The War in the Northwest 275 



contrast to the vigorous and manly people around 

 them. 



By far the largest number of the new-comers 

 were of the true, hardy backwoods stock, fitted to 

 grapple with the wilderness and to hew out of a 

 prosperous commonwealth. The leading settlers 

 began, by thrift and industry, to acquire what in the 

 backwoods passed for wealth. Their horses, cattle 

 and hogs throve and multiplied. The stumps were 

 grubbed out of the clearings, and different kinds of 

 grains and roots were planted. Wings were added 

 to the houses, and sometimes they were roofed 

 with shingles. The little town of Jonesboro, the 

 first that was not a mere stockaded fort, was laid 

 off midway between the Watauga and the Noli- 

 chucky. 



As soon as the region grew at all well settled, 

 clergymen began to come in. Here, as elsewhere, 

 most of the frontiersmen who had any religion at 

 all professed the faith of the Scotch-Irish; and the 

 first regular church in this cradle-spot of Tennessee 

 was a Presbyterian log meeting-house built near 

 Jonesboro in 1777, and christened Salem Church. 

 Its pastor was a pioneer preacher, who worked with 

 fiery and successful energy to spread learning and 

 religion among the early settlers of the Southwest. 

 His name was Samuel Doak. He came from New 

 Jersey, and had been educated in Princeton. Pos- 

 sessed of the vigorous energy that marks the true 

 pioneer spirit, he determined to cast in his lot with 

 the frontier folk. He walked through Maryland 



