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The Friends of the Public Library of Nashville and Davidson County

LETTER TO THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAY 17th, 1880
FROM
DANIEL GUTHRIE, 10TH CHILD OF HENRY GUTHRIE

Nashville, Tenn., May 17th, 1880

Mr. Anson Nelson
Secty. Of the Historical Society
Dear Sir:
I understand you are collecting all the information you can get relating to the first Settlement of the City of Nashville.
My father, Henry Guthrie, Settled here at a very early day and assisted in establishing some of its old land marks. Now, as I do not know what part of his history would be most interesting to you and others, I will five you the leading points in his life and leave it with you to select such portion, if any, as you think worth preserving.
He was born in Hanover County, Virginia, December the 10th, 1754. He served two years in the Revolutionary war at Five Dollars per month payable in Continental Currency. After he volunteered into the Service, he was detailed to work in the armory shop to repair guns, swords, &c., under Col. Long. He was appointed one of the Surveyors and in that capacity assisted in locating the line between what is now Kentucky and Tennessee. His first visit to Nashville (or, rather to the place where the City is at present located) was made in the year 1780. Not long thereafter, he settled in Lexington, Ky., where he learned the tin and Copper-Smith trade. Early in the year 1798, he started with his family to move from Ky, to this place in a flat boat via the Kentucky, Ohio and Cumberland Rivers, and made a safe landing here in the month of May of the same year.
Shortly after his arrival he built the old cedar log house on the lot where it now stands, on the west side of College Street, about two or three hundred feet South of Church or Spring Street. Frederick Binkley (the grandfather of B. F. Binkley) was the carpenter who built the north half or end of the present building for my father; this was done sometime between the years 1798 and 1804. My father opened a d Tin and Copper-Smith shop soon after he landed here, which I understand to have been the first established in this place. He was the Surveyor who, under the direction of the Commissioners appointed for that purpose, designated the lots in the Town of Nashville by fixing a stone or some other lasting monument at the corner of each, under an Act of Tennessee passed Nov. 10th, 1801.
From the time when Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness and smote the rock – in fact, ever since Lot's wife was turned into a pillow of Salt, Salt water is supposed to have run out of the ground at what it now known as the Sulphur Spring. I have often heard as old man by the name of Timothy Twigg (who settled in Rutherford County neat the S. E. corner of Davidson on his second trip to this country) narrate of the pleasures, hardships, &c, &c, of a trip to this place, made by him in company with some Frenchmen from New Orleans, long before any settlements were made here; and how they manufactured all the Salt they used by boiling down the water found at the "French Lick" (now the Sulphur Spring), and many other things too tedious to mention in this communication.
When my father lived in Nashville, from May 1798 to October 1805, the present Sulphur Spring property belonged to Judge John McNairy. The Judge and my father concluded that by boring down in the rock they could find a Salt stream worth working; and they entered into the following agreement: My father was to bore the hole, and if successful, they were to be equal partners in the well. In consideration of said agreement, my father provided himself with a set of iron rods about ¾ of an inch in diameter; the ends of the rods were swelled out, by driving them up, large enough to admit screws to be cut in them, so they could be joined together in the same way that gas-fitters join their pipes. He fastened the upper end of his rod, to what he called a sweep. The sweep was made by taking a long pole, fastening the large end to the ground, laying the same in a fork or securing it between two posts set up for that purpose, so that he could regulate the hight of the little end to suit the length of his rods. With the above described machinery, he commenced work, and at about fifty one (51) feet below the top of the rock he struck a stream of sulphur water which boiled up and ran over the top, mixing itself with the salt water. The Salt and Sulphur are separate and distinct veins; they mix neat the top of the ground.
My father moved to the country in October 1805, and settled on a farm about 15 miles from Nashville, and two miles north west of the S. E. corner of Davidson County. He remained on his farm up to the time of his death, which occurred January 4th, 1837. He sold the lot of ground on College Street, whereon the old Cedar log house now stands, to Mrs. Sarah Robertson, widow of Elijah Robertson, deceased. The deed bears date May 13th, 1806, and it is recorded in Deed Book "G", page 64, R.O.D.C. I was between 23 and 24 years old when my father died, and am quite sure the above statements are correct, for I have heard him and my mother repeat them over and over again many times.
If you find anything in the above worth preserving please place it where it will be taken care of; otherwise, consign the whole to the waste basket.

Yours very Respectfully
/s/ Daniel Guthrie