Thus this part of the United States belonged first to Spain, and then to France; but in 1762 France ceded it back to Spain, and in the year following, Spain and France together ceded their territory in the eastern part of the continent to England.  The next change came with the Revolution, when the United States came into being.  The Spanish were, however, still in possession of the vast territory of Louisiana, to the west of the Mississippi.  In 1795, Gayoso, Spanish Governor of Louisiana, came across and built a fort on the east side of the river, but was presently ousted by the United States.  In 1820, as has been said, the settlement of Memphis had begun, one of the early proprietors having been Andrew Jackson.  Some of the first settlers wished to name the place Jackson, in honor of the general, but Jackson himself, it is said, decided on the name Memphis, because the position of the town suggested that of ancient Memphis, on the Nile.

In 1857 Memphis got her first railroad—­the Memphis & Charleston—­connecting her with Charleston, South Carolina.  About the time the road was completed there were severe financial panics which held the city back; also there was trouble, as in so many other river towns, with hordes of gamblers and desperadoes.  Judge J.P.  Young, in his “History of Memphis,” tells of an interesting episode of those times.  There were two professional gamblers, father and son, of the name of Able.  The father shot a man in a saloon brawl, and soon after, the son committed a similar crime of violence.  A great mob started to take the younger Able out of jail and lynch him, but one firm citizen, addressing them from the balcony of a hotel, persuaded them to desist.  Next day, however, there was a mass meeting to discuss the case of Able.  At this meeting the hotheads prevailed, and Able was taken from the jail by a mob of three thousand men.  When the noose was around his neck, and he and his mother and sister were pleading that his life be spared, the same man who had previously prevented mob action, stepped boldly up, cut the rope from Abel’s neck, and assisted him to fly, standing between him and the mob, fighting the mob off, and finally getting Able back into the jail.  When the mob stormed the jail, furious at having been circumvented by a single man, the same powerful figure appeared at the jail door with a pistol, and, incredible though it seems, actually held the mob at bay until it finally dispersed.  This man was Nathan Bedford Forrest, later the brilliant Confederate cavalry leader.  Forrest and his wife are buried in Memphis, in a square called Forrest Park, under a fine equestrian monument, by C.H.  Niehaus.

Before the war Forrest was a member of the slave-dealing firm of Forrest & Maples, of Memphis.  Subjoined is a photographic reproduction of an advertisement of this firm, which appeared in the Memphis City Directory for 1855-6.

[Illustration: 

CITY DIRECTORY. 251
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#FORREST & MAPLES,#
#SLAVE DEALERS,#