Historic Rivers of the Frontier pouches…”The Holston”

In 1808, in a town named after him, Joseph Perrin of “Perrin’s Hollow” Tennessee passed away along the banks of the historic Holston River. Born much farther east, but along this same river in 1740, Joseph had lived on the south western Virginia frontier and as a young man had seen military service when he mustered out with the local militia during the 1776 Cherokee campaign. Like many of his friends, Joseph was willing and able to muster out again a few years later, when in 1780 he answered the call of Colonel Campbell along with 400 other Washington county volunteers who joined forces with the gathering ranks of “over the mountain men”. These were the very same, soon to be famous back country patriots destined to meet and soundly defeat Ferguson at Kings Mountain.

After the revolution, Joseph, like many before and after him, including Daniel Boone followed along the Holston Valley or portion of “The Great Warriors Path as it was also known, all the way to what would become Knoxville Tennessee. Arriving by the late 1780s he settled just north of there in “Perrin’s Hollow” to live out the remainder of his days.

In those olden times, a powder horn was often carved to commemorate a man and his experiences on the frontiers or battle fields, and the traditionally styled horn for this set is carved to commemorate Joseph Perrin and his experiences as he dwelt along the Holston.

It displays the typically naive caricatures often found on such simple, home spun horns, including a smiling mountain cat, an owl, a hunter chasing a deer and a snake, along with typical foliage, important dates, and Joseph’s name carved in a prominently fielded cartouche.

The accompanying bag is also very simple, being made of a single piece of folded leather. Similar styles are thought to represent many of the typically simple early hunting pouches used by both the hunters and “over the mountain” men of the region. However, simple didn’t necessarily mean crude, and the bag’s construction exhibits welted seams, fine “professional-like” stitching, a relieved and hemmed throat, turned and sewn flap edges, and decorative incising on the strap.

The bag is served with a hand made, poured bolster and ferrule utility knife and sheath set attached to the pouch front strap, a simple but large cane powder measure, and a forged iron vent pick. The strap adjusts with a buckle in the back, and the horn keepers are integrally fashioned from the inner edges of the strap itself.

Joseph Perrin was very much like many of his friends and neighbors along the Holston River and its valley. They followed the frontier west, rising to and meeting the challenges met along the way, often with heroic actions and legendary results. This set is dedicated to them, and the river called the “Holston” that they knew so well and called their home.

Copy and photos by T.C. Albert.