In a message dated 04/26/99 5:26:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time, TNDAVIDS-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: << One of the reasons I believe you will find that the Nashville area was settled first was that much of the East Tennessee was still in the control of the Indian Nations. by treaty. >> The Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Shawnee Indians had agreed among themselves that the area of Middle Tennessee and Kentucky would be a shared hunting ground and none would have permanent settlements there. The Cherokee lived to the East, the Chickasaw to the West, the Creeks to the South, and the Shawnee to the North. European-Americans erroneously thought that the land was free for the taking since it wasn't occupied, but for fifteen years following their arrival Indians, especially the Creeks, put up serious resistance to that notion. The path between Southwest Point and the Cumberland Settlements was a dangerous one, and migrating families gathered there until there were sufficient numbers to offer some degree of safety during the crossing. Settlers willingly taxed themselves to support Militia units that served as escorts for new arrivals, because the greater the population, the greater the defense against Indian raids. Even after treaties guaranteed safe passage along Avery Trace as well as down the Tennessee River, lives were lost. But enough people braved the hazards to increase the population sufficiently to establish Davidson County in 1783, three years after the arrival of about 250 families, and in 1787 numbers had increased again sufficient to establish a second, Sumner, county. By the turning of the century, five years after the last victim to fall to Indian attack, there were seven counties. But it has been estimated that half those original settlers fell to Indian attack during those first bloody fifteen years. Our ancestors made history, and studying their times tells us their deeds and makes them so much more than names and dates. I was a history buff first and a genealogist second, so imagine my surprise when I learned that those three boys who were killed and scalped doing farm chores were the brothers of my ggg-grandmother and that my gg-grandfather had been in one of the Kentucky militia units that built Fort Jefferson and survived that Cincinatti march. Joyce