USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
alacrity. Another party of the enemy lay concealed in the wild brush and cedars, near the place where Mr. De Mumbrune's house stood in 1821, ready to rush into the fort, in rear of the combatants. The horses ran back to the fort-the horsemen being left on foot. To guard against the expected assault from the Indians against those in the fort, its gates were closed, and preparations made for defence. In the meantime, the battle raged without. Pe- ter Gill, Alexander Buchanan, George Kennedy, Zachariah White and Captain Leiper, were killed on the spot. James Manifee and Joseph Moonshaw, and others, were wounded before they could reach the fort. At the place where the stone house of Cross was afterwards built, Isaac Lucas had his thigh broken by a ball. His comrades had gotten within the fort, and the Indians rushed upon him to take his scalp. One of them running towards him, and being at a short dis- tance from the supposed victim of his barbarous revenge, was fired upon and shot through the body by Lucas, who, with his rifle well charged, was lying unable to rise from the ground. The Indian died instantly. The people in the fort, in order to save Lucas, kept up a brisk and warm fire upon those parties of the assailants who attempted to get to him, and finally succeeded in driving them off. Lucas was taken and brought into the fort by his own people.
Amongst those who escaped towards the fort, was Edward Swanson, who was so closely pursued by an Indian warrior as to be overtaken by him. The Indian punched him with the muzzle of his gun, and pulled trigger, when the gun snapped. Swanson laid hold of the muzzle, and wringing the lock to one side, spilled the priming from the pan. The In- dian looked into the pan, and finding no powder in it, struck him with the gun barrel, the muzzle foremost ; the stroke not bringing him to the ground, the Indian clubbed his gun, and striking Swanson with it near the lock, knocked him down. At this moment John Buchanan, Sen., father of the late Ma- jor Buchanan, seeing the certain death that impended his comrade, gallantly rushed from the fort to the rescue of Swanson. Coming near enough to fire, he discharged his
454
BUCHANAN BRINGS OFF SWANSON.
rifle at the Indian, who, gritting his teeth on receiving its contents, retired to a stump near at hand. Buchanan brought off Swanson, and they both got into the fort without further injury. From the stump to which the wounded warrior re- tired, was found, after the Indian forces had withdrawn, a trail, made by a body dragged along upon the ground, much marked with blood.
When the Indians fired upon the horsemen at the branch, the party of them lying in ambush at DeMumbrune's, rose and marched towards the river, forming a line between the combatants and the fort. In the meantime, when the firing between the dismounted horsemen and the enemy had com- menced, the horses took fright, and ran in full speed on the south side of the Indian line towards the French Lick, passing by the fort on the Bluff. Seeing this, a number of Indians in the line, eager to get possession of the horses, left their ranks and went in pursuit of them. At this instant the dogs in the fort, seeing the confusion, and hearing the firing, ran towards the branch, and came to that part of the Indian line that remained yet unbroken, and having been trained to hos- tilities against Indians, made a most furious onset upon them, and disabled them from doing any thing more than defending themselves. Whilst thus engaged, the whites passed near them, through the interval in the Indian line made by those who had gone from it in pursuit of the horses. Had it not been for these fortunate circumstances, the white men could never have succeeded in reaching the fort through the In- dian line which had taken post between it and them. Such of the nineteen as survived, would have had to break through the line, their own guns being empty, whilst those of the In- dians were well charged.
This attack was well planned by the Indians, and was carried on with some spirit. At length they retired, leaving upon the field the dead Indian killed by Lucas ; another was found buried on the east side of the creek, in a hollow, north of the place since occupied by Mr. Hume. Many of the Indians were seen hopping with lame feet or legs, and other- wise wounded. Their loss could never be ascertained. It
455
REMARKABLE RECOVERY OF DAVID HOOD.
must have been considerable. They got nineteen horses, saddles, bridles and blankets, and could easily remove their dead and wounded.
On the night of the same day in which this affair took place, another party of Indians, who had not come up in time to be present at the battle, marched to the ground since occupied by Poyzer's and Condon's houses and lots, and fired some time upon the fort. A swivel, charged with small rocks and pieces of pots, was discharged at them. They immedi- ately withdrew.
. In the summer of this year, William Hood was killed by a party of Indians, on the outside of the fort, at Freeland's Station. They did not, at that time, attack the station. Between that place and the French Lick, about the same time, they killed old Peter Renfroe, and withdrew. In the fall, Timothy Terril, from North-Carolina, was killed.
As Jacob Freeland was hunting on Stoner's Lick Creek, at the place where John Castleman since lived, he was killed by the Indians. There, also, at another time, they killed Joseph Castleman. Jacob Castleman soon' after, going in the woods to hunt, was surprised and killed.
Like atrocities marked the spring of this year. At the 1789 French Lick, three persons were fired upon by a party of Indians. John Tucker and Joseph Hendricks were wounded, and being pursued till in sight of the fort, they were rescued and their pursuers repulsed. The third, David Hood, the Indians shot down, scalped and trampled upon him, and believing him dead, they left him and gave chase to his wounded comrades. Hood, supposing the Indians were gone, wounded and scalped as he was, got up softly, and began to walk towards the fort at the Bluff. To his mortification and surprise, he saw, standing upon the bank of the creek before him, the same Indians who had wounded him, making sport of his misfortunes and mistake. They then fell on him again, and inflicting other apparently mor- tal wounds, left him. He fell into a brush heap in the snow, and next morning, search being made by the whites, he was found by his blood, and being taken home, was placed in an
456
FIRST MILLS ERECTED ON CUMBERLAND,
out-house as a dead man. To the surprise of all, he revived, and after some time recovered, and lived many years.
The first mill erected was near Eaton's Station, on the farm since occupied by Mr. Talbot. It was the property of James Wells, Esq .; the next, by Colonel George Mansco ; the third, by Captain Frederick Stump, on White's Creek ; the fourth, by David Ronfifer, on the same creek ; and the next, by Major J. Buchanan.
After their unsuccessful attempt against the Bluff, in 1781, the Indians continued occasional irruptions and depredations throughout the forming settlements on Cumberland. In that year little corn was raised. The scarcity of grain compelled the settlers to plant more largely, and raise more grain in 1782, and to procure subsistence by hunting. In both these pursuits, many became victims to the stratagem and cruelty of their savage enemy.
A settlement had been begun at Kilgore's Station, on the north side of Cumberland, on Red River. At this place Samuel Martin and Isaac Johnston, returning to the Bluff, were fired upon by the Indians. They took Martin prisoner, and carried him into the Creek nation. He remained there nearly a year, and came home elegantly dressed, with two valuable horses and silver spurs. It was said, afterwards, that he had concerted with the Indians the time and place of the attack made by them, and that he was a sharer in the plunder. Isaac Johnston escaped and came home.
Of the other settlers at Kilgore's, were two young men named Mason, Moses Malding, Ambrose Malding, Josiah Hoskins, Jesse Simons, and others. The two young men, Mason, had gone to Clay Lick, and had posted themselves in a secret place to watch for deer. Whilst they were thus situated, seven Indians came to the Lick ; the lads took good aim, fired upon and killed two Indians, and then ran with all speed to the fort, where, being joined by three of the garrison, they returned to the Lick, found and scalped the dead Indians, and returned. That night John and Ephraim Peyton, on their way to Kentucky, called in and remained all night at the fort. During the night all the horses that
457
KILGORE'S STATION ABANDONED.
were there were stolen. In the morning pursuit was made, and the Indians were overtaken in the evening, at a creek, since called Peyton's Creek. They were fired upon. One was killed and the rest of them fled, leaving the stolen horses to the owners. The pursuers returned that night, in the direction of the fort, and encamped, and were progressing, next morning, on their way. In the meantime, the Indians, by a circuitous route, had got between them and the station, and when the whites came near enough, fired upon them, killing one of the Mason, and Josiah Hoskins, and taking some spoil. The Indians then retreated. Discouraged by these daring depredations, the people at Kilgore's Station broke up their establishment and joined those at the Bluff.
In this year, also, George Aspie was killed, on Drake's Creek, by the Indians, and Thomas Spencer, wounded. In the fall William McMurray was killed near Winchester's Mill, on Bledsoe's Creek, and General Smith was wounded. Noah Trammel was killed on Goose Creek. Malden's Sta- tion, on Red River, was broken up and abandoned.
Such were the difficulties and dangers that accompanied the infancy of the Cumberland settlements, that, from ne- cessity, it became a custom of the country for one or two persons to stand as watchmen or sentinels, whilst others la- boured in the field ; and even whilst one went to a spring to drink, another stood on the watch, with his rifle ready to pro- tect him, by shooting a creeping Indian, or one rising from the thickets of canes and brush that covered him from view ; and wherever four or five were assembled together at a spring, or other place, where business required them to be, they held their guns in their hands, and with their backs turned to each other, one faced the north, another the south, another the west-watching, in all directions, for a lurking or creeping enemy. Whilst the people at the Bluff were so much harassed and galled by the Indians that they could not plant nor cultivate their corn-fields, a proposition was made, in a council of the inhabitants, to break up the settlements and go off. Captain Robertson pertinaciously resisted this proposition. It was then impossible to reach Kentucky ; the In-
458
ROBERTSON DISSUADES FROM BREAKING UP THE STATIONS.
dians were in force upon all the roads and passages which led to it; for the same reason, it was also impossible, and equally impracticable, to remove to the settlements on Holston. No other means of escape remained, but that of going down the river in boats, and making good their retreat to the Illinois. And even to this plan, great obstacles were opposed ; for how was the wood to be obtained, with which to make the boats ? The Indians were, every day, in the skirts of the Bluff, lying concealed among the shrubs and cedar trees, ready to inflict death upon whoever should attempt to go to the woods. These difficulties were all stated by Captain Ro- bertson. He held out the dangers attendant upon the at- tempt, on the one hand ; the fine country they were on the point of possessing, on the other. To these he added, the probability of new acquisitions of numbers from the older settlements, and the certainty of being able, by careful at- tention to circumstances, to defend and support themselves till succour could arrive. At length, the parental advice and authority of Robertson prevailed. He finally succeeded in quieting the apprehensions of his co-colonists; and they gradually relinquished the design of evacuating the posi- tions they occupied, now somewhat hallowed to them by the recollection of past dangers, endured toils, difficulties over- come, and triumphs achieved.
The expectations of Captain Robertson were, in part, soon realized. The revolutionary war was ended ; an abatement of Indian hostility soon followed; and additional emigrants from North-Carolina and other states, gave renewed strength and animation and permanence to his settlement.
But, notwithstanding these favourable circumstances, offer- 1788 ing, as they did, some alleviation of the suffering en- dured on Cumberland, still, in 1783, the offensive ope- rations of the Indians were occasionally continued. One of the guard who came to the Bluff with the Commissioners from North-Carolina, Roger Top, was killed at the place where Mr. Deaderick has since lived. At the same time and place, Roger Glass was wounded. Within two days after these acts of hostility, a settler, passing the place where
-
459
ROBERTSON OBTAINS A CESSION FROM CHICKASAWS.
the stone bridge now is, was shot at and wounded by the Indians. He succeeded in reaching the fort, but died soon afterwards.
The Chickasaws, early in 1783, assembled in the vicinity of Nashville, at Robertson's Station, where a treaty was con- cluded, ceding and relinquishing to North-Carolina a region of country extending nearly forty miles south of Cumber- land River, to the ridge dividing the tributaries of that stream from those of Duck and Elk .*
The policy of Spain, at this time, was, to secure the good feelings, if not the aid, of the southern Indians. The agents of that Power invited those tribes to meet and hold confer- ences with them, at the Walnut Hills. From these confer- ences they returned, as was believed, with dispositions less amicable to the new settlements on the Cumberland. No large body of them invaded that country, but small parties of Indians were constantly waylaying the paths and surround- ing the corn-fields of the emigrants. Such of them as were exploring the country, and making locations, were closely watched, and some of them killed. Ireson and Barnett, on a surveying excursion, were shot down and killed. On Rich- land Creek, near what has since been the plantation of Mr. Irwin, William Daniel, Joseph Dunham, Joshua Norrington, and Joel Mills, were all killed ; and in a path leading from Dunham's Fort to Armstrong's, at the head of the same creek, where Castleman since lived, a soldier was killed as he passed from one fort to the other.
At Armstrong's Fort, as Patsy, the daughter of Mr. Rains, was riding on horseback, with a young woman, Betsey Wil- liams, behind her, they were fired upon by the Indians, and the latter killed ; the former escaped. A short time after- wards, near the same place, Joseph Noland was killed ; and during the same summer, a son of Thomas Noland ; and du- ring the fall, the old man, himself, were also killed near this same place. About the same time, the Indians killed the father of Betsey Williams, above mentioned.
Buchanan's Station was upon Mill Creek, five miles from
*Monette, ii., 268.
460
CAPTAIN PRUETT PURSUES THE INDIANS.
the Bluff, not far from the farm at the present time owned by A. R. Crozier, Esq., on the Turnpike leading fron Nashville to Lebanon. There the Indians, in this year, killed Samuel Buchanan, William Mulherrin and three others, who were guarding the station. Going from the Bluff to Kentucky, William Overall was killed, and Joshua Thomas mortally wounded. The Indians having stolen horses from the Bluff, Captain William Pruett raised twenty men and pur- sued them to Richland Creek of Elk River, overtook them, and recaptured the horses on the waters of Big Creek. They fired upon, but did not kill any of the Indians. As they re- turned, they encamped near a creek on the north side of Duck River. As they began their march next morning, they were fired upon by the Indians in their rear. Moses Brown was killed in a cane-brake, and the ground being unfavour- able, the whites retreated a mile and a half to more open ground, and there halted and formed. The Indians came up and an engagement ensued. Captain Pruett and Daniel Johnson were shot down, and Morris Shine was wounded. Being overpowered, the survivors of the party made good their escape to the Bluff, with the loss of their recaptured horses.
These repeated aggressions and depredations upon the lives and property of the settlers, were the more pertina- ciously renewed and persisted in, from the fact, that North- Carolina had, in April of this year, appropriated the lands hitherto claimed by the Chickasaws and Cherokees, except those which, by the same act, were allowed to them for their hunting grounds. This unceremonious intrusion upon their supposd rights, together with the machinations of the agents of Spain, had the effect to exasperate their hostility to the settlements of the whites now beginning to expand and acquire permanence, by the additional strength of other emigrants from a different direction. Turnbull, a trader, came from Natchez with horses and skins procured in the Chickasaw nation. From the same place, Absalom Hooper, Thomas James, Philip Alston, James Drumgold, James Cole, James Donelson and others, also arrived. A station was this year established by Samuel Hays on Stone's River.
-
461
GALLANTRY OF MASON AND TRAMMEL.
Constantly harassed and alarmed by the continued re- 1784 ( currence of Indian hostility against his colony, Col. ( Robertson could no longer resist the conviction, that his savage neighbours on the south were instigated in their un- friendly conduct to the people on Cumberland by some foreign influence, and he suspected that influence might be from the agents of Spain. He entered into correspondence with one of them, Mr. Portell, assuring him of a disposition on the part of his countrymen to maintain with the Spanish colonists the most friendly relations. Mr. Portell, in reply, expressed his gratitude for the amicable behaviour of the Cumberland people, and promised to maintain the best relations on his side, and expressed a wish to be useful to the Colonel and his countrymen. Still, incursions for the purpose of murder and plunder, continued to be made by the Indians. Early in this year, Philip Trammel and Philip Mason were killed. As one amongst a thousand instances of the unequalled for- titude and gallantry of the first settlers, a recitation is here given of the conflict in which they ended their existence. These two men had killed a deer at the head of White's Creek, and were skinning it. The Indians stole up to the place and fired upon them. They wounded Mason and carried off the venison. Trammel got assistance from Eaton's Station, and followed the Indians. He came up with them ; they fought, and he killed two of them. The Indians being reinforced, and Mason having received a second and mortal wound, the whites were once more obliged to retreat. Trammel found some other white men in the woods, and induced them to go back with him to the place where the Indians were. They found the latter, and immediately re- newed the fight. They killed three Indians, and fought till both parties were tired. Trammel and Josiah Hoskins, enthusiastically courageous, and determined to make the enemy yield the palm of victory, gallantly precipitated them- selves into the midst of the retreating Indians, where they fell by the hands of the foe. The rest of the white men main- tained their ground until both parties were exhausted and willing to rest from their martial labours.
Another spirited affair, scarcely less heroic, deserves also
462
COURAGEOUS DEFENCE BY ASPIR AND OTHERS.
to be specially mentioned. Aspie, Andrew Lucas, Thomas S. Spencer and Johnston, had left the Bluff on horseback on a hunting tour. They had reached the head waters of Drake's Creek, where their horses had stopped to drink. At this moment a party of Indians fired upon them. Lucas was shot through the neck and through the mouth. He, however, dismounted with the rest, but in attemping to fire, the blood gushed from his mouth and wet his priming ; perceiving this, he crawled into a bunch of briers. Aspie, as he alighted from his horse, received a bullet which broke his thigh ; but he still fought heroically. Johnston and Spencer acquitted themselves with incomparable gallantry, but were obliged to give way, and to leave Aspie to his fate, though he en- treated them earnestly not to forsake him. The Indians killed and scalped Aspie, but did not find Lucas, who shortly afterwards returned to his friends. Spencer, in the heat of the engagement, was shot, but the ball split on the bone and his life was spared. The whole Aspie family were super- latively brave. A brother had been previously killed in the battle at the Bluff. When he first fell, he placed himself in a position to reach a loaded gun, with which he shot an Indian running up to scalp him.
In this year also, Cornelius Riddle was shot by the Indians near Buchanan's Station. He had killed two turkeys, and hanging them upon a bush, had gone off into the woods to hunt for more. The Indians hearing the report of his gun, came to the place, and finding the turkeys, lay in ambush where they were, and on Riddle's coming to take them away, they fired upon and killed him.
In the year 1785, Moses Brown was killed, near the place 1785 on Richland Creek afterwards occupied by Jesse Wharton, Esq., and then known as Brown's Station. Col. Robertson and Col. Weakly had gone, with Edmond Hick- man, a Surveyor, to survey entered lands on Piny River. The Indians came upon them suddenly, and killed Hickman. The same year they killed a man living with William Stuart, on the plantation where Judge Haywood afterwards lived.
Notwithstanding these daring acts of hostility, the number of inhabitants steadily increased. James Harrison, William
463
CHICKASAW BOUNDARY.
Hall and W. Gibson, settled this year above Bledsoe's Lick, and Charles Morgan established a station on the west side of Bledsoe's Creek, five miles from the Lick. The Indians killed Peter Barnett and David Steele, below Clarkesville, on the waters of Blooming Grove. They also wounded Wil- liam Crutcher and went off, leaving a knife sticking in him; . he recovered.
On the second day of March, John Peyton, a Surveyor, Ephraim Peyton, Thomas Pugh and John Frazier, had com- menced their survey upon a creek, since called Defeated Creek, on the north side of Cumberland, in what is now Smith county, and had made a camp. While they were sleeping around the camp about midnight, a great number of Cherokee Indians surrounded and fired upon them. All but one of them were wounded, but they ran through the Indian Line, made their escape and got home, losing their horses, compass, chain, blankets, saddles and bridles. The Indians retreated immediately to their towns, and were not over- taken.
The Commissioners of the United States, Benjamin Haw- 1786
Skins, Andrew Pickens, and Joseph Martin, concluded a treaty with the Chickasaw Commissioners, Piomingo, head warrior and first minister, Mingatushka, one of the leading chiefs, and Latopoia, first beloved man of that na- tion, at Hopewell, January 10th, 1786. The boundary of the lands allotted to the Chickasaw nation to live and hunt on,
"Began on the ridge that divides the waters running into the Cum- berland from those running into the Tennessee, at a point in a line to be run north-east, which shall strike the Tennessee at the mouth of Duck River; thence running westerly along the said ridge till it shall strike the Ohio ; thence down the southern bank thereof to the Mississippi ; thence down the same to the Choctaw line of Natchez District ; thence along the said line, or the line of the district, eastwardly as far as the Chickasaws claimed, and lived and hunted on, the twenty-ninth of No- vember, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two. Thence the said boundary eastwardly shall be the lands allotted to the Choctaws and Cherokees, to live and hunt on, and the lands at present in possession of the Creeks, saving and reserving for the establishment of a trading post, a tract of land, to be laid out at the lower point of the Muscle Shoals, at the mouth of Ocochappo."
Monette says, that the Chickasaws, by this Treaty, ratified
464
PURSUIT MADE BY CAPTAIN MARTIN.
and confirmed that made in 1783, with Donelson and Martin, Commissioners of North-Carolina. This Treaty encouraged emigration to Cumberland.
The settlements were now becoming stronger by annual ar- 1787 S rivals of emigrants, but had not expanded much, except in the direction towards Red River. There the new settlers underwent the usual initiation from Indian outrage and aggression. Hendrick's Station, on Station-Camp Creek, was assaulted in the night; the house, in which were Mr. and Mrs. Price and their children, was broken into, the parents were killed and their children badly wounded. A boy named Baird, was killed in the day time, and several horses were stolen. Near the Locust-land, where General Hall now lives, above Bledsoe's Lick, the Indians killed William Hall and his son Richard, and another man. In May, the Indians came to Richland Creek, and in daylight killed Mark Robertson, near the place where Robertson's Mill was since erected. He was a brother of Col. Robertson, and was returning from his house.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.