I have checked and
Jeremiah seems to be Elisha 1st born. Elisha daugher Taby was my 4 great grandmother. She married a John
Strother in Cross Plains TN. After Elisha died John ran the "Hotel" for a few years. I have researched this very well. I live in Nashville and know the current owners of this piece of property. I have been to the cave-- It is amazing. My branch left middle tn. before the Civil War- but I ended up here and made the Elisha discovery recently.
Goggle Elisha
Cheek-
Robertson County Tenn and see the whole story. I was told by an old lady in
Robertson Co. that they use to tell ghost stories about Elisha
Cheek. At his funeral the preacher was quoted saying
"He robbed the rich He killed the poor He's gone to Hell forever more." The family was not too happy about this. I have interviewed the current owner and an old man whose father was the overseer and the stories are spooky..
My line is Elisha
Cheek, Tabitha
Cheek Strother, Elisha
Strother, French Lane
Strother, Homer Jake
Strother, Lynn
Strother- who was my grandfather.
ID: I07869
Name: Elisha
Cheek Sex: M
Birth: ABT 1750
Death: 1818 in
Robertson Co. TN
Event: Interesting Tidbit 1799
Robertson Co., TN (History of
Robertson Co, See Notes)
Will: 12 APR 1818 1
Note:
"In 1799 Elisha
Cheek, with whom is connected one of the most thrilling incidents in the history of the county, settled on Red River, near the Sumner County line. Cheek, though an octoroon, had a white wife, and brought several slaves with him from Virginia. He purchased about 400 acres of land, upon which he built a mill and distillery, and living upon the road leading from Louisville to Nashville, he kept a hotel known as "Cheek's Stand." Many traders, laden with the proceeds of their sales in the shape of
Spanish milled-dollars, returned from New
Orleans by the overland route. The trip was a perilous one, as the country was infested with highwaymen. On Cheek's land was a cavern, said to be unfathomable, descending perpendicularly from the surface into the bluff. On a certain night the dogs of the neighborhood set up a terrific barking and howling, and in the morning they were found around the cavern. Attempts to drive them away only increased their excitement. They would occasionally go home for food, but would immediately return. Among them was a strange dog that never left the spot. On the twelfth day the commotion ceased, and the dogs returned to their homes. Upon examination the strange dog was found to be dead. It was believed by many that a trader had been murdered by
Cheek, and that his body had been thrown into the cave to conceal the crime, as a man riding a horse with a dog following had been seen near Cheek's place on the night when the disturbance [p.833] began. A superstitious dread of the cave existed from that time forth, and it was asserted that the ghost of the murdered man had been repeatedly seen in that vicinity, and that
Cheek, for several years before his death, never ventured from his house after dark." HISTORY OF
Robertson Co.
"Approx 7 miles north of White House was Cheek's Tavern, a stand on the road between Nashville and Lexington at Red River, a natural location for the development of a town or small community. But the rumors and developing legend about the suspicious purposes of its owner Elisha Creek, were enough to thwart settlements in the area.
When Recalling stories about
Cheek that centered around his allegedly rebbing and murdering prosperiou-looking patrons of his inn, a local writer characterized him as "dark of countenance and dark of soul, He looked at one from under brushy eyebrows with eyes that foretold the savagery of his heart." His interest whetted by stories told up and down the road regarding
Cheeks Tavern, from Philadelphia to New
Orleans, Scots poet-ornithologist Alexander
Wilson determined to stop at Cheek's to see the reputed murderer and his cave-tomb. Wilson wrote on April 28, 1810: 'As this man's house stand by the roadside, I was induced by motives of curosity to stop and take a peek at him. I found two persons in conversation under the piazza, one of whom informed me he was the landlord. He was a dark man, rather above the common size, inclining to corpulency, with legs small in proportion to his size and walked lame. His countenance bespoke a soul capable of deeds of darkness'. Wilson asked
Cheek to show him the cave and later wrote , "Confident in my plans of self defense, whatever mischief the devil might suggest to him, I fixed my eyes steadily on his and observed to him that he could not be ifnorant of the reports circulated about the country relative to this cave.'
Cheek responded 'Yes, I understand you, that I killed somebody and threw them into this eave. I tell you the whole beginning of the lie'. But what
Cheek told
Wilson was not recorded. Wilson recorded his observations about Cheek:'Wheater the man be guilty or not, I know not, but his manner and aspect are such as by no means to allay suspecion.' Reports persist that human bones have washed out of
Cheeks Cave. Will Freedle, farm overseer for 20th century owners reported that the found "half a shoe box full of human teeth plus a gold watch and some old
Spanish and English coins at the bottom of the pit in the cave".
Tradition has it that after Elisha
Cheek died travelers on the road would repeat this rhyme: "HE ROBBED THE RICH, HE KILLED THE POOR, HE'S GONE TO HELL FOREVERMORE". AUTHOR UNKNOWN
"In the name of God amen. I Elisha
Cheek now in my perfect mind------having in mind that all flesh is mortal and have to die, I think proper to make this my last will and testament----in the first place I recommend my soul to Almighty God who gave it me.
In the next place I appoint my trusty friends David Gr___ and Warren Pain my Executors.
In the next palce I wll and bequeath to my loving wife Elisabeth all that tract of land whereon I now live with all and ____ the property and benefits arising th____ from, also my
Negro Man Jacob and my
Negro Woman Lid and Ben and Harrison and all my household furniture, also twenty of my hogs, her choice of cows and _____ ______, her choice of my young cattle ____, also from her choice sheep and all the fowl, rabbits and deer that may be on my plantation at my decease, also two of my horses and two oxen her choice and a sufficient quantity of my crop to support her family and stock one year and all my farming tools during her life and widowhood, and it is my will that the said Elisabeth neither hire nor give away any of the Negro's and that my stills continue on the place.
In the next place will & bequeath to my Daughter Lucy
McCrary my
Negro Man Bob and George and one half of my tract of land of t20 hundred and twenty eight
Acres which I purchased of Anthony
Sharps heris and an equal divide of all my stock with her brothers and sisters now living, to her and the ehreis of her body, but not to be at the disposal of Nath
McCrary her husband in no respect whatsoever.
I ___ ____ will and bequeath to my Daughter Feby Norman my
Negro Man Tom and my
Negro Woman Rachel to be free at my Daughter Febys death, and one half of my tract of land of two hundre and twenty eight
Acres and equal divide between her and her sister Lucy and and equal divide of my stock with the rsto of her brothers and sisters now living, to her and the heirs of her body forever.
I also will and bequeath to my Daughter Fanny
Gains my
Negro Boy Ned and my
Negro Girl
Lisi, and on that tract of land of one hundred and eighty acres which I purchased of Bird _____that Benjamin
Gains lives on at this time, and an equal divide of all my stock with the rest of her brothers and sister not otherwise appropriated to her and the heirs of her body forever.
I also will and bequeath to my Daughter Taby Strowder my
Negro Woman Rosa and the tract of land that George Humphreys lives on and the tract of land that Joseph _____ lives on and from the L____that ____on thru post oaks. Turning west with an old path to a branch then North to my other land two acres, except where my mill stands which is to go to land bequeathed to my wife, also an equal divide of my stock with the rest of her brothers and sistes now living not otherwise appropriated to her and the ehris of her body forever.
I also will and bequeath to my Son in Law John Strowder my tract of land of two hundred and forty acres which said Stroder now lives on to him and his heirs by my Daughter Taby forever.
I also will and bequeath to my son
Ely at the decease of my wife Elisabeth all the property which I have bequeathed to her the said Elisabeth also an equal part of my stock with his sister, to him and the lawful heirs of his body. Lawfully begotten but in case he should marry any of his ______the property above mentioned shall be divided equally between his fours sisters and he shall have one hundred dollars in cash from out of my estate.
I also will and bequeath to my Grand daughter Feby
McCrary twenty acres of land that I purchased from Joseph Rose lying between Roses and Barrots to her and the ehirs of her body forever.
I also will that my
Negro Man Harly and my
Negro Woman Beck be set free and maintained during life out of my estate.
I also will that Archibald Conner and his wife live on the tract of land of seventy four acres where they no live during their lives and then to be divided equally amongst my children.
signed this 12 day of April 1818 In the presence of
Edward Givin
Solomon Mitchell Elisha X
Cheek (his mark)
Edward X
GossettRobertson Co Court _____1818
The last will and Testament Elisha
Cheek Decd. Was presented & proven by the Oaths of Solomon Mitchell and Edward
Gossett and ___ ___ to be recorded."
Robertson County, Roll #5 Book #2, 1821-1818 page 378-381 probate.
Sumner Co., TN Will Books 1 & 2: p. 10: William Brown 12 Oct 1804 Son James, daughter Sally Brown, son-in-law Thomas Roper, son-in-law John
Perkerson, sons Robert, Alexander, Richard, John (<21), wife Nancy, son William. Ex: James
Hart, Authur Exam and son James Brown.
Wit: John Tenn, Elisha
Cheek, Simon Coal.
Sources:
Title:
Robertson Co Probate book 2, page 378-381
Repository:
Media: Book
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