History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 7

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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General McIntosh is represented as a tall, finely formed man, with polished manners, which he had acquired from contact with the more refined of the white people and from association with army officers on the Southern frontier. He was the owner of a number of negro slaves, whom he treated kindly, and possessed considerable wealth.

General McIntosh had a half-brother on his father's side, named Rolin or Rolla, and a half-brother on his mother's side, named Ho- gey, often called Hogey McIntosh, who was a full blooded Indian. He had two wives, named Peggy and Susannah, one of whom was a Creek, the other a Cherokee, but in the lack of records, it cannot be decided to which nationality each one respectively belonged. His Creek children were two sons, Chilly, who suc- ceeded him in the chieftainship, and Lewis, and three daughters, Jane, Hetty, and Lucy. Jane was the oldest daughter. She first mar- ried Billy Mitchell, a son of the Creek agent David B. Mitchell; she next married Sam Haw- kins, whose death has already been noted. She then married Paddy Carr, but left him and went to Arkansas Territory at an early day. General McIntosh had only one Cher- okee child, a daughter, who married Ben Hawkins, a brother of Sam. Ben was killed years afterwards in Texas. The McIntosh family has ever been distinguished in the Creek nation, prominent in church, state and military affairs. Several of them were Con- federate field officers. The blood of the Mc- Intosh clan thus shows that it was born to command, even when mingled with the wild blood of the Muscogee Indian.

General McIntosh wrote an official report of the affair of Econfinnah, which has the distinction of being the first report of this character ever written by an American In- dian.

Nearly all the fighting of the first Seminole war was done by General McIntosh's com- mand. They were mustered out of service on April 24. (Parton's Life of Jackson, vol. ii, p. 463.) A summary of their campaign is thus recorded by D. B. Mitchell, the Creek agent: "When McIntosh and his warriors were mustered at Fort Mitchell, he divided his force, and with that part which he re- tained under his own command, he descended the Chattahoochee on its western bank, and

on reaching the town called Red Ground, en- countered their chief and warriors. In this affair he took fifty-three warriors, and one hundred and thirty women and children. The chief made his escape with a few war- riors. Colonel Lovett, with the rest of the warriors, mustered at Fort Mitchell, descend- ed the Chattahoochee on the eastern bank, and General McIntosh crossing the river be- low the fork, the two detachments united on their march to Mickasuky, where they all joined General Jackson. At Mickasuky the Indians had generally fled, and but few were found at the town. On the march to Suwany, McIntosh, with his warriors, encountered about two hundred of the hostile party, un- der Peter McQueen, of whom he killed thir- ty-seven, and made six warriors and one hun- dred and six women and children prisoners. The next enemy they engaged were the ne- groes of Sauwannee, amounting to about two hundred and fifty, of whom eleven or twelve were killed, and three made prisoners. The Indians of this part of the country fled before the army, and here ended the Seminole cam- paign, as far as the Indians were concerned."

(American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i, p. 749.)

REFERENCES .- McKenney and Hall's Indian Tribes of North America (1854), vol. 1, pp. 129-133; American State Papers, Military Af- fairs, vol. 1, pp. 699-701; American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 841, 843, 852; Pickett's History of Alabama (Owen's Edi- tion, 1900), pp. 519, 558; Woodward's Remi- niscences of the Creek or Muscogee Indians (1859), pp. 50, 54, 55, 114; White's Historical Collections of Georgia (1855), pp. 170-173; Hand ook of American Indians (1907), part 2, p. 782; Spark's Memories of Fifty Years (1872), pp. 467-473; and Alabama Historical Reporter. vol. 3, no. 7, July, 1855; and Parton's Life of Jackson (1861), vol. ii, p. 459, 460.

McQUEEN, PETER, Creek chief, born probably 1780, and on Line Creek in Mont- gomery County, Alabama, was the son of James McQueen and a Tallassee woman. James McQueen was a Scotchman, born, it is said in 1683, deserted from a British vessel at San Augustine in 1710, went to the Creek Nation and died there in 1711, at the great age of one hundred and twenty-eight years. There are no facts on record as to the early life of Peter McQueen. It was evidently only a few years before the Creek War that he married Retsy Durant, a daughter of Benja- min and Sophia (McGillivray) Durant, who was a daughter of Lachlan McGillivray. It is not improbable that his marriage into a wealthy and influential family had much to do with his becoming the chief of the Tal- lissees. McQueen at this time was a wealthy man for an Indian, owning many negroes and much stock. He was a man of integrity, and lived on good terms with the American officials and other white people. Like many other half-bloods, through the influence brought to bear upon him from English and Spanish sources, he joined the hostile fac- tion in 1813, and became one of the most

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prominent Red Stick leaders during the Creek war. McQueen commanded the large band of Indians that went to Pensacola in July, 1813, for supplies of ammunition to be used in the contemplated war against the Amer- icans. On their return march, while en- camped, July 27, 1813, on Burnt Corn creek, they were attacked by an American force un- der Colonel Caller, and what is known as the battle of Burnt Corn took place, in which the Creeks were the victors. After the return of McQueen's party, at some undetermined place, in accordance with the Indian method of keeping the exact day of an appointment, twenty short broken sticks, about six inches long, the sticks representing twenty days, were given to each warrior, one stick to be thrown away every day, and on the last day, when the last stick was thrown away, the warrior was to make his appearance at the rendezvous. In this case, the rendezvous was the Holy Ground. Here in council as- sembled, the Creek warriors at first resolved to march to Coweta, destroy town and people, as here was the home and rallying place of all the friendly Creeks. But the families of the killed and wounded at Burnt Corn forced the council to change Coweta to Fort Mims, as it contained many of their white and half- breed antagonists at Burnt Corn, and to some fort in the fork of the Tombigbee and Ala- bama. Fort Mims was accordingly unan- imously seelcted, and after two days' discus- sion, Fort Sinquefield was the fort selected in the fork. McQueen was a prominent chief at the massacre of Fort Mims. He seems not to have been present at the battle of the Horse-Shoe. After this defeat, he and his two brothers-in-law, John and Sandy Durant, placed themselves for a short time with their people on the headwaters of Line Creek. Thence they went to Florida. Owing to the confusion of the times, McQueen left his ne- groes in the Creek Nation, which were un- justly appropriated by some half-bloods, that were American partisans. He afterwards made a vain effort to have them sent to him in Florida. With these grievances it could hardly be otherwise that McQueen was by no means averse to reviving the war. General Thomas Woodward writes of meeting him and Josiah Francis at Fort Hawkins near the close of 1817. The two chiefs were there trading and their meeting with their old acquaintance, Woodward, was entirely friendly. Very soon after this, the fugitive Creeks and Seminoles were at open war against the Americans, and Peter McQueen was recognized as the head leader. The war of 1818 in Florida, known in history as the first Seminole war, was fought almost solely by the friendly Indians under General William McIntosh against the Red Stick Creeks and Seminoles under Peter McQueen. There was very little fighting done by the Americans. The most notable fight was on April 12, 1818, at Econfinnah, in which McQueen was defeated with the loss of thirty-seven men killed, and six men and ninety-seven women and children captured; add to these, a number of horses and about five hundred head of cattle. McIntosh's loss

was three men killed and four wounded. At the close of the Florida war McQueen took refuge on a barren island, on the Atlantic side of Cape Florida, where he soon after died. After his death his widow returned to the Creek Nation and married Willy Mc- Queen, a nephew of Peter, and became the mother of two daughters, Sophis and Mus- cogee, and two or three sons. Her children by Peter were a son, James, and three daugh- ters, Milly (Malee), Nancy and Tallassee.

REFERENCES .- Pickett's History of Alabama (Owen's Edition, 1900), 517, 521; Meek's Romantic Passages in Southwestern His- tory (1854), pp. 544, 547; American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i, pp. 847, 849, 851, 852, 857; American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i, pp. 682, 683, 700, 749; Wood- ward's Reminiscences of the Creek, or Musco- gee Indians (1857), pp. 9, 21, 25, 42, 44, 48, 97, 110, 153; Parton's Life of Jackson (1861), vol. ii, pp. 447, 449; Buell's History of Jack- son (1894), vol. ii, pp. 127; Halbert and Ball's Creek War (1895), pp. 125-149.

MENAWA, Creek chief, born probably at Okfuskee, about 1766, died in the Creek Na- tion west,-but year of death not known. He was a half-breed, but neither history nor tra- dition has preserved the name of his white father. He was noted in early life for his annual horse-stealing exploits on the Cumber- land frontier in Tennessee, but seldom shed- ding the blood of the settlers, except when he met with resistance. He received, in con- sequence of these raids, the name of Hop- othla, said by McKenney and Hall to mean crazy war hunter. The stealing of horses by Hopothla must not be ascribed solely to a spirit of adventure. He had evidently inher- ited the commercial instincts of his white progenitors, and these horses added largely to his wealth. After a few years, he gave up these inroads into Tennessee, largely adopted some of the ways of civilized life and became a wealthy man. He owned large herds of cattle, great numbers, of hogs, and several hundred horses. He owned a store, filled with various articles of merchandise suited for Indian life, which he bartered to his people for the products of the chase. He was known to drive to Pensacola, a hundred horses, loaded with peltries and furs. By the time of the outbreak of the Creek war of 1813, Menawa, the name by which he was now known, was one of the wealthiest Indians of the Upper Towns.

When Tecumseh visited the Creeks in 1811, Menawa was the second chief of the Okfuskee towns. He entered heart and soul into Tecumseh's schemes, influenced to this ac- tion, in a measure, by his hatred of General McIntosh, who, he knew, in case of war, would be on the side of the Americans. While Menawa was the war chief of his people in the Creek war, the head chief was a medicine man, in whose supernatural powers the ig- norant Creeks placed the most implicit con- fidence. Menawa himself was not exempt from this superstition. He fought in several battles of the Creek war, but is best known

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GANIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY, 1901 COLLECTION OF STATE DOCUMENTS ASSEMBLED BY DR. THOMAS M. OWEN, ON THE OR-

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from his connection with the battle of the Horse-Shoe. The medicine man had assured the Creeks, fortified on this consecrated ground, that the Americans would attack them in the rear, in the place where it was swept by the river. Menawa, just before the battle, posted his warriors in accordance with this prophecy. General Jackson at once saw that the vulnerable point of the horse-shoe was the breastwork in front extending across the isthmus. He at once rapidly moved for- ward his cannon, and with them made breaches in the breastwork, towards which the Tennesseeans made an impetuous charge. Menawa saw the fatal mistake he made by heeding the false prophet; in his furious wrath, he struck him dead, and then, at the head of his Okfuskee braves, dashed forth over the breastwork against the Tennessee- ans. The battle which ensued, terminating in the death of near one thousand Creek war- riors, has often been described. When it ended, about sunset, Menawa, desperately wounded, lay unconscious amid a heap of the dead. When he recovered, and the darkness grew deeper, the love of life prompted him to escape from the fatal field. He crawled to the river, found a canoe, floated in it down the river to near the camp where the women and children were hidden prior to the battle. The canoe was seen by some of the women, Menawa was taken from it, and sent to an appointed rendezvous on Elkahatchee Creek, where he was joined by other unhappy sur- vivors of the battle. Three days were passed by them in mourning for their dead, in which no one ate, drank or permitted his wounds to be dressed. This over, it was re- solved that each one should retire to his own home, and then make his own peace with the victors. Their wounds were then dressed, and all, except Menawa, went away to follow out the plan agreed upon in their council. Such is the story of the escape of Menawa from the battlefield of the Horse-Shoe, as re- lated by McKenney and Hall. It differs ir- reconcilably from the version given by Pick- ett, but may be reconciled with the incidents in Woodward's version of Menawa's making use of a woman's dress while lying wounded on the field. Pickett's statement that Mena- wa, while lying in the river, breathed through the long joint of a cane, one end of which projected above the water, records something that no human being can do, and this state- ment, made perhaps in a quizzical mood by Menawa himself, was palmed off upon Pick- ett's credulity. In short, Pickett's version must be rejected. Menawa's wounds kept him in his retreat until after the close of the war. He then sought his old home in Okfuskee, but found everything swept away by the war, and he was now indeed a very poor man. Ac- cording to one authority he and his people made their homes near the falls of the Ca- tawba for more than a year after the war. He regained his health, reassumed his old time leadership over the Okfuskee people, and again was an influential man in the Creek nation. Like the great majority of his peo- ple he was opposed to any cessions of land.

In 1825, in the excitement following the treaty of Indian Springs, a secret council was held, in which a party of chiefs and warriors were appointed to carry into execution the national law by putting to death General William McIntosh, who, in violation of this law, had presumed to make a cession of land at Indian Springs. Menawa was one of these National executioners. In after years, he re- gretted his share in this affair, saying that he would freely lay down his life, if by so doing, he could bring back to life Billy McIntosh. He was one of the delegates that went to Washington to remonstrate against the treaty of Indian Springs. His conduct during the negotiations was calm and dignified, for he was a gentleman in appearance and manners.

In 1835 he sent his oldest son to serve against the Seminoles in Florida. In 1836 he was among the first Creeks to offer his services against his insurgent countrymen, and in combination with Opothleyaholo, he marched with his braves against the hostile town of Hatchechubbee. On this occasion he wore a full American uniform and "af- fected the conduct of a civilized leader, whose sole object was to prevent the effusion of blood." This shows a great evolution in his mental and moral attitude, from that of the savage chief in 1814 to a military leader, imhued with the ideas of civilization, in 1836. Menawa was opposed to the emigration of the entire Creek Nation, but wished that certain reservations, to be held in perpetuity, should he granted to such individuals as wished to remain in the ceded territory. Such a res- ervation was granted to him in consideration of his past services. But scarcely was it granted when "by some strange inadvertence or want of faith, he was ordered to join the emigration camp." He went west with his people, but there is no record of his life in the new country, not even when and where he died. In 1894, Miss Hannah Monahwee, the granddaughter of the chief Menawa, was the matron of the Wetumpka National Labor School in the Creek Nation, Colonel William Rohison, Superintendent. Monahwee is an- other form of writing Monawa.

REFERENCES .- McKenney and Hall's Indian Tribes of North America (1854), vol. ii, pp. 97-105; Pickett's History of Alabama (Owen's Edition, 1900), p. 590; Woodward's Reminis- cences of the Creek, or Muscogee Indians (1859), pp. 43, 116, 117, 168.

GREAT MORTAR, YAH-YAH TUSTENUG- GEE, YAHATATASTENAKE, or OTIS MIC- CO, Creek chief, of whose early life nothing is known. He was born in Okchaiyi, be- longed to the Bear clan, and became a prom- inent chief of his native town. He did his trading at Fort Toulouse, and during the French and Indian war was in the French in- terest. Governor Ellis of Georgia often sent messages to him to come and see him, as he wished to cultivate a good understanding with him and convert him to the English in- terest. The Great Mortar, at last, about the summer of 1759, inclined to the English and perhaps might have become a thorough Eng-

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lish partisan but for the foolish conduct of Edmund Atkin, the first Superintendent of the Southern Indians. About the first of October, 1759, Atkin was holding a council with the chiefs and headmen of the Creeks in "the great beloved Square of Tucka- batchee." Here he committed a most egre- gious folly in stigmatizing the chiefs as Frenchmen, that is, in the French interest, and refusing to shake hands with them, an act regarded by them as extremely discour- teous. Worse than all this, he forbade them to hand the white peace pipe to the Great Mortar, because he had been in the French interest. Atkin here threw away a great op- portunity, for had he acted with wisdom he might then and there have thoroughly re- claimed the Great Mortar. In the course of his talk to the Creeks, he made use of so many bitter remarks, that at last a chief, stung to madness, sprang up and threw his tomahawk at the agent's head. It fortunate- ly missed and struck a plank above his head. The action would have been repeated but for the interposition of a friendly warrior. After the personal affronts and insults at Tucka- batchee, the Gerat Mortar became a staunch friend of the French. In the war that soon broke out between the Cherokees and the province of South Carolina the French at Fort Toulouse made much use of the Great Mortar and his adherents, by sending through them all kinds of military supplies to the Cherokees. In the spring of 1760 the Great Mortar devised a scheme to kill all the trad- ers among the Upper Creeks and to appro- priate their goods. He engaged the services of all the young warriors who were his kins- men and selected May 14 as the day for the bloody work, as at this time the Creeks were usually in their fields hoeing their crops. The whole affair was a secret, known only to the conspirators. The day came and the bloody work began in the northernmost town, Suk- aispoka, whence the raging savages surged down the country to Kialagee, where the mas- sacre was repeated, then to Okfuskey, but be- fore they reached Okchaiyi, the traders of that place received warning, and all made their escape except two, who were killed hy some warriors of the town who were in the conspiracy. Ten traders were killed on this day, all the outcome of the Great Mortar's revenge. In the meantime, while the Chero- kee war was still going on, the French, after mature deliberation, concluded to settle the Great Mortar, his family and his warriors, far up the Coosa, half-way to the Cherokee coun- try, where he could better enlist the Chero- kees and other disaffected Indians in the French cause. The place selected was all that could please the Indians,-no annoying insects, the river at that point shallow, and its bottoms covered with a salty grass upon which the deer were always feeding,-making it altogether a most suitable place for an In- dian village. Supplies for it could always be sent up the river from Fort Toulouse. In due time the Great Mortar, furnished with a French commission, a French flag, and other

essentiais, with his numerous followers,

loaded with supplies for themselves and the Cherokees, began their march to the new settlement. Here they built their cabins, and here they erected the French flag, no doubt the farthest point up Coosa River where the French flag ever floated. The French and the Great Mortar were not mistaken as to the advantages of this border town. It became a great rendezvous to the Cherokees, the Mis- sissippi Indians and the disaffected Creeks. Had this "nest of hornets," so styled by Adair, been left to remain undisturbed, it would have shown itself the deadliest foe of the Georgia and Carolina colonists. The Chickasaws, staunch friends of the English, soon heard of its establishment. Their war- riors were thoroughly familiar with the lo- cality, even with the very site of the Great Mortar's residence. A large party of them embodied, marched against the town and broke it up. They attacked the Great Mor- tar's house. He managed to escape, but his brother who was with him was slain. The disaster wrought deeply upon the proud spirit of the Great Mortar. Ashamed to return to his former home, he and his followers made a settlement in the most northern part of the Creek nation, the place receiving from the traders the name of "Mortar's plantation." From this place, with their Cherokee allies, they made frequent raids upon the Carolina settlements. They were with the Cherokees in 1761, when Colonel Grant brought the war to a close. It is probable that when Colonel Grant began his march from Fort Prince George up into the Cherokee country in June, 17.63, the Great Mortar may have begun to doubt the ultimate success of the Cherokee cause, and hence may have wished to make fair weather with the English. For, about this time, in a public talk with another head- man, he denied being in the French interest, or an ally of the Cherokees in their war; but declared himself a firm friend of the English, and wished to be looked upon as such; and that he would he greatly pleased to receive a small present from them. This talk of the Great Mortar having heen report- ed to Governor Wright, he ordered on July 21, 1761, that a silver gorget and armlets should he sent to some headman in the na- tion, who would present them to the Great Mortar. The peace made between the Eng- lish and French was certainly generally known among the Southern Indians by the spring of 1763. Then for the first time there was an interchange of talk between the Great Mortar and Governor James Wright of Georgia. The Creek chief was present at a council of the Upper Creeks, on April 5, 1763, where he made a talk which was sent to Governor Wright. In his talk the Great Mortar complained and justly so of the intru- sion of white people with their cattle and horses upon the Indians' lands, that these people had killed or driven off all the deer and bear, so that the Creeks could not supply their families with provisions as formerly, and as a matter of necessity they had to kill the white people's cattle roaming on the land so as to have food to eat when they were

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hungry. The Virginia people occupying these lands had said that they would not leave them, neither for the King's nor the red people's talk, and he hoped that the King would oblige them to take his talk, which would prevent much mischief that would otherwise happen. The Great Mortar next spoke of the insufficient supplies of powder and lead, which the traders supplied the Creek town, which should be fifteen bags of powder and an equivalent amount of bullets to each town. A chief of the Lower Creeks present at the council also sent to Governor Wright a talk of the same import,-that he had told Sampiaffii and Togulki that as soon as the Cherokee war was over, the Virginians should be sent off the lands, but now since the close of the war they were settled there more numerous than before.

On May 8, a common talk by the Great Mortar and Gen. Merchant was sent from Okchaiyi to Governor Wright in which the land question was still the burden, and the talk closed with the fear that the white peo- ple intended to settle all around the Indians and so smother them out of life. The Gov- ernor replied to these talks by a talk inform- ing the Indians that there would be a gen- eral meeting with them at Augusta in the fall, when all these things would be talked over and settled. He also sent them copies of the King's instructions, forbidding any persons settling on the lands claimed by the Indians, and requiring those already settled on them to remove therefrom. According to Adair the Great Mortar was present at the In- dian congress held in Augusta in November. If so, he was there only as a looker on, for his name does not appear among the Creek speak- ers, nor among the signers of the treaty. Adair also states that the Great Mortar, after his return home, sent off into South Carolina the party that murdered on Decem- ber 23, the fourteen persons in the Long Cane settlement above Ninety-six. There is a dearth of historical materials relating to the Southern Indian world in 1764. But from some causes, during this year the Great Mor- tar became the leading chief in the Creek nation. The fall of this year was a period fraught with peril to the people of Mobile and Pensacola. Pontiac was still a formida- ble character in the northwest in spite of the subjugation of the Shawnees and Delawares, his staunchest allies. In the summer of 1764, he visited the Kickapoos, the Peankishaws, the Miamis and the Illinois, and by his im- perious eloquence aroused them to the fiercest hatred and hostility against the English. At Fort Chartres he had his women to make a wampum belt six feet long and four inches wide, wrought with the symbols of the forty- seven towns and tribes that still adhered to his alliance. This helt was consigned to an embassy of chosen warriors with instruc- tions to carry it down the Mississippi River and exhibit it to every nation inhabiting its banks, exhorting them to watch the move- ments of the English and repel any attempt they might make to ascend the river. Gov- ernor George Johnstone and Captain John

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 7

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