The Curfman Family of Southern Cheatham County

The history of the Curfman's, early settlers in the area below the Narrows of The Harpeth on Cedar Hill Road in Southern Cheatham County

The Curfman's in front of their home on Cedar Hill Road that was built in 1790. Front row, L - R : Lansley Curfman, Elizabeth Joshlin, Dell Curfman, Eunice Curfman, Liz Jackson, Johnny Curfman, Alma Baxter, Charlie Curfman. Back Row : John P. Curfman. Log House was built in 1790 and an addition added in 1895.
Photo taken sometime around 1905.

The Civil War in Southern Cheatham County - February 1863, The Charlotte Turnpike

- The Civil War in Southern Cheatham County -

by DJ Hutcherson

"Another Mule Story"

This post describes an incident that took place on the Charlotte Turnpike in the Dog Creek / Shacklett area in Southern Cheatham County during the middle of the Civil War, February of 1863. It involves a little Civil War humor, at least in the eyes of the war veteran who tells the story.

The article pictured below appeared in the January 12, 1899 National Tribune in Washington D.C. In it, a former Union officer tells of an incident that had occurred 36 years earlier in February of 1863, in which a few sneaky Union soldiers belonging to the 1st Missouri Engineer regiment managed to get the better of some local Cheatham County citizens who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The soldiers were part of a wagon train consisting of 1,200 men and 43 wagons, pulled by 6 mules each (that's a total of 258 mules) who were marching west out of Nashville on the Charlotte Pike. Once they reached the Harpeth, where the Turnpike forded the river at the mouth of Dog Creek, the regiment was forced to temporarily halt their march, due to the water being too cold to cross the river, and there being no bridge over the river at the time.

While a small detail of men went to work building a foot bridge across the Harpeth, the rest of the men in the wagon train were said to have been stretched out for quite a distance on the Charlotte Pike along Dog Creek.

It was during the time that the men were waiting for the footbridge to be completed so that they could cross the river, that a group of local citizens passed by the stopped regiment, driving a team of 30 to 40 mules eastward along the Pike in the direction of Nashville.

As the locals were trying to make their way along the crowded road beside Dog Creek, they inevitably lost track of some of their own mules among the long line of the 250 + mules in the wagon train. This provided the opportunity for a few of the men of the 1st Missouri Engineers to relieve some of the boredom that must have been building up during what must have been a long wait, at the expense of the locals.

The article below details the rest of the story of how this unexpected stop resulted in the regiment coming out ahead by one mule, with the local's citizens losing one.

Article from The Nation Tribune, Washington D.C., January 12, 1899

To view this post on my Southern Cheatham County History Facebook page, please visit www.facebook.com/shacklettcommunityhistory

More information of the 1st Regiment, Missouri Engineers -

The 1st Missouri Engineer Regiment played a significant role in Tennessee during the Civil War, particularly in engineering and construction tasks. Initially formed by consolidating Bissell's Engineer Regiment of the West and the 25th Missouri Infantry in February 1864. The regiment was involved in rebuilding the Nashville & Western Railroad, building blockhouses, and repairing and protecting roads. They also participated in the Atlanta Campaign and Sherman's March to the Sea. 

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Consolidation - The regiment was created by merging Bissell's Engineer Regiment of the West (which had strong ties to Tennessee through its work on railroads and fortifications) and the 25th Missouri Infantry. 

Engineering Focus - The regiment was primarily an engineering unit, tasked with building and repairing infrastructure vital to the Union war effort. 

Tennessee Operations - They were heavily involved in Tennessee, particularly in the Nashville area, where they rebuilt the Nashville & Western Railroad and constructed fortifications. 

Johnsonville Supply Depot - Details from the 1st Missouri Engineers were sent to the Tennessee River to establish and support the Johnsonville Supply Depot, which played a key role in supplying Sherman's Atlanta Campaign.

 

Sherman's March to the Sea - The regiment's engineering skills were crucial in Sherman's campaign, including building roads, repairing railroads, and constructing pontoon bridges. 

Legacy - The 1st Missouri Engineers' work in Tennessee and elsewhere highlighted the vital role of engineering in the Civil War, facilitating troop movements, supply lines, and strategic fortifications. 

For more on the Regiment, visit the following website - https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UMO0001RE

Kingston Springs, Tennessee History in Pictures

Various Historical Photographs of Kingston Springs, Tennessee and surrounding areas in Cheatham County

Downtown Kingston Springs in 1970

Late 1800's ad for the Kingston Springs Hotel

This photo, taken in 1988, shows my dad (David Hutcherson Sr.) and I (DJ Hutcherson) standing next to the truck we had just bought from our Dog Creek Road neighbors Angela and Joey Judd. This was the first truck we used to haul canoes and customers to and from the river. The old motel that once stood on Highway 70 in Shacklett from 1940 to 1993 can be seen in the background. It was first known as "Ham's Motel & Cafe", then "The Star Motel" in the 1960's, up until 1978, which is the year my mother bought the hotel, renovating it and renaming it "The Narrows of the Harpeth Motel". In 1986, the motel caught fire, and every one of the 12 rooms were destroyed or damaged beyond repair...so, my parents decided it would be a good idea to give up the motel business for good and give the canoe rental business a try with the creation of Foggy Bottom Canoe Rental in 1987, much to Tip-a-Canoe's dismay...

This photo, taken around the year 1900, shows a group of sight seers gathered above and beside the back side of the Montgomery Bell Narrows of the Harpeth Tunnel. Bell built the tunnel in 1818 - 1819, for the purpose of using the water power to power an iron forge operation at the site, which he named "Pattison Forge".

Postcard of Hamm's Motel & Cafe - On Highway 70 in Shacklett - Circa 1940's

Downtown Kingston Springs - Shriners' Drum & Bugle Corp. marching in a parade, sometime in the 1960's or 1970's

Two horses pulling a buggie with possible guests of the Kingston Springs Hotel, which is seen behind them.

Harpeth River Picnic: August 25, 1895

This photo was taken where modern day Burns Park is located, 

with the old bridge in the background.

Back Row L- R : M. Gray (sitting), (standing) Hays Hickman, Minnie Johnson, Mattie Thompson, Lena Meadow next row,(sitting) Minnie Ham, Daisy Ament, John Bell Gray, B. West, Jessy Gray, Robert Thompson.

1970's photo of The Farm House in Kingston Springs. It was located on Luyben Hills Road in the area where The Kingston Springs Animal Hospital & Petro are today.

Photo courtesy of Wanda Boggs Baker.

Late 1800's newspaper ad for the Kingston Springs Hotel

This is what was known as a "photographic" locomotive, which is seen here passing slowly over the huge trestle that had just recently been completed over Sullivan's Branch Creek, which empties into Turnbull Creek nearby. Taken sometime around 1864, the sole purpose of the train in the photo, was to travel to all strategically important bridges and other structures that were valuable to the Union and take detailed photographs of said bridges and buildings, as they raced to complete this railroad from Johnsonville on the Tennessee River in the west to Downtown Nashville, where the supplies that had been shipped on this new railroad would then be transferred to the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, bound for General Sherman and his men. 

Kingston Springs Post Office. "Hillard Liles worked at the post office most of his life and served as magistrate for many years. Ladies shown include: Percy Beard, Ada Duncan & Odell Whited. The Post Office was established on October 6, 1865. Zachariah Payne was the town's first appointed postmaster."

 The Kingston Springs Hotel building, built in the 1890's.

Above - 57 years separate the two photo's in this combined image I put together.  The photo on the left was taken in 1960, and shows Mrs. Lillian Ham Judd, with three of her great grandsons, Alan, Jerry, and John Hall in front of her home - the old Judd home place located on Cedar Hill Road near Scott Cemetery. "Ma Judd" was Joey Judd's Great Grandmother. The photo on the right is a recent photo I took from approximately the same location and perspective as the 1960 photo. 

The photo on the left was taken some time during the Civil War Era, and the photo on the right was taken by me around 160 years later in 2022.

Dog Creek Resident Samuel Adkisson's 1865 Letter To Andrew Johnson

Samuel Adkisson's 1865 Civil War Letter 

to Military Governor of Tennessee Andrew Johnson

 by DJ Hutcherson

The Papers of Andrew  Johnson, Volume 7

1861 - 1865

Samuel W Adkisson, born in Virginia in 1803, was a prominent, wealthy and influential citizen who lived in the heart of the Dog Creek community during the 1860's and 1870's. He and his family lived on a large tract of land on which he built a large home, and nearby a large farmstead. Of course, the majority of the hard work and everyday chores on the farm was performed by the 15 or so slaves that Adkisson owned before the war. In 1860 he claimed $5,000 in real estate and $35,000 in personal property. When the War broke out, his household included his wife Nancy, and their three sons, James, Joseph, and Samuel Jr.

In his youth, Adkisson studied to become an engineer, or "mechanic" as he described his job title. He was a very skilled stone cutter. His talents at stone cutting are evident just by looking at the many gravestones in Dog Creek Cemetery that were carved by Adkisson. (See photos below)

Some of Adkisson's unfinished, or practice stones still sit in the woods near the cemetery

He is perhaps most famous for using his skills as an engineer when he was put in charge of overseeing the excavation of Montgomery Bell's tunnel at the Narrows of the Harpeth at a very young age.  The construction of the tunnel began around the year 1818 and is said to have taken about a year to complete, which would have been sometime around 1819 or 1820. Because Adkisson was born in 1803, he would have only been around 15 or 16 years old during the building of the first tunnel in 1818. 

I have always found it a little difficult to believe that Adkisson, at such a young age, could have been employed by Bell as the engineer in charge of the excavation of the first tunnel.  Therefore, I am beginning to believe Adkisson's only involvement in any kind of engineering work at the Narrows was with the partial excavation of the second tunnel, approximately 20 yards below the completed first tunnel, in the early 1820's.  This tunnel was intentionally left uncomplete, for reasons unknown.  Bell would later try to auction of this property.

Prior the War, Adkisson's opinion regarding seceding from the Union seems to have been unclear, as if he wasn't sure whether he supported The Confederacy or remain loyal to the Union. As a slave owner, one would think Adkisson would have been against the abolition of slavery, however he did write an op-ed in a Nashville newspaper just before the presidential election of 1860 in which he endorses Abraham Lincoln, saying he believed Lincoln would make a good president. It seems though, that once the war broke out in 1861 and Tennessee seceded from the Union, he had changed his position concerning both issues and declared that he was and always had been loyal to the Union.

I believe I have been able to determine, with a fair degree of certainty, that Adkisson's land and residence was located on a large tract of land on the south side of Dog Creek and the Charlotte Pike. This land would have been located directly across from where Dog Creek Cemetary is located today.  This tract of land was originally owned by one of Dog Creek's earliest settlers, Mastin Ussery, who, on February 13,1858, donated a portion of his land for the purpose of establishing a cemetery and schoolhouse.

On the deed which describes the details of the donation, Ussery, who had settled on Dog Creek as early as 1817, specifically states that he was donating this piece of land "for the use and benefit of my family and neighbors...for a schoolhouse, for preaching, and the like...(and) a graveyard for my family and relations...and neighbors". This of course was the land that eventually became the location of Dog Creek Cemetery, just where it is still located today, and where, for a time, the Shacklett Church of Christ once stood. 

Adkisson's name, though misspelled, can clearly been seen on the south 

side of Dog Creek in this Civil War Era map clearly 

For a time, Adkisson was involved with the operation and even construction/improvement of the Charlotte Turnpike, even being put in charge of the construction of a bridge of the Harpeth River at the mouth of Dog Creek. As it passed through his property, he operated a toll-gate on the Charlotte Pike located in the area of the cemetery.  In another post on this blog, I have written in more detail Adkisson's involvement concerning Charlotte Pike. That blog post can be found here : https://southcheathamhistory.blogspot.com/2024/12/1864-civil-war-map-western-middle.html

1850 Document detailing Adkisson's involvement in the construction of a bridge on the 

Charlotte Turnpike of the Harpeth River at the mouth of Dog Creek

I was able to figure out the location of Adkisson's property after reading on one of the deeds describing the boundaries of the land that Adkisson had purchased, where it mentions that it was located directly across the creek from the tract of land that had been donated by Mastin Ussery in 1858. I have posted an original copy of this deed at the bottom of this post, as well as the transcription.

Samuel Adkisson's Grave Stone in Dog Creek Cemetery 

It reads "SW Adkisson, Born in Halifax Co. Va, April 8, 1803, Died July 23, 1873"

Adkisson's Letter to the Governor

In a letter dated January 16th, 1865, addressed to Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee, Adkisson recounts, in great detail, his personal grievances against Union army soldiers during the previous 3 years, and the hardships he and his family had endured as a result of the soldiers' conduct.

The letter: (I have used the same spelling Adkisson used)

Cheatham, Co, Tenn. January, 16th, 1865,
20 miles west of Nashville
on the Charlotte Pike,

To Govr Johnson,
Dear Sir, I hate to aske favours or to intrude on the time or attention of others, & have not been to see you but once in 3 years & then to let you know about some bridge irons & timbers that was in Harpeth River near my place.

Thought as some of the U.S. Solgers have commenst taking my crop & stock again, I have concluded to let you know alittle as to how I have acted & been treated for the last 3 years, When Govr Harris left Nashville, I put my self to some trouble & expence in trying to get my ffriendes to submit to the laws of the U.S. or go South, & have continured so to do, & there was little or no damage don near me until last December.

I have taken 2 othes & given one bond for $5,000, with security, for good behaviour, for which they gave me an obligation for full protection or pay for the damage don me. signed by you & Genr Rosencrance I think, if you put your name to such apaper, I think you should know how some others have been acting, & will state some of the facts for you to think about, (I had heard that many others both black & white was intruding on you & I thought I would no.)

The U.S. solgers have taken or distroyed the most of 3 of my crops of corne, fodder, hay, oates, potatoes & turnipts, about 120 hogs, 4 mules & horses, some sheep & cattle, fowls, 3 bird guns, & other things. My fences have been burnt to the ground 5 times, parte of my slaves was made to leave me & to work for the government, of the 8 slaves that went to Nashville 7 is dead, & the other one wants to returne. 3 times my Self & familey was made to leave the house about mid night in december 1863, & to stand about 2 houres on the coal wet ground, & 2 of us sick with phisick in us, my house has been robed 5 times & I got back but little of what was taken, & I had to send my wife & children, mares & coalts over Cumberland River, & my wife health & mind has remaind in abad condition & she with doctors in & out of Nashville..."

The document above comes from the 1860 United States Census. It lists the names of the men living in the 10th civil district of Cheatham County who owned slaves.  The number of slaves, their age and sex are the only information given about them.  Adkisson is shown here to have had 21 slaves, ranging in age from 1 to 75.

 "...most of this time, at one time they put fire to my house, & swore they would burn us ro get $5,000, which put my wife & children of in the darke & shot at me, & treated me badley other ways, on the 30, of Novr/63 they bought 20 of my cattle, & fodder & left the cattle with me to Starve, last fall the drovers put the beef cattle in my farme 5 times

& distroyed part of my crops.

I have fed many of the U.S. solgers & there horses at diffrent times, at one time they remained 5 days (by high water). For all of which I have Rec but $125, & one little brokendown mule, though I am glad to say that the most of the U.S. solgers & officers that I have seen have treated me as kind & as well as I could expect & I hope you will do the same, for I suppose you have the power & my obligation & I think I have complyed with my parte of the contract, & I think you should in.part.

Though it is not my wish to produce any more ill will or contention, for I can work & live on but a little & will try awhile longer to comply with my oath & obligation & to get others to do so, & I think it would be well for maney others north & south to remember they are but vain men like my self, & subject to the power & will of God, from a Slip hear with you may learn alittle about me, & that I have been wanting to go to Virginia, pleas to forgive errours & what you may think is ammis,
yours very Respectfully, S.W. Adkisson.
A mechnic

The following information appears after Adkisson's letter to Johnson in the book -

"Samuel W. Adkisson (1803 - 1875), Virginia-born mechanic, farmer, stonecutter, and turnpike builder, at an early age helped build the tunnel through the Narrows of the Harpeth River.

Although Adkisson and his wife, Virginia-born Nancy Forian (1815 - 1866), had six children, probably only two, James (b. c1845) and Samuel (b. c1852) were at home in 1863. Thomas J. (1837 - 1886) was a Confederate soldier in Co. E., 11th Tenn. Inf. (1861 - 1865)

From the attached newspaper clipping of a somewhat incoherent letter dated October 17, 1861, and addressed to "the Friends of Wm. Warhoop and Thomas Torian [Forian?] of Halifax County, Va." it would appear that Adkisson had been embroiled with members of his wife's family in a dispute over the sale of property to pay debts. Protesting his honesty, he calls upon "Mr. Torian: - his father-in-law?-"to tell the whole truth about your money and property, or take back what you gave me and let us settle and part [in] peace," closing with "Yours with much regret, discontent and bad health."

The Adkisson Family plot at Dog Creek Cemetery

The newspaper op-ed in the photos below was written by Adkisson, and appeared in the September 19, 1861, edition of the Nashville Daily Patriot

A Brief History of the Life of William Washington Deal (1842 - 1917) and the Deal Family of Cheatham & Dickson Counties in Tennessee

William Washington Deal

The Following is A Brief History of the Deal Family of Southern 

Cheatham & Eastern Dickson Counties in Middle Tennessee

 from the Mid 19th Century to the Early-Mid 20th Century

February 15, 2025

William Washington Deal & Wife, Louisa Wynn Deal

Where in Shacklett, did Dr. Shacklett live?

Where Did Dr. Shacklett Live...in Shacklett?

By DJ Hutcherson - January 2025

As far as I am aware of, this is the only known photo that exists of Dr. Shacklett, or at least the only photo that I have been able to find of him in the 10 years that I have been researching his life.  This photo comes from the section of Sarah Foster Kelley's book titled "West Nashville: It's People and Environs" in which it describes the families that lived further out on the Charlotte Pike in Cheatham County, including families that lived near the Narrows of the Harpeth. Kelley's historical and genealogical book is perhaps the most incredibly informative and thoroughly researched book I have in my collection of local history books. I highly recommend grabbing a copy if you get the chance. (These books are quite rare, and depending on the condition of the book, can be rather pricey). Regarding the photo of Dr Shacklett found in the book, I would venture to say that when it was taken, he appears to have been in his 40's, possibly nearing 50. That would mean the photo was most likely taken sometime in the 1870's or early 1880's. That is just a guess however, hopefully one day I will be able to learn exactly when, where and the reason why the photo was taken to begin with.