I believe the Cagles have gone into hibernation early this year. The list
has been silent. Here is a follow-up to the Tennessee Trails message I sent
the other day.
Tennessee has been associated with several trails and roads. Hernando
Desoto wandered Indian Trails throughout the south in the 1500's and is
reported to have visited Tennessee in the vicinity of Chattanooga and also
near Memphis. Of course Tennessee is blessed with a river system which runs
from east to west and lends it's self to the westward migration of our
ancestors. The Mississippi River which forms the west boundary of Tennessee
has been a prime route for those traveling from the east coast to New
Orleans using the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. The
French, in particular used this route. French Lick (Nashville) was settled
by one of these Frenchmen, Timothy Demonbruen. Two of Timothy's children
married Cagles in Davidson Co., TN in the early 1800's.
The earliest path across Tennessee used by explorers and settlers was
probably the Tennessee River and to some extent the Cumberland River. In
1786, Col. Joseph Hardin of Knox Co., TN floated the Tennessee and arrived
in what would later become Hardin County. He, a surveyor and chain
carriers marked a Revolutionary War land grant in said county in 1786. All
of the land in Hardin County was not opened for settlement until 1819. Col.
Hardin's children made the trip to settle the Hardin County land in 1816,
making the trip as I described in my earlier post.
The Donaldson party who settled Nashville in 1779 also floated the Tennessee
River to the Ohio, then poled up the Ohio and the Cumberland to French Lick,
or Nashborough, now Nashville. Overland trails between Knoxville and
Nashville were soon opened. All the early roads were Indian trails.
Probably the best know trail in Tennessee was the Natchez Trace which ran
from Nashville to Muscle Shoals Alabama and then to Tupelo, Jackson and
Natchez Mississippi. The early trail or road from Knoxville to Nashville
was extended west to the Tennessee River at Reynoldsburg in Stewart, now
Humphreys County TN. Before West Tennessee was open, a military road, also
called the Natchez Trace, was cut from the west bank of the Tennessee River
opposite Reynoldsburg then ran south roughly along the West Tennessee
Divide, running through what is now Benton, Carroll, Henderson, Chester and
McNairy Counties in TN, continuing south running near Corinth and Booneville
MS to an intersection at Tupelo with the eastern leg of the Natchez Trace.
Although not affecting Tennessee much, ca 1814, Andrew Jackson cut a
Military Road from Nashville through Muscle Shoals Alabama to New Orleans.
This road roughly paralleled the Natchez Trace.
From 1807 to 1824, most of the counties along the southern boundary of
Tennessee were formed. The county seats were connected by a road which ran
from Chattanooga to Memphis. In Hardin County, this road was referred to as
the "Old Stage Road." It is now US Highway 64. We are now in the process
of getting it four-laned in our county,
David Cagle
Hardin Co., TN
----- Original Message -----
From: <Cagle2002(a)webtv.net>
To: <CAGLE-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 8:26 AM
Subject: CAGLE-L- Digest was blank page
Hi all, my Digest page was blank this am. I waited awhile---to see
if
another one would come. Nothing yet. Did anyone else get a blank CAGLE
Digest? I am on webtv, but that shouldn't cause this, huh? I look
forward to them. Thanks,Stella
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