Bobby, An excellent book that has much of the basic beginning history of Marshall County is "History of Tennessee, From the Earliest Time to the Present Together With an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford & Marshall Counties: Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Remembrances, Observations, Etc. Etc." published in Nashville by The Goodspeed Publishing Company. I do not know the author nor the date of publication. I copied some info from it when I was in the Marshall County Library in Lewisburg and unfortunately I did not get all the pertinent info. The area where Petty's Cave is located is south of Elk Ridge. The book mentions several early (around 1807) settlers in this area. Those mentioned in the book are Elisha and Joab Bagley, James Brown, Josiah (Joseph) McAdams and sons Irvin (Erwin) & James, Jesse McLean, and Henry Bagley. Joseph McAdams is one of my ancestors. He received a land grand and settled on 640 acres of land that straddled Fishing Ford Road about 2.5 miles south of where Belfast is now located. He is buried in the McAdams Cemetery on his land. I am in the process of trying to get legal access to it so it can be restored. Petty's Cave is located about 3 miles south of Belfast on Fishing Ford Road. It is now owned by an individual who has closed off public access to the cave. On one of my future trips to Marshall County, I am going to try and contact him and see if I can visit this infamous cave. I have seen pictures of it and definitely want to visit it. Some of my ancestors (McAdams) married Petty's and Bagley's. The families lived in such a close proximity of each other that such marriages would be expected. Louis Shone Arlington, Texas ----- Original Message ----- From: Bobby Prosser <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 02, 2000 6:15 AM Subject: [TNMARSHA] Questions / Headsprings Cemetery / Belfast Notes > I have many of my ancestors and connections buried at Headsprings, does > anyone know when the first burial was at this cemetery? I am in the linage > of the Petty Family has anyone in recent years been to the Petty Cave and is > it accessible, I imagine that it would probably need to be in the cooler > months before you would want to go near it? In notes about Belfast being > settled it was stated that the settlers named it after Belfast, Ireland in > remembering their old home there. Is there anyone who knows who the first > settlers of this area? There is also mention of Bagley Gap crossing Elk > Ridge, would this have been named after Joab Bagley ( I am also of that > linage)? Also mentioned is Blowing Cave, in which I have never heard of, is > anyone familiar with this cave? > > > >