Remembering Rutherford, Daily News Journal, December 14, 2014, Greg Tucker
Andrew Jackson, Tennessee’s first congressman, uncovered evidence of “suspicious” activity in the administration of the land grants given to Revolutionary War veterans. Further investigation led to revelations of massive land fraud implicating senior officials in Tennessee and North Carolina.
Christmas Creek bridge is located south of Parsons Road on the Shelbyville Pike (US 231)
In 1783, the N.C. legislature voted to reward the state’s Revolutionary War veterans with grants of land in the western territory which later became Tennessee. The amount of each grant was determined by length of service and military rank.
A private with two years of service could receive 228 acres; a brigadier general with seven years of service was entitled to 12,000 acres. The heir of any deceased veteran could receive the grant. The heir of a soldier killed in the war was credited with the seven-year share regardless of the actual length of service.
To receive a grant, the veteran could personally apply to the N.C. Secretary of State James Glasgow. A former military officer could also request grants for soldiers that had served in his command.
Each recipient received a written “warrant” describing the land and signed by Glasgow. Grantees could go to Tennessee and claim their land (if surveyed and clear of Native Americans and other claimants), or they could sell their warrant. Many of the smaller grants were sold to land speculators, who were often the senior officers who provided the lists (“muster rolls”) of those entitled to a land grant.
Glasgow was himself a veteran and served as an N.C. official during the Revolutionary period. In 1777 he was appointed North Carolina’s first secretary of state. With full oversight of the military land grant program, he appointed Martin Armstrong, a military veteran, politician and surveyor, as clerk and surveyor of the military lands in what was to become Middle Tennessee. Working from an office in Nashville, Armstrong was a friend and business associate of Tennessee Gov. John Sevier.
Although Tennessee separated from North Carolina and gained statehood in 1796, North Carolina retained jurisdiction over its Revolutionary land-grant program (including unassigned land within the original military reserve). The office in Nashville administered the program and resolved disputes as to entitlement, survey or assignment.
Prompted by Andrew Jackson in 1797, North Carolina Gov. Samuel Ashe forced an investigation of the Nashville land office. Despite mysterious fires and theft of records, the investigation found proof of extensive fraud showing complicity between Armstrong and a number of Tennessee and N.C. officials.
Land warrants had been issued to fictitious veterans and quickly sold to land speculators, fake grants were sold for cash to unsuspecting investors, and favored investors were able to amass vast holdings at nominal expense.
When it became apparent that Glasgow had initiated, encouraged and personally profited from most of the fraud, he was removed from office and eventually convicted of land fraud charges. Official records refer to this illegal manipulation of the Revolutionary land grants as the Glasgow Land Fraud.
Following Glasgow’s conviction, the name of Glasgow County, North Caroline, named for the state’s first secretary, was changed to Greene County. Glasgow eventually migrated to Tennessee where he was able to profit on sale of what remained of his ill-gotten land. He died in Davidson County in 1819.
Despite detailed evidence of wrongdoing in the Nashville office, Armstrong was never charged or prosecuted. (Gov. Sevier, also implicated, refused the N.C. request for extradition.) Armstrong was, however, relieved of his appointment by an act of the N.C. legislature. Maintaining his innocence, he initially refused to vacate the office or relinquish records. Finally, when assured of no legal or financial consequences, Armstrong conceded the office to his North Carolina-appointed successor, William Christmas.
Col. William Christmas served as a staff officer in the late years of the Revolutionary War. In his only combat experience, he lead a rifle corps in the Battle of Guilford Court House (present day Greensboro, North Carolina). Serving in numerous postwar roles in the N.C. militia, he earned the rank of “lieutenant colonel commandant” in 1795. As a surveyor and cartographer, he platted Raleigh, North Carolina, and surveyed many of the county boundaries in North Carolina. A wealthy landowner through inheritance, he served as a state senator and as a representative to the 1789 constitutional convention where he voted to ratify the U. S. Constitution.
In November 1799, Christmas was appointed by the N.C. General Assembly to replace Armstrong in the Nashville office. But Tennessee officials objected to this North Carolina activity and threatened to prosecute any N.C. representative conducting a survey in Tennessee. Through negotiation it was agreed that North Carolina could continue to issue military land warrants, but that the grants and surveys would be completed only by Tennessee officials. As a part of the agreement, Christmas was hired by Tennessee to carry out the same duties for which he was appointed by the N.C. General Assembly.
Although the arrival of Christmas ended most of the fraudulent activity, the major Tennessee land speculators, including Armstrong and Glasgow, were able to retain much of their Tennessee assets.
When Andrew Jackson first raised allegations of fraud, Glasgow cashed out his Rutherford County holdings (approximately 1,800 acres on the Stones River) in a sale to Stockley Donelson. Land records also show Glasgow selling tracts on Cripple Creek and on the Rutherford/Davidson boundary in 1814 and 1819.
(Martin) Armstrong also had substantial holdings in Rutherford County near Jefferson (3,430 acres), along Overall Creek (150 acres) and on the West Fork (150 acres). The smaller tracts and many of his properties in Davidson and other Tennessee counties were sold before his death, but the larger Rutherford tract may have been a part of his decedent estate.
(William) Christmas also benefited from his role in sorting out land records and titles. On some occasions he took title to lands that had been fraudulently granted to a fictitious name (“soldier didn’t muster”).
His survey work also identified smaller tracts of unclaimed land between grants. As compensation for survey work, he assigned himself title to several such tracts in southern Rutherford County. Among these was a 213 acre tract at the “headwaters of the West Fork, Stones River.”
The branch of the West Fork that flows from this property came to be known as “Christmas Creek.” It is most evident today where it flows under the Shelbyville Pike just north of the Walnut Grove Road intersection in the Christiana community.