From a speech by Col. John A. Gardner on July 4th 1876
relating how it was 50 years earlier in 1826.  Sent to Obion Mail list by "Joe W. Stout" <jwstout@charter.net>

THE WATER COURSES

There were at least two very notable peculiarities about the streams of this country half a century ago that have disappeared.  Their channels at that time were twice as deep, generally than they are now.  Their banks were so steep, and precipitous that it was difficult to get into or out of them on horseback; so much so, that the horseman was sometimes compelled to ride a fourth, or even as much as a half a mile up or down the channel before he could find a place at which he could get into it, and then perhaps, he would have to go several hundred yards in the channel before he could find a place at which he could get out.  I have on more than one occasion had this to do myself.  Then the bed of the streams of all sizes were very miry, with here and there bodies of quick-sand, rendering it more or less unsafe to attempt to cross them, unless you had some previous knowledge to guide you.

In the Western part of this county, I know an insignificant branch - a tributary of the Cypress - so famous in early times as a quick-sand snare, that it received the name of "Grab Branch".  It "grabbed" many an unsuspecting cow in a manner that cost the animal her life.  The bottomlands, bordering the watercourses, were then lower, wetter, and more miry than at present.  The same is true of the upland glades.  Many cattle have lost their lives feeding around their miry margins.  If the milk cow failed to come home at night she was immediately sought for in those treacherous glades, and generally found helplessly fast in the mud.

I well remember when the barnyard lot of BONDURANT & BLAKEMORE, in this town, was a whortleberry swamp, through which the strongest ox or horse could not have passed with safety.  These swamps and glades have filled up from the washing of the cultivated lands, until many spots have been brought into successful tillage, where forty years ago would have mired the stoutest animal.  Farms are everywhere embracing these glades and invading these swamps, and I predict that in another half century the finest farms in the county will be on these bottomlands.

Another peculiarity, I wish to notice is this.  For many years after this county began to settle at mid-summer the water was scarcely warm enough to furnish comfortable bathing.  The reason of this was the streams where then fed by numerous springs, bursting from their banks and beds, and the margin of their swamps.  The summer supply of water was, consequently greater than now.  I think I can safely affirm that nine-tenths of these early springs have been chocked up by detritus carried down by the rains.

This town [Dresden] was located where it is on account of a spring a little north of the present jail, from which it was expected the inhabitants would derive their supply of water.  Still another fact I will record in this connection.  It is this: At an early day our streams rose and fell much more slowly than they do now, because the water was finding its way to their channels through tangled grass and beds of leaves and the rubbish of the forest, than from the firmer surface of cultivated fields.  The result is our streams rise quicker and higher now than they did formerly.

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