History / Woodland Paths
Natural Setting
The mind and hand of man have built beautiful concert halls throughout the world, but none can compare to the great hall known as Hickman County. Encompassing 612 square miles of earth, the daily concerts of winter quietly lead to those of spring, announce the arrival of summer and fade into fall. Yes, this concert hall utilizes every sound nature possesses in a combination of instruments... Wind, wisping across meadows into the branches and leaves... Water, cascading from waterfalls, rolling in the river trickling across rocks… Rain, beating its music upon the ground in ever-changing patterns… Thunder, bursting and cracking with tremendous force. Yes, here in this luscious concert hall a symphony of music is constantly performed. Long before the first human ventured into this area, known today as the Western Highland Rim in Middle Tennessee, there was music.
Native People
The first humans to venture this way were the Native Americans, emerging over a 12,000 year period of time.
Hickman County was included in an area known as "The Great Hunting Grounds", one of the most fertile and best-watered lands in America, filled with fish and game and over 1,500 species of plant life with at least 300 of medicinal value all known to the Native American. This was a land of peaceful hunting for the Iroquois of the Great Lakes, Choctaw of the Gulf Coast, Cherokee of the mountains, and Chickasaw of the Mississippi, the Shawnee, and the Creek.
To these people, the world was one unit of land and all life upon it was inseparable. And the music of the peaceful flute and the steady drum was in harmonious accord until a different kind of man appeared with a different kind of philosophy and a different kind of music. A kind of man called The European, who would be at odds with the Native American, a different kind of man whose music would end in a Trail of Tears.
Daniel Bey - Musical Trails
Southeastern Hills
Early Settlers
The first Europeans to come in 1540 were Treasure Seekers, in search of gold and silver. Finding none, Hernando de Soto and the Spaniards, moved on to other regions. Soon fur traders and hunters came, followed by Land Speculators and their surveyors, measuring and claiming the land.
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This brought the Settlers, around 1756, seeking land ownership. The Settlers were the English, the Welsh, the Scottish, the French Huguenots, the Germans, the Dutch, and the Scots-Irish. They came to live on this lush land and claim it as their own. They were on a quest for independence and individuality, pioneers, settlers, adventurers all charting new territory. They came on foot, on horseback, in wagons, on flatboats. They brought their skills and whatever material goods their transportation would allow. Some pioneers brought slaves along to help conquer the land. Small communities of free black people also resided in scattered communities, having been born in America, with only subconscious ties to the African homeland.
This cavalcade of people brought their music, diverse, unforgettable, to the land which would meld and blend to create new American music.
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On December 3rd, 1807 the county known as Hickman was created.
Sound: "Barbara Allen" (Traditional)
Performed by Darin Cochran
Challenge of War
One day, another kind of music was heard - a deafening, frightening, bone-chilling kind of music. It was the music of war, The Great Civil War, The War Between the States, pitting brother against brother. The Hickman boys and men marched off to war and in February of 1862, near Dover, TN, on the banks of the Cumberland River, faced the horror of war.
The end of the war brought a new resolve to return to the land and family life. For this land was home, the source of strength and faith and life. And for the next seventy years, these people embraced the land, saved it from the destruction of the industrial revolution, and marched to the rhythms of the land.
The music became less like the refrains from the distant lands and gave way to new music that had a life of its own and captured the poetry of their lives.
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Traditional)
Performed by Daric Cochran
Rural Living
By 1930 the Great Depression had turned the American Dream into a nightmare. Hurting most were those people whose lives and livelihoods revolve around Industrial life, the Urban life, or the Gilded life. Fortunes were lost and Fortunes were made.
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By 1930 in Rural America, Hickman County, life remained nearly untouched. Farm families raised most of their own food. Everyone was in the same situation and neighbors helped each other through hard times, sickness, and accidents. People gathered at school programs, church dinners, and dances. Every occasion, big or small, sad or happy, gave way to the opportunity for music.
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All Kinds of music... Gospel Music, Folk Music, and Old-Time Music. Even the Blues came through weaving into the others. Yes, every circumstance brought an opportunity for music played, music sung, music hummed; and their music, like their talk, filled a great need, bringing solace to...a weary body and soul.
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It seemed as though everyone picked up guitars, fiddles, banjos, dobros, dulcimers. They taught themselves to play and play well, at weddings, funerals, holidays, planting time, harvest time, in houses, barns, and churches, on porches, riverbanks, and wagons, under shade trees or by the old wood stove. Unbridled talent, like a lot of other things, started flowing...
Spiritual Language
Across the county, small churches still dot the countryside. Long ago they were built by hand to serve groups of families who found travel by buggy trails on Sundays shouldn't take more than an hour. The need to congregate was vital, the search for spiritual communion, universal. Churches encouraged song, with or without instruments and resourceful performers made the experience wonderful. The Fox Quartet, frequently singing perfect harmonies without instrumentation, was an example of living music from these remote places.
Wanda Turner - School Teacher
David Dansby - Librarian