The country west of the Tennessee River was brought from the Indians in 1819. It was settled very rapidly. Many Cumberland Presbyterians were among its pioneers. An anecdote of the Rev. N. I. Hess, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, who had explored all of West Tennessee before it was bought from the Indians, is her given. When the friends of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad were making a convass to secure subscriptions to its stock they employed two orators, one a distinguished congressman and the other Mr. Hess. At each barbecus Hess would tell some incident of his early travels and adventures in that very neighborhood before the country belonged to white man, and would so adroitly use it as to leave the congressman clear behind in popularity. The congressman chafed at this and resolved on a remedy. He determined to transfer their canvass to the other side of their field, where, he supposed, the pioneer tours of Hess had not extended. The plan was agreed to and a barbecue was prepared at a big spring on the other side of the district. The congressman spoke first, and being confident of victory he made a great effort. When Hess arose his first sentence was, "Just forty years ago, in company with two red men of the forest, I drank water out of that spring;" and then, with more than his wonted felicity, he painted the wonderful progress and grander destiny of West Tennessee.
[Source: McDonnold, B.W. History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Nashville, Tenn.: Board of Publication of Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 1888, page 148.

William Hess
[son of Henry Hess and ? ?]
born: 22 February 1766 - Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
died: 30 July 1815 - Wilkerson County, Mississippi
buried:
married: 8 April 1790 - Mercer County, Kentucky
wife: Margaret "Peggy"Daviess
[daughter of Joseph Daviess and Jean Hamilton]
born: 22 February 1769 - Rockbridge County, Virginia
died: 1861 - Trenton, Gibson County, Tennessee
buried: Oakland Cemetery - Trenton, Gibson County, Tennessee

Children of William Hess and Margaret Davis Hess:

1. Nelson Irvin Hess
Cumberland Presbyterian Minister
born: 25 March 1795 - Mercer County, Kentucky
died: 2 October 1869 - Trenton, Gibson County, Tennessee
buried: Oakland Cemetery - Trenton, Gibson County, Tennessee
1st marriage: 27 February 1830 - Gibson County, Tennessee
1st wife: Adeline Northcut
[daughter of ? Northcut and ? ?]
born:
died:
buried:

2nd marriage: 2 July 1840 - Gibson County, Tennessee
2nd wife: Catherine H. Hill
[daughter of ? Hill and ? ?]
born: 1798
died: 1861 - Trenton, Gibson County, Tennessee
buried: