From “A History of Hickman County Tenn.”
Published by Gospel Advocate Publishing Co. 1900
Written by W. Jerome & David L. Spence
Beginning on Page 149
CHAPTER VII
THE FOURTH DISTRICT.
The Fourth District is bounded on the north by Dickson County; on the east, by Williamson and Maury Counties;
south, by the Thirteenth District; and west, by the Second and Fifth Districts. It includes the valley of Lick Creek,
from the mouth of Hassell’s Creek up to the lines of Dickson and Williamson Counties, which lie beyond the head
waters of the northwestern tributaries of this creek. The line of the Fourth District, however, does not cross Lick
Creek until it reaches the mouth of Dog Creek, where it crosses and embraces in the Fourth District all of this
creek, save a small tributary, Sugar Creek, which lies in the Thirteenth District.
Zebulon Hassell the First, from whom the creek took its name, settled at the Lambert place, on Hassell’s Creek, a
short time after the Indian treaties of 1805 and 1806. The next tributary of Lick Creek above Hassell’s Creek is
Morrison’s Branch, named for a family which lived on it at an early day. Jesse Peeler who died a few years ago in
the Eleventh District, lived on this branch in 1836. Frank Killough lived here in 1835. A fork of Morrison’s Branch
is Jones’ Branch, upon which John Groves now has a mill and dry goods store. It received its name from Alston
Jones, father of O. A. Jones, who settled upon it about 1825. At its mouth Harvey Giles lived in 1835. Ned Carver, a
noted gunsmith and blacksmith, had a mill at the Tatom place in 1835. Ferdinand B. Russell owned the Little Rock
Mills, now owned by Groves, in 1858.
Above Morrison’s Branch is Gin Branch, which received its name from the fact that Frank Worley had a gin here in
1825. Col. Alfred Darden lived here in 1836, and from this place he went, ten years later, to Mexico as a member
of Whitfield’s company. J. H. Nichols, of the Fourth District, was also in the Mexican War. On this branch, in 1846,
lived William Jefferson Bond, who was born at Hillsboro, Williamson County, on July 26, 1826. He was a son of
William Bond, of Virginia. He married Clara Mayberry, a daughter of Gabriel Mayberry, who was born in June,
1828. William J. Bond was the father of John T. Bond, who was born on January 9, 1851, and of Albert J. Bond,
who was born on January 29, 1863. In 1867 a negro woman, Nancy Mayberry, was shot and killed by unknown
parties in Gin Hollow. The shot was fired through a window one night. The gin has long since disappeared, and only
the name recalls the fact that here the farmers of the upper portion of Lick Creek brought their cotton to have it
ginned, preparatory to passing it into female hands to be, by the cards, the spinning wheel, the reel, and the loom,
transformed into clothing for the family.
Just below the mouth of Gin Hollow (or Branch), near a good spout spring, lives Jerome Reeves, one of Hickman
County’s best citizens. He is a son of John Reeves, who was born in Kentucky on August 13, 1800. John Reeves was
a son of James Reeves, who was born in Greene County, Tenn., in 1778, and who married Peggy Ayres, of Kentucky.
John Reeves came with his father to Maury County in 1805. He came to the Fourth District in 1836 and settled on
the John Overbey place, which he bought from Robert Oakley, who had bought it from Henry Potts, who had located
here about 1815. Hugh Hill then owned the place where Jerome Reeves now lives. Hill afterwards sold it to James
Oliver, father of Captain Oliver, C. S. A. Sons of John Reeves were S. Jerome Reeves (born on September 28,
1829), and Leonard Reeves (born in 1839). His daughter, Cleander, married William Dean, of Dog (or Cedar)
Creek. Ophelia Reeves married Joseph Holmes, who, while a soldier in the confederate Army, was killed at
Marietta, Ga. Garrett Turman, Jr., lived at the W. T. Wariff place in 1836, and about the same date James Anglin
lived at the Blount Turman place. At what is now known as Martin’s shop, Phelps Martin lived in the long ago, and
his near-by neighbor was Benjamin Vaughn. Turman Parker lived on this, the Barren Fork, about 1835. George W.
Hicks, who lives at the mouth of the Barren Fork of Lick Creek, was born on April 22, 1835, on Lick Creek. He is a
son of William M. Hicks, who was born in Virginia on January 9, 1804, and who married Margaret, the daughter of
Josiah Davidson, who was a North Carolina soldier in the Revolutionary War. Margaret Davidson was born in
Rutherford County, Tenn. The Hicks family came to Lick Creek in 1815. Jerre Ingram laid a soldier’s warrant at
the Hicks place in 1815. The land upon which W. T. Warff lives was granted to Butler, the grant embracing 640
acres. An adjoining grant of the same number of acres was to Grant. The Grant lands are on the Trace Fork, and
have since been known as the Tidwell or Dean lands, and lie adjoining to the Ingram lands. The Butler lands, which
were also for military service in the Revolutionary War, were located about 1810. The Tidwell above referred to
was Eli Tidwell, father of the late Levi J. Tidwell, who for many years one of the Fourth District’s magistrates.
Levi J. Tidwell was a man of determination, firm in his views upon all questions, whether personal, political, or
religious. He was a Missionary Baptist, having joined that church at Union Hill, Henderson County, Tenn. In
politics he was an unflinching Republican, and was at one time a candidate for Representative. He was beaten by
only eighty-four votes by Col. Vernon F. Bibb, who was considered the strongest Democrat in the county. Tidwell
was born on March 14, 1825. He lived in what is called “The Barrens.” above the head waters of Lick Creek, on
the Tannehill entry, which was made in 1826. This entry embraced several thousand acres. A near-by entry was
one made by John Stone in 1820. Alfred Tidwell, a son of Levi J. Tidwell, was a deputy under Sheriff John V.
Stephenson, and another son, Johnson Tidwell, is at present one of the magistrates of the Fourth District. The
Tidwells came from North Carolina in 1843. There is a large family of them in the flat country along the county line,
and they have built up a thrifty settlement, known as the “Tidwell Settlement.”
At the Hicks place Lick Creek forks. The Barren Fork, already referred to, rises near Martin’s Shop. The other
fork, known as Trace Fork, rises in Williamson County and runs about twelve miles before entering the Fourth
District of Hickman County.
The first place on Lick Creek in Hickman County was settled by John Mayberry, who came from Virginia, near the
Peaks of Otter. He was here as a hunter as early as 1800, and made a permanent settlement here about 1806,
being the first settler on Lick Creek in Hickman County. He was a farmer and blacksmith, and has hundreds of
descendants throughout Hickman, Maury, and Williamson Counties. He was the father of a large family, all of
whom were older than the present century. His sons were Mike, Job, John, George, and Gabriel. He was the
grandfather of Walker and Sim Mayberry. A daughter of John Mayberry married a Kinser; another married Alston
Jones, and was the mother of O. A. Jones; and another married Pleasant Russell, and was the mother of Ferdinand
B. and Washington B. Russell. Gabriel Mayberry, after the death of his father, lived at the old Mayberry place,
where John T. Morton now lives. It is said that when an old man he kept as one of his most valued treasures a pair
of trousers which his mother had made. These he kept folded carefully and laid away in an old-fashioned chest.
Occasionally he would take them out, gaze on them reverently, and say: “Mother made these for me, and I want to
be buried in them.” When he died, friends granted his wish.
Farther down the creek, on the lands entered by Grant, Stockard settled at an early date. Hardin, a soldier of the
Revolution, lived here a few years later. This is the place at which Tidwell and Dean later lived.
In 1807 Robert E. C. Doughtery settled on the creek below the Stockard place. He was a school teacher and was
one of the early magistrates of the county. In 1819 he resigned his seat in the State Legislature and removed to
West Tennessee. At the place where Doughtery settled there now lives Garret Turman Overbey, who knows much
of the history of the Fourth District.
Daniel Overbey, early in the present century, emigrated from North Carolina to Sumner County, Tenn., and in the
autumn of 1814 he came to Hickman County, settling in the following spring at the head of one branch of the Barren
Fork of Lick Creek. His wife was Emily Tyler, who was related to President John Tyler. Overbey and his wife both
died in 1869. Daniel Overbey, Jr., a son of Daniel Overbey, Sr., on March 15, 1832, married Sarah Parker, and they
became the parents of eight children. He died on February 2, 1865, his wife living until December 15, 1890. Sarah
Parker was a daughter of Elisha and Rebecca Parker. Rebecca Parker was a daughter of Garrett Turman, Sr., who
was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and who was at one time held a prisoner by the Indians for six months. This
was during the Revolutionary War, when North Carolina and Georgia were overrun by the Tories and the frontiers
devastated by the Indians. Garrett Turman Overbey, a son of Daniel Overbey, Jr., was born on October 13, 1834,
and, on December 23, 1858, married Emily J. Moss, who was born on September 11, 1837. He is the father of six
children—John T., W. W., America L., James D., T. F., and Annie C. The wife of G. T. Overbey is a descendant of
the Foote family, of Virginia, a member of which was at one time Governor of Mississippi.
No portion of Hickman County is more closely connected with the early history of Middle Tennessee than is the
Lick Creek country. “Lick Creek of Duck River” was one of the first streams of Middle Tennessee to receive a
name. It derives its name from the black sulfur spring on the south side of the creek, on the old Russell (and later
Beale) place, now owned by John T. Overbey. Here buffaloes, deer, and other wild animals congregated in large
numbers. Such places as this were called, in the pioneer days, “licks.” The buffaloes coming from across Duck
River to this lick crossed at the mouth of Leatherwood Creek, and the path they made was used by the Chickasaws
when they came into the Cumberland settlements. According to the late Maj. Bolling Gordon, the route of the
Chickasaw Trace, the path by which the whites and Indians traveled to and from the Chickasaw country, was as
follows: “Up Trace Creek in Lawrence County, down Swan Creek, and across Blue Buck somewhere near the
residence of Jo. M. Bond; then over to the spring on Robertson’s Creek, where Mark Robertson was killed by
Indians; then over to Lick Creek, near Mrs. Beale’s residence; thence to Nashville by way of Johnson’s Lick, on
Richland Creek near Charles Bosley’s; then on to French Lick, now Nashville.” The Chickasaw Trace ran for
several miles up the Trace Fork of Lick Creek. When James Robertson, in 1780, made the first expedition from the
Bluffs against the Indians, he came upon them near this lick on Lick Creek. When the Coldwater Expedition went
out from Nashville in 1787 to avenge the death of Mark Robertson, it went west from Nashville to the mouth of
Turnbull Creek, and up that creek to its head. They then went to the head of Lick Creek, and traveled several
miles along the ridge, leaving the creek to their right. They then, turning into the creek valley, came down Trace
Fork to the lick on the John T. Overbey place, described as “an old lick as large as a cornfield.” They then crossed
Dog Creek, went up the Gee Hill, over to Leatherwood Creek, and down this creek to it’s mouth, where they
crossed Duck River. Then leaving the Chickasaw Trace, which ran up Robertson’s Creek, to the right, they went to
the head of Swan Creek. From this point they went the route described in preceding pages.
John Dean, father of William, Robert, Ephraim, and Mark Dean, came to Hickman County on March 24, 1844, and
located at the old T. J. Oakley place. Soon after locating here he commenced the manufacture of plug tobacco, the
first industry of the kind ever operated in the county. The factory was near the Oakley place. The reputation of the
“Dean Tobacco” as a high-grade tobacco is yet remembered by many, and this reputation was sustained by
William Dean, who in 1857 erected a factory at the mouth of Dog (or Cedar) Creek. John Dean was born in East
Tennessee on August 7, 1803, and in 1825 married Eliza Andrews, of Williamson County. Dean died at the T. J.
Oakley place, and is there buried. His father was William Dean, who married Alice Woodward, of East Tennessee,
from which place Dean came, in 1811, to Maury County. William Dean died in 1819 on his return from Missouri,
where he had been to locate land. Robert Dean, son of John Dean, was thrown from a mule and killed near Little
Lot on February 25, 1880.
In 1836 Josiah Davidson lived at the John W. Mayberry place. Here, during and after the Civil War, lived Joseph
Bizwell, a hospitable man and a Christian gentleman. Before the war he was tax collector for Hickman County, and
was at one time deputy sheriff.
At the John T. Overbey place, in 1835, lived the widow of Pleasant Russell, the father of F. B. and W. B. Russell.
This place is frequently called the Beale place, as it was once owned by Capt. Charles Wesley Beale, who
commanded a company in the Twenty-fourth Tennessee Infantry, and who died at Bowling Green, Ky., in the later
part of 1861. In 1836 Vincent Irwin lived where H. G. Primm now lives and later sold the lands to F. B. Russell.
In 1830 John T. Primm, who was born in Maryland on September 22, 1790, located at the place so well known as
the Primm place. Primm married Cecilia C. Gannt, also of Maryland, who was born on May 6, 1803. Other
daughters of Mrs. Elizabeth Gannt married Alten Massey, Captain Clagett, and Rev. George Hicks. In 1834 Hicks
went to Mississippi, where he died. Primm was a school-teacher, and taught here as did also his brother-in-law,
Gannt. He was also a merchant, and was one of the first to sell goods on the creek. This place, noted as one of the
earliest settled in this vicinity, was first owned by William Lytle, who laid a soldier’s warrant here in 1811. The
Primms, Smoots, Smiths, Gannts, Clagetts, Tylers, and Berrys came here from Maryland at an early date and
formed a Maryland colony near the lines of the Second, Fourth, and Thirteenth Districts, where they had schools of
their own. They had two doctors, Smith and Smoot; two teachers, Gannt and Primm; and one merchant, Primm.
They brought no preacher with them, but the eldest son of John T. Primm—Oliver Hazard Perry Primm, who was
born on October 24, 1819—became a preacher. Another son is Hinson Groves Primm, who was born in August,
1839. There were nine other children. Hinson G. Primm, who married Emma V. Rooker, is also the father of eleven
children. Another son, Clagett Primm, now lives on Hassell’s Creek.
In 1825 a man named Cox lived on Dog (or Cedar) Creek, on a portion of the lands now owned by William Dean.
He had no children, and he willed the lands to Stephen (or Jesse) Harper, a boy whom he had reared. At times Cox
would become violently insane, and his neighbors would be forced to confine him. After he would recover he would
take revenge upon those who had confined him by refusing to allow their children to have any apples out of his fine
orchard. The other children of the neighborhood would be given access to the orchard. Finding that his fine flock of
sheep was decreasing in numbers, he commenced to keep a close watch for wolves, which infested the hills near by.
One day a large “dog wolf” pursued his sheep to within a few steps of his house. Snatching his rifle from the
rack—two forked sticks nailed to the wall—he killed the wolf. The report of killing of this pest spread throughout
the neighborhood, and from the killing of the “dog wolf” the creek took its name—Dog Creek. According to
William Dean, Edward Mahon, of Maury County, bought land on the creek from Malugin and erected a mill on it.
Mahon became tired of telling his old neighbors in aristocratic Maury County that he lived on Dog Creek; so, when
Colonel Bibb was in the senate, Mahon had him to introduce a bill changing the name to “Cedar Creek.” This bill
passed both houses, and was approved by the Governor, and became a law “from and after its passage, the public
welfare requiring it.”
Primm’s Springs are at the head of this creek. These springs were almost unnoticed until 1831, when Alten Massey,
a brother-in-law of John T. Primm, entered the land surrounding them. He had married a Miss Gannt, and, not
having any children, he willed the springs property to the children of Primm. The springs in 1836 were fitted up for
visitors, and since that time this has been a popular resort. It is said that Matilda, the wife of J. W. Stephenson, and
an aunt of William Dean, gained a pound a day while staying here in 1837. Primm‘s Springs are now principally the
property of Maury County parties. Hickman Countians who have interests here are: O. A. Jones, John A. Jones,
and R. A. Smith. These springs, like almost all others of their character, were, before they were fitted up for
guests, considered public property, and hither in the early days resorted hunters, trappers, and explorers. They
came when it suited them, and departed when they pleased.
William Dean came to this creek from the Oakley place in 1857 and erected a tobacco factory. The first plug of
tobacco he made was at the Oakley place, on August 5, 1846. Here on Dog (or Cedar) Creek he had also a tan
yard, which he operated, together with the tobacco factory, until 1861. The “Dean Tobacco,” the trade being then
unlimited by taxes or by laws, was carried in wagons and sold in either large or small lots throughout Middle
Tennessee and portions of Mississippi and Alabama. Dean bought part of his lands from a man named Helms, who
had bought from Asa Shute, a pioneer land locator. That Shute was here as early as 1811 is evidenced by the fact
that a beech tree on the creek was marked: “Asa Shute, 1811.” Another, which stood near by, was marked: “Asa
Shute, Thomas Ingram, 1811.” These trees stood about halfway between Primm’s Springs and the mouth of the
creek, about one-fourth of a mile above where Dean now lives, and near the foot of Gee’s Hill. These inscriptions
were cut in the bark of these beech trees, which, as they stood near the creek, have washed away. They were once
important landmarks. Gee’s Hill takes its name from a man named Gee, who once lived here, and from whom the
ford at the mouth of Dog (or Cedar) Creek and the road leading over to the head of Leatherwood Creek take their
names—Gee’s Ford and Gee’s Road, respectively. This Gee was probably the one who killed so many deer while
herding cattle in the Cow Hollow, in the Ninth District. On Dog (or Cedar) Creek a house built by John Irwin in
1809 is still used as a residence. There is a hewn-log house on the place where G. W. Malugin now lives which was
also built in 1809. This place is known as the “Billy Malugin place.” There is yet another house built in 1809 on
this creek. This is situated on a tributary of the creek, and is within the limits of the Thirteenth District. This house
was built by—Mattock, and from it John G. Malugin once ran in great fright to the home of Gee. He ran down the
creek valley and through a dense canebrake, thinking that Indians were in close pursuit. His hasty arrival and
terrible news he brought caused Gee to also become frightened. They made arrangements to resist the savages as
best they could and to fight them to the last. After hours of weary waiting and of suspense, they concluded that it
was a false alarm, and such it was. Robert Dean, an uncle of William Dean and a brother of John Dean, located on
Bell’s Branch, in the Seventh District, in 1820, and taught school there.
As early as 1830, and probably earlier, Pleasant Russell lived at the John T. Overbey (or Beale) place. His son, the
late Hon. W. B. Russell, was a great hunter. In 1840, after a long chase, he lost the trail of a deer in the Dog (or
Cedar) Creek bottoms. A few hours later he went to the sulphur springs at the head of the creek for water, and
there found the deer on a like errand. The deer was slain.
During the Civil War this district furnished its quota of brave men for the Southern army. They were led by
Captains Beale, Oliver, and Campbell. Capt. Thomas Campbell was badly wounded in the leg during the war. After
the war he was elected tax collector, defeating Robert Green, a one-armed ex-Confederate. In another race for the
same office Green defeated Campbell, and thus Hickman County gave this, the most responsible county office, to
these two wounded heroes. The majority each time was very small, and it seemed that the voters wanted to elect
both men.
Ferdinand B. Russell was at one time one of the leading mill men of the Fourth District. He lost his eyesight while
blasting rock near his mill on Jones‘ Branch. His father was born in Williamson County on March 10, 1822.
Felix Cockrum was drowned at the mouth of Lick Creek, in the Second District, in 1851. His body was recovered at
or near the O. A. Jones (or Nunnelly) place. At Inkstand Point—so called on account of its peculiar shape—near
the mouth of Lick Creek, the body of a man named Ashworth was recovered in 1887. He was drowned at Gordon’s
Ferry, and lived in Maury County. In Lick Creek, in the Fourth District, at what is called the Pine Bluff Hole, little
Charlie Haley, of Maury County, was drowned in 1888. He was in bathing with other boys.
The early physicians here were Drs. Smoot and Smith, already mentioned. They lived near the mouth of Fort
Cooper Hollow. Physicians here at a recent date Drs. Daniel, Capps, and Shacklett. On Jones‘ Branch Elder J. P.
Litton lived in recent years. He by his upright course made many friends and gained the esteem of even those who
differed from him on doctrinal points.