Pioneers of Montgomery County

Most of the pioneers of Montgomery County were industrious, thrifty, prosperous men; many were men of character and influence in their native countries; and some were from even distinguished families. Geographically they were chiefly from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania, in the order named.

Prominent among those who came from North Carolina were Heydon Wells, one of the first immigrants to the Cumberland and a member of the committee for its government under the Cumberland compact, who lived on McAdoo Creek; James, Charles, and Duncan Stewart, who were all prominent, both in this State and the State of Louisiana to which they subsequently removed; Anthony and William Crutcher, and Robert Nelson.

Among those from South Carolina, James Ford, Francis, William and Robert Prince, George Bell, George Nevill, Joseph B. Nevill, and Dr. Morgan Brown, were all men of mark among the pioneers of Cumberland.

Evan and Moses Shelby, brothers of Governor Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky, and Valentine Sevier, brother of Governor John Sevier, of Tennessee, were immediately from the Watauga settlement, but were natives of Virginia, as was also John Montgomery, the founder of Clarksville.

 John H. Poston was sent to Clarksville from Abingdon, Virginia, to engage in the mercantile business, by Mr. King. James Elder, the first postmaster at Clarksville, who received for his compensation from October 1 to December 31, 1800, the sum of $2.09, was a Pennsylvanian.

Aeneas McAllister, a blacksmith, migrated from Pittsburg, taking with him a number of mechanics who were practical operatives in wood and metal, the chief demand being for guns, knives, and tomahawks, and set up a shop in Clarksville.

In January, 1784, he and Martin Armstrong entered the land on which he founded the town of Clarksville, and in 1785 became a commissioner of the town. Upon the formation of Tennessee County he became one of its justices of the peace, which position he continued to hold until his death. He was a colonel in the County militia, and, in 1794, was in immediate command of the troops raised in the Southwest Territory in the Nickojack campaign, in which the Indian towns of Running Water and Nickojack were completely destroyed. This was the last public service of his life.

Montgomery County | AHGP Tennessee

Source: History of Tennessee, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1886