Last remaining Civil War horse died in Bristol

At about 5 p.m. Aug. 2, 1896, a horse died on Stoney Point Plantation near Bristol, Tenn.

Seldom is the death of a horse mentioned in a local newspaper. But not only did this one receive a front page write up in the Bristol News, but other area newspapers took up the story and newspapers all over the South followed through with notices of the event.

Why such a to-do over a horse? For the full story, we must go back a bit. In the latter part of the Civil War (some say mid-1864) a Bristol man, one Marion Brown, enlisted in the Army of the Confederate States of America.

Until that time, he had worked in the warehouse of the James and Seneker store that stood near the depot in downtown Bristol. He and his family lived in a small house on old Fourth Street that was rented from Joseph R. Anderson. When it was learned that Mr. Brown intended to enlist, Joseph Anderson and W.W. James, his former employer, supplied him with a fine young horse named King Richard.

When Brown rode away to war, he left behind his wife, a son about 11 years old and two younger daughters. Soon after the end of war, Brown came riding home. He was so wounded and sick he could hardly stay mounted on the horse. Within a week he was dead. The family was left destitute. Mr. Anderson and Mr. James paid the funeral expenses. He was buried near the northeast corner of the Confederate section of East Hill Cemetery.

A few days later, his son, young Houston Brown, took King Richard one morning and went out along what is now King College Road to find work as he had to help support the struggling family.

He had no luck until about mid-morning when he stopped for a drink at a roadside spring that yet flows in front of the home of Ann Foley at 2061 King College Road. This was the seat of the old Stoney Point Plantation.

Mrs. Bushong, a widow and recently deprived of her slave services, was desperate for help with the cultivation of her large spread of land. Not only that year but several years following, young Houston Brown worked for this kind lady.

His two sisters married when they were in their very early teens. His mother died in 1874.

After his mother’s death, Houston moved out to Stoney Point Plantation and lived in the old slave cabin that had been used by John, a former Bushong slave. The family called it "Old John’s Cabin."

In later years, it was taken down and moved to northern Alabama and re-erected there. By this time, the only Bushong daughter had married Jacob Susong Carmack, who became the manager of the plantation. Mr. Carmack would have gladly kept young Houston on indefinitely had a little twist of fate dictated otherwise.

A family living near Stoney Point sold out and moved to east Texas. They hired young Houston Brown to drive livestock to their new location. He left King Richard behind with the intention of being back to Stoney Point by Christmas that year.

His employer had a late teenage daughter who helped in the livestock drive. Along the road, Houston fell in love with this girl. Soon after his arrival in east Texas, he wrote Mr. Carmack that he planned to be married and remained in Texas.

The letter he wrote the Carmacks is here among old papers here at Pleasant Hill. Houston also offered to sell his fine horse to Mr. Carmack. The offer was accepted. For several years, King Richard was Mr. Carmack’s favorite riding horse.

Mr. Albert C. Smith, who had become the editor of the Bristol News began the countdown as old Civil War horses died one by one. Finally, it became evident that King Richard was the last surviving horse in this area and perhaps in other areas of the South.

He was then about 36 years old, somewhat beyond the normal life span of the average horse. In his final years, he was kept in a little pasture spreading around what is now the home of the Rev. Bill Goforth at 2004 King College Road in Bristol Tenn., and that is where he died.

He was buried in what is now the vegetable garden at this place. Thus, the last Civil War horse in Bristol and the surrounding area, had died.

BUD PHILLIPS is a local historian and author. He can be reached at (276) 466-6435. For more about Bristol’s history, visit www.bristolhistoricalassociation.com.