"Ah!" said he, "you have found this old hermit, have you? Toney is the
chronicle of the neighborhood--a record of its history from the day of
its first settlement. I hope he has amused you. He is upwards of ninety
years old, and retains all his faculties in a remarkable degree."
"I have been quite entertained with his history of the descent of the
river with your ancestors. He seems to remember every incident, and
says your father was wounded at the Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee
River."
"He is quite right, sir. It was a perilous trip. My grandfather was a
man of wonderful energy and determination. He pioneered the ancestors
of almost every family in this vicinage to this place. There was a
large grant of land from the Spanish Government made here and divided
among his followers, every foot of which is in the possession of their
descendants to-day, except perhaps one thousand acres which were
swindled from my family by a most iniquitous decision of a jury,
influenced by an artful old Yankee lawyer. This spot here, sir, was the
nucleus of the first settlement which in a few years spread over the
country.
Pages:
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634