Chapter 12
WILSON
COUNTY, TENNESSEE
1814-1816
Wilson County, Tennessee was created
on October 26, 1799 from a division of Sumner County. The Cumberland River defined
Wilson’s northern boundary, creating a vast array of creeks, streams and
tributaries throughout the county. Early settlers migrated first to the lands
along these waterways, finding rich, fertile plowable soil that was less hilly
than the surrounding countryside. In the
early 1800s, water-powered mills were established along these creeks to grind
grain and saw lumber. During that same era, cotton and tobacco were grown in
abundance, and cotton gins were in operation as early as 1802. The site of the
town of Lebanon was selected as the county seat in 1802, being named after
biblical Lebanon due to its impressive cedar trees. In 1806, the first courthouse was erected of
cedar logs. In 1817 the court appropriated $500 for the building of a new
courthouse in the public square which was completed in 1818, and made of brick.
The county had numerous schools as early as 1800. In 1810, Mr. George McWhirter
established what later became known as the Campbell Academy, at Hickory Ridge,
five miles west of Lebanon. Circa 1815, the school was relocated to the town of
Lebanon. The first church in Wilson County was erected by the Methodists in
1801 at Hickory Ridge, named Bethel Church. It was later moved to a site along the
Nashville-Lebanon Road four miles west of Lebanon, near Tucker’s Gap. Circa
1806, the Baptists constructed Koonce’s Meeting House at the present village of
Leesville.
After the wedding in April of 1814,
Lewis Shapard moved his family from Williamson County to Wilson County,
residing at the old Parrish plantation. The property was located in the
vicinity of Tuckers Gap, five miles southwest of the Wilson County seat of
Lebanon. The Lebanon-Nashville Road, being an east-west thoroughfare from Lebanon
to Nashville crossed north of the property which allowed for relative ease of
travel. The 150 acre plantation had 40
acres of cleared fields for agriculture and was fed by the Big Cedar Lick
Creek. In addition, the plantation had a substantial and comfortable ‘mansion’
near a natural freshwater spring, as well as, a slave quarter, stables and other
out buildings and improvements. Elizabeth Parrish’s eldest boys, David and
William struggled to operate the plantation after the death of their father;
however, Lewis Shapard spurred revitalization, bringing his experience as a
planter, as well as, additional slaves and livestock.
Perhaps the most interest facet of
the marriage was the sudden intermingling of all the Shapard and Parrish
children. Lewis was the father of nine children and Elizabeth was the mother of
ten children. The Parrish children were: Mary (c.1788-?) who in 1814 married
Green Seat; David W. (1789-1876) fought in War of 1812 under Captain Thomas
Bradley, he married Lucinda Hunt on July 3, 1813 in Sumner County, where they
resided until migrating to Kentucky in 1833; William (1792-?) married Martha
Davis in 1812 in Wilson County. Francis “Fanny” (1794-?) married in 1811 to
Samuel R. Anderson in Wilson County; Nancy (c.1796-?); Susanna (c.1798-?),
Elizabeth “Betsy” (c.1801-1845) married David Richards in 1827 in Wilson
County, later migrating to Mississippi; Martha “Patsy” (1803-1880) married in
1822 to Hobson Ferrell of Wilson County, she died in Mississippi; Zuritha
(c.1805-?); and Henry “Harry” (c.1807-?).
Almost immediately after his
marriage, Lewis Shapard became very active legally on behalf of his new family.
Through a petition of the court, he became the legal guardian of the minor
Parrish children Nancy, Susanna, Elizabeth “Betsy,” Martha “Patsy,” Zuritha and
Henry “Harry,” all of whom were under 21 years of age. He also became the
administrator of the estate of the late Henry Parrish in right of his wife,
whereby he managed all outstanding legal matters and claims associated with Mr.
Parrish’s assets. In January 1815, he submitted to the County Court a list of
additional property of Mr. Parrish including a negro girl Hannah and a negro
boy Joseph, being children of the negro woman Cherry born after the initial
inventory of the estate had been submitted. The slaves belonging to the estate
were placed at public auction on January 4, 1815 and Lewis purchased Cherry and
her two children for $632, as well as, a negro boy named George for $230. Two
other slaves from the estate were also placed at auction. William Parrish
purchased a negro man named Tony for $301, and John C. Gibbons acquired a negro
man named Jack for $470.
During this era, after a man’s death,
his real estate was bequeathed to his legal heirs, being his children. If he
had no children then his property was transferred to his siblings. His widow
was only legally allowed a “dowers portion,” being the temporary use of
one-third of the land owned by her husband for her utilization during her lifetime;
after which, upon her death, that property was then returned to the rightful
heirs. The dowers portion protected the widow, in that it was exempt from
creditor’s claims against the estate. In addition, the heirs could not sell the
dowers portion without the widow’s consent. In October of 1814, Lewis and
Elizabeth Shapard petitioned the justices of the County Court to set a
committee of men to survey and allot her dowers portion of the plantation. On
December 19, 1814, a committee of twelve landowning neighbors consisting of John
K. Wynne, D. Wynne, Thomas Moss, Joseph Cole, William Eddings, Richard
Henderson, William Babb, George Wynne, J. Wynne, Jim Still, George Still and
James Henderson convened at the Parrish plantation and laid out Elizabeth
Shapard’s dower portion of fifty acres, including the mansion house, crop
fields and outbuildings for her use during her lifetime. The remaining 100
acres of undivided, uncultivated land of the plantation was equally distributed
in ownership to the Parrish children for their immediate use.
Although the Shapard family had moved
to the Parrish plantation in Wilson County, Lewis initially traveled frequently
to his former home of Williamson County, tending to business and perhaps a few
social calls. In July of 1814, Lewis Shapard was at the Williamson County
courthouse in Franklin with William Anthony, where they proved the validity of
a deed they had witnessed in open court. It appears that Lewis had a long
standing friendship or business connection with Mr. Anthony, due to the fact
that, over the years, the two men would continue to interact. Lewis may have
known Mr. Anthony in his youth, as both men were the same age and formerly resided
in Caswell County, North Carolina. Or he may have just known of him by
reputation, for Mr. Anthony had an extraordinary life experience of being one
of the few survivors of the Cumberland Massacre of 1793, making him quite memorable.
William Anthony (1773-1847) was born
in 1773 in Albemarle County, Virginia, to John and Elizabeth Anthony. His
family migrated to Caswell County, North Carolina, during the Revolutionary
War. In 1793, when William was 17 years old, he accompanied his older brother
James, along with seven additional men, two women and eight children to the Kentucky
frontier. On March 26th, just before sunset the traveling party was
attacked by a band of 30 Indians near the Laurel River. The men dismounted,
franticly retrieving their rifles in an effort to defend the women and
children. For 15 minutes the settlers were bombarded by a hail of arrows and
bullets, until the Indians closed in on all sides. At the last moment, William
escaped on horseback. In the aftermath, most of the men, women and children
were massacred, including William’s brother and his young family. William was
300 miles from Caswell County, yet he made the journey home to the elation of
his friends and family who had presumed him deceased. William married Sarah
Simmons on July 30, 1794, and they had numerous children. He eventually settled
in Tennessee, migrating to Williamson County in 1800, where he operated a
successful plantation until his death in 1847.
Back in Wilson County, Lewis Shapard
seemed to favor the activity at Lebanon, just as he had at Caswell Courthouse
in North Carolina. From the Parrish plantation, it was an easy 5 mile trip up
the Lebanon-Nashville Road to reach the town. For diversion, Lewis attended Wilson
County court for the first time as a juror on September 20, 1814, in the case
of Shadrack Grigg vs. John W. Gregory. He was joined in the jury panel by his
neighbor Joseph Cole and his step-son-in-law Samuel R. Anderson who had married
Fanny Parrish in 1811. The case went in favor for the plaintiff to recover his
debt in the amount of ten dollars. A month later, on December 24, 1814, Lewis
served on the jury for the trial of John Stuart vs. Joshua Kelly. The plaintiff
proved his case and was awarded $120 for his damages. Lewis final participation
as a jury member in Wilson County occurred twice on September 20, 1815. The
first trial was between Benjamin Motley vs. John W. Nichols, finding for the
plaintiff; and the second trial was the case of Thomas Richmond vs. John W.
Nichols, finding for the defendant.
Another particularly enticing aspect
of the town of Lebanon was that it had its own post office. In early Tennessee,
due to the difficulty of transportation, postal stations were a rarity and only
found at larger towns and the county seats. Frontier mail carriers shipped the
mail on horse drawn carts or horseback, and even employed small boats or rafts
on waterways, as it was five years before the first steamships would reach
Nashville and four decades before the trains would arrive in Tennessee. In
1815, it took over two weeks for mail to travel from Washington D.C. to
Nashville. Interestingly, the first stamps were not issued until 1847. Prior to
this, the postmaster would write the postage in the upper right corner of the
envelope, based on the number of pages and destination distance. In Tennessee
in 1816, it cost 6¢ per page to mail a letter 30 or fewer miles, 10¢ for 30-80
miles, 12 ½¢ for 80-150miles, 18 ½¢ for 150-400 miles and 25¢ for more than 400
miles. Postage could be paid in advance by the sender or upon collection by the
receiver, or partially by the sender and receiver. Prior to 1863, letters were only
delivered from post office to post office. The public had the responsibility of
traveling to the post office to retrieve or send their mail. Notice was given
in the local newspapers of all received letters still remaining at the post
office on the first of each month. If uncollected after three months, the
letter would be sent to the General Post Office as a dead letter. On April 11,
1815, in the Nashville True Whig newspaper, notice was given that, as of April
1st, Lewis Shapard had a letter remaining at the post office in
Lebanon. The letter was from Caswell County, North Carolina, informing him of
the lawsuit settlement regarding his late father’s estate, whereby, Lewis
Shapard was awarded an additional inheritance of £146.3.2.
Just as things were beginning to normalize for Lewis Shapard and his family, his eldest son William, at 17 years of age, volunteered for service in the War of 1812. At the time he was described as 6 feet tall, having grey eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. In September of 1814, he was mustered in to John Coffee's Brigade of Tennessee Volunteers as a private in Captain W. Martin's Company of Tennessee Riflemen. Interestingly, William Shapard was part of the brigade sent to assist General Andrew Jackson during the epic Battle of New Orleans against the British on January 8, 1815. Furthermore, John Coffee's Brigade held the distinction of being the first to fire upon the British during the battle. In all, William served actively for 146 days, being honorably discharged at New Orleans in April of 1815. By the grace of God, he returned home uninjured. William would receive two land warrants as payment for his participation in the war.
In October of 1815, Lewis was again
back in Williamson County, tending to business. On October 7th, he
borrowed $375 dollars from William Kimbro, Sr., (c. 1750-1816) of Rutherford
County, Tennessee, and in return, as collateral he conveyed two of his slaves,
Joseph and Ned, to William G. Kimbro, Jr. (1775-1795), as acting trustee. The
terms of the conveyance stated that if Lewis did not repay Mr. Kimbro the full
amount borrowed plus interest by January 1, 1816, then the slaves would be sold
at public auction by William, Jr., to raise the $375. However, If Lewis did
repay the loan in a timely manner, then the conveyance became void and the
slaves would be fully returned to him. Interestingly, although the conveyance
between Lewis and Mr. Kimbro occurred in Williamson County, it is the first
gleaning of Lewis Shapard having connections in Rutherford County.
Lewis Shapard shared many
commonalities with William Kimbro, Sr., and Jr., and the gentlemen may have briefly
been acquainted while in North Carolina. In 1783, William Sr., (c. 1750-1816) purchased
425 acres of land in Caswell County from the State of North Carolina. His estate
was located on the South Fork of Country Line Creek, just two plantations to
the east of Lewis Shapard’s 400 acres. Interestingly, in 1797, the same year
that Lewis Shapard purchased his plantation, William Kimbro, Sr., sold his land
in Caswell County and migrated with his family to Tennessee. Although the men
briefly overlapped as neighbors, they would have known all the same people back
east.
In Tennessee, the Kimbro family
settled on 200 acres along the Stones River, in the present area of La Vergne. Their
plantation originally resided in Davidson County; however, it was assimilated
into the northwest corner of Rutherford County, during its formation in 1803.
The Kimbro plantation was only 6 miles east of Williamson County’s northeastern
corner where Lewis Shapard originally settled, illustrating their ease of
connection through proximity.
As it came to pass, William Kimbro
Sr., died circa October of 1816. His probate records note that on April 21,
1817, William G. Kimbro, Jr., paid the estate the sum of $393.37 ½ on behalf of
Lewis Shapard. Furthermore, Lewis’ slaves, Joseph and Ned were not listed among
Mr. Kimbro’s 16 slaves named in his estate, confirming that the conveyance did
not result in seizure of Lewis’ property, but instead that Lewis Shapard
successfully fulfilled his end of the agreement by repaying the loan plus
interest.
Lewis returned to the Wilson County courthouse
at Lebanon in December of 1815 to file his final guardian and administrator
report on the estate of Henry Parrish. The report gave insight into the
activities of the Shapard/Parrish household and the plantation. Over the last
year, Lewis had been busy settling the affairs of the estate, bringing in a total
of $2,530.95. The bulk of the settlements, being $1,632.00, arose from the sale
of the Parrish’s six slaves, Tony, Jack, George, Hannah, Cherry and her child
Joe, on January 4, 1815. Lewis also collected back-payment for one of the
Parrish slaves that had been hired out in 1813, amounting to $25.44; as well as,
another slave that had been hire out for $33.75. Lewis also made receipt for
$289.18 against the estate, in particular for clothing, board, etc. for the
minor Parrish children (Nancy, Susannah, Betsy, Patsy, Zuritha, and Harry) for
the year 1815 amounting to $78.51; Dr. Samuel Hogg’s receipt for medicine for
$6.75; hiring of George Seat’s slave for $33.92; and a variety of small claims
from William Parrish, David Parrish, Green Seat and George Still.
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