History of Montgomery County Tennessee United States of America

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Local History Notes:

Montgomery County, named for John Montgomery, was erected in 1796, when Tennessee County gave up its name to the state and its territory was divided into Montgomery and Robertson County. Its first permanent settlement was made by Moses Renfroe and his company when they left Col. John Donelson's colony on April 12, 1780, as they were on their way up the Cumberland to the great French Lick (Nashville). Renfroe ascended the Red River to the mouth of Person's Creek where he built Renfroe's Station (sometimes called Red River Station). Among these settlers were Moses, Isaac, Joseph and James Renfroe, Nathan and Solomon Turpin, Isaac Mayfield, James Hollis, James Johns, and a widow named Jones.

On account of the fear of an Indian attack they left the station for the Bluff (Nashville), and at Battle Creek were attacked and twenty persons killed. The earliest stations in this county were Prince's, Clarksville, and Nevill's. Francis Prince and James Ford were the leaders at Prince's. Col. James Ford was probably the most striking figure in the county at that period. John Montgomery and Martin Armstrong laid off the land and made the plan of a town on the north bank of the Cumberland just above the mouth of Red River and entered the land in 1784. They named the town Clarksville, in honor of George Rogers Clark. In 1785 the Legislature of North Carolina established the Town of Clarksville and named in the act the following commissioners: John Montgomery, Anthony Crutcher, Wm. Polk, Anthony Bledsoe, and Lardner Clark. This was the second town established in Middle Tennessee.

In 1788 a tobacco inspection was established at Clarksville, the first in the state. In the same year Tennessee County, out of which Montgomery County was carved, was established, and a Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was held at the house of Isaac Titsworth, on Person's Creek for the first and second sessions. For the third session it met at the house of Wm. Grimbs; and all subsequent sessions were held at Clarksville, where, on the public square, a rude, log courthouse was built.

The earliest inhabitants of Clarksville were: John Montgomery, Anthony and William Crutcher, Amos Bird, Geo. Bell, Robert Nelson and Aeneas McAllister. In 1794-1795 there were, John Easton, Daniel James, James Adams, Wm. Montgomery, Philip Gilbert, Robert Dunning, Hugh McCallum, Benjamin Hawkins, and Andrew Snoddy.

Soon after Clarksville was established George and Joseph B. Medill, from South Carolina, built a fort on Red River between Prince's and Clarksville.

The first and most important settlement on the south side of the Cumberland was Palmyra at the mouth of Deason's Creek. It was the first port of entry in the West, a fact which indicates its importance at that time. It was laid out by Dr. Morgan Brown, father of the eminent jurist, Judge Wm. L. Brown, and was chartered in 1796. From 1780 to 1795 the people suffered much from the Indians who were instigated by the Spanish. Prominent among their deeds of horror were the Titsworth Massacre in 1794; the murder of John Dier and Benj. Lindsey in 1793; the heroic death of John Montgomery in 1794; the murder of Maj. Evan Shelby, brother of Isaac Shelby, in 1793; the ambushing and killing of three sons of Col. Valentine Sevier, brother of John Sevier, and of their two companions in 1792; and the sanguinary attack on Colonel Sevier's station in 1794.

Most of the early inhabitants of Montgomery County came from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Among those from North Carolina were Haydon Wells; James, Charles and Duncan Stewart, Anthony and William Crutcher and Robert Nelson. Among those from South Carolina were: James Ford, Francis, William and Robert Prince, Geo. Bell, Geo. Nevill, Joseph B. Nevill, and Dr. Morgan Brown. From Virginia, via Watauga were: Evan and Moses Shelby, Valentine Sevier, John Montgomery, John H. Poston. From Pennsylvania were: James Elder and Aeneas McAllister.

Schools began in the county immediately after the Indian atrocities ended. Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Hise opened a school for young ladies at Clarksville in the thirties. In 1837 the Female Academy was opened. There was also a Male Academy. The greatest institution of all, however, was the Southwestern Presbyterian University.

Clarksville, also, has been the home of many literary lights, among them: Father Ryan, Wm. A. Peffer, later a United States senator from Kansas, Martha McCulloch Williams, Elizabeth N. Gilmer ('Dorothy Dix'), Judge C. W. Tyler and Prof. G. F. Nicholassen.

Statistics of Montgomery County: Population, 1920, 32,265. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $19,207,350. Area, 540 square miles. Number of farms, 4,121. Railway mileage, eighty-three. County borders on Kentucky and is intersected by the Cumberland River. Its surface is undulating and partly timbered. Its soil is fertile and it is one of the best tobacco producing counties in the state. Fine limestone and iron ore deposits in the county. Staple products are tobacco, corn, wheat, oats and live stock. The county is traversed by L. & N. and the Tennessee Central Railroads. Clarksville, the county seat, has a population of 8,110. It is on two railroads and the Cumberland River. It is an up-to-date city with all conveniences, a large tobacco market, has fine schools and churches, daily and weekly newspapers, several manufacturing establishments, and is a jobbing center for a large territory. New Providence, St. Bethlehem, Palmyra, and Carbondale are other towns in the county. Scholastic population in the county, 10,332; high schools, six; elementary schools, ninety-six.

From: Moore, John Trotwood. Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL, USA: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923.

Biographies:

James E. Bailey, senator, was born in Montgomery county, Tenn., Aug. 15, 1822. He was fitted for college and was graduated from the University of Nashville. After his admission to the bar in 1843, he practised his profession in Clarkesville, and in 1853 was elected to the state legislature as a member of the house of representatives. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army and served bravely throughout the civil war. In 1872 he was appointed by the governor of Tennessee a member of the court of arbitration, and in January, 1877, was elected by the legislature of Tennessee to the United States senate as a Democrat to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Andrew Johnson, serving, 1875-81. He died in Clarksville, Tenn., Dec. 29, 1885.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Joseph Buckner Killebrew, educator, was born in Montgomery county, Tenn., May 29, 1831; son of Bryan Whitfield and Elizabeth (Ligon) Smith Killebrew; grandson of Buckner and Mary (Whitfield) Killebrew and of Mathew and Judith (Pleasants) Ligon, and great grandson of Joseph Ligon, a member of the Virginia troops in the Revolutionary war, who was wounded at Guilford C.H., March 15, 1781. The Whitfields came to Virginia from the Isle of Wight, and the Killebrews (Killegrew) from England about 1690. They both removed first to North Carolina and thence to Tennessee in 1795. The Ligons removed from Halifax county, Va., to Tennessee, in 1814. Joseph Buckner Killebrew was graduated at the University of North Carolina, A.B., 1856, A.M. 1859, studied law, 1856-58, and became a planter near Clarksville, Tenn., in 1858. He was married in 1857 to Mary Catharine Wimberly and had four sons and two daughters. He entered journalism in 1871 as part owner and an editor of the Union and American, Nashville. He also edited the Rural Sun, Nashville, 1872-78; was commissioner and secretary of the Tennessee bureau of education, 1872-81; secretary of the National Agricultural association, and state commissioner of agriculture, statistics and mines, 1871-81; agent of the Peabody education fund; state superintendent of public instruction and originator of the liberal public school law of Tennessee. He had charge of the department of minerals and woods in the Atlanta exposition, 1895, and the same year was made industrial commissioner of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis railway. He received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1878, and was elected president of the Industrial League of Tennessee. He published reports covering the agricultural and educational history of Tennessee during a formative period, and served as an editor on the Standard Dictionary (1890-93), and prepared Resources of Tennessee and The Culture and Curing of Tobacco for the 10th U.S. census report.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

West Hughes Humphreys, jurist, was born in Montgomery county, Tenn., Aug. 5, 1806; son of Parry W. Humphreys, judge of the superior court, 1807-09, and of the circuit court of Tennessee, 1809-13 and 1818-36; a representative in the 13th congress, 1813-15; narrowly defeated as Whig candidate for U.S. senate in 1817, and later a banker in Hernando, Miss., where he died, Jan. 19, 1839. West Hughes Humphreys was educated at Transylvania university, and became a lawyer in 1828. He represented his county in the state legislature for several terms; was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1834; attorney-general of the state in 1839, and reporter of the state supreme court, 1839-51. President Pierce appointed him U.S. district judge, and he held the office, 1853-61, and held the same relative office under the Confederate States government, 1861-65. He published the reports of the supreme court of Tennessee, 1839-51. He died in Nashville. Tenn., Oct. 5. 1883.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Henry Clay Morrison, bishop in the Methodist Episcopal church, south, was born in Montgomery county, Tenn., May 30, 1842; son of Robert and Mary (Duvall) Morrison, and grandson of Josiah and Nancy (Wells) Morrison and of Colmore and Mary Duvall, who removed from Virginia to Tennessee about the year 1800. He was brought up on a farm, and availed himself of every opportunity to acquire an education. His parents removed to Kentucky and settled near May field, where he taught school, 1860-63. He was licensed as a local preacher in 1863, and served as volunteer chaplain in the 8th Kentucky mounted infantry, C.S.A., under Gen. N. B. Forrest, during the last year of the civil war. In the fall of 1865 he was admitted on trial into the Louisville conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, assigned to the Millerstown circuit. He served successively at Bardstown, 1865, Elizabethtown, 1866-67, and Middletown, 1868-71. He was married in June, 1868, to Mrs. Mary E. Ray of Nelson county, Ky. He was in Louisville, at Shelby street, 1871-75; Broadway, 1875-79, and Chestnut street, 1876-83. Meantime he studied the ancient languages for four years under a private preceptor. He was stationed at Russelville, Ky., 1884-85, and in 1886 was transferred to the North Georgia conference and stationed at First church, Atlanta, 1886-90. He was missionary secretary, 1890-98, and in the latter part of this service he privately raised $140,000 and paid off the debt on the missionary board of the church. At the general conference of 1898, held at Baltimore, Md., he was elected to the episcopacy and soon after removed to Louisville, Ky. He was a delegate to the General Conference five times in succession, and held office in that body three times. The Alabama Agricultural college conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D. in 1882.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Montgomery County Tennessee

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