Isaac Rawlings Born: circa 1770 Died: 1840

The following is quoted directly from Goodspeed's History of Shelby County Tennessee published in 1887.  There are few early history sources for Memphis.  This, along with 'The History of the City of Memphis' by James D. Davis (consisting mostly of records known as 'The Old Time Papers) are our primary sources for very early Memphis History. 

[Preface: Isaac “Ike Rawlings“ was a substantial and early settler in this part of the country before that life had been made easier through Andrew Jackson and Isaac Shelby's treaty with the Chickasaw.  He was the essential force for current inhabitants as the new “owners” (Jackson, Overton, Winchester and McClemore) of the land began to assert themselves.  After the incorporation of Memphis Ike remained a populist leader, being elected mayor many times.  In contrast to the wealthy and well dressed lawyers and land-owners who founded and ultimately incorporated the town Ike was a tobacco chewing old outpost proprietor with shocking manners and old fashioned wisdom.]

At this time, 1820, Memphis had fifty inhabitants, the following being some of the principal heads of families besides those already named: Isaac Rawlings, who came here originally about 1813 as a sutler [a civilian provisioner to an army post often with a shop on the post]with Gen. Jackson. He was also Indian agent up to the time of their removal. For a number of years he had a large quantity of Indian and army stores in the block-houses at Fort Pickering. He was in addition a kind of magistrate by popular consent, without the formality of an election or an official appointment, from which fact he was honored with the title of " Squire Rawlings," and it is written of him in " Old Times Papers," that "it is questionable whether justice was not more equally administered then than it has ever been since."

It is also said that after the extinguishment of the Indian titles he was appointed by the Legislature one of the magistrates, but did not give the satisfaction when administering justice by a written system as when governed by the dictates of his own honest heart ; somewhat on the principal probably that a violinist accustomed to play by rote cannot play equally well by note. But he became a great student of law, especially of the decisions of the most distinguished judges, and if he were not one of the most learned men of the day, he was certainly one of the most mistaken men of the day.

John C. McLemore was another of those heads of families. He purchased Gen. Jackson's interest in the town site, and thus became one of the proprietors of the town, as also one of its most active and liberal friends. It was through his exertions that a large number of settlers was induced to make the Bluff their home. Isaac Rawlings, as has been before stated, was an Indian trader years before the establishment of the town of Memphis, and after its establishment he continued still in the commercial line, his principal competitor being Maj. Marcus B. Winchester, one of the handsomest and courtliest of men, whose stock of goods was far more extensive and valuable than anything that " Ike " had ever had. Maj. Winchester's place of business was on Front Street just south of Jackson Street, where he erected the finest house in the town. Rawling's establishment was at Anderson's bridge, a favorite camping-ground, particularly with the Indians, in consequence of which he had carried on the most extensive trade; but after Winchester's fine store was put up on the Bluff, the trade was gradually transferred to the latter place, and to change this condition of affairs, Rawlings determined to change the location of his store. He selected a lot on the west side of Second Street, between Jackson and Winchester Streets, for which he paid some $10 or $15. The selection of this position was considered by him a fine strategic movement, as the place was high, overlooking the camping-ground at the bridge and also Winchester's store at the Bluff, and would, he thought, enable him to retain all of his trade at the former place and draw off a good deal of that of his rival, Maj. Winchester. But in order to secure the full benefit of his new position it would be necessary to have the alley on which his new store stood widened, but this he could have done without going to Winchester, who represented the proprietors, and asking him to have it done. Putting a bold face upon the matter, as is usually the better way, the haughty Rawlings made the proper request of the proper party, and much to his surprise the request was readily and politely granted and he himself given the privilege of conferring a name upon the widened street. Rawlings, therefore, named it " Commerce Street."

The new store, erected at greater expense than would have been the case had not Winchester had such a fine store, is still standing with a basement added on account of the grading down of the street. A large stock of goods was put in, a portion of which remained on hand unsold in 1844, eighteen years later, because of his resolute resistance to marking down his prices in order to compete with his rivals. The fact that everybody else was underselling him, and that his custom was for this reason steadily leaving him, was in his judgment no reason for taking the only practical method of retaining his trade. His store therefore at length became little else than a magistrates office, in which he delighted to sit for hours every day arguing legal questions and giving advice upon all subjects pertaining to agriculture, commerce or law, while the simple principles upon which to conduct his own little business of merchandising, were either entirely ignored, or were as pro-found a mystery as was the origin of the pyramids or of the Sphinx. It was thought then by some, and it must have been true, that the retrograding movement which Memphis then underwent was due in great part to "Ike" Rawlings' persistent opposition to everything in the way of improvement, although it is also said that the general impression abroad that Memphis was a very unhealthy place very much retarded her growth. Like all new towns in the South and West, her citizens were subject to malarious fevers, which nothing can prevent but the improvements gradually introduced by civilization. The larger part of the sickness afflicting Memphis from her origin to the present time, except the special epidemics of yellow fever and small-pox. have doubtless been caused by the existence of large areas of unclaimed wild lands, ponds, and lakes across the Mississippi River in Arkansas.

In December, 1826, as is elsewhere stated, the Legislature passed an act incorporating the town of Memphis. This took the citizens generally by surprise. Some were pleased, others were indifferent, and still others were very much opposed to having to support an incorporation. At a public meeting at which "Ike" Rawlins presided, the incorporation was denounced as a trick of the proprietors, and the chairman of the meeting himself made a strong speech against it, showing how severe it would be on several of the poor people living in the outskirts of the proposed town. Speakers on the other side as strongly favored the incorporation as being a necessity and proposed, in order to satisfy Rawlings' temporary prejudices, to leave out the poor people in the outskirts. Not-withstanding the opposition to the incorporation it was a success. After two years of charter life, Memphis having experienced meantime considerable improvement, the charter was amended so as to give to the town all the powers of Nashville, and providing that the mayor should not hold any office under the Government of the United States. This without anything else in his favor would have elected Isaac Rawlings mayor of the town, M. B. Winchester being at the time both mayor and postmaster, and he was elected and re-elected a number of times, serving in all many years.

[editor's note: Rawlings was not actually a sutler in Jackson's army.  He was a "factor" which is an agent of the Federal government to the Chickasaw Nation.]