1795 Pre-Statehood Tennessee Frontier Document — Ferrying 27 Men and Horses Across the Cumberland River at Nashville’s Great Salt Lick

Original manuscript power of attorney executed during Tennessee’s territorial period by Jason Thompson, an early Davidson County landowner and Cumberland pioneer, appointing noted frontiersman Captain Sampson Williams to collect a government debt for transporting a large mounted party across the Cumberland River. Written from Davidson County on May 11, 1795, Thompson authorizes Williams to receive: “the full amount of pay due me for my services performed in ferrying Capt. Thomas Johnson and twenty six more men & horses across the Cumberland River near the Great Salt Lick.” The Great Salt Lick—later known as the French Lick—was the natural landmark around which the frontier settlement of Nashville developed. The reference to Captain Johnson, twenty-six additional men and their horses indicates an organized public or probably militia-related movement through the Cumberland settlements. The document was created while present-day Tennessee formed part of the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio. Tennessee would enter the Union as the sixteenth state on June 1, 1796, making this a desirable pre-statehood record. The appointed attorney, Sampson Williams, had settled in the Mero District in 1786. He operated an important ferry across the Cumberland and was authorized by Territorial Governor William Blount to raise men for the defense of the crossing. Williams also participated in early land surveying and the development of the Cumberland frontier. The manuscript is additionally associated with Lardner Clark, one of Nashville’s first merchants and an early Davidson County justice of the peace. A court endorsement dated May 16, 1795, certifies the execution of the power of attorney. The reverse retains its contemporary filing docket, “Power of Attorney, Thompson to Williams,” and a fifty-cent filing notation. A highly evocative document recording the transportation of a mounted frontier party across the Cumberland River at the future site of Nashville—executed more than a year before Tennessee achieved statehood. Condition: Original folds, expected toning and staining, irregular edges, small losses and several old transparent-tape reinforcements. The lower-right paper seal or closure partially obscures Thompson’s signature. Text remains substantially strong and legible.