Glen's Stand was a large log house, inn, and tavern. Built pre-1812 by the Glen family in the Mississippi Territory, it was located on a trail beaten out by buffalos, which became part of (Cherokee Chief) Doublehead Trace. It stood at present-day north corner of 2nd Avenue (Andrew Jackson's Military Road) and Mill Creek Drive.
Stands had holding pens (pasturage per day - 4 cents) and feed (fodder - 3 cents) for farm animals that drovers from Tennessee and Kentucky herded to markets in Natchez and New Orleans. Stagecoach routes used stands, located at regular intervals, that functioned as relay stations to supply fresh horses, rest stops for travelers, and mail delivery from Washington to Nashville to New Orleans. Four horses usually pulled the great stagecoach at a gallop on primitive roads filled with tree stumps, boulders, and gullies with 6 to 8 passengers jolting about. The work life of stage horses was about 2 years. Stage drivers would announce their pending arrival about 2 miles from the Stand by blowing a loud blast on a long trumpet for each passenger who wanted to make a "reservation" for a meal at the inn. Meals (10 cents and whiskey 8 cents with lodging 6 cents) were ladled out of iron pots from the fireplace.
At Glen's Stand, conversations centered on politics and news of the territory with visits from Andrew Jackson. Fresh water was supplied for hunters, warriors, explorers, pioneers, Jackson's soldiers of 1812, road builders, General Hood's 1864 Army of Tennessee, horses, and animals herded to the creek and spring downhill from Glen's Stand, where Native Americans from ancient times had cupped their hands and drank.
After the defeat of the British Army by General Jackson's Army (core of Tennesseans) at the Battle of New Orleans, he mapped out a new 516-mile route (17 days by stage) that connected Nashville with New Orleans for military movements and settlers in the Old Southwest. In 1816, President James Monroe and the United States Congress approved $5,000 to begin construction. The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek Nations agreed to land cessions in the treaties of 1816 but reserved areas for their tribes. The first 90 miles were charted to run south of Columbia, Tennessee, through Glen Rock. Parts of Doublehead Trace were widened to about 25 feet by 300 men including soldiers of the Eighth Infantry of the Military Division of the South, blacksmiths, carpenters, loggers, and bridge (35 locations) builders. The road work was completed by 1820 costing about $300,000.
Glen's Stand and the village of Glen Rock provided craftsmen, services, and supplies for stagecoaches, mail riders, and early settlers who travelled the new Military Road. Henry Phenix, a resident of Glen Rock, cast the deciding vote for the placement of the county seat for Lawrence County, Tennessee, in 1818 with four other county commissioners including David Crockett.
This was written by Betty Littrell Chaffin, 2019, and is typed on a sign by the Loretto Cemetery.
