Bledsoe's Station | |
 The site of Bledsoe's Station | |
| Location | Castalian Springs, Tennessee, US |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | Gallatin, Tennessee, US |
| Coordinates | 36°23′58″N86°19′14″W / 36.39944°N 86.32056°W /36.39944; -86.32056 |
| Built | c. 1781–1783 |
| NRHP reference No. | 92000970 |
| Added to NRHP | July 30, 1992 |
Bledsoe's Station, also known asBledsoe's Fort, was an 18th-century fortified frontier settlement located in what is nowCastalian Springs, Tennessee. The fort was built bylonghunter andSumner County pioneer Isaac Bledsoe (c. 1735–1793) in the early 1780s to protect Upper Cumberland settlers and migrants from hostileNative American attacks. While the fort is no longer standing, its location has been verified by archaeological excavations. The site is now part ofBledsoe's Fort Historical Park, a public park established in 1989 by Sumner County residents and Bledsoe's descendants.
Bledsoe's Station was one of a series of frontier outposts built in the Upper Cumberland during the first major migration of Euro-American settlers into theMiddle Tennessee area following theAmerican Revolution. The fort was a convenient stopover alongAvery's Trace—the main road connectingEast and Middle Tennessee at the time. The flood of settlers into the region brought inevitable conflict with the region's Native American inhabitants, and dozens of settlers were killed in the late 1780s and early 1790s. Isaac Bledsoe's brotherAnthony was killed in an ambush at the fort in 1788, and Isaac was killed while tending a field outside the fort in 1793. The end of theCherokee–American wars in 1794 ended much of the violence in the region and reduced the fort's necessity.
Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park protects the fort's excavation site, as an outline of the fort's walls can be discerned from former excavation trenches, as well as several historic structures, including the Nathaniel Parker Cabin and Hugh Rogan Cottage, who were compatriots of Isaac Bledsoe and a pioneer cemetery, with a large obelisk, dedicated to the Bledsoe brothers. The Castalian Springs Mound Site and theWynnewood State Historic Site are located immediately east of the park, and theCragfont State Historic Site is located immediately to the west.
Bledsoe's Station was located on a hill slope between Bledsoe Creek to the west and Bledsoe Lick Creek to the east. Both streams empty into theOld Hickory Lake impoundment of theCumberland River just over a mile to the south. The hill is relatively blunt and consists of open fields alternating with densely forested areas. The top of the hill is used as a flying zone for radio-controlled airplanes. The spring that furnished the minerals for Bledsoe's Lick flows at the base of the hill a few hundred yards east of the fort site.
Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park covers most of the hill between the Sumner County RC Flyers airfield and Rock Springs Road. Tennessee State Route 25, also known as Hartsville Pike, provides the park's southern boundary and main access. The park is roughly halfway betweenHartsville to the east andGallatin to the west and lies approximately 35 miles (56 km) northeast ofNashville.
For thousands of years, the mineral springs at Bledsoe's Lick, as naturalmineral licks, attracted buffalo and other large animals and subsequently drewNative American hunters to the area. Native Americans were hunting around Bledsoe's Lick as early as 12,000 years ago during thePaleo-Indian period and camped sporadically in the area throughout theArchaic (8000-1000 BC) andWoodland (1000 BC - 1000 AD) periods. During theMississippian period (c. 1000–1450 AD), a substantial village had been established at theCastalian Springs Mound Site, a few hundred yards from the mineral springs. The village covered 40 acres (0.16 km2) and contained at least 12 mounds.[1] By the time the first Euro-American explorers arrived in the area in the mid-18th century, theCherokee,Chickasaw, andCreek claimed the area as a hunting ground.
Among the first documented English-American explorers, in the Upper Cumberland region, were thelonghunters, so-called because of the long durations of their hunting expeditions. The longhunters typically followed theCumberland River and its headwaters, from southwesternVirginia intoMiddle Tennessee. Expeditions led byHenry Skaggs in 1765 and James Smith in 1766 passed through what is nowSumner County, Tennessee, and hunted extensively in the Upper Cumberland region. In 1769, an expedition led byKasper Mansker spent several months in the Upper Cumberland area, eventually sending two canoes full of furs downriver toNatchez, Mississippi. Mansker returned to the Upper Cumberland in 1771 with a larger group of hunters—among them Isaac Bledsoe—and collected several thousand skins. In 1772, Mansker and Bledsoe led a third expedition to the Upper Cumberland region. This group established a base camp along Station Camp Creek (giving the creek its name) a few miles to the west near Gallatin. It was during this third expedition that Bledsoe followed the ancient buffalo paths to the creek and salt lick that now bear his name, and where he would eventually construct his fort.[2]
In the late 1770s, longhunter and explorer Thomas "Bigfoot" Spencer led a hunting expedition that camped near Bledsoe's Lick. Spencer remained throughout 1778, spending the winter in a hollowed-outsycamore tree just south of the mineral springs. Spencer spent much of the year building cabins in the area, believing (mistakenly) that if he constructed cabins on certain tracts of land, he could lay claim to these tracts.[3]
The Bledsoe brothers, Isaac and Anthony, were born in Virginia in the early 1730s.Anthony Bledsoe, the older of the two, served in theFrench and Indian War and in various capacities with the Virginia militia. He commanded Fort Patrick Henry atLong Island of the Holston in 1776 and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates the following year. Isaac Bledsoe also served in the French and Indian War, and following the long hunting excursions of the early 1770s, he joinedWilliam Christian's 1776 punitive expedition against the Cherokee. In 1779, North Carolina appointed Anthony Bledsoe to lead a surveying party to Middle Tennessee. Isaac Bledsoe followed in 1781.[4][5]
Isaac Bledsoe probably began building Bledsoe's Station shortly after his arrival, although he did not move his family into the fort until 1783. Around the time Bledsoe's Station was completed, Anthony completed a fort at Greenfield 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of Bledsoe's Station. As settlers poured into the Upper Cumberland region, conflict with the region's Native American inhabitants intensified. TheChickamaugas—a renegade branch of the Cherokee—had for the most part been at war with the United States since 1776 and opposed land concessions that would allow Euro-American settlers to move into the Middle Tennessee area permanently.
In 1782, frontiersman Hugh Rogan (1747–1814) was nearly killed in an ambush in the vicinity of what is now Cragfont. A hunting party led by Thomas Spencer was attacked at Drake's Creek in 1784. Spencer survived but was later killed in an ambush nearCrab Orchard. In 1786, Anthony Bledsoe wrote a letter to North Carolina governorRichard Caswell reporting that 14 settlers had been killed that year and sought permission to attack the Chickamaugas.[6] A schoolmaster named George Hamilton was shot and badly wounded at Bledsoe's Station in 1787.[7] As attacks increased, Anthony moved his family from Greenfield to Bledsoe's Station, which afforded better protection, but in 1788 he was shot and mortally wounded when he accidentally stepped into a section of the fort vulnerable to hostile fire.[8]
Conflict between the Chickamaugas and the Upper Cumberland settlers continued into the early 1790s. Ziegler's Fort (at what is nowBledsoe Creek State Park a few miles southwest of Bledsoe's Lick) was overrun in 1792, and Morgan's Station (northwest of Bledsoe's Lick) was nearly burned a few months later. In 1793, Isaac Bledsoe was shot and killed while walking through a field near Bledsoe's Station. The following year, a son of Anthony Bledsoe (named Anthony) and a nephew of Anthony and Isaac (also named Anthony) were both ambushed and killed near Rock Castle at what is nowHendersonville. Thomas Bledsoe, another son of Anthony Bledsoe, was ambushed and killed a few months later.[9] Hostilities between the settlers and the Chickamaugas finally subsided when the 1794 Treaty of Tellico brought an end to theCherokee–American wars.
The first major road connecting the Upper Cumberland region with settlements to the east, known as Avery's Trace, was completed in 1788. The road, which connectedFort Southwest Point with Nashville, passed a few hundred feet east of Bledsoe's Station. Guests at Bledsoe's Station in the 1790s included French botanistAndré Michaux andLouis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans and later king of France.
GeneralJames Winchester, who helped establishCairo to the southwest and was later instrumental in the founding ofMemphis, purchased Bledsoe's Station in 1797. The following year, Winchester completed Cragfont near Bledsoe Creek about a mile to the west. In 1807, a pioneer from North Carolina named Jeremiah Belote purchased Bledsoe's Lick, and his descendants retained possession of the property for several decades.[1][10]
Following Winchester's death in 1826, his daughter, Almira Wynne, inherited what is now the Wynnewood State Historical Site. Wynnewood—the largest extant log structure in the state—was completed in 1830 and operated as an inn. During this period, the Winchester family also managed to change the name of Bledsoe's Lick to "Castalian Springs", the name being derived from thespring of mythological importance nearDelphi in Greece. Castalian Springs thrived sporadically as a health resort until 1914.[1]
The Bledsoe's Station site was purchased by Sumner County in 1989. Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park consists of approximately 80 acres (0.32 km2), and includes the Bledsoe's Station site and several other features important to the early history of the Upper Cumberland region. The park is owned by Sumner County and maintained by the Bledsoe's Lick Historical Association. A short loop trail—part of which follows a section of Avery's Trace—provides access to the fort site and other features.
