USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 14
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The District of Washington being, as is probable, in accord- ance with the prayer of the petitioners, " annexed" to North- Carolina, was thus authorized to send its representatives to the Provincial Congress at Halifax. That body assembled at that place Nov. 12, 1776, and continued in session till the 18th of December. A Bill of Rights and a State Constitution were adopted.
In the last section of the Declaration of Rights, the limits of the state, on the west, are made to extend " so far as is mentioned in the charter of King Charles the Second, to the late Proprietors of Carolina ;" and the hunting grounds are secured to the Indians as far as any former legislature had secured, or any future legislature might secure to them.
Amongst the members of this Congress were Charles Ro- bertson, John Carter, John Haile and John Sevier, from "Wash- ington District, Watauga Settlement."* Her remote and pa- triotic citizens, on the extreme frontier, thus participated in
. Womack was also elected, but did not attend.
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TOPOGRAPHY OF WATAUGA.
laying the foundation of government for the free, sovereign and independent State of North-Carolina. In that part of the Declaration of Rights adopted by the Congress, specifying the limits of the state, is the proviso, " that it shall not be so construed as to prevent the establishment of one or more govern- ments westward of this state, by consent of the legislature." This was inserted, probably, at the suggestion of the young legisla- tors from Watauga. In their number-the last in the list as here given-was the future Governor of Franklin and of Ten- nessee. His fortune, as will be shown in the further pro- gress of these annals, was hereafter hewn out by his sword and shaped by his wonderful capacities. Could he have been, at this time, preparing a theatre for their future employment and exhibition ?
WATAUGA.
The topography of Watauga has become interesting, and the modern visitant to that early home of the pioneers of Ten- nessee and the West, lingers around and examines, with in- tense curiosity and almost with veneration, the places conse- crated as their residence or their entombment. The annalist, partaking deeply in this feeling, has used every effort to identify these localities. He has made more than one pilgrimage to these time-honoured and historic places. In all time to come they will be pointed out and recognized as the abode and rest- ing place of enterprise, virtue, hardihood, patriotism-the an- cestral monument of real worth and genuine greatness.
" Watauga Old Fields," already mentioned, occupied the site of the present Elizabethton, in Carter county. Tradition says it was once an ancient Indian village, of which, when Mr. Andrew Greer, an early hunter and explorer, first set- tled it, no trace remained but the cleared land. In confirma- tion of that tradition it may be remarked, that a short distance above that place, on the south side of Watauga River and im- mediately upon its bank, an ancient cemetery is seen, in which are deposited quite a number of human skeletons.
"The Watauga Fort"was erected upon the land once owned and occupied by an old settler, Matthew Tolbot. The land is now owned by Mrs. Eva Gillespie. The fort stood upon
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RESIDENCES OF THE PIONEERS.
a knoll below the present site of Mrs. Gillespie's house, in a bottom, about half a mile north-east of the mouth of Gap Creek. The spot is easily identified by a few graves and the large locust tree standing conspicuously on the right of the road leading to Elizabethton. Let it ever be a sacrilege to cut down that old locust tree-growing, as it does, near the ruins of the Watauga fort which sheltered the pioneer and protected his family-where the soldiery of Watauga fought under Captain Robertson and Lieutenant Sevier, and where the Courts of the Association were held, and even-handed jus- tice was administered under the self-constituted legislature, judiciary and executive of the Watauga settlers.
Besides the fort proper, there were near, and within reach of its guns, a court-house and jail. These were, necessarily, of the plainest structure, being made of round poles. In 1782 the former was converted into a stable.
Higher up the river, and on the north side of it, near the closing in of a ridge, upon a low flat piece of land, stood another fort. The land was then owned by Valentine Se- vier, Sen., now by Mr. Hart. On Doe River was a third fort, in the cove of that stream. The Parkinsons forted here. The farm is now owned by Mr. Hampton. Carter Wo. mack had a fort near the head of Watauga ; its exact loca- tion is not now known. During an outbreak of the Indians, men were sent from this fort to protect settlements lower down the country. Another fort stood near the mouth of Sinking Creek, on land now owned by Bashere, then by Dunjain.
RESIDENCES OF THE FIRST SETTLERS OF WATAUGA.
James Robertson lived on the north side of the river, at the upper end of the island, on lands since the property of A. M. Carter, Esq., deceased, late of Elizabethton. Valen- tine Sevier, Jun., at one time lived where Mr. Hickey now resides, opposite N. G. Taylor's store. Valentine Sevier, Sen., owned the land now occupied by Mr. Hart. Colonel John Carter's residence was about half a mile north of Eliz- abethton, on the property still owned by his grandson, Gene- ral James J. Carter. The house of Mr. Andrew Greer was
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FIRST MILLS ERECTED IN TENNESSEE.
on Watauga River, about three miles above Elizabethton, near to the place where Henry Nave, Jun., now lives. Mr. Greer was an Indian trader, and at a very early period, per- haps 1766, came with Julius C. Dugger to the West. They are believed to be the first white men that settled south of what was afterwards ascertained to be the Virginia line. After them came the Robertsons, John Carter, Michael Hy- der, the Seviers, Dunjains, McNabbs, Matthew Tolbot, the Hortons, McLinns, and Simeon Bundy. The latter of these was the first settler on Gap Creek His house stood near the Big Spring, the head of that stream. Soon after the arrival on the Watauga of the emigrants above named, came the Beans, the Cobbs and the Webbs, and, subsequently, the Tip- tons and Taylors. Julius C. Dugger lived and died at a place still owned by his heirs, and known as Dugger's Bridge, fourteen miles up the Watauga from Elizabethton. Mr. Horton lived at the Green Hill, a little south of the Watauga Springs. Joshua, his son, owned the present residence of Samuel Tipton, and another son, Richard, lived at the place now occupied by Mr. Renfro. Charles Robertson lived on Sinking Creek, on the property now owned by John Ellis. Ambrose Hodge lived where Wm. Wheeler now resides, on the road leading to Jonesboro, from Elizabethton. Mr. Ho- neycut, whose hospitality furnished the first home to James Robertson, lived about Roane's Creek, near the Watauga. Evan Shelby lived and died at the place now known as King's Meadows, in Sullivan county, near the Virginia line. where his grave is still pointed out. Michael Hyder lived on Powder Branch, a mile south of Watauga. His son has built his present residence near the site of the old mansion. James Edens settled near the Big Springs on Gap Creek, the place now occupied by his son.
The first mill erected in all the country, was on Buffalo Creek. It belonged to Baptist McNabb, and stood near where David Pugh since lived. About the same time, an- other milli was built by Matthew Tolbot on Gap Creek. The property is now owned by the heirs of - - Love .*
* To one of whom, Mr. John Love, recently deceased at Charleston, S. C, the writer is indebted for many of these details.
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COMMENCEMENT OF CHEROKEE HOSTILITY.
In August, 1775, Rev. William Tennent informed the Pro- vincial Congress of South-Carolina, that Cameron was among the Over-hill Cherokees, and would soon join the disaffected with three thousand Cherokee gun-men, who will fight for the king. An Indian talk was intercepted, which contained an assurance from the Cherokees that they were ready to attend Cameron, and massacre all the back settlers of Carolina and Georgia, without distinction of age or sex.
In a letter to Lord Dartmouth, under date, Boston, June 12, 1775, Gen. Gage said: " We need not be tender of calling on the savages"* to attack the Americans.
In this year an Indian trader, Andrew Greer, one of the first, 1775 { if not the very first settler of Watauga, being in the ( Cherokee towns, suspected, from the conduct of Walker and another trader, that some mischief was intended against him. He returned with his furs, but left the main trading path and came up the Nollichucky Trace. Boyd and Dogget, who had been sent out by Virginia, travelling on the path that Greer left, were met by Indians near a creek, were killed by them and their bodies thrown into the water. The creek is in Sevier county, and has ever since been known as Boyd's Creek. A watch and other articles were afterwards found in the creek-the watch had Boyd's name engraved on the case. He was a Scotchman. This was the commencement of the Cherokee hostility, and was believed to be instigated by the agents of the British government. One of its mea- sures adopted to oppress and subjugate the disaffected Ameri- can colonies, was to arm the neighbouring tribes and to sti- mulate them against the feeble settlements on their border. The southern colonies had expressed a decided sympathy with their aggrieved brethren in Massachusetts, and lying adjacent to the warlike Cherokee tribe, it was desired to secure the alliance of these savages against them in the existing war. Early in the year 1776, John Stuart, the Superintendent of Southern Indian Affairs, received his instructions from the British War Department, and immediately dispatched to his deputies, resident among the different tribes, orders to carry into effect the wishes of his government. Alexander Came- *Am. Archives, vol. ii., folio 968.
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144
HUMANITY OF NANCY WARD.
ron, a Highland officer, who had fought for America in the French war, was at this time the Agent for the Cherokee nation. Receiving from Stuart his orders, he lost no time in convoking the chiefs and warriors, and making known to them the designs of his government. He informed them of the difficulties between the King and his American subjects, and endeavoured to enlist them in favour of his monarch.
The Indians could scarcely believe that the war was real- a war among savages that speak the same language being unknown. This phenomenon confused them. The Ameri- cans, moreover, had friends in the towns, who endeavoured to counteract the intrigues of the Agent, and to gain time to apprise the frontier inhabitants of the danger which threat- ened them. But by promises of presents in clothing, the plun- der of the conquered settlements, and the appropriation to their use of the hunting grounds to be reclaimed from the whites upon the western waters, Cameron succeeded, event- ually, in gaining to the British interests a majority of the head men and warriors. "This formidable invasion was rendered much less destructive than was intended, by the address and humanity of another Pocahontas. Nancy Ward, who was nearly allied to some of the principal chiefs, obtained know- ledge of their plan of attack, and without delay communicated it to Isaac Thomas, a trader, her friend and a true American. She procured for him the means to set out to the inhabitants of Holston as an express, to warn them of their danger, which he opportunely did, and proceeded, without delay, to the Com- mittee of Safety in Virginia, accompanied by William Fallin, as far as the Holston settlements'*
The westernmost settlement, late in the fall of this year, was in Carter's Valley. Mr. Kincaid, Mr. Long, Mr. Love and Mr. Mulkey, a Baptist preacher, were the pioneers. Their . bread-corn was brought from the neighbourhood where Abing- don now stands. During that winter they hunted and killed buf- falo, twelve or fifteen miles north-west of their settlement. They also cleared a few acres of land, but after they had planted and worked their corn over once, the rumours of a Cherokee invasion forced them to leave their little farms. In great * Haywood.
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TEST OATH ADMINISTERED TO TORIES.
haste and confusion all the families below the north fork of Holston recrossed that stream, and the women and children were conducted back as far as the present Wythe county.
The tide of emigration had, in the meantime, brought large accessions to the three points, Carter's, Watauga and Brown's, and radiating from these centres, the settlers were erecting their cabins and opening their "improvements " at some dis- tance from each, and approximating the boundaries of the parent germ, the whole began to assume the appearance of one compact settlement. The policy pursued in Virginia and the Carolinas, under the direction of County Associa- tions and Committees of Safety, had driven many to the new settlements. A test oath was required of all suspected of disaffection to the American cause. To avoid the oath, and to escape the consequences of a refusal to take it or to sub- scribe the test, many tories had fled to the extreme frontier. Brown's was the furthest point and the most difficult of access. In this seclusion they hoped to remain concealed : bat whig vigilance soon ferreted them out, and a body of men, at the instance of John Carter, came from Virginia, went to Brown's, called the inhabitants together and administered to them an oath to be faithful to the common cause. After this, Brown's and Watauga were considered one united set- tlement, and appointed their officers as belonging to the same body.
The murder of Boyd by the Indians, and a rumour of the intrigues practiced by Cameron, had put the frontier people upon their guard against meditated mischief. The Chero- kees had so long maintained friendly relations with them, that they had been lulled into a state of false security. While they had provided civil institutions adequate to the wants of the settlers, the military organization had been neglected. They proceeded at once to adopt defensive mea- soares, and immediately appointed Carter and Brown colonels, and Womack major over their respective militia. It was deemed advisable, also, to take further precautions for the protection of the settlements against any attack that might be contemplated by the savages, and the more exposed families went at once into forts and stations.
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DESCRIPTION OF A " STATION.".
A fort, in these rude military times, consisted of pieces of timber, sharpened at the end and firmly lodged in the ground; rows of these pickets enclosed the desired space, which embraced the cabins of the inhabitants. One block house, or more, of superior care and strength, commanding the sides of the fort, with or without a ditch, completed the forti- fication or station, as they are most commonly called. Gene- rally the sides of the interior cabins formed the sides of the fort. Slight as was this advance in the art of war, it was more than sufficient against attacks of small arms in the hands of such desultory warriors, as their irregular supplies of provisions necessarily rendered the Indians .* The place selected for a station was generally the cabin most central to the whole settlement to be protected by it. Often, how- ever, it was otherwise ; an elevated position, not surrounded by woods, cliffs or other fastnesses, from which. assailants could deliver their fire under cover; contiguity to a spring, a river, or other stream of water, a supply of fuel ;- all these had their influence in deciding the place selected for a fort. Sometimes the proximity of a number of adjacent settlers, cultivating the same plantation, or working in the same clearing, overbalanced other considerations. A grist mill was often a sine qua non in the selection of a site, and espe- cially if, in case of a protracted siege, it could be enclosed by the palisades or commanded by the rifles of a fort.
The boundaries of Brown's settlement, on the west, ex- tended down Nollichucky, below the mouth of Big Limestone Creek, and that neighbourhood being the weakest and first exposed, a fort was built at Gillespie's, near the river, and a garrison was stationed in it. Another one was built at X. Watauga-another at Heaton's, known as Heaton's Station. It stood in the fork between the north and south branches of Holston, and about six miles from their confluence. Evan Shelby erected one on Beaver Creek, two miles south of the Virginia line. There was one, also, at Womack's, and three or four miles east of it, on Holston, John Shelby also built a station. In Carter's Valley there were several.t
ยท Butler.
t It is to be regretted that the site of many of the forts and stations in Tennessee
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STUART'S LETTER TO THE FRONTIER PEOPLE.
During these preparations for defence, other information reached the Watauga Committee, confirming the previous intelligence of approaching invasion. On the 18th of May they received a copy of a letter addressed by Mr. Stuart, under date May 9th, to the frontier people. The circum- stances attending its delivery were exceedingly suspicious, and gave rise to the gravest apprehensions. The letter and the affidavit of Nathan Read, who was present at Mr. Charles Robertson's house at night, when it was delivered, are here given :
. " WATTAGA .- This day Nathan Read came before me, one of the Jus- tices of Wattaga, and made oath on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, that a stranger came up to Charles Robertson's gate yesterday eve- ning-who he was he did not know-and delivered a letter of which this is a true copy. Sworn before me the 19th of May, 1776. JOHN CARTER. Attest-James Smith."
" GENTLEMEN-Some time ago Mr. Cameron and myself wrote you a letter by Mr. Thomas, and enclosed a talk we had with the Indians respecting the purchase which is reported you lately made of them on the Rivers Wattaga, Nollichuckey, &c. We are sincein formed that you are under great apprehensions of the Indians doing mischief immediately. But it is not the desire of his Majesty to set his friends and allies, the Indians, on his liege subjects : Therefore, whoever you are that are will- ing to join his Majesty's forces as soon as they arrive at the Cherokee Nation, by repairing to the King's standard, shall find protection for themselves and their families, and be free from all danger whatever ; yet, that his Majesty's officers may be certain which of you are willing to take up arms in his Majesty's just right, I have thought fit to recom- mend it to you and every one that is desirous of preventing inevitable rain to themselves and families, immediately to subscribe a written paper acknowledging their allegiance to his Majesty, King George, and that they are ready and willing, whenever they are called on, to appear in arms in defence of the British right in America ; which paper, as soon as it is signed and sent to me, by safe hand, should any of the inhabitants
can no longer be satisfactorily identified. Convinced as he was of the value and interest these sites would have given to this work, the writer has endeavoured, in various ways, to ascertain them, with the view of perpetuating them in a diagram or map, to be inserted in this volume. These endeavours have been fruitless. From some correspondents, in a few counties, he has procured some information on the subject. From others he learns that the carly settlers are no longer there to impart the desired knowledge, and from others no reply has been received to his inquiries. Public attention in Tennessee is respectfully invited to this subject.
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WILLIAMS'S DISCLOSURES
be desirous of knowing how they are to be free from every kind of insult and danger, inform them, that his Majesty will immediately land an army in West Florida, march them through the Creek to the Chickasaw Nation, where five hundred warriors from each nation are to join them, and then come by Chota, who have promised their assistance, and then to take possession of the frontiers of North-Carolina and Virginia, at the same time that his Majesty's forces make a diversion on the sea coast of those Provinces. If any of the inhabitants have any beef, cattle, flour, pork or horses to spare, they shall have a good price for them by applying to us, as soon as his Majesty's troops are embodied.
I am yours, &c.,
HENRY STUART."
Henry was the brother of John Stuart, and Deputy Superin- tendent of Indian Affairs, and in that capacity had been sent to the Cherokees by Cameron. The letter was doubtless handed by some incognito loyalist from South-Carolina, at the sug- gestion of Col. Kirkland, to whom such negotiations were familiar. Charles Robertson had emigrated from that Pro- vince, and it may have been, was known to some of the dis- affected back-settlers there. They mistook their man. They knew the spirit neither of Robertson nor his countrymen. None could have been more prompt nor more vigorous in spurning the bribe and disregarding their threats or resisting the exe- cution of their plans.
Mr. Jarret Williams, on his way to Virginia from the Che- rokee villages, came to Watauga and communicated addi- tional confirmation of the hostile intention of the Indians. It will be found in the subjoined affidavit, afterwards published in the "Philadelphia Packet" of Aug. 13, 1776.
" FINCASTLE, 88 .- The deposition of Jarret Williams, taken before me, Anthony Bledsoe, a Justice of the Peace for the county aforesaid, being first sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, deposeth and saith : That he left the Cherokee Nation on Monday night, the 8th inst. (July) ; that the part of the Nation called the Over-hills, were then preparing to go to war against the frontiers of Virginia, having purchased to the amount of 1000 skins, or thereabouts, for mockasons. They were also beating flour for a march, and making other warlike preparations. Their num- ber, from calculation made by the Raven Warrior, amounts to about six hundred warriors; and, according to the deponent's idea, he thinks we may expect a general attack every hour. They propose to take away negroes, horses, and to kill all kinds of cattle, sheep, &c., for which purpose they are well stocked with bows and arrows ; also, to destroy all corn, burn houses, &c. And he also heard, that the Valley towns were, a part of them, set off; but that they had sent a runner to stop them
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OF THREATENED INVASION.
till all were ready to start. He further relates, that Alexander Cameron informed them that he had concluded to send Captain Nathaniel Guest, William Faulin, Isaac Williams and the deponent, with the Indians, till they came near to Nonachucky ; then the Indians were to stop, and Guest and the -other whites, above mentioned, were to go to see if there were any King's men among the inhabitants ; and if they found any, they were to take them off to the Indians, or have a white signal in their hands, or otherwise to distinguish them. When this was done, they were to fall on the inhabitants, and kill and drive all they possibly could. That on Saturday, the 6th instant, in the night, he heard two prisoners were brought in about midnight, but the deponent saw only one. That the within Williams saw only one scalp brought by a party of Indians, with a prisoner ; but, from accounts, they had five scalps. He also says he heard the prisoner examined by Cameron, though he gave a very imper- fect account, being very much cast down. He further says, that the Cherokees had received the war-belt from the Shawnese, Mingo, Taa- wah and Delaware Nations, to strike the white people. That fifteen of the said nations were in the Cherokee towns, and that few of the Chero- kees went in company with the Shawnese, &c. That they all intended to strike the settlers in Kentucky; and that the Cherokees gave the said Shawnese, &c., four scalps of white men, which they carried away with them. The said Shawnese and Mingoes informed the Cherokees that they then were at peace with every other nation ; that the French were to supply them with ammunition, and that they wanted the Cherokees to join them to strike the white people on the frontiers, which the Chero- kees have agreed to. And the deponent further saith, that before he left the nation, a number of the Cherokees of the Lower towns, were gone to fall on the frontiers of South-Carolina and Georgia; and further saith not.
. JARRET WILLIAMS.
Signed before Anthony Bledsoe."
The apprehension of danger excited amongst the remote settlers on Holston, was increased by the report some time after of another trader, Robert Dews. The amount of his statement made on oath was, "that the Indians are deter- mined on war. The Cherokees have received a letter from Cameron, that the Creeks, Chickasaws and Choctaws are to join against Georgia, South-Carolina, North-Carolina and Virginia ; also that Captain Stuart had gone up the Missis- sippi with goods, ammunition, &c., for the northern nations, to cause them to fall on the people of the frontier."
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