Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Major Tatum's Journal


Major Howell Tatum's Journal: While Acting Topographical Engineer (1814) ...:


A bit of biographical information about Tatum:

After resigning from the army in 1782, Captain Tatum turned to the law. At some time he must have studied surveying, an accomplishment of many of the bright young men of the colonies. His topographical notes of the voyage down the Alabama River in 1814 show how well he was versed in that art. As a lawyer, he was in Nashville as early as 1790, for when Tennessee was organized as a territory under federal authority after it had been ceded by North Carolina, Tatum was one of the lawyers whom the new governor licensed to practise law at that place on December 15 of that year. It is of interest to see who were the others. In the records of the local court the names stand as follows: "Josiah Love, John Overton, Andrew Jackson, David Allison, Howell Tatum, James Cole Mountflorence and James White.




A reference to William Weatherford's plantation in an excerpt from Major Tatum's Journal:



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