Western Exploration As early as 1714, French traders had established a trading post in what is present-day Nashville, then called French Lick. The name comes from animals licking minerals from nearby springs. In 1768, Thomas Hutchins surveyed the Cumberland River, which connects Clarksville and Nashville. It was Hutchins who named Red Paint Hill, a rock bluff at the confluence of the Red and Cumberland rivers. Less than 10 years after Hutchins’ survey, in 1775, John Montgomery and Kaspar Mansker journeyed the area. And that same year, Richard Henderson, a North Carolina land speculator, purchased the land between the Ohio and Cumberland rivers from a Cherokee tribe for horses, guns and liquor. However, Chickasaw, Creek, Iroquois and Shawnee tribes also claimed parts of the territory and were not included in the sale negotiations. In 1779, James Robertson, sometimes called the father of Middle Tennessee, brought a group from upper East Tennessee to the area via Daniel Boone’s “Wilderness Road” to Cumberland Gap. In 1793, he bought 640 acres near Cumberland Furnace to build an iron plantation. In 1780, at Red Paint Hill, Moses Renfroe split off from a group of flat boats led by John Donelson that were bound for a settlement that later became Nashville. Renfroe, along with his family and other relatives, journeyed up the Red River near the mouth of Parson’s Creek, where they came ashore to begin a new life. An Indian attack during the summer drove the early settlers away. Conflicts with the land’s natives remained a problem for the settlers, and in 1794, Montgomery led an attack on two Creek Indian settlements as a pre-emptive strike, since it was believed the Creek were planning attacks on Cumberland settlements. He was killed later that year by Indians while hunting in Kentucky.

Information about the History of Clarskville provided on this website courtesy of The Leaf Chronicle Fact Book 2007-2008. Eric Snyder and Owen Schroeder Jr.