History

A series of articles that started off with this simple story about a group of scouts and local residents with the desire to clean-up the Montgomery Bell family cemetery. It doing some research, we came to understand that there is very little known about Montgomery Bell and his slaves, who play such a huge role in the history of Cheatham County. The Advocate would like to thank the Tennessee State Library and Archives for their help in this endeavor, Michael Holt for his generous support and sharing of his months of research, and former Tennessee Banner writer Ed Huddleston, who took the time in 1955 to gather as much information as he could about the "Ironmaster of Tennessee". It is our hope that this series will not only enlighten you, but spark some interest in Cheatham County to preserve our rich history, before it's lost forever.

Cold Temperatures Don't Hinder Community Spirit .

From The Advocate, 11/25/00

This group of cold but energetic scouts took on the task of helping to restore the family cemetery of Montgomery Bell here in South Cheatham County. They are from Webelo Pack 594 and Scout Troop 594, led by Josh McNeal and Mike Breedlove.

By DALE GRAHAM

This past weekend there was a joint effort by several people and groups to restore respect and beauty to a very special site. Believe it or not, and most of you probably won't, Montgomery Bell is buried in our community, and years of neglect have begun to show at the site.

"If we don't preserve the past, then we don't have a future, and this is certainly a very, very important part of our local history," said County Commissioner John Haines, one of the driving forces behind the restoration effort. The location is on the Billy Jean Andrews farm, also known as "Granny," Haines' mother-in-law. It's located off Leatherwood Rd. and Cedar Hill Rd at the site of the Montgomery Bell Family Cemetery. As the moon rises and nearby traffic dies down, you can hear the water in the "Narrows" tunnels, and you can feel the history.

And yes, that was "tunnels." Most everybody in the area knows that there was one tunnel at the Narrows of the Harpeth, dug by Bell's slaves. What most don't know is that there are two tunnels. The second tunnel dug is 216' west of the famous tunnel and was intentionally unfinished. Although the main tunnel was built to power his mill, it also shortened the distance from one side of the Harpeth to the other. Montgomery Bell's home sat on a ridge, bordered on two sides by the Harpeth River. If you travel the river from one side to the other, the trip is 7 miles. If you take the tunnel, the distance is considerably shorter.

The land was farmed by horses, mules and slaves during the life of Montgomery Bell. "They would plow from right down here, all the way around the bend and it would take them half a day to get to the other side, which is just a short distance, but it's 7 miles around. And they would eat lunch. Then they would start there and they would plow back, and they'd make one round in a day," Haines explained.

The history of the place is abundant, and the effort to reclaim it requires a great deal of help. Haines credits lots of people with the effort so far. "Mike Breedlove and I have been friends for a long time and I've done a lot of stuff over the years with the scouts. This is probably one of the most pristine fields in Cheatham County, we still cut hay out of this field. This is a good community project for the scouts." Not to mention a great place for a group of boy scouts to spend the night.

Haines' son Wesley came and helped, as did Jerry Street, Corky Mashburn and a crew of men, Buddy and Jimmy Hedgepath, TomTittle and others. They worked throughout the day and into the next to clean up the site and get it close to it's original condition.

The scouts and their leaders spent the night there, in temperatures hovering near 20 degrees, on land known to be inhabited by the "Bell Witch" and possibly Montgomery Bell's ghost as well. In fact there was a little bedtime story for them. A story about a light in that tunnel. An unexplainable light that has been seen by several over the years. Is it Montgomery himself, looking for someone to preserve history? If it is, maybe he can rest now. The work is ongoing and won't stop until the huge marble monument that bares his name sits on the site as he planned it, as well as the smaller one for two grandchildren and the stones marking the gravesites of slaves.

But this isn't about slavery. We all know how wrong it was, and we all have our own questions about honoring a man who thrived as a result of it. This is about history, and preserving it, good or bad. The chisel marks of those slaves are on each stone that frames the Montgomery Bell family cemetery, and we hope that as you read this series, or visit the site, you will hear their history as well as his.

The scouts worked all day Saturday and most of Sunday and we will show you what they and others accomplished next week.

Montgomery Bell Cemetery Clean-Up

Leads To History Lesson

From The Advocate: 12/02/00

By DALE GRAHAM

Last week I told you about Webelo Pack and Boy Scout Troop 594, who spent the weekend cleaning up the family cemetery of Montgomery Bell. It's located right here in Cheatham County, in a quiet field near the Harpeth River where Montgomery Bell made his home, and part of his considerable fortune for a time. I had no idea when I wrote that first installment where it would lead, but anyone who loves this area, and understands the importance of preserving history would be led as I have been to learn more about the man, his times, and the slaves who spent much if not all of their lives working for him.

There are still members of his family here, as well as descendants of the slaves who lived there. Some of them want the story told, as long as it's the truth, and that is exactly what I hope to tell. Of course there are stories that have been shared, and some of them may be a little more colorful than they were originally, but they still bare telling.

The cemetery today, thanks to the scouts and others who have worked so diligently recently, is a beautiful and quiet place where you can feel the history. The field surrounding it is still a field, the Harpeth River still runs right by it, and the walls and markers have been uncovered and replaced. Atop Montgomery Bell's massive marble marker there is something missing. It is a large heavy ball, that will hopefully soon be replaced. For now it's being cared for by a neighbor, who reclaimed it from two young men who were attempting to cart it off several years ago.

Jerry Street, who has lived near the property for many years now tells the story. Street was on crutches after back surgery in 1979. He watched the two boys from his house, one would carry it and then the other. "It's heavy," he said. He got to the boys and asked what they were doing. "Ah nothing" was the reply, twice. "Yeah, you just bring it on up to the house," he told them. "They carried it from here to my house," that day, and he's been caring for the ball ever since. That was in 1979. There is a long brass connector inside the monument where the ball was once attached. It is being readied to hold the ball once again.

Pieces of the monument aren't the only things that people have tried to cart off the property over the years. There are some extremely large holes within the boundaries, dug by treasure hunters. Rumor has it that Bell had gold buried on the land, and apparently several people have come out looking for it. As far as we know, no one has found it.

Montgomery Bell wasn't the first person to see the beauty and abundance of the area as a place to call home. His home site is only a short distance from Mound Bottom, site of Indian remains as well as the large mound of the earlier settlers, the Native American Indians who lived and worked the land. He bought the property in 1818. But Bell had visions of harnessing the river, which he did. From Buddy Brehm's Along The Harpeth: "He could see more in the Narrows Bluff than a field to raise corn. Bell could see power - power to operate a furnace, forge, grist mill, saw mill, or any number of water-powered enterprises. So the Narrows of the Harpeth changed ownership, and not long after the change, a portion of the waters of the Harpeth River rushed through a tunnel, cut through the bluff, with adequate force to operate furnaces and forges, and to process the metal from Bell's Smelting Furnaces scattered about Middle Tennessee."

Although it was Bell's vision to build the tunnel, it was Samuel W. Adkisson, and an untold number of slaves who made it a reality. Adkisson was a mechanic and a turnpike builder, farmer and stonecutter. His family lived in the Shacklett area of what was then Davidson County, now Cheatham. He was born in 1801 and died in 1875 and was buried in the Dog Creek Cemetery on Dog Creek Rd. According to Brehm, Adkisson was a "man who knew and loved mathematics" and it was probably this knowledge that helped him successfully engineer the "the construction of Newsom's Dam, mill and stone house," as well as the Narrows tunnel.

Montgomery Bell, through his own wits and the labor of his numerous slaves, left his considerable mark on Tennessee, and in the next few weeks we hope to uncover some of those marks.

Searching For The History of

Montgomery Bell

From The Advocate: 12/09/00

The State Library and Archives may look like a daunting place, but it’s beautiful, and the people who work there will take time to help.

By DALE GRAHAM

Part 3 in a series

You’ve seen his name on buildings, you’ve been to a park in his name, perhaps passed by or even attended the school named for him. He must have been really famous in his day, wouldn’t you think? Lot’s of books about him and stories about him, right?

A few weeks ago, thanks to a call from a friend about a boy scout project to clean up Montgomery Bell’s family cemetery, I embarked on a journey to find out a little bit more about the man who once owned and worked a large portion of what is now South Cheatham County. He left his mark, in the form of the Narrows of the Harpeth, right here for us all to see. Did he leave his mark on history? The answer has to be yes, but you must search hard to find out exactly what he did, and who he was, and you must rely on many second and third hand stories. Luckily, thanks to the Tennessee State Library and Archives, and a man named Michael Holt both of whom I have only recently become acquainted, I have found some of the information available about “The Ironmaster”.

Michael Holt is a Nashville native, who through his interest in genealogy as a hobby and history, was led to find out more about Montgomery Bell and his slaves. He is writing a book to be titled, “The Iron Men of Tennessee: The Slaves of Montgomery Bell”, which he hopes to have ready for publication by the middle of next year. Michael is married with three sons, and was educated at Pearl High School and Tennessee State University. While doing research in the archives, he found that there was more information on Montgomery Bell and his slaves than any other slave owner in Tennessee during those times. He was told by a local resident that I was doing a series on Montgomery Bell and the slaves who helped make him what he was, and contacted me.

On our morning in the archives, he showed me microfilm from the Nashville Banner, May of 1955, when Ed Huddleston began his wonderful and detailed series on Bell. You may remember the series also by Huddleston reprinted in The Advocate about the Treanor Family. Most of what you will read will be the result of Huddleston’s work, and Holt’s research, which he generously shared.

Montgomery Bell was born on January 3, 1769 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. When the Revolutionary War ravaged the area, most families, including the Bell’s, were left with little. Bell became a tanner’s apprentice at 16, a job he held for 3years and didn’t like. Quite possibly what he learned there and held on to for the rest of his life, was that he wanted more, and wasn’t afraid of working for it.

According to Huddleston, “He next tried trading, this boy who in his youth doubtless heard much talk about money … money from a family which had lost much. The trading netted him ‘a silver watch and $100.’ He then joined his uncle, Edward Leech in a hatmaking business, and was said to be a fast learner. After the death of Bell’s brother-in-law, William Bain, Bell led his widowed sister Elizabeth, her six children and one or more “servants or slaves”, on a year-long trek through what was then the wilderness, into Kentucky. He was not yet 20 years old.

They made their home in Lexington and began a hatmaking shop. He purchased a log house and land in Lexington in 1792, and did quite well there financially. So well in fact, that he moved to Tennessee in early 1800, and purchased Cumberland Furnace from James Robertson in 1804 … for $16,000. He began to make his mark quickly in the area. “Community recognition came promptly. Bell has been called 'the first justice of the peace of Dickson County’. On August 3, 1804 he was named one of the commissioners to choose a suitable and central site for the courthouse, ‘prison and stocks’ of the county”, according to Huddleston. His land and furnace purchases throughout the area multiplied for the next several decades, as did the number of his slaves.

Some documents state that he held up to 400 slaves at one time, but Holt puts the number closer to 300.

From the Cheatham County, Tennessee Bible and Tombstone Records: “he was the wealthiest man in the South before the Civil War, he owned 50,000 acres of land, 400negroes, 400 mules. He was a pioneer in iron manufacturing in Tennessee”. Holt doesn’t doubt that he had 400 mules, but has researched his slave holdings, and although the number is huge for the times, he thinks it’s closer to 300. Even with a number that high, Bell is called an “emancipator”. “You can not question that”, Holt says, “he sent 88 of them back [to Africa], and from some documents that I’ve seen, he had plans to send a lot more of them, but he died before he could do it. He was about 85 when he died.”

He may have realized shortly before his death exactly what those slaves had sacrificed in his name. For their efforts they received little, their names for the most part are unknown and their accomplishments, including the Narrows tunnel we know about and possibly a second unfinished tunnel, have gone unrecognized. It is Holt’s dream to preserve this portion of our history, and give recognition to all the “Iron Men of Tennessee”, who made Bell’s vision a reality.

We have traced Bell to Tennessee. In the coming week’s we’ll tell you more of what he did in his remaining years. It is a conflicting picture of a man who was known to be a wealthy philanthropist, yet dressed poorly and ate like his slaves. He was disliked by whites and his slaves alike, and spent much time and money looking for slaves that escaped. He had very few friends, which probably helps to explain why there is so little written about him. But the fact is that he forged a great portion of our area, and his mark and that of his slaves has gone unnoticed and unpreserved for more than a century.

Montgomery Bell: Taking Root In Tennessee

From the Advocate: 12/16/00

By DALE GRAHAM

Part 4 in a series

The Advocate would like to sincerely thank the Tennessee State Library and Archives, and former Nashville Banner writer Ed Huddleston for his remarkable work in the 1955 series on Montgomery Bell. We especially thank Michael Holt, Nashville resident, genealogist and historian who has so willingly helped us find this information, as well as shared his own voluminous research.

As we told you last week, Montgomery Bell arrived in Tennessee in the early 1800’s and wasted no time making his mark. Although his is often given the title of “Tennessee’s First Ironmaster”, that title rightfully belongs to James Robertson, from whom Bell purchased Cumberland Furnace in 1804 for $16,000. It was just one small step in the life of this man. According to Huddleston: “In 1814 Bell bought the ‘Old Jones Creek Furnace; and soon afterwards purchased ‘Old Duck Creek Ore lands for $14,000.In 1823 he ‘bought the Mother Ore Bank and built Bellview Furnace’, Here are his Dickson County land grants: May 16, 1826 – a tract of 640 acres, ‘starting at Beaver dam fork at Turnbull Creek’. July 24, 1826 – 50 acres, ‘on the head drain of Yellow creek, opposite the head of Jones Creek’. June 25, 1826 – 50 acres ‘on a hollow that makes into Piney woods’. October 20, 1828 – 600 acres ‘on both sides of main Turnbull Creek’. January 20, 1837 – 55.5 acres, also on Jones Creek, and 600acres, the same day ‘on the waters of Turnbull Creek beginning at a poplar’”.

How on earth did he accomplish so much? As stated last week, he was said to own many, many slaves, about 300 according to the research by Michael Holt. According to Huddleston he also employed freemen and the slaves of others, “with owners receiving around $150 - $200 yearly for their hire. It’s been said that Bell employed ‘hundreds’ of outside workers”. In fact, according to Huddleston and Dickson County Tax records Bell owned approximately 200 slaves by 1806. He had only been in the state a short time. All these hands were necessary to accomplish so much, and free labor was the key to so much profit. Even in his early Tennessee years, Bell owned “14forges and furnaces”, and they were going at full tilt.

Bell’s products were just what a new land needed; hoes, rakes, skillets, “they went southward to the flat lands where cotton was king”, Huddleston recorded. “He had something for everybody, from hillside cabin farmer to the plantation colonel of lush river bottoms.” And the reward was money, paper money, which Bell turned right back into his building empire. He didn’t live lavishly early on, so the money went back into more land, more furnaces, more slaves, each a step in the dream. A dream that he must have carried with him since childhood, when he saw his wealthy family and lifestyle in Pennsylvania destroyed by the Revolutionary War.

The ravages of war though, can make for a prosperous business. Huddleston: “During the War of 1812, the Federal Government spent considerable sums in Tennessee, and a sizeable portion of it went to Montgomery Bell”. On top of the everyday items that were so much in demand in the young country, Bell supplied the Federal Government with gun powder, whiskey, and cannon balls, including those used in the Battle of New Orleans according to Huddleston. His supplies were superior, and his reputation was growing.

But did the mystery man have a personal life, a love, did he start a family? Although information is difficult to find, and facts are more hidden than hearsay, we will try to explain who the children are that are buried under the other monument at the family cemetery, and where they came from, in next week’s Advocate.

Bell’s Private Life: Little Information On Children

From The Advocate: 12/23/00

Besides the monument for Montgomery Bell, the only other identifiable marker in the Bell Family Cemetery is this one, with it’s two inscriptions and two poems. They are Montgomery Bell’s granddaughters. The rest of the markers are simple stones placed in the ground.

By DALE GRAHAM

Part 5 in a series

Montgomery Bell was described as more than 6 feet tall at 18 years, handsome with fierce, piercing eyes. He is described as “eccentric”, and sometimes cruel. He is also described as loving, generous and caring to his family. He employed teachers for his many slaves who were part of his legend. Many of them were taught to read and write, along with the great engineering skills they learned in the forging of his reported two tunnels through the Narrows ridge. But perhaps the most fitting description of this man is the one used most often, that he was a “man of mystery”.

One of the most personal mysteries is that of his daughter, Eveline. In fact, the only reason I attempted to find out about Eveline is because of the only other marked monument in the Bell Family cemetery. It is the marker for two children: Eveline Alice Bell, Born 1/29/1850 died 11/13/1851; and Mary P. Bell, Born10/8/1845, died 9/19/1858. These two children are the grandchildren of Montgomery Bell, daughters of his daughter Eveline, and his nephew James L. Bell. There were at least two sons born to the couple as well, Both named Montgomery Bell, the first died as an infant.

Even Ed Huddleston failed to mention anything about a daughter in his detailed series on Bell, but she existed. There is a second hand story told in a letter written long after Bell’s death that mentions the story. It refers to a young woman, named only “Miss Moss”. Michael Holt has found this much information on what occurred, “A preacher came around as they did in those days, cause she had had the baby and was going to marry him, for some reason, it didn’t give why, she refused to marry him, he took the baby and his slaves raised it.” Eveline married her father’s nephew, James L. Bell. We can only hope that there was some happiness in her life, the markers tell of the sadness. Her daughter Eveline Alice was born in 1850, and died a little more than 21 months later. Her daughter Mary P. was born in 1845, and died shortly before her 13th birthday. Her husband James’ death was listed in the 1860 census, as “suicide by laudinum” in February. Of course, in the middle of all this, her father died April 1st of 1855. One can only imagine how these losses affected her.

Story has it that Bell had several children by white women as well as slaves, Holt can prove only one other than Eveline so far, “there’s a family here in Nashville that are related to him.”

In fact, Holt has the death certificate of one “Lucy Bell”. Lucy was a housekeeper, listed as “collored” in the box marked “Color or Race” on the old paper. She was born on November 22, 1838 and died in Ashland City on September 15, 1917 where she was buried. She was nearly 79 years of age. Her death certificate lists her mother as “Patsy Bell”, and her father as “Montgomery Bell.” He would have been 69 years of age when she was born.

Of course we have mentioned young Montgomery Bell’s trek to Kentucky from Pennsylvania with his recently widowed sister Elizabeth and her six children. We also have a few first hand accounts of Bell’s treatment of his family thanks to letters written, and Huddleston’s research. One letter, written by Bell’s great-great nephew tells of Bell’s generosity at the death of the boy’s father. He and his mother traveled to Bell’s home in 1850, but the memories were only written 75years later. The boy was Robert Woods Miller, son of Bell’s grandniece Elizabeth Miller. According to Miller’s memory, his mother told Bell that she wanted to take her son from Gallatin to Lebanon where he could receive a good education. Bell instructed his great-nephew George Bain, who had come to aid Bell manage his business in 1846, to “give Bettie a thousand dollars”. Here is how the transaction occurred according to Miller’s letter: “Mr. Bain went to a desk, pulled out a drawer, counted out the money and gave it mother – and of course I peeped – and that drawer was full of money, all mixed up. Mr. Bain ran his hands around about the bills till he found what he wanted”. Bell also wanted to give them two slaves, girls, but Miller said she had all the servants she wanted. This occurred 5 years before Bell’s death.

It is said that Bell’s personality was different in his later years. Mellowed, perhaps even regretful of the toll his use of slaves had taken on hundreds of people, and families. Huddleston described him as “strong-willed, dynamic, virile”, a man who kept to himself and was not well liked by many people. “One modern document says Bell was to “some a saint, to some a devil”, according to the Huddleston series.

The same could be and is said of many a modern day business person; perhaps in some ways Bell was way ahead of his time. But he lived in his time, and his time included slavery. He took advantage of it as many did, and built a fortune with the use of those hands. He also tried before his death to change that part of his sketchy legacy, and we will try to tell you how the coming weeks.

Montgomery Bell:

Slaveholder, Emancipator

From the 12/30/00 Advocate

By DALE GRAHAM

As we’ve followed the history of Montgomery Bell from Pennsylvania, through Kentucky into middle Tennessee, we’ve learned that there is so much yet to learn about this man who is credited with the birth of manufacturing in our state.

Although Tennessee is not known as a hotbed of slavery during it’s time, Montgomery Bell held at least 300 slaves at one time, probably more. He also hired the slaves of others to help him dig his tunnels, and forge his iron, and farm his land. They created farm tools and cannon balls, kitchen kettles and huge sugar-boiling vats. From Huddleston: “From the heavily wooded hills and valleys of a new land they cut cordwood, used in making the vital charcoal that kept Bell’s furnaces glowing.”

He not only worked them, he educated them. The work in the tunnels required knowledge, and although there was a highly educated overseer of the project, the project was massive and required skilled workers.

He treated his slaves the same as many other slave owners in his time. He could be cruel or generous, protective or lecherous. He was loved and respected by some, and yet had to spend large amounts of money tracking down runaways. It is the story of his life; a man who had at least two faces, two personalities, two lives. It is apparent in reading of the man that his earlier years were quite different from his last. It is in his last years, that he gained the description “emancipator.”

The American Colonization Society was organized in 1817 to resettle African Americans to West Africa. Yes, there were some slaveholders who, for a variety of reasons, chose to free slaves and send them back to Africa. Some of them had humanitarian reasons in mind, some just trying to erase what they now understood to be a wrong, and yet others who were becoming alarmed at the number of slaves in the country. Whatever their reasons, the American Colonization Society was the vessel that made relocation possible.

Huddleston explains: “The Society was sponsoring the state of Liberia, on Africa’s northwestern bulge. It had representatives in Nashville, Franklin, and other Tennessee towns.” Liberia was taken from the natives for the purpose of relocating slaves. This was the cause for some of the problems the slaves encountered after they arrived.

At the age of 85, Bell freed 38 slaves in December of 1853, at great cost to himself. They were the first of two groups of slaves freed by Bell, who reportedly intended to free many more. 50 were sent in the second group in May of 1854. From records of the Society’s Executive Committee dated June 23, 1854, Huddleston quotes: “The Secretary stated that Montgomery Bell, Esquire, of Tennessee, having sent to Liberia 38 of his iron men in the ‘General Pierce’ last December, had sent 50 more in the ‘Sophie Walker’ last month, and that he intends to send another large company about the first of December next, and the remainder of his slaves as soon as he can complete arrangements, making in all about 250 citizens for Liberia … He [Bell] intends to commission his (great) nephew, George C. Bain, to visit Liberia and assist his people in selecting the best location … and making all necessary arrangements for their business of making iron (in Liberia)”.

The cost of all this is difficult to figure, and exaggerated in many documents. There was a $500 bond required on each slave, which held the slave’s owner accountable for his or her behavior. There were also transportation costs, and Bell reportedly gave each enough money to survive for six months. It was his hope that they would find iron and use their education to make a go of it.

But freedom wasn’t easy in Liberia. Disease, the animosity of the natives, and the downfall of a dysfunctional family set adrift doomed the freed. The relocated slaves even set up their own system of slavery within their colony, which isn’t so hard to understand. After all, it’s all many of them ever knew.

Bell didn’t get the chance to free all of his slaves. He died in April of 1855, with many of his slaves still listed and bequeathed in his will to family members. We know little to nothing about the slaves that went, and as little of the one’s that stayed on. The Library of Congress has photographs from an American Colonization Society collection of American slaves, but they are all listed as “unidentified”.

Bell’s freeing of these slaves was one of his last known accomplishments. Among the greatest accomplishments he achieved with his slaves, was the digging of the Narrows Tunnels. We know of one, and there is a map locating the other, which was intentionally unfinished. One has to wonder if thousands of canoers have floated by it, possibly even noticed something different, but had no idea there was a mystery there on the river to be identified. (To be continued.)

Montgomery Bell

The Second Tunnel:

Does it exist? Have you seen it?

From The Advocate: 1/6/01

By DALE GRAHAM

Almost all of us know where it is. Most of us have seen it, and lots of us have enjoyed time there, swimming, picnicking, and relaxing. The Narrows Tunnel is a beautiful place with a rushing waterfall, a deep swimming hole, trees, birds, peace and quiet. Although we have enjoyed it’s beauty, and maybe even marveled at it’s design, most of us have never really taken the time to understand where it came from, who designed it, who dug it … and why.

Thanks to the research of Ed Huddleston in his 1955 series for the Nashville Banner, Buddy Brehm and his work published in 1993 called Along The Harpeth, and Michael Holt in his research for a book due out this year, there is quite a bit of information on the tunnel we know. But here is something most of you don’t know.

There is a second tunnel … or is there?

The first tunnel was dug sometime before 1823. It was Bell’s vision, and although it was often referred to as “Bell’s Folly”, it made sense. Brehm’s description of the river at the Narrows explains why in part: “The Narrows of the Harpeth is a beautiful and most, unusual place. For people interested in nature or history, or those who just like to get away from it all, this location is highly recommended. Here, the river strikes one of the many high hills which blocks it’s path to the Cumberland River, causing it to turn sharply to the south. From here it begins a long, sweeping loop which brings the stream back to within a hundred or so feet of the opposite river basin. Over the centuries, this constant battle between water and stone has worn away both sides of the hill, leaving only a tall, thin wall of limestone to separate the two riverbeds. Without a doubt, this is the most unusual and best-known, natural feature along the Harpeth.”

But Bell saw more, much more in the “thin wall of limestone”. He saw rushing water, and with that water would come enough power to drive his mills, operate furnaces and forges, even things beyond his imagination’s boundaries. It took more than imagination to dig this dream though. Samuel W. Adkisson came on and although the scope of his contribution isn’t clear, his expertise in mechanics, mathematics and engineering are what made the tunnel a reality.

That, and the work, sweat and undoubtedly the blood of Bell’s many slaves made the tunnel a reality. They “slammed it through about 90 feet of solid rock … while the skeptics snickered” according to Huddleston. The snickers became downright laughter for a time, until the waters rushed through and the forge began to operate.

But we know that tunnel; we can see it and imagine Bell’s sense of accomplishment when the water roared through. What is this about a second tunnel?

In order to hear about the second tunnel, you have to understand what has become a theme of this series. Bell was a man of mystery, whether by fate or design, there is very little known about him. There are very few first-hand accounts of conversations with him, or letters written by him or even about him. Most of what is available is second and third hand information, legend and gossip, and much of it was written so long after his death as to make it suspect.

Huddleston uncovered enough about that second tunnel to mention it, and Michael Holt has found a map with enough detail to make it believable. (See the map, page 2). One must wonder how many canoes have drifted silently past this mysterious engineering feat, and either not seen it because the water was too high, or possibly saw it, but had no idea that it was worth noting.

Huddleston notes that in a document to the State Legislature by Bell in 1833, he mentions a second complete tunnel. According to Huddleston and the document, “Bell was seeking ‘legal clearance to enter and claim addition lands in the form of a circle’ about his already vast holdings at the Narrows.” He cited the need for cordwood. This petition was probably presented in 1833, and mentioned the second tunnel as complete.

But then there is that County Court Sale document, available for view at the state archives, generously shared by Michael Holt. It is dated Tuesday, November 27th, 1883. It offers for sale “that noted piece of property in Cheatham County, State of Tennessee, known as the Narrows of the Harpeth”. In the description of the parcel for sale is this mention of both tunnels: “There are two tunnels through the Narrow Ridge, each sixteen feet horizontal by eight in height; one in use, driving a small mill; the other, two hundred and twenty-six feet distant, purposely left incomplete by a thin web of rock to shut off the flow of water. This power and the land combined presents a peculiar opportunity to the manufacturer for investing in a property that furnishes both the raw material and the most economic and convenient means of working it into commercial form for many articles such as wood, grain, leather, iron, etc. Sale to take place at the Tunnel.”

The document is signed by T. A. Turner, County Court Clerk, Ashland City, Cheatham County.

Was Bell just stretching the truth a little to the State Legislature? Is there really a second tunnel, just below the surface of the high spring waters of the Harpeth, waiting to be discovered and verified? Have you seen it?

Montgomery Bell: Then And Now, A Man of Mystery

From The Advocate: 1/13/01

By DALE GRAHAM

As much as we have learned about Montgomery Bell, his life and his times in the past several weeks, there is still so much that is unknown. There are only bits and pieces, land deal documentation, advertisements in old newspapers for sales, rewards for runaway slaves. In the archives at the Tennessee State Library there are letters written by later historians, trying to gather information on the “Ironmaster”. They too were frustrated by the lack of information on the man, and the reluctance, or downright refusal of family members to communicate with them.

In fact, one of the oddest, and saddest of these non-existent records, is any mention of his daughter, Evaline. Two of her children are buried in the family plot, with a marble marker right next to Montgomery Bell himself. It takes a bit of research to even find out who the children are. In all the documents I have seen, and there are quite a few, she is never mentioned.

In Montgomery Bell’s will, Evaline’s husband, Thomas L. Bell, was given ½ of 1/8 of his estate. This by virtue of the fact that he was also Montgomery’s nephew. Montgomery Bell had 8 brothers and sisters, and Thomas had one sibling, therefore he received ½ of the 1/8 share his father received. Michael Holt says that Bell had already taken care of his daughter and nephew/son-in-law in a “conveyance” in 1851. He gave them about 500 acres near the Narrows, the operation known as Patterson Forge, and 72 slaves.

Apparently he did have at least one “friend”. This friend apparently felt close enough to Bell to tell him what others were thinking, that digging a tunnel through the Narrows was foolishness. From Livingston’s Portrait of American’s Now Living: “One of his most intimate friends, a lawyer of great eminence and reputed a man of great practical wisdom, exerted every influence to turn him from his purpose; assured him ‘he would waste all he had made, by his foolish endeavor to accomplish an impossibility; that he would never see daylight through that hill’”.

And what of the slaves that were sent to Liberia shortly before his death. Nannie (Mrs.Isaac S.) Boyd, of New York, was trying to gather information on Bell in the 1920’s-30’s. She also encountered the same problems researchers encounter today, rumors, gossip, half-truths and stone walls. In a letter she received from Andrew M. Sea Jr. of Louisville, KY written March 22, 1926: Montgomery Bell owned, as I have always understood, about 1500 negroes, and one of his big schemes was to colonize these Negroes in Africa. This was a wonderful conception and only in Bell’s death blocked it’s execution”.

1500 slaves! I doubt it.

As we stated in an earlier entry, The American Colonization Society (ACS), organized in 1817 to resettle African Americans to West Africa, was the vehicle for returning slaves to Liberia, on “Africa’s northwestern bulge”. The reasons owners had for sending slaves back could have included everything from pure humanitarianism, to fear that there were already too many slaves in the country. It wasn’t cheap to send slaves back this way. But thanks to the ACS and their records, we at least know a little more about some of Bell’s slaves, than we do about his own daughter. This from the Journal of the Executive Committee of the ACS in December of 1853, signed by W. McLain; “The most interesting and extraordinary part of this expedition was a family or thirty-eight, consisting of a man and his wife and their children and grandchildren, from near Nashville, Tenn., liberated by Col. Montgomery Bell, a gentleman 85 years old. He gave them everything requisite as an outfit, and paid us $2,000 for their transportation and support six months in Liberia. He has a large number more, of whom he wants to send about eighty as soon as (we) will take them, and is willing to pay one half the expenses of transportation and support six months in Liberia, besides giving them a comfortable outfit, and paying their expenses to the port of embarkation. These people are the iron men of Tennessee, to whom we have heretofore made allusion. Mr. Bell has long been known as one of the largest manufacturers of iron and his slaves have been his only workmen. They thoroughly understand the business, and have among them miners, colliers, moulders, and are fully competent to build a furnace for making iron, and carrying it on themselves. They are men of high moral character, which would render them an acquisition to any country. Thomas Scott, the patriarch of the company who sailed in the General Pierce, helped to make the canon balls which were fired from behind the cotton bales at the battle of New Orleans, and he is yet a man of great activity and energy of character. He and his whole family entertain the very highest respect and veneration for their late master and their valued friend. His last words to me as they stood on the deck of the vessel, were “Do write a most loving letter to my old master, and tell him how much we love him, and will never stop thanking to Lord for his goodness to us”.

We will conclude this series next week. If you would like more information on Montgomery Bell, or his slaves, the Tennessee State Library and Archives is the place to visit. Also, Michael Holt is writing a book called “The Iron Men of Tennessee: The Slaves of Montgomery Bell” which he hopes to have ready for publication the middle of this year. We will keep you informed of publication.

Montgomery Bell:

Born January 3rd, 1769,

Dies April 1st, 1855

By DALE GRAHAM

Conclusion

Montgomery Bell, in spite of what must have been great wealth, lived in many ways like a pauper. His diet was simple, his dress was plain, and although he owned more than one magnificent home, he died in a small but much favored home, called Valley Forge. From the archives: “The home at Valley Forge was evidently smaller and had been permitted to fall into disrepair even before the ironmaster died, although it is said he insisted in going back there to die. One account has it that the house was so open, snow fell in on his deathbed.”

As we have already documented, Bell freed at least 88 of his slaves before his death, and may have had plans to free many more. He also left $20,000 in his will, “to be used in the establishment of an academy to bear his name, wherein 25 worthy boys were to be educated free of cost, 10 from Davidson and 5 each from 3 surrounding counties.” Due to some very clever financial handling, the money grew and the bequest became reality. From Huddleston: “By 1867, Bell’s bequest had grown to $50,000, drawing $3000 interest annually. Montgomery Bell, 12 years in his grave, was having his resolute way. MBA [Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville] began.”

That bequest, and the subsequent growth and expansion of the boy’s school in Nashville, as well as the state park named for Bell is Dickson County, have done the most to keep his name alive. Huddleston poignantly describes the quiet death of this man, and the lack of information about his life: “The money grew. War clouds were gathering. Montgomery Bell slept on in a lonely grave at the Narrows of the Harpeth. Legends were springing up about him., but the historians passed him by, only about 36 directly spoken words from his mouth appear to have come down to us.”

His daughter Eveline is an equal mystery. Surviving family members either don’t know about her or aren’t talking. We don’t even know what Eveline’s mother’s name was. “Miss Moss” is as close as I have been able to come. His slaves, the ones who fulfilled his visions and built his dreams, will for the most part forever remain, nameless, faceless laborers.

But the most interesting, and possibly the only repairable part of this story is that there are artifacts, possibly hundreds of them, scattered throughout our county and others. They aren’t being collected in a museum, they aren’t being protected,they aren’t being preserved. Many of you have some of these artifacts. Maybe you picked them up when you were a kid, or had them passed down to you by family members. Perhaps they are on a shelf, or in a closet, or under the bed.They may end up in a yard sale some day, or an estate sale, and perhaps someone will recall where they came from, and what they were used for. Perhaps not.

In fact, there is a world of interesting artifacts out there, not just from the Montgomery Bell works, but also Mound Bottom, the Civil War. Our area is rich in history, and the touchable remains of that history may be getting lost forever.

Although there is no museum now in Cheatham County, the archives in Ashland City are being cared for by the Cheatham County Historical Association. They are willing to keep these artifacts for us, and return them to South Cheatham if we ever have a place to care for them ourselves. The location at present is the basement of the Ashland City Library on Vine Street. The county is moving along with plans for a new 10,000 sq. ft. library, to be completed sometime in 2002. The location will be on 49E., near the new Health Department, about 1/2 mile before WalMart. You can contact Thelma Heflin, member of the Board of Directors for the Cheatham County Historical Association, at 792-3623, or at 792-4106, if you have a piece of our history, and you would like to see it preserved.

Montgomery Bell

& Bell Family History

THANKS to the SC ADVOCATE & Dale Graham

for this series of wonderful articles on our ancestor:

MONTGOMERY BELL

Montgomery Bell

& Bell Family History

Montgomery Bell

born in Fallowfield Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania on January 3, 1796

Bell was one of nine children born to John Bell and Mary Montgomery Patterson

He migrated to Lexington, Kentucky to help his widowed sister manage a farm.

An interest developed in the construction of water-powered mills

He moved to Tennessee about 1802.

He settled at Cumberland Furnace and formed a partnership with James Robertson (Uncertain)

He became sole owner of the iron producing furnace and dramatically increased its output.

Other forges followed his first venture:

Yellow Creek Iron Furnace

Carroll Furnace on the Cumberland River owned by R. C. Napier

Upper Forge on Jones Creek

Bellvue Forge on Jones Creek

Jackson Furnace on Beaver Dam Creek

Valley Forge on Jones Creek

White Bluff Forge on Turnbull Creek owned by R. C. Napier

Piney Furnace on Piney River owned by R. C. Napier

Worley Furnace south of Dickson (Named for "Bell's most "trusted" slave)

Patterson Forge on the Narrows of the Harpeth River

Bell bought a mansion on Franklin Road in Williamson County in 1850 and sold it in 1853. (the mansion, "Ashlawn", still stands today in Brentwood,TN)

He died at Valley Forge in Charlotte, age of 86 on April 1, 1855