History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 5

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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DE VAUDREUIL-CAVAGNAL, PIERRE FRANCOIS RIGAND, Marquis, governor of Louisiana, governor-general of Canada, born in Quebec in 1688, died in Paris, October 20, 1765; was the son of Philippe Rigand de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada. He en-

tered the army, attained the rank of major in the Marine corps, and in 1733 was ap- pointed governor of the Three Rivers. He was appointed governor of Louisiana early in 1743 and held the office for ten years, until February 9, 1753, when he was suc- ceeded by Kerlerec. One of the first acts of Vaudreuil's administration of Louisiana was an ordinance requiring all the planters along the Mississippi to put their levees in safe condition by the end of the year under pain of forfeiting their lands to the crown. But all his efforts to promote the agriculture of Louisiana during the ten years of his ad- ministration met with but indifferent suc- cess. In a letter to the minister of the col- onies, he notes the striking contrast of the French of Illinois to those of Louisiana. Vaudreuil's administration was characterized by the usual Indian wars and by several In- dian uprisings. Gayarre thus writes of Vaudreuil's administration: "The adminis- tration of the Marquis of Vaudreuil was long and fondly remembered in Louisiana, as an epoch of unusual brilliancy, but which was followed up by corresponding gloom. His administration, if small things may be com- pared with great ones, was for Louisiana, with regard to splendor, luxury, military dis- play, and expenses of every kind, what the reign of Louis XIV has been for France. He was a man of patrician birth and high breed- ing, who liked to live in a manner worthy of his rank. Remarkable for his personal graces and comeliness, for the dignity of his bearing and the fascination of his address, he was fond of pomp, show and pleasure; surrounded by a host of brilliant officers, of whom he was the idol, he loved to keep up a miniature court, in distant imitation of that of Versailles; and long after he had de- parted, old people were fond of talking of the exquisitely refined manners, the mag- nificent balls, the splendidly uniformed troops, the highbrow young officers, and many other unparalled things they had seen in the days of the Great Marquis." In 1755 Vaudreuil was appointed governor-general of Canada. This new office did not prove as congenial to him as that of Louisiana; for- there was much dissension between him and Montcalm, and this want of harmony be- tween the two highest civil and military of- ficers doubtless hastened the fall of the French dominion in Canada. After the fall of Quebec in 1759, Vaudreuil might have routed Wolf's exhausted army, but he dal- lied and let slip this last opportunity of pos- sibly saving Canada. In 1760, against the will of General Levis, the highest military officer, he capitulated to General Amherst at Montreal. On his return to France he was brought to trial for mismanagement of Can- adian affairs, but was absolved of all blame. He died in Paris, October 20, 1765.

DUPRATZ, ANTOINE SIMON LE PAGE, historian and explorer, was born in Tourco- ing, France, in 1689, and died in Paris, in 1775. No ancestral or early educational de- tails are known. He served in the French

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army in Germany. Having obtained an in- terest in Law's "Company of the West," he sailed from France in May, 1718, to take possession of the lands of the company lo- cated near New Orleans. In 1720, he set- tled among the Natchez. In 1722 he began on an eight-year exploring tour, in which he visited the regions watered by the Mis- souri and Arkansas Rivers. On his return to New Orleans he became treasurer of the Company, an office which he held until it was abolished. He then returned to France, landing in June, 1734. In 1758 he pub- lished his Historire de la Louisiane, etc. An English translation of this work was pub- lished in London, for T. Becket, in 1763, followed by a new edition in 1764.

EFA HADJO, EFAU HAUJO, OR MAD DOG, Creek Chief. It would be an interest- ing fact, if it could he proven, that the Effa Adjo who signed the treaty made by the English and the Creeks in June, 1765, at Pensacola, was the same man as Efa Hadjo, who was in after times so long the speaker of the Creek Nation. Be the fact as it may, the first notice of Efa Hadjo or Mad Dog in April, 1792, shows him a partisan of the ad- venturer, Bowles. Many of the ignorant Creeks at that time supposed that Bowles represented the English government, and that England, France and Spain were op- posed to the Americans. A year later, how- ever, in April, 1793, found Efa Hadjo a de- cided friend of the Americans. Alexander Cornell in a letter to James Seagrove, the Creek agent, in April, 1793, writes: "If every man should exert himself as well as the Mad Dog, and the headmen of the Upper towns, and Mr. Weatherford, we should have an everlasting peace with our brothers of the United States." From the lack of records, it cannot be stated when Efa Hadjo became the speaker of the Creek Nation. He did not hold this office at the treaty of Coleraine in June, 1796, though he was one of the signers of the treaty. Fusatchee Mico, the Whitebird King of the Hickory Ground, was the speaker at Coleraine. Efa Hadjo was the speaker of the Creek Nation at the treaty of Fort Wilkinson in 1802. He also at the same time was speaker of the Upper Creeks, with Coweta Micco, as speaker of the Lower Creeks. His several talks at this treaty were all sensible and relevant to the subjects un- der consideration. Twelve days after the treaty Efa Hadjo abdicated his station as speaker and first chief of the nation to Hopoie Micco and transferred the seat of the Na- tional Councils from Tuckabatchee to the Hickory Ground. He was at this time, as he stated, "getting in age." This action of Efa Hadjo was either of short duration or was not accepted by the Nation, as can be seen from Colonel Hawkins' notice of the chief in 1799.

"This ( Tuckabatchee) is the residence of Efan Hanjo, one of the great medal chiefs, the speaker of the Nation at the National Council. He is one of the best informed men of the land, and faithful to his National en-

gagements. He has five black slaves, and a stock of cattle and horses; but they are of little use to him; the ancient habits instilled in him by French and British agents, that red chiefs are to live on presents from their white friends, is so riveted that he claims it as a tribute due to him, and one that never must be dispensed with."

Efa Hadjo died in Tuckabatchee in 1812. REFERENCES .- American State Papers, In- dian Affairs, vol. i, pp. 297, 367, 382, 383, 385, 390, 396, 424, 461, 670, 672-681, 840; Hawkins' Sketch of the Creek Country, p. 30.

ELVAS, THE KNIGHT OF, explorer and author. There were nine followers of De Soto who came from Elvas in Portugal, and whose names are all recorded by the anony- mous Portuguese narrator of the expedition of De Soto. Of these nine men four perished in Florida, one being killed at Maubila, and the other three dying at Aminoya. Of the five surviving Portuguese, one may indulge in his own suppositions or conjectures, as to which one was the author of the anony- mous narrative; so far his identity has de- fied the researches of all the De Soto com- mentators. This unknown Portuguese Knight seems to have been with the main army. Nowhere does he ever make' reference to himself. He seems not to have kept a diary, but may have made memoranda of the dates of some of the events. Aside from this con- jecture, his narrative seems to have been written mainly from memory and hence can- not be accurate in every particular. In com- mon with the custom of the day he did not hesitate to invent speeches which he put into the mouths of the Indians. With all its de- fects, the narrative has a high value as a record of De Soto's expedition, and is es- pecially valuable for the facts it gives rela- tive to the manner of life of the Southern Indians of the sixteenth century. In this re- spect it is fuller than all the other narra- tives of the expedition of De Soto.

FARMAR, ROBERT, Commandant of Mo- bile, was born in 1735. But little is known of his early life. He first appears in 1765, as commander of the troops in Mobile, and in the Alabama-Tombighee basin, after the withdrawal of the French to the west of the Mississippi River. He seems to have been an officer of much ability, but he soon in- curred the ill-will of Governor George John- stone, who charged him with various acts of official misconduct. The court-martial which followed resulted in his complete vindication. Major Farmar owned considerable property in Mobile, where he married and raised a family of five children. He moved to Ten- saw Bluff near the present Stockton, where he lived the life of an opulent planter until his death in 1780. His will is on record in the office of the Surrogate of Canterbury. Descendants reside in Washington.

FRANCIS, JOSIAH, OR HILLIS HADJO, Creek Chief, born probably about 1770, and in Autauga town, was the son of David Fran-

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cis a white trader and silversmith, who lived many years in Autauga Town, and made silver ornaments and implements for the In- dians. The name of his mother is not known, and apart from his father, the only other fact recorded as to his family relationship is that he was a half-brother of Sam Moniac. Hillis Hadjo, properly spelled Hilis Hadsho, is the name of an official of the Creek busk;

"hilis," medicine, "hadsho," crazy. Some corrupt spellings of the name are Hidlis Had- jo, Hillishago, Hillishager, etc. In his youth Josiah Francis learned the silversmith trade of his father. The first recorded public fact of his life is being created a prophet, which was about the latter part of 1812. It took Sukaboo, the great Shawnee prophet, ten days' work to endow Francis with prophetic powers. When this was completed, Francis was considered the greatest prophet in the Creek Nation. He himself now assumed the role of prophet-maker. He made many prophets, among others, Jim Boy of Atossee. In June, 1813, just before the outbreak of the Creek War, General James Wilkinson of the United States Army, noted the presence of Francis, with a large number of followers, camped at or near the Holy Ground on the Alabama River, evidently making prepara- tions for a war of destruction upon the white and the half-breed Indian settlements in South Alabama. For the purpose of procur- ing ammunition for the oncoming war, early in July, Josiah Francis, commanding the Alabama, Peter McQueen at the head of the Tallassee warriors, and Jim as principal-war chief, commanding the Atossees, with many packhorses took up the line of march from the Holy Ground for Pensacola. They were successful in attaining their object, and on their return march, while encamped on Burnt Corn Creek, they were attacked, on July 27, by a body of Americans, under Colonel James Coller, and there was fought what is known as the battle of Burnt Corn. The victory was with the Creeks. This fact and the loss of American prestige in their defeat, no doubt, prompted the Creeks to begin the war on a larger scale. About the middle of Au- gust a great Creek council was held at the Holy Ground. After much debate and de- liberation, it was resolved by the council to divide the Creek forces into two divisions, and with each to make simultaneous at- tacks on Fort Mims and Fort Sinquefield. Hopie Tustenuggee commanded the larger division that was to assault Fort Mims, while Josiah Francis with one hundred and twenty- five warriors was to operate against Fort Sinquefield. On the night of August 30, Francis and his warriors camped in the Wolf's Den, a large deep ravine three miles east of Fort Madison. Thence, the next day, they moved northward and massacred twelve members of the James and Kimball families, living on Bassett's creek. The bodies of the dead were, the next day, brought to Fort Sinquefield for burial by a party sent out for that purpose. The day following, September 2, about eleven o'clock, a part of the people were out of the fort engaged in the burial,

and a number of the women were at the spring, some engaged in washing, and others who had come there to bring buckets of water back to their families in the fort. The time was propitious for Francis and his warriors, who were advancing in a stooping position to cut off the burial party and the women at the spring. The Creeks were discovered in time, and all, with one exception, made their escape into the fort, upon which a turi- ous attack was made. After two hours' fight- ing, Francis was repulsed with the loss of eleven warriors slain and many wounded. He then retreated across the Alabama River, where several of the wounded died. There is no record of Josiah Francis in other en- gagements of the Creek War. After the de- feat at the Horseshoe, he and Nehemathla Micco placed their people on the Catoma, not far above the Federal crossing. But they remained there a very short time, for Gen- eral Jackson writing from Fort Jackson on April 18, states "Hillishagee, their great prophet, has absconded." Francis and his refugee people founded a town near Fort St. Marks, in Florida. Early in 1815 Col- onel Edward Nichols negotiated a treaty with the fugitive Creeks and the Seminoles. This treaty was an offensive and defensive alli- ance between the English government and the Indians, and through it the Creeks in Florida were led to believe that they would secure the restitution of the lands ceded by the treaty of Fort Jackson. Early in the summer following Nichols sailed for London, taking with him Francis and other Indians, Creeks and Seminoles. Nichols hoped that , his treaty would be ratified by the British Foreign Office, but it refused to receive him or even to listen to his proposals. While Colonel Nichols' treaty was thus ignored by the English government, his friend Francis was treated with much distinction. He was created a colonel in the British army (colon- ial establishment), with a full uniform; was presented with a diamond-studded snuff box,

a gold-mounted tomahawk, five hundred pounds in gold, and some jewels for his daughters. He was admitted to an inter- view with the Prince Regent which is thus described by a London journal: "The sound of trumpets announced the approach of the patriot Francis, who fought so gloriously in our cause in America during the late war. Being dressed in a most splendid suit of red and gold, and wearing a tomahawk set with gold gave him a highly imposing appear- ance." Francis and the other Indians were sent back to Florida, in 1816, by the English government in a sloop of war. It would have been well for Francis had he been content with the honor and glory which he had now received from the English government, and had made peace with the Americans. But the old war spirit was too strong and the close of 1817 found him inciting the refugee Creeks and the Seminoles to war. About this time, an American soldier, named Dun- can McKrimmon, was captured by the In- dians near Fowl Town. He was taken by his captors to Francis' town, delivered to the

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chief, who sentenced him to death by the fire torture, in retaliation for the killing of four Indians by the Americans in their at- tack on Fowl Town. But McKimmon's life was saved through the entreaties of Francis' daughter, Malee. (This name is incorrectly given in some books as Milly. Malee is the Indian imperfect articulation of Mary, there being no r in the Choctaw Muscogee dialects, 1 being used or substituted in its place.) In the following April, Francis and Nehemathla Micco were captured, and without the for- mality of a trial, General Jackson ordered both to be hanged. Nehemathla Micco was justly put to death on the charge of tortur- ing his prisoner, Lieutenant Scott, to death. But it may be questioned whether Francis ought to have been executed on the two charges brought against him,-complicity in the massacres during the Creek War, and for inciting the refugee Creeks to war. As to the first charge, Francis was no more guilty than other Creeks for massacres during the war and whom Gen. Jackson did not punish. As to the other charge, it may be said that he was not a party to the treaty of Fort Jackson, of August, 1814, a treaty not recognized by the Creeks in Florida. Hence from his point of view he had the right to renew or con- tinue the struggle of the Creeks against the Americans in Florida. Francis is described by an officer of Jackson's army as "a hand- some man, six feet high; would weigh one hundred and fifty pounds; of pleasing man- ners; conversed well in English and Spanish; humane in his disposition; by no means bar- barous-withal a model chief." Accepting as true this favorable account of Francis' char- acter, it may be inferred that, while he him- self was averse to needless barbarity in war, he was unable to control his warriors, as in the case of the Kimball-James Massacre and the killing of Mrs. Phillips at Fort Sinque- field. Francis was survived by his wife and . several daughters. His wife was a half- blood, her name not recorded, and said to be a half-sister of William Weatherford. Of his daughters, the name of the youngest, Ma- lee, incorrectly given by some as Milly, has been preserved, and ever will be remembered for the romance, tragedy, and pathos con- nected with it. The story of this Alabama- born girl, her beauty, her accomplishments, her saving the life of McKrimmon, her grief over the execution of her father, her mar- riage to McKrimmon, her subsequent life,- all surpass in interest the somewhat apocry- phal story of the Virginia-born Pocahontas.

REFERENCES .- Meek's Romantic Passages in Southern History (1857), p. 271; Pickett's His- tory of Alabama (Owen's edition, 1900), pp. 514, 515, 521, 544; Woodward's Reminiscenses of the Creek or Muscogee Indians, 1857, pp. 43, 53, 97; American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i, pp. 850, 853; American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i, pp. 700, 745; Buell's History of Jackson (1904), vol. ii, pp. 122- 125; Parton's Life of Jackson (1861), vol. ii, pp. 395, 397, 415, 420, 431, 437, 455, 457; Halbert and Ball's Creek War (1895), pp. 184, 185, 197, 198; Handbook of American Indians

(1911), Part i, pp. 549, 550; Claiborne's Mis- sissippi (1800), p. 323.

GUN MERCHANT, Creek chief. This chief of Okchaiyi first came into prominence after the massacre of the traders on March 14, 1760. Twelve days after this affair, while staying at Muklasa, he, in the name of the headmen of the Upper Creeks and some ref- ugee traders present, sent a talk to Gover- nor Ellis in which he expressed the hope that the Governor would not think that this affair was a concerted plot of the nation in general, that if it had been a concerted af- fair, not a single trader would have ever got to his own country; that the traders present knew what uneasiness it gave the Indians; and he wished the Governor to believe that the Indians had no malice in their hearts, and their only wish was that a good under- standing and friendship might be renewed with the white people. The deeds were done by a few young men and the headmen were not privy to it, and he hoped that traders would be allowed to return to the Nation.

The Governor sent a talk in reply in which he stated the Creeks must inflict capital pun- ishment on the murderers, and that the trade would be renewed when it was safe to do so, but that first the Creeks in every town must select some powerful person to take charge of the traders and their goods; other- wise no traders would venture their persons and goods among them; and the traders must pay a yearly consideration to these guardians. Some weeks after the Governor sent another talk into the Nation. Gun Merchant was at Okfusky when the talk came there. He com- mented on it largely as a good talk and that they ought to quench the fire while in their power to do so. At his suggestion, the In- dians went forth, gathered up the bones of the traders, wrapped them in white deer skins and buried them. Another evidence of Gun Merchant's fair dealing occurred ear- ly in 1761. The store of a trader named Henderson among the Upper Creeks was robbed. This coming to the ears of Gun Merchant, he interposed to prevent further mischieť, and at the same time took two traders and their goods under his protection. Governor Wright was so appreciative of this action that be sent a special talk to Gun Merchant. But the obligations of the traders and their guardians were not altogether well observed. Gun Merchant in a talk of April 30, which he sent to Governor Wright, says: "There was a Man appointed to look after the Traders in each Town-some performed it, others did not, and that the said Head- men were to he paid for their Trouble; this Talk was given out last year by Joseph Wright from Governor Ellis; but we see no Rewards for it yet; there are others that go Guards to the Pack Horses that get nothing for this Trouble, which make the Young Peo- ple indifferent of going down."

Gun Merchant was one of the four great medal chiefs of the Upper Creeks created at the Congress in Pensacola in June, 1765.

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After this there is no further record relating to his career.

REFERENCES .- The Colonial Records of Geor- gia, vol. viii, pp. 325, 348, 421, 423, 514, 543, 544; Mississippi Provincial Archives, vol. 1, p. 210.

GALVEZ, BERNARDO, Governor of Louisi- ana, Captain-General of Cuba and Viceroy of Mexico, born in Malaga, Spain, in 1748, and died in the City of Mexico, November 30, 1786; was the son of Matias Galvez, who in his latter years was Viceroy of Mexico. In 1772 he entered the French army, and was promoted lieutenant. In 1775, as captain, he entered the Spanish army in the war against the Moors of Algiers, rose to the rank of colonel, and on his return to Spain was promoted brigadier-general. Early in 1777 he was appointed governor of Louisiana, and held that office for eight years. Claiborne says that Galvez was "the ablest and most active man that ever swayed Louisiana." One of the first acts of his administration was the issuing of a proclamation permit- ting the inhabitants of Louisiana to trade with the United States, followed by another proclamation three days later, permitting them to export their produce to any port of France. By these acts the trade of the prov- ince, which had hitherto been controlled by the English, was henceforth carried on main- ly by French and Americans. Governor Gal- vez strongly sympathized with the American Revolution. In 1778 he secretly furnished Colonel James Willing, the continental agent in New Orleans, with arms, ammunition and seventy thousand dollars in cash for the re- volted colonies. Meanwhile the English gov- ernment having contemptuously spurned the overtures of Spain as a mediator between her and the colonies, on May 8, 1779, Charles III, formally declared war against Great Britain. As soon as the declaration of war reached Louisiana, Governor Galvez resolved on the conquest and re-occupation of West Florida. He marched an army up the east bank of the Mississippi in conjunction with a fleet bearing provisions and military sup- plies up the river, and in succession captured Fort Bute, Baton Rouge, and Fort Panmure and reduced the entire district of Natchez. In October his army was increased by re- inforcements from Cuba, and he was pro- moted to the rank of Brigadier General. With this force on March 14, 1780, he cap- tured Fort Charlotte and forced Mobile to surrender. Galvez's next objective point was Pensacola. Going to Havana he returned thence in March, 1781, with a fleet and a well equipped army. Still further strength- ened with Creole troops from New Orleans, he laid siege to Pensacola, which capitu- lated on May 9, and West Florida was once more a possession of Spain. After the close of the American Revolution Galvez advocated the free trade of Louisiana with all the ports of Europe and America, but this liberal propo- sition was proved unacceptable to the Span- ish Ministry. As a reward for his great serv- ices, early in 1785, Galvez was appointed

Captain-General of Cuba, Louisiana and the Floridas. On June 17, 1785, he succeeded his father as Viceroy of Mexico, and held that to his death the same year in Tucabaza.

ISAACS, CAPTAIN OF TOURCOULA, Coosada chief, born conjecturally about 1765. He received his English name from an In- dian trader, who died at an advanced age in Lincoln county, Tennessee. No facts are preserved of his life, until 1792, when he was one of the Creek chiefs that were in the habit of making raids upon the Cumber- land settlers in Tennessee. On August 21, 1793, he and his party murdered a Mrs. Baker, a widow, and all her family except a daughter, named Elizabeth. They brought her to Coosada, where she was forced to be an eye-witness of the dance around the scalps of her family. But she was soon fortunate in finding a friend in the noted trader, Charles Weatherford, who lived on the east side of the Alabama River, opposite Coosada. He ransomed her, placed her in charge of his wife, where she remained until restored to her friends. After the treaty of Coleraine, made in 1796, Captain Isaacs became a friend to the United States. He was the only chief at the great Council held at Tuckabatchee in the fall of 1811, that refused to take the talk of Tecumseh. General Woodward very erroneously states that Captain Isaacs went north with Tecumseh and that, on his way back home, he was associated with Little Warrior in the murders committed in Feb- ruary, 1813, near the mouth of the Ohio. Official records show that Captain Isaacs never went north with Tecumseh, nor after- wards to Tecumseh, and that he had noth- ing to do with those murders, living in all those times at his home in the Nation. Fur- thermore, from his persistent loyalty to the whites, he was one of the seven prominent chiefs whose deaths had been decreed by the hostile faction in the early summer of 1813. Captain Isaacs met his fate in June, himself, a nephew and three of his warriors, being killed at the same time by the Red Sticks. His wife was a daughter of General McGillivray, but apart from this, there is no further record of his family.

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 5

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