Note: All spelling, punctuation, and omissions are as they appeared in the article in the newspaper.

     Truth is often stranger than fiction, as every historian has occasion to learn. There is perhaps no stranger or more exciating story than that of Hugh Rogan, Sumner County's "Raw Irishman".
      Rogan was born in Ireland in 1747 during a period fraught with conflict between British landlords and the oppressed dispossessed Irish tenants. A weaver by trade and a fiery opponent of the British, Hugh was active in clandestine terrorist campaigns against them. In 1775, at the age of 28, Rogan and his brother-in-law were forced to flee Ireland in secret.
      With a price on their heads, they stowed away on the last merchant ship leaving the British Isles for America before the American Revolution. Hugh reluctantly left behind his beloved young wife, Anne (he called her "Nancy"), and their year old son, Bernard.
      On arriving in Philadelphia shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill, Hugh was probably delighted to get to fight the British in earnest. After attempting unsuccessfully to to enlist in the Colonial Navy, he probably served for a period in the army with a company of Pennsylvania volunteers. Becoming disillusioned with war and hearing stories of the rich lands west of the Appalachians, Hugh drifted west.
      For a time he kept a store and practiced his weaving trade in a small settlement on the Yadkin River in the hills of North Carolina. In 1779 he signed on as a guard with General Daniel Smith's party, which was surveying the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. During the long months in the wilderness, Hugh Rogan, along with many of his companions, was struck by the beauty of the rich land along the Cumberland River.
      In December of 1779 Rogan joined John Donelson's flotilla which left Watauga en route to the site of present-day Nashville, where they planned to meet James Robertson's party, who had travelled overland earlier in the fall to build cabins on the bluffs and start clearing land for what was to be a permanent settlement.
      The adventures of Donelson's party are legend today, and Hugh Rogan played an important role in the success of the voyage.
      On arriving in Middle Tennessee in 1780, Rogan claimed 640 acres of land near where Vanderbilt University stands today. He signed the Cumberland Compact, helped to harvest the first crop of corn in Nashville, and learned first-hand the fine art of Indian fighting. Over the next 15 years, Hugh and the other settlers were almost constantly harassed by Indians, and numerous accounts of his bravery and good humor in the face of incredible danger have been told and retold.
      In spite of constant struggle for survival, Hugh never forgot his wife and son, and he dreamed of the day when he could bring them to Middle Tennessee. In 1784, the war with England was over, and Hugh believed that he could safely return to Ireland for his family.
      In order to get enough cash for the trip, he sold his claim to the land he'd selected near Nashville for a sum of money and a farm in Sumner County near Bledsoe's Fort and set out for Ireland. In North Carolina he met his brother-in-law, Daniel Carlin, who had settled there and married a local girl. Having left his leagal wife behind in Ireland and knowing that Hugh would "tell on him" when he got home, the brother-in-law told Hugh that his beloved Nancy had remarried believing him dead.
      Grief-stricken, Hugh accepted the story and returned to his home in Sumner County. A devout Roman Catholic, he obviously never considered remarrying.
      The next 12 years were busy ones. There was constant Indian fighting, along with trying to build a cabin and clear his land, which he named Rogana. Many of Hugh's most famous adventures occurred during this period. In 1787 he took part in the Coldwater Expedition. Led by James Robertson, a group of Middle Tennesseans, journeyed to Alabama in an attempt to wipe out bands of renegade Creeks, Cherokees, and French traders who were terrorizing the Cumberland settlement.
      During the campaign, Hugh was wounded in the side, and his lung pierced by an Indian bullet. He made his way along all the way back to Middle Tennessee, bullet and all: where he recovered to fight many another Indian.
      Another famous exploit occurred when his good friend and neighbor, Anthony Bledsoe, was ambushed and mortally wounded when Indians lured him out of the safety of Bledsoe's Fort. Knowing he was near death, Bledsoe begged for a light so that he could see to make out his will. Under North Carolina law, if he died intestate, only his sons could inherit his sizeable estate, and Bledsoe wanted to provide for his daughters.
      Saying he could not deny a dying man's wish, Hugh dashed two miles through the Indian-infested woods to the cabin of an old woman whom the Indians never bothered because they believed her to be a witch. There he procured some kind of fire and ran back to the fort where he witnessed the dying Bledsoe's will. Obviously, Hugh was blessed with the "luck of the Irish".
      In 1796, with statehood for Tennessee assured, and the Indian wars over, Hugh and his fellow survivors in Sumner County could finally relax and settle down to the business of farming and building permanent homes. Hugh began building a simple but strong stone house to replace his crude cabin. It still stands today. With the help of several slaves he was becoming a prosperous farmer when he received a visit from a nephew who had just immigrated from Ireland.
      The visitor brought a letter from Hugh's wife, Nancy. In it she told him that she and his son were well, and she begged him to return to them iff possible. Imagine his surprise after 20 years to learn that she had not remarried after all. After giving his old friend, James Winchester, a power of attorney to look after his affairs, Hugh left for Ireland.
      Family tradition has it that when Nancy Rogan's neighbor came to tell her that Hugh was coming through town "an old man with a tall hate and gray hair" he replied, "Oh no, that can't be my Hughie. He's a young man and has red hair".
      It was her "Hughie" and he proceeded to sweep her off her feet and within a few months she, Hugh, and the "baby", Bernard, now a young man of 22, were settled at Rogana.
      A few months later, Nancy Rogan presented the proud Hugh with a new baby son, whom they called Francis.
      Probably the first and only Roman Catholic in Middle Tennessee for many years his home served as the Mass Station for traveling priests who came through this region.
      An so Hugh Rogan, that dashing, witty, courageous "Raw Irishman", lived out his days with his family on the land he had fought for and loved.
      He died quietly in 1813 and is buried near Rogana.
      Stories of his bravery and humor continued to be told by old timers for many years and his memory lives on today.