Statewide Edition

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8 The Tennessee M agazine

It’s always fascinating when you meet peoplewho are passionate about what they do —

educators, actors, artists, community volunteers.There’s a light in their eyes and an excitementwhen they talk about their subject of choice.They’re willing to put in long hours to their cause,spread the word about it and become its champi-on. That’s the feeling you get when you meet thethree Sumner County men who are the authors ofa groundbreaking new historical book titled“Founding of the Cumberland Settlements:The First Atlas 1779-1804.”

The book, by Doug Drake, Jack Masters and BillPuryear, is already a big hit with historians and genealo-gists. It pulls together a tremendous amount of informationabout the settlement of an 11-county region in what wouldbecome Middle Tennessee. Some of the information hadbeen available before, though scattered. Other parts of thework had never before been compiled. The result is a 240-page, glossy, 11-inch-by-14-inch book filled with maps ofland grants; original survey maps; information about the244 signers of the Cumberland Compact, an early governingdocument for the area’s settlers; charts and graphs of popu-lation, immigration and demographics; and maps detailinglocations of pioneer roads, salt licks, buffalo traces, Indianwarpaths and pioneer forts and stations. Also included is aCD with transcriptions and the original survey maps of all

1,500 deeds included in the book.“For many years, I dreamed of putting togeth-er the early roads and land grants of northern

Middle Tennessee,” says Yolanda Reid,Robertson County historian, in advance of

the book’s release. “Doug, Jack and Billhad no idea when they began thisproject that they would be making a

dream come true for this county his-torian. The value of this work maynever be fully calculated.”

Added to the impressive col-lection of information in the

book are more than 30stunning paintings

Trio of historians trace the steps of Cumberland settlersStory by Trish Milburn • Photographs by Robin Conover and contributed by the authors

Tennessee’s

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by H. David Wright, widely known for hiswell-researched and visually stunning depic-tions of pioneer and Native American sub-jects, and a number of Puryear’s moreimpressionistic paintings depicting aspects ofhistory such as the building of Bledsoe’sFort.

So how did a book of this magnitude comeabout, especially from three self-professed“amateurs?”

Puryear, of Gallatin, says he, Masters andDrake got to talking about historic stationswhile attending a history fair at Bledsoe’sFort. The topic of Morgan’s Fort, built byPuryear’s great-great-great-grandfather, JohnMorgan, came up. He told his friends hethought he could take them to it. After finding the site, theyused metal detectors and other tools to uncover thimbles,brass uniform buckles and other pieces of the past. Whenthey dug out a log that had been at the base of the fort, itwas a thrilling moment for Puryear, touching something thathis ancestors had touched.

He says that once they’d found the land grant informationon the site, they became interested in all the adjoining landgrants. These were typically plots of 640 acres that werebestowed by the state of North Carolina, of which this areawas still a part, to veterans of the Revolutionary War fortheir service. Once they found those land grants, there werealways more adjoining them. The domino effect took over.Thus began more than three years of hiking across fields,picking their way through forests, excavating relics andexamining public records and historical documents.

“Finding is one thing, documenting is another,” Puryearsays.

Masters adds that the men would often be up in the weehours of the morning, e-mailing each other about the project.

“They are passionate about this,” saysStephen Giddens, executive director of TheBook Foundry in Brentwood, which helpedWarioto Press, composed of Drake, Mas-ters and Puryear, take the book from tonsof information to finished volume. “Thisbook had to be written.”

For Masters, some of the most excitingfinds were old sunken roads, which often follow treelines,fencerows or parallel modern roads.

“Chills literally go up and down your back,” says the Gal-latin resident and Cumberland Electric Membership Corpo-ration member.

That’s understandable when you think about how manypeople must have used those roads in the years before Ten-nessee was even a state, people who had to be brave to settlein what was still a hostile wilderness.

“The story of survival comes through in this book,” Gid-dens says. “These people were at war with everyone — Indi-ans, the Spanish, the British.”

In fact, the settlers were outnumbered by at least 10 to 1by the five Indian nations that made incursions into thearea — the Creek, Shawnee, Cherokee, Chickasaws andChickamauga.

The realities of the daily life-and-death struggle thoseearly settlers faced are illustrated in a number of ways in thebook. There’s a chart showing how many settlers were killedby Indians from 1780 to 1795, by year. This is followed by

When three friends decided to investigatethe routes pioneers traveled to get to Mid-dle Tennessee, they had no idea how manymiles they would hike or the treasures theywould discover. Below, from left, BillPuryear, Jack Masters and Doug Drakeexplore a Sumner County property.

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10 The Tennessee M agazine

eight pages of casualty listings with the names of the pio-neers, the year they were killed and where. Even the paint-ings tell the story of just how precarious life was in thoseearly years. Wright’s “The Captives” depicts a white manand woman held captive in a canoe, flanked by two Indi-ans. But Indian attacks weren’t the only threats to the set-tlers’ survival. Disease, accidents, childbirth and a wholehost of other challenges brought the end to many a pioneer.

The authors used every means at their disposal to create ascomprehensive a book as possible. They walked a lot ofmiles, eyeballing a lot of old roads, creek fords, springs andother landmarks. Aerial photos, mapping software, microfilmmachines and even local lore directed them to more pieces ofthe giant puzzle covering 11 counties: Davidson, Sumner,Robertson, Williamson, Montgomery, Smith, Cheatham,

Continued on page 35

Above, a roadbed, once known as the Road to Kentucky, isbordered by a dry-stacked rock wall near the ruins ofSanders Station. At right, White Sulphur Springs at UpperDrakes Lick appears to be much the same as when pioneersfirst described it. Below, iron artifacts such as this horse-shoe helped the historians date sites. They donate theirfinds to local historical societies and museums.

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If you stand a few feet away, you’ll almostswear David Wright’s paintings are, in fact,

photographs. The realism is striking, a windowinto this country’s pioneer past. Theseglimpses of early settlers, American Indiansand the realities of pioneer life serve as theperfect visual component alongside the textand charts in “Founding of the CumberlandSettlements: The First Atlas 1779-1804.”

Wright, a native of Kentucky but a Ten-nessean since the 1950s, went to the now-closed Harris Art School in Nashville.Afterward, he worked as a commercialartist while creating his own art pieces onthe side. But since 1978, he’s been devotinghis time to creating his fine art paintings and sketches of rurallandscapes, the Civil War, Indians, hunters, settlers and sol-diers on the American frontier.

“I have two loves inpainting — landscapesand early frontier histo-ry,” says Wright, whomakes his home with hiswife, Jane, along a gor-geous stretch of Asher’sCreek in Gallatin.

He was alreadyfriends with the authorsof “Founding the Cum-berland Settlements”when fellow painter BillPuryear approached himabout using images of afew of his paintings inthe book. While sittingaround Wright’s kitchentable now, they laughabout how that “few”turned into more like 30images, both large andsmall. In fact, Wright’spainting “A New Begin-

ning — The James Robertson Party Arriving at the Bluffs,1779,” graces the cover of the book.

“I’m flattered to have so many images included,” he says.“It’s a great project to be a part of.”

The fact that he is a student of history shows in the preciseand accurate historical detail in his works. He’s a big believerthat historical painters should be as accurate as possible.

His talent and accuracy are what make his paintings suchsought-after works. Accolades include being listed in “Who’s

Who in American Art,” the prestigious Purchase Award at theEiteljorg Museum Quest for the West show and even a nomi-nation for a Prime Time Emmy for art direction on the HistoryChannel’s “First Invasion — The War of 1812.” Visitors to theCumberland Gap National Historical Park visitor center willno doubt notice the large mural reproduction of Wright’s“Gateway to the West — Daniel Boone Leading the SettlersThrough the Cumberland Gap, 1775.”

The History Channel production wasn’t the only affiliationWright has had with show business. He’s been art director orhistorical consultant on other documentaries, and after servingas an extra in the feature film “Last of the Mohicans,” WesStudi, who played Huron warrior Magua in the movie, posedfor Wright. The result was wonderful paintings such as “TheWarrior” and “The Huron.”

For more information about Wright and his artwork, visit hisWeb site at www.davidwrightart.com.

The Wright Stuff: Painting the Pioneers

Artist David Wright donated theuse of more than 30 of his paint-ings depicting pioneers, land-scapes and Native Americans tothe project.

“Uninvited Visitors” by David Wright

“The Captives” by David Wright

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Trousdale, Wilson, Macon and Jackson. The 100 pages of1,500 land grants alone are like a Christmas gift to those inter-ested in locating their ancestors’ land on a modern map.

Drake, Masters and Puryear found landowners and descen-dants very willing to help them out by pointing them in theright direction and telling them the family tales that had beenpassed down through the generations. The authors decided toinclude some short biographies, often of people who weren’tthe big names that make it into the history books but people“who left some tracks,” according toPuryear. The use of first-personaccounts adds an authenticity becauseyou’re reading about history in thewords of the people who actually livedit. For instance, a section on the May-field family in Williamson Countydetails raids by the Creeks, the stagger-ing death toll and even the horrificnature of some of the deaths. One suchvictim was Isaac Mayfield, who waskilled in 1794 while standing sentinelfor his son-in-law while he hoed hiscorn. Mayfield’s end came via eightshots to his body, a scalping, a bayonetthrough the face and two tomahawks.Bloody? Yes. A reality of those pioneeryears? Also yes.

Throughout their years of research and since the publica-tion of the book, the authors have depended on the kindnessof local historians. Members of historical societies aidedthem at various points and have hosted some of their pre-sentations since the book’s release. Drake, Masters andPuryear gave back by donating the relics they found tolocal history museums such as the Sumner County Museumin Gallatin.

You might think that after three years of long hours work-ing on this book the men might take abreak. Not so. They are already work-ing on a second volume that, accord-ing to Masters, will expand the areacovered and get into more of the cul-tural history of the years between 1779and 1804. That book, “Thoroughfarefor Freedom,” has a targeted publica-tion date sometime in 2010 or 2011.

For more information, includinghow to order your own copy of“Founding of the Cumberland Settle-ments, The First Atlas 1779-1804,” goto www.cumberlandpioneers.com orcontact The Book Foundry by e-mail-ing info@thebookfoundry.com or call-ing 615-330-9013.

Below, from left, Doug Drake, Bill Puryear and Jack Masters spent years researching the pioneers of Tennessee’s CumberlandSettlements. With permission from current landowners, they explored thousands of acres, searching for the remnants of whothese pioneers were and how they arrived in Middle Tennessee.

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