Unraveling Rose Red: Piecing together the puzzle of history and “coincidence” in Rose Red.

The winter of 1814 was particularly harsh in Dutchtown, Tennessee. The small, young community of modest farms - at the center of which was a tiny village hub consisting of nothing more than a general store and a church - was in danger of dissolution. Starvation was a very real possibility and by late February one third of the town’s population had moved away, primarily relocating to family elsewhere or wandering further afield to seek a new, more forgiving life.

Normally the people of Dutchtown would survive a winter with their stores filled with grains and other staples. Most farm owners had at least one cow and several chickens. The majority also owned pigs for pork. But a terrible harvest in the fall of 1813 left many with their pantries bare of all but what goods they’d preserved in jars, and smoked meats. Any oats and wheat they did have they sacrificed to their animals. It was often in vain; more livestock perished that winter than any other, frequently due to slaughter for food, even if they weren’t fattened. Elsewhere in Tennessee a drinking song containing the lyric “Lock your barns boys, gather round / no horse is safe near wee Dutchtown”* (referencing the fact that the most desperate people in Dutchtown killed and ate their horses) became cruelly popular.

The devastating winter of 1814 set into motion two extremely important events in the history of Dutchtown, events that would make it legendary, and eventually lead to its demise. (Continue reading…)

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