USA > Georgia > Floyd County > Rome > A history of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, United States of America; including numerous incidents of more than local interest, 1540-1922, Volume I > Part 3
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The next military event of im- portance to Cherokee Georgia was the invasion of Alabama by Gen. John Floyd in 1814. Gen. Floyd was a native of South Carolina and a descendant of noted fighting men. He owned Fairfield Plantation, Camden County, where he died June 24, 1839, after having served in the State Legislature and in Congress. He defeated the Creek Indians, allies of the British, at
Autossee, Fort Defiance, and Chin- ibee, Ala., and so complete was the rout that the warlike Creeks as a nation never afterward became dangerous along the border, and the comparatively peaceful settle- ment of Northwest Georgia was made possible.
Another civilizing influence about this time was the invention of the Cherokee alphabet of 85 characters by Sequoyah (George Guess or Gist), an uneducated In- dian who lived at Alpine, Chattoo- ga County, and who was a fre- quent visitor to Major Ridge's at his home on the Oostanaula. Se- quoyah wrote on bark with poke- berry juice, instructed his little daughter and any Indian who wished to learn. He went west to the Indian country in a few years, and presently his alphabet was adopted by the Cherokee Nation and was used along with English in copies of the Cherokee Phoenix,
GEN. JOHN FLOYD, Indian fighter and Con- gressman, after whom in 1832 Floyd County was named.
*Site of Coosa village.
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
the paper edited at New Echota by Elias Boudinot.
Several glimpses into Indian and frontier life are given in "The Laws of the Cherokees," published by the Cherokee Advocate at Tahle- quah, Okla., in 1852. One of these is contained in an order from the chiefs and warriors in National Council at "Broom's Town," Sept. 11, 1808. (Broom's Town was probably Broom Town, Cherokee County, Ala., in Broom Town Val- ley, and about five miles from Cloudland, Chattooga County, Ga.). The order forms "regulating com- panies" of one captain, one lieu- tenant and four privates each, at annual salaries of $50, $40 and $30, respectively, for the purpose of arresting horse thieves and pro- tecting property. The penalty for stealing a horse was 100 lashes on the bare back of the thief, be he man or woman, and fewer lashes for things of less value ; and if a thief resisted the "regulators" with gun, axe, spear or knife, he could be killed on the spot.
1
SEQUOYAH (Geo. Guess), inventor of the Cherokee Alphabet, who was born in Chat- tooga County, near Alpine.
This law was signed by Black Fox, principal chief ; Chas. Hicks, secretary to the Council; Path Killer and Toochalar. These offi- cials and Turtle at Home, Speaker of the Council, drafted the follow- ing law Apr. 10, 1810, at "Oostan- nallah," a town supposed to have been located about three miles east of Resaca, Gordon County, on the east bank of the Connasauga (sometimes known at that point as Oostanaula) River, near the mouth of Polecat Creek :
Be it known that this day the various clans and tribes which compose the Cherokee Nation have agreed that should it happen that a brother, for- getting his natural affection, should use his hand in anger and kill his brother, he shall be accounted guilty of murder and suffer accordingly; and if a mar has a horse stolen, and over- takes the thief, and should his anger be so great as to cause him to kill him, let his blood remain on his own conscience, but no satisfaction shall be demanded for his life from his rel- atives or the clan he may belong to.
"Echota" was the Cherokee term for "town." The first capital is said by some authorities to have been originally in Virginia, the second in North Carolina and the third in East Tennessee. Prior to 1825, it appears, John Ross, principal chief, lived at Ross' Landing, Tennessee River, now Chattanooga. The first mention in the Cherokee laws of New Town (or New Echota) was under date of Oct. 26, 1819. This place was situated on the south bank of the Oostanaula River, in Gordon County, Ga., just below the confluence of the Coosawattee and the Connasauga Rivers and presumably three miles south of Oostanaula village.
On Oct. 28, 1819, at Newtown the following order was passed :
This day decreed by the National Committee and Council, That all citi- zens of the Cherokee Nation establish- ing a store for the purpose of vend- ing merchandise shall obtain license for that purpose from the clerk of the
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JOHN SEVIER, JOHN FLOYD AND THE INDIANS
National Council, for which each and every person so licensed shall pay a tax of $25 per annum, and that no other but citizens of the Cherokee Na- tion shall be allowed to establish a per- manent store within the Nation. And it is also decreed that no peddlers not citizens of the Nation shall be permit- ted to vend merchandise in the Nation without first obtaining license from the Agent of the United States for the Cherokee Nation, agreeably to the laws of the United States, and each and everyone so licensed shall pay $80 to the treasurer of the Cherokee Nation annually.
This law was signed by John Ross, President of the National Committee ; Path Killer, Chas. R. Hicks and Alex McCoy, clerk. Three years later George M. Lav- ender encountered its provisions by establishing the first trading post near Rome, at the old home of Major Ridge up the Oostanaula River.
The first reference to the pres- ent site of Rome appears in a law passed Oct. 30, 1819, at New Town, as follows :
Whereas, the Big Rattling Gourd*, Wm. Grimit, Betsey Brown, The Dark, Daniel Griffin and Mrs. Lesley hav- ing complained before the Chiefs of a certain company of persons having formed a combination and established a turnpike arbitrarily, in opposition to the interest of the above-named persons, proprietors of a privileged turnpike on the same road, be it now, therefore, known
That said complaint having been submitted by the Council to the Na- tional Committee for a decision, and after maturely investigating into the case, have decided that the said new company of the disputed turnpike shall be abolished, and that the above-named persons are the only legal proprietors to establish a turnpike on the road leading from Widow Fool's (ferry) at the forks of Hightower (Etowah) and Oostannallah Rivers to Will's Creek by
way of Turkey Town ;** and the said company shall be bound to keep in re- pair said road, to commence from the first creek east of John Fields, Sr's home, by the name where Vann was shot, and to continue westward to the extent of their limits; and that the Widow Fool shall also keep in repair for the benefit of her ferry at the fork, the road to commence from the creek above named to where Ridge's Road now intersects said road east of her ferry, and that the Ridges shall also keep in repair the road to commence at the Two Runs, east of his ferry, and to continue by way of his ferry as far as where his road intersects the old road, leading from the fork west of his ferry, and that also the High- tower Turnpike Co. shall keep in re- pair the road from the Two Runs to where it intersects the Federal Road, near Blackburn's.
This law was signed by Ross, Path Killer, Hicks and McCoy.
In 1820, also at New Town or New Echota, a law was passed di- viding the Cherokee country of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee into eight territorial and judicial districts : Amoah, Aquohee, Chal- loogee, Chickamaugee, Coosewa- tee, Etowah, Hickory Log and Tahquohee. In a description of the Coosewatee District the ferry of the Widow Fool is again men- tioned.
It would appear that for about six years, from 1819 to 1825, the Cherokee National Committee and Council held their meetings at New Echota. On Nov. 12, 1825, it was resolved to establish a town with suitable buildings, wide streets and a park :
That 100 town lots of one acre square be laid off on the Oostannallah River, commencing below the mouth of the creek (Town), nearly opposite to the mouth of Caunasauga River, the public square to embrace two acres of ground, which town shall be known and called Echota. There shall be a main street of 60 feet, and the other streets shall be 50 feet.
That the lots when laid off be sold to the highest bidder, the second Mon- day in February next, the proceeds
*The Big Rattling Gourd was a sub-chief who lived at one time at Cave Spring. His wife proved unfaithful to him and in a moment of anger he hit off her nose and otherwise so maltreated her that she died. According to Mrs. Harriet Connor Stevens, of Cave Spring, she was buried on the spot where the Cave Spring postoffice now stands.
** General route of the present Alabama Road. Turkey Town was in Etowah County, Ala.
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
to be appropriated for the benefit of the public buildings in said town.
That three commissioners, Judge Martin, George Saunders and Walter S. Adair, superintend the laying off of the lots.
That all the ground lying within the following bounds, not embraced by the lots, shall remain as commons for the convenience of the town: beginning at the mouth of the creek, opposite the mouth of Caunasauga, and up said creek to the mouth of the dry branch on which Geo. Hicks lives, up said branch to the point of the ridges, and thence in a circle around along said ridges, by the place occupied by the Crying Wolf (lately occupied by War Club), thence to the river.
Signing this document were John Ross, President of the National Committee ; Major Ridge,* Speak- er of the Council ; Path Killer, Chas. R. Hicks, ** A. McCoy, clerk of the National Committee, and Elias Boudinot, clerk of the Na- tional Council.
Thus we see the Cherokees, driv- en from pillar to post by the en- croaching pale-faces, marshaling their forces for a last ditch stand. Their first expedient was to estab- lish "a nation within a nation," lience the concentration of power in a Principal Chief, a National Committee and a National Coun- cil, and a regular seat of govern- ment at New Echota ; their second expedient was resort to such force as they could command-highway assassination, attacks on isolated families, tribal uprisings- and finally, when state and federal gov- ernment pressure became too great, non-intercourse and passive resistance. Their newspaper proved a feeble weapon.
As far back as the presidency of George Washington (1794) we find pow-wows in Philadelphia (then the national capital) with the Cher- okees and other tribes of the va- rious states in the east and the southeast. In 1803 Thos. Jefferson, then President, suggested a gen- eral movement westward. In 1817
and in 1819, during the Presidency of James Monroe, important trea- ties were signed with the Chero- kees, involving cessions of land. In 1802, during the administration of Mr. Jefferson, Georgia had ceded to the United States government all the land she owned westward to the Mississippi River, now the states of Alabama and Mississippi, in exchange for the government's promise to extinguish the Indian title to land within Georgia's pres- ent boundaries. Twenty years passed ; nothing having been done, Gov. Geo. M. Troup pressed the matter upon the attention of Presi- dent James Monroe, and the Presi- dent called a meeting in 1825 for Indian Springs. Here the Lower Creeks, led by Gen. Wm. McIntosh, ignored the hostile Alabama Creeks, who did not attend, and signed away their Georgia lands. This act infuriated the Alabama Creeks, and 170 men volunteered to kill Gen. McIntosh, who lived at "McIntosh Reserve,"onthe Chatta- hoochee River, five miles southwest of Whitesburg, in what is now Car- roll County. The band lay in the woods until 3 o'clock one morning, and proceeded to the McIntosh home with a quantity of pitch pine on the backs of three warriors. Presently the pine knots were ig- nited and thrown under the house, and the structure blazed up brightly. From the second story McIntosh fought off his enemies with four guns, but eventually the heat forced him to descend, and when he exposed himself he was shot, then dragged into the yard and killed with knives.
The Alabama Creeks having claimed the Indian Springs instru- ment was "no treaty," the incom-
*Major Ridge was a powerful orator, but it is said he was uneducated and could not write his name. The state papers of the Cherokees usually have after his name "his mark." Path Killer also signed by touching the pen.
** Chas. R. Hicks became the first principal chief after the Cherokees had set up their re- vised structure of government at New Echota. He was succeeded in 1828 by John Ross.
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JOHN SEVIER, JOHN FLOYD AND THE INDIANS
ing president, John Quincy Adams, took their side and ordered Gov. Troup not to survey the lands just ceded. The Georgia Governor de- fied Mr. Adams and told him if United States troops invaded Geor- gia soil, Georgia troops would put them off. Trouble was averted by a new agreement in which the In- dians were given about $28,000.
The Creek settlement furnished a suggestion for the agents who ten years later negotiated with a minority faction of the Cherokees, as will be told more fully herein hereafter. Farther down, in South Georgia and Florida, were the
such establishment. Samuel A. Worcester, a native of Worcester, Mass., had charge of a mission at New Echota. Missionary Station, at Coosa, Floyd Coun- ty, was in the care of Rev. and Mrs. Elijah Butler, who were sent out from South Canaan, Conn., by the American Baptist Commit- tee on Foreign Missions. In 1831 Dr. Worcester, Dr. Butler and nine others were sentenced to a term of four years in the Georgia peni- tentiary at Milledgeville, and served a year and four months. They were charged with pernicious activities among the Indians. Their
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THE CHEROKEE ALPHABET
Seminoles, who gave considerable trouble, but were generally less of bone of contention than the Creeks and the Cherokees.
The clan system among the Cherokees was abolished about 1800. The clans were Wolf, Deer, Paint, Longhair, Bird, Blind Sa- vannah and Holly. Jno. Ross was a Bird, Major Ridge a Deer and David Vann a Wolf.
Prior to 1820 Congress appro- priated $10,000 yearly toward the maintenance of missions and mis- sionaries among the Indians of Cherokee Georgia and contiguous territory. The Brainerd Mission was located on Missionary Ridge, Tenn., and was probably the first
release was brought about when they agreed to leave the State.
Pressure on the Indians may be said to have been exerted from two directions ; it proceeded from the oldest section of the State, the neighborhood of Augusta, Savan- nah and Darien, in a generally northwesterly direction, and from South Carolina, in a westerly di- rection. Various land speculators, adventurers, criminals and good, substantial people began to over- run the Cherokee country. Under letter date of Aug. 6, 1832, from the Council Ground at Red Clay, Whitfield County, the following red-skins protested to Lewis Cass,
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
Secretary of War, against the pale- face encroachments :*
Richard Taylor, President of Com- mittee; John Ridge.
Major Ridge, his x mark, Geo. M. Waters, Executive Council.
Wm. Roques, clerk of committee.
John Ross, Going Snake, speaker of committee; Joseph Vann, David Vann, James Daniel, Thos. Foreman, Alexan- der McDaniel, his x mark; Fox Bald- ridge, Samuel Gunter; Chincumkah, his x mark; Young Glass, hix x mark; John Foster, Te-sat-es-kee, his x mark; Ed. Duncan, John Watts, his x mark; John Wayne, his x mark; Sit-u-akee, his x mark; Bean Stick, his x mark; Walking Stick, his x mark; N. Connell, Richard Fielding, John Timson, Wm. Boling, George Still, his x mark; Hair Conrad, his x mark; Sleeping Rabbit, ** his x mark; Archibald Campbell, his x mark; The Buck, his x mark; White Path, his x mark; John R. Daniel, Ruquah, his x mark; James Speaks, his x mark; Sweet Water, his x mark ; Peter, his x mark; Soft Shell Turtle, his x mark; A. McCoy, George Lowry. U. S. Agent Elisha W. Chester, wit- ness.
It was not until Oct. 23, 1832, however, that the situation became so acute as to call for the most delicate diplomacy from national and state governments. Then it was that the lottery drawings for the Cherokee lands were held, and the influx of settlers became gen- eral. Like a plague of locusts the new-comers alighted on the choice hunting grounds of the Cherokees. The territory was broken up into counties, and thus was also broken the friendship between the con- tending parties, which for so long had been hanging by a slender thread. John Ross directed a pro- test to his tribesmen which caused them to fast for several days. The Indians assumed an ugly attitude, but it availed little, as we shall presently see.
* American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. 5, ps. 28-9.
** It was at his one-room log cabin, in Ten- nessee, that Jno. Ross and Jno. Howard Payne were arrested Nov. 7, 1835.
PART II "ANCIENT ROME" 1834-1861
CHAPTER I. Rome's Establishment and Early Days
I N THE spring of 1834 two lawyers were traveling on horseback from Cassville, Cass County, to attend court at Livingston, the county seat of Floyd. They were Col. Dan- iel R. Mitchell, a lawyer of Canton, Cherokee County, and Col. Zacha- riah B. Hargrove, Cassville attor- ney, formerly of Covington, New- ton County. The day was warm and the travelers hauled up at a small spring on the peninsula which separates the Etowah and the Oos- tanaula rivers at their junction. Here they slaked their thirst and sat down under a willow tree to rest before proceeding on their way.
Col. Hargrove gazed in admira- tion on the surrounding hills and remarked: "This would make a splendid site for a town."
"I was just thinking the same," returned his companion. "There seems to be plenty of water round about and extremely fertile soil and all the timber . a man could want."
A stranger having come up to refresh himself at the spring, and having overheard the conversation, said: "Gentlemen, you will par- don me for intruding, but I have been convinced for some time that the location of this place offers ex- ceptional opportunities for build- ing a city that would become the largest and most prosperous in Cherokee Georgia. I live two miles south of here. My business takes me now and then to George M. Lavender's trading post up the Oostanaula there, and I never pass this spot but I think of what could be done."
The last speaker introduced him- self as Maj. Philip Walker Hemp-
hill, planter. Learning the mission of the travelers, he added: "The court does not open until tomorrow afternoon. You gentlemen are no doubt fatigued by your journey, and it will give me great pleasure if you will accompany me home and spend the night. There we can discuss the matter of locating a town at this place."
Col. Mitchell and Col. Hargrove accepted with thanks. The three left the spring (which still runs under Broad street at the south- east corner of Third Avenue), crossed the Etowah River on John Ross' "Forks Ferry," and proceed- ed with Major Hemphill to his comfortable plantation home at what is now DeSoto Park. Here they went into the question more deeply. A cousin of Maj. Hemp- hill, Gen. James Hemphill, who lived about ten miles down Vann's Valley, had recently been elected to the Georgia legislature, and could no doubt bring about a re- moval of the county site from Livingston to Rome; he was also commanding officer of the Georgia Militia in the section.
After court was over, Col. Mitch- ell and Col. Hargrove spent an- other night with Maj. Hemphill, and the next morning Col. Wm. Smith was called in from Cave Spring, and became the fourth member of the company. It was there agreed that all available land would be acquired immediate- ly, the ferry rights would be bought and the ground laid off in lots. Gen. Hemphill was requested to confer with his compatriots at Milledgeville and draw up a bill for removal. The projectors would give sufficient land for the public buildings and in time would make the ferries free and cause neces-
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A HISTORY OF ROME AND FLOYD COUNTY
sary bridges to be built, as well as to lay out streets at once. A con- tract along these lines was signed with the Inferior Court of Floyd County. Since Col. Mitchell and Col. Hargrove were fairly well es- tablished elsewhere, and it would be some time before they could move, they agreed to leave the le- gal matters in the hands of John H. Lumpkin, of Oglethorpe Coun- ty, who was ready to resign as sec- retary to his uncle, Governor Wil- son Lumpkin, and to grow up with the new town.
These five pioneers put five names into a hat, it having been agreed that the name drawn out should be the name of the city they were to build. Col. Smith put in the name Hillsboro, typify- ing the hills, and this later became the name of the suburb he develop- ed, South Rome ; Col. Hargrove suggested Pittsburg, after the iron and steel metropolis of Pennsyl-
DANIEL R. MITCHELL, lawyer and one of four founders of Rome, who gave to the young city its name.
vania ; Col. Hemphill preferred Hamburg, after the great commer- cial city of Germany; Col. Mitch- ell, recalling the seven hills of an- cient Rome on the Tiber, wanted Rome; and Mr. Lumpkin favored Warsaw, after the city of Poland. The name Rome was extracted and became the name of the town.
Among other early settlers of Rome or Floyd County were the following :
Col. Alfred Shorter, who came from Society Hill, Ala., to finance the operations of William Smith, on a half interest basis; Joseph Watters and John Rush, of the Watters District ; John Ellis, Jos. Ford, Judge W. H. Underwood, Alford B. Reece. Thos. G. Watters, Thos. S. Price, Wesley Shropshire, Edward Ware, Thos. and Elijah Lumpkin, Micajah Mayo, Elkanah Everett, of Everett Springs; A. Tabor Hardin, Wm. C. Hardin, Nathan Bass, Thos. Selman, Rev. Genuluth Winn, Dr. Alvin Dean, Isaac and John P. Bouchillon, Wm. King. John Smith, Shade Green, Dr. Jesse Carr, Jno. W. Walker, Henry W. Dean, Jno. Townsend, Jeremiah L. McArver, Sam Smith, Wm. Mathis, G. T. Mitchell, Fletch- er Carver, J. W. Carver, J. D. Alex- ander, Col. Jno. R. Hart, Gilbert Cone, Dr. H. V. M. Miller, Thos. W. Burton, A. D. Shackelford, Thos. C. Hackett, James McEntee, Wm. T. Price, R. S. Norton, C. M. Pen- nington, Rev. Shaler G. Hillyer, Wm. E. Alexander, W. S. Cothran, A. B. Ross, Jobe Rogers, Jno. and Win. De Journett, Judge Jno. W Hooper, Ewell Meredith, Col. Jas. Liddell (or Ladelle), Alfred Brown, James Wells, Jesse Lamberth, Ter- rence McGuire, Dennis Hills, Dr. Thos. Hamilton, Samuel Mobley, W'm. Montgomery, Fielding Hight, Green Cunningham and Samuel Stewart.
Jackson County appropriately bears the name "Mother of Floyd,"
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ROME'S ESTABLISHMENT AND EARLY DAYS
because of the number and promi- nence of her citizens who settled in Cave Spring, Vann's Valley or Rome. Among these might be men- tioned Mrs. Alfred Shorter, Major Philip W. Hemphill and his brother, Chas. Jonathan Hemphill ; Col. and Mrs. Wm. Smith and her brother, Jno. Willis Mayo, and her kinsman, Micajah Mayo, after whom the Mayo Bar lock was named; Col. Smith's brothers, Chas., John and Elijah A. Smith ; Gen. Jas. Hemp- hill, Walton H. Jones, Peyton Skip- with Randolph, Newton Green, Col. James Liddell (or Ladelle), and Wm. Montgomery. Most of these settled in Vann's Valley or Cave Spring and thus furnished the inspiration for Rome. Generally they hailed from Jefferson, home of Dr. Crawford W. Long.
In 1828 the Georgia Legislature had passed a law extending juris- diction over the Cherokee country, thus ending the "nation within a nation" dream. On Dec. 3, 1832, less than two months after the lottery drawings, the Legislature passed an act providing for a division of Cherokee Georgia into ten large counties : Floyd, called after the Indian fighter, Gen. Jno. Floyd, of Camden County : Cherokee, For- syth, Lumpkin, Cobb, Gilmer, Cass, Murray, Paulding and Union. Roughly speaking, this territory lav northwest of the Chattahoo- chee River, and was bounded on the north by the Tennessee line, and on the west by the Alabama line. Gradually more and more di- visions were made, until today the territory is composed of the fol- lowing additional counties : Dade. Walker, Catoosa, Chattooga, Bar- tow, Gordon, Polk, Haralson, Car- roll, Douglas, Milton, Dawson, White, Fannin, Pickens, Rabun, Towns and Habersham, and parts of Hall, Heard and Troup.
* Acts, 1833, ps. 321-2.
** Acts, 1834, ps. 250-1.
Floyd was surveyed by Jacob M. Scudder, who in 1833 was em- ployed by the United States gov- ernment to appraise Indian lands and improvements near Cave Spring. Mr. Scudder's name ap- pears on the early records at the Floyd County courthouse in a real estate transaction, but there is no evidence that he ever lived at Rome. Livingston, a hamlet located on the south side of the Coosa River at Foster's Bend, about 14 miles below Rome, was chosen by legis- lative act of Dec. 21, 1833* as the county seat, and a log cabin court- house was erected at which one or more sessions of court, presided over by Judge Jno. W. Hooper, were held, and in which quite a number of Indians appeared as prosecutors and defendants.
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