History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 69

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

USA > Alabama > History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II > Part 69

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The president of the railroad commission and the two associate commissioners have 4-year terms.

All of the foregoing enter upon their du- ties on the first Monday after the second Tuesday in January next after their elec- tion.

For specific terms of other officers, dates of entrance upon their duties, and special provisions regulating them, see

Banking Department.

Bank Examiners.

Chemist, The State.

Conservation Commissioner.

Convict Inspectors. Equalization, State Board of.

Examiners of Accounts.

Geological Survey.

Health, State Board of.

Highway Commission.

OGLESBY INDIAN MASSACRE. See But- ler County.

OIL. See Asphaltum, Maltha and Petro- leum.

OKA KAPASSA. A Cherokee Indian vil- lage, established about 1780, on the western bank of Coldwater, or Spring Creek, at its confluence with the Tennessee. It was a short distance west of where the city of Tuscumbia, Colbert County now stands. It was resorted to extensively by the neighbor- ing tribes for the purpose of trading with the French from the Wabash, and it soon proved a source of great vexation to the white settlers on the Cumberland. It deserves a somewhat extended notice, as on its site was the only fight between the whites and In- dians that ever took place on the Tennessee River. The town in 1787 was composed of Cherokees, and Creeks with 10 French trad-

ers. On account of the many outrages com- mitted by this town on the Cumberland set- tlements, Col. James Robertson resolved on its destruction. With a mounted volunteer force and two Chickasaw guides, about June 24, 1787, he crossed the Tennessee River, surprised the town, surrounded and killed a part of its people on the shore, drove the others into their hoats, into which the troops poured such a deadly fire, that only a few escaped, and these by leaping into and swim-' ming across the river.

Twenty-six Indians were killed in this affair. Among the slain were three of the traders and a white woman, who, being crowded into a boat with the Indians, and ail refusing to surrender, shared the fate

of their red companions. The whites had no losses. The next day, after rewarding the Chickasaw guides from the spoils of Oka Kapassa, the troops buried the three traders and the white woman, then burned the town and killed all the hogs and chickens.

The goods found' in the town consisted of "stores of tafia, sugar, coffee, cloths, blankets, Indian wares of all sorts, salt, shot, Indian paints, knives, powder, tomahawks, tobacco and other articles, suitable for Indian com- merce." These goods and the prisoners who were the French traders and an Indian woman, were placed in three or four boats under the charge of four reliable men, and they descended the river to the place waere Col. George Colhert subsequently established his ferry. Col. Brown marched with his troops along the southern side of the river to the same place, and with the assistance of the hoats, all were soon landed on the north- ern shore. Here the French prisoners were allowed to take all their trunks and their wearing apparel, and the sugar and coffee was equally divided between the captors and the captives. A canoe was then given to the French, in which they and the Indian woman took their departure up the river. The spoils taken at Oka Kapassa were brought to Eton's Station, where they were sold and the proceeds divided among the troops.

REFERENCES .- O. D. Street, in Alabama His- tory Commission, Report (1901), vol. 1, p. 417; Haywood, Civil History of Tennessee (Reprint, 1891), pp. 230-236.

OKCHAYI. An Upper Creek town, of Ali- bamu origin. In the French census of 1760 they are classed among the Abihka towns, a fact which indicates that at that date they had adopted the Muscogee tongue and had so far lost their trihal identity as to be no longer classed as Alibamu. The town was situated about 12 miles above Tukabatchi. Hawkins says that its "settlements extend along the creeks (Okchayi and Kailaidshi), on the margins of which and the hillsides, are good oak and hickory, with coarse gravel, all surrounded with pine forest. The Okchayi Creek, now known merely as a branch of the Kailaidshi, flows into the latter from the north, about 5 miles from its junction with the Tallapoosa. Up the Okchayi, 3 miles from its junction, and on both sides of the creek lies the town. It is 512 miles north of Kai- laidshi town, and 7 miles south of Thlot-lo- gul-gau, the fish-pond towns, on the upper Elkehatchee.

The first historic reference to Okchayi is in a letter of Capt. Raymond Demere of the English army, November 25, 1756, in which he refers to the council held by the French with the Indians at Alabama Fort, in which the Okchayi were represented. Capt. Demere spells the word Oakchois and Oakechois. Two councils were held with the Upper Creeks at Okchayi April 5 and May 8, 1763, at both of which written talks were made and sent to Gov. Wright of Georgia, in reference to the houndary of the Creeks and insufficiency of powder and bullets supplied by the traders.

HISTORY OF ALABAMA

1093

In these references the spelling is Okchoys. In the following September, 1764, James Colbert, at the head of a party of Chicka- saws, on their way to the Augusta Indian congress, visited the town. The Chickasaws urged the people of the town to send repre- sentatives to the congress, but they declined to do so, assigning an insignificant reason.

By the French census of 1760 the town, spelled Okchanya, had 130 men, and was 10 leagues from Fort Toulouse. The trade regu- lations of 1761 give the "Oakchoys Old Town and out plantations," 90 hunters, and assigned this group to the traders, Brown and Jackson. During the Creek War of 1813 the people of the town were friendly to the Americans.

As indicated the name is variously spelled. Milfort gives still an additional name, calling the tribe Les Oxiailles. It is spelled Hook- choie by Hawkins.

The town was about 6 or 7 miles in easterly direction from Nixburg, Coosa County.

From Okchayi was settled Okchayudshi, and also Lalokalka, which see.

REFERENCES .- Georgia, Colonial Records (1907), vol. 8, p. 523; Ibid (1907), vol. 16, pp. 147-149; American State Papers, Indion Afffairs, vol. 1, p. 852; Mississippi, Provincial Archives (1911), p. 95; Hawkins, Sketches of the Creek Country (1848), p. 37; Georgia, Colonial Rec- ords (1907), vol. 9, pp. 70-74; North Carolina, Colonial Records, vol. 11, pp. 176, 178; Hand- book of American Indians (1910), p. 114.

OKCHAYUDSHI. A small Upper Creek town, of Alibamu origin. It was settled in part from Okchayi. It was situated on the eastern bank of Coosa River between Otchi- apofa (hickory ground) and Taskigi. Its cabins joined those of the latter town. The name is the same as Okchayi, with the dimi- nutive "shi," meaning "little" Okchayi.

Of this town Hawkins says:

"The houses join those of Tus-ke-gee; the land around the town is a high, poor level, with highland ponds; the corn fields are on the left side of Tallapoosa, on rich low grounds, on a point called Sam-bel-loh, and below the mouth of the creek of that name which joins on the right side of the river.

"They have a good stock of hogs, and a few cattle and horses; they formerly lived on the right bank of Coosau, just above their present site, and removed, lately, on account of the war with the Chickasaws. Their stock ranges on that side of the river; they have fenced all the small fields about their houses, where they raise their peas and po- tatoes; their fields at Sam-bel-loh, are under a good fence; this was made by Mrs. Durant, the oldest sister of the late General McGilli- vray, for her own convenience."

The earliest historical notice of this town is on Danville's map 1732, where it is spelled Oucchanya. It is located on the western bank of the Coosa River, apparently about 4 miles below the falls, opposite its later location. The French census of 1760 assigns it 100 warriors, and locates it a quarter of a mile from Fort Toulouse. In the English trade

regulations it appears that there were two divisions of the town, since Little Oakchoys, with 20 hunters, was assigned to William Trewin, and "Oakchoys opposite the Alabama Fort with its 35 hunters, was assigned to John Ray." The latter was probably the town of Danville's map. A map of the Creek Indians, published in the American Gazetteer, 1762, vol. 1, shows the division, the Ockha located on the right bank of the Coosa, opposite Fort Toulouse, while . Litockha is placed across the Tallapoosa to the south of the fort. The larger or original town of Ockhoy is given the seat it always occupied in Talla- poosa County north of Kailaidshi.

After the departure of the French from Fort Toulouse, two Alibamu towns, accord- ing to John Stuart, superintendent of Indian affairs, but two Koassati towns, according to Romans and Adair, by permission of the English, migrated and founded a settlement on the west side of the Tombigbee below the influx of the Sukanatcha, extending from Black Bluff for some distance down the river. On his trip down the Tombigbee in 1771 Romans mentions having passed "the remains of the Coosada and Occhoy settlements." These migrants returned to their ancient seats about 1767. West Oakchia, a bluff from the Tombigbee in northeast Choctaw County, marks the site and preserves the memory of this brief sojourn. There is no doubt that the people forming this migration were in part from Okchayudshi and not from Okchayi, since the former were neighbors of the Ko- assatis in the neighborhood of Fort Toulouse, and the movement was one of location, rather than of tribal groups. The statement of Dr. Gatschet that the Okchayi town on the Tombigbee was the mother town of Okchayi and Okchayudshi is hardly tenable. All of the map and other references are to the antiquity of these towns among the Upper Creeks, while there is an absence of reference to the west Okchayi settlement until men- tioned by Romans.

About 1793 on account of the war, raging at that time between the Creeks and Chicka- saws, the Okchayudshi moved across the Coosa River and settled the "little compact town, between Taskiki and the Hickory Ground."

Its people belonged to the Red Stick party during the war of 1813-14.

REFERENCES .- Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country (1848), p. 37; Hamilton, Colonial Mo- bile (1910), pp. 188, 196; Mississippi, Provincial Archives (1911), vol. 1, p. 94; Georgia, Colo- nial Records (1907), vol. 8, p. 524; Adair, Ameri- can Indians (1775), p. 267; Romans, Florida (1775), p. 327.

OKFUSKEE, FORT. A British fortified post on the east side of the Tallapoosa River, at the Indian town of Okfuskee, and 40 miles northeast of Fort Toulouse. When the well- fortified Fort Toulouse was built by the French in 1714, and French traders were pushing out in all directions, the British began to realize the menace of this fort to them both in a military and a commercial

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

way. In the effort to counteract this influ- ence, about 1735 the British built a fort at or near the old Indian town of Okfuskee (q. v.). While they were thus able to alienate some of the Upper Creeks from the French, on the whole the venture was not successful. The main body of the Creeks remained faith- ful to the French, and at the same time, they hated the British most heartily. The site was occupied for some years, but grad- ually fell into disuse.

REFERENCES .- Brewer, Alabama (1872), p. 547; Pickett, History of Alabama (Owen's ed., 1900), p. 268; Hamilton, Colonial Mobile (1910), pp. 188, 205; Ala. Hist. Society, Transactions, 1897-98, vol. 2, p. 132, footnote.

OKITIYAKNI. A Lower Creek village, in Barbour County, on the eastern bank of the Chattahoochee River, 8 miles below Eufaula. It was peopled by a branch of the Hitchiti (q. v.). According to Gatschet, the word means either "whirl-pool," or "river-bend." The site of the village in modern times was known Prospect Bluff. Oketeeochene Creek flows southeast into the stream, and receives its name from the village. A promi- nent Indian half-breed, Jim Perryman, son of an old Indian countryman, Theophilus Perryman, lived in Okitiyakni.

Of this town Hawkins says that it was settled from Eufaulau Town. "They have spread out their settlements down the river, about 8 miles below the town, counting on the river path, there is a little village on good land, O-ke-teyoc-en-ne. Some of the settlements are well fenced; they raise plenty of corn and rice, and the range is a good one for stock. From this village they have settlements down as low as the forks of the river; and they are generally on sites well chosen, some of them well cultivated; they raise plenty of corn and rice, and have cattle, horses and hogs.

"Several of these Indians have negroes, taken during the Revolutionary war, and where they are, there is more industry and better farms. These negroes, were, many of them, given by the agents of Great Britain to the Indians, in payment for their services, and they generally call themselves "King's gifts." The negroes are all of them, atten- tive and friendly to white people, particularly so to those in authority."

REFERENCES .- Handbook of American Indians (1910), p. 115; Gatschet, in Alabama History Commission, Report (1901), vol. 1, p. 405; Haw- kins, Sketch of the Creek Country (1848,) p. 66; Woodward, Reminiscences (1859), p. 107.

OKMULGI. The principal town of the name was an ancient Lower Creek town on the east side of Flint River, Ga. The name is Hitchiti and signifies "bubbling, boiling water," that is, oki, "water,". mulgis, "it is boiling." The latter part of the word is both Creek and Hitchiti. Bartram is authority for the statement that Okmulgi was the first town founded by the Creeks after their migration from the west. It was situated in Pulaski County, Ga., on the east side of the river of

the name, opposite Hawkinsville. Adair says that it was destroyed by the Carolinians about 1715. After this date the town on the Flint was settled, and it appears so on De Crenay's map, 1733. The foregoing references are given because of the important relation of this early town to general Creek history.

However, there appears to have been an- other "Ockmulgee" in 1762, located on the west side of the Chattahoochee River, north of Chiaha. No facts are obtainable in refer- ence to its history, so that the cartographer may have been in error.

REFERENCES .- Gatschet, in Alabama History Commission, Report (1901), vol. 1, p. 405; Bar- tram, Travels (1791), pp. 53-54; Adair, Ameri- can Indians (1775), p. 36; Hamilton, Colonial Mobile (1910), p. 190; Winsor, The Westward Movement (1899), p. 31, for a map from The American Gazetteer, London, (1762), vol. 1; Handbook of American Indians (1900), vol. 2, p. 105.

OKONI. A Lower Creek town in Russell County, 6 miles down the river from Chiaha, and about 2 miles by trail south of Hitchiti and on the west bank of the Chattahoochee River, near the influx of Snake Creek. It is about 2 miles southeast of Loflin.

Gatschet says that its inhabitants were probably Apalachians of the Hitchiti-Mikasuki dialect. Bartram says that they spoke the "Stincard" tongue. This traveler, who vis- ited the site of the old town about 1770 says that about 1710 they abandoned the place because of the proximity of the white settlers "moving .upwards into the nation or Upper Creeks, and there built a town, but that sit- uation not suiting their roving disposition, they grew sickly and tired of it, and resolved to seek a habitation more agreeable to their minds." The point thus settled was Cuso- willa on the banks of a lake in Alachua County, Florida. This was abandoned after the Yamasi War. After this it is probable that they settled on the east side of Flint River, Georgia, as they are thus placed on De Crenay's map, 1733. Later they settled on the Chattahoochee, where Hawkins found them in 1799. The name, spelled Okonis, is in the French census of 1760, with 5~ men. The British trade regulations of 1761 speaks of them as "Big and Little Oconees," with 50 hunters and assigns them to the trader, Wil- liam Frazer. The descriptive "Big" and "Little" appears to imply two divisions, one probably on the Flint, the other on the Chattahoochee. The name, according to Gatschet, is the Cherokee term "great water," that is, Ekwoni, "river," ekwa, "great, large," but Swanton says that this derivation is doubtful.

REFERENCES .- Handbook of American Indians (1910), vol. 2, p. 105; Gatschet, in Alabama History Commission, Report (1901), p. 405; Mis- sissippi, Provincial Archives (1911), vol. 1, p. 96; Georgia, Coloniol Records (1907), vol. 8, p. 522; Hamilton, Colonial Mobile (1910), p. 190; Bartram, Travels (1791), p. 380; Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country (1848), p. 65.

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH FIELD ARTILLERY. The 117th Field Artillery was composed of men who had formerly belonged to the 1st Alabama Cavalry which had been organized in July, August and September, 1916, hy R. E. Steiner, and Bibb Graves who became Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel re- spectively.

The regiment was mustered into Federal service during the first two weeks in Septem- ber, 1916, and became an integral part of the Alabama National Guard.

The regiment entrained for San Antonio, Texas, on the 8th day of December, 1916, and arrived four days later. The regiment was assigned space for the pitching of its tents in Camp Wilson, and the officers and men were soon undergoing intensive train- ing.

On March 22 the organization left San Antonio and arrived at Vandiver Park, Montgomery, March 26, where it went into Camp.

After the declaration of war between the United States and the Central Powers the organization was scattered throughout the State, guarding bridges, railroad tunnels, warehouses in which were located valuable property, and ammunition plants. The regi- ment reassembled in Montgomery in the latter part of June, and its camp was located in the center of the old race track of the fair grounds. On August 5, 1917, the unit was drafted into Federal service, and became a part of the National Guard of the United States.

When the Alabama Brigade was ordered to Camp Wheeler, Macon, Ga., to become a part of the 31st, "Dixie Division," the Ist Alabama Cavalry was transformed into field artillery. The following troops of the Cav- alry regiment became batteries of the 117th Field Artillery: Troops "B," "C," "E," "F," and "L," together with the Headquarters troop. The Medical Corps under the com- mand of Major H. M. Weeken also went into the 117th Field Artillery as its medical de- tachment. Battery "A""' of the regiment was one of the batteries of the Georgia National Guard Field Artillery, from Savannah, Ga.

Upon the election of Col. R. E. Steiner, as General in command of the Alabama Bri- gade, Lt. Col. Bibb Graves was elevated to the rank of Colonel, and assumed command of the 1st Alabama Cavalry, in March, 1917. A large number of the men and officers of this regiment upon their arrival in France in the latter part of October, 1918, were transferred, and used as replacement troops.

The organization participated in no actual fighting, and was returned to the United States in the Spring of 1919, and mustered out of the Federal Service at Fort McPher- son, Ga.

ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH FIELD ARTILLERY. For the sketch of the 116th Field Artillery, see sketch of the 117th Field Artillery. This unit went to France together with the other organizations of the Dixie

Division, and its men were used as replace- ments, and upon its return to the United States was demobolized at Fort McPherson, Ga.

ONEONTA. County seat of Blount County, in the east-central part of the county, sec. 31, T. 12, R. 2 W., on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, about 40 miles northeast of Bir- mingham. Population: 1900-583; 1910- 609. It was incorporated February 18, 1891. Its banks are the Blount County Bank ( State) and the Farmers Savings Bank (State). The Blount County Journal, established in 1909, and the Southern Democrat, established in 1894, both Democratic weeklies, are pub- lished there. Its industries are a cottonseed oil mill, a heading mill, an ice plant, a saw- mill, a planing mill, a cotton ginnery, a cotton warehouse, and iron ore mines.

The community was first settled by A. J. Ingram, J. E. Ingram, R. A. and George Bynum, and Howell Patterson. It is situated in the heart of the great Murphrees Valley, near one of the highest mountain peaks of the county, and on the historic old Murphrees Valley Road, down which Generals Coffee and Jackson marched their Indian fighters, many of whom afterward settled there. Among them were Gabriel and John Hanby, who were ironworkers. John Hanhy is credited with having discovered the iron ore near Oneonta.

REFERENCES .- Acts, 1890-91, pp. 895-912; Armes, Story of coal and iron in Alabama (1910), pp. 23 et seq .; Brewer, Alabama (1872), p. 139; Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1915.

OPELIKA. County seat of Lee County, on the Western Railway of Alabama, the main line of the Central of Georgia Railway, and the Roanoke branch of the latter, 66 miles northeast of Montgomery and 130 miles south- east of Birmingham. Its corporate limits in- clude secs. 7 and 18 and the W. 12 of secs. 8 and 17, T. 19, R. 27 E, and the E. 12 of secs. 12 and 13, T. 19, R. 26 E. Altitude: 817 feet. Population: 1890-3,703; 1900- 4,245; 1910-4,734. It was incorporated as a city by the legislature, February 20, 1899, and adopted the municipal code of 1907 on February 17, 1908. It has a city hall, erected in 1909 at a cost of $10,000; a jail, erected in 1909, $2,000; police station, 1914, $800; municipally owned electric light plant, 1910, $77,856; municipally owned waterworks, 1910, $31,479; fire department, installed in October, 1910, $5,500; 6 miles of sanitary sewerage, constructed in 1902; 3 miles of street pavement, and 12 miles paved side- walks, 1915; and 2 public school buildings. Its bonded indebtedness is $150,000-$13,500 sidewalk, $56,500 street pavement, $80,000 school and public building bonds, all maturing in 1925. Its banking institutions are the First National, the Farmers' National, and the Bank of Opelika (State). Its newspaper is the Opelika Daily News, a Democratic eve- ning daily, except Sunday, established in 1890. Its principal industries are a brickyard, a cottonseed oil mill, 4 cotton warehouses, 2

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

fertilizer plants, an ice plant, 3 sash, doors and blinds mills, 4 cotton ginneries, and the above-mentioned municipal plants.

Opelika was first settled in 1836 or 1837. Amos Mizell, Abijah Bennett, William Man- grum, David Lockhart, and Rev. Luke Mizell were among the first to come into the settle- ment. Lebanon Church, a split-log and board building, was erected by a Methodist congre- gation in 1837, a mile and a half south of the present courthouse, and it probably formed a nucleus for the town. A post office was established in 1840, with Wesley Wil- liams as postmaster. It was officially recorded as "Opelikan," but this manifestly was an error, since the name was derived from the Creek Indian word "Opillako," opilua- swamp, laka-large. The name does not appear correctly in the records until 1851. The Montgomery & West Point Railway (now Western Railway of Alabama) reached the town in 1848, and in 1852 the agitation for the construction of the Columbus branch of this road was begun. The main line had already been extended to West Point, Ga.

On February 9, 1854, the legislature incor- porated the town with limits extending 1 mile in every direction from the railway station. The act provided that the whole of the cor- porate limits should be in Russell County, and thereby changed the county lines inasmuch as a part of the area was included in Macon County. The legislature, on December 5, 1866, created Lee County from parts of Cham- bers, Russell, Macon, and Tallapoosa, and named Opelika, then a town of about 2,000 people, as the county seat. From that time to the present its growth has been steady. It is surrounded by a rich agricultural country, and enjoys good transportation facili- ties, which have contributed to its growth and prosperity.

Among the early settlers of Opelika were J. C. W. Rogers, J. R. Greene, Charles Bird, Elisha Thomas, Peter Bogia, Wash Bedell, Thomas Robertson, John Haley, James B. Reese, Daniel Gentry, Brady Preston, Nelson Clayton, and Felix Hubbard. The Barnes family removed to the town from Lafayette in 1867. W. H. Samford, father of the late Gov. William J. Samford, moved from Georgia into the section of Macon County now in- cluded in Lee, in 1847, and some years after the War, moved into the town of Opelika. Gen. George P. Harrison, of Georgia, located in Opelika about the close of 1865.

OPELIKA AND TALLADEGA RAILROAD COMPANY. See Central of Georgia Railway Company.

OPELIKA AND TUSCUMBIA RAILROAD COMPANY. See Central of Georgia Railway Company.

OPELIKA COTTON MILLS, Opelika.

See Cotton Manufacturing.

OPILLAKO. An Upper Creek town in Coosa County, on Pinthlocco Creek, situated about 20 miles up the stream from the Coosa

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 69

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