Published: October 28, 2009 08:55 am      

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Jackson often stopped in Cumberland

Shortly after "Random Thoughts" appeared last week I received a phone call. My caller said that of the 13 original colonies I listed only three southern colonies, North and South Carolina, Virginia and at that point my voice joined hers with “and Georgia.” She was gracious and said, “I knew you knew that.” The point is I did not include Georgia in the column. Now, you, the reader, know it was an error and I am sorry I omitted Georgia.

There was one thing I did not include in that column because I could not find the story that gave the facts on one of Crossville’s first Revolutionary War settlers, John Narramore. I found that article so I can add that information along with my apology to Georgia.

The source was in the 1998 report from the the 18th annual reunion of the Narramore family held at the Cumberland Mountain State Park. In his request for a pension, South Carolina native John Narramore stated under oath that he and his father Edward served three periods over two years. In January 1779 John was drafted into the military.

At war’s end John settled here and lived in an old log house about two miles from Crossville on Sparta Road, then known as the Nashville-Knoxville Stage Line. The old house was called the Scott Place and was said to have been built by Tom Majors.

Circuit rider Billy Gipson used the home for services for those of the Baptist faith. Inside there were two long rooms divided by an open entry. At each end of the house the rooms had huge stacked chimneys with great fireplaces. The ladies sat on one side of the room and the men on the other.

The home was near the cemetery where John was buried in 1851, the first adult to be buried there. The report noted that a monument had been erected at the burial plot by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The history of John Narramore ended with these words, “It is reported that Andrew Jackson, when passing through the area, always called on and inquired of the old Revolutionary War soldier.”

That reminder of Andrew Jackson passing through here was mentioned in the 1987 March/April issue of Mother Earth News. Tennessee’s Cumberland County was featured in a lengthy article as one of the best sections of North America in which to pursue a rural lifestyle.

The author wrote, “Late spring frosts make fruit growing a little risky but apples with a special flavor have long been raised in the area. (When President-Elect Andrew Jackson passed through Grassy Cove, one of the area’s early-settled, picturesque valleys, on his way to Washington, he distributed apple seeds to some of his admirers. One of these was John Ford, Sr., who had settled in the valley in 1801, and his resulting tree produced light green, medium-large apples with a pinkish blush and a tart taste ideal for applesauce and pies. Before a windstorm finally blew the tree down in 1903, it had been grafted onto other area seedlings, which became known as Jackson apple trees.)”

John Ford Sr. was another of those Revolutionary War veterans we remember and honor for being early settlers in this area the magazine described as “cream of the crop.”

These mentions of Andrew Jackson passing through here were of special interest to me because this summer I read Jon Meacham’s American Lion which covers Jackson’s years in the White House. Chattanooga native Meacham won a Pulitzer Prize for the biography. Though traveling from Washington to Nashville was a hard journey in those days Jackson endured all the uncomfortable long days often to return to his beloved Hermitage. Meacham tells of those many journeys but not the names of the many settlements he passed through.

Jackson’s association with the Trail of Tears always left me with a negative feeling about his presidency. After reading the book and learning of the many problems he faced it was easier to understand that decision. The judges for the Pulitzer described it as an “unflinching portrait” of Jackson. Readers are given the best and worst of the seventh president of the United States.