Paul J. Adams and Cumberland Jack

 

Paul J. Adams and Cumberland Jack 

Dana Koogler 

Tuesday June 1, 2021

Introduction 

  

  Many years ago I found a copy of a small green paper bound book in the Sugarlands Visitor Center.   It was simply titled Mt. LeConte by Paul J. Adams.  Below is a photo of the front cover.  

  I paid $7 for it. I read it and loved it.  I couldn't put it down.  It was the personal memoirs of Paul Adams and his days on Mt. LeConte.  He was hired by Colonel David Chapman of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association to construct the first lodge on Mount LeConte . The area including the mountain went on to become what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.    LeConte Lodge is a well known landmark visited by thousands of guests per year.   

   Life on Mt. Le Conte 

    Did you ever wonder who built the lodge? It was Paul Adams.  He did not do it alone.  He had help from area residents who were hired for the job as assistants.   During that time he lived on the mountain only coming down for supplies or occasional visits home to his friends or parents.   He knew he would need companionship, reliable assistance and protection.  He bought a German shepherd dog in Knoxville for $250 which back then was an unheard of sum of money.   The dog was highly pedigreed and was officially titled Cumberland Jack of Edelweiss.   He had been purchased originally by a detective in Knoxville from dog trainer Russell Smith.   He had sent the dog to K9 training in New Jersey.   The dog was in transit being shipped back to his handler when the detective was shot and killed in the line of duty.     The original asking price for the pedigreed, K9 trained dog was $500 which no one could afford.    Paul got him for $250.. half price because of his reputation, because he needed him for work atop the mountain, and because that was all he could afford.  $50 down and $25 a month until he was paid for.  The monies went to the widow of the slain detective.   It was Paul Adam's mother who insisted he have a dog if he was going to live atop the mountain.

    The day he picked the dog up in Knoxville he was driving a convertible.

He had the dog sit beside him in the shotgun seat.   They hadn't gotten out of Knoxville when they passed a pair of policemen chasing down a suspect who refused to stop when commanded to halt.  Before Paul knew what was happening Cumberland Jack leaped from the slow moving car and chased down the fleeing suspect. He passed the man, got ahead of him, and growled.

The man wisely assumed a submissive posture and was easily apprehended then by the two police officers.  Paul had to leash the dog and command him to lie in the floor of the car until they had gotten to the area of Gay Street.

   A little background on Paul Adams is that he was the son of Reverend and Mrs. Clair S. Adams of Knoxville.  He had one sister named Jean, and a brother Bob. His dad was a Presbyterian pastor.  Paul was an avid outdoors man all his life.  He was an Eagle Scout. Prior to being hired on by Colonel Chapman as caretaker and builder of Le Conte Lodge, he was the caretaker at Copper Ridge Boy Scout Camp for nearly a year.  His mother had insisted then that he keep a dog with him. He had their family dog Guess as his helper for the duration.  Once Guess passed on they did not immediately get another dog.  At the time that he needed a canine companion to go to the top of Le Conte with him he had no options from at home.  

        

   Life on  Le Conte went on for several years.  Paul trained Jack to carry saddle bags and how to go down the mountain to Gatlinburg unassisted for supplies and return.  He had a system worked out with store owner, Charlie Ogle.  The dog came down the mountain with money and a list and empty packs except for maybe outgoing mail.  Charlie Ogle was one of the few persons aside from Paul who could command the dog.  He would take the money, list and any mail out.  He would pack the items in the saddle bags and make sure they were secure on the dog and command him "Go to Paul!"  The dog was never robbed on his way up or down the mountain. This is remarkable because a couple times Paul was robbed of his money on his trips up and down the mountain. He had to arm himself after that against robbers. Wolves, bears and wild animals were initially a problem on the mountain in the early days.  

     On a couple occasions Jack saved Paul's life.  He once fell off the mountain and was knocked unconscious.  Jack found him and made his way to where he lay knocked out for an hour or two.  He licked his face and stayed by him until he regained consciousness.  He defended Paul who was injured from a bear by chasing the bear off.  He helped drag dry firewood to Paul for a fire.  Will Ramsey found his shattered water bottle and realized what happened.  He was a talented tracker and located him.  Another time the dog and Paul were hiking back up the mountain in the depths of Winter when the temperatures were well below freezing. Paul slipped on an ice patch and fell shattering his flashlight.   He had to get to shelter or they'd freeze.  He made an improvised leash for the dog using his own belt attached to the dogs collar.  Cumberland Jack lead him safely up that last mile of trail in the dark! 

      Once the lodge was well established Colonel Chapman decided to replace Paul with a married couple to be the caretakers of the lodge.  It was never said in so many words, but I believe part of the reason for it was that Colonel Chapman may have felt the law of averages was catching up.  He was likely concerned after the many close calls and accidents on the mountain that Paul would be maimed or killed. His reason given for the change was that he believed a married couple would be better suited to the job.  The mountain was tamed by that time. The last timber wolf was run off and the lodge constructed.   It is possible he believed a mountain man as rugged as Paul would grow bored with the day to day routine and fewer challenges.   Ultimately it was not his sole decision. He had fought in favor of retaining Paul.  Four other members of the Smoky Mountain Conservation Association voted to replace him.   It was a decision they came to regret not long later, but it was done.  The new caretakers became Jack and Pauline Huff.  

   Cumberland Jack remained for a short period on Le Conte to help Jack Huff. 

He would not go alone to the store and back for him as he had Paul.  He had to be kept chained or he'd run down the mountain to Paul.  He learned to swell his neck so that when he relaxed it he could slip his collar off and run to Paul in Gatlinburg.

He was abused now and then by guests who would overpack the dog using him as a sherpa up and down the mountain.  Paul found this out catching one man in the act of abusing the dog with packs so heavy Paul had difficulty lifting them off the dog!    Once he learned of this the dog came off the mountain for good.  Will Ramsey who was a guide and an assistant to Paul could not get along with Jack Huff and quit.  Paul's guide job did not pay well enough and he had to find side jobs to do to make ends meet.  

    Paul sent Jack to live in Knoxville for a time with his parents while he stayed in the Gatlinburg area working as a guide. 

The Days in Alpine & On the Cumberland Plateau

Alpine Mountain Picture Gallery

    In 1926 Rev. Clair Adams accepted a position as pastor at Christchurch Presbyterian in Alpine, Tennessee.  It is a tiny community in the middle of the Cumberland Plateau.   Paul, Cumberland Jack and Paul's sister, Jean lived in the manse along with their parents.   The church was not only a church, but a campus. 

It consisted of the school.. Alpine Academy which had girls and boys dormitories.

The gymnasium, a maintenance and wood shop for vocational training, the church, and the manse.    It was supported by the home missionary board of the Presbyterians.   The school operated from its inception in 1821 until 1947.  It is now Livingston Academy.   The school was burned twice. Once during the Civil War in the 1860s and later by the Ku Klux Klan in the post war era.  They decided at that point it was best to move the school down Alpine Mountain into the village.   I suppose they believed it would be more secure there.   It offered classes from first grade all the way through junior college level!  It was quite successful.

     Reverend Adams was pastor and oversaw things from 1928 until about 1937.

  Paul and Jack learned a great deal about the plateau while there.   Jack had to whip every dog in the neighborhood to prove his dominance.  He was boss of the several hundred acres of campus.   He stuck around close and made many friends among the students and teachers.  The students called him "Jack Adams" instead of Cumberland Jack!   

    Jack Tames the Bull 

       There was a pasture field on campus that had a large, ferocious bull in it. 

People could not cross the pasture without the bull getting after them. Paul and Jack were asked to take some items up to the school dispensary.  The bull and his pasture lay between them and the dispensary.  They decided to cross it instead of going around it.  The bull saw them and lowered his head to charge.  Paul gave the attack command upon which the dog leaped to defend his master.  He grabbed the bull by the nose biting onto him.  The bull tried to shake the dog off unsuccessfully.  The dog hung on sinking his teeth into the nostrils of the animal.

Jack brought the bull to its knees and eventually had the bull prostrated on the ground.  He was worn out from fighting that big dog.   He never again bothered anyone crossing the pasture with the dog.  

  

Paul and Cumberland Jack as Fire Fighters

Above: an image from the archival photos of Cumberland Jack wearing his saddle bags and Paul Adams.  

Above: a painting of Cumberland Jack.

     One Sunday morning Paul noticed smoke coming from the top of Alpine Mountain.  He and Cumberland Jack went to help fight the fire.  Most of the men and boys in the community were already on the mountain fighting fire.  They helped until he was called away to take his father to two of his circuit pastorates. 

Above: In the background of this photo you can see the Vaughn cabin behind the box grave of Margaret Vaughn Allred. 

Above: one look at the terrain in Medlock Hollow where the first fire started

Below: Kenny on a trail through Medlock Hollow. Rough terrain it would have been to fight fire. 

 Upon getting home that night he says in the book he could still see the red of the fire atop Alpine Mountain. This must have been around 1931 or so. Paul and Cumberland Jack gathered the saddle bags for the dogs and backpack and toted food and water up to the fire fighters to help sustain and relieve them. By dawn the following day the fire was out at last!  Paul and Jack stayed at the Vaughn's house near the mountain and they and Mr. Vaughn walked the perimeter to see to it the fire did not jump the fire break line or rekindle.   

Above: the woodworking shop and maintenance building of Alpine Institute

The gymnasium building

Pasture field and playground behind the church

Above: the rear of the manse

Above: plaque commemorating the service of Rev. Adams affixed to the wall of Christchurch

Front of the gothic style Christchurch Presbyterian in Alpine, TN 

       He tells that around five in the evening of that same day he once more saw smoke rising from the mountain on the west.   He suspected they had a fire bug in their midst.  The Vaughns and Paul gathered the fire fighters and went back to work to put it out. It took them around an hour, but they got it extinguished again.

  The second fire was in a totally different area than the first one so they knew it did not rekindle from the embers of the original fire.  The men including Paul suspected they had a fire bug once they saw that.  Paul suspected a pattern and took Cumberland Jack for a hike to where he predicted the next fire would occur if it was a pyromaniac at work.   Jack alerted Paul to the presence of someone before he could see who it was.   He witnessed one of the boy students he knew kneel down and light dry grass on fire. He went a bit further and did it again!  He soon saw Paul and Jack and began to run away.  Paul called to him to stop or he'd send the dog after him.  This stopped the lad and he stood still and waited for them to overtake him.  Paul made the boy help him put the fires out.   

Above: ruins of the original school.. Alpine Institute atop the mountain

    He then arrested the boy in his capacity as a state conservation officer.  He walked him down the mountain. The boy tried to persuade him to forget the whole thing which he could not do.  He walked him to the Vaughn home and had Mr. Vaughn drive them to Livingston to place the boy in jail.  The jailer happened to be the boy's uncle who gave him a talking to while he jailed him.  They told the boy's father what had happened and where the son was now.  The long and short of it was that the men of Alpine and Paul had a conference over what to do with the boy.  The boy's father had a reputation for brutality toward his children.  The county judge was sure to sentence him harshly by sending him to reform school. This might ruin the boy for good and there would be no helping him.  

          They met with the young man and talked with him.  He admitted to setting the second fire, but denied setting the initial fire in Medlock Hollow.   They believed him as the boy's father could attest to his whereabouts during the time the first fire started. They worked out an agreement getting a promise from the father not to beat the boy.  The young man was given a second chance and went on to become a U.S. forestry serviceman.   He came back years later to thank Paul for his fairness at giving him a second chance.   

Paul, Maxine & Cumberland Jack in the Years That Followed

  Paul eventually met and married Maxine Day.     They continued to live in Alpine for a time and founded the successful Alpine Gardens.   Eventually they bought property and moved with Cumberland Jack and one of his pups..Nicodemus.. to Crab Orchard, Tennessee.  This is where they established a successful landscaping and nursery business.   They lived on a good sized parcel of land by Highway 70.

  Paul went on to work as a forest ranger, and a deputy.  During the years of World War II they moved to Oak Ridge for a couple years.  Paul worked as fire superintendent and safety man at ORNL.   They moved back to Crab Orchard afterwards.   Once Paul retired from the landscaping business he and Maxine started a successful weaving industry. 

       Cumberland Jack lived to the ripe old age of fourteen plus.  He helped raise and teach his son, Nicodemus aka "Nick" to hunt and to behave.  Nick became the "ears" for his aging father who was losing his hearing.   Cumberland Jack passed away suddenly of nothing but old age.  He was running to meet Paul and Maxine when he just leaped from this life across the Rainbow Bridge into the next life with the Lord.   He is buried in Cumberland County on their 65 acre farm.

     

Below: a photo of Cumberland Jack's headstone

 

Paul was born in 1901 and passed on in 1985 at the ripe old age of eighty four.

He was an accomplished naturalist, historian, and well loved by many.  Some of his many accomplishments were being co-founder of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. He worked for a time in Brockway Crouch's flower shop in Knoxville which was a hang out for many hiking enthusiasts of the time.  Below are listed many of his credentials accumulated over his rich life.   He did not have children that I am aware of.  His personal memoirs and papers and specimens went to the University of Tennessee archives.   

 

ADAMS, PAUL JAY Honorary Memberships 

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry 

Cumberland Mountain Craft Association

 Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association

 Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association 

Society of True Tennessee Mountainmen 

Smoky Mountains Hiking Club 

Sons of the Revolution

 Southern Highland Handicraft Guild 

Tennessee Native Plant Society 

Tennessee Ornithological Society 

Tennessee Trails Association 

University of Tennessee Arboretum Society 

The Wilderness Society 

Honorary Park Naturalist, Tennessee Conservation Department

Above: Cumberland Jack

Above: Frank Wilson, Cumberland Jack and Paul Adams

Smoky Jack Book Republication

  I bought and read the original book Mt. LeConte by Paul Adams.  I loved it so much I mailed my $7 copy to a friend in another state to read. I knew he'd love it.

I went back a year or so later to purchase myself another copy at Sugarlands.  To my horror they had sold out every copy and told me there were no plans to reprint the book.    I got online and began searching for a copy from rare book dealers. None were to be had at any price.  I called up my friend and told him to not let the book get away from him as they were not going to reprint it.  I secretly hoped he'd offer to mail it back to me, but he did not.   He loved it that much.   I continued to monitor the availability of the original copy.  I finally found a copy years later of the original and purchased it for $25.    

     In May 2016 I learned that my friend Ken Wise had collaborated with another editor Anne Bridges and had republished the book.  I purchased a copy of "Smoky Jack" off Amazon for around $16 at that time.    I was thrilled to get it and read it. It contains all that is in the original book Mt. Le Conte and additional material and commentary on the history.  It puts things all together in a way the first book did not.    If you are interested in reading more you can get a copy in the visitor centers for the Smokies, in book stores, or here from Amazon. 

Interesting facts I learned while researching this topic: 

K9 training is not done in foreign languages such as German or Hebrew to insure no one except the handler can command the dog. That is an urban legend. The dog only responds to commands from the handler or person s who are familiar and the handler has introduced the dog to and proven the person is trustworthy. The dog is conditioned and proofed to be sure of this. 

Cumberland Jack would bring food offered by strangers to Paul or someone he trusted to inspect it before he would eat it. 

The German command to attack is "fass". 

The German command to release a bite is "aus". 

The German command for heel is "fuß"(foos)

Teaching the command to stop immediately is more important than any other command. 

Today K9 officer vehicles are often equipped with "door popper" devices. This enables the officer to deploy the dog with the push of one button. I mistakenly believed this meant any time that door popper was activated it "sent the dog" or meant the dog came out ready to attack. This is not the case. The dog is trained to come out in heel mode. They have learned to keep the dog out of "bite first,ask questions later" mode. They are trained to find their officer immediately. They can then assess the current scenario and decide friend or foe? The Reason? A working police dog often deems the person on the ground to be the bad guy. It may be the officer who goes down first, and handlers have been bitten this way. 

Paul Adams never reveals the attack command he used with Cumberland Jack in his writings. 

No one ever fully learned all Cumberland Jack was capable of. He received K9 police training out of state. His officer passed on before he got him back. Neither the Knoxville police, Dog trainer Russell Smith, not even Paul learned his commands or abilities. 

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