History & Folklore
on the Ridge
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in Tennessee History
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THE KNIGHT FAMILY
At the time that the Paradise brothers
became established, the Knight family
also came to the ridge, and they are
identified in the history of the section
as the co-settlers of Paradise Ridge. The
Knights remained in the valley below for
many years and one of the most prominent
descendants, William Knight, now lives at
the ripe age of 77, and can shoot suckers
in the clear mountain streams with bow
and arrow with the accuracy of an Indian.
There were three divisions in the Knight
family, and stranger still each branch
was headed by a stalwart son named
William. The three Bill Knights have had
far more to do with the romantic history
of the ridge than the early settlers from
whom its name was taken. The Knights were
numerous and their progeny now rule the
better elements which have conformed with
the most modern ideas and which have made
possible the regeneration of the
beautiful section.
The Knights were singular. One of them
was known as Black Bill, and he traced
his way to the top among the pines and
lived a wild and disordered life. The
second was known as Rattlesnake Bill, and
he gained the unusual sobriquet from his
close association with the reptiles of
the same name, for the second Bill caught
rattlesnakes, tamed and trained them,
tanned their skins and sold them on the
Nashville market. The third Bill, and the
one who still survives his historic
ancestors, is Gentleman Bill, and
Gentleman Bill occupies a position of
pre-eminance in the State of Tenessee
which entitles him to recognition from
many sources. He was made a member of the
Scottish Rite by Gen. Albert Pike, he is
one of the Veteran Masons of the state,
if not the oldest, receiving this degree
in Springfield in the early part of the
century. He was for twelve years the
county register of Davidson County and he
has been recognised by the Indian tribes
of Oklahoma for his powers with the bow
and arrow, and has been allowed the
right, known as the head right, to share
in the Indian lands of Oklahoma.
THE THREE BILLS
The three Bills have interesting
histories, all of them. Black Bill was
the oldest and Black Bill lived close to
nature, for in all the days of his later
life he never wore a shirt. The coldest
day in winter found him naked to the
hips. There was a matted growth of hair
on his upper body that clothed him like a
coat. He resembled some animals, for this
hair was black and thick and close. It
covered his arms and breast and the lower
part of his stomach and took the place of
other garments. Through summer and winter
seasons he went without garments other
that this one given him by nature and he
lived close to her in return. He was
always in the open air. He farmed and
raised fruit on a small scale, for the
ridge is a natural orchard and the
strawberries are the best raised anywhere
in the south. Years passed and finally
Black Bill was gathered to his fathers.
He died worshipping the freedom of the
ridge. He had been free all his life. He
loved the birds and brush and the blue
sky of the ridge, and while he had not
always lived in the light of God, and the
law of his fellowman, it is not recorded
that Black Bill ever did anyone harm, and
he is respected in name for his early
connections with this romantic and at the
same time tragic section.
RATTLESNAKE BILL
But little is known of Rattlesnake Bill.
His peculiar calling excluded him from
the inner circle of close associates. A
man with a serpentine profession cannot
expect friends to follow him into the
lair of the snake, and thus isolated he
lived. He gathered his snakes and
schooled them for the circus people and
side show. He taught them the ways of
peace and he tanned their hides for
pocket books and belts. Along with his
snakes Bill lived and died, and another
of the early settlers is accounted for.
Gentleman Bill was a child when his
relatives were making history, but he
came along in later years and made pages
of history of even greater value, for he
still lives and his good deeds have won
for him the friendship of men who stop
whenever he appears to clasp his hand for
a cheery word, and more will be told of
him later on.
In its early days the ridge was called
upon to harbor many who had fallen out in
cities and who had crossed lines and
dared not return. No questions were asked
on the ridge. Every man was master of his
own destiny. If he lived according to the
lax code which governed there, all was
well and good, and if he did not, he
didn't live at all. There was no bulwark
of the law to fret and fume over. The
ridge was a law unto itself. Matters were
regulated there without a call to court
or code and men knew it. The hum of the
outside world's busy centers came to the
ridge in faint whispers. People who lived
there in the early days were far from the
heart of things. It was a beautiful strip
of mountains, farm land, waters and
luxuriating in all of God's greatest
natural gifts, yet a land apart, silent,
strange, wild and always solemn.
Climbing the White's Creek Pike as it
winds up to the Horse Shoe Ridge, the
very lonesomeness of the section still
appeals in the heaviness of its silence.
It is now a home of prospering and
peaceful families, and all of the early
tragedy lies buried beneath the yielding
orchards and berry fields, but there is
still the solemnity that comes with far
off skies, splashing creeks and the pine
trees. The very sigh of the wind seems to
hasten the feeling. If it is this now,
imagination can picture what it was when
the two Paradise brothers crossed the
Cumberland River at Nashville, and
climbed onward until the crest of the
ridge was reached and said, "Here we
will make our home."
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Reprinted with permission of the Memphis Commercial Appeal
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