USA > Tennessee > The civil and political history of the state of Tennessee from its earliest settlement up to the year 1796 : including the boundaries of the state > Part 22
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to establish a general peace with the Chickasaws and Choctaws, and others of the continent. They engaged also to arrest all strangers coming into their country advising them to take up - arms against the King of Spain, and not to admit into their towns any white persons without a Spanish passport. They en- gaged further to desist from the practice of taking scalps and of making slaves of the whites; and, in case of a war against the enemies of the King of Spain, such persons as they should make prisoners should be well treated until they should be ex- changed. They agreed to deliver up all white prisoners who were citizens of the United States of America. They were not to admit deserters or fugitive slaves from Louisiana or Florida into their country, and were to prevent thefts by the Creeks as much as possible. The King of Spain guaranteed to them all the lands which they possessed within his limits; and, in case of dispossession of their lands by his enemies, he engaged to give them other equivalent lands. All the regulations appli- cable to a state of war, and the provision to take effect in case of the expulsion of the Indians from their country, seemed to look forward to a contest with some neighboring people, whom the Creeks might kill or capture, or by whom they might be driven from their country. The people who were thus in con- templation, having no such anticipations, had not yet thought of any counteracting plan. Whether at the date of this treaty or soon afterward any mischievous designs were infused into the minds of the Indians will be best understood by their pos- terior conduct. As they promised in all things to obey the Spanish authorities, they would certainly have obeyed the order for them to be at peace with the people of Cumberland, if any such they had received. And as it was not stipulated that the Creeks should be at peace with them, as well as with the Chick- asaws and Choctaws, it is evident that their conduct toward the people of Cumberland was to be regulated by orders, which the Spanish government should issue. Although these Spanish transactions were kept secret from the people of Cumberland, Col. Robertson entertained the suspicion that Spanish jealousy was the cause of Indian hostilities, and accordingly he pursued all such measures as were best calculated to inspire the Spanish officers with a confidence in the amicable inclinations toward them of the new settlers on the Cumberland. Colbert and some
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of his people, for some cause, had made seizures of Spanish property, which the Spaniards called robbery. Robertson im- mediately wrote to Mr. Portell in October, 1784, to convince him that none of the people of Cumberland had any share in these violences; and offered, if he could be furnished with proof to identify the property, and could find it in the possession of the Chickasaws, to cause it to be restored to the owners. Portell, in reply, was very sensible of the high character which the American people had and justly deserved for integrity and justice; and was perfectly satisfied that the people of Cumber- land never had any co-operation with those brigands, as he called them; but, on the contrary, that they participated in suf- fering from the evils which the Spaniards sustained from those vagabonds. "Colbert and his people," said he "are carrying on a war by robbery and pillage everywhere, and he has so large a number of persons under his command that it is impossible to make proof of those who are the owners of the negroes in their possession whom Col. Robertson had described." Mr. Portell not only expressed very feelingly his grateful sensations for the amicable behavior of the people of Cumberland, but promised to maintain the most friendly disposition on his side, and would experience much pleasure in being useful to the colonel and his people, and of convincing the latter of the high consideration in which he held him.
The Indians through the course of this year made incursions into the Cumberland settlements for the purpose of killing and plundering the inhabitants. Early in this year they killed Philip Trammell and Philip Mason, whose names are mentioned in the legislative act of the May session of 1784, providing for the uncertificated preemptioners. As one among a thousand specimens of the unequaled fortitude and gallantry of the first settlers, it is proper to give a recitation of the conflict in which they ended their existence. These two men at the head of White's Creek had killed a deer, and were skinning it. The In- dians stole up to the place and fired upon them. They wounded Mason, and carried off the venison. Trammell got assistance from Eaton's Station, and followed the Indians. He came up with them. They fought, and he killed two of them; but other Indians coming up with their horses in possession, the whites were once more obliged to retreat, after Mason had received the
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second ball, which proved fatal. Trammell found some other white men in the woods, whom he induced to go with him back to the place where the Indians were. They found the latter, and immediately renewed the fight. They killed three Indians, and fought till both parties were tired. Trammell and Josiah Hoskins, enthusiastically courageous, and bent upon making their enemy yield the palm of victory, precipitated themselves into the midst of the retreating Indians, and received the fruit of their temerity. They fell by the hands of the foe. The rest of the white men maintained their ground until both parties were willing to respire from their martial labors. Aspie is an- other of the names mentioned in the same obituary catalogue, and his case, too, is deserving of particular notice. He, together with Andrew Lucas, Thomas S. Spencer, and one Johnston, had left the bluff on horseback to go on a hunting tour, and had proceeded to the head waters of Drake's Creek, in crossing which their horses stopped to drink. At this moment a party of Indians came up and fired upon them, when they had no sus- picion that any Indians were in the vicinity. Lucas was shot through the neck and through the mouth. He dismounted, how- ever, with the rest, but in attempting to fire the blood gushed out of his mouth and wet his priming. Perceiving this, he crawled into a bunch of briers. Aspie, as he alighted from his horse, received a wound which broke his thigh, but still he 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 entreated them earnestly not to forsake him. The Indians killed and scalped Aspie, but did not find Lucas, who shortly afterward returned to his friends. The whole family of the Aspies were superlatively brave. The brother of this one was 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 the Indian that ran to scalp him. Spencer in the heat of the engagement was shot. but the ball split on the bone of his arm and saved his life.
In the year 1784 the Indians killed Cornelius Riddle, near Buchanon's Station, on a small path leading to Stone's River, by the place where Maj. Hall's plantation now is. He had killed
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two turkeys and hung them up on a tree, and 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 by the Indians, near the place on Richland Creek where Jesse Wharton, Esq., now lives, then called Brown's Station. In this year, also, the In- dians killed Edmund Hickman, a surveyor. They came upon him in that part of the country which is now Hickman County, on Piney River, whither he, Col. Robertson, and Col. Weakly had gone in company to survey entered lands. In this year, also, they killed a man who lived with William Stuart, on the plantation where Judge Haywood now lives, in the forks of Mill Creek, on that part of the plantation where John Buchanon once lived.
The Assembly of North Carolina, which began its session on the 19th of November, 1786, and ended it on the 20th of De- cember, of the same year, made several important provisions for the Cumberland settlements. They established an inspection of tobacco in the county of Davidson; but how the raisers of to- bacco expected to sell, prohibited as they were by Spain from navigating the Mississippi below the 31st degree of latitude, the Assembly neither knew nor inquired. But as the inspection cost no money to be paid out by the public treasury, they were will- ing as well in that as in other costless experiments to gratify the wishes of the Cumberland settlers. The members of Davidson, on account of the good offices they could do for those who wished to become the owners of land on the Cumberland, and to have the military warrants which they had purchased well located and attended to, were regarded and treated with great attention. Hardly any request they made was rejected, if it only abstained from interference with the public coffers. In all Legislatures there is a class of members who idolize the contents of the pub- lic chest, having nothing to allege in support of their claims to popular favor but a disposition to save money on all occasions, while to all other subjects they have the most consummate indif- ference. Dexterously using the advantages which these circum-
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stances put into their possession, Col. Robertson, a member of the Legislature, did not fail to improve them to the benefit of his suffering constituents. They passed an act establishing the Davidson Academy; appointed trustees and made them a corpo- ration; exempted the lands of the academy from taxation for ninety-nine years, and vested in them, for the use of the semi- nary, two hundred and forty acres of the lands reserved for the use of the State, being that part of the French Lick tract which is most remote from the Salt Springs, near Nashville. They passed a law, also, to establish a Superior Court of law and eq- uity in the county of Davidson, the first session of which was to commence on the first Monday in May, 1876. They appointed a young man of the age of twenty-four years to be the judge of this court, who, upon more mature reflection becoming fearful that his small experience and stock of legal acquirements were inadequate to the performance of those great duties which the office devolved upon him, chose rather to resign than to risk the injustice to suitors, which others of better qualifications might certainly avoid. The act provided that no person in the county of Davidson should be subject to any action in any of the courts on the east side of the Appalachian Mountains, and that no per- son on that side of the mountain should be subjected to any ac- tion in the county of Davidson. According to the established usage of that day, the Assembly did not neglect to provide that the salary of the judge should be paid by the County Treasurer of Davidson. They also passed a law to prevent the distillation of spirituous liquors in the county of Davidson for a limited time. Crops were short and grain scarce, owing to the obstruc- tion of agriculture by the withdrawal of the planters to oppose. the infesting savages, and sound discretion required that the grain should be preserved for the subsistence of the settlers and of the new emigrants upon their arrival.
An event now took place which afforded the hope that Indian hostility would considerably abate for the future. On the 28th of November, 1785, the United States on the one hand and the Cherokees on the other, concluded a treaty at Hopewell, in the Keowee, in which it was stated that the United States gave peace to the Cherokees and received them into favor and pro- tection under certain conditions. The Cherokees acknowledged themselves to be under the protection of the United States, and
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of no other sovereign. They promised to restore all the prison- ers and negroes they had taken; and any of their people made prisoners were to be restored. Their boundaries were fixed, as in the first chapter of this book is stated, by which a great part of the lands entered in the offices opened in 1783 for receiving entries of vacant lands were made to be within the Indian ter- ritory. It was engaged that the lands secured to them by this treaty shall not be settled on by the white people, who for ob- stinate intrusion should be liable to be punished by the Indians as they might think proper, with an exception in favor of the oc- cupants on the south of the French Broad and the Holston, who, as well as the Indians, were to abide by the decision of Congress on their case. They were bound to deliver up capital offenders who took refuge amongst them. For capital offenses commit- ted against them by the white people the offenders were to be punished in the presence of some of the Cherokees in the same manner as they would be for like offenses committed on citizens of the United States. And they agreed not to retaliate on the innocent for crimes committed by the guilty. It was agreed that Congress should regulate their trade, but in the meantime trad- ers were to be received and well treated, and the Indians were to give notice of any hostile designs formed by other tribes or by other persons, and the Indians were to send a deputy of their own choice to Congress whenever they thought proper. Friendship was to be forever re-established and maintained to the utmost of their power by both parties.
The treaty of Hopewell gave great umbrage to all the South- ern States. William Blount, Esq., then in Congress from North Carolina, determined to give it all the opposition in his power. He deemed it beyond the power of Congress to make a treaty repugnant to the laws of North Carolina concerning lands and boundaries within her limits. Such power, he contended, was not given to Congress by the Articles of Confederation. In this year the Cumberland settlements remained stationary, but upon renewal of friendship with the Cherokees it was expected that they would soon begin again to progress, and that there would be a great accession of new settlers in the year 1786. But the year 1786 was not without its troubles, though it was not so fruitful in the destruction of the settlers and in the abundance of disasters to be recorded in the pages of history as former
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years had been. By the treaty of Hopewell much had been giv- en up to purchase the good-will of the Cherokees. The bounda- ries of the whites were greatly contracted, and extensive coun- ties resigned, which were included in the treaty at Fort Stanwix, and in the deed to Henderson, the benefit of which North Car- olina was entitled to, having paid him with lands in Powell's Valley for his trouble and expenses in negotiating and making the treaty for the safety of the Cherokees, and the purchase by him and his companions of the lands contained in his deed. Although no purchase could be made from the Indians but by public authority and for public uses, yet a purchase made by in- dividuals might be deemed obligatory on the Indians and be con- verted by public authority to public uses. The prohibition was not made for the benefit of the Indians, but of the State, which might either ratify it or not as the public good required. This purchase covered a great part of the lands renounced by the treaty of Hopewell. The concessions made by this treaty to the Indians may have contributed to that abatement of savage cru- elties which characterized the year 1786. The Creek aggres- sions, however, proceeded without alleviation. They had waged a deadly war against the Georgians for five or six years then last passed, and had so much annoyed them as to make the restora- tion of peace a very desirable event. For some time after the treaty of Hopewell they were the principal marauders and plun- derers of the Cumberland settlements, and the chief perpetra- tors of all the massacres committed on the settlers.
In this year the settlements were not extended, but the num- ber of the inhabitants increased. James Harrison, William Hall, and W. Gibson settled above Bledsoe's Lick, and Charles Morgan at Morgan's Station, on the west side of Bledsoe's Creek, four or five miles from the Lick. The Indians killed Peter Barnet below Clarksville on the waters of Blooming Grove; also David Steele, and wounded William Crutcher, and went off leaving a knife sticking in him, but he recovered. On the creek now called Defeated Creek. in Smith County, on the north side of Cumberland River, John Peyton, a surveyor, Ephraim Peyton, Thomas Pugh, and John Frazier had com- menced their surveys and had made a camp. Whilst they were all asleep at the camp, in the night-time, about midnight, snow being upon the ground, on the 2d of March, a great number of
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Indians surrounded the camp and began to fire upon it. Before they were perceived they wounded four out of the five. The whole party of whites ran through them and made their escape and got home. The Indians took their horses, compass, chain, blankets, saddles, and bridles, and went off. Ever since that time this creek has been called Defeated Creek. The Indians who committed this depredation were Cherokees.
The Assembly of North Carolina, at their session which com- menced at Fayetteville on the 18th of November, 1786, taking notice of the frequent acts of hostility committed by the Indians on the inhabitants of Davidson County for a considerable time past, and that necessity required the taking of some measures for their protection, enacted, at the instance of Col. James Rob- ertson, who devised, directed the drawing of, and introduced the bill, that three hundred men should be embodied and stationed in Davidson to protect the inhabitants and to be employed in cutting a road from the Clinch River to Nashville. They ordered four hundred acres of land to be laid off and allotted to each soldier in full satisfaction of the half of the first year's pay, and in the same proportion for the time that he should serve over and above one year, in full satisfaction of the one-half of the pay that should be due him for such further service; such lands to be in some part of North Carolina, west of the Cumberland Mount- ains. Proportionate allowances in lands were made to the offi- cers for the pay they might be entitled to, and they inserted the indispensable clause that the moneys arising from the tax of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains should be appropriat- ed to the purpose of discharging the expenses of raising and clothing armies, and supporting the troops to be embodied in pursuance of this act; the surplus, if any, to be carried to the contingent fund. And they provided further, by way of clearly intimating what would be their future conduct upon similar sub- jects, that in all returns of taxable property made by receivers of lists and clerks of courts, they shall particularly specify the lands situated west of the Cumberland Mountains, that the net produce of the revenue arising therefrom may be ascertained; as much as to say, be it understood, that beyond it we will not go for the satisfaction of any debts contracted in the mainte- nance and protection of these new settlements. The troops, when raised, were to be marched from time to time into the
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Cumberland settlements, and the field officers of Davidson County were to give directions for the disposition of said troops in such proportions and at such places as might be deemed most likely to intimidate the Indians and prevent their incur- sions into the Cumberland settlements. But, nevertheless, the commanding officer of the troops, in cases of emergency, or when the situation of affairs or alteration of circumstances should render it immediately necessary, was at liberty to make such other disposition of them as should be deemed most condu- cive to the safety of the inhabitants. And it was ordered that the troops when assembled to the lower end of Clinch Mount- ain should cut and clear a road from thence the nearest, most correct, and convenient way to the town of Nashville, making the same at least ten feet wide and fit for the passage of wagons and carts. The road was laid off and opened in the next year. Two years' further time was given for completing the surveys of western lands, and two years' further time for the registration of military grants. At this session also, the county of Sumner was made out of part of the county of Davidson. The line of di- vision began where the county line crosses the west fork of Stone's River; thence a direct line to the mouth of Drake's Lick Creek; thence down the Cumberland River to the mouth of Casper's Creek; thence up the said creek to the head of the War Trace Fork; thence a north wardly course to the Virginia line, at a point that will leave Red River Old Station one mile to the east. All that part of Davidson which lay east of this line was thereafter to be considered as the county of Sumner. This name was given as a testimony of respect and gratitude to Brig .- Gen. Jethro Sumner, of the North Carolina line, who continued during the whole war in the service of his country, acting a distinguished part in the greater number of the hottest actions which had tak- en place during the war, and was as eminent for personal valor as he was for his equanimity and suavity of manners. His name is precious in the estimation of his countrymen. It is en- graved on their hearts in characters of imperishable duration.
In 1787 the settlements were not extended, but continued as they had been for some time except toward Red River, where they had visibly and considerably expanded. The Indians were not idle in distributing amongst the new settlers the tokens of their virulent indisposition toward them. In this year, at Hen-
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drick's Station, on Station Camp Creek, the Indians came in the night, and assaulted the station. They broke into a house in which were Price and his wife and family. They killed the old man and woman, and chopped the children, and left them wounded. They killed a boy by the name of Baird on Station Camp Creek, near the head of it, in the day-time, and stole sev- eral horses there. They killed William Hall and his son Rich- ard, near the locust land, where Gen. Hall now lives, above Bledsoe's Lick. They also killed another man at the same place. These'men were brought dead into Bledsoe's Lick Sta- tion, with their blood upon them, in the presence of three preg- nant women, who were afterward delivered of their children, all of whom were marked, one as if a bullet had been shot through the head; and the others upon the backs of their necks, with red streaks resembling blood running from the head where the scalp had been taken.
In the summer of 1787 a party of Indians came to Drake's Creek, where William Montgomery lived, and shot down his son, and scalped him; they also shot John Allen through the body. About this time, in the same neighborhood, they killed old Mr. Morgan, and were pursued by a party of white men under the command of George Winchester, who followed on their trail. Another party, under the command of Capt. William Martin, also followed them, and went to take their trail by a nearer route. He encamped near the trail, not having found it. The other party, on the same night, came on the trail; and, seeing the camp of Martin, fired upon it, and killed William Ridley, the son of George Ridley, now of Davidson.
In the month of May of this year (1787), a few days before the embodying and marching of troops to Coldwater, the In- dians came to Richland Creek, and in the day-time killed Mark Robertson (near the place where Robertson's Mill now stands) as he was returning home from the residence of Col. Robertson, his brother. In a few days afterward, shortly after the begin- ning of June, one hundred and thirty men assembled from the different settlements on the Cumberland River at Col. Robert- son's, under his command, who, being assisted by Col. Robert Hays and Col. James Ford, marched for the Indian town, Cold- water, with two Chickasaws to lead them to the Creeks and Cherokees. They crossed at the mouth of South Harper; thence
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they went in a direct course to the mouth of Turnbull's Creek; thence up the same to the head; and thence to Lick Creek, of Duck River; thence down the creek seven or eight miles, leav- ing the creek to the right hand; thence to an old lick as large as a corn-field; thence to Duck River, where the old Chickasaw trace crossed it; thence, leaving the trace to the right hand, they went to the head of Swan Creek, on the south side of Duck River; thence to a creek running into the Tennessee River, which the troops then called Blue Water. It ran into the Ten- nessee about a mile and a half above the lower end of the Mus- cle Shoals. They left this creek on the left hand. When with- in ten miles of the river they heard the roaring of the falls. One of the Indian guides, with several of the most active sol- diers, were ordered to go to the river, but returned about mid- night, saying that the river was too distant for them to reach that night and return. In the morning they pursued the same course they had done the day before. At 12 o'clock they struck the river at the lower end of the Muscle Shoals, where it is said the road now crosses, and concealed themselves in the woods till night. On the north side of the river, on a bluff, was a plain path leading down the river, which seemed to be much traveled. On the south side of the river were cabins on the bank. Six or seven of the soldiers went down privately to the bank, and con- cealed themselves in the cane to observe whatever could be seen on the opposite side. After some time they saw on the south side some Indians looking for the troops under Col. Robertson. They passed into an island near the south side, where they took an old canoe and came half-way over the river. They then stopped and swam and washed themselves, and returned to the same place with the canoe they had taken it from, and tied it there. Capt. Rains was sent with fifteen men up the river on the path, with orders from Col. Robertson to take an Indian alive. Capt. Rains went on the path toward the mouth of Blue Water Creek. About sunset Col. Robertson recalled him. In the whole day they heard no cocks crowing or dogs barking. The whole body of troops was called together on the north side of the river to cross over at night. They went to the low lands on the bank of the river. The seven men who had watched in the cane in the day now swam over the river and went to the cabins, and no living being was there. They untied the cance
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