USA > Alabama > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 12
USA > Georgia > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 12
USA > Mississippi > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 12
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CHAPTER XXVI.
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with the hope of engaging his affections ; but, this treatment answering no purpose, he was threatened with transportation to the Island of Manilla, in the distant Pacific. Still unyield- ing, he was ironed, and sent there, in a vessel, where he remained until February, 1797. He was then despatched back to Spain ; but, on the way, hearing of the war between that power and England, he escaped at Ascension Island, and reached Sierra Leone. where the English Governor gave him a passage to London .* Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Portland provided for his necessities in a munificent manner. He left England in the schooner in which he was now wrecked, with which he had, for some time, preyed upon the commerce of Panton and Spain, in the Mexican Gulf. General Bowles addressed Ellicott a polite note, inviting him to the wreck, where the latter repaired, and was entertained with kindness. He and Bowles were of mutual assistance to each other, the one supplying the perishing crew with some American stores, and the other giving him charts and valuable directions, in relation to the navigation around the Florida peninsula. Bowles had repeated conversations with Ellicott, in which he avowed his hatred of the Americans, and his hostility to Spain, and declared his determination to visit his vengeance upon the latter, in incessant attacks upon the Florida posts, at the head of the Creeks, whom he termed " My people."
Ellicott sailed from the wreck to St. Marks, where he lodged in the house of the commandant, Captain Portell,
* Du Lac's Voyage dans les deaux Louisianes, pp. 166-470.
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and was agreeably entertained by his fascinating wife. Hav- CHAPTER ing repaired his schooner, he sailed around the peninsula, and XXVI. went up the St. Mary's to the camp of the surveyors, where he found all had arrived safe, and where, in conjunction with Minor, he determined the point of the line of 31 degrees, February 26 1800 and there erected a large mound. Thus ended this protracted and disagreeable business .*
* Ellicott's Journal, pp. 180-278. Also his Appendix, p. 83. The Indians who broke up the survey belonged to the towns of Tallase, upon the Tallapoosa, and Utaula, upon the Chattahoochie.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
CHAPTER XXVII. . 1798 May 10
IT has been seen that the Legislature of Georgia promptly repealed the Yazoo act. Congress, with the consent of that State, organized a large portion of the domain, which was conveyed under the Yazoo sale, into a territorial government, embracing the country between the Chattahoochie and Mis- sissippi rivers, extending from the line of 31° to that of 32º 28/. This government was not to impair the rights of Geor- gia to the soil.
John Adams, now President of the United States, con- ferred upon Winthrop Sargent the post of Governor of the " Mississippi Territory." John Steele was, at the same time, appointed Secretary, while Thomas Rodney, of Delaware, and John Tilton, of New-Hampshire, were constituted Judges of the Superior Court. Four months after the evacuation of the country by the Spaniards, these officers arrived at Natchez. They found the country in the occupation of the Federal troops, under General Wilkinson. The governor, whose powers were extensive, commenced the organization of his government. He decreed, by proclamation, the formation of the Natchez district into the counties of Adams and Picker-
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April 1799
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ing. He established County Courts, which were to be holden CHAPTER quarterly, by Associate Justices. Six thousand inhabitants, XXVII. including slaves, comprised the population, who lived upon the waters of Bayou Pierre, St. Catharine, Cole, Homochitto, and Buffalo creeks. There was also a settlement at the Walnut Hills, and one upon Big Black. It has been seen what kind of a population lived upon the Tensaw and Tombigby, in 1792. It was now much increased, but was composed of the same kind of people. An advance towards civilization had, how- ever, been made, in that region, by the establishment of a ferry, by Hollinger, an Indian countryman, across the 1797 October Tombigby, and another, by Samuel Mims, to convey people over the Alabama. The route lay across Nannahubba Island, and, in times of high water, passengers were ferried from one river to the other, the distance of ten miles. Lieutenant · 1599 May 5 McLeary had marched across the country, from Natchez, and had taken possession of Fort St. Stephens, when the Spanish garrison marched out, and dropped down below Ellicott's line.
This portion of the Mississippi territory was utterly de- fenceless, entirely isolated, and surrounded by Indian nations, on the north, east and west, while the treacherous Spaniards were just below, at Mobile. To protect it, the Federal Go- vernment established a post upon the first bluff below the confluence of the Tombigby and Alabama. Captain Shaum- berg, of the 2d regiment, marched from Natchez, with two companies, and built a stockade, with one bastion, which was called Fort Stoddart, and was situated on the site of the pre- sent arsenal landing of Mount Vernon.
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July
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CHAPTER XXVII. 1800 June 4
Governor Sargent issued another proclamation, defining the limits of Washington county, embracing the population upon the Tombigby and Alabama. Of all counties that ever were established, it was by far the most extensive in territory. It extended to the Chattahoochie on the east, and to Pearl river on the west, and was bounded on the south by the line of 319, and on the north by that of 32º 28/. Twenty counties in Alabama, and twelve in Mississippi, have since been formed out of the territory of the original county of Washington. The people of the territory, becoming dissatisfied with the arbitrary measures of the governor, remonstrated with the President. These things, together with a prodigious increase of population, induced Congress to establish a second grade of territorial government, which allowed a legislature. Four representatives from Adams, four from Pickering, and one from Washington, convened at Natchez. The governor held an unqualified veto power.
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December
General Wilkinson deserves to be remembered, for many important public services, among which were the treaties which he made with Indian tribes, and the military organiza- tion of new counties. He wrote with astonishing ease, and always expressed himself well. He was, unquestionably, a man of genius, as well as of much usefulness ; yet he had al- ways been suspected of allowing personal considerations to control much of his military and official conduct. However, now acting with great zeal and fidelity, he stationed troops at different points on the line of demarkation, from Fort Adams, upon the Mississippi, to l'earl river, and caused, as we have
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seen, Fort Stoddart to be built. While his head-quarters CHAPTER were at Natchez, he made an advantageous treaty with the XXVIL 1501 Chickasaws, obtaining their consent, among other things, to October 24 the cutting of a road, to remain as a highway, extending from the Cumberland district to the American settlements of Natchez. He made another treaty, with the Choctaws, for a December 17 road from Fort Adams to the Yazoo river. The old bounda- ry between the British and Choctaws was also confirmed by him, and marked anew. He likewise repaired to the distant Oconee, and, near a fort named in honor of him, made a treaty with the Creeks, by which the latter, for valuable con- 1-02 June 16 siderations, ceded to the United States all the territory east. of a line, to run from the High Shoals upon Apalache. thence down the Oconee to its junction with the Ockmulgee, and thence to Ellicott's mound, upon the St. Mary's. The fearless, wise and patriotic agents, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, were associated with General Wilkinson in all these treaties, and, with him, travelled from the Chickasaw Bluff, upon the Mississippi, backwards and forwards, over this Indian world, encountering its dangers, and sharing in mutual · hardships .*
Mr. Jefferson, who was now President of the United States, appointed William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of the Mississip- pi Territory. Governor Sargent retired from office, and never afterwards filled a public station. The new governor, who was descended from an ancient Virginia family, removed to
* Indian Affaias, vol. 1, pp. 648-681.
VOL. II.
10
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CHAPTER Tennessee when a youth, was a member of the convention XXVII. which formed the constitution of that State, a Judge of the 1801 Supreme Court, and a member of Congress. A man of un- questioned talents, fine address, and strict probity and honor, he could not fail to make a popular and useful officer in the Mississippi wilderness. The Territorial Secretary was Cato West, and the bench of the Superior Court was filled by Daniel Tilton, Peter B. Bruin, and Seth Lewis.
The counties of Adams and Pickering being sub-divided 1801 and 1802 into five others, and the name of the latter changed, they were now called Adams, Jefferson, Wilkinson, Claiborne and - A code of jurisprudence was adopted, and the seat of government removed six miles east of Natchez, to the town of Washington. Joshua Baker was Speaker of the House, and John Ellis President of the Executive Council or Senate. About this period, Colonel Andrew Marschalk, of Wayne's army, established the " Natchez Gazette," the first paper is- sued in our country, and, afterwards, was so long engaged in the occupation, issuing different journals, for forty years, that he was styled the " Father of the Mississippi press." It was not long, however, before Timothy and Samuel Terill pub- lished the "Mississippi Messenger," at the seat of government, where, also performing the duties of public printers, they pub- lished the first Digest of the Territory, compiled by Judge Harry Toulmin .*
* Monette, vol. 2, p. 345. Notes on the War in the South, by Na- thaniel H. Claiborne App. 91-102.
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Upon the Tombigby and Lake Tensaw, the people still lived without laws, and without the rite of matrimony. For years, the sexes had been in the habit of pairing off, and living together, with the mutual promise of regular marriage, when ministers or magistrates should make their appearance in the country. An amusing incident will here be related, in which a young couple were united by a functionary not hith- erto known as participating in such sacred rites. The house of Samuel Mims, a wealthy Indian countryman, was the most spacious in the country, and hither the young and the gay flocked to parties, and danced to the music furnished by the Creoles of Mobile and others, for the country abounded in fiddlers, of high and low degree. Daniel Johnson and Miss Elizabeth Linder had, for some time, loved each other. She was rich and he was poor, and, of course, the parents of the former objected to a pairing. On Christmas night, a large party was assembled at "Old Sam Mims'," and the very for- ests resounded with music and merry peals of laughter. In the midst of the enjoyment, the lovers, in company with several young people, of both sexes, secretly left the house, entered some canoes, paddled down Lake Tensaw, into the Alabama, and arrived at Fort Stoddart, an hour before day- light. Captain Shaumberg, who had risen early to make his egg-nog, was implored to join the lovers in the bonds of matrimony. The proposition astounded the good-natured old German, who protested his ignorance of all such matters, and assured them that he was only a military commandant, having no authority whatever to make people man and wife. They
CHAPTER XXVII.
1800
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CHAPTER entreated, telling him, with truth, that the Federal Govern- XXVII.
1800
ment had placed him there as a general protector and regu- lator of affairs, and that the case before him demanded his sanction and adjustinent. After the egg-nog had circulated pretty freely, the commandant placed the lovers before him, and, in a stentorian voice, pronounced the following marital speech : " I, Captain Shaumberg, of the 2d regiment of the United States army, and commandant of Fort Stoddart, do hereby pronounce you man and wife. Go home! behave yourselves-multiply and replenish the Tensaw country !" The happy pair entered their canoes, rowed back to the Boat Yard, and were pronounced, by the whole settlement, " the best married people they had known in a long time."*
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1802
The Federal Government displayed much wisdom in the establishment of a factory, or trading-house, at St. Stephens. It was well stored with such merchandize as suited the Choc- + taws, for whom it was particularly designed. It served to create a good feeling with those Indians, and to entice them from the control of Panton and the Spaniards, below the line. Joseph Chambers, a man of a well-cultivated mind, and of business capacity, a native of Salisbury, North-Carolina, was made superintendent of this factory, with an assistant, Tho- mas H. Williams, also from North-Carolina, who afterwards was Secretary of the Territory, Collector of the port of New- Orleans, and United States Senator from Mississippi.
The Yazoo act had been repealed, the treaty of Madrid
Conversations with old settlers.
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had been made, Ellicott's line had been run, and the Spaniards CHAPTER had been removed ; still great difficulties had arisen be- XXVII. tween Georgia and the Federal Government, in relation to lands granted under the Yazoo act, which the companies, and various purchasers under them, resolutely claimed and de- fended. Many plans were proposed, for satisfactory adjust- ment, which produced debate and contention of an angry character. Finally, Albert Gallatin, James Madison and Levi Lincoln, on the part of the government, and James Jackson, Abraham Baldwin and John Milledge, representing Georgia, 1802 April 24 made a final disposition of the matter. For the sum of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Georgia ceded to the United States all the territory within the follow- ing boundaries : beginning upon the Mississippi, at the line of 31º, thence continuing up that river to the line of 35º, thence along that line, due east, to Nickajack, thence south- ward to the mouth of Uchee creek, thence down the Chatta- hoochie to Ellicott's line, thence along that line due west, to the Mississippi, the place of beginning. The purchase-money was to be paid to Georgia, out of the first net proceeds of the sales of these lands. The United States stipulated to recog- nize all good claims, to any of this territory, under Spanish and British grants, and also under the act of Georgia, of 1785, creating the county of Bourbon ; but it refused to admit any of the Yazoo claims .* The United States now held the right of jurisdiction, and the right of soil, to all the
* Public Lande, vol. 1, p. 114.
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CHAPTER territory which forms the present States of Alabama and XXVII. Mississippi. After this compromise, the money paid by the Yazoo companies was made over to the United States. Some of it had been drawn by the purchasers, under the law of Georgia ; some of it had been lost, whilst in deposite at the treasury, from which the State had taken the precaution to be saved harmless, having declared, in good time, that the deposite should remain in the treasury at the risk of the depositors. The Yazoo grantees, or those claiming under them, were never suffered to hold lands in Alabama or Mis- sissippi, in virtue of either the Yazoo act or the compromise. They might have held as much as they pleased, in virtue of the stock of five million serip, created by an act of Congress.
Emigrants flocked to the Mississippi Territory, by various routes, all of which were difficult, and some of them very circuitous. A party set out from North-Carolina, consisting of Thomas Malone, a young clerk in the land office of Raleigh, John Murrel and his family, James Moore, Goodway Myrick, George Nosworthy, Robert Caller, William Murrel, and sixty negroes. With great difficulty they ascended the Blue Ridge, with their wagons, and descended, through its dark gorges, into the valley of the Tennessee. Constructing flat-boats, at Knoxville, they floated down the river to the head of the Muscle Shoals, where they disembarked, at the house of Double-Head, a Cherokee Chief. Placing their effects upon the horses, which had been brought down, by land, from Knoxville, they departed, on foot, for the "Bigby settle- · ments," about St. Stephens, a great distance off, and to which
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December 1801
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not a solitary direct path led. After a fatiguing march, they reached the residence of Levi Colbert, a celebrated Chicka- saw Chief, who gave them the necessary directions. Pursuing their journey, they came upon the Tombigby, at the Cotton Gin, which had, not long before, been erected by the Federal Government, to encourage the Chickasaws in the cultivation of the great staple.
Desiring to lessen the fatigues of the long and painful trip, the party constructed two canoes at this point, each forty feet in length, and very large, but of miserable workmanship, being executed with no other tools than axes and grubbing hoes. These they placed in the river, in parallel positions, five feet apart. They were connected by a platform, made of cane, upon which were deposited the effects of the expedition, which were piled up high above the heads of the emigrants, who now sat down in long rows, in the two canoes. A few of the men went by land with the horses, towards St. Ste- phens, to make preparations for the arrival of the main party. This rude and singular craft, then quite common in savage regions, had proceeded but two miles down the rapid, crooked and swollen stream, when it struck, with great force, against a log, which extended half across the channel, and immedi- ately disappeared. The cane ligament which bound the Siamese canoes, burst asunder, and every soul was washed deep under the waves. Those who rose again, were pre- sently seen struggling with the torrent, amid the wreck, now tossed about in the fury of the waters. Murrel rose, but in his arms was the lifeless body of a daughter. His wife also
CHAPTER XXVII.
1802 Jannary
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10*
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THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
CHAPTER came to the surface, with a babe at her breast, both happily XXVII. alive. Malone and others, swimming ashore, became active in assisting many of the party in reaching limbs of trees, by extending to them grape-vines and canes. At length, all who survived, huddled upon a small piece of land, surrounded by water.
It was now night. The north wind swept over the gloomy swamp. The ducks, in their rapid flight, whizzed through the air. The wolves howled upon the prairies. The owls scream- ed and hooted upon the lofty trees. The mighty timber crash- ed as the angry currents passed by. Such were the un welcome sounds that fell upon the ears of this miserable party. No succor came. No encouraging voice saluted them. Be- numbed with cold, they hovered together to keep alive, shiv- ering and knocking their agitated limbs against each other, while their wet apparel froze fast upon them. Being without fire, they had no way to produce one. It was two miles back to the old camp, and the route lay over thick cane, water and small islands. A resolute young negro man volunteered to find it. He plunged into the low grounds, and strangely made his way to the camp. In the meantime, the helpless pioneers, despairing of his return, bewailed their condition with deep moans and bitter lamentations. Beneath the sha- dows of one of the darkest nights ever known, they mournfully counted over the missing and the drowned. Two long hours passed away, when the cheerful halloo of the negro was heard afar off. It was answered by a united and sympathetic shout. All eyes were turned in the direction from which the sound
1
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THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
came, and in the darkness was seen an indistinct light, which shone over the tops of the distant canes, like a far-off Aurora Borealis. It was fire, and the noble negro had brought it from the old camp. At length he came, with a cracking, crashing noise, familiar only to the ears of those who have walked through the dense cane-swamps of Alabama.
Fires were kindled with dry cane, and around them sat the sufferers, until the morning sun dispelled the horrid night. It was now ascertained that one white child, and twenty-one negroes, were entombed beneath the tide of the angry Tom- bigby. The survivors groped their way to the Cotton Gin, without provisions, without hats, without tools, without fire- arms, without money, and with no clothes except those which drooped upon their limbs. They were friendless and alone in a savage country, far from their point of destination, and still further from their native land.
Who saved these people from starvation, and enabled them to reach Washington county, Alabama, after a journey of one hundred and twenty days from North-Carolina? Not the Indians, for one of them stole a negro from the brave Malone, for the return of whom he had to give his watch. Those animals, who cling to their unfortunate masters to the last moment, and are never once guilty of the crime of in- gratitude-who hunted rabbits, opossums and raccoons for their famished owners. They saved the lives of these people.
Several years previous to this period, two brothers, from New-England, came to the Boat Yard, upon Lake Tensaw. William Pierce pursued the business of weaving-a profitable
CHAPTER XXVII.
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จ.ครั้งแรก
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CHAPTER XXVII. 1799
1802 October
employment in those days. His brother, John, established the first American school in Alabama. There, the high-blood descendants of Lachlan McGillivray-the Taits, Weatherfords and Durants, the aristocratie Linders, the wealthy Mims's, and the children of many others, first learned to read. The pupils were strangely mixed in blood, and their color was of every hue. It was not long before these Yankee brothers engaged in mercantile pursuits. They established a cotton gin at the Boat Yard, the first in that part of the country. Six months before this, Abram Mordecai, an Indian trader, procuring the consent of the Creek Chiefs and the approbation of Col. Hawkins, had established a cotton gin at Weatherford's race- track, on the first eastern bluff below the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. It was built by Lyons & Barnett, of Georgia, who brought their tools, gin saws and other materials, from that State, on pack-horses. The same enterprising mechanics also built the one for the Pierces, and another, at McIntosh Bluff, upon the Tombigby.
1802
Abram Mordecai was a queer fellow. He traded ex- tensively with the Indians, exchanging his goods for pink-root, hickory-nut oil, and peltries of all kinds. These he carried to New-Orleans and Mobile in boats, and to Pensacola and Au- gusta on pack-horses. The hickory-nut oil was a luxury with French and Spanish epicures. It was manufactured by the Indians, in a simple manner-by boiling the cracked nuts in water, and skimming off the oil as it floated on the surface. Mordecai bought cotton of the Indians in small quantities, ginned it, and carried it to Augusta on pack-horses, in bags
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THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
much smaller than those of the present day. He was a dark- eyed Jew, and amorous in his disposition. Tourculla, (Capt. Isaacs,) the Chief of the Coosawdas, hearing of his intrigues with a married squaw, approached his house with twelve war- riors, knocked him down, thrashed him with poles until he lay insensible, cut off his ear, and left him to the care of his wife. They also broke up his boat, and burned down his gin-house. A pretty squaw was the cause of the destruction of the first cotton gin in Alabama .*
CHAPTER XXVII.
General Bowles, quitting the island where Ellicott found him, boldly advanced into the Creek nation, disturbed the mild and beneficial influence which Hawkins had began to en- gender, declared his eternal hostility to Spain and the United States, and became an object of dread to all quiet minds, and a terror to all interests against which he acted. Among other outrages, he headed a party of Indians, advanced upon St. Marks, captured the fort, and plundered the store of Panton, Leslie & Co. Hawkins united with the Spanish authorities in a scheme to rid the country of a common enemy. A large secret reward was offered for his capture. A great feast was given by the Indians at the town of Tuskegee, where the old French Fort Toulouse stood, to which Bowles and the Micca- soochy Chiefs were invited. They attended, and during the feast the unsuspecting freebooter was suddenly seized by con- cealed Indians, who sprang upon him, securely pinioned him,
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