History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 724

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grounds, for the white people should be re- moved from it. The Creek auditors highly approved of the Governor's talk, and said that they would send runners immediately to their own people and to the Cherokees. This point settled, the Governor gave them some pres- ents and dismissed them completely satisfied. After their departure, he issued a proclama- tion ordering all persons illegally settled in the back part of the province near the Indians' hunting grounds to remove from those lands by the first of the coming January. The Creeks, by following Governor Ellis' counsel, doubtless saved themselves from being in- volved in the war which very soon after broke out between the Cherokees and the Caro- linans, which continued until the Cherokees were subdued by the successive campaigns of Colonels Montgomery and Grant in 1760 and 1761, and there was again peace on the fron- tiers. There is no record of Togulki until the great Indian congress in Augusta in No- vember, 1763, which he attended with his uncle Sampiaffi. Here he resigned his Eng- lish commission as Emperor. His name does not appear one of the signers of the treaty made at the Congress. Six weeks after the Congress, on December 23, 1763, fourteen people-they being women and children, were killed by a party of Creek Indians in the Long Cane settlement above Ninety-six. When the news of this deed came to the ears of Togulki, he with another Indian, at once went to see George Galphin to inform him who were the guilty parties, and to request him to write out a talk from him in relation thereto to Governor Wright. Togulki's talk as recorded by Galphin runs as follows: "As soon as I was acquainted in the woods who the Persons were that had killed the White People, I came immediately to acquaint my Friend Galpbin of it, that he might write down and acquaint both Governors and the beloved Man of it, and I have left this Talk with him to send down.

"The Fellows that have done the Murder are seven that have been among the Chero- kees these four or five years and helped them against the White People-The People are all going home, by the time this Moon is gone they will be all at Home, and there we shall have a meeting of all the Heads of the Na- tion, and before the next moon is done you shall hear from us. We hope this will not make a general war if the murderers can be killed, there is two of my own Towns Peopls concerned in it, all the Head Men are much concerned about it, and hope it will be Strait yet, and I desire that you will be up on your Guard on this River, for they have taken the Cherokee Talk, and that they will kill all the White People where ever they find them. And in case any of your People come up with them we hope they will kill them. There were three of our People came up with them and were going to kill them, but they were an overmatch for them, and they went in search of Abraham and his Gang to help them. They dare not go to the Nation, for they say now they must be killed, and they will do all the Damage they can before they

are killed: it is the Talk of the Head Men in the woods to forewarn any of the Young People to join them. They say it is the Young Warrior's Talk of Istatoe, and if he is not concerned he will order his People to kill them: and it is my Desire that you will write down and have them killed, as they harbor in his Nation and have Wives there-

"Tugulkey alias Young Twin.

"P. S. The Fellows that have done the Murder are

'"2 Cussetaws.

"2 Cowetaws.

"2 Tallissees.

"1 Oakfuskee."

From the lack of records it cannot be stated whether the Creeks ever put to death the murderers of the Long Canes people. The talk of Togulki shows that he personally was in favor of inflicting this extreme pen- alty upon them. His talk is the last record we have of him and hence we may well sup- pose that his after life was uneventful.

REFERENCES .- The Colonial Records of Geor- gia, vol. vii, pp. 644-648, 655-667; Ibid, vol. 8, pp. 160-170; The State Records of North Caro- lina, vol. 11, 1777 and Supplement, 1730-1776; The Colonial Records of Georgia, vol. 9, pp. 115, 116.

TONTI, HENRI DE, Spanish explorer, and "The man of the ironhand," son of Lorenzo Tonti, inventor of the Tontine system of life insurance, was born in Gaeta, Italy, about 1650. In youth he entered the service of France, and was in several naval engage- ments. In one of these he lost a hand, for which be used an iron substitute, and this in after years often served him to good pur- pose in his relations with Indians. In 1678, he accompanied La Salle to Canada. La Salle's life purpose was to take up the unfin- ished work of Marquette and Joliet, and se- cure as a permanent possession for France the great Mississippi basin, by means of a chain of forts extending from Canada to the mouth of the Mississippi. Tonti enlisted heart and soul into La Salle's great enter- prise. In March, 1680, he first stands forth prominent in history as the commander of Fort Crevecouer. After the mutiny and disper- sion of its garrison, he and four faithful ad- herents went and lived for many months at the large Illinois town on Illinois river near Starved Rock. Here he acted as mediator in the great Iroquois raid, and he certainly saved the Illinois tribe from annihilation. In the spring of 1681 he and La Salle after more than twelve months separation met again at Mackinac. After all his misfortunes, La Salle began anew his preparation for ex- ploring the lower Mississippi. Towards the close of 1681, in six causes of fifty-four voy- ages, eighteen of whom were Indians, he and Tonti floated down the Illinois river, reach- ing its mouth the last of January. Here Tonti beheld for the first time the mighty Mississippi, over which it was to be his lot to maintain the supremacy of France for twenty succeeding years. Days, weeks and months passed away with the voyagers, and

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at last on April 9, 1682, near its influx into the Gulf, with solemn ceremonies, they took formal possession of the great river in the name of the King of France. On the return voyage La Salle was stricken down with an almost fatal sickness and Tonti was dis- patched to Canada to bear to Frontenac the tidings of the great discovery. In the sum- mer of 1682 by La Salle's order Tonti built Fort St. Louis on Illinois river, the fort bet- ter known in American history as Starved Rock. This noted and romantic place, with intermissions of exploration, was to be Tonti's home for eighteen years. Here he and La Salle passed days and weeks together, and here they parted never to see each other again. In 1686 Tonti made a voyage down the Mississippi to seek tidings of La Salle, but his voyage was all in vain. Towards the close of 1688, having learned positively of the death of La Salle, he embarked in a canoe with five Frenchmen, a Shawnee warrior and two Indian slaves and started off on a long voyage for the purpose of rescuing the sur- vivors of La Salle's colony and of hunting down and bringing to justice his murderers. Four months later with only two men faith- ful to him he was pursuing his search and in- quiries among the western tribes, not know- ing that La Salle's colony had all perished in a ruthless Indian massacre. Continuously be- trayed by Indian falsehood, worn down with fatigue and sickness, Tonti, the ever-faithful, at last was forced to set his face northward and in September, 1690, he reached Fort St. Louis.

In 1699, by a royal decree Fort St. Louis was abandoned and Tonti was ordered to reside on the Mississippi. With a few faith- ful followers he floated down the Mississippi in the summer of 1700, and joined Bienville in his new fort on the Mississippi in Louis- iana. His woodcraft and practical knowl- edge of Indian life was of invaluable benefit to the colonists of Louisiana. In 1702 while at Fort Mobile he was sent by Iberville on a mission into the country of the Choctaws and Chicasaws, for the purpose of establishing peace among these Indians, and of bringing them over to the French interest. Starting from Fort Mobile at 27 mile bluff, and tak- ing ten picked men, Tonti visited these war- ring tribes. He was successful in making peace between them, and brought back to Fort Mobile several of their representative chiefs, with whom Iberville made a treaty. Tonti made no report of this mission through the present Southwest Alabama and East Mississippi, among the Tohomies, the Choc- taws, and the Chickasaws. He and his fol- lowers were the first Europeans to traverse these regions after the days of De Soto and Tristan De Luna. Tonti was endowed with a magnetic nature by which he was enabled to gain and hold a boundless influence over the Indians. When Iberville visited the Houma Indians on the Mississippi in 1699, fourteen years after Tonti's short stay among them, he found that they had not forgotten him, and that his name was often on their lips. "The Indians talked to me much about Tonti," is

Vol. 11-4

Iberville's brief, but striking record. Tonti died of yellow fever in September, 1704, at Fort Louis de la Mobile, and his remains were laid to everlasting rest in an unknown grave near Mobile River, and not far from the monument erected 1902 to commemorate the site of old Mobile.

TRISTAN DE LUNA Y ARELLANO, Span- ish explorer. Of the life of this early explorer of the old Southwest, nothing is known prior to 1559, though possibly he may be the same man as the Tristan de Arellano of Coronado's expedition of 1540. In accordance with the royal scheme for the peaceful settlement of Florida, Don Luis de Velasco, Viceroy of Mexico, in 1559 appointed Tristan de Luna y Arellano Captain-General and Governor of that country and placed him in command of the fifteen hundred persons, including sol- diers, women, children, servants, and negro slaves, that were to form one of the settle- ments of Florida. Six Dominican Monks ac- companied the expedition, one of whom, Fray Pedro de Feria, was appointed provincial Vicar of Florida. The fleet of the colonists set sail from Vera Cruz, June 11, 1559, and after a series of misfortunes and troubles, on August 14, it entered the port of Ichuse, which has been positively identified as Mo- bile Bay. On the 24th of the same month De Luna sent a galleon back to Mexico an- nouncing his arrival, the success of his move- ments so far, the prospects of a fertile and inhabited country in the interior and request- ing more horses and supplies so that he would not be compelled to take food by violence from the natives, whose good-will he wishes to gain; that he would colonize and fortify the port and not penetrate into the interior before the arrival of the supplies. In the meantime exploring parties, each accompa- nied by a monk, were sent out along the coast and up the Mobile River into the interior During their absence an exceedingly great misfortune befell the colonists; for a most terrific hurricane from the north, lasting twenty-four hours, swept down upon them, shattering to pieces five ships, a galleon, a bark, and driving a caravel with its cargo farther 'than an arquebuse shot from the shore. Many of the people perished and most of the provisions were destroyed. In this ex- tremity the colonists lived upon the provi- sions found in the stranded caravel while awaiting the return of the explorers. De Luna determined that as soon as they should return with their reports he would seek some place in the interior where he could subsist his people, reserving his little remaining food for those who were to remain in the settle- ment that he had established in the port. After three weeks the explorers returned with the information that the countries they had traversed were sterile and uninhabited. An- other expedition was now sent forth. A ma- jor in command of four companies of horse and foot now penetrated the country forty leagues to the northeast, where they discov- ered a deserted Indian town named Nani- pacna. This name in the Choctaw tongue

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signifies "Hilltop," "Nanih pakna," evi- dencing that the town was built upon a hill, and with the greatest probability it was lo- cated upon Boykin's Ridge, on the east side of the Alabama River, in the upper part of Wilcox county. The Spaniards found a wel- come supply of maize, beans and other pro- visions in the abandoned houses, but found no other towns in its vicinity. The natives of Nanipacna at last returned and became friendly. De Luna was notified by the major of his fortunate discovery. But he did not act upon it at the time; for about this time he had received some relief supplies sufficient to last his people through the winter. When they were nearly exhausted, De Luna was for a while prostrated with a fever. Upon his recovery, perhaps in February or March, 1560, leaving a lieutenant with fifty men and the negro slaves in charge of the port, De Luna proceeded with the colonists, now less than one thousand, to Nanipacna, some going by land, others by water.

WILLETT, MARINUS, Colonel, U. S. A., was born at Jamaica, Long Island, July 31, 1740, and died in New York City, August 4, 1830. In 1758 he served under General Abercrombie in the expedition against Ticon- deroga, and then under Colonel Bradstreet in the capture of Fort Frontenac. He was one of the leaders of the Sons of Liberty in New York City which on June 6, 1775, pre- vented the sending of arms from the arsenal to the British troops in Boston Harbor. He was soon after commissioned captain and served under General Richard Montgomery in the invasion of Canada. He was placed in command of St. John after its capture, where he remained until January, 1776, and soon afterwards was made colonel of the Third New York regiment. In 1777 he was second in command at Fort Stanwick, and during the siege of that place he made a sortie and gained a victory over Colonel Barry St. Leger, -a diversion which enabled General Herki- mer to win the battle of Oriskany. He was with Washington's army in 1778, was pres- ent at the battle of Monmouth, and in 1779 was with General Sullivan in his expedi- tion against the Six Nations. From 1780 to the close of the war he commanded the troops in the Mohawk Valley. In 1784 he was elected a member of the New York State Assembly, but resigned on being elected sheriff of New York City and an office which he held until 1792. In this year he was of- fered the rank and command of a brigadier- general in an expedition against the North- western Indians, but declined. In 1794 he was sent by President Washington on a mis- sion to the Creek nation, whence he brought back with him Alexander McGillivray and other Creek chiefs and warriors, who signed the treaty of New York, the first American treaty with the Creek Indians. In 1807 he was mayor of New York. His last public service was in 1812 when he was secretary of a mass meeting in favor of military prep- arations against the British. His son, Wil- liam Marinus Willett, collated from his fath-

er's manuscript and from other sources a work, giving his father's military career. This work, entitled "A narrative of the mili- tary actions of Colonel Marinus Willett," was published in 1831. It contains much information about the Creek Indians.

WILLIAMS, ROBERT, Member of Con- gress, Governor of the Mississippi Territory, born in Prince Edward county Virginia in 1768, died in Washita Parish, Louisiana, January 25, 1836, was the son of Nathaniel and Mary Ann ( Williamson) Williams. In early life his parents settled in North Caro- lina, where young Williams studied law and entered upon its practice in Nottingham county. He was a member of the State Sen- ate of North Carolina from 1792 to 1795, and was a member of the House of Repre- sentatives from 1797 to 1802. In 1803 he and Thomas Rodney of Delaware were ap- pointed commissioners to ascertain the rights of persons claiming land in the Mississippi Territory, west of Pearl River. Their work was satisfactorily performed. On March 1, 1805, he was commissioned by President Jefferson Governor of the Mississippi Terri- tory. He held this office with a re-appoint- ment in March 1808, until his resignation in March 1809. After his resignation Gov- ernor Williams resided successively in Mis- sissippi and North Carolina, and finally set- tled as a planter near Monroe, Washita Par- ish, Louisiana, where he resided until his death. A tombstone marks his grave. The wife of Governor Williams was Elizabeth, daughter of General Joseph Winston of North Carolina. She died at the Governor's resi- dence, near Washington, Mississippi Terri- tory, July 25, 1814. She left only one child, Eliza Winston Williams.

WOLF KING, Creek Chief, lived in Muk- lasa, an Upper Creek town. The first notice of this chief is in 1749, when he appears under a somewhat comical aspect. At some time in that year, the noted author and trader, James Adair, was traveling on official business from the Chickasaw nation to Charleston. One day, about ten o'clock in the morning, somewhere on the trading path between Flint River and Okmulgee, he met a party of hostile Shawnees, from whom he managed to escape. About sun set on the same day he met another party of Indians, whom he at first supposed were also Shaw- nees. But, he writes,-"I discovered them to be a considerable body of the Muskohge headmen, returning home with presents from Charles-Town, which they carried on their backs. The wolf king (as the traders term- ed him) our old steady friend of the Amook- lasah Town, near the late Alebahma, came foremost, harnessed like a jack-ass, with a saddle on his back, well girt over one shoul- der, and across under the other. We seemed equally glad to meet each other, they, to hear how affairs stood in their country, as well as on the trading path; and I to find, that instead of bitter-hearted foes, they were friends, and would secure my retreat from

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any pursuit that might happen." Apart from his pleasant meeting with Adair, the first noteworthy appearance of Wolf King in his- tory is at the treaty made by the Creeks with Sir Henry Ellis, Governor of Georgia, and his hoard of council in Savannah, on November 3, 1757. The Governor had about August 1, sent Joseph Wright, a man fa- miliar with the Creek language, into the Creek nation, which was then in ill mood, to invite the chiefs of the Upper and the Lower Creeks to a conference to be held with them in Savannah. There the Indians would receive the King's presents, and at the same time, an effort would be made to remove the ill impressions they had conceived of the English. Wright was successful in his mission in persuading many to go to Savannah. The Indians arrived on October 27, and were received with imposing cere- monies and with the firing of the guns of the fort. They represented twenty-one towns of the Upper and Lower Creeks. They were formally conducted into the council chamber and introduced to the governor, who hold- ing out his hands, thus addressed them: "My Friends and Brothers, behold my Hands and Arms; our Common Enemies, the French, have told you they are red to the elbows; view them; do they speak the Truth? Let your own eyes witness. You see they are white, and could you see my Heart, you would find it as pure, but very warm and true to you, my Friends. The French tell you whoever shakes my Hand will immedi- ately be struck with disease and die; if you believe this lying foolish talk, don't touch me; if you do not, I am ready to embrace you." Whereupon all the Indians approach- ed and shook the Governor's hand, declaring that the French had lied and deceived them in this manner. The Indians then seating themselves, the Governor continued his talk, in which he first expressed the hope that they had left their brethren well in the na- tion, and that they were well themselves, and then referred to the hardships they must have endured in their long journey. That they had been told by bad people in the nation that the English had spread all over the Indian hunting grounds, and they could now see the falsity of this assertion. That it was only the lands that lie on the water's edge, that the English valued, where their ships could come with goods and carry away the skins sold by the Indians and the pro- ductions raised by the English out of the ground. That during their stay with him, it would be his particular care that they should be well supplied with everything the plan- tations afforded. That he had a large home erected where they could enjoy each other's company and be protected from the weather. Again warning them against the French and their emissaries, he told them that as they were very much fatigued he would not de- tain them; but after having rested and re- freshed themselves, he would meet them again and deliver to them the King's talk. Meanwhile, he advised that they get their guns and saddles repaired, which he had

ordered his workmen to do, if they wished it. Again he expressed his satisfaction at seeing so many of his friends, under the same roof with himself. Wolf King, as speaker of both the Upper and the Lower Towns, arose and responded as follows to the Governor's talk: "We have heard many good talks of you in our own country which were not lies, and I think myself extremely happy and thank God that this day affords us an opportunity of seeing you face to face-I and my country- men have been accustomed to visit the Gov- ernors of the English Provinces but never had more satisfaction than we feel on this

occasion. 'Tis true we experienced great hardships on our journey from the back lands being uncultivated, but as soon as we reached the Homes of our Friends, we re- ceived plenty of every thing, and the kindest treatment possible. The length of our jour- ney has greatly fatigued us. We therefore approve of taking the refreshments and the other steps you recommend to us; after which we shall hear the Great King's Talk." Wolf King's talk was followed by a short one from Togulki, after which the Governor invited the headmen to dine with him in his own house, where they were delighted with the kind and friendly manner with which they were entertained. After taking a long and thorough rest, the representatives of a hun- dred and twenty-one towns, with, besides up- wards of their countrymen, on November 3, were with the same ceremonies formally con- ducted again into the council chamber. After being seated, the Governor opened the confer- ence with a short talk, and then read to the Indians a paper entitled, "A Letter from the great King George to his beloved Children of the Creek Nations." The letter was in- terpreted and explained, paragraph by para- graph, and at every period the Indians ex- pressed aloud their approval. The Governor then resumed his talk, in which he told the Indians that they had now heard with their own ears the words of the Great King, how he loved them and entertained no suspicion of their obedience and friendship. He then detailed at some length the advantages the Creek Indians, "the best beloved" of all the Indian nations, would have in their friend- ship and alliance with the English, who could do more for them than the French. After a reply by Sampiaffi, the treaty was produced, and thoroughly interpreted and explained. It was approved in every particular by the head- men, who then put their hands and seals to it before a numerous audience.

When the last man had signed, Wolf King, who was one of the signers, desired that he might be heard, which being granted he turned to his people and made a short and vehement talk: "All of you have this Day freely confirmed your ancient Treaties with the English by a new one, in which some fresh articles are inserted; I know that it has been customary for you to deny in your own Towns the Contracts you have made in those of the White People; but remember how cheerfully and readily you all joined in this Act; which of you then will dare to

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A pleasing episode in the life of Wolf King occurred in May, 1760. On probably May 15 as he and his people were on the point of going to a hall play news came to them of the massacre of the traders the day he- fore in some of the Upper Towns, and that those that escaped the massacre were seek- ing places of refuge. He at once received a number of the fugitives into his own house and treated them with the greatest kind- ness. Others were brought down to him by the chief of Okchaiyi. Wolf King had only forty warriors in his town, a small force with which to protect them against the large numbers of Indians in the French interest, and under the thorough control of the Great Mortar. He told the traders of the situa- tion, supplied those among them that were unarmed with guns and ammunition, and then conducted them all into a place in a swamp, where, he said, they could maintain themselves by their own valor against the French and the mad Indians. The traders fortified the place so well that their enemies feared to attack them. Wolf King, in the meantime, secretly and at great risk to him- self, supplied them with food, and after the lapse of some two weeks sent them to a friendly Lower Creek town where were gath- ered other fugitive traders from different places in the nation. This action of Wolf King, with his slender hand of warriors in protecting the traders against his numerous enraged countrymen, shows that he was a brave and high-souled man. About six weeks after the massacre, Governor Ellis, in view to the protection of the traders in the future, sent Joseph Wright into the Creek nation with a written talk, in which he said that he expected to open trade with the Creeks as soon as it could be done with safety, but first the headmen in every town must meet and choose some powerful person who would take charge of the traders and be answerable for their persons and goods, otherwise the traders would not risk their lives nor the merchants their goods amongst them; and for this protection the traders must pay a yearly consideration to their respective guar- dians. Although Wolf King and his people were and had always been friendly to the English, as soon as he received the Gover- nor's talk, he appointed suitable persons in all the towns he controlled to be guardians of the traders and their goods. Wolf King's action in saving the fugitive traders gave him great consideration with the Governors

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869- Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 724

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 724