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Archiver > TNDICKSO > 2003-02 > 1044282646


From: "Sharp Bryan and Penny" <>
Subject: [TNDICKSO] Middle Tennessee's First Settlers
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 8:30:46 -0600


Caroline,
Thank you for your recent offer and I'm sure you have helped many on the
list. I realize you have retired this offer but if you find the time in
the near future could you please look up John Gordon, 'Captain of the
Spies' under Andrew Jackson, in this book. I am currently searching for
info on him to be included in a book on him and would be very interested
to find out if he is listed and what is stated. I know he received land on
the Hickman / Maury County line by the Duck River as land grants for
military service and his home still stands today there as a historical stop
on the Natchez Trace. Please visit my website on him at
http://gordonhouse.50megs.com for more info. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Bryan A. Sharp
---
--- Old Spencer Mill
--- http://oldspencermill.com


Hello!
I've noticed it's been a little slow on the list lately and I thought I'd
take a minute and tell ya'll about a book I've been reading. It
is called "The Preemptors, Middle Tennessee's FIrst Settlers"
Vol.1,of a series of Early Tennessee Land Records by Irene
Griffey. According to the book when North Carolina promised to pay the Rev.
War soldiers in land and in 1782 made most of Middle Tennessee including
what is now Dickson County a Military Reservation, the government found that
settlers were already living on some of the land before it could be given in
"land grants" to the soldiers. So, the state of North Carolina sent three
men, Anthony Bledsoe, Isaac Shelby and Absalom Tatum
to survey the boundaries and to settle up with the current settlers by
granting them "pre-emption" certificates. Each head of family and single
male over the age of 21 and living on the land before JUne of 1780 was
entitled to a grant of 640 acres. The author cautions that it may not even
have been the "original" settler on the land, but it was the persons that
the appointed trio found on the land in 1782-3 and determined that person to
be eligable.The second part of the book lists the PAYROLL OF MILITIA
OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS ON AN EXPEDITION AGAINST THE CHICAMAUGA INDIANS IN
1787 from what was to be Davidson and Sumner Counties. If any of you are
researching HUGH HENRY, I found he was living on Cedar Creek in the book and
was granted 640 acres in 1782!!!!! If any of you have ancestors you have
traced back to that time period in this area I will be glad to look it up
and see if they are in the book for you, I don't think that this book is a
complete listing of every person, but it does have 484 listings of
preemptors. Well,
have a great night everyone!
Caroline



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