There are several options to get to the Trace from the Holler, but this is probably my favorite. It goes by the old dam and remnants of the mill.

"The original Newsom's Mill was located upstream and was destroyed by a flood in 1808. Joseph M. Newsom constructed the turbine-powered gristmill in 1862 of hand-dressed limestone cut from Newsom's quarry, a mile south of the mill that is still standing. Newsom's stone is found in many important buildings in the city of Nashville. The original town had a train depot, post office and other shops. The mill was built right on the Harpeth River, and that area was used recreationally by many families who would come for the day by train. Now, however, all that is left is the remnants of the mill and a partial dam."

This area was hit extremely hard during the Nashville flood of recent note but the old stone work is still there - and will be for quite a while. A short run down McCrory Lane puts me right at the Trace. I notice they have removed the old entrance sign so I wonder what is up with that. I see it once I've been on the Trace for a few miles.

His stone says 'Lawrence' (per one of his sons), but his name was actually James Knox Polk Lowrance. As it turns out, many families named their boys that during that time as President James K. Polk was held in high regard. Polk was the last US President to keep all his campaign promises. He also had a local law office nearby and his family home was in Columbia, about 20 miles away. My interest in finding JKP Lowrance's birth date was in an effort to determine his age when he enlisted in the Civil War. With date in hand, I know that he was 16 years old when he joined up as a Corporal in the CSA calvary. He transferred to the infantry - Company B, Tennessee 17th - as a private and saw his first major action at Stones River where forty percent of his unit was killed. Then he fought at Chickamauga, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. By the time he was 19, he had been captured at Petersburg, VA. It is hard to imagine the horrors that he saw as a young teenager and carried with him the rest of his life. After his capture, he was shipped to Elmira, NY prison camp, less than affectionately know by the inmates as "Hellmira". It was the worst prison camp that the North ran, comparable to Andersonville that the South ran. It is always sort of interesting that you hear plenty about Andersonville (it's a national historic site) but very little about Elmira (it was torn down and converted to farm land). I guess when you win the war, you get to write the history. I'm just a little ways from lunch, so I climb back on Frost and head toward my destination. It takes takes me up on a high ridge, then drops me into a valley. As a teenager, the big deal was how fast could you go down this hill and still make the curve at the bottom. Some made and some didn't, but I watch myself and negotiate it just fine.

THE END