USA > Arkansas > A pictorial history of Arkansas, from earliest times to the year 1890. A full and complete account, embracing the Indian tribes occupying the country; the early French and Spanish explorers and governors; the colonial period; the Louisiana purchase; the periods of the territory, the state, the civil war, and the subsequent period. Also, an extended history of each county in the order of formation, and of the principal cities and towns; together with biographical notices of distinguished and prominent citizens > Part 11
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At this date, 1825, the Osages of both tribes numbered about five thousand two hundred persons in Arkansas and Missouri, of which it is estimated that about twelve hun- dred (1200) were in Arkansas. The Quapaws numbered at this date seven hundred (700) persons.
The Cherokee Indians also once lived in the upper part of Arkansas, between the White and the Arkansas rivers, but they were settled there by a treaty made with the United States July 8th, 1817, whereby the Cherokee Nation was divided, and part remained east of the Mississippi river and part were removed west to the Arkansas Territory. The Cherokees all formerly lived east of the Mississippi river. They were then, and always have been, far in advance of the other nations of Indians in point of civilization. They were divided into the Upper and Lower towns; and were not
141
FROM 1804 TO 1819.
agreed as to the future course of the Nation. Those of the Upper town desired to engage in the pursuits of agriculture, and lead civilized lives in the country they occupied. Those of the Lower town desired to still continue their former hunter life, but the scarcity of game where they lived was such that they could not support an existence, and for that reason they desired to remove across the Mississippi river and" settle on vacant lands of the United States.
Accordingly, in the autumn of the year 1808, a deputation from each of these divisions went to Washington and laid the case before the President. On the 9th of January, 1809, President Jefferson agreed with them that they might send an exploring party to reconnoitre the country on the White and Arkansas rivers, and when they should find a suitable coun- try, not claimed by any other Indians, the Government would exchange with them portions of the country for that which they should leave, acre for acre, and assist them to remove.
Accordingly, the Indians sent out their exploring party and reconnoitered the country. They were not very well pleased. They saw only one buffalo and very few deer, but the Nation concluded to move, and making choice of the country on the Upper White and Arkansas rivers, removed thither at some period prior to the winter of 1810. The country allotted to them commenced on the north bank of the Arkan- sas river, at Point Remove creek, and ran thence in a straight line northeastwardly to Chautaunga mountain, or the hill first above Shield's Ferry, on White river, running up and be- tween said rivers for complement, the two rivers to be the boundary lines. They remained here until 1828, when, by a treaty of date May 6th, of that year, they ceded these lands to the United States, and were moved west to the Indian Territory, where they now are. A census of those who set- tled in Arkansas, on their removal from Mississippi, was taken in 1819, and the number given at 5,000, and the amount of land they held was estimated at four million acres (4,000,000).
142
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
In this treaty of May 6th, 1828, an allowance of $500.00 was made in favor of George Guess, a native Cherokee, whose Indian name was Se-quo-yah, for the invention of an alphabet in the Cherokee language, by means of which many of the tribe, who had despaired of being able to learn to read and write in English characters, soon learned to read in their native language. It consisted of eighty-six characters. As originally constructed, it consisted of two hundred characters, to represent by marks all the sounds uttered by the Cherokees in conversation, but from suggestions furnished by his wife, and particularly by the assistance of his daughter, he was en- abled to reduce the characters to eighty-six. The treaty was signed by himself and other Cherokees, in the charac- ters of this alphabet. One of his first works was to translate the New Testament into Cherokee. The alphabet which he constructed is still universally used by the Nation. The treaty also provided an allowance of one thousand dollars for the purchase of a printing press, types, and printers' materials, for the use of the Nation.
The eastern boundary line of this cession to the Cherokees, of 1817, on the maps of the General Land Office at Washing- ton, and the ordinary maps of Arkansas, is indicated on it by a line beginning at White river, a short distance above Bates- ville, and running thence in a southwesterly course to Point Remove, now in Faulkner county.
The Choctaws, also, by a treaty dated October 18th, 1820, negotiated by General Jackson and General Hinds, of Missis- sippi, were given a large quantity of lands which belong to the western border of the Territory of Arkansas, but by a subsequent treaty of January 20th, 1825, negotiated by John C. Calhoun, they retro-ceded to the United States all lands lying east of a line commencing on the south bank of the Arkansas river, one hundred paces east of Old Fort Smith, and running thence south to Red river, comprising five million and thirty thousand, nine hundred and twelve acres
40 miles
Territory ceded by Act of Congress 1824
SOUTH of the ARKANSAS RIVER was lost in the Choctaw Treaty 1825
The ORIGINAL WESTERN BOUNDARY LINE
OF The TERRITORY OF ARKANSAS 1819 SOUTH OF THE ARKANSAS RIVER This Strip was lost in the Choctaw Treaty of 1825
ha
Territory derived from Second Osage Treatyof 1818.
1075 648 acres
REDRIVER
LITTLE RIVER
Treaty , August 24th 1818 16.000.000 Territory derived from the First QUAPA
5030. 912 acres
back by them Jan 20th 1825
Choctawsiin 1820 and ceded
FROG BAYOU
Line due South From Fort Clark
Old CheroKEE N.W. BOUNDARY
Fulton
RIVER
SALINE RIVER
LITTLE ROCK
POINT REMOVE
Point of Rocks
000.000
BLACK RIVER
ST FRANCIS RIVER
MISSISSIPPI River
1808
MAP SHOWING AREA AND ACREAGE OF PORTIONS OF ARKANSAS DERIVED FROM VARIOUS INDIAN TREATIES.
Missouri.
ory derived from the First AW TREATY in 1818
TERRITORY derved WHITE RIVER
Territory derived from the first OSAGE TREATY NOV. 10#.
ceded to Choctaws back by them
WHITE RIVER
1.500.000 Acres
Treaty 1824 from SecondQUAPAW
in1817 ceded ARKANSAS RIVER 14.830 432 acres Territory in 1828 4000.000 Acres
N 330. EAST. 132 MILES AND 32 CHAINS.
OUACHITA
Territory ceded to the
TREATY OF 1828 Lost in the Cherokee
afterwards the County of Loveley ove The Loveley Purchase
I44
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
(5,030,912) and this has since been the western boundary line between Arkansas and that Nation, between these points.
The preceding map indicates the area and acreage of the several cessions to the United States, made by Indian tribes, of lands lying in Arkansas.
In his "Reminiscences of the Indians," Rev. Cephas Washburn gives the following account of the advent of the Cherokees in Arkansas, to-wit :
"At the close of the war of the Revolution, large numbers of Royalists, called Tories, took refuge among the Indian tribes. This was especially true of the Royalists in South Carolina and Georgia. By the instigation of these Royalists several of the southern Indian tribes engaged in hostilities against the United States. The Cherokees were among those who thus engaged, on the pretext that the citizens of the United States were intruding on their 'hunting grounds.' This pre- text was founded in truth. This war with the Cherokees continued until 1785, the date of the first treaty between the Cherokees and the United States Government. By this treaty the Cherokees relinquished some of their lands, and the boundaries of their nation were accurately defined. In con- sideration of the lands ceded by this treaty, the United States stipulated to pay to the Cherokees certain annuities. The first payment under this treaty took place, I think, in 1792. All the Cherokee people were convened for this purpose at a place in East Tennessee, called 'Tellico Block House.' This payment went off in harmony and. to the satisfaction of all the Cherokee towns, and the people started from their homes in peace.
"One of the Cherokee towns was in the southwest part of their country, within the limits of the present State of Alabama. The inhabitants of this town were returning from their annuity, and had encamped, for the purpose of rest and to procure food by hunting, on the bank of the Tennessee river, at the upper end of the Mussel Shoals. While thus encamped several
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FROM 1804 TO 1819.
boats containing emigrants to Louisiana came down the river and landed at the head of the shoals. On board were two men named Stewart and Scott, who had goods for the pur- pose of traffic with the Indians, through whose country they were to pass. Among the goods there was, of course, a full supply of whiskey. These men soon ascertained that the Cherokees had money, and their cupidity was excited. They invited the Cherokees aboard, and freely treated them with whiskey until they were all drunk. They then displayed their Indian goods, consisting mainly of beads, vermillion and other paints, and pocket mirrors in gilded frames. These they sold at the rate of twelve dollars for a string of glass beads ; sixteen dollars for a mirror, and thirty dollars an ounce for their paints. The result was that the Cherokees and their money were soon parted. When the fumes of the whiskey had passed off and they were again sober, they perceived that their money was all gone, and that they had nothing of real value in re- turn for it. The chief of the party, named the Bowl, and subsequently known as General Bowls, went aboard the boat and remonstrated with Stewart and Scott. He returned all the mirrors and beads and paints, and offered to pay for the whiskey at the rate of four dollars a gallon, and requested the return of the balance of the money. His offer was indignantly spurned, and he was ordered off the boat. When he ascended the bank to his people and reported the refusal to his people, they were greatly incensed and commenced loading their rifles. The Bowl, wishing to avoid all violence and outrage, took two of the most calm and deliberate of his men and went aboard again to remonstrate against the fraud, and to warn the traders of the exasperated state of the Indians on shore. Stewart and Scott, instead of heeding his warning, seized each a boat pole and commenced an attack upon the three on board. Stewart plunged the iron socket into the breast of one of the men and instantly killed him. Scott struck another on the 10
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
head with his pole and knocked him down and then threw him into the river. He either drowned or was killed by the blow on the head. The Bowl escaped unhurt to land and still tried to restrain his men, but his efforts were in vain. They were exasperated beyond endurance. They fired on Stewart and Scott, both of whom were instantly killed. They then went aboard and killed every white man aboard the boat, sav- ing the women and children and servants alive.
"After this bloody tragedy, which is known as the 'Mussel Shoals Massacre,' the whole party of the Cherokees went aboard the boats, descended the Tennessee, Ohio and Missis- sippi to the mouth of the St. Francis river. Here they placed all the white women and children in one boat; relin- quished to them all the furniture which they claimed ; granted to each of the married ladies a female servant; put on board an ample stock of provisions and four strong and faithful black men and let them descend the Mississippi to New Or- leans, the place of their destination. , After the de- parture of the boat for New Orleans, the Bowl and his party ran the other boats, with their contents, a few miles up the St. Francis river to await the issue of the affair. They feared that their conduct at the Mussel Shoals would be regarded by our Government as a violation of the treaty of amity, and as a renewal of hostility. As soon as the massacre of Mussel Shoals was known by the Cherokees in their towns they con- vened a general council, and, in a memorial to the United States Government, declared that they had no part in the tragedy ; that they wished to be at peace with the United States; and that they would do all in their power to aid the United States in bringing the parties to justice. They sent to the Bowl and his party to return and submit to a trial, for tak- ing the lives of white citizens of the United States. When this whole matter was investigated by the Government, the Cherokees were fully justified ; the property was confiscated
147
FROM 1804 TO 1819.
and declared by treaty to belong to the perpetrators of the 'Mussell Shoals Massacre.'
"The course pursued by the Cherokee council toward the refugees tended to alienate their minds from their people in the home of their fathers, and made them less reluctant to re- main in their new homes west of the Mississippi. Added to this the abundance of game, the fertility of the soil and the blandness of the climate soon made them prefer their homes here to those where they had resided in the East. Other par- ties, who crossed the Mississippi for the purpose of hunting and trapping, when they saw the prosperity of these original refugees joined them. In 1812, by an arrangement with the Government, they removed from St. Francis and White riv- ers and settled on the Arkansas. In 1813 a considerable ac- cession was made to their number by voluntary emigration from the old nation, and they became so numerous that an agent of the United States was sent to reside among them, and from that time until the whole tribe was united in the west of the State of Arkansas, in 1839, they were known and treated with as the Arkansas Cherokees, or, the Cherokee Na- tion, West. By the treaty of Turkeytown, in 1817," the Government stipulated to give the Arkansas Cherokees, as much land, 'acre for acre,' between the Arkansas and White rivers, as they should cede of their domain in the East. The result of this treaty was a considerable emigration from the East to the West, in the years 1818 and 1819. From that time till their union by the treaty of 1835, which was not ef- fected in fact till 1839, the Arkansas Cherokees were estimated at one-third of the whole tribe."
In 1811 a great earthquake occurred at New Madrid, in the Territory of Louisiana, which reached into the upper regions of Arkansas. It extended for the distance of three hundred miles southward, from the mouth of the Ohio river,
(*) Should be Cherokee Agency. The treaty ratified at Turkeytown was in 1816 and related to other matters.
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
along the Mississippi Valley. Humboldt, speaking of it, re marks that it presents one of the few examples of incessant quaking of the ground for several successive months, far away from any volcano. The ground rose and sunk in great undulations, and lakes were alternately formed and drained again. The surface burst open in great fissures, which ex- tended northeast and southwest, and were sometimes more than half a mile long, and from these fissures mud and water were thrown as high as the tops of trees. The disturbances continued until March 26th, 1812, when they ceased. This was the most extended earthquake ever felt in the United States, and the effect of it was to leave a large portion of the country near New Madrid sunk and submerged. It has since, been called "the sunk country." In Craighead county, Arkansas, is to be found a portion of country called the "sunk lands," which was submerged by this earthquake February 6th, 1812. The St. Francis river altered its course and followed the lowest places, leaving its former bed dry, and lakes formed in places where it used to run.
At the time this earthquake was in progress the Steamer, New Orleans, the first steamboat on the western waters, was on her first trip from Pittsburg, the place of her building, to New Orleans, her destination, under charge of Mr. Nicholas J. Roosevelt, her builder and projector. After passing the falls of the Ohio, the existence of the earthquake began to be manifest. The following account of it is taken from a journal of the journey kept at the time .* "At New Madrid, a great portion of which had been engulphed, as the earth opened in vast chasms and swallowed up houses and their inhabi- tants, terror-stricken people begged to be taken on board, while others, dreading the steamboat even more than the earthquake, hid themselves as the boat approached .
One of the most uncomfortable incidents of the voyage was
(*) From address of J. H. B. Latrobe, before the Maryland Historical Society. See Clai- borne's History of Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 537.
149
FROM 1804 TO 1819.
the confusion of the pilot, who became alarmed and declared that he was lost, so great had been the changes in the chan- nel, caused by the earthquake. Where he had expected to find deep water, roots and stumps projected above the sur- face. Tall trees that had been guides had disappeared. Islands had changed their shapes, cut-offs had been made through what was forest land when he saw it last.
In the first part of the voyage, when the steamboat rounded to at night, she was made fast to the river bank, but when it was seen that trees would occasionally topple and fall over, as the ground beneath them was shaken or gave way, it was thought safer to stop at the foot of an island, which might serve as a break-water, taking care the trees were far enough from the boat to obviate apprehension from them. Once, however, when such a fastening had been made, and a plank carried ashore a new experience was had. No shock had been felt during the day, and those aboard the boat anticipated a quiet rest ; in this, however, they were dis- appointed. All night long they were disturbed by the jar and noise produced by hard objects grating and striking against the planking outside the boat. At times severe blows were struck, that caused the vessel to tremble through its entire length. Then there would follow a continuous scratching, mingled with a gurgling sound of water. Drift- wood had caused sounds of the same sort before, and it was thought that driftwood was again busy in producing them. With morning, however, came the true explanation. The island had disappeared, and it was the disintegrated fragments sweeping down the river that had struck the vessel from time to time and caused the noises which the occupants of the boat had been disturbed by. At first it was supposed that the New Orleans had been borne along by the current, but the pilot pointed to landmarks on the banks which proved that it was the island that had disappeared, while the boat had kept its place. Where the island had been, there was now
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
a broad reach of the river, and when the hauser was cut, for it was found impossible otherwise to free the vessel, the pilot was utterly at a loss which way to steer. Some flat boats were hailed, but they too were lost . In the bends where the rushing waters struck the shore, to whirl around the curve and glance off to form a bend in an opposite direction, the deepest water was immediately under the bank, and here the trees, undermined by the current, would be seen at times to sink into the stream, often erect until the waters covered their topmost twigs. Sometimes falling against each other and interlacing their great arms, sometimes falling outward into the water, and then woe to the vessel that happened to be near them in the bend."
The condition of the country around New Madrid at the conclusion of the earthquake is indicated in the following ex- tracts from "Howe's Historical Collections of the Great West," published in Cincinnati in 1852 :
"The people of Little Prairie had their settlement, which consisted of one hundred families, entirely broken up-only two families remained. The whole region was covered with sand to the depth of two or three feet. The surface was red with oxydized pyrites of iron and pieces of pit coal. The country was filled with chasms running from northeast to southwest, at intervals sometimes as close as half a mile apart, and sufficiently large to swallow up not only men but houses. To save themselves the inhabitants cut down large trees at right angles to the chasms and stationed themselves thereon. The Great Prairie settlement, one of the most flourishing on the west bank of the Mississippi, and New Madrid dwindled into insignificance and decay, the people trembling in their miserable hovels at the distant and melancholy rumbling of the approaching shocks."
In order to recompense people who had lost lands in this way, the Government, by an Act passed February 17th, 1815, al- lowed all such persons to select from unoccupied lands of the
15I
FROM 1804 TO 1819.
Government in the territory, the sale of which was authorized by law, an amount equal to what they had lost, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in any case, and locate them under certificate from the United States Land Office certifying the loss. These certificates were called "New Madrid certifi- cates," and many of them were located in Arkansas, the most noted of which is one for two hundred arpens of land, is- sued to Francis Langlois by Frederick Bates, recorder of land titles in Missouri Territory, November 26th, 1818, and assigned to Major Elias Rector, and by him located in 1820, embracing the Hot Springs of what is now Garland county. Other entries of the lands subsequently made conflicting with the location of this claim or certificate was the cause of a prolonged litigation on the subject, which began in 1852 and only ended as to the main body of the case in 1876, by a de- cision of the Court of Claims, affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, in favor of the United States Govern- ment as against all claimants, those claiming under the Lang- lois entry as well as all others. Also one which was issued to Eloi Dejarlois, and assigned to William O'Hara and others, was located on lands on which the city of Little Rock was af- terwards built, but the entry was not held valid and patents were issued by the Government in 1839 to other interests which intervened.
On the 8th of April, 1812, the Territory of Orleans was admitted into the Union as a State, under the name of the State of Louisiana, and of date June 4th of that year Congress provided that the territory previously called the District of Louisiana should thereafter be called Missouri Territory; the name is derived from a tribe of the Dakota family, which Marquette, in his account of his explorations of 1673, spoke of as the first tribe living along the banks of the river, which bears their name, after leaving the Mississippi. Their real name was Nudarcha, but the name Missouri had been given them by the Illinois tribes, from whom Marquette learned of
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
them. The name in the Indian tongue means "muddy water," and refers to their river, of which Joutel says "the waters are always thick." The Act provided that the legis- lative power of the territory should be vested in a General Assembly, consisting of a Governor, a Legislative Council of nine members, and a House of Representatives of thirteen members. The seat of government was directed to be at St. Louis, and the Governor was directed to divide the State into convenient election districts for the election of the thirteen delegates to the House of Representatives.
On the Ist of October, 1812, Benjamin A. Howard, Gov- ernor of the territory, issued his proclamation, announcing that the new Territory of Missouri would begin operations on the Ist day of December, 1812, and districting the territory into election districts, for the election of the thirteen delegates, as follows, to-wit: St. Charles, two delegates; St. Louis, four ; Ste. Genevieve, three; Cape Girardeau, two, and New Madrid two. The proclamation also designated New Madrid to be the seat of justice of a county, which should compose the then District of New Madrid, and that the Village of Ar- kansas, which was the name the Post of Arkansas was known by on the Government records, should be the seat of justice of a district embracing the greater part of what is now the entire State of Arkansas. It furthermore provided for the election of a delegate to the Congress of the United States, to be held on the second Monday of November, 1812, which was just one week before the opening of the second session of the Twelfth Congress. At this election Edward Hempstead, who was born at New London, Connecticut, June 3d, 1780, was elected delegate, his competitors being Rufus Easton, Samuel Hammond and Matthew Lyon. He took his seat in Con- gress January 4th, 1813, and served until November 12th, 1814. He was the first delegate in Congress from Missouri Territory, and not only this, but, as expressed by Hon. E. B.
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FROM 1804 TO 1819.
Washburne,* was "the first man who ever sat in our National Councils from west of the Mississippi river and represented a country which, in the space of less than three-quarters of a century, became an empire in population, enterprise, wealth and all the elements that go to make up a great and free peo- ple." He represented all that was included in the Louisiana purchase, except the State of Louisiana itself, which had now become a separate and independent sovereignty. One of Mr. Hempstead's most important services while in Congress was to heal certain defective grants of land called Spanish grants. Defects existed in many of these, for the reason that when Spain retro-ceded Louisiana to France, in 1800, it was done, as we have seen, by a treaty which was prospective or condi- tional in its operation, taking effect "six months after the per- formance of certain conditions and stipulations" therein ex- pressed, and was not really in force for nearly a year after it was concluded ; and it was furthermore a secret treaty for obvious reasons. The French did not, therefore, take posses- sion of the country under the rights of their cession, but left the Spanish in virtual and actual control, even up to Novem- ber 30th, 1803, when the country having been ceded to the United States, it was received from Spain by France for the purpose of being delivered to the United States. Now, in the time intervening between the St. Ildefonso treaty of October Ist, 1800, and the delivery to France, November 30th, 1803, the Spanish Governors had made many grants of land the same as they had been accustomed to do under their own Government. The Governor of Louisiana was not even in- formed of the cession until long after it had taken place. Mr. Hempstead introduced and advocated a bill to make these imperfect grants legal for the saving of innocent purchasers and the establishment of definite titles, and under his advocacy the bill became a law April 12th, 1814.
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