are compelled to confine their attention to a few staple crops, and a large percentage of the value of these is absorbed in the delay and expense of getting to market.

STEWART COUNTY.

COUNTY SEAT-DOVER.

Stewart county dates its organization from an early period in the present century, and but a few years after the State became a member of the Federal Union. The act erecting the county bears date November 1, 1803, and was passed while the Legislature was sitting at Knoxville. The act provides that "Montgomery county be divided by a line which shall commence in the Kentucky line, thirteen miles west of the meridian of Clarksville, and run south to the southern boundary of the State," and all the territory west of this line was "constituted a separate and distinct county, called and distinguished by the name of Stewart." It was named in honor of Duncan Stewart, an energetic and prosperous farmer. The county at that time embraced a vast domain, running westward as far as the Tennessee River and south to the Alabama line. It embraced the present counties of Houston, Humphreys, Perry, Wayne, and a part of Hardin and Lewis. Upon the extinguishment of the title of the Chickasaws in 1819 to the lands in the "Western District," as it was then called, now West Tennessee, the jurisdiction of the county extended to the Mississippi River, and covered over 1,200 square miles, or more than a fourth of the State. All deeds made for property in the Western District were recorded in Stewart, until the district was surveyed and organized into counties. November 7, 1821, thirteen new counties.

were authorized by the Legislature to be established in the Chickasaw territory, and after that period Stewart county was shorn of much of its glory.

Extent-Topography. The last dismemberment of the territory of Stewart occurred in 1871, when Houston was formed. This reduced the limits of Stewart to about 425 square miles, or about 270,000 acres. The number of acres returned to the Comptroller in 1872 was 264,041, and in 1873, 257,042. The United States census, which is manifestly inaccurate, shows only 183,762 acres, or more than onethird less than the county assessor returned for taxation. Stewart county, like all the counties on the Highland Rim, has a high elevation above the sea, and is drained by frequent and rapid streams. The Cumberland River enters the south-eastern corner of the county and runs approximately in a north-westerly direction until it reaches a point beyond Dover, when it turns and runs nearly north, and parallel with the Tennessee river, which bounds the western side of the county. Between the Tennessee and the Cumberland is an elevated ridge, called the Tennessee Ridge. This is the water-shed between the two streams. Numerous subordinate ridges shoot out from this main one, more or less parallel with each other, between which numerous streams descend on the west to the Tennessee, and on the east to the Cumberland. The region between the rivers is much broken, and aside from the valleys bordering the streams, is of but small agricultural importance. On the north-east side of the Cumberland the country is more level, and some rich areas are found remote from the streams. The surface of the country grows more level as one travels back from the river, until in the north-eastern part of the county, it is prairie-like in its flatness, highly fertile, and unsurpassed by any portion of the Highland Rim in its attractions for the farmer and the advantages it offers to the industrious.

Lands and Soils. The lands may be divided into mineral and agricultural. The mineral or iron lands are found on both sides of the Cumberland, extending to the Tennessee on the west, and cover fully one-third of the county. For half a century Stewart county has been the center of the great iron interests of Middle Tennessee. Samuel and John Stacker, by their knowledge, skill and industry, reaped princely fortunes from the manufacture of iron in this county, and gave a character to Tennessee charcoal iron, which has made it famous everywhere. This added greatly to the character of Stewart county as a mineral region, and before the war there were in operation in the county, four

teen furnaces, making nearly 20,000 tons of pig-iron annually. A large part of this pig-iron was made into sugar kettles and bar and boiler plate. The Stewart county metal produced kettles superior to those made in Scotland, and were pronounced by sugar planters to be the best in the world. Many of these lands have been stripped of timber, but sprouts shoot up very rapidly and would speedily supply a second growth suitable for coaling purposes, all over the denuded iron region, but for the fires. Some of this second growth around Dover Furnace is now being worked. Unlike the counties of Wayne and Lewis, the lands in the iron regions are not cursed with sterility, but are moderately productive, and all the low places eminently so. Around the Cumberland Iron Works there are some splendid farms, which in times past supplied all the provender consumed at the rolling mills. Some of these lands are thought to be well adapted to blue-grass, as experiments made a few years ago by Mr. George T. Lewis were entirely satisfactory, and it was his belief that blue-grass could be made as valuable to the farmers of the valley of the Cumberland, as it is to those in the blue grass region of Kentucky. But whether blue grass does well on these lands or not, it is known that timothy, herds-grass, clover and corn grow well and make the iron or mineral lands of Stewart of more than ordinary value. The old coaling lands sell for prices varying from one to three dollars, according to location and quantity wanted. Of the agricultural lands proper, there are several varieties, all having some peculiar excellences or aptitudes and deficient in others. Indeed variety is characteristic of the lands in Stewart. These lands may be classified thus: 1st. The high rolling lands between the rivers. 2d. The alluvial bottoms. 3d. The red lands. 4th. The flat lands. Taking them up in order, we shall find the largest proportion of rolling lands on the south and west side of the Cumberland River. The great Tennessee ridge, with its offshoots, comes within this classification. The tops of these ridges are sometimes wide and flat and afford good areas for cultivation. Moderately fertile and well adapted to fruit, they are gradually coming into cultivation. These ridges rise between 500 and 600 hundred feet above the Tennessee, and persons residing upon their summits are seldom attacked by malarial or miasmatic diseases. Well timbered with white and black oak, these lands are more valuable as supplying material for staves and boards than for agricultural purposes. These ridge lands sell front three to ten dollars per acre. The amount of bottom land in Stewart county is very considerable. The bottoms on both sides of