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Chapter One

Tennessee Roots

       Overlooking the Mississippi River not far from Herculaneum, Missouri, lie the white cliffs of Selma. During the early nineteenth century, these river precipices provided the setting for the shot tower in which one of the western country's most enterprising and daring pioneers, Colonel John Smith T, manufactured his bullets. The name "Selma" was derived from the poem "Fingal" by a Gaelic poet, Ossian, who composed it around the year A.D. 200. In the poem, Ossian described a placid and beautiful place, which he called Selma. In the eighteenth century, James Macpherson translated the poem into French and, according to one authority on early Missouri, it "became a must reading for those who read and spoke French fluently." It was here on these cliffs that Smith T wished his final remains to rest at peace. But it was not to be. Over the years the grave became lost and nearly forgotten, just like the myths and legends that came to surround his life.

    That Smith T's life story as well as the whereabouts of his final resting place are subject to controversy should not be all that surprising. Folklore had it that he buried $750,000 (probably in gold) in a twenty-gallon brass kettle near his home at Mine Shibboleth. The actual task of digging this pit was accomplished at midnight by a blindfolded slave who never knew where he dug. As the years went by, it did not take long for enterprising fortune hunters to comb not only Smith T's former residence some thirty miles away but his burial site as well. Theconfusion was in part compounded by his obituary in St. Louis's Missouri Republican, which placed him at the time of his death "at his new place on the river, below Ste. Genevieve." Actually, he died near Hale's Point in Tennessee; only later were his remains returned to his beloved cliffs of Selma. Relatives of the family maintained that Smith T and his granddaughter's husband, Ferdinand Kennett, were buried behind Kennett's mansion, called Selma Castle, and that both graves were looted and despoiled over the years.

    Facts were therefore an early casualty in the history of this knight errant of the Missouri Territory. But the controversy surrounding Smith T's death and burial was only the tip of the iceberg of misconception that began almost two hundred years ago. Perhaps the confusion is only fitting, for in death as well as in life, no other Missouri pioneer has been shrouded in as much mystery. But the myths and the legends of the man were not buried with him in his eight-dollar wooden coffin. Their interment took place nearly a hundred years after his death. As a result, little is known for sure about him today, other than that few Missourians were as genuinely feared and admired in their lifetimes as Smith T. Few have so inexplicably faded from our collective memories. The legend of Smith T was a legend that did not live. To tell his story and to separate the man from the myth is one of the main themes of this study.

    John Smith T was born sometime around 1770. His proud father was Francis Smith. Lucy Wilkinson Smith was his mother. She was of the same Wilkinson family as the infamous General James Wilkinson, who later became implicated in the Aaron Burr conspiracy. This connection would later become apparent when Wilkinson and the Smiths teamed up once again in Upper Louisiana. Young Smith T was the fifth generation of fine Virginia stock, many of whom lived near Tappahannock. More than likely, his birthplace was a small plantation in Essex County, Virginia.

    His grandfather, Colonel Francis Smith, had served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1752-1758. More than any other family patriarch, Francis Smith laid the foundations for the relative prosperity of future generations of Smiths. He had served in the colonial militia and had risen further up the ranks than his father, Captain Nicholas Smith. Francis held a number of civil as well as military posts in Essex County. While serving in these capacities, he amassed considerable holdings in land, livestock, and slaves. With the exception of a few faithful slaves whom he emancipated at his death, most of his inheritance was left to his second wife, Ann Adams Smith. His first wife, Lucy Meriwether, had died, but not before giving him a son, whom he called Meriwether. With Ann he sired two other sons, Francis and William. To each of his two younger sons he bequeathed some property, as well as part of his most prized possession, his library.

    John Smith T's father, also named Francis, spent a considerable amount of his life in Essex County. It was here that he met and married Lucy Wilkinson. The Smith estate, however, was not large enough or rich enough to sustain Smith T's father and uncles, as well as their progeny. In addition, the old tidewater aristocracy was in a struggle with a subtle and insidious enemy: the region's poor soil. The infertile soil forced many of them to seek new ground. Much of the Virginia soil neared exhaustion. Years of intensive cultivation, especially in tobacco, had severely limited the productive capacities of the land. To survive, one farmed the land harder, straining it to the breaking point. When that failed, one moved on to new land. Francis moved to Bedford County, Virginia, in early 1771. Shortly before the family's journey, Lucy gave birth to John.

    Francis's move to Bedford County was a typical response of the gentry class in the Upper South. As younger sons of the elite, they were continually pushed westward in search of land and profit. A restless spirit of movement and adventure would likewise characterize the life of John Smith T. Bedford County, however, proved to be only a temporary way station for Francis and his family. The real frontier, with its allure of lands abundant enough to create a new nobility, was Georgia. On the eve of the Revolutionary War, this southernmost colony held claims to lands stretching as far west as the Mississippi River. Its original royal charter, like that of Virginia, the Carolinas, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, extended to the Pacific Ocean.

    During these twilight years of the British Empire in North America, colonial regulators imposed numerous restrictions on American immigration in the trans-Appalachian region. The Smiths, however, were not deterred. They, along with other native Virginians, showed little respect for British authority in moving into Wilkes County, Georgia, near the town of Washington, in late 1771. This was a full year and a half before the area was to be opened by his majesty's government for immigration. John Smith T, therefore, had a good teacher in his father when it came to claims jumping and disrespect for foreign authority. Before John's father could carry out his dreams of a western fiefdom, however, the Revolutionary War forced an unhappy postponement. Francis went off to war. Although he did not gain wartime notoriety like his brother, Meriwether, he served the Patriot cause faithfully and well.

    John matured during a bloody age of revolution, war, and Indian massacres. As the eldest of three sons, the responsibilities of comforting his mother and holding the family together in the absence of his father would have fallen upon his young shoulders. Georgia's original imperial design as a buffer against Indian forays from Spanish Florida proved to be a constant source of anxiety during the conflict. Georgians had carried on a lucrative fur trade with the Indians to the south, and the war offered the Tories and the hostile tribes an opportunity to quell this fur market. One of the most significant of these provincial battles occurred at Kettle Creek. These raids were particularly savage, as was much of the guerrilla war in the South, and it would stand to reason that young John developed his first hatred toward Indians in these formative years.

    In all probability, Smith T's youthful exposure to a world of violence led to his fierce independence and a penchant for dramatic action when it came time to defend himself, his possessions, and the family honor. In later life he was exceedingly fond of the kind of hunting shirts worn by veterans of the Revolutionary War as "a badge of honor." Harry R. Burke, a distant relative of Smith T and a family historian, suggested that his ancestor's recollection of these early years was more than dim memories and that he personally identified with the Revolutionary cause. Throughout his entire life Smith T always maintained his staunch patriotism to the United States and never saw any of his expeditions and filibustering activities as disloyal or harmful to his country. Most leaders in the young Republic espoused westward expansion. They only disagreed as to the methods and timetable for such moves. Smith T saw nothing wrong in framing the question as a practical one rather than a theoretical exercise.

    By the end of the Revolutionary War, young John had become imbued with his father's sense of western adventure. Georgia no longer held a valid title to those far-flung lands reaching to the Mississippi. These territories were now open to a host of land speculators who shared the Smiths' ambitions for profit. The new speculators had to contend with Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws. These tribes had traditionally lived on and hunted these lands and were quite naturally reluctant to give them up. Notwithstanding these obstacles, the Smiths pushed onward.

    One technique Revolutionary War veterans used to acquire new property was to petition the government for bounty lands in payment for wartime services rendered. In 1784, Francis sought such payments for duty for the time spent under the command of General Elijah Clark. He may also have sought land bounties at this time for John's services as well. Francis Smith's speculation activities provided the young swashbuckler with his first exposure to the twisted and convoluted world of land claim controversies. In 1785, John accompanied his father and another prominent Wilkes County speculator, Zachariah Cox, to Muscle Shoals, in present-day Alabama. The prospect of a lucrative business in land sales and fur trading inspired the journey. But it was also a very risky venture. Georgia was reluctant to cede her western lands and would not formally do so until 1802. In the interim, the region saw corruption, greed, and fraud on a scale unparalleled in the history of land speculation. Among the more infamous of these transactions were the Yazoo land sales. Through bribery and deceit, a group of speculators had obtained from the Georgia legislature a tainted claim to that state's western lands. The price for more than thirty million acres was a paltry one and one-half cents an acre.

    Cox, a Georgia native and head of the Tennessee Land Company, had already founded a settlement at the bend of the Tennessee River in 1785. The young Smith T and his father had participated in the enterprise and thus were in a position to capitalize later in the Yazoo deal. Within a few years, Cox and his associates would receive from the State of Georgia, through the efforts of Senator James Gunn, a sizable part of the three and one-half million acres of land located near Muscle Shoals (sometimes referred to as the "Great Bend" of the Tennessee). The price paid for this land "transaction" was a mere $46,785. The project received support from the Holston settlers, especially John Sevier, who was a member of the corporation. In fact, at the outset of the venture, even William Blount backed the scheme. Cox and his associates may have even received some financial backing from Robert Morris, James Wilson, Patrick Henry, Wade Hampton, and Robert Goodloe Harper.

    Shortly afterwards, when Blount became governor of the Southwest Territory, he was officially "compelled" to oppose the company's plans because they violated treaty obligations with the Cherokee Indians as set forth by the U.S. government. The Spanish governor-general in New Orleans, Baron de Carondelet, likewise objected to the plans for fear that eventually the company might intrude into Spanish lands as well.

    Despite the objections of the United States and Spain, not to mention the Cherokees, Cox persisted. His plans included not only land speculation through the Yazoo land grants but also the development of a commercial route between the Tennessee River and Mobile. This route would be a "short canal" connecting the Tennessee River somewhere above Muscle Shoals with the Tombigbee River. The projected canal would facilitate the shipping of produce by water to Mobile and eliminate the much slower and costlier route of going down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. The next step in Cox's plan was to build a blockhouse on an island at Muscle Shoals to defend a trading post as well as a myriad of other economic activities he envisioned. The Indians, however, had other ideas. In addition to Cherokee resistance, the party also faced the wrath of the Shawnee. Both tribes resented these intrusions into their best hunting grounds. Sometime in early 1791, they attacked and drove off Cox's party. All of the makeshift buildings, including the fort, were burned to the ground. Although it cannot be substantiated, it appears quite likely that Francis Smith and possibly his son were among Cox's besieged group.

    Shortly after the Indian attack, the American government, largely because of the enmity of General James Wilkinson, became increasingly hostile toward further intrusions into the area. Wilkinson may have seen Cox as an economic rival, or he may have been motivated by his divided loyalties to Spain, under whose payroll he was secretly enrolled.

    The late 1780s and early 1790s were years of apprenticeship for Francis Smith's eldest son. No doubt John kept a wistful eye on his father's farming and speculative activities as he acquired the trappings of a formal education. Part of the time may have been spent at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, where, according to legend, he not only acquired a degree but also mastered a classical education. It is not possible to assess his intellectual progress as matriculation records, grades, and transcripts for the school were all lost or burned by British troops during the second war with England. Inquiries to the college have produced no tangible proof of his presence. We can only surmise that his college days were a brief respite from what otherwise was a lifelong quest for risk-taking, profit, and adventure. Smith T, after all, was not a man of letters. His reputation would be established as a "natural" aristocrat—a man born to lead by example, not by the accident of parentage. A classical education was important in the development of his mythic career, but he would gain his right to enhanced status and power by his frontier abilities.

    John Smith T next emerged in the early 1790s as a budding entrepreneur of the West. On Christmas Day in 1789 he had made what was probably his first west-central Tennessee land purchase. The following year saw John and his brothers, Thomas and Reuben, involved in a number of lawsuits over land in Davidson County. On several occasions, he appeared in a Nashville court to prove his land deeds. Quite often, these problems arose because of squatters who settled without authorization on Smith T's land.

    He was also engaged in a number of land purchases in the eastern sections of Tennessee. He acquired from John Rice a 640-acre farm on the Caney Fork of the Cumberland River and another choice 5,000-acre tract nearby. He also was deeded 3,000 acres between the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers. Throughout the late 1790s, he amassed thousands of acres of land in eastern Tennessee.

    Furthermore, he continued to enlarge his holdings in the Tennessee Company. In time, he came to control the company, and by doing so was able to claim "the color of a title" to much of the northern half of the State of Alabama. Using this company as a medium, he was able to acquire a sizable investment in the infamous Yazoo Land Company. William F. Switzler, an antebellum Whig newspaper editor and historian of early Missouri, claimed that the U.S. government offered Smith T one hundred thousand dollars to settle his Alabama claim. Smith T refused the offer, Switzler said, since his title to the land was already in litigation in the courts. In reality, Smith T's attorney, William Kelly, proposed the hundred-thousand-dollar settlement, but the government rejected the offer. In any event, the gamble did not pay off: the Supreme Court of the United States eventually decided against him and he lost the land.

    But the young, enterprising pioneer was not content merely to speculate in chimeric land schemes. While continuing to claim the area around Muscle Shoals, Smith T widened the scope of his activities to include a system of river transportation on the western waterways. For a brief period, he owned a ferry that operated on the Clinch River. His ideas, many of which were from the wellspring of Zachariah Cox, were nonetheless bold and imaginative in both scope and intent. They were perhaps the first things that piqued the attention of Wilkinson. Both of Smith T's brothers were West Point graduates who served under his command. Undoubtedly, the wily general kept a watchful eye on Smith T's activities, mainly so that they would not conflict with his own enterprises. By 1796, Smith T was once again engaged with Cox in an enterprise of unusual boldness. The plan envisioned a series of settlements, including one on the Ohio River near the mouth of the Tennessee River and another at Muscle Shoals. The men intended to establish an inland waterway link to the Gulf of Mexico. Cox, with "the approbation" of James Garrard and John Sevier, the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively, commissioned Smith T to locate a hospitable site somewhere on the Ohio between the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. The place chosen in February 1797 by Smith T was actually at the mouth of the Cumberland River in Kentucky. He or Cox named it, appropriately, Smithland. The town was designed as a substitute general depot for Muscle Shoals. A month after Smith T laid out the town, Cox, who believed that he had received permission from Captain Zebulon Pike to settle the area, arrived with thirty-five men.

    Since the entire region swarmed with hostile Indians, Cox instructed Smith T to bring settlers and supplies by river. To ensure the safety of both, Smith T constructed a large boat replete with armaments and cannon. The boat was also intended to impress the Indians with the firepower of the reinforcements. Unfortunately, Captain Pike, acting most likely under orders from his superiors, refused, "for what cause he [Smith T] could not tell," to allow the boat to sail. Even after Smith T agreed to remove the armaments, the government still refused to allow it to move down the Tennessee River. In exasperation, Cox remarked, "Thus our infant settlement was left without provisions or supplies for defense." More than four hundred hostile Indians surrounded the small colony. Smith T nevertheless proceeded, traveling by land and without official sanction, to fortify the settlement. Although the first year or so was exceedingly harsh and dangerous, the small community continued to grow. Soon it had reached nearly 225 settlers. It has survived to this day and remains the county seat of Livingston County, Kentucky.

    Throughout the late 1790s, Zachariah Cox, Smith T's mentor, incurred even more wrath from Wilkinson. Wilkinson no doubt feared that the settlements might compete with his own trading monopolies. The general communicated to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering in 1798 that Cox still held aggressive designs on Indian lands and therefore violated the laws of the union. The warning reached the appropriate authorities, and the following year, while on a trading mission to New Orleans, Cox was arrested en route. The arrest, no doubt at the behest of Wilkinson, was made by Winthrop Sargent, governor at Natchez. Wilkinson also warned the Spanish governor, Manuel Gayoso, that Cox posed a danger to the Spanish dominions. At the time of his arrest, Cox had a sizable number of men under his command. These potential filibusterers, who perchance had designs on Spanish territory, were disbanded.

    Hounded by both the U.S. and Spanish governments and repeatedly arrested by the authorities, Cox's power was broken. By the time Smithland was firmly established, Smith T had emerged as the dominant figure in the Tennessee Company. Despite the federal government's objections and the opposition of the Chickasaw and Cherokee tribes, the small town survived. In spite of its many problems, Smithland became a center of activity, both legal and illegal. One of its more notorious transients was Samuel Mason and his family of river pirates.

    Of all the characters who crossed paths with Smith T, none were more mystifying than Samuel Mason. Born in 1750, he was a descendant of the distinguished Mason family of Virginia. During the Revolutionary War he became an officer in the Continental Army and a decorated war hero. What possessed him to become one of the most notorious pirates during the age of the flatboats remains a mystery. For a while, the Mason clan plied their trade near Cave-In-Rock, a refuge for Ohio River criminals some eighty-five miles below Evansville, Indiana, and fifty miles above Paducah, Kentucky. After being forced to flee this hideout, the Masons sought out Smithland as a safe haven from which to operate.

    Other river pirates, such as the infamous brothers "Big" and "Little" Harpe, had robbed and killed settlers and then headed for Smithland. The Harpes' father had been a North Carolina Tory; after the war they had moved westward in search of easy prey. Their crimes were particularly cruel and heinous. One contemporary likened them to "death and terror." For obvious reasons, therefore, Smithland's inhabitants forced these unwelcome parties westward toward Spanish territory. They eventually settled near the little Mississippi River town of New Madrid. From here, Mason, his sons, and the Harpes became the "scourge of the Natchez Trace." For a while, Mason acted with impunity in the Spanish territory. Eventually, however, he was killed and his severed head, encased in Mississippi mud, became a grotesque reminder of the wages of sin.

    Meanwhile, Smithland was experiencing other vexations. Originally, it had been designed to serve as a conduit for trade downriver toward the settlement at Nashville or upriver to towns around Frankfort and Lexington. The plan even included a charter for a canal to eliminate portage between distribution points. The system ultimately envisioned nothing less than a virtual commercial monopoly of the entire region. The plan, grandiose and a bit too impractical, collapsed like so many early western business ventures.

    Another of Smithland's problems was an attack on the town by an army unit allegedly under orders from General Wilkinson. Wilkinson claimed it was in response to the aid and comfort given to the Masons and other undesirables by Smithland's inhabitants. The attempted arrest of the river pirates, he contended, would push them into Spanish territory and make them more vulnerable to apprehension. The assault on Smithland, however, was more than likely made after its uninvited guests had already been forced to move. Most probably, the attack was to safeguard the general's plans for his own commercial monopoly in the region. In any event, the hostilities on the Cumberland made Smith T realize how formidable a foe Wilkinson could be.

    In the late 1790s Smith T left Smithland and moved back to eastern Tennessee. While working in the backwaters of the trans-Appalachian frontier, Smith T could buy and claim land, then wait for future settlers to come. By preceding many of the more settled farm families, he positioned himself well. He could anticipate increases in the value of the best lands and control along the way many of the mill sites, springs, and salt deposits, all of which had a great potential for profit. And, as he acquired the land, he gained valuable experience, which he would later put to good use in the wilds of Missouri. It was in Tennessee that he, along with Meriwether Smith, helped found the town of Kingston, which is today the county seat of Roane County. The first land sale recorded in the county was by Smith T to a certain John Rhea. While at Kingston, he purchased a large number of slaves. He also invested in the Cumberland Turnpike. Furthermore, he continued to stake his claim to one-half of the northern section of Alabama.

    It was also here in "the mountain grandeur" of Kingston that John Smith T fortuitously met Nancy Walker, a young woman of "education and refinement." The two perhaps first met when Smith T, who had been given several slaves by his father, sold them to the Reverend Sanders Walker. The Walkers had migrated to Tennessee from Ogelthorpe County, Georgia. The Reverend and his wife, the former Sarah Lamarr, had six children, including Nancy, who was born in 1774. By the time of his death in 1805, Reverend Walker had amassed a considerable estate consisting of land, slaves, and a still that he bequeathed to his "beloved wife." In addition, he had willed some of his property to each of his children. By marrying Nancy, John put himself in the position of inheriting a considerable amount of property.

    John's choice of a mate was one of the most sensible decisions of his life. Nancy was a young woman of gentle personality and strong character. She was a devout Christian and fond of her Bible. Considering that her future husband tended to treat religion lightly, the marriage was somewhat out of character. What she saw in the young swashbuckler was a fierce determination to succeed, a fine family pedigree, and unusually fine-chiseled features that gave him a boyish demeanor. It was not an altogether deceptive physiognomy. Despite his combativeness, Smith T remained a devoted and caring husband. And, for all his wandering escapades, he always returned to Nancy, his bedrock of comfort and stability. In this respect, he departed from the many frontiersmen who slept with Indian or slave women. Unlike some members of his class who strayed from the chivalric code, he remained loyal and devoted to his wife. His passions and excesses were material, not sensual. His faults were part of his success. He was the prototype for the American character of acquisition, diversity, and expansion.

    Throughout her married life, Nancy extended hospitality to the many friends and acquaintances of her husband. She was, according to Smith T's biographer, Vallé Higginbotham, "serenely engaged in the domestic duties and skills of the time," active in the training of servants and slaves, and devoted to the education of their only child, Ann, and later to their grandchildren.

    The exact date of Nancy's arrival in the Missouri Territory has not been completely resolved. Nor, for that matter, has the date of her husband's arrival. She may have made some trips with her husband to this wilderness outpost but, in all probability, she did not take up permanent residence there until sometime around the end of the War of 1812. Her only daughter, Ann Smith T, for example, met and married her first husband, Captain David S. Deadrick, while he was stationed at "Southwest Point," a military post across the river from Kingston. The reason for Nancy remaining in Tennessee was obvious. The Kingston home would have been positioned somewhere in between the growing number of land tracts held by her husband. These holdings, by 1800, would have encompassed land in Spanish Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Roane, Knox, Bedford, and Marion Counties, Tennessee.

    Smith's southeast Tennessee political connections were enhanced in 1797 when his sister, Ann Adams Smith, married Peter Early. From 1802 to 1807 Early served as a U.S. Congressman from Georgia, and from 1813 to 1815 he was the governor of the state. His Georgia connections were likewise strengthened by his association, again by relatives and their marriages, with Governor Wilson Lumpkin. Other political allies included the Brown brothers, Robert T., Thomas, and John. The latter two served as his agents in Roane County, while Robert T. accompanied him in 1798 to the Missouri Territory. John's brother, Thomas Adam Smith, married Cynthia B. White, who was the daughter of General James White, the founder of Knoxville. Once, when a relative of General William White believed that Smith T had not been treated like a gentleman by Sam Houston and his friends, he challenged Houston and fought a near fatal duel with him.

    By 1790, the American frontier was moving rapidly west, and John Smith T was not far behind. American settlements had breached the crest of the Appalachians and were moving down the rivers and valleys on the other side. The western border consisted of a broad zone stretching south of Albany and down to Knoxville. It was a hinterland nearly eight hundred miles long and one hundred miles wide. Called the trans-Allegheny frontier, it lasted until the Mississippi Valley frontier was created by the Louisiana Purchase. In this wilderness region, the average population density ranged between two and six settlers per square mile.

    It should be noted that John Smith T was no Daniel Boone. He did not explore, trap, or hunt in the uncharted wilderness. Nor was he usually in the vanguard of conquest, i.e. of taming the forests and vanquishing the native tribes. His arrival on the frontier came in the third stage of settlement, namely the occupation stage when the dialectic of civilization and barbarism was often played out in desperate, violent fashion. This stage of makeshift political alliances, conflicting land claims titles, reckless speculation, and enterprising capitalism was the world in which he thrived. Community life was in its formative stage, and he hoped to shape it to his advantage.

    Although most of the commercial activity in early Tennessee centered around the towns, Smith T embodied the frontier, pioneer life. His entrepreneurial talents depended on the emergence of capitalism and towns, but his fame rested largely on the myths and folklore of the country. The Smith T iconography was the rifle, dirk, and pistol, not the carriage, home, or personal library. The talents that afforded him fame were shooting skills, not mining or speculative dexterities.

    Even before he achieved fame in the wilds of Missouri, the outline of his redoubtable career had taken shape. His was the task of matching the natural wealth of land and resources with the capital, manpower, and political connections requisite for economic success. It was a tenuous marriage of imperial capitalism and pristine naturalism. As the consummate opportunist, he employed tactics gained in previous business experiences to take advantage of specific local conditions. Whichever type of wealth he tried to exploit, whether riverways, turnpikes, slaves, salt springs, mills, land claims, lead, or overland trade, he derived the dynamics from the political economies of earlier, more established settlements. These future cities were the areas that thrived on the natural resources of the frontier. The social values he espoused—a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit, rugged individualism, and a willingness to use whatever type of force necessary to achieve his objectives—were also sequential elements of earlier frontier experiences. He attempted to replicate the social and political structures of the past, and he operated best in a gray area somewhere between wilderness conquest and the strictures of the law and stable government. The submission of a frontier economy with its attendant struggles against savages and desperadoes took center stage in the John Smith T myth while the more subtle imperatives of capitalist development were relegated to the civil courts.

    Something cannot be produced from nothing. The frontier was a savage place, peopled by rough and savage men, with savage ways. It could not, in and by itself, produce even the rudiments of civilization. John Smith T was not a product of the frontier. He was its antithesis. He brought the very qualities—education, good breeding, military bearing, noble character, a sense of honor—that the frontier lacked. It was the combination of these cultural traits and the boldness of the legendary hero that became the paradigm for generations of hardy pioneers and intrepid entrepreneurs. The character of frontier democracy was therefore restrained by the winnowing influence of aristocracy.

    The dialectic of barbarity and civilization operated in the lives of men such as John Smith T. His life was infused with legends and myths, a series of short narratives and folktales that produced an ambivalent character, part violent and part refined. Birth and lineage may have constrained the coarser effects of the frontier, but Smith T's life not only symbolized the early frontier life but also metaphorically defined the spirit of rugged individualism—self-reliance, courage, and a circumspection of law. The aspects of his behavior that exemplified these cultural traits were internalized into "lessons" to be shared by future generations. Style legitimated substance and functioned as myth. Smith T gained notoriety mainly because he encompassed both stereotypes, the man of capital but mainly the man of violence.

    By the late 1790s, John Smith T took another step toward diversification of his economic activities. Lingering hopes of a vast transportation network from Smithland remained alive but not well. His move to Kingston was a recognition of that reality. For a brief period, his transportation activities were concentrated on overland trade rather than riverways and canals. This plan was consummated with his purchase of a large share of the Cumberland Turnpike. In addition, he was constantly on the move, taking care of varied land activities in Georgia and maneuvering with Spanish authorities in Upper Louisiana for a piece of the lead action in the Missouri Territory. He also continued to lobby at both the state and national levels for recognition of his earlier claim to one-half of the northern section of Alabama. Although he would soon move again, Kingston had become, at least for the time being, his most likely permanent residence.

    This frontier town was located in the area near where the Clinch River entered the Tennessee River and not far from Southwest Point, which at the time was one of the most remote, western military outposts of the U.S. Army. The town, which he helped to found, was on the fringes of the old state of Franklin. Within a few years he had acquired title to and paid taxes on a fifty-thousand-acre tract of land near the town.

    The original holder of the land had been Stockley Donelson, a brother-in-law of Andrew Jackson. Donelson was also related to the North Carolina secretary of state, James Glasgow, the processor of land grants in that region. It was he who issued Donelson the grant on November 2, 1795. It included the land between the Tennessee River and the Clinch River from their confluence up to Hickory Creek. The tract was sometimes referred to as the "Point Tract." When Donelson failed to pay the taxes on the property, the court ordered that it be sold by Knox County Sheriff Robert Houston to the highest bidder. It was purchased by George Wescott, John Ramsey, and Solomon Marks, but they too failed to meet payment on the taxes. Once again, Sheriff Houston sold the property at the Knoxville Courthouse. This time the highest bidder was John Smith T. His bid, approved by Judge Archibald Roane, was registered on September 7, 1803.

    The fifty thousand acres of land (which had been cleared of title by a treaty with the Indians in 1798) were indeed a valuable acquisition for the young entrepreneur. His enhanced stature in the community as one of the county's largest taxpayers made him an ideal juror. Court records show that he was summoned each year from December 1802 to December 1804 for jury duty. In addition, he, his brother Reuben, and Meriwether Smith all joined Captain Hugh France's Militia company for Roane County in 1802.

    The Kingston tract afforded Smith T the funds to finance a myriad of other operations. In the late 1790s and early 1800s, records indicate that he sold considerable amounts of the land for a good profit. Records also indicate, however, that he oftentimes appeared in court for relief against squatters and other unauthorized persons who settled upon his lands. Since many of these individuals refused to leave peacefully, it sometimes became necessary for him to resort to force of arms against them. Yet a perusal of the criminal records of that day indicated no indictments for murder or any other violent crimes against him. In almost all cases, the court supported his side. Some cases, however, were settled out of court, with Smith T covering the expenses. Throughout these turbulent years he relied upon the assistance of Reuben and a small but loyal coterie of gunmen to ward off intruders. He would repeat this experience at violence and gunplay with even greater results a few years later in the Missouri Territory.

    Smith T was also cultivating a new set of political connections in eastern Tennessee. In 1799 he obtained an appointment as a justice in Knox County, no doubt through the good offices of John Sevier. Three years later the Tennessee legislature established Roane County, and Smith T was appointed as a commissioner to supervise the erection of a courthouse, prison, and stocks at the county's main town, Kingston. It was here that he further planned to persuade the same legislature to make Kingston the permanent state capital. The possibility that the town would become the capital held also the promise of a fortune to be made in rising land values on his vast holdings in the area. The Tennessee House of Representatives in fact convened briefly in Kingston in 1806-1807 and for one day, September 21, 1807, deigned the town as the state capital. Smith T, however, was by then in Missouri and personally unable to take charge of the lobbying efforts. Subsequently, the legislature moved the capital to Knoxville.

    It was at Kingston that Smith T enjoyed "the greatest notoriety among the pioneers." One contemporary historian, citing a nineteenth-century account, said of him, "An excellent shot, he fought several duels and killed many people at the slightest provocation." No actual dates, places, or names of the deceased for these killings were presented, however, to substantiate the accusations. At first glance, it would appear that the myths and folklore about Smith T were transplanted from Tennessee to Missouri. But it should likewise be noted that the Goodspeed's histories, the same series of publications that did so much to popularize John Smith T in Missouri, also published the same type of historical genre in Tennessee. It therefore is difficult to trace how much of his reputation followed him to Missouri and how much was created in the new territory and transported back to Tennessee.

    Rehistoricizing the early folklore of Smith T forces the researcher to focus on a variety of questions designed to demystify the subject: Where and how did the stories begin? Who wrote the accounts, and why? What was the historical accuracy of the myths and legends? How does one trace the cultural evolution of the myths and legends as they developed over a span of nearly two hundred years of development? And finally, what was the historic imprint and consequences of these stories? Folklore, as well as myth, relied heavily upon metaphor and narrative to identify in symbolic form the outline of frontier villains and heroes. In fact, the tall tales of Smith T's daring feats metaphorically reflected and conditioned a system of values that defined and sanctioned behavioral patterns of enterprising frontier capitalists for years to come.

    Another facet of Smith T's life that gave him added fascination was his unusual name. While in Tennessee, he added the celebrated "T" behind his name to distinguish himself from the hosts of John Smiths who frequented the rugged land. Not only was the name very common, it was the alias of countless scoundrels and outlaws. The "T" also obviated the endless joking, "So you're the man that Pochahontas saved." As a legal and distinctive signature it was also a practical device that settled questions of false identification.

    With a new appendage to his name and a growing reputation for intrepid action, Smith T made plans to expand his activities farther west. The late 1790s was in fact an opportune time for a different type of venture. First of all, Smith T would perhaps never again have the support of such a powerful and devious figure as Wilkinson. The general's hostile forays on Smithland, as well as his other intrigues to curtail Cox and his young partner, had been somewhat forgiven and forgotten. Necessity bred strange fellowships on the frontier. What made the healing process more palatable was the dream of a western palatinate in Upper Louisiana. To accomplish these designs, Smith T needed Wilkinson's support. Although neither man could have known that Spanish Missouri would soon be under the American flag or that the general would be named its first governor, the schemes of filibustering and lead mines had an irresistible lure.

    Second, John Smith T, by temperament and upbringing, was well suited to filibustering. For men of the Southwest frontier, the inclination to dabble in foreign intrigue came more easily than for men of the Northwest. Here in the foothills of the southern Appalachians, English, Spanish, French, and Indian alliances and conspiracies were made and broken with Byzantine regularity. Conspiracy was the order of the day. With the seat of national power weak and remote, the likes of Wilkinson, George Rogers Clark, John Sevier, William Blount, Richard Henderson, and James Robertson professed their loyalty to the union but seldom allowed their patriotic duty (as they saw it) to conflict with their personal ambitions. This was the makeshift world of John Smith T—a western reliance on individualism and egotism. Thrown upon their own initiative and resources, early pioneer leaders saw little inconsistency in their pursuit of public and private rewards.

    A third reason for his trans-Mississippi move concerned the political and social climate of Tennessee. Its "vexatious period of youth and adolescence" had ended, and the region was maturing rapidly. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state of the union. Granted, it was far from "civilized" in a modern sense, but Smith T nevertheless believed that his landholdings and other speculative ventures were secure enough to diversify his activities. It was a fateful decision, not only for him but for his adopted land, Missouri.