PHARAOH RECALLED 'SUMMERLESS' YEAR
by Willard Yarbrough
So our winter was long and dogwood blossoms this spring were late coming--but no winter can measure up to the one Pharaoh Chesney remembered. That April, snow was up to six feet deep in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. In May, only a little snow had melted and crops couldn't be planted. In June, the snow was gone but the ground remained frozen--but another snowfall came and folk went sleighing. On July 4, water froze in cisterns and snow fell again, with Independence Day celebrants moving inside churches where hearth fires warmed things a mite In August, corn went to tassel so early it was usable only as fodder for the stock. Most crops were'nt usable, with most vegetation dying, and the following winter flour jumped to the unheard-of-price of ~17 a barrel. That was in 1815. Pharaoh Chesney lived through~that season. He told the story in 1901 when he was 120 years old. And he lived, said John G. chesney of Knox County's cross Valley Road until 1907, when he was 126 years old. John 0.. Chesney, S2-year old retired Southern Railway employee, remembers Pharaoh. "My great-grandfather, John Chesney, bought Pharaoh in 1841 for $421," said Chesney, 'but the Negro brought $1000 as a young •man when sold to Johathan Jackson in Virginia. After the Civil War, my great-grandfather gave Pharaoh 150 acres on copper Ridge, between Condon and Maynardville, and Pharaoh's sons stayed on, too, as free men. I remember Pharaoh well, used to see him when he came to the store neat Luttrell. But I was just a boy then'. LAST OF THE PIONEERS-- When 3. C Webster wrote the life story of Pharaoh Jackson chesney in 1902 and registered it with the Library of Congress, he entitled the book 'Last of the Pioneers.' And when Pharaoh told the story of the year without a summer he had been in Union County, Tennessee for 20 years. At age 12 he was still felling trees, clearing land, tending to his crops and recalling experiences of the wild frontier. There was the time, he told author Webster, when a Negro enroute to a weekend festival near Elaine's crossroads was intercepted by a pack of wolves. The man ran, his musical instrument--a gourd with catgut strings--flapping at his side. He made it to a cabin, the wolves snapping at his heels, and inside the man climbed atop a rafter just as the wolves broke down the door. He accidentally struck the strings on his music box. and the wolves hesitated. Then he played and they quieted until help came. SAW GEORGE WASHINGTON-- Pharaoh remembered seeing George Washington once in the Shenandoah and didn't think much about it until he was told the man was President Washington. And he remembered the time when James K. Polk the Democrat debated Lean Jimmy Jones the Whig in 1841 (the year John chesney bought him) at Blame. Polk was the better orator, Pharaoh recalled, but 6-2, 125-pound Jimmy Jones set the crowd afire when he whipped a coonskin cap from his. pocket and joked his way through the debate. other Whigs did too and Jones beat Polk of Tennessee for governor that year--and the next time too. And whoever thought Estes Kefauver made the coonskin cap famous? Polk didn't carry Tennessee in 1644, either, but he was elected president of the United states. STAGECOACH NAMED--Where did the stagecoach get its name? Pharaoh said the •stage' was the time between way stations for the coach, recalling that in the 1790's fare was $5 per hundred pounds--persons or merchandise--and that it required 20 days for the stagecoach to travel the 291 miles from New York to Philadelphia. And those taverns or inns along the way in Tennessee and Virginia? County courts authorized. them. The law set prices for meals and lodgings (price controls way back then?) and innkeepers who didn't limit drinks to overnight guests could lose their license or be subject to fines. All guests had to register so the local sheriff could check on suspicious persons, and anyone branded suspicious had to move out of town pronto! When chesney went by wagon with John Chesney to fetch Chesney's children visiting in west Tennessee, the trip took 10 days one way. Wolves and panthers dogged their trail, they guarded against Tennessee's bad boy of the day, John A. Murrell, who stole slaves and resold them, and were harrassed by Federal soldiers who didn't cotton to passersby on the Cumberland Plateau trails. William N. Chesney, Route 1, Andersonville, has a copy of the 1902 printing, "Last of the Pioneers." Nelson Chesney, Lake City High School principal, has done much family research and knows about Pharaoh Chesney who took the family name. Pharaoh, of course, wasn't the oldest living Tennessean on record but he was a fascinating man whose life was spent in three centuries. William yarbrough, was a staff writer for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. His article 'Pharaoh Recalled summerless Year,' appeared in the May 11, 1969 issue. Betsy Morris, Knoxville News-Sentinel Living Today editor, wrote an article 'Pharaoh Chesney: worth Remembering", and published it on August 7, 1983. One of the Wyricks decreed that no one should cut the pine tree at the head of Pharaoh Chesney's grave; said he doubted if 'uncle Ferry' would ever have a rock. But years later the tree went with a widening of the winding road in little Wyrick cemetery in Union County. A depression remained to show where the tree had been and Uncle Ferry's grave still is. Now, many years later, Pharaoh has a rock, a nice headstone, and at his feet, a strong young pine tree will be planted by his descendants. He is the only black man buried in that particular resting place, and whites and blacks will gather for the unveiling of his monument on August 28, (1983). The name of Pharaoh Chesney floats specter-like in and out of area writings. Lore of Pharaoh disappears for a time, reappears, and if anyone would enjoy this, Uncle Ferry would. He was a great one for appreciating unusual effects. David Babeley, local historian more often concerned with the Knoxville French - speaking Swiss, happened to be visiting at the McClung Historical Collection and saw a copy of Our Union County Heritage. When an aunt bought a copy David delved into it and was impressed with a page on Pharoah. I knew that a friend of mine was descended from Union County people. He is Paul Henry chesney called Henry now 73, who for years worked for the Alvin R. Murphy family on Washington Pike. Every time it rained, there was a wreck at Murphy Road and Washington Pike, and Henry was always ftrst there. I asked Henry if he knew anything about Pharaoh chesney. He said yes, that Pharaoh was his great-grandfather. "Henry and I set out to find Pharaoh's grave. He knew wherE his grandparents were buried, in Kelly cemetery on Tazewell PikE in Union county, but he didn't know about pharaoh. We both knew that Pharaoh ha.d a log cabin on Wolfe Road, copper Ridge in Union county, but it's gone now. And we didn't have any luck at finding his grave. A few weeks later, Wanda Hickle, another Union county history enthusiast, called to say she knew wherE pharaoh was buried. We went to her house at Luttrell and shE directed us. The Pharaoh item always mentioned first is that he lived to be 120 years old, which may or may not be true. Give or take few years, it really doesn't matter. Bert Vincent, the late News-Sentinel columnist, wrote of him. Willard Yarbrought has written about him. They gave Pharaoh full credit for more than longevity. In 1902, the literary Prof. John C. Webster of Morgan county had completed a whole book about Pharaoh--Last of The pioneers--but the publication extended to only 12 proof copies done by S. B. Newman and company for deciding about bindings, etc. But if pharaoh died in 1905 at 120, perhaps his biographer understood him correctly, pharaoh really had seen George Washington. Quoting from the ancient man, Webster wrote: "The first turnpike in America was made.. .1785-86 in Virginia, starting at Alexandria and extending down the Shenandoah Valley. It was at a tavern on this turnpike, while on a cattle drive to petersburg with my master, that I saw George Washington. I was a small boy, and did not then know how great a man he really was, but I well remember how he looked." Pharaoh, first Pharaoh Jackson, was born in Clarksville, in Mecklenberg County, Virginia which he spoke of as 'this beautiful town... just below where the Roanoke and Dan come together." His master, Jonathan Jackson, was a plantation owner whose son corban Jackson was a stock dealer and took Pharaoh with him to buy droves of cattle and sheep. They came as far down as Surgoinsville in Hawkins County. Then Corban Jackson, decided to settle in Tennessee, bought land in Grainger county in 1825. Corban, as administrator of his father's estate, sold Pharaoh to John chesney for $421 in 1841. John Chesney lived on Bull Run creek in the part of Grainger County that became Union county. John chesney ran a grist mill and distillery on the creek, and when the heavy rains came, it was pharaoh's job to keep the brush and debris from damaging the mill. Pharaoh put in fish traps along the same creek. Back in darksville he had learned to barter, to exchange his fresh fish for salt-fish that the merchants sold in stores. J. C. Webster, in trying to preserve the character of Uncle Ferry, must have spent months in talking with his subject. The remarkable Pharaoh discoursed on a wide variety of subjects, natural phenomena and political events. He had personal acquaintance with the Indians, •. . .if you had ever befriended one, especially if you had fed him when he was very hungry, he would never forget your face, nor the favor, and if you ever got into trouble, he would do everything in his power for you, even at the risk of his life." He spoke of 'one of the most memorable times that ever occurred at Blain~s Cross Roads.. the great debate between James ~..~P01k and James C. Jones, candidates for governor. It was thE 'beginning of the practice of stump-speaking.. called stump-speaking for the reason that the candidates more often spoke in the open.. and frequently mounted on stumps or empty boxes so as to be seen by their hearers. The two parties, on this occasion, were about equally divided, and about the •only way to distinguish between them was that the Whigs usually wore a coonskin cap--a coonskin being an emblem of the Whigs--while the Democrats could be generally recognized by their yelling.t He remembered the long hard winter of 1815-16, 'when time came for gardening in the spring, the fury of winter had not abated in the least. In April, the snow was from four to six feet deep...On the morning of July 4, the water froze in the wells and ~ (After the explosion of Indonesia's Tambora volcano in 1815, there were so many frosty nights the following June in canada and the United states that people called it the Year Without a Summer, according to Time magazine, July 5, 1982). He said "the most trying time on the souls of poor ignorant mortals that I ever saw was when the great shower of falling stars took place in the year 1833. At night the heavens reambled a snowstorm, with the flakes falling. The wildest excitement prevailed among all classes.' (The Leonid meteor shower, which seems to proceed from the constellation Leo Major, occurred with marked intensity in 1833, according to a section on meteors in the columbia Encyclopedia). And Pharaoh knew how to make a banjo ~~~not very hard. Almost any common mechanical genius could take an ordinary meal sieve hoop, fit a neck to it, stretch a raw cathide across it, put on some catgut strings.' In his late days, Uncle Ferry walked on two canes, or a cane and a long staff, but he did keep walking. Word passed along is that he died of being poisoned on wild greens of which he was especially fond. He had said he didn't want to be buried on "Rebel ground', and chesney boys had fought for the confederate cause. So Pharaoh was taken to the family cemetery of one of the chesneys' neighbors, Houston Wyrick, who had been on the Union side. Uncle Ferry's rock has been placed this summer. David Babelay, who provided it and saw to the inscribing, will give the tribute at the memorial program on August 28. A covered dish dinner at 1 p.m. at Plainview community Center, Tazewell Pike near Luttrell, will proceeded at 2 p.m. program at which there will be recognition of Pharaoh chesney's descendants and John Chesney's descendants. Then the entire party will get in cars for a procession to Wolfe Road, to drive past the site of Pharaoh's cabin, and continue to Wyrick cemetery. Eighty-five year old J. Edgehert Baily of Union County has clear rememberance of Uncle Ferry's funeral. It was the first he ever attended. Be recalls that the coffin was opened at the grave, and when mourners marched by, he stood on tiptoe and saw that Uncle Ferry had on white gloves. This time Edgebert will help Pharaoh's great-great-great-grandchildren position a new pine tree, a memorial in praise of a famous man. The Bill of Sale of Pharaoh to John Chesney appeared in volume 6, number 2, June 1987 issue of Pathways.
For more information on this article or any article or publication of the Union County Historical Society please write them at:
Union County Historical Society
P.O. Box 95
Maynardville, TN 37807
Or
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