Lebanon Tn - Early Times and Today by Bob Carver, lebanon.html

Lebanon Tn - Early Times and Today
Robert Powell Carver
Email: [email protected]

Copyright notice:This material is copyrighted by the author and may not be used nor copied in any manner without the express consent of the author. 


X-Message: #1  Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1999
From: "Frederick Parsons" <[email protected]>
Subject: [TNWILSON-L] Re: Lebanon Tn - Early Times and Today

... Subject: Lebanon Tn - Early Times and Today

Hi All.....Since so many of us seem to have ancestors near Lebanon, could some of you share what you have learned about early times ....maybe why the folks came there in the first place....maybe what it looked like in the late 1790's.....and until the 1850's or so....and then perhaps what it is like today? Was there a fort there when it was first settled?

Thanks!!! Karen Rinnert Parsons


X-Message: #2  Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TNWILSON-L] Re: Lebanon Tn - Early Times and Today

Karen and others,

There was no fort at or near Lebanon. This is what gt-gt-gt-uncle BENJAMIN TARVER had to say about the TARVER et al migration to Wilson County, TN.

"The next son is EDMUND D. TARVER [who] was born in N.C., as was my sister above noted [MARY JANE, who married JOHN W. KING] We were all born in said state. He, E. D. , was born Sept. 12th, 1788. After he grew up to manhood he with brother-in-law J. W. KING and his wife [i.e., MARY JANE] migrated to west Tenn., so called then, now Middle, as that part of the state West of Tenn. River was then inhabited by Indians; no white settlers there until many years afterwards.

"They located in Wilson County, 25 miles eastward of Nashville, Tenn., made a crop in the fall of 1807, I think, or about that time; soon after in the same year, the crop being cultivated, he returned leaving his brother-in-law and family there; came back to his father in Wake Co., N.C., ten miles from Raleigh, the Count Seat, afterwards the Capital of the state. Our Father had left Roanoke [i.e. Northampton County, N.C.] some several years previous to this and settled at said place; was doing well. But my brother E. D. giving such flattering accounts of the new Country, its fertility and the strong desire to be with his children, induced my father to sell out, which he did that fall and moved to Tenn. In crossing Clinch River the Vehikle (sic) which my mother was seated [in] upset or the horse fell over the rough rocks, so she was thrown in the cold swift stream and thoroughly soaked; and sometime elapsed before she could be extricated; supposed to be the cause of the protacted diseased and extreme suffering for many years; finally recovered and lived in tolerably fair health afterwards some 25 or 26 years. He arrived at our place of destination without any other misfortune, rented the first year, intending by that to look about for a good location, but Mother's bad health prevented that and my Father bought in that Vicinity, settled down and never moved from it. It was a dense forest, timber large, tall and thick, had been thickly covered with tall cane, much of it still standing, and the ground nearly covered with dead cane in places. The soil very fertile but broken, timber was large sugar maple from which quantities [of] sugar was made, plenty for all domestice use, none to buy; large poplars; black walnut; ash' oak' and nearly vast forest of red cedar, so we could fence our land with that durable and excellent timber with but little expense. But sparcely settled then, had to labor very hard to prepare the land for cultivation, 'as the old adage runs, it was root hog or die.'

"We had the Cumberland river, a fine navigable stream near us, emptying in to the Ohio River, that into the Miss. RIver, on by New Orleans, our outlet to the ocean.
Dry goods and groceries were very high except the article of sugar; could make that at home. Salt was from Four to five dollars per bu. of 50 lbs. Coffee from 50 cents to 75 cents per lb., very few used it. Sassafras grew plentiful there, used [it] instead, and milk, butter, etc.; make all the clothing at home, leather and hoses. Industry and economy were indispensible then, but after the war closed [War of 1812], near the close of 1815, with England about 1817, the steamboats began running from Nashville to New Orleans; times and prices of Mrsc [merchandise] changed much; people became more extravangent.

"We had good neighbors; built a comfortable M. E. Church, regular preaching in our vicinity; a flourishing school. In our first three or four years, billiousness [a suffering from or resulting from excess of bile, or disordered functioning of the liver] and other diseases raged much, especially in the summer and fall months, though none of the white family died. My father lost a young valuable negro woman and two young negro boys. Nearly all his valuable milk cows died fat from some unknown disease.

[portions omitted]

"The writer of this little sketch is the next. I was born in N.C. March 1st 1802. My father moved to Tenn. when I was about six yrs old. Can remember something of the old homestead with the adjoining pine forest that waved their lofty boughs in the breese (sic), can remember the creek that meandered through the old plantation, have wished oft in life I could have visited the place of my nativity, the home of my juvenile years, but always too poor to gratify these inclinations even once. But as I was delighted with the traveling slowly along, we went as the wagons moved on, suppose some 20 miles per day I had time to play and slip along the road with my companions; saw the rivulets as we crossed them, also the expansive and sometimes rushing rivers. Oh, how I delighted to gaze on their placid and sometime turbid waters; it was new; but when we reached the Blue RIdge and the towering Alleghany Mountains when we gained their lofty peaks and gazed in the far off distance on the world below, the scene was sublime, enrapturing to my inexperienced vision. On one great elevation, we could see in the distance the blue waters of the Tennessee as it wended its way in the far off distance. So we traveled on over the hills and valleys with our camp fires at night and tent covers. Oh! I enjoyed it! Ate our rustic suppers and other meals with a coming appetite.

"Finally we reached Lebanon, the County Seat of Wilson County, Tenn. It contained a small two story log tavern with two small dry goods stores, a small frame court house of a dingy yellowish color and a few long dwellings around constituted the County seat at that time. Its sistuation was rather low and level surrounded by a vast cedar forest, very muddy in rainy times. We thought the surround growth suggested to its founders its name, Lebanon, without perhaps the broken grandeur of the ancient Lebanon of Palestine.

"Could see but one thing to induce its location at that spot and that was a large boiling spring which bursted up in forty yards from the Court House; water clear and cold ran off in a stream large enough to propel a mill affording sufficient water all seasons to supply a large city.

"After a few hours halt we proceeded on westward about five miles to our place of destination. Arriving there in the evening of November 1807 0r 8. Found my brother- in-law, J. W. KING, and sister; they had been there then twelve months, then made a crop on a rented farm. My father and family occupied and cultivated that place the ensuing year; at the expiration of that year we settled on a place in a dense forest. No improvements, where the sound of the axman(sic) had never been heard. Nature stood in all her wildness in profusion. By constant labor we soon erected some log houses, rude but comfortable, and having moved and occupied them, began felling the forst trees, clearing the land of brush, thus preparing it for cultivation on which to raise a crop which afforded constant and ergent (sic) employmente for all of every age. The female part of the family found constant employment in their department: carding and spinning, weaving cloth for clothing the family. No clothing bought in that day, had to be made at home for every day wear. Some few calicoes and other goods were in a few stores then, but were held at enormous prices. Necessity compelled the household manufactury (sic) indeed nearly every necessity was of home production.

"At this time I was seven or eight years old, though young, I was kept constantly busy; was not strong and large enough to chop down trees, yet I was busy piling and burning the brush of the trees cut down by the men. Often all would burn brush at night until tne Oclock (sic). If the weather was too unfavorable to be out at nights, most of the nights were employed pealing off the lent from the cotton seed ready for the women to spin. They said it was much better for working into cloth than that from the cotton gin.

"We also raised flax and amde into various kinds of cloth for wear, towels, table cloths. Shoes and almost every thing for home consumption was made at home. We made plenty of maple sugar annually for family use; used but very little cottee, it was scarce and high, from 75 to 80 cents per pound. In its place we had milk and butter, sassafras tea and etc. Young folks in that day drank no coffee nor the middle aged. We had to economize and work constantly to avoid debt and live.

 "We also raised sheep from which we made woolen goods for wear and blankets for home use. In my growing up, was constantly kept employed at work, as was all my brothers and sisters -- no time for loitering. Father and mother was industrious close laboring persons, neglected nothing it seemed that would conduce to them or their children's temporal or christian welfare, and though comparatively poor, yet were independent or above want, had enough of the necessaries of life, were conscientiously honest; kept that scriptural injunction. 'Owe no many anything'; rigidly gave us religious instruction; and taught us by precept and example the good and the right way."

 [all bracketed words are mine as are the capped names]

Bob ye olde professor






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published for Bob Carver, by Nancy P. Goodman on 17 Jan 1999.  All rights reserved.