History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 9

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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SARGENT, WINTHROP, governor of the Mississippi Territory, born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, May 1, 1753, died in New Or- leans, Louisiana, June 3, 1820. He was the son of Winthrop and Judith (Sanders) Sar- gent, the grandson of Colonel Epes and Esther ( Macarty ) Sargent, and of Thomas and Judith (Robinson) Saunders. His first paternal immigrant ancestor was William Sargent, who came from Gloucester, England, and settled at Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

Winthrop Sargent was graduated from Harvard College with A. B. degree in 1771, and with A. M. in 1774. Soon after he be- came captain of a merchant ship, which be- longed to his father. On July 7, 1775, he enlisted in the Revolutionary Army as a lieu- tenant in Gridley's regiment of Massachusetts artillery. December 10, 1775, he was pro- moted captain lieutenant in Henry Knox's regiment of Continental artillery. From Jan- uary 1, to March 16, he was naval agent at Gloucester. He was promoted captain of ar- tillery in Knox's regiment, January 1, 1777. He was aide-de-camp to General Howe from 1777 to 1783, in the latter year being pro- moted brevet major.

Captain Sargent took part with his artil- lery in the siege of Boston, in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, Prince- ton, Brandywine, Germantown and Mon- mouth. In 1786 he became connected with the Ohio company, which was organized for the settlement of the Northwestern Territory and was appointed by Congress, Surveyor of the Territory.

Major Sargent served as adjutant-general of the army under General St. Clair in his campaign against the confederated North- · western Indian tribes and was wounded in the disastrous defeat on the Maumee River,

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November 4, 1791. Roosevelt in his Win- ning of the West, writing of the mismanage- ment of St. Clair's campaign, and the incom- petency or unfitness of its two commanding officers, says:

"The whole burden fell on the Adjutant- General, Colonel Winthrop Sargent, an old Revolutionary officer; without him the ex- pedition would probably failed in ignominy even before the Indians were reached, and he showed not only cool courage but ability of a good order; yet in the actual arrange- ments for battle he was, of course, unable to remedy the blunders of his superiors."

In 1794 Sargent was with General Wayne in his successful campaign against the con- federated tribes. On December 19 of this year he was commissioned Secretary of the Northwestern Territory, and much of his time he acted as governor. He continued in the discharge of these duties until May 7, 1798, when he was appointed governor of the Mis- sissippi Territory. This territory was cre- ated April 7, 1798, and its eastern part was embraced in the present State of Alabama. Governor Sargent arrived at Natchez on Au- gust 6, and his first act, August 16, was the delivery of an address to the people of the Territory. Soon after, on September 8, in consequence of the apparent prospect of a war with France, by an official order he tem- porarily organized the militia of the Missis- sippi Territory.

On October 28, 1798, Governor Sargent was married to a wealthy young widow, Mrs. Mary McIntosh Williams, daughter of Wil- liam and Eunice (Hawley) McIntosh, of In- verness, Scotland, later of Natchez, Miss. William Fitz Winthrop was the only son of this marriage.

Governor Sargent was not popular with the people of the Mississippi Territory. While he was a conscientious and patriotic man and did his whole duty in attempting to concil- iate and attach the people to the United States, he was a New England Federalist, and doubtless inclined to be autocratic from his long military training. Hence he did not prove acceptable to the turbulent Jefferso- nian Republicans of the Southwest. It was his fate to encounter a strong opposition from some of the most influential men of the Ter- ritory. The first opposition was against the code of laws of 1799, which laws were neces- sarily made before the Territory had voters enough to entitle it to a territorial legisla- ture.

After this there was a constant opposition to all other measures of Governor Sargent's administration. Finally, in 1801, on the ac- cesion of Jefferson to the presidency, he was released from his office by the appointment of W. C. C. Claiborne as governor of the Terri- tory. Notwithstanding the opposition to his administration, Governor Sargent seems to have been strongly attached to the Mississippi Territory, for, on his retirement from office, he made it his home the remainder of his life. He lived near Natchez on his plantation, named Gloucester, in honor of his birth- place. And here after his death in New Or-

leans his remains were brought for burial, to rest forever within the confines of that terri- tory to which he had given such faithful service.

SEQUOYA, or GEORGE GUESS, inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, born about 1760, in the Cherokee town, Tuskegee, died in August, 1743, near San Fernando, New Mexico, was the son of a German trader, named George Gist, and of a Cherokee woman of mingled white and Indian blood belonging to a good family. Her name has not been preserved. She became a widow or a deserted wife be- fore the birth of her son, who received the name of his father. His Indian name, spelled Sikwayi in the Cherokee language, cannot be translated. As the son grew in years, he assisted his mother in her domestic duties, in the cultivation of her small farm, and in tak- ing care of her horses and cattle. He early showed great mechanical ingenuity and as he grew to manhood became a fine silver- smith. Like most of his people he was also a trader and hunter. He had no educa- tional advantages, as he was a man of middle age when missions were established among his people; nor did he ever even learn to speak broken English, an attainment not un- common with many of the Cherokee half- breeds of his day. In short, George Guess was a totally illiterate man, but a man of profound thought and close observation. In 1809 a chance conversation with some of his people led him to think deeply over the prob- lem how it was possible that white people could communicate thought by means of writ- ing. He then and there resolved to devise a similar system for his own people. A hunting accident after this making him a lifelong crip- ple, his now enforced sedentary life gave him all the leisure to evolve his great invention. He was during these years a man of some note among his people, for he was one of the signers of the treaty of 1816. After this he made his home in Will's town, situated in the present DeKalb county, Alabama. Here he devoted five years of thought and labor to the subject that was ever uppermost in his mind. He first invented or fabricated ideographic characters, each character representing a word in the Cherokee language. But after much labor, he realized that these characters would be too numerous, and their acquisition far beyond the power of the average memory. At last, in 1820, at his home in Will's town, after years of turmoil, exposed all the time to the ridicule of his friends, he at last evolved a syllabic alphabet, representing eighty-six syllables, perfectly suited to the Cherokee language. In 1821 he submitted his invention to the leading men of the Chero- kees; it was accepted as a success, and the name of George Guess became immortal as the Cadmus of his race. "Without advice, as- sistance, or encouragement-ignorant alike of books and of the various arts by which knowledge is disseminated-with no prompt- er but his own genius, and no guide but the light of reason, he had formed an alphabet for a rude dialect, which, until then, had been

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an unwritten tongue." The Cherokee syl- labary was soon recognized by the Cherokees as an invaluable invention for their elevation as a people and everywhere, in their cabins and along the roadside, they began to teach it to each other. Guess, of course, was its first teacher. "The invention of the alphabet had an immediate and wonderful effect on Cherokee development. On account of the remarkable adaptation of the syllabary to the language, it was only necessary to learn the characters to be able to read at once. No school houses were built and no teachers hired, but the whole Nation became an acad- emy for the study of the system, 'until in the course of a few months, without school or ex- pense of time or money, the Cherokees were able to read and write in their own lan- guage!' " In 1822 Guess went on a visit to the Cherokees in the Arkansas Territory, con- stituting one-third of the Cherokee people, and introduced among them his syllabary. It was readily accepted and a correspondence was soon opened between the two divisions of the Cherokee people. Having accomplished his purpose, Guess returned to his eastern home, where he remained hut a short time, and then, in 1823, emigrated permanently to the west. He never after visited his people in the east. In the fall of 1823, the general council of the Cherokee Nation, in apprecia- tion of Guess' great service to his people, awarded to him a silver medal, which bore on one side two pipes, on the other, a head with this inscription, "Presented to George Gist, by the General Council of the Cherokee Nation, for his ingenuity in the invention of the Cherokee Alphabet." The inscription was the same on both sides, excepting that on one side it was in English, on the other in Cherokee, in the characters invented by Guess. The medal was sent to Guess, then in the west, through John Ross, the president of the Council, who sent with it a written address. The first literary productions in the Cherokee syllabic alphabet were made, copied, and circulated in manuscript. In 1827 the Cherokee National Council, having resolved to establish a National paper in the Cherokee language and characters, types for this purpose were cast in Boston, and the first issue of the paper, Tsalagi Tsulihisanunhi or Cherokee Phoenix, printed in English and Cherokee, appeared in New Echota, February 21, 1828. Thenceforth, year after year, a large amount of literature in the Cherokee language and alphabet was created, educa- tional, legal and religious works, that were suitable for a people rapidly advancing in a Christian civilization. Guess became a prom- inent man in the public affairs of the west- ern Cherokees. He was chosen one of the delegates that visited Washington and nego- tiated the treaty of May 6, 1828. He and three other delegates signed their names to this treaty in the Sequoyan alphabet. While in Washington much attention was paid to Guess by various parties, who felt an interest in him on account of his wonderful invention. In 1838, in the re-organization of the Chero- kee Nation, Guess as the President of the

Eastern Cherokees, signed the act of union. In 1843, imbued with the tradition that there was a band of Cherokees, long segregated from their people, living somewhere in North- ern Mexico, he left home to seek for this lost band. He had gone far on his journey, when worn out with age and toil, alone and unat- tended, he sank under his efforts and died, near the village of San Fernando, in Mexico. Before his death, news of his condition hav- ing come back to his people, a party was sent to his relief, but they arrived too late to find him alive.

An annual pension that had been prevl- ously granted to Guess was continued to his widow. Besides his wife, he was survived by two sons and a daughter. Sequoya dis- trict of the Cherokee Nation was named in his honor. His name too is forever preserved in the big tree (Sequoia gigantea) and the red wood (Sequoia sempervirens) of Califor- nia, and even in the sequoiene distilled from its needles.

REFERENCES .- McKenney and Hall's Indian Tribes of North America (1842), vol. i, pp. 63- 70; Handbook of American Indians (1910), part a, pp. 510, 511; Mooney's Myths of the Chero- kee, pp. 14, 108-110, 135, 137, 138, 139, 147, 148, 219, 220, 353, 355, 485, 501; Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1887), pp. 230, 302; Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History, vol. 8, p. 130; Phillips' Sequoya, in Harper's Magazine, pp. 542-548, September, 1870; Pilling's Iroquorian Bibliog- raphy (1888), p. 21; Foster's Sequoya, the American Cadmus and the Modern Moses (1885); The New International Encyclopedia (1909), p. 815; Drake's Indians, fifteenth edi- tion, p. 364.

STUART, JOHN, superintendent of Indian affairs, born in Scotland about 1700, died in England in 1779. He came to America with General Oglethorpe in 1735 and was appoint- ed to a subordinate command in the British service. He was second in command in Fort London, when it was besieged by the Chero- kees in August, 1760. After the surrender of the garrison and the subsequent massacre of some of its inmates, the Cherokee chief, Atakullakulla, claimed him as his prisoner. He took him into the woods, ostensibly for a hunting excursion, but he secretly carried him through the wilderness to his friends in Virginia. Early in 1763 he was appointed Superintendent of Indian affairs for the Southern district. In the ensuing year he sent the King's talk to the Catawbas, the Cherokees, the Creeks, the Chickasaws, and the Choctaws, inviting them to a congress to be held in Augusta, Georgia, with the gov- ernors of the colonies of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The congress met there on November 5, in full ses- sion, with representatives from the five In- dian nations. Stuart delivered the opening talk, representing the four governors, all of whom were present. On November 10, the congress closed with the signing of a treaty for the preservation and continuance of a firm and perfect peace between King George

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and the five Indian nations. In spite of this treaty there was still considerable disaffection among the Creeks and the Choctaws. Stu-

art's diplomacy, however, held them in check, until the complete pacification brought about by the Choctaw-Chickasaw congress, held in Mobile, March 26-April 4, 1765, and by the Creek congress held in Pensacola, May 26- June 4, 1765, in both of which he was the dominant factor. His speech on March 27 at the Choctaw-Chickasaw congress, is spoken of by Hewat, the Carolina historian, as "a speech, in which is exhibited a good specimen of the language and manner proper for ad- dressing barbarous nations." When Major Robert Farmar, in the summer of 1765, was organizing an expedition to take possession of Fort Chartres, Stuart engaged the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, and the Cherokees to furnish flanking parties that would act as an aux- iliary force to the troops in their voyages up the Mississippi. The work of the Indians was so well done that, by the direction of General Thomas Gage, commanding in Amer- ica, the three nations received the thanks of Superintendent Stuart. On October 14, 1768, Stuart concluded a treaty with the Cherokees at Hard Labor, by which Kanawha River was made the western boundary of Virginia. He had his deputies among all the tribes of his district, their deputies it seems being appoint- ed by himself. James Adair in his American Indians, pp. 294, 296, 370, 371, does not speak in high terms of Stuart as a public officer, and criticizes severely the favoritism shown by him in the appointment of his dep- uties, men utterly unfit as he claimed or un- suitable for the position, some even being said to be near relatives of Stuart. It was the pol- icy of the English officials in America never to interfere in Indian inter-tribal wars, believ- ing that when Indians were thus engaged they would be less apt to go to war against the whites, and besides the sooner the Indian tribes were decimated or swept out of exist- ence by such wars, the greater facilities would be given to the whites to acquire their lands. Stuart avowedly followed this policy in the long Creek-Choctaw war which began in 1766. He made no effort to establish peace between the two warring tribes until the outbreak of the American Revolution made it necessary for him to unite all the tribes on the side of the King. He then made peace between the two tribes about the close of 1776. Being an ardent loyalist, Stuart now conceived a plan for crushing the revolt- ed colonies, which was approved by the Brit- ish cabinet. This was the landing of a large force in West Florida, which in conjunction with numerous bands of Indian warriors would march against them and destroy the western settlements of the colonies, while other British troops would attack the col- onists on the sea coast, and the Tories would rise in the interior,-all thus acting together would soon crush the patriots. On the dis- covery of the plot, followed by the defeat of the hostile Cherokees, Stuart fled to Florida, whence he soon sailed for England, where he died in 1799.

TAIT, JOHN, Indian agent, was probably a Scotchman. Nothing is known of his career prior to 1778, when he was appointed agent for the Creek Indians, very probably receiv- ing this appointment from John Stuart. Gen- eral Woodward's statement that John Tait came to the Creek nation with Lachlan Mc- Gillivray seems erroneous, for if he was a grown man in 1735, the year of McGillivray's arrival, he would have been too old a man to be appointed Indian agent in 1778. Col. Tait's station in the Creek nation was at the Hickory Ground. It was doubtless soon after his appointment that he married Sehoy Mc- Gillivray, an alliance, it may be conjectured, formed through the influence or persuation of Lachlan McGillivray. The well known David Tait of later times was the son of this marriage. In the summer of 1780, Colonel Tait raised a large force of Creek warriors from almost all the upper towns, except from the Tallissee and the Natchez, who were kept neutral through the influence of James Mc- Queen, and started on the march to Augusta to the aid of Colonel Grierson. On the Chat- tahoochee he was reenforced by Little Prince with a force of Lower Creeks. On their march, while near the head springs of Upatoy Creek, Tait became deranged. He was brought to Cusseta town, there died, and was buried on a high hill east of the town. On Tait's death, nearly all the Upper Creeks re- turned home except the Tuckabatchies, com- manded by Efa Tustenuggee. This man and Little Prince, with their warriors, numbering about two hundred and fifty men, proceeded to Augusta, where they lost seventy men in battle in September when the place was at- tacked by Colonel Elijah Clarke. After the abandonment of the siege and the retreat of the Americans, Colonel Thomas Brown, the chief in command at Augusta, after hanging a number of the prominent American pris- oners, delivered the others into the hands of the Indians, who, in revenge for their slain warriors, put them to the most protracted and torturing deaths, by cuts, blows, scalp- ings and burnings. The opprobrium of these enormous atrocities must forever be shared by the Indians with Colonels Brown and Grierson, the white officers in command at Augusta. Some months after the death of Colonel Tait, his widow married Charles Weatherford. He was succeeded in his office by David Tait, who was perhaps a brother, and who for several years previously, had been a Justice of Peace in the Creek nation. There is no record available to show how, or from whom, David Tait received his appoint- ment. He was the last British agent among the Creek Indians. It is on record that he was living in 1793 in England, in wealth and affluence "on the money received from the English for sending the Creeks to war against the Americans."

REFERENCES .- Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek or Muscogee Indians, p. 59; Mc- Cready's History of South Carolina, 1775-1780, pp. 1734-1739; Jones' History of Georgia, vol. 2, pp. 455-459; The Colonial Records of Geor- gia, vol. 12, pp. 334-364; American State Papers,

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Indian Affairs, vol. i, p. 382; Pickett's History of Alabama, Owen's Edition, p. 342, authority for Hickory Ground as Tate's headquarters.

TOGULKI, TUGULKEY, or YOUNG TWIN, born probably about 1740 and in Coweta, was the son of Malatchee, the Creek emperor, who was the son of the great chief, Brim. There is no record of the mother of Togulki. On the death of his father in 1755, Sampiaffi, or Stumpee, the white perversion of the name, was appointed the guardian of his nephew Togulki until he should arrive at years of maturity, when he would assume his father's rank and office. The first public appearance of Togulki in the affairs of his people was in the treaty made at Savannah in November, 1757, with Sir Henry Ellis, Governor of the province of Georgia. The council at which were representatives of twenty-one towns of the Upper and the Lower Creeks, was in ses- sion two days, October 29 and November 3. On the first day Wolf King of the Upper Creeks acted as speaker for the whole Creek nation. After his address Togulki made a short talk, expressive of his appreciation of the Governor's reception of his people. It is here given in full:

" 'Tis not many months (said he) since I was in Charles Town where I met with many marks of esteem and respect from the Gov- ernor and his beloved men-I am now re- ceived with even stronger tokens of love which as they are proofs of a sincere friend- ship cannot but rejoice my heart." After Togulki's talk the headmen were all invited to dine with the Governor. The marks of es- teem and respect of which Togulki was the recipient from the Governor and other offi- cials of Charleston were no doubt prompted by their memory of his father, who had ever been popular with the people of Carolina. It must have been soon after the treaty of Savannah that Togulki was chosen as the Emperor of the Creeks, and was also commis- sioned as such by the Governor of Georgia. In the summer of 1759, Edmund Atkin, the Superintendent of Indian affairs of the South- ern district, came to the Lower Creek town of Cusseta. Soon after his arrival with his escort, it was agreed by the chiefs to go and shake hands with him and learn the object of his visit. But when they appeared before him, he abruptly asked them what they want- ed, and told them to go about their busi- ness, and when he wanted he would send for them. The chiefs were mortified at this rude reception. Though greatly pro- voked, Togulki nevertheless resolved to make another attempt at a conversation with Atkin. He accordingly forcibly passed the sentinel and entered the house where the King's beloved man was and offered his hand, which Atkin soornfully refused to take. Exasperated at this affront, To- gulki told the agent that he had shaken hands with the Governors of Carolina and Georgia, and he wished to know if he, Atkin, was greater than they. To this Atkin re- plied that there was a Governor of Carolina and a Governor of Georgia, but that he, At-

kin, was greater than they, as he was the King's own mouth. He then accused Togulki of being a Frenchman, that is, as in the French interest. Togulki replied that he was no Frenchman, nor did he intend becoming one, but rather than stay in his own nation and be subject to such ill treatment by the agent, and to avoid all other uneasiness, he would go off on a ramble in the woods. To- gulki was as good as his word. He accord- ingly went to his uncle Sampiaffi, who was hunting on Broad River, thence with his un- cle's son to the Cherokee Nation in search of some stray horses. In consequence of some misrepresentations in regard to his visit to the Cherokee Nation, in the following Octo- ber, he, his uncle Sampiaffi and son, with some other Creeks visited Governor Ellis in Savannah in order to clear himself from these misrepresentations. They related to the Gov- ernor the story of Atkin's behavior in Cus- seta, and closed their talk with the request that he be immediately recalled thence to prevent further mischief. Governor Ellis and the Indians had hardly finished their talk when an express arrived with the news of the assault upon Atkin at Tuckabatchee. It was thought prudent for the present not to men- tion the matter to the Indians. The Gov- ernor further stated to the Indians that he was glad to hear that the rumor relative to their visit to the Cherokee Nation was abso- lutely false; and that they saw their own in- terests so well as to persist in an inviolable friendship, and other attachment to the Eng- lish. In closing he asked them if they had anything more to say. After much irrelevant talk the Indians finally came to a grievance which they had with the Virginia people who had settled high upon their hunting grounds and who were killing all the deer. They wished these people to be removed and a paper to be given to them to show that it must be done. The Governor postponed his reply to this grievance until the next day, when he again held a council with them. After some general talk the Governor at last told the Indians of the outrage upon Atkin in Tuck- abatchee. The Creeks were greatly perturbed at this news. After some comments on the affair, the Governor told the Indians that the Cherokees were on the point of declaring war and there was danger of the Creeks being involved in it. The only way to prevent this was for the Creeks to resolve to keep the path to the white people clear by engaging to resent any injuries done to the people of Georgia by the Cherokees, and to signify the same to them immediately. And as the people of Carolina would likely soon be in open war with the Cherokees, they must cau- tion their people not to go into that province lest they be taken for enemies. As the mat- ter was urgent, and concerned both the white people and the Creeks, the Governor request- ed the Indians to send runners immediately, some to their own nation, and some to the Cherokee, to inform them of their resolve. In this way the Creeks would have peace, a good trade, free communication with the whites, and no interruption on their hunting

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 9

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