SKETCH OF HENRY RUTHERFORD.
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
Excerpt, pages 225, 229.
Public Domain Document

Tennessee Records Repository, TNGenNet, Inc.
Transcription by Fred Smoot, 18 December 2006

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THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
Volume V., 1900
Devoted Especially to the History of Tennessee and Adjoining States

(225)
SKETCH OF HENRY RUTHERFORD.

(Read before the Tennessee Historical Society by Hon. P. T. Glass)

  Henry Rutherford was born in Rowan County, North Carolina August 17, 
1762, and was the second son of Gen'l. Griffith Rutherford, of that 
State.

  The latter was a distinguished actor in the struggle for American 
independence, being identified with the earliest movements in that 
direction. He was one of the band of Regulators organized to suppress 
toryism in his part of the State under the guidance of Hermann 
Husbands. He was sent to the first assemblage of patriots at Newbern, 
in 1775, to protest against British oppression, and to the Continental 
Congress at Halifax in August 1776. By this congress he was made a 
brigadier-general, and served throughout the struggle. He was also a 
member of the convention that framed the State constitution in 1776, 
as well as member of the committee of safety. Among the military 
achievement, of Gen'l Rutherford not the least was his march across 
the mountain for the purpose of chastising the "over hill" Cherokees 
for depredations on the frontier settlers. In this campaign he 
advanced as far as their middle towns our the present city of 
Chattanooga, driving the Indiana from their villages on the Little 
Tennessee, destroying their houses and ,crops, and driving away their 
cattle.

  The route of his march was long known as Rutherford's Trace. He 
commanded a brigade in the ill-fated battle of Camden, was taken 
prisoner and sent to St. Augustine, Florida. As a reward for his 
patriotism and courage, North-Carolina and Tennessee have each 
preserved his name in one of their counties, and his native State 
further honored and rewarded him by the gift of a warrant for five 
thousand acres of land. This warrant was first located on a part of 
the 25,000 acre grant to Gen'l Nathaniel Greene, in the present county 
of Maury. Tennessee.

  A lawsuit, growing out of the double location of warrants, was 
finally decided by the United States Supreme Court In favor of the ban 
of Gen'l Greene.

(226)
  The Legislature, at a subsequent session, authorized the heirs, of 
Gen'l Rutherford to lift the warrant, and locate it elsewhere. Gen'l 
Rutherford was appointed by the President one of the legislative 
counselors for the territory south of the Ohio, and was, elected 
president of that body August 26, 1794; this territory two years later 
becoming the State of Tennessee.

  Gen. Rutherford removed many years afterward to Williamson County, 
Tennessee, and settled on little Harpeth, where he lived until his 
death. about 1810. His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Governor 
Graham, of North Carolina.

  Henry Rutherford inherited a good constitution and the thrifty 
habits of his Scotch-Irish ancestry, and was gifted with great 
decision of character and indomitable energy. He was, educated at such 
schools as the country then afforded, and was  taught heart of 
surveying, which he pursued in connection with farming for a 
livelihood all his life. He was a resident of what became Tennessee 
when the act was passed--October, 1783-creating the Armstrong land 
office, which was established at Hillsboro [North Carolina]; and the 
land warrants issued to officers and privates the Revolutionary Army 
could be registered there and located upon lands in Middle or Western 
Tennessee. Henry Rutherford. E. Harris, and James Robertson were 
appointed deputy surveyors, and with Almer Bush and W. Bush as guides, 
and hunters, and six chain bearers came in June, 1785 to the French 
Lick, the future site of Nashville. Finding that much of the best land 
was appropriated, they set out for the west end of the State, then 
claimed by the Chickasaws. They descended he Cumberland in canoes, 
proceeding cautiously for fear of Indians, examining the country as 
far as practicable with the view of future locations. There was at the 
time a new settlement near the present site of Clarksville, though the 
Cherokees were claiming the country, and constantly roaming over it, 
as were the Chickasaws, the Shawnees, called the roving band, having 
been driven out.

  Old Fort Massac had been built below the mouth of the Tennessee, on 
the north side of he Ohio. The Spanish also had a trading post at New 
Madrid, prior to that time occupied by thr. French, and called by them 
Lauce de Grace. Notwithstanding the occupation by Indians of the 
country traversed by Rutherford and his party, they were not molested. 
They descended the Ohio (227) and Mississippi to the month of a small 
swam emptying into it. which the Indian% called Okeena, The killing of 
a deer here suggested the name Forked Deer. The party separated here. 
Rutherford with two chain carriers. Amos and Alexander Moore, with 
Almer and W. Bush went up this stream, while Harris and Robertson and 
four chain carriers went down the Mississippi and began locating on 
the Coosa Hatchie River, and later on the Obion. The two parties most 
have rejoined each other in the neighborhood of the latter, as they 
frequently exchanged chain carriers, as, their field notes show.

  Rutherford made his way up stream some nine miles, named a lake 
there Boyd's Lake. which afterward was called Clear Lake, for Adam 
Boyd, for whom he made the first survey August 30. 1795. Dissatisfied 
with the character of the land, which was all either subject to 
overflow or much broken, he went up the stream to the first bluff, and 
near the mouth of a spring branch. on September 1st. he made the 
beginning corner of his connected surveys on the Forked Deer River.

  It is claimed that the name given this stream originated in this 
way: That some member of the party killed, near their camp on its 
banks, a large buck with horns of a peculiar shape, and it was decided 
to call the river Forked Deer, and it was so referred to in 
Rutherford's surveys. Here the beginning point, known as the "Key 
Corner," was marked on a leaning sycamore standing on the south bank 
of the river, on which he cut the letters H. R.. and R large key, to 
indicate it as the key to all his Forked Deer surveys. This was the 
beginning corer of four of his locations: & first of  3,000 acres in 
the name of Griffith Rutherford, his father: the second of 5,000 acres 
for Benjamin Smith; the third for Benjamin Smith, of 5,000 acres; and 
the fourth for Martin Armstrong, Of 5,000 acres"

  During Rutherford's first visit to West Tennessee he located there 
mom than three hundred and sixty-five thousand acres of land, of which 
thirteen thousand five hundred were for himself, six thousand for his 
father, and five thousand for his brother John. He located besides 
numerous warrants for the Blounts. John Carter, Henry Clark, John 
Estes. E. Harris. W. Hughlett, George Doherty, and many others.

  Rutherford began his surveys at the key corner more than a year 
prior to the John Rice location below the mouth of Wolf (p.228) River, 
that being made by Isaac Roberts December 1st, 1786. Rutherford's 
surveys were made on the waters; of the Forked Deer, Obion, and 
Mississippi rivers, and Reelfoot Lake; many on the spot that is now 
Reelfoot Lack. None of the large lakes in the Mississippi bottom, in 
West Tennessee, then existed. and were formed in 1811 by earthquakes.

  Rutherford's Fork of Obion, on which he made many surveys, he named 
for himself. He spent three months in locating lands in the latter 
part of 1785. His father represented Rowan County in the Legislature 
of North Carolina in 1785 and soon afterward removed with Henry to 
Harpeth River. Henry resided there until West Tennessee was opened for 
settlement by a treaty with the Chickasaws. October 18, 1818. In 1819 
Henry Rutherford, in company with his brothers, John and Griffith, and 
a Mr. Crenshaw and their families, descended the Cumberland from 
Nashville, in scows or flat boats, and began to build houses and clear 
their lands.

  Henry Rutherford settled three miles east of Key Corner, on one of 
the tracts he had entered in his own name, in 1785. The Baptist Church 
near Double Bridges was built on this tract, on land given by him. The 
church is called Elon, and was at first used be all the orthodox 
denominations, and as a schoolhouse.

  On his first visit to locate his warrants, Rutherford soon exhausted 
his provisions. and then his supply of salt. and having reached the 
forks of the river, he abandoned his canoe and depended for 
subsistence upon the gun. His half-breed was a good woodsman and 
guide, while W. Bush, his hunter, furnished the party with elk, bear, 
deer, and turkey. His surveys were made according to the cardinal 
points; he was not only a good surveyor, but did his work rapidly. He 
had a remarkable memory, being able in many instances to name the 
trees on which corners bad been made thirty or forty years afterward, 
and to go to the places, and identify them.

  The pea vine was at the time of his first visit so rank that persons 
walking through it and dragging a chain left a conspicuous trail, and 
it was Rutherford's practice, for fear of being ambushed, to move a 
half mile from his line at night. He saw no Indians while in West 
Tennessee, and in fact not until he reached the Tennessee River on his 
way to Nashville. Rutherford possessed (229) superior business 
qualities; he was of generous impulses, was ardent in his friendships, 
and always trustworthy. He inherited slaves from his father, but was 
too indulgent to make them a source of much income: most of them were 
taught to read. He did not realize much from his large estate, much of 
it being sold at low prices. Much of his time was given to the public, 
in aiding new-comers and others in finding their lands and tracing the 
lines. He was often summoned to testify as to land titles, and to make 
resurveys to be used in litigation. Heavy drafts were made on his 
hospitality by strangers who visited the country in quest of homes. As 
he kept open house, declining to accept payment for the entertainment 
of travelers, he not only did not become rich, but died poorer than at 
the time of his settlement. Notwithstanding he was brave, and of much 
experience in the forest, he was on one occasion frightened out of his 
senses. While making a survey in what is now Maury County, he declared 
he heard Indians, and leaving his camp started in the dark for 
Nashville. He took a southern direction, and soon reaching Duck River 
declared it had sprung up during the night, and was not there the 
previous day. It was with great difficulty that his comrades, who had 
followed him, convinced him that the stream was in its proper place, 
and that there were no Indians near the camp.

  Henry Rutherford contributed in great degree to the upbuilding and 
development of the State. He was a broad-minded man, who gave 
encouragement and pecuniary aid to all public and charitable causes. 
After a long and useful career devoted particularly to the settlement 
of the Western District, he died May 20. 1847, at the age of 
eighty-five. and was buried at Elon Church Cemetery.

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