USA > Alabama > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 2
USA > Georgia > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 2
USA > Mississippi > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 2
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This newly ceded territory began to be rapidly settled, when a party of Creeks attacked Sherrill's Fort, killed seven persons, and forced the others to barricade an outhouse, where they would have been butchered, but for the timely arrival of Captain Barnard, with forty men, who dispersed the enemy. Other attacks by the Indians succeeded, and the settlers aban- doned their new homes, and retired into the old British set- tlements, lower down, upon he Savannah. The noble Gal- phin, who had great influence with the Indians, despatched runners to the nation, who induced the Chiefs to put a stop to the effusion of blood, which afforded the settlers the opportu- nity of coming back, and of renewing their abandoned im- provements .*
CHAPTER XIV.
1774
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" McCall's History of Georgia, vol. 2, pp. 11-12.
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CHAPTER XV. -
HARDSHIPS OF THE EARLY EMIGRANTS.
CHAPTER XV.
TAKING the reader with us, to the settlements of the dis- tant Natchez region, he will find that emigrants continued to pour in, upon those fertile hills and alluvial bottoms, from all parts of " his majesty's Atlantic plantations." Many were the hardships and perils they encountered, in reaching this remote, and comparatively uninhabited region. It is believed that the history of one party of these emigrants will enable the reader to understand what kind of hardships and depriva- tions all the others were forced to undergo.
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Major General Phineas Lyman, a native of Durham, a graduate of Yale, a distinguished lawyer, and a member of the legislature of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, be- came commander of the Connecticut forces, in 1755. He served with so much distinction, during the Canadian war, that he was invited, by persons high in office, to visit England. He had formed an association, composed of his brothers in arms, called the "Military Adventurers," whose design was, the colonization of a tract of country upon the Mississippi. He sailed to England, as agent for this company, with the sanguine, yet reasonable hope, that the King would make the
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grant. Arriving there, he found, to his astonishment, that CHAPTER land in a wilderness was refused to those who had fought so vali- XV. antly for it, and whose contemplated establishment would have formed a barrier against enemies, who might seek to acquire it. In his own country, Lyman had never solicited favor, other- wise than by faithful public services. The coolness which he now experienced deeply mortified him-his spirits sank, and he lost all his former energy. Shocked at the degradation which he imagined he should sustain, by returning home unsuccessful, he made up his mind to bury his bones upon an ungrateful soil. There he remained for eleven years, a neglected man. His wife, a lady of superior endowments, distressed at his long absence, sent her son to solicit his return. The sight of his boy called up the remains of his resolution, and he resolved to go back to America, as the grant upon the Mississippi had at last been made .* IIe reached home in 1773. But the grave had closed over most of his original associates, while others had arrived at an age unsuitable to , bold enterprizes. In company with his eldest son, a man of rare attainments, but who had become subdued and list- less, in consequence of the deep distress and mortification of his father, while so long absent, General Lyman sailed from New-England with a number of emigrants, in two vessels, bound for New-Orleans.
It is deemed proper that an enumeration of these emigrants
# " Travels in New-York and New-England," by Theodore Dwight, S.T.D., LL.D., late President of Yale College, vol. 1, pp. 306-16.
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1773 December
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CHAPTER be here made, as the eyes of some of their descendants, still
XV. living in Mississippi, may perhaps rest on these pages. On board of these vessels, were
General Lyman, of Suffield.
Captain Ladley, of Hartford.
Thomas and James Lyman, Durham.
Hugh White, Middletown.
Captain Elsworth, Ira Whitmore and Sage, Middleton. Major Easley, Weatherford.
1773 Thaddeus and Phineas Lyman, with eight slaves, Suffield. Moses and Isaac Sheldon, Roger Harmon and - Hanks, Shuffield.
1 Seth Miller, Elisha and Joseph Flowers, Springfield.
Moses Drake, Ruggles Winchel and Benjamin Barber, Westfield.
Alcott, Windsor.
Daniel and Rosswell Magguet, Hartford.
Thomas Comstock, -- Weed, New-Hartford.
Captain Silas Crane, Robert Patrick, Ashbell Bowen, John Newcomb and James Dean, of Lebanon.
Abram Knapp and Matthew Phelps, of Norfolk.
Giles and Nathaniel Hull, James Stoddart and Thaddeus Bradley, Salisbury.
Ephraim Case and Hezekiah Rew, Sheffield.
John Fisk and Elisha Hale, Wallingford.
Timothy and David Hotchkiss, Waterberry.
John Hyde, William and Jonathan Lyon, and William Davis, Stratford or Derby.
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James Harman and family, and Elnathan Smith, Suffield. CHAPTER Williani Hurlbut and Elisha Leonard, with a number of XV. slaves, Springfield.
General Lyman and these emigrants at length saw the mouth of the Mississippi, passed up to New-Orleans, there obtained boats, and, after a laborious ascent of that powerful stream, arrived upon the Big Black river. He settled his grant, but was too old to cultivate it. In a short time, his son died, and, before he could arrange his own affairs, to return home, for the purpose of bringing out his family, the grave also closed over him, terminating a life, first, of honor and military glory, and then of sadness and misfortune. But the half has not yet been told of the troubles of his family, the last of whom were miserable sufferers in the Creek nation, as will hereafter be narrated.
Captain Matthew Phelps, one of the companions of Gen. Lyman, returned to Connecticut, and his representations of the fertility of the new country excited many of the citizens, who resolved to return with him to occupy it. But various causes prevented their departure. At length, however, they sailed from Middletown. Among these emigrants were Ma- dame Lyman, the wife of the late General, with three sons and two daughters ; Major Timothy Dwight, his wife and one child ; Sereno and Jonathan Dwight, of North Hampton ; Benjamin Day and his family ; Harry Dwight and three slaves ; Joseph Leonard and Joshua Flowers, with their fami- lies, from Springfield ; the Rev. - Smith and his family, from Granville ; Mrs. Elnathan Stvith and children, and John
1774
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Summer of 1781
1776 May 1
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CHAPTER Felt and his family, from Suffield, together with Captain XV. Phelps, wife and children, with many others .* ·
1776 Angust 1 Angust 18
August 27
After a voyage of three months, attended with many dan- gers, the party reached New-Orleans, on the 1st August. Here, obtaining boats, they began to stem the muddy current of the Mississippi Mrs. Flowers, an estimable lady, who was too sick to continue the voyage, was left at Point Coupee, where she soon died. The eldest daughter of Captain Phelps was seized with a violent fever, and, in a few days after, the enterprizing father became sick, with the same disease. Many_ of the emigrants suffered with fever, and the boats were moved slowly up the river, by the feeble efforts of those who were less debilitated. Captain Phelps and all his children becoming prostrated with disease, his boat was tied to the willows, while the others continued the voyage. His intimate friend, Leonard, who had messed with him at sea, arrived at Natchez, where he buried his wife. The boat containing the Lymans and the Rev. - Smith reached Natchez about the same time, a few days after which the worthy minister closed his earthly career, and was soon followed to his long home by the refined and estimable Major Dwight. At length, those of this party who were left, reached the Big Black, and the improvements made by General Lyman. Here Madam Ly- man soon died, and was buried by the side of her husband and son !
* Memoirs and Adventures of Captain Matthew Phelps, pp. 18-72, also his Appendix, pp. 60-63.
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The unfortunate Phelps remained in his boat, which was CHAPTER anchored fifteen miles above Point Coupee, when his daugh- XV. ter, Abigail, died. He was compelled to bury her with his September? to
. 1776 own hands. All this time, it was only at intervals that his September 16 family were able to assist each other in the severe fits of the ague which afflicted them.
The Disposer of Events removed from this distressed man September 16 an infant, born on the ocean, whom the sailors had named " Atlantic." Phelps again had to perform the melancholy task of digging a grave, and burying the boy by the side of his lovely sister. Mr. Flowers, the other members of whose family had died below, came, with his child, in a small boat, to the gloomy habitation of Phelps. They now both ob-, tained a larger boat, and, placing in it their joint effects, began again to ascend the river. The Phelpses were worn to skele- tons, but, struggling forward, against singular adversity, and buoyed up with the hope of brighter scenes, they finally arrived at the landing of Natchez. Advancing, after a few October 12 days, they reached the Petit Gulf, where lived Philip Al- ston, a gentleman of wealth and humanity. Mrs. Phelps, worn down with trouble and disease, was rapidly approaching dissolution. In a few days she died, and Alston had her remains decently interred. He did all in his power to alle- viate the sorrows of the unhappy husband, and sheltered him and his two remaining children under his hospitable roof. A few days afterwards, the fated Phelps began again to move up the river, and, upon gaining Grand Gulf, entered the hos- pitable abode of an old acquaintance. Leaving this place, he
VOL. II. 2
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CHAPTER came in sight of the mouth of the Big Black river, having XV. consumed nearly one hundred days in performing a voyage November 24 from New-Orleans, which can now be accomplished in a few 1776 hours. Near this place, three years before, he had purchased some improvements. Captain Phelps was so debilitated, that he had hired a lad, of fourteen years of age, and a man, by November the name of Knapp, to propel his boat. Upon entering the Big Black, the captain and the boy, disembarking, walked along the bank, dragging the boat after them with a long line, while Knapp remained on board, to steer, in company with the children, a boy of five and a girl of ten years of age. The children were quietly sitting upon the bed on which they had suffered so much. Presently the boat en- tered a whirlpool, which forced the stern under a willow. Knapp jumped out and swam ashore. The terrified Phelps secured the end of the rope around a tree, and rushed to the spot where his all remained in such imminent peril. Unable to swim, he crawled into the river upon the willow, imploring his daughter to remain quiet, until he could get out her little brother. While the little fellow was wading the water in the bottom of the boat, endeavoring to reach his unhappy father. the willow began to sink, with the additional weight upon it, and, at that moment, an angry billow came rushing down, the boat suddenly went under, and the poor children were swept rapidly off. "Oh God, save them !" was all that the miserable Phelps could utter. Standing upon the unsteady willow, he saw them rise again to the surface, locked in each other's arms, and then sink forever. The bereaved man stood
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THE BRITISH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
upon the tree in mournful silence-wet, cold, emaciated-with- CHAPTER out property, without friends, and without children, and with XV. no wife to encourage him and sympathize with him in his misfortunes. But Phelps was a Christian, and he bore up with astonishing fortitude. The calamities which had befallen him had been unavoidable, and yet he tortured his imagina- tion, for some time, with reproaches upon himself. In addi- 1776 December tion to his weighty troubles, he found that, during his ab- sence, his improvements had been taken from him, by a wretch, who availed himself of the customs of the country. Phelps, however, survived all this, and lived to be an old man, surrounded, in New-England, with a wife, children and plenty. He was long accustomed to relate to the sober Yankees the horrors which he experienced in the " Natchez country," with perfect composure; always, however, avoiding the last terrible affair, when his two children, whom God had spared him, and with whom he had expected yet to see much happiness in the wilderness, rose up to his view, from their watery bed, for one short moment, locked in each other's arms, and then went down forever .*
* Memoirs and Adventures of Phelps, pp. 56-100.
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CHAPTER XVI.
JOURNEY OF BARTRAM THROUGH ALABAMA.
CHAPTER XVI. 1777 Summer
WILLIAM BARTRAM, the botanist, who has been mentioned in our remarks upon the aborigines of the country, passed through the Creek nation, and went from thence to Mobile. He found that that town extended back from the river nearly half a mile. Some of the houses were vacant, and others were in ruins. Yet a few good buildings were inhabited by the French gentlemen, and others by refined emigrants from Ireland, Scotland, England, and the Northern British Colonies. The Indian trade was under the management of Messrs. Swanson and McGillivray. They conducted an extensive commerce with the Chickasaws, Choctaws and Creeks. Their buildings were commodious, and well arranged for that pur- pose. The principal houses of the French were of brick, of one story, of a square form, and on a large scale, embracing courts in their rears. Those of the lower classes were made of strong cypress frames, filled in with plaster.
Major Farmar, one of the most respectable inhabitants of West Florida, who formerly had much to do with the colonial governingnt, resided at Tensaw, in sight of the pre-
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sent Stockton, where once lived the tribe of Tensaw Indi- CHAPTER ans. The bluff sustained not only his extensive improve- XVI. ments, but the dwellings of many French families, chiefly - his tenants, while his extensive plantations lay up and down the Tensaw, on the western side. Indeed, all up that river, 1777 Summer and particularly on the eastern branch, were many well culti- vated plantations, belonging to various settlers, while others were in ruins, having been abandoned by the French when the English took possession of the country. The plantations on the Mobile river, as seen five years before, have already been mentioned. At one of these Bartram stayed all night, in . company with Dr. Grant, a physician of the garrison of Fort Charlotte. The occupant, who was an old gentleman and a famous hunter, annually killed three hundred deer, besides bears, panthers and wolves.
Arriving at Pensacola, Bartram received from Dr. Lorimer, one of the honorable council, much politeness and attention. Mr. Livingston, the government secretary, took him to the department in which he did business. Shortly afterwards, Gov. Chester rode by in his chariot, having been upon a morning ride to his farm. He received the learned botanist with cordiality, invited him to remain some time in the coun- try, to make his house his head-quarters, commended his laudable pursuits, and offered to defray his expenses in tra- velling over the country under his jurisdiction.
Pensacola, at this period, contained several hundred habita- tions. The governor's palace was a large stone building, erected by the Spaniards, and ornamented with a tower. The town was
1777 October
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THE BRITISH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
CHAPTER XVI.
defended by a large stockade fortress, of wood, on the plan of a tetragon, with a salient angle at each corner, where stood blockhouses a story higher than the curtains. Upon these, light cannon were mounted. Within this fortress was a coun- cil chamber, where the records were kept, also houses for the officers and barracks for the garrison, together with arsenals and magazines. "he secretary resided in a handsome and spacious house, as did some eminent merchants and profes- sional gentlemen .*
1777 Autumn
Returning to Mobile, the botanist presently embarked in a trading vessel, manned by three negroes, and set sail for Pearl river. Passing along the western coast, and reaching the mouth of Dog river, he there landed, and entered the woods for recreation. Here he saw the remains of the old Fort St. Louis de la Mobile, with a few pieces of iron cannon, and also vast iron kettles, for boiling tar into pitch. Pursuing his voyage, he again came to the shore, a few miles beyond, where resided a Frenchman, eighty years of age, who was active, strong and muscular ; his mother, who was present, and who appeared to be brisk and cheerful, was one hundred and five years of age. Fifty years previous to this period, she had landed in Mobile, from la belle France. Arriving at Pearl island, Bartram took up his quarters at the house of a generous Englishman, named Rumsey, with whom he passed a month. Leaving this place in a handsome boat, navigated by three negroes, he coasted along the northern
* Bartram's Travels, pp. 402-407-412-414.
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THE BRITISH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
shore of Lake Pontchartrain, entered Lake Maurepas, and CHAPTER proceeded up the Amite river, for thirty miles, to the large XVI. 1777 Autumn , plantation of a Scotch gentleman, who gave him a hospitable reception. Bartram, still ascending the Amnite, next entered the Iberville, on the left, and it was not long before he reached a landing, at which was situated warehouses for depositing English merchandize. A beautiful road, overhung with evergreens, led from this place to Manchac, upon the Mis- sissippi. Here, also, the English had mercantile depots, the chief establishment of which was that of Swanson and McGillivray, who were Indian traders. The Iberville was now dry, its channel being higher than the Mississippi, which had receded from . it. It was, however, navigable in winter and spring, for the " Father of Waters " then disgorged some portion of his tide through this channel, into the lakes. It also separated, as before observed, the English colony of West Florida and the Spanish province of Louisiana. On one side of this bayou was an English fort, at Manchac, and just across, on the south point, was a Spanish fort. A slender wooden bridge connected the two establishments, and, strange to say, they were, at this time, peaceable, although such near neighbors. The next day Bartram began the ascent of the Mississippi, and, two miles above Manchac, stopped at an Indian town. The inhabitants were a portion of the Ala- bamas, who had once lived upon the river of that name, but who, when the French evacuated Fort Toulouse, followed them to Louisiana, and here had formed an establishment. The botanist visited Baton Rouge, now called by the English
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CHAPTER XVI.
New Richmond, and various plantations on both sides of the great river. He was particularly pleased with the French planters, who had long tilled these superior lands. They were ingenious, industrious, and lived in ease and great abun- dance.
1777 November 27
About the middle of November, Bartram returned to Mo- bile, by the same route, arranged his specimen plants and flowers, and left them in the hands of Swanson and McGilli- vray, to be shipped to Dr. Fothergill, at London. He then entered a boat, and went to the mansion of Major Farmar, at - Tensaw. The next morning he set out for the Creek nation, with a caravan of traders, who transported their merchandize upon pack-horses. The road, like all others in an Indian country, was narrow and well beaten. The pack-horses were arranged one after the other, the oldest and best trained in the lead. At night they were belled, and turned out to graze in the woods. In the morning, so much time was occupied in collecting them, arranging their packs, and preparing breakfast, that the sun was high before a start was made. Then these faithful animals fell into line on the trail, like regular soldiers, and began a brisk trot, which was continued all day, amid the ringing of their bells and the whooping and cursing of the drivers.
1777 December
When near the site of the present city of Montgomery, the caravan met a party of Georgians, consisting of a man, his wife, a young woman, several young children, and three stout young men, with a dozen horses, laden with their effects. These fearless people had passed through the Creek nation,
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then very extensive, and were on their way to settle upon the CHAPTER Alabama, a few miles above the confluence of that river and XVI. the Tombigby. They are believed to have been among the .
· first Anglo-Americans who settled in the present Baldwin county .*
* Bartram, pp. 416-441.
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CHAPTER XVII.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE McGILLIVRAY FAMILY- THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
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CHAPTER XVII. 1778
WAR had now raged between the mother country and her colonies of North America, for more than three years. It had become fierce and sanguinary along the Atlantic. But the people of West Florida, whose government was composed chiefly of military dependencies, had hitherto enjoyed peace. They were mostly loyal subjects of the King. But now, even in this remote region, the contest began to be felt. The Creek Indians were relied upon, mainly, by the British au- thorities, to harass the whig inhabitants of Georgia and Ca- rolina. They had stationed at Hickory Ground, the site of the lower suburbs of the modern Wetumpka, Colonel Tait, an English othcer, of captivating address, for the purpose of influencing the Creeks in behalf of the King. There, he soon became acquainted with the most gifted and remarkable man that ever was born upon the soil of Alabama, the his- tory of whose family will now be given.
A Scotch boy, of sixteen years of age, who had read of the wonders 'to be seen in America, ran away from his wealthy
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and respectable parents, living in Dunmaglass, and entered a CHAPTER ship which was bound for South-Carolina. He arrived, with- XVII. out accident, at the- port of Charleston. Young Lachlan McGillivray there first set his feet upon American soil. He then had no property, except a shilling in his pocket, a suit of clothes upon his back, a red head, a stout frame, an honest heart, a fearless disposition, and cheerful spirits, which seldom became depressed. About this period, the English were con- ducting an extensive commerce with the Cherokees, Chicka- 1735 saws and those of the Creeks who were not in the interest of the French. Young McGillivray repaired to the extensive quarters of the traders, in the suburbs of Charleston. There he saw hundreds of pack-horses, pack-saddles, and curious looking pack-horsemen, in demi-civilized garbs, together with packs of merchandize, ready to be carried to the wilderness. The keen eyes of one of these traders soon fell upon the smart Scotch boy, who, he saw at a glance, would be useful to him. The next day, Lachlan might have been seen, in the pine woods, several miles distant from Charleston, mounted upon a horse, and driving others before him, in company with a whole caravan of traders. Arriving upon the Chattahoochie, his master, as a reward for his activity and accommodating spirit, gave him a jack knife, which he sold to an Indian, receiving in exchange a few deer skins. These he sold in Charleston, upon his return, and the proceeds of this adven- ture laid the foundation of a large fortune. In the course of a few years, he became one of the boldest and most enter- prising traders in the whole country. Whether it was owing
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CHAPTER XVII. to a superior address, a fearless disposition, or, which is more probable, a leaning towards the French, for personal interests, he even extended his commerce, without interruption, to the very neighborhood of Fort Toulouse.
At the Hickory Ground, a few miles above that fort, he found a beautiful girl, by the name of Sehoy Marchand, Those father once commanded at Fort Toulouse, and was there killed, in 1722, by his own soldiers, as we have already seen. Her mother was a full-blooded Creek woman, of the tribe of the Wind, the most aristocratic and powerful family in the - Creek nation. Sehoy was an Indian name, which had at- tached to many persons of the family, time out of mind.
Sehoy Marchand, when first seen by young Lachlan McGil- livray, was a maiden of sixteen, cheerful in countenance, be- witching in looks, and graceful in form. Her unfortunate father, Captain Marchand, was a Frenchman, of dark com- plexion, and, consequently, this beautiful girl scarcely looked light enough for a half blood; but then, her slightly curled hair, her vivacity, and peculiar gesticulation, unmistakably exposed her origin. It was not long before Lachlan and Sehoy joined their destinies in marriage, according to the ceremony of the country. The husband established a trading house at Little Tallase, four miles above Wetumpka, on the About 1745 east bank of the Coosa, and there took home his beautiful wife. The Indian tradition ran, that, while pregnant with her first child, she repeatedly dreamed of piles of manuscripts, of ink and paper, and heaps of books, more than her eyes had ever beheld in the fort, when, a child, she used to visit
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