USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 44
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So general was the sentiment, even in North-Carolina, in favour of the separation, and so little inclination there, to prevent it by legislative interference, that the General As- sembly, though convened by the Proclamation of the Go- vernor and Council, "failed to meet." Such was the decision of the people of North-Carolina, east of the mountain, on the abstract question of a new state west of it. A like
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442
GENERAL PUBLIC SENTIMENT
opinion was entertained by Dr. Franklin, and other states- men abroad. As to the time and the mode of a measure of such magnitude, there could not be expected to be entire una- nimity-there never is-there never will be. Those adopted, in 1784, at first as has been seen, gave very general satir faction, and harmonized the community most directly inter- ested, as being the best time and manner of providing the least objectionable measures to quiet the discontented and aggrieved citizens of the ceded country. Was the revolt of 1784 justifiable-was it wise-was it patriotic-did it pre- vent greater evils-would a different policy have secure greater good, or produced better results ? may be question of difficult solution. However these may be answered, the verdict of the contemporaries of the revolters has ever been in their favour, vindicating their patriotism and asserting the integrity of their motives. Those most active, and deter- - mined, and steadfast in the revolt, were, and never ceased to0 be, the greatest favourites of their countrymen. Genera[ public sentiment is seldom wrong-it never condemns the _0 innocent-it rarely vindicates the guilty. While it nevercar screens the wilful offender, it excuses or palliates uninten- tional error. It always sustains good intentions and wise0 purposes, and rewards the faithful public servant. This waszas emphatically true as to the Franklin leaders. In 1789, ita=s late Governor, Sevier, now a private citizen, and under triaal for offences against North-Carolina-ineligible under her ser laws to any office-was triumphantly elected a member o: of her Senate-his disabilities were removed by a special enact -= = t- ment in his favour, and he allowed to take his seat. A new Congressional District is formed, embracing CumberlandEnd, with the late revolted counties-the same Franklin leader is is
elected the member to the Congress of the United States Her Western Territory is ceded again by North-Carolina to to Congress, and the "Territory south-west of the River Ohio"Ojo" is organized, and again "Sevier and his captains" are promi-i. nent, as will be hereafter seen, amongst its officers. The th Territory becomes the State of Tennessee, and the Ex-Go --- vernor of Franklin is at once called upon to become its chiet & se magistrate, in which the partiality of his countrymen con-
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448
SUSTAINED THE REVOLTERS.
innes him for twelve years, when he is transferred by the people of the Knoxville District to the United States Con- gress. He is then appointed by the President of the United States to establish an Indian boundary in Alabama ; and, du- ring his absence on that service, by the continued confidence of his constituents, he is elected the second time, and with- ont his knowledge or consent, to Congress. This testimo- nial of the popularity of the leader of the Franklin revolt, was the last his grateful countrymen could bestow. He died n the Creek nation, during his absence on the public service, und was buried with the honours of war. What further und higher honours awaited him, may be inferred from the lattering vote and manner of his last election.
The associates of Governor Sevier, in the Franklin Govern- nent, received through life similar attestations of public re- rard and confidence. William Cocke, Esq., who belonged o the Legislature and the State Council of Franklin, and was its Commissioner to North-Carolina and to the United states Congress, a general of its militia, and one of its most mlightened advocates throughout its existence, retained, af- tor the overthrow of Franklin, the uninterrupted confidence of the western people. A member of the first Legislature of Tennessee, he was by that body elected one of the repre- mantatives of her sovereignty in the Senate of the United States, and was afterwards elected the second time to the same position. At the expiration of his second term, he was ransferred to a seat in the Judiciary. 'Although quite an ald man, in the war of 1812, he became a volunteer in her militia, and was, to the end of his life, considered a public- pirited citizen and a patriot. James White, the father of the late Senator White, a member of the Franklin Legisla- are, and remarkable for the constancy of his devotion to ts interests, even when forsaken by its earliest friends, re- ained, through a long life, the unwavering esteem of his fel- ow citizens. The founder of Knoxville is still recollected with fondness and respect. He was a member of the Terri- itorial House of Representatives-of the Convention which formed the Constitution of Tennessee, and afterwards Speak- or of its Senate, and Presiding Justice of Knox County Jourt-a general commanding, at an advanced age, a bri-
444
COLONEL F. A. RAMSEY.
gade of militia in defence of the Independence, which, in his youth, he had assisted to gain. To extreme old age, he re- tained the esteem and affection of his fellow citizens, and never had a stain upon his unsullied good name.
In this enumeration of the Franklin leaders, it would be infidelity to historical truth, and, in this writer, it were a filial impiety, not to mention Colonel Francis Alexander Ramsey, the youthful Secretary of the Franklin Convention. Be- sides other civil and military offices held by him under that government, he was a member of its Council ; and in that capacity, was entrusted with the delicate duty of negotiating with the parent state, the terms of separation and indepen- dence. As evidences of his trust-worthiness, capacity and patriotism, he had conferred upon him by the Territorial Go- vernment, as well as that of the State of Tennessee, offices which implied ability, probity, efficiency and zeal in the pub- lic service, and high personal character. One of the pioneers of Tennessee, in all the varied phases of political organiza- tion through which the state has passed, Colonel Ramsey not only held offices of honour and trust, but discharged their duties to the entire satisfaction of the people, and the au- thorities of government. Offices were showered upon him, and he proved himself competent and worthy of them.
To the names already mentioned, might well be added those of their associates, Doak, Carter, Reese, Houston, New- ell, Weir, Hamilton, Conway and others; each distinguished afterwards for piety, public spirit, unobtrusive private worth, and military and political services to the country. Revolters in 1784, they were, nevertheless, the purest patriots and the best men of their day. It is singular and well worthy of re- mark, that not one of the master-spirits of Franklin, perhaps not one of its officers, in a long life of .usefulness or distinc- tion afterwards, ever forfeited the esteem, or lost the confi- dence, of his countrymen. They became the officers under the Territorial Government, and, soon after, the leading spirits of the proud State of Tennessee ; a beautiful com- ment upon the purity of their principles, and the loftiness of their patriotism-a fit tribute of respect for their public ser- vices and their private virtue.
445
CUMBERLAND AND OLD FRANKLIN COUNTIES.
CHAPTER V.
CUMBERLAND-THE FRANKLIN COUNTIES.
A YOUNG Brave, at the treaty of Watauga, was overheard by the interpreter, to urge, in support of the Transylvania cession, this argument : that the settlement and occupancy of the ceded territory, by the whites, would interpose an im- pregnable barrier between the Northern and Southern Indians, and that the latter would, in future, have quiet and undis- turbed possession of the choice hunting grounds south of the Cumberland. His argument prevailed against the prophetic warning and eloquent remonstrance of Occonostota. That aged chieftain, covered over with scars, the evidence of many a hard-fought battle for the Dark and Bloody Ground, signed the treaty reluctantly, and taking Daniel Boon by the hand, said, with most significant earnestness : "Brother, we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it ;" words of ominous import, as subsequent events too mournfully proved These events, so far as the pioneers of Tennessee were engaged in them, will now be narrated. "Much trouble," indeed, was experienced in settling the ceded country, and that adjoining it. Instead of serving as a barrier between the common claimants, the settlers became a central point of attack-a target at which the surrounding tribes all aimed their deadliest shot.
We left the colony of Robertson and others, near the ( French Lick, at the end of a protracted and severe win- 1780 ter. Theopening spring enabled the savages to resume hostilities. The whole line of frontier, from Pennsylvania to Georgia, was simultaneously assailed by marauding parties of Indians, distributed along its entire extent. Terror and consternation were only the precursors of havoc and deso- lation. The leading chiefs of the Shawnees tribe, which had once held possession of the Cumberland Valley, were unremitting in their efforts to bring about a general concert
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446
CHEROKEES AND CREEKS INVADE CUMBERLAND.
of action among all the northwestern tribes, for a grand exterminating invasion, during the next summer. In this they had the approbation and encouragement of British agents and officers, at Detroit and on the Maumee, who assured them of the powerful aid of their great ally, George III .. Similar influences were constantly at work with the southern tribes ; and in addition to these general causes of dissatisfaction and hostility, Fort Jefferson had been built, the previous year, in the territory of the Chickasaws, without their consent, and the chief, Colbert, prepared to repel the invaders by force. The proximity of this tribe to the Cum- berland settlement, was cause of serious apprehension and alarm. But the first assault upon the Cumberland settlers was made by the southern Indians-the Cherokees and Creeks. They seized the first opportunity after the hard winter was over, to approach the "improvements " around the Bluff, and to carry amongst the settlers the work of massacre and devastation. We abridge from Haywood and " The Museum," an account of it :
In the month of April, Keywood and Milliken, two hun- 1780 ( ters, coming to the fort, stopped on Richland Creek, five or six miles from the Bluff, and as one of them stepped down to the creek to drink, the Indians fired upon and killed Milliken. Keywood, escaping, brought intelli- gence of the affair to the fort. Mr. Rains then moved to the Bluff, where he continued four years before he could ven- ture again to settle in the country. The Indians soon after killed Joseph Hay on the Lick Branch, and a party of them' invested Freeland's Station, and finding an old man, Bernard, making an improvement, at what was then called Denton's Lick, killed him, cut off his head, and carried it away. With the old man were two small boys, Joseph and William Dunham, who escaped unhurt and gave the alarm to the people at Freeland's. A young man, Milliken, between the fort and Denton's Lick, not having heard the alarm, was surprised by the Indians, killed, and his head, also, was cut off and carried away. The murderers were either Creeks or Cherokees.
·Monette.
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447
1
MANSCO'S STATION BROKEN UP.
Soon afterwards, in July or August, a party of Indians, be- lieved to be Delawares, killed Jonathan Jennings, at the point of the first island above Nashville. Higher up the Cumberland River, on the north side, on the bluff where William Williams, Esquire, since lived, Ned Carver was killed ; his wife and two children escaped, and came to Nash- ville. The same party, in a day or two after, killed William Neely, at Neely's Lick, and took his daughter prisoner.
At Eaton's Station, they also killed James Mayfield, near the place where, previously, Porter had been shot in the day- time by Indians in the cedars, in view of the station. In November or December, they shot Jacob Stump, and at- tempted to kill the old man, Frederic Stump, but he reached the station in safety, after being pursued by the Indians three miles. At Mansco's Lick, Jesse Balestine and John Shockley were killed. In the winter of the same year, Da- vid Goin and Risby Kennedy were killed at the same place, and Mansco's Station was broken up; some of its inhabi- tants went to Nashville, and others to Kentucky. At Bled- soe's Lick, or on the creek near it, two persons were killed : W. Johnston and Daniel Mungle, hunting together on Bar- ren River, the former was killed, and the latter escaped by flight.
Late in this year, a company of Indians tried to intercept Thomas Sharp Spencer, returning to the Bluff with several horses loaded with meat, after a successful hunt. They fired at, but missed him. The horses were captured, and with their cargo, were taken up the river.
At Station-Camp Creek, the same Indians took other horses, that had strayed .from a camp of white men near at hand, but which had not been discovered by the enemy.
At Asher's Station, two miles and a half from where Gal- latin now stands, some white men were sleeping in a cabin ; the Indians crept up at break of day, and fired, killing one man, whom they scalped. They also wounded another, Philips, and captured several horses. With these, they went off in the direction of Bledsoe's Lick, when they were unex- pectedly met by Alexander Buchanan, James Manifee, Wil- liam Ellis, Alexander Thompson, and other hunters, return-
448 BUCHANAN FOLLOWS THE INDIANS TO DUCK RIVER.
ing to the Bluff. Buchanan killed one Indian ; another was wounded, and the whole party dispersed, leaving, in their flight, the horses taken from Spencer and Philips.
In May of this year, Freeland's Station was visited by the Indians ; one man, D. Lariman, was killed, and his head cut off. The whites pursued the retreating savages to the neigh- bourhood of Duck River, near the place since known as Gordon's Ferry, where they came in hearing of them prepar- ing their camp-fires. The party of white men immediately dismounted, and marched upon the Indian camp, which was found deserted ; the enemy escaped. Of the pursuers, who numbered about twenty, the names only of four are known : Alexander Buchanan, John Brock, William Mann, and Capt. James Robertson. This was the first military excursion in that direction, and reflects great credit upon the adventure and gallantry of those who made it. As it was bloodless, the enemy was not deterred from repeating their inroads and aggressions upon the feeble settlements on the Cumber- land, and, in a short time after, Isaac Lefevre was killed near the fort on the Bluff, at the spot where Nathan Ewing, Esq., since lived. Solomon Philips went out, about the same time, to the place since called Cross's Old Field, and was shot at, and wounded, by the Indians. He survived till he reached the fort, but soon died. Samuel Murray, who was with him in the field, was shot dead. Near the mound, south of where the steam-mill since stood, Bartlett Renfroe was killed, and John Maxwell and John Kendrick were ta- ken prisoners.
It has been already mentioned, that some of the emigrants that had come in boats down the Tennessee, had stopped Red River, with the intention of there forming a settlemer Amongst these, were several families of the name of Rese froe, and their connexions, Nathan and Solomon Turpi In June or July, their settlement was attacked by a party Choctaws and Chickasaw Indians ; Nathan Turpin an another man were killed at the station. The residue wer forced to withdraw to the stronger settlement at the Blut The Renfroes took charge of the women and children, am conducted them in safely. They afterwards, in compan
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449
ROBERTSON MAKES PEACE WITH THE CHICKASAWS.
with others from the Bluff, went to the station on Red River, got quiet possession of some property they had left there, and were upon their return march. At night they encamped about two miles north of Sycamore, at a creek, since called Battle Creek. In the morning, Joseph Renfroe going to the spring, was fired at and instantly killed by the Indians, who lay concealed in the bushes. They then broke in upon the camp, and killed old Mr. Johns and his wife, and all his family. Only one woman, Mrs. Jones, escaped ; Henry Ram- sey, a bold and intrepid man, who had gone from the Bluff, took her off, and brought her in safety to the station. - Eleven or twelve others, there at the time of the attack, were all killed ; the Indians, taking possession of the horses and other property, went off towards the south.
The ostensible ground of these hostilities by the Chicka- saws, was the erection, by General George Rogers Clarke, of Fort Jefferson, eighteen miles below the mouth of the Ohio, and on the east side of the Mississippi. All the territory west of the Tennessee, the Chickasaws pretended to hold by an undisputed claim. Offended at Clarke's intrusion upon their lands, these savages, till then neutral, became the allies of the British nation, and were so at the time this mischief was perpetrated. In 1782, Captain Robertson made peace with them.
In the summer of this year, Philip Catron, riding 1780 S from Freeland's Station to the Bluff, was fired on by ( the Indians, at the place since occupied by Ephraim Foster, Esquire. He was wounded in the breast, so that he spit blood, but he recovered. About the same time, as Cap- tain John Caffrey and Daniel Williams were rising the bank, in going towards the Bluff, they were fired upon and wounded. They reached the station.
In the fall of this year, the Indians depredated further upon the settlers, by stealing horses from the Bluff. Leiper, with fifteen men, pursued and overtook them on the south side of Harper, near where Ellison formerly lived. They were encamped at night, and the evening was wet. Leiper and his men fired upon them, wounded one, regained their horses and all their baggage, and returned.
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450
DONELSON'S BOATS ATTACKED.
Nearly at the same time, Col. John Donelson had gone up the Cumberland to the Clover Bottom, with two boats, for the purpose of bringing to the Bluff the corn which he and others had raised there the preceding summer. They had laden the boats with the corn, and had proceeded a small distance down the river, when the Colonel, recollecting that he had forgotten to gather some cotton which had been planted at the lower end of the field, asked the men in the other boat to put to bank, for the purpose of picking out a part of it. They urged that it was growing late, and that they ought to go on. He waived the exercise of his au- thority, and had scarcely landed his own boat, when his companions in the other were suddenly attacked by a party of Indians, who lay in ambush to intercept the boats on their return. The fire of the Indians was fatal. All were killed except a free negro and one white man, who swam to shore, and wandered many days in the woods before he reached the Bluff. The next morning after the defeat, the people at the Station found the boat floating in the river. It was brought to the shore, and a dead man was in it. In this affair, Abel Gower, Senr., and Abel Gower, Junr., and John Ro- bertson, son of Captain Robertson, were killed. Some others were wounded and taken prisoners. Col. Donelson escaped to Mansco's Station.
The only one of the settlers who died, the first year, a natural death, was Robert Gilkey. 1
Michael Stoner, this year, discovered Stoner's Lick and Stoner's Creek.
The woods abounded in game, and the hunters procured a full supply of meat for the inhabitants by killing bears, buffalo and deer. A party of twenty men went up the Cany Fork as high as Flinn's Creek, and returned in ca- noes with their meat, during the winter. In their hunting excursion they killed one hundred and five bears, seventy- five buffalo, and more than eighty deer. This source of supply furnished most of the families at the Bluff with meat A freshet, in July, had destroyed most of the corn on the low- lands and islands, and many suffered the want of bread The scarcity of this article, and the multiplied disasters and
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451
NIGHT ATTACK ON FREELAND'S STATION.
dangers which every moment threatened the settlements with destruction, at length disheartened some of the inhabi- tants. A considerable part of them moved to Kentucky and Illinois. The severity of the winter and the want of horses, put a stop to this emigration, and all the remaining inbabi- tants collected themselves together into two stations-the Bluff and Freeland's.
Forty or fifty Indians, at the still hour of midnight, January 1781 fifteenth, of this year, made an attack on Freeland's Station. Captain James Robertson had, the evening before, returned from the Kentucky settlements. Whilst on his journey through the intervening wilderness, he had accus- tomed himself to more vigilance than the residents of the fort felt it necessary, in their fancied security, to exercise. He was the first to hear the noise which the cautious savages made in opening the gate. He arose and alarmed the men in the station. But the Indians had effected an entrance. The cry of Indians, brought Major Lucas out of bed ; he was shot. The alarm having become general, the Indians re- treated through the gate, but fired in the port-holes through the house in which Major Lucas lived. In this house a ne- gro of Captain Robertson was shot. These were the only fatal shots, though not less than five hundred were fired into that house ; it was the only one in which the port-holes were not filled up with mud. The whites numbered only eleven, but they made good use of the advantage they possessed in the other houses in the fort. Captain Robertson shot an In- dian. The whole body of them soon after retreated. The moon shone bright, otherwise this attack would probably have succeeded, as the fort was once in possession of the Indians. They had found means to loosen the chain on the inside, which confined the gate, and they were also superior in numbers.
After this repulse, the Indians received reinforcements from the Cherokee nation. They burnt up every thing be- fore them, immense quantities of corn and other produce, as well as the houses and fences, and the unoccupied stations of the whites. The alarm became general. All who could get to the Bluff or Eaton's Station, did so, but many never
452
MRS. DUNHAM RESCUES HER DAUGHTER.
saw their comrades in those places ; some were killed sleep- ing ; some were awakened only to be apprised that their last moment was come ; some were killed in the noon day, when not suspecting danger; death seemed ready to em- brace the whole of the adventurers. In the morning, when Mansco's Lick Station was broken up, two men who had slept a little later than their companions, were shot by two guns pointed through a port hole by the Indians. These were David Goin and Patrick Quigley. Many of the terrified settlers moved to Kentucky, or went down the river. It is strange that all did not go out of the way of impending dan- ger. Heroism was then an attribute even with the gentler sex. Mrs. Dunham sent a small girl out of the fort, to bring in something she wanted, and the Indians being there, took hold of the child and scalped, without killing her. The mother hearing the cries of the child, advanced towards the place where she was, and was shot by the Indians and wounded dangerously. She and the daughter lived many years after- wards.
Late in March, of this year, Colonel Samuel Barton, pass- ing near the head of the branch which extends from the stone bridge, was fired upon by Indians in ambush, and wounded in the wrist. He ran with the blood streaming from the wound, followed by a warrior in close pursuit. They were seen from the fort, and Martin, one of the soldiers in it, ran out to meet and assist his comrade. The pursuing Indian retreated.
On the second day of April, in this year, a desperate at- tempt was made by the Indians to take the fort and station at the Bluff. A numerous body of Cherokee warriors came there in the night and lay around in ambush. Next morn- ing three of them came in sight, and fired at the fort on the Bluff and immediately retreated. Nineteen horsemen in the fort, at once mounted their horses and followed them. When they came to the branch, over which the stone bridge has since been built, they discovered Indians in the creek and in the thickets near it. These arose from their places of con- cealment and fired upon the horsemen. The latter dismount- ed to give them battle, and returned their fire with great
BLUFF VIGOROUSLY ATTACKED AND BRAVELY DEFENDED. 453
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