Harber’s History Lesson, Daily News Journal, November 15, 2014, Susan Harber
Water flows freely Nov. 13 through the area where Brown’s Mill Dam once stood on the east fork of the Stones River. (Photo: John A. Gillis/DNJ)
My home is just a stone’s throw from Stones River, and I have often mused on the origin of these powerful yet humble waters.
Glancing back in time, I was amazed at the history of this river named by a singular man Uriah Stone, who traveled these waterways for exploration and livelihood.
This river was penned to a man, who gained brief posterity in “naming rights” and then disappeared from history. The story begins within the 18th century of Rutherford County.
Uriah Stone was born in Bluestone, Virginia, and was gifted at a young age with a heart for exploration.
He wed a wife, Elizabeth Lesley, and she bore two sons, William and Archibald. Restless and aching for adventure, Uriah was fully equipped at the age of 20 to embark on a career of excitement within the unknown wooded territory of Tennessee.
He forged through a rugged Rutherford County leaving trails for early settlers, who arrived 14 years later.
His first recorded visit to Middle and West Tennessee was in 1766, long before he made settlement in the state. Uriah’s main tools on hand were a hunting knife, long rifle, traps, tomahawk and two horses.
He traveled in small groups of three or four and was in constant danger from ambush by Indians.
A longhunter was a learned naturalist and a scientist. As a master of many talents, he read the sky for weather conditions and treated wounds with medicinal plants. He warded off danger with his weaponry from precarious prey, while using this same gear to claim his supper. His main mission was a substantial career of killing animals for hides. The term longhunter is derived as a trapper engaged in an arduous mission for over a year away from home.
In 1766, Col. James Smith led an aggressive long hunt expedition through then-known Cumberland country with companions Joshua Horton, William Baker and Uriah Stone. These explorers were the first white men known to the area, and they spanned uninhabited grasslands, heavy woods and stunning cedars.
Under Smith’s initiative, Uriah was referred to as a “pilot.” Eagerly tracing the river’s course up to the forks, Uriah’s name was cited in historical record as the name of these waters, formerly known as “Fish Creek.” He manned the exploration as far as Old Jefferson. Stones River would forever be his namesake.
I have pondered on why Col. James Smith, pioneer captain and mastermind of the expedition, did not bear his name on these waters. Nonetheless, Uriah’s strong personality and reputation as a forthright character shed light on how his name remained intact.
Stone had a habit of being sued for debts. We also have record that wherever he hunted, he was continually making invalid land claims, of which he later sold as his own. He was not a shy man and could leave an impression as quite colorful. Even though he never excelled in business, Uriah’s skills as a longhunter are legendary, and the naming of the river was rightfully his own.
The waterway was first identified as ‘Stone River’ and not as a plurality we know today. The Civil War map of Stones River Battle also uses the singular appellation.
Records indicate Uriah was in Gainesboro, Tennessee, in 1770. He also explored present-day Readyville in 1766. In 1769, Uriah returned to the Cumberland Valley with longhunter Robert Crockett, who was killed in an ambush by Indians.
The Creek, Shawnees, Chickasaws, and Cherokees were all over the woods of the Stones River Basin, and they would not disappear quietly. They often robbed the camps of longhunters and maintained a strong presence in their native lands. The earliest Indians erected mounds near the Stones River streams where their dead are buried.
Uriah’s moneymaker was the selling of skins and furs on his routine visits to New Orleans. He developed a business relationship with a French partner in late Spring 1770. When Uriah turned his back for trapping, the trader stole his boat and furs and disappeared into Uriah’s Stone River never to be seen again. Uriah lost several month’s pay and limped back in a miserable manner to his home in Virginia fearful of Indian attack the entire trip home.
In 1776, an expedition of longhunters explored the Tennessee Central Basin. Included were Colonel James Smith, Daniel Boone, William Baker, Joshua Horton and navigation specialist Uriah Stone. They are documented as the earliest explorers on record to form a Middle Tennessee settlement.
Uriah Stone was a wilderness man with a heart for exploration. His claim to these waters is distinguished to this day in our history. How stunning for Uriah to have known this same river so personally that would witness and bear the torn bodies in the Stones River carnage just 90 years after his defining the waterway.
The West and East Forks are so important to our heritage and our modern-day economy. Uriah Stone is a fabled character who, in reality, named a mighty river so closely tied in an endearing manner to our everyday lives.