A. D. COLLINS: PROBABLE COMPANION OF SHELAH WATERS
Marion O. Smith

During 1869 Shelah Waters made a number of explorations in Higginbotham Cave, now Cumberland
Caverns, Tennessee. Names on the ceiling and walls indicate that he was sometimes accompanied by “Taylor” and
“Collins,” who failed to record their given names or initials. There are no known documents which identify these
men and explain their relationship to Waters. However, a few clues are provided by the 1870 Warren County
census.

In 1870 Waters lived in McMinnville employed as a U.S. guager of distilled spirits. In the same hotel was
Thomas Taylor, a twenty-one year old clerk in the U.S. assessor’s office, and elsewhere in town resided the family
of A. D. Collins, a Pennsylvania-born lawyer. Taylor’s birthplace in the census was given as Tennessee, but in the
cave “Pa.” is next to his surname which probably means he was a Pennsylvanian. Thus, Taylor’s correct identity
remains clouded. But the probability that A. D. Collins was Water’s other companion is enhanced by the fact that
he was Warren County’s only adult male head of household with that surname. His military and pension records
provide a more lengthy identification:

Arnott Duncan Collins (c1837-1872) lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, before
the Civil War. He joined the 34" Pennsylvania Infantry May 15, 1861, as a 1“ lieutenant and
on June 21, 1861, was promoted to captain of Company K. He was wounded twice, at the
battle of Mechanicsville, Virginia, June 26, 1862, and much more severely at Fredericksburg
the following December 13. The latter wound was in the right forearm, and as a result six
inches of the radius was removed and that limb became permanently disabled. In October,
1863, no longer fit for field duty, he transferred to Company F, 6 Regiment Veteran Reserve
Corps, at Washington, D. C.

He was soon detailed to Rock Island, Illinois, where he helped establish a military
prison for captured Confederates. In late March, 1864, he returned to his unit at Washington.
The next September his regiment was sent to Johnson’s Island, Ohio, to help guard the
prisoners there. Except when he got married, he commanded his company at that station
until February, 1865. He was then detailed as provost marshal at Cleveland, Ohio, remaining
until. May. While there he nearly died of “Typhoid Pneumonia of both lungs.” He was
detailed again as mustering officer at Detroit, Michigan, until he resigned, September 28,
1865.

On December 6, 1864, at New Castle, Lawrence County, in extreme western
Pennsylvania, Collins married Ella W., daughter of James W. Johnston, a lawyer and 1*
lieutenant in the 77" Pennsylvania Infantry on duty in Tennessee. After the war Collins’s
father-in-law settled in Warren County, Tennessee, and by fall of 1866, Collins and his wife
were there too. While they resided in McMinnville, they became the parents of James W. and
Arnott D. Jr., born respectively February, 1867, and August, 1869.

In early 1872 Collins and his family left Tennessee and moved to Lawrence, Kansas.
There he died the following August 16°.

SOURCES ~*

Larry E. Matthews, Cumberland Caverns (Huntsville, Ala., 1989), 48, 55-56; 1860 Census Tenn., Warren,
McMinnville, 9, 28; Civil Dist. No. 1 exclusive of McMinnville, 24; Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania
Volunteers, 1861-5 (10 vols., Wilmington, N. C., 1993-94 [1869 -71], 2: 689; 4:1013; Compiled Service Records,
Record Group 94, National Archives, Arnott D. Collins; Pension Records, Records Group 15, National Archives,
Ella W. Collins.