MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Sunday, August 16, 2009 7:23 am

Stones River Watershed

The most dominant feature of Rutherford County’s landscape is the Stones River, which snakes its way through the countryside and cities from east to west and north to south.

There’s scarcely a part of the county that isn’t bisected by this meandering waterway.

But before Murfreesboro was formed, before Uriah Stone ever dreamed by plying the river that would eventually bear his name, before other white settlers were ever dreamed of, in fact, the Native Americans of the Southeast lived and died on the banks of the Stones River.

“There are actually quite a number of prehistoric sites recorded along the river and its various tributaries,” explained Aaron Deter-Wolf, a prehistoric archaeologist with Tennessee’s Division of Archaeology, adding native Americans lived on the banks of the river as far back as 10,000 years ago.

“The East Fork seems to have been particularly well settled, possibly because of its location roughly paralleling the Cumberland to the north and the Duck to the south,” Deter-Wolf said.

More prehistoric sites were likely to be found on the part of the river that became J. Percy Priest Lake, but those are lost to the waters of the impoundment, he added.

“Larger sites situated at the confluence of major tributaries were occupied annually so people could exchange information and resources,” he said.

Larger, permanent settlements, like those found on the Cumberland, Harpeth and Duck rivers aren’t found in Rutherford County because of the shallow, rocky soils found here.

Mostly the Native Americans set up seasonal, temporary campsites used by same family groups along the river, likely passing through the region in search of food.

“Agriculturally dependent groups of the later prehistoric (periods) preferred locations that had deeper and/or extremely fertile soils as well as access to water, transportation routes, etc.,” Deter-Wolf said.

That’s why most of the Native American settlements from around 1000 A.D. to contact with white settlers are concentrated near major waterways, like the Cumberland River and its larger tributaries, he explained.

The White Man Cometh
By the time of contact with white settlers, Rutherford County was used mostly as a hunting ground for passing bands of Native Americans.

But, then, that’s what the first white settlers used the area for, too.

The first band of “long hunters” to pass through what would become Rutherford County was in 1767 led by Col. James Smith of Pennsylvania.

“Stone's River is a South branch of the Cumberland and empties into it above Nashville,” Smith wrote in his journal account of the trip. “We gave it this name in our Journal in May, 1767, after one of my fellow travellers, Mr. Uriah Stone, and I am told it retains the same name unto this day.”

After the long hunters, the river brought many settlers into the area and also provided for them at the same time.

“The great natural feature of this county caused more good mills to be erected at an early day than was the case in other places,” Goodspeed Publishing Company wrote in 1887’s Rutherford County: History of Tennessee. “A few tread-mills were established in the county, but the vast majority of the mills were propelled by water-power.”

And the Stones River provided that waterpower.

In 1780, settler John Donelson founded the first permanent settlement on the Stones River near its confluence with the Cumberland River. Clover Bottom, as it came to be known, stands today on Lebanon Pike in Donelson.

But it wasn’t until Native Americans were finally eradicated from the area in 1793 by Orr’s Expedition that settlers flooded into the area using the river as their main transportation.

Afterward settlers were free to wander the area with little threat of harassment by Native Americans. Some of the earliest settlements were near Black Fox Springs near Murfreesboro, Stewart’s Creek in Smyrna and Jefferson.

Old Jefferson
As the mills were being built across the county and log cabins were being raised, the settlers established the first county seats on the spot where the East and West Forks of the Stones River meet.

The town of Jefferson lived and died by the river. It was founded because of its prime spot on the river and lost for the same reason.

Founded in 1803, Jefferson served as the seat of county government until it relocated to Murfreesboro in 1811.

“The rich farming lands surrounding Jefferson and river transportation gave it a prospect of becoming an important commercial emporium at no distant day,” Goodspeed said.

But in no time, the population of the county had moved south and east, and transportation routes had shifted away from Stones River to turnpikes, leaving Jefferson a remote outpost.

When looking for a new county seat, the county commissioners considered plots in each part of the county, all with one thing in common – a proximity to the Stones River.

Readyville is situated on the backs of the East Fork of the Stones River. Black Fox Spring is near the West Fork. And Lytle’s place, the spot eventually chosen and now site of Murfreesboro’s Historic Courthouse and Square, is within throwing distance of Lytle Creek and Murfee Spring.

Jefferson wasn’t as fortunate as these other towns.

When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepared to dam the Stones River to provide recreation, hydroelectric production and flood control, it went about purchasing land that would likely be flooded.

The Army Corps assumed Jefferson would become an island within J. Percy Priest Lake, but they miscalculated.

The government bought the town. Most of the buildings were razed and some were moved.

But when the Stones River was dammed in 1967 and Percy Priest Lake was created, the land that held Jefferson was as dry as a bone.

Overgrown road beds, fence lines and foundations are all that remain of a town that was once considered for the capital of Tennessee.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.