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Surveyor of Pulaski County, John Montfort surveyor
of Cumberland County & myself. (Mr. McKee was
afterwards for many years a distinguished member
of Congress, & the father of Colo. McKee killed
at the battle of Buena Vista). The Justices of
the County Court were Colo. Charles Dibrell, Martin
Sims, Edward N. Cullom, James Montgomery,
Raleigh Clark, James Jones & James Evans.
The first Court was held on the 16th day of
March 1801 at the house of Henry Garner
two miles from the present town of Monticello.
The Justices all attended the Court, except
Colo. Dibrell, who was absent in Virginia.
This day was a remarkably pleasant one
& the people of the new county very generally
turned out. In a conference between the Justices
before they took their seats upon the
bench, it was ascertained that Sims, Jones &
Evans were in favor of Montfort - Montgomery
& Clark were for McKee & Cullom for
me. I proposed to Mr. McKee to decline in
his favor, but he said it was unnecessary as
he knew that Esq. Cullom in a contest between
him & Montfort, would vote for
Montfort & he would therefore decline,
knowing that his friends Montgomery & Clark
would vote for me. Accordingly when the
Court was organized, the six members were
equally divided between Mr. Montfort & myself.
Mr. Evans however, fearing that a tie would
prevent the election of Clerk, voted for me
which gave me a majority. Mr. Sims, the
presiding justice, as I had a majority with
out his vote, also voted for me. I thus received
five votes out of six - a remarkable result
considering that an hour before, only one of
the 6 Justices was in my favor. At the time
of my election I lacked two months of being sixteen
years of age!! having been born on the 14th
day of May 1785. No question was made in