Glass—^ Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT A GLANCE THE GREAT SOUTH-EAST, CLARKE COUNTY. ALABAMA. AND ITS SURROUNDINGS, I^IEiO^viE IS^O TO •^^^^. By key. T. H. ball, A.M. Corresponding Member of the State Historical Society op Wisconsin. Author of '• Immortality op the Human Soul." "Lake County. Ind.'Na. prom 1834 to 1872," " PRiNciPLEi= of Church Government," "Lake op the Red Cedars." yo...-' ii^. GROVE HILL, ALABAMA. 1882. "V Copyright, 1879, By T. H. ball. KKIGHT & LEONAK-D . I CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. Early Travels and Conflicts in the Great South- east. CHAPTER II. Spanish, French, and English Residents. CHAPTER III. The Mississippi Territory. 1798 to 1812. Amer- ican Settlers. CHAPTER lY. Indians of the South-East. CHAPTER V. General Topography, Flora, and Fauna of Clarke. CHAPTER Vl. Clarke County. 1812 to 1820. The Creek War. Growth. CHAPTER VII. Clarke and Marengo. 1820 to 1830. Americans AND French. CHAPTER VIII. Clarke County. 1830 to 1840. CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. Clarke County. 1840 to 1850. CHAPTER X. Clakke County. 1850 to 1860. CHAPTER XI. The Period of Conflict. 1860 to 1865. CHAPTER XII. The Transition Era. 1865 to 1875. CHAPTER XIII. Family Records and Sketches. CHAPTER XIY. Sketches of Women. CHAPTER XV. Sketches of Other Prominent Citizens. CHAPTER XYI. Religious History. CHAPTER XVII. The Colored People. CHAPTER XVIII. Geology and Undeveloped Resources. CHAPTER XIX. The Present. CHAPTER XX. Literary Productions and Concltision. I^TEODUCTIOISr. THE state of Alabama is nearly as large as tliat part of the island of Great Britain called England. The area of England, according to some authorities, is fifty thousand nine hundred and twenty-two square miles. The area of Alabama is fifty thousand seven hundred and twenty-two square miles. The homes of "Merry England " are known throughout the English- speaking world. The homes of Alabama, smooth and harmonious as is the name, have not perhaps attained the same wide-spread celebrity. Among the sixty-six counties into which at present this state of Alabama is divided, the county of Clarke is by no means the most fertile, nor the one most abounding in mineral resources ; nor is it needful to claim for it the most wealth and culture. But it is, as to its area, one of the largest in the state, it has a pecul- iar locality, and its history is very attractive. Indeed, Clarke county, with its surroundings, the region which, on the following pages, will be not only introduced to the reader, but spread out in some of its details, if not the most beautiful in the state is certainly in some parts grand and in others picturesque ; and if not the most productive in respect to material resources, it con- tains the localities of the oldest known American settle- ments in the state, the localities of some of our most noted historic events, and of other events of a tragic and of a romantic interest. The reader who goes along with the writer through b • CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. all the chapters of this volume can judge for himself whether the central locality for an interesting research has been wisely chosen ; even should he not be able fully to appreciate the feelings of that citizen in the earlier times, who, when asked in the city of Mobile where he was from, replied, "From the independent state of old Clarke." THE TITLE. The view of this region which this volume presents is called a Glance into the Great South-East, because the reader will thus be enabled to form quite a full and correct idea of the early settlement, the productions, and the present condition of that larger region charac- terized by the growth of the long leaf pine, and of that still larger region known as the cotton-growing belt ol the United States, at least of that portion of it lying east of the Mississippi river. Judge Meek, of Mobile, called a work which presents the leading historic events of this same part of Alabama, which was pub- lished in 1857, "Romantic Passages in Southwestern History," a title, he says, suggested by his publishers; and in an oration found in that work, an oration deliv- ered in 1839, entitled "The Southwest," he assigns this name to the states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. But what might have been appropriate in 1839, when we had no Texas, 'New Mexico, nor Cali- fornia within our borders, has ceased to be appropri- ate in the present extent of the territory of the United States. Texas was annexed in 1845 ; by the treaty of Gau- daloupe Hidalgo, at the close of the Mexican war, other territorv was ceded to the United States in 1848 ; and INTRODUCTION. 7 in 1853 still further territory was secured by the Gads- den purchase. And so in reference to the whole of this broad land, our country in 1877, Florida, Geor- gia, and Alabama, are here called, what they truly are, the Great South-East. Steinwehr, the author of a leading modern geography, calls the three states above named, with the two Carolinas, the South-Eastern States, of which agriculture, he says, is the leading oc- cupation ; cotton and corn, sweet potatoes and rice, being "the principal products." As New England constitutes our North-East ; as Washington, Oregon, and Idaho constitute our North-West ; so California, Nevada, and Arizona are now the South-West ; and Florida, Georgia, and Alabama are now the South- East. ORIGIN AND OBJECT. While visiting in the county for the purpose of re- cruiting his health in the summer of 1874, the author ascertained that interesting material existed, and could probably be collected, for a local history of this region, and he suggested the same in a printed circular ad- dressed "To the Citizens of Clarke County." Receiv- ing encouragement from several prominent citizens, he undertook to collect the material ; and leaving Chicago October the 17th, 1877, re-visited the county, issued a second circular, and spent many delightful weeks in making the needful researches. As the year 1878 opened, at midnight of Monday, he left Mobile for his Western home, to place the accumulated material in its present form. In September of 1836 the editor of the Clarke Coun- ty Post, B. M'Cary, urged the desirableness of collect- ing from the early settlers the materials for Alabama 8 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. • -history. Speaking of " very many matters now resting only in the memory of man," he well said: "If these matters are permitted to pass from our reach, they can- not be recalled. Now the materials for our history might, in the different sections * ■^ * be collected * * * thereby contributing * * * to a work essentially valuable and indispensably necessary." He further urged that if not thus collected, when searched for in the future, "the facts and circumstances of the early settlement" would not be within reach, and that thus "a mass of useful information " would be "shame- fully lost." Forty-one years have passed since his appeal was made, and soon the last of the men and the women of 1812 will have gone the way of all the earth. The object of this work is fourfold. 1st. To aid, if even slightly, in rescuing from oblivion and placing in a permanent form some of the incidents, the traditions, the family recollections of the earlier settlers, left un- recorded by Pickett and Meek, histoi-ic material which they both prized so highly, and in securing a large amount of which they both accomplished so much. 2d. To place this local history, which otherwise would soon perish, in connection with that collected by others, in one compact volume, for the gratification and instruction of not only the present but of succeeding generations. That to treasure up our local history and secure its transmission to succeeding generations is de- sirable, is not now, among intelligent Americans in this centennial era, an open question. 3d. To present more fully to the general readers of historic literature in other portions of the Union, and in the present position of this great nation, a view of life in INTRODUCTION. 9 this South-East, both in earlier and in the present time, free from any sectional coloring, or prejudice, or love. 4th. To set forth the undeveloped resources of the county before the view of capitalists, of home-seekers, and of the intelligent and enterprising, wherever they may be, in this progressive, restless, rapidly changing, migratory age. PERSONAL REMARKS. It may be asked, Why do I especially undertake this work i And my first answer is, Because it is a variety of literary work which I peculiarly love. Per- sons should do, if possible and right, what they like to ■do. Seeing a tine opportunity for pleasant employ- ment, why, in this land of freedom, should I not im- prove it ? So far as my knowledge extends, for the object I have in view, no other part of the South-East furnishes such an excellent central position as the ■county of Clarke. My second answer is. Because my first recollections of life are among the pines, the dog- wood blossoms, the calycanthus fragrance, the passion fi.owers, the cotton bales, and the red clay hills of the state of Georgia, twentv-five miles from the city of Augusta, where my father. Colonel Hervey Ball, had for many years his home ; and because during quite a portion of the time between 1850 and 1860 my own home was in the county of Clarke. I claim therefore a personal knowledge of the long-leaf-pine region ex- tending through about fifty years. My third and final answer is, Because a maiden, in my eyes beautiful, who became more dear to me than any New England or Western girl, the choicest one to me of all the millions in this land, becoming the mother / 10 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. of my one son and one daughter, was born and reared where once lived the singularly beautiful native Mobilian girls, where afterward brown Choctaw maidens dwelt, and where between Muscogees and the Whites such stern conflict once raged. The fact that mj own wife was chosen from among the maidens of Clarke, and spent her first nineteen years of life within sound of musket-shot from Fort Sinquefield, I oflfer as reason suf- ficient why I should undertake to collect and transmit to others the local history of this beautiful region. THE AUTHORITIES. I name as the leading authorities for the statements in this volume, 1. Pickett's History of Alabama, 1851; 2. Meek's Romantic Passages in Southwestern His- tory, 1857; 3. Garrett's Public Men of Alabama, 1867; 4. Brewer's Alabama, 1872; 5. Yarious general and special histories, particu- larly Prescott's works, and Pamsay's History of the United States; 6. Benjamin Davies' Geography, 1815; 7. Holcombe's Baptists in Alabama, 1840; 8. Mississippi Statutes, Library of Colonel J. W. Portis; 9. Files of Old Papers, Office of Hon. J. S. Dickin- son ; 10. Public Documents, Office of Probate Judge ; 11. Life of T. W. Price, 1877; 12. Life and Times of General Samuel Dale ; 13. Personal Pesearclies and Conversations with, various Citizens in 1874 and 1877. INTRODUCTION. 1 1 On the first four of the authorities named I offer a few observations. "Romantic Passages in Southwestern History," by Alexander B. Meek, who is called by Pickett "Our own accomplished writer, and earliest pioneer in Ala- bama historj^," contains five orations and five sketches. Two of the orations and four of the sketches contain many valuable historic statements. Correcting a few of these which pertain to localities in Clarke county, verifying others, I have made free use of the facts in this very valuable work, so far as they came within my special field. Judge Meek, as a scholar and writer, needs no praise from me. Poet as well as orator, it is sufiicient to say that in his day "he was esteemed one of the brightest intellectual ornaments of his state." Long will the citizens of Alabama preserve his name and his writings. I am glad to acknowledge indebted- ness to so pleasant and amiable a man, to so good a scholar, and so beautiful a wi-iter. The History of Alabama by Albert J. Pickett, is a work of great value in several respects. As a history of the state it is not complete, since it only reaches the commencement of state life, closing its records in 1820, although referring to the growth of the state up to 1830. It is rather an account of Indian tribes, of Spanish invaders, of French, Spanish, British, and American settlers upon Alabama soil ; of the conflicts between these settlers and the Indians ; and then of a state organization. On the subjects of which it treats it seems to present carefully ascertained facts ; and on these subjects, especially concerning the Indians, the Spanish, the French, and the British, its diligently accumulated facts are of great value. A gentleman of 12 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. leisure, having time and means at his disposal, and with a strong desire, these are his words, "to be use- ful to his race," Albert J. Pickett performed for all succeeding historical writers in the South-East a noble work, in collecting such a mass of facts supported by such abundant authority. The preface has for me a peculiar charm, one sentence of which I venture to re- peat : ""Believing that the historian ought to be the most conscientious of men, writing, as he does, not only for the present age, but for posterity, I have en- deavored to divest myself of all prejudices, and to speak the truth in all cases." That he so endeavored I doubt not; and the many authorities obtained, named in the preface and in the body of his work, are abun- dant evidence of painstaking research. I have not failed to note that the two writers named both died at about the age which I have now reached. Albert J. Pickett, son of Colonel William P. Pickett, who was a representative and state senaior, was born in Kortli Carolina in 1810, and died in 1858. The publication of his history i'l 1851 is cal'ed by Brewer "the crowning event of his life." Alexander B. Meek was born in South Cai'olina in 1811, and died at Columbus, Mississippi, in 1865. The former was therefore .oriy-eight, and the latter fifty-one years of age. And fifty-one is the number of years which I also count in this year of 1877. Garrett's "Public Men of Alabama,"" is quite a large volume, filled with records, reminiscences, and sketches of the various governors and members of the Alabama Legislature during those eventful thirty years from 1837 to 1867. Himself a man in public and oflicial life, Secretary of State for twelve years, INTRODUCTION. 13 William Garrett was well qualified for the work which he accomplished. Born in Tennessee in 1809, and, like Judge Meek, the son of a Methodist minister, he had reached at the time of the publication of his work the full maturity of his mental powers. I have valued especially his sketches of the various writers in Ala- bama and their diiferent works. I have examined with care his statements concerning some of the public men of Clarke. Brewer's "Alabama"" presents, according to the author's preface, "a collection of such facts in relation to the present and past of Alabama as best deserve preservation." It contains a brief "• Outline History" of seventy-four pages, a condensed view of the "mate- rial aspects" of the state, lists of officers and of coun- ties, and short sketches of the diiferent counties ; also the "Alabama War Records." Like Garrett's work it devotes considerable space to a record of public men, that is, men in official and political life. I have con- sulted it with interest and profit. The author, W. Brewer, was born near the hamlet of Belmont, in Sumter county, Alabama, not quite forty years ago. His father, like the father of Pickett, was a planter and a country merchant. The family came originally from Georgia, one branch being among the earliest settlers of Washington county. W. Brewer is now Auditor of the state of Alabama. His mother was a sister of Rev. Isaac Hodden, a pioneer Presbyterian minister, the founder of the first Presbyterian church in Montgomery. Other historic writings pertaining to this same part of the Union, this South-East, are thtse: Bench and Bar of Georgia, Hawkin's Sketch of the Creek Coun- 14 OLAEKE AXD ITS SUKROFXDIXGS. try. Stevens' History of Georgia. Historical Collections of Georgia, Irving" s Conquest of Florida, and a num- ber of other works which may be found named among Pickett's numerous authorities; but no local history, such as this work purports to be, has yet appeared, so far as I can learn, concerning any portion of the state of Alabama. Other works, connected especially with Florida proper and with the Indians there, are Sprague's Florida War, Giddings' Exiles of Florida, 0sceola by Mayne Reid, Osceola by A. B. Street, and a poem. The Seminole's Defiance. Fronde, a noted EngKsh historian of our day, says that history is "a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.'' Perhaps echoes at least of that voice the listeninff reader here will hear. CHAPTER 1. EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS IN THE GREAT SOUTH-EAST. THE twelve hundred square miles of surface now known as the County of Clarke, in the State of Alabama, form a part of that portion of the United States of America properly called the Great South- East. Much has been said and much written con- cerning the Great North- West, its extent, its re- sources, its growth, its importance. On these pages will be found historic facts concerning this smaller but earlier known South-East, showing something of its beauties and capabilities, its native children and its European occupants. That grandest of all voyages of discovery, made by the white-haired son of an Italian wool comber with three small Spanish vessels in 1492, opened the way for many adventurers to cross the Atlantic. Columbus, that daring, resolute, persevering, noble-minded, de- vout and ill-treated Genoese navigator, had discovered, though he knew it not, for Spain and for all Europe a magnificent continent and fertile islands, well called the New World. Among those who were ready and eager to follow where he had led the way came not only the Venetian Cabots, John and Sebastian, perhaps in 1494, surely in 1498, discovering and exploring the North American coast ; the Italian, Americus Yespucius, in 1499, exploring the South American coast, and giving 16 CLAKKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. to the public b}'' means of his ready pen glowing ac- counts of this New AYorld ; the French Denys explor- ing in 1506 the coast around the Gulf of St. Lawrence; but many daring and adventurous Spaniards. De Leon, an enthusiast, seeking a fabled western fountain of immortal youth, discovered in 1512 a beautiful coast which he called Florida. Balboa in 1513 crossed the Isthmus of Darieu and discovered that broad ocean which Magellan, making the first recorded voyage around the globe, in 1520, called the Pacific. Hernando Cortez between 1519 and 1521 conquered the wealthy empire of Mexico, and that region of the ancient Aztecs, with its rich mines of silver and gold, its ancient temples and cities, its valleys and plateaus exceedingly rich in vegetable products, remained for three hundred years under the control of Spain. Hernando, or Ferdinand De Soto, an influential, wealthy, and ambitious Spaniard, having obtained from. Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, then king of Spain and emperor of Germany, a conditional grant of that large South-East then known as Florida, left Spain with a choice army of six hundred men, in 1538, and soon landed on the coast of Cuba, of which island he had been appointed governor. Remaining about a year upon the island, making preparation for conquest, he left Cuba May 12, 1539, with an army of a thousand men, in nine vessels, and soon landed at Tampa Bay. He left his ships and set forth into an unknown wilderness upon an expedition in some re- spects the most remarkable of any undertaken by the Spanish explorers. It is through him and his expedition that we are able to look upon the region, now the county of Clarke, EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 17 in 1540, which is eighty years before the Pilgrims set foot on the New England shore. Before following De Soto into this triangular region, this inverted delta between the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, then held by a powerful tribe of Indians and for the last hundred years endeared to so many by the associations that cluster around lovely and peaceful homes, a region that with its surroundings was to wit- ness early efforts at settlement by French, and by Spanish, and by English representatives of the three great nations that laid claim to the fairest portions of America, it will be of interest to glance for a moment at the noted leaders in Europe. From the time of the discovery of the American islands by Columbus to the time of De Soto's daring expedition, while restless, resolute, and adventurous men had examined these Western shores, looked into the dark forests, conquered kingdoms, crossed the two great oceans, mighty rulers and conflicting principles were contending for mastery in Europe. The begin- ning of the Sixteenth Century was noted for more illus- trious monarchs than have at ant^ other one period held dominion in Europe. These were Henry YIII of En- gland, Francis I of France, Charles V of Spain, Leo X Pope of Rome, spiritual and temporal ruler, and Solyman the Magnificent, Sultan of Turkey. These were, says the illustrious Scottish historian Robertson, "each of them possessed of talents that might have rendered any age wherein they happened to flourish conspicuous." Henry VIII, born in 1491, uniting the rival housi s of York and Lancaster, became monarch of England in 1509, and was the most wealthy prince in Europe. 18 - CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDHSTGS. Leo became Pope in 1513, and, if not young, was still in the prime of life. He, however, died suddenly in 1521. Francis became king of France in 1513, then twenty-one years of age. Charles, born in 1500, became king of Spain in 1516, on the death of his grandfather Ferdinand, hav- ing as Regent in Spain for twenty months. Cardinal Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo, then about eighty years old, who was one of the most remarkable men of that or of any age. In 1519 Charles was elected Empe- ror of Germany. And in 1520, the year in which Raphael died, Solyman became Sultan over the Turkish Empire, Constantinople having been taken by the Turks and made the capital of this empire in 1453. Four young men of more than ordinary talent were controlling at this period the affairs of Europe. It was also the time of Luther, Melanchthon, Zuingle, and Erasmus ; a7id the proud and haughty Cardinal Wolsey was at the height of his wealth and power. Copernicus was then living, and Calvin, Ignatius Loyola, and Michael Angelo. The European world was in commotion ; wars Were waged, religion and litera- ture and science were advancing ; the Feudal System was beginning to die ; the Middle Ages were giving place to Modern Times. It' is not strange that in such an age great enter- prises were undertaken in the New World. Well might Cortez say, having returned to Spain, having made his way to the carriage of his king, when Charles coldly inquired who he was: "I am a man who has gained you more provinces than your father left you towns." It is not strange that De Soto, who had been a com- EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 19 panion of Pizarro in Peru in that conquest of 1532, struck out boldly northward and westward into the Florida forests with his one thousand chosen men. The whole South-East, it is to be remembered, was then Florida, extending along the Atlantic coast so far as the Spaniards had any knowledge, and westward and northward over unknown wilds. Whether the name was taken by Juan Ponce de Leon from Pasqiia Flor- ida^ or the Feast of Flowers, that is Palm Sunday, the day on which it was discovered ; or was given on ac- count of the abundance of flowers, is at this day uncer- tain. Panfilo de Narvaez in 1528 had sailed from Cuba with an army to conquer Florida. He was defeated by the Indians. Jean Ortiz came, with some other Span- iards, probably in that same year, in search of Narvaez. These were captured by the Indians, their clothing re- moved, and the}' were compelled to run for their lives while the Indians shot at them with their deadly arrows. Ortiz alone survived, and him they were about to roast on a wooden gridiron, when his life was spared through the entreaties of a beautiful girl, a Southern Pocahon- tas, the daughter of Uceta the Indian Chief. Ortiz was appointed by the chief to keep their temple, which was situated in the edge of the dark, dense forest, in which temple were deposited, in wooden boxes, the bodies of their dead. The lids were kept upon these boxes by means of weights and it was the duty of Ortiz to pro- tect these from the incursions of wild animals. Death was to be the penalty if he sufii'ered a solitary body to be thus removed. One night he fell asleep and was awakened by the falling of a cofiin lid. Seizing his bow he rushed out, saw in the dim distance a clump of 20 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. bushes, from whence proceeded a sound as of the craunching of bones. He directed thither a swift arrow and soon all was still. Proceeding to the spot he found the dead body of a child, which he replaced in its box, and an enormous panther lying dead, which he dragged into the town and gained thereby the respect of the Indians. This Ortiz one of De Soto's soldiers rescued while the army was encamped beside Tampa Bay. Havirg been eleven years a captive he had learned the language of the Indians of the coast and became very useful as De Soto's interpreter. A full account of this wonderful Florida Expedition does not come within the design of this volume. That alone could fill a volume. There are three original ac- counts of the expedition. One was written by a Por- tuguese cavalier accompanying De Soto. A second account was written by the Inca *Garcellasso de la Yega, by birth a Peruvian, the son of a Peruvian princess and a Spaniard of noble blood. He became a distinguished writer, and from two journals written in De Soto's camp and from the account of an intelligent cavalier, who was himself in the expedition, his narrative was com- piled. The third was written by Biedma the commis- sary of De Soto. These narratives form the basis for Theodore Irving' s ''Conquest of Florida." These three journals Pickett procured from England and France, and where diflferences exist between the statements of Pickett and others his statements are here preferred as being the most reliable. It has been already said that by means of the expe- * Prescott writet: this name Garcelisso de la Vega. He also wrote an account of Pera and its conquest. EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 21 dition of De Soto we can glance into what is now Clarke as far back as 1540. It is through these Spanish, Por- tuguese, and Peruvian narratives that the account of that expedition has been transmitted to us. Well was De Soto fitted by his experiences in Peru to lead such an expedition. Gold was his object. It was the great object of nearly all the Spanish explorers and conquerors. They had found it in Peru, obtaining in that conquest of this precious metal collected for the ransom of the king, about fifteen millions and a half of dollars, and as much more in the capture of Cuzco. "History," says Prescott, "affords no parallel of such booty having fallen to the lot of a little band of military adventurers like the conquerors of Peru." A richer empire than even Mexico or Peru De Soto hoped to find and conquer. He found it, but with its resources unde- veloped. Compared with the Mexico and Peru of the present, what is the South -East as Anglo-Saxon Americans have developed it ? Four and a half million bales of cotton produced this year, of 1877, in the great cotton growing belt, across so much of which De Soto's army passed, worth to the producers some two hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars. And this the reward of labor for a single year. But the Spaniards wanted the gold, which was actually in the soil of Georgia and the Caro- linas, dug out, melted down, ready for them to export to Spain. Tliat tl.ey found not. It will be of interest to review the thorough prepa- ration made by tliis experienced leader for the conquest he had planned. Helmets, breastplates, shields, coats of steel armor; swords, lances, cross-bows, guns called arquebuses, and 22 CLAEKE AND ITS SUEROUNDINGS. one cannon ; were provided for his little army, an army equalling in number one solitary regiment of modern troops. His cavalry numbered two hundred and thir- teen, and these Spanish cavaliers are said to have been "the most gallant and graceful mein of all Spain." Fleet grey-hounds and large, fierce blood-hounds, with chains and handcuffs and collars for the neck, were pro- vhled to aid in capturing and securing Indians wh n- ever it might be needful. Workmen of various trades, with needful tools and large quantities of steel and iron, and al-o scientific men with crucibles for refining gold, accompanied the expedition. De Soto bad also provided a large drove of hogs, some cattle, and some mules, to travel with them into the wilderness; with food to last two years, and European merchandise for the purpose of ti ade. Twelve priests, eight other ecclesiastics, and four monks, with the needful robes of ofiice, sacrament- al bread and wine, and various holy relics, made up the religious department of this exploring band. Well says Pickett: ''Never was an expedition more com- plete, owing to the experience of De Soto, who upon the plains of Peru had ridden down hundreds in his powerful charges, and had poured out streams of savage blood with his broad and sweeping sword." This well equipped body of daring adventurers leav- ing their winter quarters in early March passing north- ward and then toward the northeast, hearing that gold was to be found in that direction, passing through what is now the State of Georgia, reached a river now called the Savannah. On the eastern bank of this river was an Indian town, afterward called Silvi r Bluff, touth of the present city of Augusta, "where lived an Indian Queen, young, beautiful, and unmarried, and who ruled EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 23 tlie country around to a vast extent. She glided across the river in a magnificent canoe, with many attendants, and, after an interesting interview witli De Soto, in whicli they exchanged presents, and passed many agree- able compliments, she invited him and his numerous followers over to her town. The next day the expedi- tion crossed the Savannali upon log rafts and in canoes, and quartered in the wigwams and under the spreading shades of the mulberry." After remaining here several weeks De Soto, early in the month of May 1540, keep- ing with him for some time the person of this " beauti- ful young Queen," resumed his march, passing up the Savannah to its head waters, thence westward to the head waters of what is now called the Coosa, then turn- ing southward, meeting with various adventures, and early in June reaching a large Indian town where now stands the town of Rome in the State of Georgia. The chief of this town in his address of welcome to De Soto, and alluding to the latter's request to have corn col- lected sufficient to last his army two months, is reported to have said: "Here I have twenty barns full of the best which the country can afiPord." Besides corn, the Spaniards found, in this old Indian town, large quanti- ties of bear's oil, laid up in gourds, walnut oil, equal to butter in its flavor, and "pots of ho'ney." For thirty days the Spaniards shared the generous hospitalities of these natives of Georgia, repairing their own wasted vigor and recruiting their horses. When ahout to de- part, De Soto, through the persuasion, it is said, "of some of his unprincipled ofiicers," demanded from this hospitable chief "a number of females to accompany them in their wanderings." The dennind became known to the inhabitants and in the following night 24 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. they left the town, retiring to the secure retreats of the surrounding forests. The Indian maidens of Georgia scorned to become the slaves and paramours of Spanish cavaliers. The march of the Spaniards was resumed without these Indian women. Continuing southward they en- tered, July 2d, the town of Costa. Says Pickett: "The Spaniards were now in Alabama, in the territory embraced in the county of Cherokee and by the side of the Coosa, one of our noblest streams. Kever before had our soil been trodden by European feet ! Kever before had our natives beheld white faces, long beards, strange apparel, glittering armor, and stranger than all, the singular animals be- strode by the dashing cavaliers ! De Soto had discov- ered Alabama, not by sea, but after dangerous and difficult marches had penetrated her northeastern bor- der with a splendid and well-equipped land expedition." Three sentences in regard to De Soto, from one of Meek's orations, may properly be inserted here. "Far as his eagle-eyes can pierce, from the last elevated spur of the Look-out Mountains, he beholds a virgin wilderness of all forests, intersected, like lines of silver, by giant rivers, along whose banks rove, in savage and defiant magnificence, the most powerful of all the primeval races that tenanted this continent. His purpose is to explore, to conquer, and to reduce to the uses of civilized man, those boundless regions, in which he fondly thought to find the golden treasures of Mexico and Peru, or the still more precious waters of the Fountain of Youth, which was to restore his decaying faculties and give him an immortality upon earth. The fabulous narratives of Ponce de Leon, and Pamphilo EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 25 Narvaez, had thus brr)ught the lingering remnants of the Age of Chivalry — of the Flower of Spanish Knight- hood — to expend their last waves upon the Indian- guarded forests of Alabama." Whatever claims these Spaniards may have had to the respect of the natives, they were, as a band of ex- plorers, avaricious, licentious, and cruel. De Soto had brought from the Florida forests, taken from among the Indians of the coast, five hundred men and women as bearers of burdens for the army. When any of these died or escaped their places were supj^lied by fresh captives taken from the nearest Indian town. De Soto soon entered the beautiful and fertile province of Coosa, and experienced the hospitality of the generous natives. Pickett says, referring to the Portuguese narrative: " The trail was lined with towns, villages, and . hamlets, and ' many sown fields which reached from one to the other.'" "The numerous barns were full of corn, while acres of that which was growing bent to the warm rays of the sun and rustled in the breeze. In the plains were plum trees peculiar to the country, and others resembling those of Spain. Wild fruit clambered to the tops of the loftiest trees, and lower branches were laden with delicious Isabella grapes." While this Spanish band were thus marching through the unexplored wilds of Alabama and sharing the hos- pitalities of the unsuspecting natives, in one of the centres of refinement and power in Europe, in the land of sunny, vine clad France, a young girl of twelve, born heiress to a throne, was resisting with all the strength of her will the commands of her i-oyal uncle, Francis I. of France. The reluctant marriage of the 26 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. gifted daiigliter of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, was solemnized July 15, 1540, the unwilling bride " dressed in a robe of cloth of gold covered with jewels of im- mense value," a ducal coronet, set with i-ieh gems, encircling her brow, the trail of her velvet mantle being bordered with ermine, the display costing more than the coronation of Charles Y. the sovereign of De Soto, who had desired to secure this girl as a wife for his own son Philip II, of Spain. While French cour- tiers in July of 1540 were witnessing the brilliant scenes of a royal marriage, Spanish cavaliers were meet- ing for the first time the native daughters of Alabama, and were soon to meet with those whom Spanish traditions call "incomparable" in beauty. Five days after that marriage in France, July 20, 1540, an Ala- bama pageant passed before Spanish vision. The invading army were in sight of the town of Coosa. "Far in the outskirts, De Soto was met by the Chief, seated upon a cushion, and riding in a chair supported upon the shoulders of four of his chief men. One thousand warriors, tall, active, sprightly, and admirably proportioned, with large plumes of various colors on their heads, followed him, marching in regular order. His dress consisted of a splendid mantle of martin skins, thrown gracefully over his shoulder, while his head was adorned with a diadem of brilliant feathers. Around him many Indians raised their voices in song, and others made music upon flutes. The steel clad warriors of Spain, with their glittering armour, scarcely equaled the magnificent display made by these natives of Alabama." After the speech of welcome by the Chief and the response by De Soto, they advanced together into the town, the former riding "in his sedan EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 27 chair," the Spanish leader on liis fiery war horse. Tliis capital city contained five hundred houses, and here the adventurers remained twenty-five days, and again marched southward. Passing through Indian towns, gathering wild grapes which grew in great abundance, encamping at various places, De Soto arrived September 18, at a large town called Tallase, surrounded by a wall and terraces. This town was on the Tallapoosa, along the banks of which river were extensive corn-fields, and Indian villages among these fields of ripening maize. While encamped at this place De Soto received an invitation from a renowned chief named Tuskaloosa to visit his capital city, a town called Maubila. (This was situated according to Pickett at that place on the Ala- bama river now called Choctaw Bluft" and he had Indian traditions to guide him to this conclusion. The following are reasons which an intelligent citizen of the county, J. M. Jackson, assigns for locating the old Maubila at French's Landing rather than at Cli(jctaw Bluff". Negatively: No spring of water to supply such a town is now convenient to Choctaw Bluff. No arrow-heads, no Indian remains, no pottery, no living traces of a once great town, are found there. Positively: At French's Landing, about four miles above Gainestown, springs of good watei- now exist. Also, there "the greatest abundance of Indian relics are still to be found." Several years ago a number of Spanish bridle-bits were found in the cave near this landing; and at another time, near the same place, a large quantity of lead was found in the form of bullets. These reasons seem quite satisfactory. ) De Soto accepted the invitation. He crossed the 28 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Tallapoosa, sent a small body of his cavalry to inform the chief that the Spanish leader was near, and soon presented himself before the proud Mobilian. He was found seated upon two cushions, on a large and elegant matting, and on a natural eminence "which com- manded a delightful prospect." His address of welcome was very short. De Soto's reply was conciliatory; a large pack horse was selected of sufficient strength to carry the huge frame of Tuska- loosa, and side by side, the Spanish leader and the Indian ruler, journeyed toward Maubila. They crossed the Alabama, marched over what is now the county of Wilcox, passed October 17, through "populous towns well stored with corn, beans, pumpkins, and other provisions," which seems to have been the eastern part of the present county of Clarke. So near then as may now be ascertained, the first European explorers ENTERED THE LIMITS OF ClARKE ON THE 17tll OF OCTO- BER, 1540. It was the year in which Miles Coverdale was editing the great Bible, the Bible in English hav- ing been appointed to be read in the churches of England two years before. It was the year in which Henry YIII dissolved the monasteries in England. Five years before, the society of Jesuits was established by Ignatius Loyola^ and five years afterwards, the Council of Trent began its ses- sions. It was moreover the very year in which was born in the city of Cuzco in ancient Peru that Gar- cellasso Inca de la Yega, who was to be the most illustrious chronicler of this expedition and also of that noted conquest of Peru; whose father, says Prescott, " was one of that illustrious family whose achievements, both in arms and letters, shed such lustre over the EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 29 proudest period of the Castilian annals," and whose "mother was of the Peruvian blood royal ;" who said of himself in his preface to his account of Florida. " I have no reason to regret that fortune has not smiled on me, since this circumstance has opened a literary career which, I trust, will secure to me a wider and more en- during fame than could flow from any worldly pros- perity;" who at the age of twenty, in 1560, became a resident of Spain, and died in Cordova in 1616 at the age of seventy-six. What was Clarke county in 1540? Doubtless the same springs, and creeks, and rivers were flowing which flow now ; no doubt the nature of the soil pos- sessed the same natural inequalities, then as now; but where were the present pines, and magnolias, and beech, and cedar ? And who were then the inhabitants ? A glimpse at the inhabitants we shall have. De Soto having become suspicious in regard to the intentions of Tuskaloosa, before daylight on the morning of October 18, 151:0, at the head of one hundred horse- men and one hundred footmen, taking witli him the haughty Chief, marched rapidly southward. This proved to be for the Maubilians and Spaniards alike, an eventful day. At eight in the morning they reached the town, the capital of Tuskaloosa' s dominion. It is described as situated on a beautiful plain, beside a river, a river large in the eyes of Spaniards, containing eighty handsome houses, each capable of holding a thousand men. They were built doubtless of wood, but few of the Spaniards had an opportunity to examine them minutely, and no special description seems to have been given, except that these houses all fronted on a large public square. The town was surrounded 30 CLARKE AXD ITS SFRROrXDIXGS. by a liigli wall made of the trunks of trees, set firmly in the ground, side by side, additional strength being given by cross timbers, and by large vines interlacing the upright trunks. The whole wood work is said to have been covered with a mud plaster, which resembled handsome masonry. Port holes were arranged in this wall, and towers, sufficiently large to hold eight men. were constructed, one hundred and fifty feet apart. There were only two gates, the one opened toward the east and the other towjird the west. Into the great public square of this walled town, on the morning already named. Tuskaloosa and De Soto entered, about two hours after sunrise : amid songs and music from Indian flutes, while ** beautiful brown girls" danced gracefully before them. Dismounting from their horses, the two leaders were seated to- gether for a short time under a canopy, when Tuska- loosa, not receiving a satisfactory reply to a request which he had made, left De Soto and went into one of the large houses. It seems that De Soto, although an invited visitor at this town, had on the way treated the Indian Chief whose guest he was, as a hostage in his hands, restrain- ing in some respects his personal freedom. This h^d incensed the haughty Maubilian and from the house in his own capital, where he had sought relief from the presence of De Soto, he refused to return to take break- fast with the Spaniards. He suggested to the Spanish interpreter, that it would be well for his Chief to remove his forces fi>>m that territory. De Soto perceived that danger was near, and instructed his men to be ready for conflict. Disturbance soon began. A Spaniard as- certained that more than ten thousand warriors were in EAliLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 81 the houses, abundantly supplied with clubs and stones, with bows and arrows ; that the old women and children had been sent away ; and that the Indians were design- ing to capture the two hundred Spaniards and D.- Soto, Little time was given for that morning's meal. An Indian drew a bow upon a group of Spaniards, A Spanish soldier struck him down with his sword, and the red streams of blood began to tlow. In Peru De Soto had exhibited his superior horsemanship and the strength and speed of his fier}- war-horse before the Inea Atahaullpa, when the Spaniards under Pizarro first beheld him on the fifteenth of November in 1532, De Soto being then the best mounted cavalier in Pizar- ro's troops; and he had fought with the Pizarros in the great square of Caxamalca in that terrible onslaught, shortly before the setting of the sun on the next day, when that Inca was captured and from two to ten thou- sand Peruvians were slain, on that ''Saturday, the six- teenth of November," "the most memorable epoch in the annals of Peru.*' Then De Soto led one division of the cavalry and Hernando Pizarro the other, under Francisco *Pizarro, the Conqueror of Peru. NowDeSoto himself was Commander in Chief, and a i-ace braver than the Peruvians and better armed than those attend- ants of the Inca in Caxamalca, were around him in the city of Maubila, on the banks of the Alabama, and the fierce conflict had actually begun. The first bloody encounter was brief. From among more than ten thousand enraged warriors, De Soto at the head of his men, fighting hand to hand, led his little band outside * There were four Pizarros, Gonzalo, Juan, Hernando, and Francisco, broth- ers or half brothers. Francisco is the one usually meant by Pizarro. A fifth, Pedro Pizarro, a relative of this family, was with Pizarro iu Peru. 32 CLARKE AWD ITS SURROUNDINGS. the gate into the adjoining plain. Then his cavalry rushed for their horses, which they had tied outside the walls, and which the Indians had already begun to kill. Still retreating from the surrounding thousands the Spanish leader halted some distance out upon the plain. By this time the Indian burden bearers of the expe- dition had arrived with nearly all the baggage, and these with their burdens the Maubiiiaus hurried within the town. Having thus captured and disposed of the baggage and camp equipments, the excited warriors crowding without the gate tilled the air with their "ex- ulting shouts." This seems to have aroused the martial fury of the Spaniards. De Soto at the head of his hun- dred horsemen, followed by the footmen, charged furi- ously upon the Indians, and with a repetition of the old Peruvian slaughter, drove them again within the gate. But from the port holes and towers the missiles of the Indians drove the Spaniards back from the walls again into the plain. Once more the Maubilians rush outside the gate, or drop from the walls, and contend fiercely but vainly with Spanish swords and lances, now and then small parties of fresh horsemen arriving and plunging at once into the thick of the fight. Three hours thus passed with terrible slaughter, one side re- ceding and again advancing, clubs and arrows and bare flesh, forming but a poor defense against burnished steel, Spanish lances, and charging war-horses, when at length the Maubilians re-entered their walled town and closed behind them the heavy gates. Midday had passed, and already the sun of that day seemed to be nearing the lofty tree tops, when the last of De Soto's forces under Moscoso, his camp-master, EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 33 arrived. De Soto ought now to have retired, and to have left these natives of the soil in possession of their strong vs^alled town ; but such was not the custom of Spanish adventurers in American wilds, and his bag- gage and camp equipments were within. So more blood must flow, more carnage follow. Uniting all his force, forming his best armed footmen into four divi- sions, for storming the walls, armed with bucklers for defense and battle-axes for assault, a charge was made. The gates were at length forced open and the mortar broken from the walls. Those ponderous battle-axes had before this day made impressions upon well de- fended European castles, and it could not be expected that Indian woodwork or masonry would withstand the assault of desperate and infuriated trained knights and warriors. The followers of De Soto rushed into the inclosed square and horrible destruction was again re- sumed. The horsemen remained without to cut off all retreat, and the merciless Spaniards commenced the work of extermination. Often, it is said, the brave Maubilians drove the Spaniards outside the walls, but as often they returned with renewed impetuosity. The young Maubilian girls who had danced so gracefully in the morning, now fought and fell beside the bravest Indian warriors. At length De Soto, wounded and in- furiated, passed out of the gate once more, mounted his Hery war-horse, and, returning, charged through the Indian ranks. Others followed his example, and the fearful work of death went on. Coats of mail and bucklers protected the Spaniards from many fatal wounds, while their sharp swords and well tempered lances made terrible havoc upon muscle unprotected by shield or breast-plate or heavy clothing. Well 34 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. armed soldiers ou tierv war-horses had made fearful carnage as they charged through crowds of Indians in Mexico and Pei-u, and the same terrible destruction was wrought this day, when the natives of Alabama learned for the first time and to their sorrow what was meant by " the charge of the war-horse in full career." Help or hope there was none and they could only yield up their lives. No quarter was asked, no mercy shown. But the day was drawing to a close. For nine hours, in its different stages, the conflict had been waged. The houses were now set on fire. Amid flame and smoke, the fearful carnage was near its end. The sun went down, far to the westward, beyond other and greater rivers which Spaniards had not yet seen. But '• Mau- bilia was in ruins, and her inhabitants destroyed." The number slain was estimated by one chronicler at eleven thousand. Picket suggests six thousand as the lowest estimate. This disastrous day decided not alone the fate of a mighty Indian tribe, but it decided also De Soto's des- tiny. He lost eighty-two soldiers and forty-five horses, his valuable equipments and baggage, including camp furniture, instruments, clothes, books, medicines, the gathered pearls, the holy relics and the priestly robes, the flour, the wine, and nearly everything of value brought from the ships. One surgeon alone survived, and there were then seventeen hundred wounds to dress. And although he learned that his vessels were awaiting him in Pensacola Bay, so thoroughly had many of the cavaliers become disheartened that they had determined to desert him and his cause when they reached the coast; and thus De Soto was obliged to change his plans, and after delaying a month while wounds were healing EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 35 and provisions were collected, and a number of Mau- bilian women of "incomparable beauty" were brouglit into the camp, instead of returning to his ships, pro- curing new supplies, and planting a colony in that beautiful region in the heart of Spanish Florida, now Alabama, in desperate sullenness he led his disheartened troops into the northern and western wilderness. The troops had expected to march southward toward the coast, and it was questionable whether they might not be as Caesar's troojDS were once charged with being when in a disheartened mood, not hearing the com- mand, when the order should be given to march ; but De Soto had threatened to put to death the first man who should show that he wished to go toward the ships, and although the order to march northward took the cavaliers by surprise, none refused obedience, and on- ward to a dark destiny the ill-fated expedition began again its course. Passing northward through a fei'tile region now known as the counties of Clarke, and Maren- go, and Greene, like a thunder-cloud which has brought destruction to fields and forest, the sullen Spaniards crossed the Black Warrior and entered what is now the state of Mississippi. They spent the winter among the Chickasaws. In April, 1541, the year in which Igna- tius Loyola* was chosen general of the "Society of Jesus," the society from which grew the order of Jes- uits, they resumed their march toward the northwest, now numbering less than seven hundred men, and about one hundred horses. In May of that jesir they reached the "Father of Waters;" they crossed that mighty cur- rent, wandered over trackless wilds, and returned to the * Loyola was born iu a Spanish province, in the castle of Loyola, in 1491. He ■was at first a soldier, and then an ecclesiastic. He died at Rome July 28, 1558. 36 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. -Mississippi in May of 1542. De Soto's work as a warrior, an explorer, a leadei*, was over. He had found no gold region, had conquered no mighty empire, he was not to outrank Cortez and Pizarro in giving prov- inces to Spain, he was no more to mount the war-horse, his right arm would wield the sword and hurl the lance no longer, he had fought his last battle, and a slow, malignant fever soon terminated his stormy career. (It was the same year in which passed from the scenes of earth Cardinal Richelieu, the brilliant prime minister of France, whose genius and intrepidity had enabled him to put down insurrection at home and to influence, if not control, the politics of all Europe.) Cortez returned to Spain and died December 2, 154T, as he said himself in his last letter to his king, " old, infirm, and embarrassed with debt." His remains, at first deposited in a chapel of a monastery in Seville, in the same old town where the remains of Columbus for awhile reposed, were afterward removed to Mexico, and at length, but not finally in 1794, j^laced in a hospital which he had founded and endowed. Pizarro was assassinated by a band of conspirators Sunda}^, June 26, 1541, in his own apartments at Lima, about midday, and his remains in a bloody shroud were hastily buried in an obscure corner of the cathedral by the glimmering light of a few tapers held by some col- ored domestics. A few years after, it is said, his re- mains were placed in a sumptuous coffin and deposited in a conspicuous part of the cathedral. But De Soto closed his eyes in death when he had no superior in command upon the whole broad conti- nent, and his body sunk to its last resting-place in the channel of that majestic river the discovery of which is EARLY TRAVELS AND CONFLICTS. 37 inseparably connected witli his name. Governor of the island of Cuba and Adelantado of Florida, in the wilds of Spanish Florida, he found one of the grandest burial- places ever allotted to a Spaniard. The remnant of De Soto's army, now three hundred and fift}^ in number, under command of Moscoso, in July of 1543, having with great effort constructed seven brigantines, embarked upon that broad and rapid river, keeping with them still "the beautiful women of Mau- bilia." In September they reached Spanish settlements in Mexico, and sent to Cuba the tidings of De Soto's fate. It may be noticed as an interesting coincidence, that during these years of De Soto's wanderings, that is, from early in 1540 till June 1542, Gronzalo Pizarro with three hundred and fifty Spaniards, one hundred and fifty be- ing mounted, and four thousand Indians, made his cele- brated march to the Amazon, an expedition which Prescott considers, for dangers, hardships, and brave endurance, almost unmatched in the annals of Ameri- can discovery. He, like De Soto, took along in his expedition " an immense drove of swine," also about a thousand dogs. Eighty of his men returned to Quito. CHAPTER 11. SPANISH, FRENCH AND ENGLISH RESIDENTS. FROM a Spanish, a Portuguese, and a Peruvian chronicler, it appears that a large town called Mau- bila, or Mauville, from which comes the name Mobile, was situated on the west side of the Alabama river, so near as may now be known, not far from the present Choctaw Bluff, or near French's Landing. It also appears that a powerful tribe of Indians, called Maubilians and Mobilians, occupied the region of which this vol- ume is designed especially to treat, and that a fierce battle was fought, one of the bloodiest ever waged be- tween whites and Indians, within the 'present limits of the United States, in October of 1540. It appears, also, from the facts presented in the narratives, that this battle turned De Soto from his proposed plan — actually decided his destiny — and, perhaps, changed for all the future the character of the institutions and the special inhabitants of this South-East. Taking now a position between the two rivers, the Alabama and Tombigbee, near the Indian Mobile, and where the subjects of Tuskaloosa's government had their fertile fields and peaceful, populous villages, rais- ing an abundant supply of corn and beans and other vegetables, and feasting on luscious grapes and deli- cious plums, before the Spanish tornado passed, let us look out into the surrounding wilderness of Spanish Florida and observe the earlier and later European settlements. SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 39 These first Spanish invaders had remained within the walls of the burnt and desolated city for eight days, and then had taken possession of Indian huts upon the plain. Foraging detachments sent out by their com- mander found abundant supplies of provisions in the neighboring villages, and when at length on Sunday, the eighteenth of November, they started for the northern and western wilds, passing over this region, now Clarke and Marengo, they found it "extremely fertile" but "uninhabited." Year after year passed away ; in Europe Charles V. of Spain met with reverses, and in 1556 Philip II. his son, became king, whose life and resources were spent in vain eftorts to control the consciences of his subjects in the Netherlands ; Elizabeth began in 1558 her long reign in England ; and in 1560 the civil wars com- menced in France ; and for almost one hundred and fifty years this fertile region was untrodden by foot of white man. Philip II. needed his cavaliers at home, and Spanish adventurers made but slight attempts to colonize or possess Florida. French explorers and settlers were now attracted to the Hfew World, and a French colony led to the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine in 1565. But into the interior their settle- ments did not advance. That old town on the eastern coast of the Florida peninsula, a few miles south of latitude 30°, is noted as being the first permanent European settlement in the United States. The solitudes of Alabama remained still unbroken, save as the children of the wilds continued on in their accustomed modes of life ; and ere long there were none living who had seen among their towns and vil- lages the long-bearded white men. 40 clarkp: and its surroundings. 2 In 1693 Spain took possession of West Florida, after- ward so-called, founded Pensaeola, and commenced to traffic with the Alabama and Chickasaw Indians. But from the distant North, from the frozen regions of what wo now call Canada, along the chain of Amer- ican lakes, and then down the immense valley of the Mississippi, a diiferent class of resolute, daring, and gallant adventurers were coming, to meet with the children of the forests and the natives of the South. As early as 1506, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the coast adjoining had been explored by a French navi- gator. In 1604 the noted Champlain accompanied a French colony to America, and made the next year in Nova Scotia the first permanent French settlement. By 1668 the French had reached Lake Superior ; and in 1673 Marquette, a missionary, and Joliet, a trader, re-discovered the Mississippi river. In 1682 La Salle descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, took possession of the country, and named it Louisiana, in honor of his sovereign, Louis XIY of France, whose long and brilliant reign commenced in 1643 and closed in 1715. LOUISIANA. Of the territory bearing the above name the Ala- bama and Tombigbee river region for some sixty-four years formed a part. In 1699, Iberville, a Canadian and also an officer of the French king, planted a colony on Dauphin Island and at Biloxi Bay. lie soon opened communication with the Choctaw, Mobile, and Chick- asaw Indians. These Indians had already been visited by missionaries and traders from the Spaniards in Flor- ida and the English in Carolina. In 1700 Iberville brought another colony of Canadians. In 1702 Bien- SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 41 ville, his brother, Governor of tlie Colony, removed liis headquarters from Biloxi to a new fort on MoVjile Bay, making that the capitol of all Louisiana, removing again in 1711, in consequence of an inundation, to the site of the present city of Mobile, whei-e he built Ft. Louis. At about 1700 then, a few years after the revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685), near the commencement of the Eighteenth Century, we can date the approach of the wliite man again to the waters of the Tombigbee and the Alabama, Pensacola having been settled by Spaniards in 1693, Dauphin Island by the French in 1699, and the Mobile settlement on the Bay having been niade in 1702. In that year of 1700 there was born at Coweta, on the Chattahoochie, in the limits of the present Alabama, in what was then a part of the French Louisiana, an Indian princess, Consaponaheeso, better known as Mary, whose mother was a Muscogee Queen, her father being a white man, who in 1716 mar- ried John Musgrove, in after years a very wealthy In- dian trader, which Mary became the lirm friend of Oglethorpe and the Pochahontas of the Georgia colony. While tiius for one century and a half the wilds of Alabama had been left to their Indian occupants, settle- ments had dotted the Atlantic coast from Kova Scotia to the Carolinas. French and English settlers had planted themselves on the border of the great northern forests, on the banks of navigable rivers, beside shel- tered harbors on the ocean coast, and along the Great Lakes, with the determined purpose of the French and Anglo-Saxon races, to remain and hold the whole broad land. They had met with Pochahontas and Powhatan; had conquered the Pequots, King Philip and the Nar- ragansetts ; and had laid the foundation for those de- 42 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. structive French and Indian "Wars which were to decide whether French or Anglo-Saxon blood should hold the supremacy on the American continent. For sixty -live years the French held the territory now included in Alabama. The population of their colony in 1712 was about four hundred. In 1713 officers of Crozat, a rich Paris merchant who had received from the French king a charter of this col- ony, took possession of the territory. They established trading and military posts at the head of the Alabama, near the union of the Coosa and Tallapoosa ; "at the mouth of the Cahawba; at Jones' Bluff on the Tom- beckbee ; at the present site of St. Stephens ; at J^ash- ville, on the Cumberland ; and at the Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee, then called the Cherokee." The Alabama waters began therefore now to be navigated by Frenchmen, and into the ancient forests French sol- diers and traders and adventurers penetrated. The dwellers between the rivers saw the white men come and go, and would be likely to call to mind the accounts their grandfathers had given concerning white and bearded strangers. From that time onward they were to have abundant cause to remember the white man. Says Meek: ' ' The French traders and missionaries were ever bold, adventurous, and enterprising, and it is not extravagant to say that every inch of our territory was trod by their feet, if not watered by their blood," before 1763. ' Ft. Toulouse, the name of the post on the Coosa, was established in 1714; Ft. St. Stephens probably about the same time; and Ft. Tombeckbee, two hundred and fifty miles above Mobile, in 1736. British traders also from the Carolinas before 1714 penetrated these same SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 43 wilds, and, among many of the Indian tribes, carried on a lucrative traffic. French and British interests here as elsewhere came in conflict. The northern Atlantic colonies had, before the settlement on Mobile Bay, felt the eifects of one of those struggles called King Will- iam's War, which was terminated by the treaty of E.ys- wick in 1697. And these distant traders and remote Indian tribes felt some of the results of that war between England on the one side and France and Spain on the other, called Queen Ann's War in our colonial history, and in Europe The War of the Spanish Succession, which was terminated by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713; and also of King George's War ending in 1748, when was ratified the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. But the few French inhabitants along the Bay, on the banks of Mobile river, and at old St. Stephens, were too far removed from the English colonies of the coast to enter actively into these conflicts. They loved ease and pleasure; they found a delightful climate and wild game in abundance ; they formed alliances with Indian maidens ; they engaged in traffic with the Indians ; and at length opening plantations, cultivated rice, tobacco, and indigo. These plantations extended up the Tensaw and Mobile rivers, including many of the islands in these rivers. The first island below the union of the Tombigbee and Alabama contained the plantation of the Chevalier de Lucere. Whether any of these French settlers cultivated the soil of Clarke is uncertain. The first Christian marriages were solemnized in 1704, twenty-three girls having been sent to Mobile from France who in a few days found husbands. At the same time came four priests and four Sisters of Charity. The Roman Catholic religion was established, and 44 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. priests and friars were soon sent among the neighboring tribes. Failing to make money b}" traffic and discour- aged by the hostility of the Indians especially of the Chickasaws, Crozat surrendered his charter in 1717. The French population was now about eight hundred. The French made settlements in what is now Missis- sippi, at JSTatchez and upon the Yazoo river. They founded J^ew Orleans in 1718. The name "Mississippi" became well known in France between 1716 and 1720. There entered into literature after that time the expressive phrase " Mis- sissippi Bubble." John Law, a native of Edinburgh, a celebrated financier, established in 17l6 a bank in France, by authority of the king, Louis XY., made up of twelve hundred shares, each share being three thousand *livres. For all public receipts this bank became the office, and in 1718 the Western or India Company, an association chartered the year before to manage the territory of Louisiana, was annexed to this bank, the Company having a capital of one hundred thousand livres. The same year this was declared to be a royal bank, and the shares soon "rose to twenty times their original value." Many became, as they supposed, suddenly rich, and in Paris and France expensive liv- ing and wild speculation naturally followed. But in two years the bubble burst. The bank shares sunk in value "as rapidly as they had risen, occasioning great and widespread financial distress and bankruptcy." Multitudes were financially ruined, and the distress i.* A French livre is equal to eighteen and a half cents. One share, therefore, equaled $555, and after the union of the Western Company with the bank the capital became $684,500. SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 45 was felt over all France. During these few years of supposed wealth and prosperity great activity had been manifested in promoting emigration to Louisiana. Many slaves had been brought from the coast of Africa and placed upon the French plantations. In 1720 two hundred and sixty colonists came for the grant of St. Catherine, near Natchez, two hundred and forty for the grant of Lonore, and in 1721 three hun- dred came for the grant of Madame Chaumont at Pas- cagoula, two hundred German emigrants for the grant of Law on the Arkansas, and in June, 1722, two hun- dred and fifty more Germans came. This vessel l)rouglit the news of the failure of that great royal bank. In those days there was no ocean telegraph, and news, good or bad, did not fly abroad with a speed any greater than the wind. During these few years of active operations, by the Western Company, while wealth was supposed to be growing in their hands, more than seven thousand colonists came into various parts of Louisiana; but after the Mississippi Bubble burst this territory for a time was so neglected that the settlers suffered for the necessaries of life. The seat of government for the colony was removed from Mobile to JSTew Orleans in 1723, when the popu- lation tliere was two hundred, living in a hundred huts and cabins. The French province was then divided into nine civil and military districts. These were "Alabama, Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, Natchez, Yazoo, Illinois, Wabash, Arkansas, and Natchitoches." About this time Pensacola was taken from the Spaniards. In 1732 the Western Company surrendered their charter to their king. The population was then five thousand whites and two thousand slaves. 46 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Bienville, again Governor under the king, made in 11S6 an expedition against the Chickasavrs, passing up the Tombigbee with boats of various kinds, and with French, Indian, and colored troops, in all fifteen hun- dred, and with munitions of war. He was unsuccess- ful, and returned to Mobile a disappointed man. Again, in 1752, his successor as Governor, the Mar- quis De Yaudreuil, formerly governor of Canada, went up the same river with a fleet of boats with French troops and Choctaw warriors against the Chickasaws. He also was unsuccessful, and returned to Mobile, leaving those Indians still unconquered. Some can- non, said to have been found in the Tombigbee near Cotton Gin Port, above Columbus, have been credited to De Soto's expedition. This is evidently a mistaken conjecture. Meek says they were thrown there by Bienville on his retreat from the Chickasaws, but Pickett suggests that they belonged to the Marquis De Yaudreuil. The many conflicts of the French with the Indian tribes and their dissensions among themselves do not come within the design of this narrative, except the mention of their destruction of the Natchez tribe in 1Y32. They crossed and recrossed the Alabama and Tombig- bee rivers, crossed the land between the two, but seem to have made no settlement, perhaps to have opened no plantations here. Their traders and the English traders from the Carolinas, and, after the Georgia colony, led by Oglethorpe, was established in 1733, traders from that colony, penetrated the wilds among all the Indian tribes of the South-East ; fur- nished them with many articles of European workman- ship, learned the trails and river fords, and how to SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 47 cross swift currents in canoes and floats, ascertained the geography of all this region, and formed alliances with Indian princesses and beautiful daughters of pow- erful chiefs ; thus preparing the way for a future migra- tion from those Atlantic colonies, and giving rise to a class of border men, Indians with the blood of whites flowing through their veins, who became in their day like some of old, " men of renown," noted warriors in battle, wealthy traders, shrewd diplomatists, strong friends, and dangerous enemies. The conflicting French and English interests had reached a crisis in 1753 in the wilds of western Penn- sylvania, when George Washington, then twenty-one years of age, was sent by Gov. Dinwiddle, of Virginia, into the disputed territory. In 1754 began in America that bloody French and Indian war, declared in Europe between Great Britain and France in 1756, when com- menced the " Seven-Years War," which ended in 1763. This long war, in which took place Brad dock's memorable defeat, the atrocious kidnapping and exiling of seven thousand peaceful Acadian French peasants, settlers in N^ova Scotia, commemorated in Longfellow's beautifnl poem, Evangeline, and that grand conflict on the Plains of Abraham, before Quebec when both the noted leaders, Wolfe and Montcalm, fell in this strife, called forth the most strenuous efforts of the sea-board colonies. In after years it was the subject of many a thrilling description, as the aged grandmother would tell the listening children and the stranger guest about the portents in the northern sky before that conflict. "And how she knew what those wild tokens meant, When to the Old French War her husband went." 48 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Some of those exiled Acadians are said to have set- tled in West Florida. That strife between the French and English and their Indian allies determined the fact that the great nation wJiich was to he, from however many nation- alities it might be made up, would be distinctly An- glo-Saxon, however many as individuals might find lovely homes in its broad territories, and as Spanish, French, English, Irish, Welch, Scotch, German, Dutch, Swede, Norwegian, Dane, Swiss, Italian, or Chinese, might promote its growth. It became evident, after that desperate European and American strife, that the Anglo-Saxon element would rule this broad land, from Ocean to Ocean, from the Arctic Sea to the Mexican Gulf. The following are the facts concerning Louisiana given in Benjamin Davie's Geography, a work pub- lished in 18i5. Louisiana was discovered by the Spaniards in 1639. They soon deserted it. It was ex- plored by the French in 1682 under La Salle, who came down from Canada. In 1697" the king of France sent Iberville to continue the work begun by La Salle, and he established the first permanent settlement. In 1T17 the Mississippi Company was formed in France. New Orleans was founded, in 1Y20. In 1762 Louisiana was ceded to Spain. In 1800 it was sold to Bonaparte for the kingdom of Etruria. In 1803 it was purchased by the United States from Bonaparte for fifteen million dollars. It comprised the state of Louisiana and Terri- tory of Missouri. Such was geographic history in 1815. SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 49 WEST FLORIDA. When, in 176?,, France ceded to Great Britain her chiims east of the Mississippi, except the ishmd and city of New Orleans, which with her territory west of the Mississippi was ceded to Spain, Spain also c-eded Florida to Great Britain in exchange ior Havana, which had been taken from her by the English. Mobile there- fore, the Forts upon the rivers, the plantitions under cultivation, and the Spanish towns in Florida, became a part of the British possessions in North America. We may look next, then, for the approach of English colonists toward the region which De Soto left "ex- tremely fertile, but uninhabited." The English government divided Florida, that part of the early unknown region so called, which had re- mained until 1699 under the control of Spain, into two provinces, called East and West Florida. The northern boundary of East Florida seems not to have been well defined. The northern boundary of West Florida was the line of latitude 32° 28', or from the mouth of the Yazoo river due east to the Chattahoochie. This line crossed the Tombigbee a little south or" the spot where now stands Demopolh-, and it crossed the Alabama just be- low the union of the Coosa nnd Tallapoosa. North of this line was then the British province of Illinois. So that at the close of the Old French War Illinois and Florida bordered on each other. The present railroad from Vicksburg to Montgom- ery runs near this line. The eastern boundary of West Florida was the Chattahoochie, and then, as the name changed, the Apalachicola. The western bound- ary was the Mississippi; and the southern. Bayou Iber- 4 50 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. ville, the connected cliain of lakes including Poncliar- train, and the Gulf. The present limits of Clarke, therefore, were included in West Florida, and so re- mained, in fact, till 1799, although nominally a part of the United States alter 1Y82. Pensacola was made the seat of government. After English control was extended over this prov- ince, the Natchez region and the western part of the present state of Mississippi attracted many settlers. They came from the Atlantic colonies in considerable numbers. A small German settlement had been made upon the Pascagoola, a river in the south-eastern part of Mississippi, The Mississippi river and its eastern tributa- ries seemed to be at jSrst the most attractive. From the Atlantic colonies, first from Roanoke in ISTorth Car- olina, as early as 1764, then from South Carolina, from Georgia, from Virginia, and New Jersey, large num- bers came, either in boats down the tributary rivers, or cutting a pathway through the wilderness, and made settlements extending some twenty miles east of the rivei'. Scotch Highlanders came from North Carolina and settled thirty miles east of Natchez. In 1770, and again in 1778, many immigrants came by the way of the Ohio river from New Jersey, and Yirginia, and Delaware. Immigrants also began soon to come from Great Britain and the British West Indies. In 1767 a colony of French Protestants, in number two hundred and nine, made a settlement upon the Es- cambia river north of Pensacola, having received from King George the Third a large grant of land, and having been conveyed across the ocean at the royal ex- pense. They built white cottages among the live oak SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 51 groves, and erected a cluirch building with one simple, village spire. This colony was not long afterward des- olated by the yellow fever, that scourge of the tropics. It does not appear that in these years many addi- tions were made to the settlers on the Mobile and Ten- saw rivers. The plantations opened there must, how- ever, have been productive, and business enterprise was evidently not stagnant, for in 1772 the exports from Mobile and Pensacola were, according to Pickett, "in- digo, raw-hides, corn, fine cattle, tallow, rice, pitch, bear's oil, tobacco, tar, squared timber, indigo seed, myrtle wax, cedar-posts and planks, salted wild beef, pecan nuts, cypress and pine-boards, plank of various woods, shingles, dried salt-fish, scantling, sassafras, canes, staves and heading hoops, oranges and peltry." The cultivation of cotton had also commenced, and some small machines had been invented for separating the lint from the seed. The French planters had some machines by which, it is said by Captain Barnard Roman, in his "Florida," "seventy pounds of clear cotton can be made every day." Whitney's Cotton Gin was not invented until 1792> Pensacola, the capital of the province, contained in 1771 about one hundred and eighty houses, which were built of wood. This, as the seat of government, was to become the first place of traflic for the coming settlers of Clarke. The French houses of the wealthy in Mo- bile were of brick. It is now 1775. The Thirteen United Colonies, containing a population of about "three millions of people," extending from New Hampshire to Georgia, are entering upon that great conflict with the Mother Country, which is called in history The American Eev- olution. 52 CLAEKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Into this conflict West Florida did not enter. Here was, therefore, a secure retreat for those called Royal- ists, in the Carolinas and Georgia, who held themselves still loyal to the king of Great Britain. The banks of that river, then called *Tombeckbee, became attractive to this large class of adventurers and refugees. The existence of Fort St. Stephens during so many years of French occupancy, the friendliness of the Choctaw Indians within whose limits these lands lay, and thu proximity of the plantations on the Mobile river, made this region a natural and favorite resort. It seems impossible now to ascertain who were the first white settlers in either Washington or Clarke. If, as is stated by Meek, the French established a trading and military post at St. Stephens, some French settlers would be likely to locate on the west and even on the east side of the river. And Pickett mentions that some French farmers lived upon this river in 1792. It is possible also that some of those adventurous and enterprising colonists in the Carolinas and in Georgia, who having come to a ISTew World, loved to seek the most remote wilds, had reached the banks of the Ala- bama before the commencement of the colonial struggle for independence. But records of these seem to be wanting. In the year 1TY7 an English botanist, William Bar- tram, visited the settled parts of West Florida. He found on the Tensaw river many well-cultivated planta- tions, on which settlers were then living. His route both going and coming seems to have been on the east * I fiud in earlier aud later writings the name of this river written Tombeckbee, Tumbeclibee, Tombikbee, Tombeckbe, Tombeckby, Tombickby, Tonibigby, Tom- bigbee. I prefer for its earlier name the orthography Tombeckbee, and for its present name Tombigbee. SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 53 side of the Alabama. From him, therefore, nothing is h!arned concerninii; settlers on the west side. When near the northern boundary of the province and still be- side the river, his party met with some Georgians — a man and his wife, some young children, one young woman and three young men, packing their goods on a dozen horses — who were on their way intending to set- tle upon the Alabama river, a few miles above its union with the Tombeckbee. And these "are believed" says Pickett, ' ' to have been among the first Anglo-Amer- icans who settled in the present Baldwin county." That some such settlers had already reached the Tom- beckbee is quite certain, so that we may safely place the commencement of what became permanent Ameri- can settlement as early as the year 1777. Meek says: "As early as the Revolution, large bodies of unfortunate adherents of the British cause had fled from South Carolina and Georgia, through the dense and pithless forests between, to the shores of the Tombeckbee and Mobile Bay. They laid the first foundations of American inhabitancy in the counties of Clarke, Washington and Baldwin." It is poetic to call these mighty forests " pathless ;" but we should re- member that from Carolina and Georgia traders had been coming for many years to all these Indian tribes. As early as 1735 hundreds of pack-horses brought out from Charleston to the Chattahoochie and westward, merchandise for the Indians ; and in 1745 Lachlan Mc- Gillivray married the beautiful Creek Indian girl, Sehoy Marchand, and settled with her and established a trading house on the Coosa, four miles above where now stands Wetumpka. And Bartram, the botanist, found in 1777 the road from Tensaw, near the present 54 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Stockton, up to the Tallapoosa, narrow, but "well beaten." Wagon roads were not ; but trails for pack- horses were, before the Revolutionary War, well trod- den through all those mighty forests. Before, however, many settlers of any class had trodden Indian trails and reached the Tombeckbee, West Florida changed rulers. The Spaniards captured the forts and took possession in 1Y80, except of Pensacola, which they took early in 1781, and in 1783, in January, Great Britain confirmed to Spain, by treaty, all the province of East Florida. But Great Britain had previously, in the preliminary Treaty of Paris, in 1782, acknowledged the independ- ence of the United States, and recognized the Southern boundary to be the line of 31° north latitude, from the Mississippi river to the Ohattahoochie, down the Chat- tahoochie to the mouth of the Flint, from that point east to the St. Mary's river, and down that river to the sea. A conflict of claims of course arose. Spain claimed by conquest and treaty, and held by possessitm, as far north as 32° 28', or all the former British prov- ince of West Florida. Thus at the close of the War of the Revolution, when there was existing in the Caroli- nas and Georgia so much ill-feeling toward the royal- ists, to whom the Whigs, so called, attributed very much of their suffering, these distant Tombeckbee set- tlements, under Spanish rule, afforded still to the roy- alists a secure retreat. Many, therefore, came and settled upon Spanish grants, or opened plantations along the river under Spanish rule. The following names of some of these early settlers have been rescued from oblivion : Below Mcintosh's Bluff, Bates, Lawrence, Powell ; above, on the river, Danley, Wheat, Johnson, McGrew, Hacket, Freeland, SPANISH AND OTHEK RESIDENTS. 55 Talley and Baker. These were found as settlers in 1791 by a small company of new settlers, whose names were, Thomas Kimbil, John Barnett, Robert Sheffield, Barton Hannon, and three young men, brothers, by the name of Mounger. They arrived by way of Tensaw Lake, where they found residing families named Hall, Byrne, Minis, Killcreas, Steadham, Easlie and *Linder. The new settlers with their horses had crossed the creeks and the two rivers upon rafts. The horses had brought upon their backs some plows and axes. They found St. Stephens garrisoned by one Spanish company, under the command of Captain Fernando Lisora. The Choctaws called St. Stephens Hobuckintopa. At this time the commandant's residence, the Catholic church and the block-house, were good " frame-work "buildings, made tight with " clay and plaster." Cypress bark covered the other houses, some of which were large. Some French farmers, then living on the rivers, dwelt in clay huts, while the Americans built pole-cabins. The chief industry here seems to have been raising indigo, then worth two dollars and a half a pound. f Further down the river the Spaniards made quite a busi- ness of burning pine to collect tar. On Little River, at this time, were living " many in- telligent and wealthy people," who were of mixed blood, Indian and white ; who for some years had been raising large herds of cattle. Of the settlers now * Captain John Linder was a native of Switzerland, had been in Charleston as a British surveyor, and was aided by General McGillivray to settle with his fam- ily and a large number of colored servants at the Tensaw lake during the War of the Revolution. Part of the settlers at this time were royalists and part were Whigs. t After the " Yazoo freshet," in 1791, so complete was the destruction caused by that overthrow, that the Spaniards abandoned, to a great extent, their indigo And rice plantations. 56 CLAEKE AISTD ITS SUEROUNDINGS, named near St. Stephens the Wheat and Mounger fam- ilies are considered by some now living to have been the first Whig families that settled among the Royal- ists. It is probable, however, that there were at this time other settlers loyal to the new United States, although then ont of its jurisdiction. Nathan Blackwell, from IS^orth Carolina, came, it is said in the traditions of Clarke, in 1Y90, a pioneer among Indians and Spaniards. Members of this fam- ily are yet residing in the southern part of the county, grandchildren, probably, and great-grandchildren of this early pioneer. The many interesting events in the life of Katlian Blackwell, and the time and place of his death are to the author unknown. HiRA]\r Mounger coming in 1Y91, bought a Spanish grant, including a part of the Sun Flower Bend, one of the three grants now known as having been situated on the east side of the river. He died about 1867, and his wife died a few years ago between ninety and one hundred years of age. To the family names recorded here may be added that of Denby, a brother-in-law of Mounger, and Peter Beach. All these settlements were around rather than with- in the twelve hundred miles of territory, within which stood the old Maubila, But few if any of the pio- neers destined to occupy those creek bottoms, and broad plateaus, and fertile hill sides, had as ye^ ar- rived. This soil was never occupied by an American colony, it was not yet an acknowledged part of the new United States, although its southern limit was thirteen miles north of latitude 31° ; and those who were to take possession as American citizens were then, for the SPAI^ISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 57 most part, boys and girls in Virginia and Kentucky, in the Carolinas and Georgia, acquiring tlie strength of muscle, and the qualities of mind and heart which would fit them for their future work. Of the actual life of the settlers here during these Spanish times few memorials can be found. Laws were few, restraints were only self-imposed, or such as neces- sity and self-preservation laid upon them, and they, no doubt, enjoyed the wild freedom of the rivers and the woods. A characteristic feature of this whole region was the residence in every Indian town of any size of a white trader. During these hundred years the eigh- teenth century drawing, at this date of 1792, near its close, all these Indian tribes of the South-East had be- come familiar with the white men. The sight of white women and children was more rare. But these traders had penetrated all the wilds, and occupied very many fine locations for inland commerce and for intrigues among the tribes. Many of these traders became wealthy; but it has been observed that "all property acquired in a commerce with Indians" generally leaves the owners in old age. One of these traders, an Englishman named Clarke, who called his Indian wife Queen Anne, used seventy pack-horses to transport his goods and furs. The common pack-horses used were small but hardy, and were accustomed to carry on their peculiar pack-saddles, three bundles of sixty pounds weight each. Two bundles were swung across the sad- dle so that one was on each side of the horse, and the third bundle was placed upon tlie saddle. Over the whole was thrown a covering of hide or fur to protect from the rain. Poultry was carried in a similar man- ner, and also liquids, on the backs or sides of these 58 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. ponies. On the routes of travel one pack-driver liad charge of ten ponies. About twenty-five miles each day was the average rate of travel. The ponies at night gained their own subsistence from the grass and cane. A well-beaten trail led up from Pensacola, with many smaller diverging pathways to the Tennessee river. ISTashville, on the Cumberland, was then the southern limit of white settlement. But from the Wa- bash river, far north, Yincennes having become a trading-post as early as 1Y02, French traders had for years, previous to 1780, carried on an extensive trafiic with the Indians near the present towns of Tuscumbia and Florence. Southern and Western forests during the eighteenth century were anything but pathless. The presence of these white traders throughout all this southern Indian country had its influence on the Indians as well as on the white settlements, so soon as these settlements were made. A noted descendant of one of these traders having spent most of the winter in the settlement on Little River went to Pensacola, and there died in February 1793, the year when commenced in France those terri- ble times known as the Reign of Terror."^ This was Alexander McGillivray, son of that Scotchman already named, who in 1745, so near as is now known, Meek says 1740, married Sehoy Marchand. The father of this Creek maiden was Captain Marchand, a French- man who was at one time commandant at Ft. Toulouse and was killed there in 1722. The mother of Miss Marchand, the grandmotlier of Alexander, was a Mus- * Such were the commotions of this year among Indians, Americans, Span- ish, and even among French emissaries in the South-East, that Picliett says : " It appeared tliat the evil one himself was stalking through this wild region." SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 59 cogee, or Creek, of full blood, of the tribe of the Wind, the most powerful tribe of the Creek nation. Alexan- der and his sisters were, therefore, of Indian, Frencli, and Scotch blood united. One of his distinguished nephews was William Weatherford, whose bloody deeds will be long remembered. Alexander was educated at Charleston, acquiring a knowledge of Greek, Latin, and of Polite Literature. He delighted in boyhood to read the histories of European nations. He returned to the Indian wilds, took control of the Creek nation, was an ally of the British during the Revolutionary War, re- ceiving from them the rank and pay of a British colonel. After that war, in 1784, he went to Pensacola, and as Emperor of the Creeks and Seminoles, made a treaty with Spain. In 1790 he visited President Washington at New York, made a treaty there, was appointed Agent of the United States, and received the rank of Brigadier General, with twelve hundred dollars a year salary. Afterward a Spanish Monarch appointed him Superintendent General of the Creek nation, with a salarj^ of two thousand dollars a year, adding to this in July 1792, fifteen hundred more. He was thus agent for Spain with a salary of thirty -five hundred dollars, for the United States with a salary of twelve hundred, a member of a wealthy commercial house, and Emperor, so called, of the Creeks and Seminoles. Pickett, who studied his character closely, considers him the great- est diplomatist, and possessing the most marked ability of any man born or reared on Alabama soil. He was buried in the grounds of William Panton, in Pensacola, with masonic honors, and the Indians deeply lamented his death, feeling that they had truly lost a great chief- tain. 60 CLAEKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Benjamin Durant, of Huguenot descent, from South Carolina, had married the beautiful and talented Sophia McGillivray, a sister of Alexander McGillivray, and had cultivated Durant' s Bt,'nd on the Alabama as early as 1786 ; and Mrs. Sophia Durant appears to have been living on Little River in 1790, when, by her authority and resolution, she saved the Tensaw settlements from a threatened massacre by the Creeks. Her son, Lach- lan Durant, was in 1851 a well-known resident of Bald- win county. ■ Lachlan McGillivray, the fatlier of Mrs. Durant, who had married Sehoy Marchand ; who as a Scotch boy of sixteen, had left a wealthy home in Scot- land to see the wonders of American wilds ; who had landed in Carolina with a single shilling in his pocket ; who had joined the Indian traders, and on the Chatta- hoochie, about 1735, made his first trade, exchanging a jack-knife for some deer-skins ; who saw for tho first time the young Sehoy, when she was sixteen years of age, "cheerful in countenance, bewitching in looks, and graceful in form ;" spent as Indian trader and Georgia royalist nearly half a century in these wilds of America, which had so excited the imagination of his youth ; then leaving his Indian children, his plantations, and his colored servants, he embarked with the British when they left Savannah, probably in 1782, and sailed for his native land. Before embarking he had "scraped to- gether a vast amount of money and movable effects." He was still living at Dunmaglass, Scotland, in 1794, when a letter was sent to him announcing the death of his son Alexander, and asking his care for a grandson and two granddaughters. Still another of these white traders may be here named, whose noted son became closely connected with SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 61 scenes of strife and blooclslied, as the white settlements advanced. This trader was Charles Weatherford, also a Scotchman, who married a half-sister of General Mc- Gillivray, the daughter of a chief, and of pure Indian blood, who in 1778 had been married to Colonel Tait, a British officer at Fort Toulouse. Ti;e ])rincipal residence of General McGillivray was near the mouth of the Coosa, but his brothers-in-law ha'l their plantations and various homes along the Alabama river, as far as to its union with the Tombeck- bee. At one of these residences on the east bank was born, about 1780, William Weatherford, whom the set- tlers in after years had cause to remember. Other white traders had more or less influence upon the sur- roundings of Clarke. Other noted frontier or border men, men of bad re- nown some of them, were along the Alabama or its tributaries. On Little River, as already stated, wealthy and in- telligent families of mixed blood resided, who kept large herds of cattle where the frost never killed the grass or cane. Farther north, near the Alabama, lived in 1Y90 and earlier, "Milly," a white woman who had fled into the wilds with her husband, a soldier deserting a British regiment. After his death she married an Indian, and kept cattle and ponies. Wear her lived William Gregory', a white man with an Indian family, who kept cattle and horses, and who has left the repu- tation of having been where there was no law around him, a kind-hearted, generous, upright man. Abram Mordecai and James Russell, traders, had their head- quarters not far away ; and on the Tallapoosa was " Sa- vannah Jack,-' called "the most blood-thirsty, fiendish, and cruel white man that ever inhabited any country." 62 CLARKE ATs^D ITS SURROUNDINGS. A yet more noted resident for a season upon the Tallapoosa was William Angustus Bowles, a Maryland boy, who, as a young tory, entered the British army as a soldier, fought for a year against the Americans, sailed to Jamaica as an ensign in 1777, came to Pensa- cola, flung his uniform into the sea, and in company with Creek Indians left for the wilds. For several years he remained by the Tallapoosa, and learned very thorouo'hlv the Muscogee languao-e. He married a chief's daughter. "His elegant and commanding form, tine address, beautiful countenance of varied expression, his exalted genius, daring, and intrepidity, all connected with a mind wholly debased and unprincipled, eminently tit- ted him to sway the bad Indians and worse traders among whom he lived." In 1781, with Creek warriors he aided General Campbell to defend Pensacola. He went next to Xew York, joined a company of comedians, and sailed ta the Bahamas. There he acted comedy and painted portraits. The governor of the islands, Lord Dun- more, selected him as an agent to establish a commer- cial house on the Chattahoochie in opposition to the interests of William Panton, of Pensacola, and Alex- ander McGillivray. Bowles was soon at work among the Lower Creeks. But Milfort, the war chief, the French general, was sent to the Chattahoochie with a stern order for Bowles to leave the nation in twenty-four hours. He returned to the Bahamas, was sent by the governor with some Creek and Cherokee Indians to England, received val- uable presents from the British court, returned to the Bahamas and became a pirate, having taught his Creek SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 63 dependents to navigate th« Gulf, preying especially upon the vessels of "William Panton. His piratical success, having had with him " an abandoned set of white men from the prisons of London, together with hosts of savages," increased his popularity among the Creeks. He endeavored now, advancing into the heart of the nation, to destroy the power of McGillivray. The latter withdrew to I^ew Orleans, and Bowles de- clared that he would never again show himself upon the Coosa. But the Scotch-Indian was too shrewd for the Maryland tory boy, and he soon arranged at New Orleans for the capture of Bowles, who was brought to New Orleans in chains and sent to Madrid, in Spain, as a captured pirate. This was in 1792. From Spain he was transported to the island Manilla, in the Pacific ocean. In February, 1797, he was ordered back to Spain, but escaped at Ascension Island on the way, reached Sierra Leone, returned to London, sailed again to the Gulf in a schooner, and became again a pirate, and was wrecked on Fox Point in Septeinber, 1799. He advanced once more into the Creek nation, declared his hostility to both Spain and the United States. He com- menced depredations, and both American and Spanish authorities determined to remove him from the Creek country. A large reward was secretly offered for his capture. A great feast was j)repared on the Coosa river, to which he was invited. At this feast he was suddenly seized, pinioned, placed in a canoe sur- rounded by armed warriors, and conveyed down the river. Stopping on the shore over night, while his guard slept he gnawed the ropes from his arms and es- caped. But Indians were on his track. His trail was 64 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. found, and before many hours lie was again then- prisoner. He was taken down the Alabama to Mobile, was sent to Havana, and died in a few years in the dungeon of Moro Castle. Thus ended his wild and varied career. In 1Y97 a ferry was established by Samuel Minis across the Alabama, and one by HoUinger, an old resi- dent among the Indians, across the Tombeckbee. The route of travel crossed the Ishind called Nannahubba, below the cut-oif. But a change for the settlers ' under Spanish rule was near at hand. Arrangements were made by the United States Government to have the line of latitude 31° established. In 1Y98, March 29th, the Spaniards evacuated their fort on the Mississippi, and Colonel Andrew Elliott, one of the commissioners to mark this boundary line be- tween Spanish and United States territory, marched his troops and corps of wood-men and surveyoi-s to a dense swamp on the cast of the Mississippi, where it was ascertained that the line left the river. He was soon joined by Major Minor and Sir William Dunbar, Span- ish commissioners. Sj)ain also furnished troops. The advance along the line resembled the movement of an army. The trees were blazed along the line, and mounds of earth thrown up at the end of each mile. This line struck the Mobile river "six miles" Pickett says, ten miles it now appears to be, below the union of the two rivers. It was now April 1799. The sur- veyors overcame the difficulties in crossing the rivers and swamps, and passed beyond the Tensaw. Passing through the Creek lands the party met with obstacles and opposition from the Indians, and also from the SPANISH AND OTHER KESIDENTS. 65 Spaniards. They marked the line only as far as the Chattahoochie, but the surveyors passed across to the St. Mary's, and in February of 1800 established the point on that river of the line of 31° in the presence of Colonel Elliott and Major Minor. This spot was marked by a large earth mound. The United States had now, after the death of Washington, early in 1800, a recognized southern boundary line. In presenting the fact that this special region has been under the control of France, of Great Britain, and of Spain, a flowery writer says: "The flag of the silver lilies, and the banner of old Spain, once the most famous, long floated here, the symbols of sover- eignty, chivalry, and the faith of Christ." Also: "The blood-red cross of St. George, which for a thou- sand years has never been disgraced, once stood here, the representative of dominion and civilization." But with his characteristic indomitable spirit the Anglo-Saxon- American was now, in 1800, beginning to take full possession. The Mississippi Scheme of France, begun in 1716, closed in 1723. "Of all the wild speculations which have first duped and then ruined men, this ranks among the foremost." There had been, about a hun- dred years before, a remarkable fever of speculation in Holland, known as the Tulip Mania. " It began about the year 1634, and, like a violent epidemic, it seized upon all classes of the community." "In the year 1636 Tulip Marts had been established at Amsterdam, at Rotterdam, Haarlem, Leyden, and other towns in Holland." "Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, 66 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. seamen, footmen, maid-servants, even chimney-sweeps — all caught the fever for tulips and gold." "The learned and the ignorant, the cautious and the eager, men of all classes and all temperaments were infected ; it seemed as if the commerce of the world were hence- forth to run in one exclusive channel — the sale and the purchase of tulips." A few tulips brought at the height of the speculation 100,000 Dutch florins. When the bubble burst, "every town in Holland felt the blow." "Tlie trade of Holland was prostrated for a time, and some of its merchant princes never recovered from the shock." A similar spirit of speculation and passion for gold, pervading all classes and leading to like disastrous results, swept over England, known as the South Sea Bubble. The stock of the first company was sold at a premium of 1000 per cent. "The original South Sea Scheme branched out into eighty-seven cognate specu- lations, each of which was eventually a fountain of misery to multitudes." It is said of Law, tlie originator of this Mississippi Scheme, "He first ruined a young English lady and then slew her brother in a duel, for which he was obliged to flee from his native county, Amsterdam, Yenice, and Genoa, became in succession his asylum. From each of these, however, he was banished as a dangerous adventurer, and after fourteen years of friendless wandering," he reached Paris and secured the favor of the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, about 1T16.- Such was the man who became connected with a Paris speculation which gave such notoriety to the Mississippi colon}^ and name. Fifty thousand shares at flrst were issued in this wild scheme, and for these there were about three hundred thousand appli- cants. Three hundred thousand additional shares were then issued by the authority of the Regent. It is said that "for a time even the gayeties of Paris were sus- pended ; and all the energies, the earnestness, and ardor of its people, were turned into one absorbing SPANISH AND OTHER RESIDENTS. 67 channel — the passion for goki lying buried, they be- lieved, in the lands around the mouth of the Missis- sippi." Property suddenly rose to twelve and even iifteen times its former value. Multitudes supposed them- selves to have become suddenly ricii. Alliances with the titled nobility were purchased. But when this bubble also burst, as all such must, "to all the golden visions of France, there succeeded a period of confu- sion, of bankruptcies, of beggary and ruin, deep and piteous in proportion as the excitement had been high." But for all this Mississippi was not to blame, nor the French colonists, nor the mighty river that all unheed- ing swept on into the Gulf. CHAPTER III. THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY.— 1798-1812. IN the spring of 1798 the Congress of the United States formed into a territory a part of what had been "West Florida. By an act passed the seventh of April the new division which was called Mississippi Territory, was bounded thus : On the west by the Mississippi river, on the north by a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chatahoochie,* and on the south by the thirty-tirst degree of north latitude. By a supplementary act in ISOl, there was annexed to this Territory all the ''tract of country" south of the State of Tennessee bounded on the east by the state of Georgia and on the west by Louisiana. Tennessee had been admitted as a state in 1796. This territory was said in 1815 to be from east to west, from the Chatahoochie to the Mississippi, about three hundred and twenty miles. From north to south it was said to be two hundred and seventy-eight miles. Said a geography of that day, ' ' The greater part of this extensive region is still the property of the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Indians, two other potent tribes, the Yazoos and Natchez, having been destroyed by wars, or having retired further into the western forests." On the second of April, 1799, Winthrop Sargent, the appointed governor of the new Territory, issued a procla- * Also written Chatahooche, Chatahoochee, and Chattahoochee. Apalachicola is also written Appalachicola. (Page 49.) THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 69 mation dividing the Territory into two counties, the northern to be called Adams and the southern Pick- ering. In 1T99, the fifth of May, Lieutenant McLeary took possession of Fort St. Stephens, the Spanish garrison marching out and descending the river below the recently surveyed line of latitude 31''. In July of this year Fort Stoddart was established, about six miles above the Spanish boundary and three miles below the commencement of Mobile river. A stockade was here built with one bastion. At length, then, in the year 1799, the second year of that fearful Heign of Terror in France, the year in which ]^apoleon Bonaparte became first Consul, this region which for so many years France had claimed ■and held, became a part of the United States. Among those inhabitants on Lake Tensaw, at the Boat Yard, two brothers John and William Pierce from ]^ew England, had during the Spanish times made their home. William followed weaving, which was in those days very profitable. John Pierce opened a school, "the first American school in Alabama," so near as is known in 1799. Says Pickett: "There the high-blood descendants of Lachlon McGillivray — the Taits, Weatherfords, and Durants, the aristocratic Linders, the wealthy Mims's, and the children of many others, first learned to read. The pupils were strangely mixed in blood, and their color was of every hue." And now we reach the year 1800. The JSTineteenth Century was about to open, that centurj- to be in human progress, so eventful over all the civilized and all the savage world ; that century which was to be crowded with inventions ; and which was to see explorers, trav- 70 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. ellers, missionaries, seeking the nortliern pole, crossing the deepest recesses of Africa, carrying the teachings of Christianity into India's jungles, among the fiercest cannibals of the South Sea, and opening all China and all Japan, The American was beginning to place himself not only abreast of all the world, but in the lead, for all useful inventions and for daring enterprise and indomitable will. And over the belt of long-leaved pines a new era also dawns. WASHINGTON COUNTY. Governor Sargent on the fourth of June calls into existence by proclamation the county of Washington. It having appeared to the Governor " that the divisions already made, cannot extend to the inhabitants upon the Tombeckbee and other eastern settlements, equal administration of justice." This was probably the largest county, those of Adams and Pickering excepted, that had then been called into existence by executive or legislative power.* Its boundaries were the same as those of the Territory on the north, east, and south, or latitude 32° 28', the Chattahoochie, and the thirty-first parallel ; and the Pearl river on the west. Most of that vast region was then occupied by Indian tribes, over which tribes the Government had no control. The two settlements of whites in this new county were upon land which the Indian occupants had formerly *Ia 1777 the colony of North Caroliun, then under the declaration of inde- pendence chiiming to be a state, had set off into a county, also called Washing- ton, that region which afterward became the State of Tennessee. The area of this was 45,600 square miles. Washington county was at first three hundred miles long, and eighty-eight miles wid<',, having an area of 26,400 square miles. Clarke county in Oregon was at first very large, and then' is now a large county in Colorado. THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITOKY. 71 ceded to the Britisli or Spanish autliorities and which belonged therefore now to the United States. These settlements were, according to the "American State Papers," as quoted by Meek, "thinly scattered along the western banks of the Mobile and Tombigby, for more than seventy miles, and extending nearly seventy- five miles upon the eastern borders of the Mobile and Alabama." As yet these inhabitants were living without any civil government actually over them. They liad.no magistrates, no ministers, and no mar- riage ceremonies. The young people had been ac- customed for years to ])air off and live together as husbands and wives promising to be regularly mar- ried when they had an opportunity. An instance is recorded of one couple who observed a little more form than the others. It was Christmas night of 1800. Daniel Johnson and Miss Elizabeth Linder, at Lake Tensaw, were acknowledged lovers. He was poor and she an heiress ; so her parents objected, even in those wilds, to the "pairing." A large party were that night assembled at the house of Samuel Minis, and among these were the two lovers, enjoying the music, the dance, the festivities. During the evening a few young people, Johnson and Miss Linder among them, secretly left the house, embarked on board of some canoes, paddled down the lake and down the Alabama, and arrived at Fort Stoddart an hour before the dawn of day. Captain Shauinburg, a merry hearted Ger- man, in command of the fort was called upon to per- form the marriage ceremony. In vain he declared his ignorance of such ceremonies, and his want of authority. He was told that he was placed there by the Federal Government to protect the people and regulate their 72 OLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. aftairs, and tliat this little affair needed his sanction. At length the captain yielded to their solicitations, and having the two lovers placed before him proclaimed : "I Captain Shaumburg, of the 2d regiment of the United States army, and commandant of Fort Stoddart, do hereby pronounce you man and wife. Go home ! behave yourselves ; multiply, and replenish the Ten- saw country ! " They reentered their canoes, returned to the Tensaw Boat Yard, and the whole settlement pronounced them to be "the hest married people they had known in a long time." Justices of the peace soon came, and courts and judges, and also in a few years ministers of the Gospel. In 1801 when the new century had fully commenced, the entire population of these river settlements was esti- mated to be iive hundred whites and two hundred and fifty colored. In 1802 a treaty was made with the Choctaws, by which a tract of land was acquired, extending some dis- tance north from St. Stephens. The Choctaws claimed east of the Tombeckbee to the water-shed or dividing ridge. The Creeks did not acknowledge their rights, and at the treaty in 1802 one of their chiefs, the Mad Wolf, is reported to have said, "the people of Tom- bigby have put over their cattle in the fork, on the Ala- bama hunting grounds, and have gone a great way on our lands. I want them put back. We all know they are Americans." From this speech it is evident that at this time there were whites occupying lands east of the Tombeckbee. In the same year a trading house was established at St. Stephens, designed especially for the Choctaw In- dians. This establishment was called a factory. Joseph THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 73 Chambers was appointed Superintendent and Thomas H. Williams, both from North Carolina, Assistant. The latter became afterward Secretary of the Territory, Col- lector of the port of Xew Orleans, and United States Senator from Mississippi. George S. Gaines of Vir- ginia, then residing in Tennessee, was afterward ap- pointed Assistant, and came to St. Stephens in the spring of 1S05. At tliat time "the parsonage of the old Spanish church was used as a skin-house," the block house be- ing used for a government store room. In 1807 Gaines became what was called "principal factor," having an assistant, a "skin-man" or fur and hide tender, and an interpreter. This tender of furs and hides examined them carefully during the summer, sorted them, and in the fall packed them in bales for shipment to Phil- adelphia. The articles brought for sale or exchange by the Choctaws, were furs and peltries of various kinds, bears' oil, honey, beeswax, bacon, tobacco, and ground peas. These in 1809 amounted in value to more than seven thousand dollars. To avoid the pay- ment of Spanish duties at Mobile the Government ar- ranged a line for conveying goods to this ware-house and trading post down the Ohio river, up the Tennes- see to a point called Colbert's Ferry, then by pack horses along a horse path through the Chickasaws, to Peachland's, upon the Tombeckbee, then by boats to St. Stephens. In 1802, also, the first cotton gin, in the region now Alabama, was erected by Lyons and Bennett of Georgia, for Abram Mordecai, a Jew and an Indian trader, at Weathcrford's race track on the Alabama river. The materials for the work, tools and machinery, were 74 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. brought from Georgia on pack horses. Cotton from this gin was taken in the same summer to Augusta, Georgia. This Mordecai carried on a large trade with the Indians, sending to Mobile and to ISTew Orleans his furs and hickory nut oil in boats, and transporting goods to and from Pensacola and Augusta on pack horses. His gin house was afterward burned by the Indians in consequence of intrigues in which he be- came involved with a handsome married squaw. In the sarne year, 1802, in October the Pierce broth- ers established a gin at the Boat Yard, the second gin, it would appear, erected in this region. They then commenced merchandising. Business, then, as con- ducted by Americans, dates for Clarke and its sur- roundings, from 1802. This Boat Yard gin was built by the same contractors, Lyons and Barnett, who also built one at Mcintosh's Bluff on the Tombeckbee, the third cotton gin for these river settlements. JSTow other and permanent American settlers begin to arrive and locate themselves between the rivers. These early permanent settlers came from Georgia, col- onized in 1733, from the Carolinas, colonized between 1640 and 1670, from Virginia, the first English settle- ment commenced in 1607, from Kentucky, settled by six families led by Daniel Boone in 1773, and joined by forty others from Powell's Yalley, who constituted all the white settlers of Kentucky in 1773, and from Tennessee, where temporary settlements were made in 1765, but the important and permanent ones not until 1774. These Tennessee settlers had lived independent of North Carolina or the United Colonies till 1788, when THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 75 their country was ceded to Congress [and they became a part of the state of North Carolina. Americans, so soon as they began to be American citizens, manifested that roving, restless nature, which makes them probably the most migratory of all the great and enlightened nations. Scarcely, it would seem, were the fruits of cultivation beginning to be enjoyed, in these certainly new states, before many enterprising, brave, and daring pioneers are ready to enter upon what was then the last acquired territory of the Union. A North Carolina party left their homes on the At- lantic slope in December of 1801. Their names have been thus recorded : Thomas Malone and family, James More, Goodway Myrick, George Nosworthy, Robert Caller, and William Murrell. With them were sixty colored people. They crossed the Blue Ridge, and came to the Tennessee. At Knoxville they made flat- boats and reached the head of the Muscle Shoals by floating with the current. Packing their household goods on their horses which had come down the river on land, they started for the " Bigby settlements." They reached the Cotton Gin, a short distance above the present town of Aberdeen. They embarked in some long canoes, were wrecked, lost their goods, their tools, their guns, all their efl"ects, except the clothes upon their persons ; and one white child and twenty- one colored people were drowned. But again they pressed on ; and after a journey, from North Carolina, of one hundred and twenty days, saved from starvation by their faithful hunting dogs, these dogs procuring for them rabbits, raccoons, and opossums, they reached their destination. The first named of this party of settlers, Thomas 76. CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Malone, was then a voung man, liad been a clerk in the hind office at Kaleigh, and became afterward clerk of the court of Washington county. His name will appear again in this narrative of events. Mention has already been made of the conflict of claims between Spain and the United States concerning a part of West Florida. To a part of »this domain and also of otlier territory there had been another claimant. The state of Georgia, under a Charter granted by Charles II, king of England, claimed all the territory between the Savannah and the Mississippi i-ivers from latitude 31° as far north as latitude 35"". In 1789 the General Assembly of Georgia authorized a sale of large tracts of this land to three companies, called the South Carolina Yazoo Company, the Virginia Yazoo Com- pany, and the Tennessee Company. President Wash- ington issued a proclamation against this action of the General Assembly. The companies failed to meet their payments, and the act was at length rescinded. Again in 1795 the Georgia Legislature passed a Yazoo Bill and sold in accordance with its provisions large tracts of land to tour companies, called the Georgia Com- pany, the Mississippi Company, the Upper Mississippi Company, and the Tennessee Company. Twenty-one and a half millions of acres were thus disposed of for one-half million of dollars. The General Government and also many of the citizens of Georgia, opposed this sale ; and the next Legislature repealed the sale, de- claring it to be *' null and void." Many had however already removed to the Tombeckbe river, and thus the Yazoo speculation, as it is sometimes called, the Yazoo fraud, as others in their opposition to the measure termed it, became a benetit to the region. THE MISSISSIPPI TKPPITORV. 77 Says Pickett: "It contributed to tlirow into that wild region a population of Georgians, whose activity, ability, and enterprise, better fitted them to seize, oc- cupy, and bring into cultivation a wilderness, mark out towns, people them, build female academies, erect churches, and hold courts, than any other people." Pickett was himself born in Xorth Carolina, yet he seems to have some partiality for the citizens of Georgia. Through these conflicting claims to large tracts of lands there were settlers found in the Missis- sippi Territory holding small tracts of land under not only English and Spanish, but also under Georgia grants. Congress therefore in 1803. established regu- lations in regard to these various grants, having pur- chased the claim of Georgia for one and a quarter mill- ion of dollars. (In this same year Congress bought from France, Napoleon Bonaparte being then at the head of that government, the large territory of Louis- iana, which in the year 1800 had been ceded by Spain to France. The price paid for Louisiana was fifteen million of dollars.) Joseph Chambers, Epham Kirby, and Eobert C. Xicholas, were constituted a board of commissioners at St. Stephens, in February 1804, to investigate these claims. Their district extended as far westward as the Pearl river. They closed their ex- aminations in December 1805, having recorded two hundred and seventy-six claims. These claims were ratified by the 'President of the United States. The General Government allowed to those who were living on public lands at the time the line of 31° was estab- | lislied one section of land, and to those settlers who /' came just before the board of commissioners had been ,' appointed, one quarter section each of land. I 78 CLAKKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. At Mclntosli Bluff was held the first Coimtj Court of Washington county, in 1803. John Caller, Cornelius Rain, and John Johnson presiding. Mcintosh Bluff was an English grant, the tract of land so-called having been given by the King of England to Captain John Mcintosh, who was connected with tlie army of West Florida. John Mcintosh had a son who became a British officer, and a daughter born in Georgia. This daughter went to England, married a British officer named Troup, returned to Mobile, and went up the river in a barge to her father's residence. There, in 1780, at Mcintosh Bluff, was born a son who bore the name of George M. Troup, and who became in after years a distinguished governor of Georgia, one of the vigorous political writers of his age. The Mcintosh family were Scotch highlanders, and while one branch had its representatives in the British army, other mem- bers of the family, citizens of Georgia, were zealous whigs during the Revolution. Among these were Col- onel John and General Lachlan Mcintosh, the latter having come to the Georgian colony when a boy witli Oglethorpe, its founder, McGrew's Reserve, just opposite St. Stephens is said to have been a Spanish grant; the third one of these grants on the east side of the river, having been included in the land known as the Carney plantation. Returning to the civil affairs of the Territory and of Washington county, it was found tliat I^atchez, or the new town of Washington a few miles east, was too far distant from St. Stephens for the convenient admiti- istration of justice, and the President was therefore authorized to appoint a Supreme Court Judge for the settlers along the Tombeckbee. Hon. Harry Toul- THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 79 min, boi*n in Englaml, liaving sought religious freedom in America, for four years President of Transylvania University at Lexington, and Secretary of State of Kentucky for eight years, a good scholar, tine writer, and vrell versed in law, was selected for the new })osi- tion. He at first settled near Fort Stoddart, then re- moved to the court house and named it Wakefield. He held his first court in 1804 or 1805. At this time there were some seven or eight hundred inhabitants on the Tensaw and the Alabama, and in the fork, besides those on the western side of the Tombeckbee. The next year Thomas Bassett, Edward Creighton, James Denby, Sen., and George Brewer, Jun., were appointed commissioners in regard to a town called "Wakefield, some twenty miles south of St. Stephens. This must have been the place so named by Judge Toulrain ; and the distance and direction, as mentioned in the Mississip})i Statutes, would locate this town near Mcintosh's Blulf. As at this place the first court was held, here probably a court house had been built. Pickett, however, has located Wakefield several miles north of the Blufi". Fort Stoddart was now a port of entry, where the Court of Admiralty was held. In the fall of 1804, Captain Sliaumberg had retired from the command, and was succeeded by Captain Schuyler of New York with eighty men. Edmund P. Gaines, Lieutenant, and Lieut. Reuben Chamberlain, pay- master. Congress made this Tombeckbee region a revenue district, calling it the district of Mobile. At Fort Stoddart duties were exacted upon merchandise brought in, and also required uj^on products sent out. These duties, the Spaniards at Mobile exacting duties also, bore heavily upon the settlers. As one illustra- 80 CLAEKE AND ITS SURROUNDIlSrGS. tion, in the year 1807 the Natchez planters in the western part of the territory paid for Kentucky flour four dollars for a barrel, and the same flour cost the Tombeekbee planters sixteen dollars. In 1805 only an Indian trail led from the distant Oconee river to Lake Tensaw. This wide extent of country was held by the Muscogee or Creek Indians. The Georgia colony do not seem to have extended their settlements west of the Oconee river, and after the Revolution in 1783 and 1786 the State of Georgia vainly endeavored by treaties to obtain peaceable possession of the lands east of a line extending from the union of the Ockmulgee and Oconee to the St. Mary's river, including the islands and harbors of that southern coast. Peaceable possession of these lands was not obtained until the treaty was made by President Washington at [N'ew York with Colonel McGillivray in 1790. West of the line named and of the Oconee river the Creek nation held posses- sion. But in the fall of 1805, thirty Creek chiefs and warriors, a delegation from their nation, being at Washington, the General Government obtained from them the right " of using a horse path through their country," the chiefs agreeing to build bridges, or have ferries across the streams, and to open houses of entertainment for travellers. A route of travel was thus secured for emigrants from Georgia into the wilds between the rivers. And the same fall the Choctaw Indians ceded to the United States five millions of acres of their lands, beginning at the Cut Off, now the southern limit of Clarke, half way between the two rivers, running north along the water shed, to the Choctaw corner, which is on the present northern boundary of Clarke, and on or near the second range THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 81 line east, then west to the Fulluctabnna Old Fields, or to the moiith of Fluctabnna Creek, then crossing the Tombeckbee, west to the Mississippi settlements, south to latitude 31°, called Elliotts line, and east to the Mobile river, and north to the Cut Off. Thus a grant of land was obtained lying east of the Tombeckbee river where those pioneers, coming through the Creek nation, might settle and make homes without intruding upon Indian rights. But it appears that for this very strip of territory east of the Tombeckbee and extending half way to the Alabama, other claimants soon appeared. The Creek Indians claimed that it belonged to them, rather than to the Choctaws, and that the Choctaws had therefore no right to cede to the United States any lands east of the Tombeckbee. Instead of resorting to arms or to diplomacy the Creeks agreed to risk tlieir claims on the success of a game of ball. Old settlers in Clarke refer to this game as a fact well authenticated and attested by eyewitnesses. John Scarborough, who would now be about eighty-five years of age, if living, was one of those who witnessed it. The contestants in this game laid aside most of their clothing. The Creeks are described as having been slim and straight in person, the Choctaws as shorter but active as cats. It is said that the first game was played by warriors against warriors, and that the Creeks being vanquished were dis- satisfied. Then the Choctaws offered to let their squaws play against the Creek sqnaws. The offer was accepted. The women played. And again the Choctaws won. The Creeks now gave up their claims. The locality assigned for this singular game, by the early settle I's, is an old play-ground near the old siti' of Elam church, and near where the corner-post was linally driven that 6 82 CLARKE AISTD ITS SURROUNDINGS. marked the boundary between Choctaw and Creek. In 1808 the line was surveyed from Hal's Lake to the Choctaw corner. Previous to this time, in the disputed region, the Choctaws and Creeks had both hunted and fought for the game. The surveyors were on the ground. The Indians agreed to a line that should cross no water. One who has travelled in various directions across this disputed territory would suppose such a line very difficult to be traced. It is said that twenty chiefs of each party went along with their tomahawks to blaze the trees. The whole space be- tween the Alabama and Tombeckbee, and further north than Clarke county extends, even to the mouth of the Black Warrior, had been ceded by the Choc- taws to the British, in a treaty made at Mobile, March 26, 1765. Kow, for the last time, after the decisive game between the Indian squaws, this strip came into the possession of those who proposed to hold it against Creeks or any other claimants or invaders. For a few jears they had been coming from Georgia, South and North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and con- tinued to come rapidly until 1812, those border men bringing their wives and children with them, who were to experience the savage fierceness of Muscogees on the war path. They had settled even up to the narrow indge, the dividing line, of what the Creeks still held as their own hunting grounds. But before reaching those scenes of danger and daring, of suffering and strife, other events remain to be recorded. One of these is the capture of Aaron Burr. The son of an estimable and gifted woman, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the great mental phi- losopher and theologian of America, Burr was noted THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 83 for talent, but not for integrity and purity of moral character. At one time Vice-President of the United States, afterward disappointed in some scheme which he had planned in regard to Louisiana, he was arrested by Col. Claiborne, acting under orders from the Govern- or of Mississippi Territory, who was influenced by the proclamation of President Jefferson, and appeared in Washington, the seat of government of the Territory, six miles east of Natchez, a prisoner of the United States. On the second day of the trial he did not ap- pear in the court-room, and the Governor ofl'ered a reward of two thousand dollars for his ajjprehension, while a troop of cavalry was sent in pursuit. This was in January 1807. In February, at the hour of ten at night, in their cabin in Wakelield, Nicholas Perkins, a young lawyer, and Thomas Malone, then clerk of the court, heard the distant tramp of horses. Soon two travellers were at their door making inquiries. The light from the pitch pine fire shone upon one of the travellers who was splendidly mounted and whose remarkable countenance and brilliant eyes attracted Perkins' attention. When the horsemen left the door Perkins said to Malone, "That is Aaron Burr. I have read a description of him in the proclamation.'' And the thoroughly excited Perkins, unable to enlist Malone in his eflTorts, started out to secure his arrest. Knowing the route which the horsemen were to take the next morning, Perkins pro- ceeded to Fort Stoddart, and about daybreak, entering into the fort, announced his suspicions to Edmund P. Gaines, then the captain in command. About sunrise Captain Gaines with a file of mounted soldiers and Perkins went out upon the road, and about nine in the 84 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. morning tliey met the two strange horsemen, now ac- companied by a third. The following conversation is given by Pickett: " Gtaines. I presume sir, I have tlie honor of ad- dressing Colonel Burr i " Stranger. I am a traveller in the country and do not recognize your right to ask such a question. "Gaines. I arrest you, at the instance of the Fed- eral Government. "Stranger. By what authority do you arrest a traveller upon the highway, on his own private busi- ness ? " Gaines. I am an officer of the army. I hold in my hands the proclamations of the President and the Gov- erno]', directing your arrest. " Stranger. You are a young man and may not be aware of the responsibilities which result from arresting travellers. "Gaines. I am aware of the responsibilities, but I know my duty." Then the stranger "became exceed- ing! 3^ animated," and at some length denounced the proclamations ;ind endeavored to intimidate the young officer. But the young captain arrested him, took him to Fort Stoddart, and in a few days arrangements were made to convey him to Washington City. He was taken in a boat up the river to Lake Tensaw, and there delivered into the custody of JSTicholas Perkins, through whom he had been arrested, Thomas Malone, the clerk of the county court, Henry B. Slade, John Mills, Jolin Henry, two brothers McCormicks of Kentucky, and two United States soldiers. The party proceeded on horseback. The horses swam the Chatahoochie, the Flint, and the Ockmulgee, THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 85 tlie men crossing in canoes. At tlie Oconee they found a ferry boat, and after crossing the river found a liouse of entertainment, where for the first time on the route they were sheltered by a roof. Arriving in Soutli Car- olina they procured a gig and leaving Colonel Burr at Kiehmond reported to President Jefferson at Washing- ton and returned by the way of Tennessee to tlie county of Washington. The arrest of Aaron Burr was one ot those exciting events in the early times in the surround- ings of Clarke, which adds something more to tlie garnered historic richness of this region. Four years before, at that same Tensaw Boat Yard, in the heart of a wilderness, another man, well known in this land, had suddenly appeared, the noted Lorenzo Dow, who came there to proclaim, as the first Protest- ant minister, the message of salvation to the Tensaw settlers. A digest of various laws for the Mississippi Territory was adopted and approved the tenth of Februarj- 1S07. Among these was one regulating the marriage cere- mony. Any ordained minister must first produce to the Orphans Court of some county in the territory cre- dentials of his ordination, and of his living in regular communion with his society, and obtain from that court a testimonial authorizing him to solemnize marriage, that testimonial to be granted at the discretion of the court. Pastors however of any society might join to- gether in marriage members of their own society- according to their own regulations. The territorial legislators seem to have been suflicienth'- strict in their requirements from ministers to enable them legally to marry the young people of the river settlements, who had been accustomed for so many years easily and se- 86 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. curely to marry themselves. But ministers in these same river settlements were as yet very few. The hour of opening and closing elections in the Territory was iixed thus, to take effect after 1808: That the sheriffs shall open the elections "at twelve of the clock in the forenoon; and shall close at the hour of two in the afternoon, on the subsequent day." A strict law against bribery had previously been adopted, providing that any representative elected in the Territory who should "directly or indirectly give, or agree to give, to any elector, money, meat, drink, or other reward, in order to be elected, or for having been elected, for any county, shall be expelled, and forever after disabled from holding any office of profit or trust under this government." Among tlie "laws of 1807 was also an act for laying"^ out a town in Washington county near Fort St. Stephens, (the streets to be not less than one hundred feet wide,) on the lands of Edwin Lewis; John Baker, James Morgan, and John F. McGrew, being appointed commissioners to lay out this town. Brewer, not recognizing any French occupancy here, says, that St. Stephens was first settled by the Spaniards who built a fort about 1786. Pickett says that St. Stephens was laid off into town lots in 1807, and that a road was cut to Natchez. An act was also passed to incorporate the Mississippi Society for the acquirement and dissemina- tion of useful knowledge. Also an act to establish Jefferson College. In the same year the town of ISTatcliez was incorporated and made a city. Also, Harry Toulmin, James Caller, and Lemuel Henry, were appointed to locate and open a road from Natchez to Fort Stoddart. From these various acts it is evident THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 87 that settlements had increased and that civilization was advancing. At this time the cultivation ot cotton was rapidly- taking the place of the older product indigo; the rais- ing of indigo on the old Spanish and British planta- tions having been abandoned after the great "Yazoo freshet," in 1791; and cotton receipts from a gin owner were "made a legal tender and passed as domestic bills of exchange." Thus early in the century, in the heart of the great Cotton Belt, was the commercial import- ance of cotton beginning to be recognized, an im- portance that has been increasing from then until now, making its possession, in prospect or in fact, the basis for commercial transactions in which credit is involved. The inhabitants of this wilderness were now becoming strongly, in feeling and action, Americans ; for in this year of 1807, after the attack by the British on the American vessel the Chesapeake, James McGoffin, al- ready a resident here, having drafted some patriotic resolutions, the inhabitants, "both whigs and tories, participated in an animated public meeting at Wake- field, pledging their support to the United States, to avenge" this outrage. In 1810 the patriotism of these river settlements took a new direction. They had suf- fered many annoyances from the presence of the Span- iards below them, and an expedition was planned for driving them out of Mobile. Troops were raised, boats were loaded with provisions, and the volunteer soldiers passed from the Boat Yard down the Tensaw river. The expedition was not well managed and was unsuc- cessful, and the settlers soon found nearer home abun- dant use for all their military skill and munitions of war, leaving the final expulsion of the Spaniards to the General Government. 55 CLARKE AND ITS SUKIiOUNDINGS. It would be interesting to look into the homes of these earliest American occupants along this winding river that forms the western boundary of Clarke ; and see the inmates as they gather for the morning and the midday meals, as they go to their corn fields and their cotton patches, and as they clear the river bottoms and burn the huge piles of pitch pine upon the uplands; as they bring in the game, the wild turkeys and the deer, and meet sometimes with the wolf, the panther, and the bear ; and as they gather often at night-fall in some larger cabin for festivities and social intercourse. For any full view of their daily life the material is wanting. It is known that they were resolute, enterprising, hardy, and sociable, and to some extent a jileasure lov- ing people; they did not share the stern, the austere characteristics attributed to the early inhabitants of the North-East ; but they were hospitable, generous, and brave, and not deficient in the social virtues. A few years later we shall be able to glance more fully into pioneer homes and learn more accurately then, the modes of living of the successors of the Choctaws and the Muscogees. The M^ar cloud which since even 1806 has been gathering over this young nation grows more threatening in its dark folds, as tlie cannon of IN^apoleon Bonaparte, now controlling France and at war with England, are thundering over all southern and central Europe. The indignities and atrocities of the English war ships can be borne no longer. On the nineteenth of June, 1812, was published by authority of Congress, on the recommendation of President Madison, a procla- mation of war against England. Before the year closed, so many settlers having already found homes between the rivers, an act of the Mississippi Territorial Legisla- THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 89 ture called into existence on the tenth of December the county of Clarke, The settlers in this new county, in connection with the war against England which the Atlantic States were waging, were to encounter Indian hostilities on their borders and among their homes ; but before proceeding to review these tragic scenes, it is desirable to notice the native children of these river and forest wilds. From Court Records of Washington county: "Mississippi Territory. At a superior court held for the District of Washington at Mcintosh Bluff on the fourth Monday in September, anno Dom. 1802. Present the right Honourable Seth Lewis, Esq., Chief Justice of the M. Territory. On the venire facias the following jurors (to wit) Ransom Harwell, William Rogers, Matthew Robinson, Tandy Walker, George Robbins, Thomas Carson, John Burney, Sampson Munger, William Vardiman, Nathan Blackwell, Fran- cis Bayakin, Isaac Ryan, William H. Flargrave, Rich- ard Brasheor, Daniel Johnston, John Ilinson, Jesse Ross, John Johnston, James Fair, Joseph Campbell, Richard Hawkins, Benjamin King, Joseph Thompson, Moses Steadham, Joseph Stiggins, John Callier, John McGrew, John Brewer, Richard Lee, Benjamin Hoven, Samuel Minis, Michael Milton, George Wakely, Wil- liam Wakely, Josiah Fletcher, and William Prince." Among these thirty-six are some that afterward be- came noted, and among them all there is but one hav- ing a middle name. On the first grand jury were "John Callier, fore- man," Tandy Walker, and Samuel Minis. "T\^icliolas Perkins Esq, was admitted to the prac- tice of Attorney General of the Court.'' Samuel Henry, Robert Knox, and Leonard D. Shaw, were admitted to practice as att'34 — October 2^, a conditional treaty with the Seminoles at Payne's Landing May 9, 1832, for their removal to the Indian Territory, west of the Missis- sippi, was afterward confirmed by the chiefs, but re- jected by the people. Gen. Thompson was sent, at this time, by President Jackson to insist on their carry- ing out the treaty. December 28, a council of the In- dians called by Gen. Thompson, seemingly accept the terms of the President. 118 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 1835 — May 13, a treaty with the Cherokees pur- chases all their lands east of the Mississippi for $5,*262,- 251, and ample lands in exchange in the Indian Terri- tory. June 3, Osceola, a Seminole chief, imprisoned by Gen. Thompson. December 28, the Seminoles killed their chief, Math- la, who had been prominent in making the obnoxious treaty, and suddenly attack a United States force under Gen. Dade.. The same day Gen. Thompson and others were surprised and massacred. 1836 — Early in this year the Indians laid waste the whole country, burning the buildings, and killing all who had not taken refuge in the forts. February 11, Gen. Gaines lands an army at Tampa Bay. Indians remove their families and effects into the impenetrable swamps of the interior. May, the Creeks commence hostilities in their usual fierce and barbarous manner. Gen. Scott and the State authorities of Georgia subdue them early in the summer. 1837 — ^ December 25, the battle of Okeechobee fought with the Seminoles in the swamps of Florida by Col. Z. Taylor. Indians defeated. 1838 — The Cherokees complete their emigration to Indian Territory this year. 1839 — Gen. Macomb makes a treaty early in this year with the Seminoles, which they very imperfectly kept. From Ridpath's History: The years 1837-38 were occupied by the final trans- fer of the Cherokees to their homes in the West. 1839 — The Seminole chiefs sent in their submission and signed a treaty, but their removal to the West was made with much reluctance and delay. B. J. Lossing says: "The Mobilians, or (as they were sometimes called) the Floridian Indians, with whom as well as the lichees, De Soto came in contact toward the middle of the six- INDIANS OF THE SOUTH-EAST. 119 teenth centurj', occupied a domain next in extent to the Algonquins." "The nation was divided into three confederacies * * * * known respectively as the Muscogee or Creek, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw." One can hardly examine the authorities named at the beginning of this chapter, or weigh carefully the statements of the different writers, and note the differ- ences between the Choctaws and the Creeks, and con- sider the fierce conflicts waged between them, and study the accounts of De Soto's expedition, and rest satisfied with the statements of Lossing in regard to these In- dians of the South-East. CHAPTER V. GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY, FLORA, AND FAUNA OF CLARKE. IT is not designed to give here a perfectly exact and scientific delineation of every square mile of sur- face contained in tlie connty of Clarke. Such a task would require the labor of a topographic engineer. But a sufficiently accurate view will be given of the main features of this tract of land to enable the gen- eral reader, with the aid of the map, to look upon its surface with all the minuteness of knowledge needful for the purposes contemplated in this volume. Commencing at the south, at the Island of Nanna- hubba and extending up to Hal's Lake, the land is comparatively low, quite level, covered with the swamp timber, and with a dense growth of canebrake. This heavy canebrake growth may be considered as extend- ing to the north limit of township four, and this whole narrow, river-bounded strip, as far north as Carney's Landing on the one river and Choctaw Bluff on tlie other, is known especially as the Fork. This cane- brake region is excellent for pasturage, when not too wet, and has been and still is a noted haunt for wild black bears. What it was in the days of Tuskaloosa's dominion, three hundred and thirty-seven years ago, is unknown; but as it was seventy-seven years ago, in the days of the Choctaws so it still remains. A few bear hunters, taking their supplies from Mobile, their boats and equipments being taken up the river by steamers. GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY. 121 spend mouths within its solitudes. He who wishes to meet the American black bear in his own native forest and hear the peculiar sound of this wild beast rushing from his lair amid a dense growth of cane, can find him in this fork. Such an explorer will need to be well armed. His own progress through the canes, even with bruin at his heels, will not be rapid. Commencing at the eastern part of Hal's Lake, near the second range line east, an irregular line on the map proceeds northward, bearing sliglitlj eastward, and at lengtli toward the north-west to the Choctaw corner, on the north line of the county. This line crosses no water. It marks the dividing ritlge betwe n the waters of the two rivers, and was at one time the boundary be- tween Choctaw and Muscogee or Creek, the first eastern boundary of the county, its boundary during the Creek War. It passes along some heights of land, over some limestone ridges, and the traveller who follows it will find now and then a beautiful prospect, as he looks over the eastern and the western valleys. From near this dividing line water courses start, innumerable springs feeding rivulets, which, uniting, form creeks flowing eastward, or westward and southward, into the neigh- boring rivers. Passing from Carney's Landing northward, on the west side of the water shed, Salt Creek and near it Snlt Mountain will soon be reached. Salt Mountain is quite a large and noted elevation, and for miles toward the north-west, heights once well wooded extend, ex- cepting always the creek valleys or bottoms; table lands and occasional hills extend northward to Dead Level or Clarkesville. Westward, then, toward Satilpa Creek is a range of rocky hills, and from Coffeeville 122 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. northward a large plateau broken by many small creeks whicli flow into the Tombigbee. Toward Bashi in township eleven, range one east, is the Mountain, with a steep and rocky ascent from the north-east, an almost imperceptible decline toward the west and south. Through Bashi and to Choctaw Corner is a range of lime hills; and from Bashi south-east to the vicinity of Grove Hill is a range of hills which passes south-west- ward to Clarkesville, and from Tallahatta Creek a range extends eastward across the county. On the east side of the Dividing Ridge are many lime hills, short creeks flowing into the Alabama, table lands, and valleys. The central portion of the county is quite high and level, occasionally broken by a stream of crystal water. Tens of thousands of streams and rivulets, forming hundreds of creeks and little rivers, water abundantly these twelve hundred square miles of surface, although of course the traveller along the main water shed, or from the Mountain south-westward to Coffeeville, or from Grove Hill to Jackson, a distance of seventeen miles, will cross few of them. Along nearly every other road and in almost every other direction he will find streams in abundance. In many places the banks of these streams are beds of solid rocks, forming nat- ural walls for some of the finest mill seats in the whole land; and of nearly all the streams the water is clear and cool, fed perpetually by living springs. Along the two large rivers, bottom lands, subject more or less to overflows, and covered with the dense swamp growth of this latitude, extend in a belt averaging about a mile in width. The soil of a large part of the upland is sandy. The vegetable growth of this county, its flora, is GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY. 123 abundant and various. The cl)aracteristic tree is the long-leaved or needle pine, also known as the Broom Pine, Phius Palustris sometimes called Australis, which grows on a sand}' soil and only on the table lands. Two other varieties of pine, short-leaved, are also quite common, the old field pine and the pond pine. In the nortli-east of the county, and extending into Wilcox, is a heavy growth of beech. Other vari- eties of trees are white oak, post oak, overcup oak, water oak, willow oak, black jack, Spanish oak, red oak, and black oak. Some of these oaks are very large. The circumfer- ence of some of the swamp white oaks is said to be over thirty feet. They are about eighty feet in height. A red oak in the yard of Mrs. Pogue shows a rapid growth. It was only a sapling, which the children climbing into could bend to the ground, about fifty years ago. Now it is seventeen feet in circumference, and its top shades an area whose diameter is seventy feet. A red oak near the residence of John Hill in Good Springs beat measures twenty-six feet and three inches in circumference. In Wilcox county, not far from Clifton, in the swamp about a mile from the mouth of Beaver Creek, is a red oak measured by J. C. Hicks, which measured forty-three feet in circumference five feet from the ground. The oaks grow luxuriantly in the villages and around many private residences. In Jackson, Suggs ville. Grove Hill, and Choctaw Corner, are some magnificent oaks which appear to good advan- tage among the surrounding pines. A very stately, regularly shaped, and broad spreading oak, stands on the grounds of Judge Woodard at Grove Hill ; and others with lofty tops mark at a distance the attractive 124 CLAKKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. liome of Colonel Dickinson. The rapidity of growth of these village oaks is remarkable. Other varieties of trees are sweet gum, sour-wood, black gum, dog-wood, chestnut, chincapin, hickory, red-bud, persimmon, green bay, cucumber, mulberry, magnolia, poplar, tulip, elm, sassafras, holly, red ash, black walnut, sweet bay, basswood, palmetto, red cedar, and cypress. There are some veiy valuable cedar ham- mocks, which will be mentioned elsewhere, and in the river swamps some dense cypress shades, the gnarled roots of these trees, growing on the surface of the ground and known as cypress knees, being very pecu- liar. The evergreen magnolia has very rich dark green leaves and beautiful white blossoms. The leaves of the cucumber tree are very large, but are not evergreen. The blossoms also are much larger than the magnolia, also white, but not so beautiful. The shrubs and bushes are calycanthns or sweet shrub, honeysuckle, paw-paw, haw, black and yellow, spice-wood, sloe, winter huckleberry, sumach, goose- berry, not the plant so-called in the ISTorth, alder, ivy, witch-hazel, and other varieties. An exhaustive enu- meration is difficult. One of tliese shrubs or bushes not yet named is called Old Man's Gray Beard. It is a singular plant. Among smaller plants are the sensi- tive plant, the passion flower, tnrkey berry, jessamine, bear grass, broom-straw, and Spanish moss. Wild grapes, muscadines, ratan, and many running vines are found in the creek and river bottoms. One of them is called the cross-vine. It has a porous stem and divides readily into four divisions. The blossoms have a red- dish hue and are pretty. Many small plants and creep- GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY. 125 ing vines, having pretty blossoms and attractive foliage, plants which belong to a semi-tropical climate and aid in filling the balnij air with fragrance and the thick- tangled undergrowth of the water courses with bright- ness and beauty, are not here enumerated. These, during the winter months, amid the beautiful green of bay and magnolia, fill these river forests with vegetable life and freshness. One characteristic growth of a large area should not be omitted here, the cane-brake of the ancient Florida, which once covered so much of this county, with the exception of the pine table-lands, and which when young and tender affords such excellent food for deer and cattle and Indian ponies. It is now confined to the river bottom lands, especially to that part of the county called the Fork. When having attained two or three years growth it makes long and durable fishing poles ; and he who has seen and heard a cane-brake on tire, with a strong wind blowing, will not soon forget the grandeur of the conflagration. In the stillness and amid the darkness of the forest night the sounds of approaching stranger or wild beast through a dense growth of cane will startle the timid listener. It would be of interest to know the varieties of trees and shrubs and wild flowers which the Spaniards saw when they passed across this native home of the Mo- bilians. But De Soto seems to have had no botanist among his followers; indeed the science itself scarcely goes back so far as the sixteenth century. Very few of the trees now standing can be considered four hun- dred years of age. It was not amid the present vege- table growth that Tuskaloosa's subjects dwelt in peace. The vines, and flowering shrubs, and forest monarchs of that day, moldered as did their human contempor- 1:?6 CLAKKK ANP 11^ SURROUNDINGS. arios: : vor wo tujiv conjecture fivm the present the tloral beautv and grandeur of the past. Of this however we may be sure, that nianv of the tall pines and broad Oivks and large sycamores of the present, sentineled these hills when Muscogees and Choctaws met in deadly strife or smoked together the pipe of peace. If not in this county, yet in this same historic region was that ** Magnolia Grove," of which Meek in his poem says: "Bright memoriees uh», to ihe^ belong. And ihrvHigh thy Wwer* ai twilight thnwg. Here ix^ved the clark-t>yt\l Choctaw maid. And wove her Kner's wampum braid ; Here came the laughing girls of Frant-e, And siumy S^vaiu. with love-lit glance; Till lai't of all. with hearts more true Oune eye* that gleam in iSaxon bine : What rt»pturv>us scents of joy and love IL^st thou WUeld. Magnolia Grove." The magnolia blossoms still remain, and here jvlso remain, with true hearts, the eyes of Stvson blue. The wild animals, the fauna, of this cv»unty, as known for a hundred years, may be briefly if not fully enumerated. The larger and more dangerous denizens of the forest were bears, the common American black bear, black and gray wolves, panthers, and wildcats or catamounts. Deer jfnd wild turkeys have abounded. Raccoons, op*.>ssums, and foxes, rabbits, and squirrels continue to be abundant. The principal furred animals are the beaver, otter, and mink. There is probably no part of the United States, where white men have lived for a hundred years, and so near to the great marts of commerce, where beaver so abound, as in the county of Clarke. Trappers who would like to try their skill upon the intelligent and cunning beaver would do well OENEIiAL TOPOGIlAPJIi'. 127 to Bperid tho wintor niontliH upon t\i(i littlo tributaries oftlic lower 'i'ornbi/^bee. TheBC animalf- are bo annoy- ing and destructive that Buch trappers would find a ready welcome among tlie plantations beside these streams. Among the smaller animals is one of singu- lar habits called a salamander. This is a "pouched rat," living under ground, found in the pine woods, and where the soil is the least productive. The traces by which the presence of this animal is known are small heaps of sand resembling "ant-hills," a foot or more in diameter, circular, and from three to six feet apart, proceeding in straight and sometimes in curved lines. These salamander hills extend for quite a distance. The animal himself is rarely seen. He works at night or in the early morning ; making when at work three or four hillocks each morning, but closing up his work before the sunrise. When the hillock is finished no opening appears ; but when the animal is at work there is an opening in the center two or three inches in diameter, and every few moments tlie head of the salamander can be seen as he brings up the sand from beneath, scatters it upon the surface, and quickly retires out of sight. There is evidently a communication from one hillock to the other beneath the surface, and these animals probably have, like moles, long run-ways. They have a mole color. Few seem to know their habits or on what they feed. Another singular little native, frequently seen, is the color-changing chameleon, which, according to a poet's story, is sometimes green, blue, black, and then white. It is interesting to see this little "lizard-like reptile" catch insects and change color. Among larger and dangerous reptiles may be named alligators, yellow 128 CLARKE AXD ITS SURROUNDINGS. rattlesnakes, and moccosins. These rattlesnakes attain a large size and are very poisonons. Tlie coach-wldp snake, a native also, is very long and slim. Harmless lizards and different varieties of small ser- pents may be often seen, also terrapins and tortoises, and need no special mention among the fanna of Clarke. Native birds are abundant, among which are that noted child of song the mocking-bird, the beautiful red-bird, and humming-birds of exquisite beauty and grace, also the hawk,' the buzzard, the Dutch whip-poor-will, and night-hawk, also that variety of grouse sometimes ca-lled partridge, but more properly known as quail, called also bob-white. (In January, 1852, there was an immense pigeon roost, about six miles south of Choctaw Corner. The pigeons came in, toward night-fall, from their foraging expeditions by hundreds and by thousands. They broke down, sometimes, the branches of the pine trees with their weight. Hundreds of them were killed by neigh- bornig and more distant sportsmen. In the same sea- son the robins were very numerous. North-east of Clay Hill, in the edge of Marengo, there is a small reed-marsh, or brake, covering about iifty acres. Shrubs, cane, and bogs abound here. Walking across this is said to be rather dangerous, or at least difhcult. Here the robins came in large flocks. They took pos- session of the shrubs and reeds literally by the thou- sands. Some blackbirds, probably those known in the West as red-wings, were among the robins. Possibly some bobolinks. These robins the people did not shoot; but some would take them at night with a brush broom bv the dozen. It is said that robins have not been seen in that vicinity in such abundance since. GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY. 129 In the winter of 1853 and 1854, j)robably in January, robins were very numerous, in flocks of hundreds if not thousands, in the south part of the county, near the Tonibigbee. The red-winged blackbirds were also quite abundant. The wild ducks make that locality a place of resort probably every winter. With H. Austill, now Chancellor at ]\Iobile, "W. Drane, of Lowndes, Henry Austill, and S. T. (now Captain) Woodard, the author enjoyed, in the winter above named, many a hunt, and boat ride, and 'possum hunt at night, and plantation visit, in the neighborhood of Carney's or Gullet's Bluff. Ducks and robins will often be there again, but not there again on the Saturday holidays will be that teacher and those boys.) 1879 — Two white deer have this summer been seen near the Alabama river. The word has gone out among the colored people that whoever shoots those deer "will never more go home." So, for the present, the deer remain unharmed. Within the last twelve months, in the Robinson neighborhood on Bassetts Creek, a few neighbors who have twelve dogs have caught forty-seven wild cats. All warm climates have their annoyances, all beauti- ful regions of earth have their dangers or their vexa- tions ; earth is not paradise as yet. The spicy breezes that blow so soft o'er Ceylon's isle blow where the deadly cobra de capello enters the voluptuous home. And here where the mocking-bird sings, where humming- birds dart from tlower to flower on their glittering wings, where the air is full of fragrance and existence seems enjoyment, here are three little vexatious things, the red-bug, the tick, and the flea. Yery small, very insignificant little things, yet sometimes very annoying. 130 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. One must learn their habits and their haunts, and so avoid them. The rivers and the creeks furnish fish of various kinds, some of which are quite large, and nearly all are desirable varieties for food. This view of the surface of the land, and this enu- meration, if not complete, of the native plants and an- imals, will indicate sufficiently the desirableness of the region into which the Georgia and Carolina, the Vir- ginia and Kentucky, and the Tennessee emigrants came, and for the peaceable possession of which they were soon compelled to contend with the murderous and savage Creeks. CHAPTER VI. CLARKE COUNTY, 1812-1820. THE CREEK WAR. GROWTH. IT was stated, in the third chapter of this work, that an act of the Legislature of the Mississippi Terri- tory called into existence December 10, 1812, the new county of Clarke. The county then comprised that part of Washing- ton lying east of the Tombeckbee. It extended east- ward only to the "water-shed," that dividing line be- tween the Choctaws and the Creeks. Along part of this line there is now a carriage road known as the Line Road. Within this formerly disputed territory, and up to the very line then acknowledged to be the boun- dary of the Creek Nation, many enterprising settlers had reared their cabins and commenced their homes. About the year 1800 a brisk migration had begun from Georgia and the Carolinas, through the Creek country, to the Mississippi Territory. Samuel Dale, then a Georgian, placed three wagons and teams on this route of migration, transporting families west- ward and taking back to Savannah loads of Indian produce. In 1803 a road was marked out through the Cherokee nation. In 1809 Caleb Moncrief with a num- ber of families settled on the west side of Bassett's Creek. Many others came during these few years and settled near Old Clarksville, Grove Hill, at Suggs- 13-2 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. villo, and iu other parts of the county. The names of many of these families will be found among the Family Records and Sketches. In 1812 Dale removed Col. J. Phillips and family to Point Jackson, on the Tombigbee, started his teams back to Georgia, and went himself to Pensacola. West Florida proper, it is to be remembered, was still a Spanish possession, and Spain continued to hold, as a part of We.st Florida, all south of hititude 31^, between the Perdido and the Mississippi, until 1813. By act of Congress jNla}' 14, 1812, the territory ly- ing east of Pearl river, west of the Perdido, and south of the thirty-first degree of latitude, was annexed to the Mississippi territory. The Spaniards however did not give this territory up till forced so to do in 1813. These river settlements were therefore, up to this time, " completely insulated.'" On the south were the Spaniards, on the east were the Creeks, on the west, between them and the Natchez and Yazoo settlements, were the Choctaws, and on tlie north the nearest settlement was in the bend of the Tennessee. The intelligent reader lias already seen the peculiar circumstances which caused this locality to become the first part of the great state of Alabanui to receive An- glo-American settlers.* In June of 1813 Dale remt>ved Judsfe Safibld and * '■ Tho lin_>;oriug dynasty of the Spaniard fadf.-^ iuto the morning dawn of An- glo-Saxon settlonionts in our state."' " The various treaties of the French, British and Spanish, with the nidians, made this region the resort of the lirst emigrants. The experiences of this back- woods life, for more than twenty years, were quite as singular and wonderful as those of Boone and Kenton in Kentucky, or Sevier and Kobertson in Ten- nessee." — MEKli. THE CREEK WAR. 133 family to the Tombigbee. On this trip Dale learned from a half-breed Creek, called Sam Mariac, that the Creeks were getting arms from the Spaniards at Pensa- cola — then the great place of trade for Indians and for the white settlers — and that when sufficiently furnished with guns, powder and lead, "the Indians on the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Black Warrior would attack the settle- ments in the forks of Tombigbee and Alabama." Dale, who had himself become a resident in Clarke, made good use of this information. THE CliEEK WAR. We now reach the period of bloodshed. Says Pickett : " Everything foreboded the extermi- nation of the Americans in Alabama, who were the most isolated and defenceless people imaginable." But in this little settlement were many brave Anglo-Saxon hearts, men, women and children, inured to the ways of the wilderness. The Callers, the Austills, the Creaghs, were here ; and he whom the Indians knew as Big Sam, "the Daniel Boone of Alabama," the man whom the "Red Men of Alabama knew" well, and whose prowess they dreaded; who was "inured from his boyhood to Indian conflicts on the frontiers of Georgia, and early trained to all the wiles and strata- gems of savage warfare, winning the highest character for dauntless courage, vigilance and strength ; " he was among these border men as a leader. And Clai- borne, and Coffee, and Jackson were coming. There was need of help, and would be need for all the ex- perience and coolness of the elder Austill, all the sagac- ity and heroism of the younger Austill, and for the 134 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. endurance and bravery of every pioneer settler, as the period now arrived of what Meek calls "the most ter- rific and destructive Indian wars that have ever oc- curred in the United States," of which, in an oration, he says: "Time as it passed on and filled these soli- tudes with settlers, at last brought the most sanguinary era in Alabama history." A fierce civil war began in 1813 to rage among the Creeks themselves. In 1811 was cut out, by Lieuten- ant Luckett with a party of soldiers, that public road through the Creek Territory, which was called the "Federal Road," which extended from the Chatta- hoochie river to Mim's ferry upon the Alabama, and which was then "filled, from one end to the other," with parties bound for the Western settlements. To this road and this migration a part of the Creeks were strongly opposed. The Spaniards also disliked this stream of migration, and excited the Indians to acts of hostility. British agents also were among them en- couraging the war spirit. Of all these the most power- ful was the noted Indian chief, Tecumseh. After con- ferring with the British at Detroit, Tecumseh, with thirty warriors mounted on horses, left the Kortli, and visited the Southern Indians. He stirred up the Chickasaws, a part of the Choctaws, the Seminoles, and some of the Creeks, to take part against the Ameri- cans in that war which Great Britain was then waging. He met with the Creeks in October of 1812. In his bloody mission he was far too successful. In June, of 1813, civil war commenced among the Creeks, one part remaining friends of the United States Government, the others determined to exterminate the Americans. One of the leaders of the war party was the great THE CREEK WAR. 135 Muscogee Chieftain, William Weatherford, called bv Meek "one of the most remarkable men, whether savage or civilized, which the American hemisphere has produced." French, Indian and British blood was in his veins. "The Thirty Battles," which Weatherford fought against the Americans under Generals Claiborne, Flournoy, and Jackson, ending with a treaty in August, 1814, do not belong to this narrative. Our interest is with the settlers in the fork. Ru- mors of Indian outbreaks and bloodshed had reached them, and they began to avail themselves of the best means they could devise for self-defence. In April of 1813 Gen. Wilkinson with six hundred troops, acting under orders from Washington City, had taken pos- session of the Spanish claims, from the Perdido river to the Pearl. The Spanish garrison at Mobile had re- tired to Pensacola. Gen, Flournoy succeeded Wilkin- son in command. The river settlers petitioned the governor of the territory for troops to aid them against the Creeks, but Flournoy refused to send any of the regulars or even of the volunteers. The settlers there- fore hastily erected stockades which were called forts, and sent spies to Pensacola to watch the movements of the Indians there. It was soon reported that a party of Indians had burned the corn crib and destroyed other property of J.Cornells, a man of mixed blood, who had exchanged his beautiful Indian niece for a white man's wife; that they had taken that wife as a prisoner to Pen- sacola; and having been furnished with an abundance of military supplies, were about to return with their well- loaded pack-horses. It is said that besides a large immber of arms, they had "one hundred horse-loads of 136 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. ammunition." Colonel James Caller, of Washington county, ordered out the militia, and headed an expedi- tion to attack this returning party. The result was the first battle of the bloody Creek war, and is known as the battle of Burnt Corn. It took place at a ford of Burnt Corn Creek. Colonel Caller crossed the river at St, Stephens, July 25, with three small companies, imder Captains Bailey, Heard, Benjamin Smoot, and David Cartwright. Patrick May was lieutenant of Cap- tain Smoot' s company. They passed through Jackson and started eastward for the Alabama. They were reen- forced by a Clarke county company, Samuel Dale Cap- tain, G. W. Creagh, Lieutenant. Others also joined in the expedition led by Wm. McGrew, Robert Caller, and William Bradberry. All were mounted on good frontier horses and were armed with their own trusty rifles and shot-guns. They camped on the Alabama the first night. In the morning, July 26, they crossed that river, the horses swimming beside the canoes. They marched south-eastward to the cow-pens of David Tait, where they were again reenforced by a company from Tensaw Lake and Little River, commanded by an educated, courageous, energetic half-breed Creek, Dix- on Bailey. The whole force now numbered one hun- dred and eighty men. They went on to the wolf-trail, and camped for the night, having now reached the main route to Pensacola. In the morning of July 27 reorganizing the command by the election of Phill- ips, McFarlin, Wood, and Jourdan, as majors, and Wm. McGrew as lieutenant-colonel, they advanced to- wards Pensacola to meet the Indians. They came upon the returning party a little before noon, as they were halted for dinner. The Indian encampment was THE CREEK WAR. 137 beside a large spring near Burnt Corn Creek, and the pack-horses were quietly grazing, Unperceived by the Indians Caller's men drew near and charged suddenly upon them, pouring in, at the same time, a destructive fire. The Indians were driven to the creek and back into the swamp, but while some of the men were cap- turing and leading oif the pack-ponies, the Creeks re- turned from the swamp with war-clubs, tomahawks, and guns, and charged in turn, with fierce war cries, upon their assailants. Colonel Caller now ordered his men to fall back to a more secure position on the hill, a panic seized many of them and ihey fell hack so far that no further orders could reach them. About eighty men remained at the foot of the hill, under the captains Dale, Bailey, and Smoot, contending desperately with the enraged Creeks. At length all the Americans found it needful to retreat. At the first attack they had dismounted, and all, who could, now secured their horses, while others, less fortunate, retired on foot. Some of the last to leave this disastrous field were lieutenants May, Creagh, Bradberry, private Ambrose Miles, and Glass. The latter fired the last gun on the American side. Dale, and Creagh, and Bradberry, and twelve others were wounded. Two only were killed. The retreat continued all the night. The command never met again for roll-call. Each man mustered himself out of service and returned, as best he could, to defend his own home. Colonel Caller and Major "Wood, retiring on foot, became lost in the river bot- tom, finally separated, and after about two week's of exposure and privations, were found almost in a fam- ished condition and restored to their friends. The Indians lost most of their supplies and ammu- 138 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Tiition, a number were killed, and the remainder re- turned for new military stores to Pensacola. Cornells' wife, whom the Indians sold in Pensacola for a blanket, was redeemed, sent to Mobile, and after- ward restored to her husband. And now the men of Clarke prepared to meet the inroads of the Creeks and breast the storm of battle. Men, women, and children, leaving their cabins and clearings, assembled within the stockades. General F. L. Claiborne, who as an ensign had been in General "Wayne's army in his great battle witli the Indians of the North, was ordered by General Flournoy, in July, to march with his army to Fort Stoddart. He reached Mount Yernon, near the Mobile river, with seven hundred men, July 30. He at once obtained as accurate information as was possible concerning the Burnt Corn engagement, the designs of the Indians, and the preparations made in the Fork. He learned about the stockades around the residences of Sinque- iield. Glass, White, and Lavier ; also of those at Gullet's Bluff on the Tombeckbee, also called Carney's Fort, and at Easley's Station. He sent Colonel Carson with two hundred mounted men to Fort Glass. He sent Captain Scott with a company of men to St. Stephens, who occupied the old Spanish block-house. jS^ear Fort Glass, a few hundred yards northward, a new stockade was immediately constructed called. Fort Madison. James Madison was at this time President of the United States. 1. Fort Madison was situated in the north-east corner of section one, in township six, range three east, four and a half miles south, and about one mile and a half west, of the village of Suggsville, on the dividing ridge. THE CREEK WAR. 139 It covered about one acre of ground. A trench was dug around the outside limit, three feet in depth, and into this the bodies of pine trees were inserted, side by side, cut about fifteen feet in length. A continuous wall of pines, some twelve feet in height, therefore sur- rounded the enclosure. Within were the tents and cabins of the neighboring settlers. Colonel Carson's company occupied Fort Glass. 2. FoET SiNQUEFiELD was built in the same manner, but was smaller than Fort Madison. It was nine miles and a quarter north from the latter, and a half mile west, being in section thirteen, township eight, range three east, and nearly five miles south-east from Grove Flill. It occupied a height of ground which extends north and south for a mile. Eastward is a gentle slope, the valleys and ridges terminating in the Bassett's Creek Yalley. Westward' are some deep valleys be- tween large and high ridges of laud. There is no real hill within miles of the fort locality, yet the ascent from any of the valleys near, to the height of the ridge, might easily be called going up a hill. The fort spring is westward in one of the deep valleys, and is distant from the stockaded ground two hundred and seventy- five yards. Towards the north-west, ninety feet distant, are some graves. There were two sassafras trees be- side these graves, but they are now fallen and decay- ing. It would seem to be appropriate for the county authorities to place an enclosure around this old burial ground. No traces of the old stockade are now visible, ex- cept two posts six inches in diameter, the one being one inch and the other two inches above the present surface of the ground. They are firmly imbedded in 140 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. the earth, and the wood lias held its texture well. Large persimmon trees are growing here now, and on the old fort locality is now the residence of Mrs. Hickson. 3. Fort White was a short distance north-east of Grove Hill, on what became afterwards the Alston place, now the residence of Elijah P. Chapman. 4. Carney's Fort called by Pickett Fort Hawn, was on the Tombigbee, at Gullet's Bluff, a few miles below Jackson, nearly south "from that place, and on the route to Mount Yernon. 5. McGrew's Fort was nearly north of Old St. Stephens, in the corner of section one, township seven, range one west. The area enclosed with palisades was about two acres. Some posts still remain. Around it is now an old field. One of the McGrews is said to be buried here. His name wa:s cut on an old holly tree now standing. 6. Landrum's Fort was on section eighteen, town- ship eight, range two east, now in Good Springs beat. Y. Mott's Fort was in the same neighborhood. 8. Turner's Fort was near the residence of Abner Turner at West Bend. It was built of split pine logs doubled, and contained two or three block houses. It was held by the citizens of that neighborhood, in all thirteen men and some boys. 9. Easley's Fort was on the Tombigbee river, in section eleven, township eleven, range one, west, at what is now called Wood's Bluff. The bluff was named after its former owner Major Wood, an ofiicer in the battle of Burnt Corn. The fort was about one hun- dred yards above the bluff landing, on an elevated level tract of land, a small plateau, which contained about THE CREEK WAR. 141 three acres. On the side next to the river the bluff is nearly perpendicular, "a bold spring of water flowing from its side," and above and below the fort the de- scent is quite abrupt making the position naturally strong. The fort was named from an early resident, " an old and prominent citizen," who had four sons, Warham, Samuel, Rhode, and Edward or Ked. 10. Powell's Fort was near Oven Bluif. The families of John McCaskey, of James Powell, of John Powell, and about three others, were in this small fort distant a mile from the river. After the fall of Fort Mims these families went to Carney's Fort and then to Mt. Yernoji. 11. FoKT Glass has been already named as situated near Fort Madison, south of Suggsville. 12. Lavier's Fort is named by Pickett, but its lo- cality seems to be now uncertain. It may liave been south-east from Suggsville. 13. Cato's Fort was on the west side of the river, about a mile from the bank, and some five miles below Coffeeville. 14. Ranki^t's Fort was still further west in Wash- ington county, the last of the group of stockades westward. Within and around these stockade forts the settlers gathered, with their hunting dogs, and such stock as could be collected and protected, after the battle of Burnt Corn. It was known that the Creeks were de- signing to attack these exposed settlements, and none knew where the first war-whoop would be heard. The inhabitants along the Ten saw and on Little River had become alarmed for their own safety, united although so many of them were to the Creeks by the 142 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. the ties of blood, and had gathered at Lake Tensaw. Here, around the residence of Samuel Mims, one- fourth of a mile from the Boat Yard, one mile from the Alabama river, and two miles below the Cut-OfF, a stockade was erected enclosing one acre. It was nearly square and could be entered through a large eastern and a western gate. The location was poorly chosen. A number of buildings were within the en- closure, and the whole imperfect preparation for de- fense was called Fokt Mims. Its horrible fate teaches some instructive lessons. Against Fort Mims, as the most eastern stronghold of the Americans, Weatherford was marching with a thousand warriors. To defend it Lieutenant Osborne had been sent from Mount Yernon with sixteen men. One hundred and seventy -five volunteers were sent soon after, under the command of Major Daniel Beasley. Seventy home militia under Captain Dixon Bailey, already in the fort, became a part of Major Beasley's force, making in all two hundred and sixty- tive men. The fort now contained five hundred and fifty-three human beings, including officers and soldiers, whites, colored people, and Indians. It was August, the land was low, the river swamp near, and sick- ness prevailed. On the seventh of August General Claiborne arrived at Fort Mims. He inspected the works, addressed a general order to Major Beasley " to strengthen the picketing, build two more block-houses, respect the enemy, to send out scouts frequently, and allow the suffering people provisions, whether whites or friendly Indians." General Claiborne returned to Mount Vernon and sent frequently to Major Beasley, urging him to be prepared for an attack from the In- THE CREEK WAR. 143 dians. The latter "greatly weakened Lis command by sending small detachments to forts Madison, Eas- ley, Pierce, and Joshua Kennedy's saw-mill, where citizens had collected, and asked for assistance." Fort Pierce was a small stockade two miles south- east of Fort Minis. Day after day passed and yet no Indians appeared before Fort Mims. The commanding officer became grossly careless. He allowed the sand to accumulate before the eastern gate so that it would be impossible to close it suddenly in the event of a surprise. Meek speaks of him as " unflinchingly brave," but " vain, rash, inexperienced, and over-confident." He adds: "In vain did several of the most experienced and cau- tious of the backwoodsmen give warning of impending danger; in vain even did a hostile warrior the very even- ing before, apprise some of his relatives in the fortress of the intended attack; in vain did two negroes declare that they had seen twenty warriors painted for battle, in the vicinity of the fort. Major Beasley would listen to no remonstrance, but steadily refused to keep the gate of the fortress shut, and permitted the inmates to wander unrestrained along the banks of the Lake." At length the morning of August 30 dawned. "The sun rose, beautiful and with a dewy coolness, over the forests of needle-leaved pines that extended off to the east, and concealed beneath their high and shafted arcades the grimly-painted and fast-approach- ing warriors of Weatherford and McQueen. In the fort all was confidence and hilarity.'' Says Pickett: "The inmates had become inactive, free from alarm, and abandoned themselves to fun and frolic." Seldom have fun and frolic^ been more ill- timed. 144 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. The massacre which had been averted from the Teiisaw settlement in 1790, by the vigilance and daring of Mrs. Sophia Durant, an Indian, was now coming swiftly and fearfully upon them, through their own negligence. The two negroes mentioned by Meek were herding beef cattle a few miles from the fort. One of them, says Pickett "belonging to John Randon, was tied up and severely flogged, for alarming the garrison, with what Major Beasley deemed a sheer fabrication. Fletcher, the owner of the other, refused to permit him to be punished, because he believed his statement, which so incensed the major that he ordered Fletcher, with his large family, to depart from the fort by ten o'clock the next day." Pickett continues : " The next morning " — August 30 — -"Randon's negro was again sent out to attend the cattle, but, seeing a large body of Indians, fled to Fort Pierce, being afraid to communicate the intelligence to those wlio had whipped him. In the meantime Fletcher's negro, by the reluctant consent of his master, was tied up, and the lash about to be ap- plied to his back ; the officers were preparing to dine ; the soldiers were reposing on the ground ; some of the settlers were playing cards ; f the girls and young men were dancing, while a hundred thoughtless and happy children sported from door to door, and from tent to tent. At that awful moment, one thousand Creek warriors, extended flat upon the ground, in a thick ravine, four hundred yards from the eastern gate, thirsted for American blood. I^o eyes saw them, but those of the * Meek says, " Major Beasley, with a party of his oflBcers, was engaged in a £;ame of cards." • THE CREEK WAR. 145 cliirping and innocent birds in the limbs above them. The mid-day sun sometimes flashed through the thick foliage, and glanced upon their yellow skins, but quickly withdrew, as if afraid longer to contemplate the murderous horde. There lay tlie prophets, covered with feathers, with black faces, resembling those mon- sters which partake of both beast and bird. Beside them lay curious medicine bags and rods of magic. The whole ravine was covered with painted and naked savages, completely armed. The hour of twelve o'clock arrived, and the drum beat the officers and soldiers of the garrison to dinner." For this signal the Indians had waited. They remem- bered the dinner hour on Burnt Corn Creek a few weeks before, and they expected to find many of those who had made that attack, within Fort Minis. — Pickett proceeds: "Then, by one simultaneous bound, the ravine was relieved of its savage burden, and soon the field resounded with the rapid tread of the bloody war- riors. The sand had washed against the eastern gate, which now lay open. Major Beasley rushed, sword in hand, and essayed in vain to shut it. The Indians felled him to the earth, with their clubs and tomahawks, and rushing over his body, into the additional part of the fort, left him a chance to crawl behind the gate, where he shortly after expired. To the last he called upon the men to make a resolute resistance." And now was repeated, but on a smaller scale, and with many circumstances changed, the destruction of 1540, some twelve miles north and four miles east, upon this same Alabama. Then it was Spaniards butchering the Indians ; now it was Indians, led by men of mixed blood, executing Indian barbarities upon Americans, 10 146 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Spaniards, * and those of mixed blood like their leaders. The carnage that followed the entrance of the In- dians into Fort Mims was dreadful. It seems useless to attempt a description. The officers bravely en- deavored to force the Indians from the gateway, but bravery was now of no avail. Officers and soldiers fell in vain attempts to counteract the results of a want of vigilance in the past. Help or hope there was none; and soldiers, women, children, Spaniards, friendly In- dians, fell together in heaps of mangled bodies, the dying and the dead, scalped, mutilated, bloody, to be consumed ere long by fire, or to become food for hungry dogs and buzzards. In vain the young men, no longer dancing with the girls, and also the aged men and boys, fought the unrelenting savages with desperate fury. In vain did the brave Captain Bailey, left as the commanding officer, and who lived through all the carnage, animate the inmates to a resolute re- sistance. In vain did the women load the guns, bring water from the well, and do all that it was possible to do in sustaining the courage of the men. Many might have survived, when, after about three hours of conflict, the main body of the Indians begin- ning to plunder started towards the ferry with their booty, had not Weatherford, mounted on a fine black horse, overtaken them and brought them back to com- plete the work of destruction. Then began anew the scenes of havoc. Many of the buildings were set on fire, and amid the fearful shrieks of women and chil- dren the work of death and the removal of scalps went * Some Spaniards, deserters from Pensacola, were within the fort, and while kneeling around the well and crossing themselves, fell hene.'xth Indian tomahawks. THK CREEK WAR. 147 on. Women and children were put to death in ways too horrible to be narrated ; until even Weatherford himself, reproaching the savages for their barbarity, imploring them, it is said, in vain, to spare the women and children, " left the horrid scene."* Some extra picketing had been attached to Patrick's loom-house, and this place of but slight defense was called the bastion. " ' To the bastion, to the bastion!' was now the fearful cry of the survivors. Soon it was full to overflowing. The weak, wounded, and feeble, were pressed to death and trodden under foot. The spot presented the appearance of one immense mass of human beings, herded together too close to defend themselves, and, like beeves in the slaughter-pen of the butcher, a prey to those who fired upon them. The large building had fallen, carrying with it the scorched bodies of the Baileys and others on the roof, and the large number of women and children in the lower story." The flames soon reached that last re- treat called the bastion. A few escaped, but nearly all yet living perished in the conflagration. At about five o'clock the Indians retired. The bullets, the knives, the tomahawks, and the flames, had done their fearful work ; and the massacre at Fort Mims was ended. Fif- teen escaped and reached Mount Vernon ; among them a colored woman named Hester, who, breaking through the line of Indian warriors, although severely wounded, reached a canoe in the lake, paddled to Fort Stoddart that night, and gave to General Claiborne the first in- formation concerning the fall of the fort. A few col- * Weatherford is stiid to have taken with him to the Creek nation, from this massacre, " an extremely beautiful and spirited maiden of about seventeen or eighteen summers, "' named FiUcy, the daughter of Joseph Cornell, a whit(! man, and of an Indian woman. 148 CLARKE AND ITS SUKROUNDINGS. ored people and some women and children of mixed blood were taken away as prisoners by the Indians. Fully five hundred, among them the hundred playing children 'of the morning, all the dancing girls, and every white woman in the fort, may be counted as hav- ing perished on that fatal day. In the noted Wj^oming massacre of July 1TT8, when nine hundred Indians with about two hundred tories under John Butler, attacked the flourishing but remote, secluded, Wyoming settlement, in the beauti- ful and fertile valley of the Susquehannah, claimed then by both Connecticut and Pennsylvania, out of six hundred and forty-seven in Forty-Fort, "about three hundred and sixty were instantly slain," but the two hundred women in the fort and thirty men "were permitted to cross the Susquehannah, and retreat through the woods to Northampton county."* The Creeks at Fort Mims spared no white women or children, but one gleam of Indian gratitude shines out amid the horrors of that day, like a lone star in the deep gloom of a cloudy night. Mrs. Yicey McGirth, a half-blood Ci'eek, the wife of Zachariah McCrirth, was in the fort, with eight children. The narrator is now Pickett. "Many years before the dreadful massacre at Fort Mims, a little, hungry Indian boy, named Sanota — an orphan, houseless and friendless — stopped at the house of Vicey McGirth. She fed and clothed him, and he grew to athletic manhood. He joined the war party, and formed one of the expedition against Fort Mims. Like the other warriors, he was engaged in hewing and hacking the females to pieces, toward the close of the massacre, when he suddenly came ^ *See Ramsay's United tStates, Vol. 2, page 334. THE CREEK WAR. 149 upon Mrs. McGirth and his foster sisters. Pity and gratitude taking possession of his heart, he thrust tlieni in a corner, and nobly made his broad savage breast a rampart for their protection. The next day he carried them off, upon horses, toward the Coosa under the pretence that he had reserved them from death for his slaves. Arriving at his home, he shel- tered them, hunted for them, and protected them from Indian brutality. One day he told his adopted mother that he was going to tight Jackson, at the Horse-Shoe, and that if he should be killed, she must endeavor to reach her friends below." In that noted battle of Cholocco Litabixee, where from one thousand Creek warriors about two hundred only survived, the grateful Sanota fell. Mrs. McGirth and her children started southward, finally reached Mobile, and there met the husband and father, who had searched for their mangled bodies within the smok- ing ruins of the fort on the night after the massacre, and, sick at heart from the horrible sights which there met his eyes, had given them up as among the un- recognizable remains which then were "cracking and frying upon the glowing coals." When they were presented to him on the wharf at Mobile, preserved through the gratitude of Sanota, it is said, "A torrent of joy and profound astonishment overwhelmed him. He trembled like a leaf and was for some minutes speechless." The wise king said, "Cast thy bread upon the waters." Not in vain does one feed hungry Indians. The lessons taught by the destruction of the Ten- saw settlement do not need to be here stated. Nor need any mention be made of the condition of the 150 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. ruined fort when, on the ninth of September, troops arrived from Mount Vernon, to undertake the almost impossible task of burying the dead. From a small stockade near Fort Mims a little band escaped. They reached the river but could not cross, when Peggy Bailey, a woman of Indian blood, swam to the west side of the river and obtained a ilat-boat, on which they crossed, and at length reached the Arsenal. For this daring act the Government afterward rewarded her with a tract of land. We recross the Alabama. Within and around the stockade forts of Clarke most of the settlers had col- lected, and among their small plantations the prophet Francis with one hundred Creek warriors was commit- ting depredations. In the crowded condition of Fort Sinqueiield the two large families of Abner James and Ransom Kim- bell chose to return to a plantation, and both families on the first of September were remaining at KimbelPs home^ near Bassett's creek, about one mile from the fort. Suddenly, about three o'clock in the afternoon, Francis and his warriors surrounded the house. Ab- ner James and a visitor named Walker were in sight within the building, and at these the Indians fired, but neither of the men being wounded they escaped with Mary and Thomas James, the latter being fourteen years of age, and reached Fort Sinquefield. Isham Kimbell, then sixteen years of age, was with a little brother at the blacksmith shop, distant from the house one hundred and fifty yards, when the first guns were fired. Leaving the shop and seeing the Indians already at their bloody work within his father's door- yard, lie started with his brother for the fort. Avoid- THE CKEEK WAR. 151 ing the road the two boys were pursued, and a gun was tired, the shot cutting the chincapin buslies around them but wounding neither. The Indians do not seem to have been sharpshooters with tire-arms. The broth- ers, as rapidly as possible, made their way towards the fort ; but on crossing a stream the elder brotlier fell, and when again ready to dash forward the younger boy was not in sight, nor was he ever heard of after- ward. "What disposition the Indians made of him is unknown. No time was then to be lost, and alone through the woods Isham Kimbell hastened on. Un- certain as to the precise direction of the fort, he walked up the inclined body of a pine tree, which the wind had prostrated, to take a view of the surroundings and learn his course. He heard the voices of the Indians, distant then some two hundred yards, on the direct road from his father's home to the fort, descended from his dangerous position, and once more dashed forward. He was soon after met, almost exliausted, by Thomas Matlock and John O'Gwynn, who had heard the firing and were reconnoitering, and by thein was taken into the fort. Ransom Kimbell was absent from his home at the time of the attack, on horseback, but within hearing of the guns. He started immedi- ately for the house, but arrived there only in time to find the inmates all murdered by Indian war-clubs, scalped, and the Indians themselves out of sight. Dis- tressed, and doubtless alarmed for his own safety, he also went to Fort Sinquefield. The Indians robbed the house, killed the stock and retired to the creek swamp. The celerity of the movements of the Indi- ans, which this narrative discloses, is almost incredible. Yet the narrative rests on authentic history and well attested tradition. 152 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. One might suppose that on the last arrival, that of Ransom Kimbell, at the fort, and on his report that the Indians had even then disappeard, a force would have immediately proceeded to the house to care for the bodies of the dead. But the men whose families were in the fort, were like Kimbell and James, mostly absent at their plantations, and when they arrived at night-fall they were busy in posting pickets and mak- ing preparations to resist a night attack. So the dead, and the supposed dead, were left in the care of God alone. A dark night came on. Refreshing rain drops fell. One of the scalped women, Mrs. Sarah Merrill, daughter of Abner James, struck senseless by the hasty blow of the Indian war- club, revived, as the cool tear-drops from heaven fell upon her bloody head, and true to a mother's instinct and a mother's heart, began to search among the slain for her little child. There were two little children in the house on that fatal day, of the same size and age, and how in that dark night, bloody and probably dead, was she to recognize her own ? The dress of the one was fastened together with buttons and the other only with strings. She found her own, a little boy one year of age, its body was still warm, and she nursed it for a few moments. The warm nourishment revived it, and with the child in her arms, standing with difficulty upon her feet, she walked slowly towards the fort. Before reaching it exhausted nature almost gave way. She placed the child in a hollow log, and in the early morning the inmates of the fort were startled by the approach of a scalped and suffering woman whom they soon recognized and cared for. She gave infor- mation concerning her child and it was soon also within THE CREEK WAR. 153 the fort. Both motlier and child recovered ; the short hair of the little boy having prevented his being scalped. The same morning, according to Clarke county tra- dition, September 3, according to Pickett, Colonel Carson at Fort Glass, having heard of the massacre, sent Lieutenant Bailey vi^ith seven soldiers and three scouts — some say nineteen soldiers — to assist in bury- ing the dead, and to learn the number of the Indians. These with the fort forces proceeded to Ransom Kim- bell's house, brought up twelve bodies on an ox-cart, and buried them near the fort. As the hasty burial services were closing, nearly all the inmates of the fort being without the stockade, Francis with his hun- dred warriors came suddenly upon them. An aged man named Phillips, sitting beside the gateway, first ob- served the Indians approaching in single file and in a half-bent position, and mistook them for wild turkeys ; but the younger and keener eyes of Isham Kimbell detected the reality, and the alarm was instantly given. The men took the children in their arms, and all who were engaged in the burial services gained the entrance to the fort before the warriors reached them ; but sev- eral women were at the spring whose retreat to the fort seemed to be hopelessly cut off". And now was per- formed a sudden deed of noble daring. Isaac Hayden, written by Meek Haden, called by Pickett Heaton — said by Pickett to have just returned from a deer hunt, and by Brewer to have been hunting cows, but, on Clarke county authority, one of the soldiers from Fort Glass, mounted a horse, cheered all the dogs of the fort, in number sixty or more, upon the Indians, and dashed forward himself to the defence of the women. 154 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. The ascent from the spring is steep, the bold horse- man and the fierce hounds rushed down upon the stai'tled savages, and the Creek warriors were forced to halt and defend themselves from the fury of these "dogs of war" indeed, which the soldier-hunter had "let slip." The brave dogs did their duty well, and the gallant Hayden eifectually secured the entrance into the fort of every woman except one, Mrs. Phillips, whom the Indians overtook and scalped. Hayden's coat was riddled, it is said, with bullets, his bold horse fell under him, but recovering again, followed his un- harmed rider into the fort. Then the baffled and enraged Indians attacked the little stockade, but Sinquefield was resolutely de- fended ; the gate was closed; and, with the loss of a number of warriors, the party of the prophet, taking the horses of the soldiers from Fort Glass, which they found tethered without the stockade, made a hasty re- treat. Although they had successfully repulsed one band of Creek warriors, the occupants of Fort Sinque- field knew not how soon Weatherford and his thousand might surround them, and they left the fort the next day and marched to Fort Madison, Before we leave this bravely defended stockade, from which some thirty-five white men repulsed a hun- dred red warriors, about mid-day of Thursday, Sep- tember 2, 1813, themselves losing but one man, while the Indians lost in killed and seriously and fatally wounded about one-fifth of their number, let us look at the localitv of the fort and the place of the massacre. THE CREEK WAR. 155 j k Section 13. i a Section 18. I b h g • Section 24. Range 3, E. f e * d m Section 19. Range 4, E. a. Fort Sinquefield, now residence of Mrs. Hickson. b. The Creighton home. c. The family burial place. d. The place of KimbcU massacre. e. Old family burial place, near the first Creighton home. /. Residence of J. H. Creighton. g. Residence of Rev. William Hill. h. Residence of T. A. Creighton. i. Residence of John Cammack. j. Horeb church. k. The Bettis home. I. The Moncrief home. m. Residence of F. B. Whatley n. Five mile post. 0. The fort spring. 156 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. Distances : From 6 to c 40 rods. From c to (Z 45 rods. From d to e 15 rods. From the southwest corner of section 18 to b about 100 rods. From d to n, in a straight line, seven-sixths (|) of a mile. For the first thirty rods east of Fort Sinquefield the ground is nearly level, sloping slightly. For the next twenty rods it slopes more rapidly. Proceeding about thirty rods more, making eighty rods eastward, a wind- ing valley is reached which leads to the place of the massacre. A few yards only from that place is now the trace of an old road on the brow of a slight descent, which is but a few feet above the Bassett Creek bot- tom, or lowest valley. The table-land on which the fort stood is about one hundred feet above the bed of the creek. Indians might have approached from the eastward, up the valley and slope, within about thirty yards of the fort unperceived. Let us now glance at the spot marked d on the dia- gram before us, in the north-east quarter of section nineteen. This represents the spot where, in the mid- dle of the afternoon of Sept. 1, 1813, the Creek Indians so suddenly entered a pioneer home and dealt their savage blows upon women and children, members of the Kimbell and James families. Everything now on and around the scene of this tragic event is in keeping with what a poet or historian would like to find. Six- ty-four years have passed away. (1877.) The one survivor is an aged man. A growth of yonng pines, covering several acres, extends over and around the place of the massacre, extending westward about twenty rods. The shade is dark and deep in this pine grove. An old china-tree, and the roots and decaying body of another, and a younger looking cedar, are near where the house once stood. Close by, six rods dis- THE CREEK WAR. 157 tant, is the brow of the slight elevation above Bassett's Creek bottom, along whieh the dim trace of an old road appears. This once blood-stained spot, a nice selection in this valley for a pioneer home, is on the Creighton planta- tion ; and distant but a few rods, beside an old mul- berry tree, is the first Clarke county burial place of the Creighton family, and of some others. The dust of the faithful old basket-maker, Jerry, whose record will be found in a later chapter, is reposing near. A little distance off, in another direction is the spot of the first Creighton residence in Clarke. The repose, the solitude of nature here, is in harmony with the varied associations of the place. Here once was life ; here came Indian warriors and sudden death ; near by came new life, a new home, and peaceful death. And now the pine solitude is over all. It seems a pity that this solitude should ever be disturbed. It certainly ought to be left for the sunshine and the birds. It will not be disturbed during the present ownership ; yet none can tell how soon the woodman's axe, in some ruthless or thoughtless hand, will change this part of the plantation into an open field ; nor how soon the plow-share will pass over these now secluded and, in some sort, sacred spots. It is not probable that in 1913, or thirty-six years from now, one can sit beneath this china-tree and write such memorials as these. •The young cedar, now forty feet in height, may re- main, but it is likely that the axe will cut down what time would spare. The surveyed route of the expected (Trand Trunk Railroad is not more than a mile away, and when the locomotive whistle startles the birds and squirrels in these solitudes, none can foretell the 158 CLARKE AND ITS t^URROUNDINGS. changes that will follow. The present Creighton burial place, where the dust of the fourth Alabama generation is reposing, is out from the dark pine grove, in the bright sunshine, about thirty rods from the early rest- ing-place of the family dead. The diagram shows the location of the early Mon- crief and Bettis homes, and also of other family resi- dences of the present time. Bassett's Creek, which is quite a large stream of water, is about half a mile east of the north-east corner of section nineteen, and nearly cuts the south-east corner. Perhaps the time is not far distant when a plain, neat monument will mark the spot where twelve lives, so suddenly went out at three o'clock of a summer's day, in that year of so much bloody Indian strife. An- other monument will doubtless then replace the small tablet which has lately been erected at the early family burial place, and thus the second family that began to occupy this part of the broad valley, soon after it passed from the Choctaw ownership, may perpetuate the mem- ory of those whom Muscogee barbarity swept away, as in a moment, from the quiet scenes of pioneer life. We may now follow the occupants of the Sinquefield stockade to Fort Madison. Captain Evan Austill was the citizen soldier in com- mand at Fort Madison by the choice of the settlers. To him, as well as to so many others liolding their little wooden fortresses in the heart of Clarke county against the savage Creeks, these words of Judge Meek are truly applicable. "They were men well calculated, both by nature and habits of life, to meet such an emergency. With no dependence but the axe and the rifle, they had brought their families through the THE CREEK WAK. 159 wilderness, and made them homes upon the table-plains and rich alluvial bottoms of our two principal streams. The character and habits of the Indians, thej under- stood well ; their stratagems in warfare, their guile and cunning. With a flexibility of nature, that still retained its superiority, they accommodated themselves to these, and were prepared, as far as their limited numbers would go, for the necessities of either peace or war. To a spectator, the strange buckskin garb, the hunting- shirt, leggings and moccasins, the long and heavy rifle, the large knife swinging by the shot-bag, the proud, erect deportment, but cautious tread, and the keen, far- seeing, but apparently passive eye, of the settler in the fork of the Alabama and Tombeckbee, upon the Ten- saw, or about Fort St. Stephens, would have spoken much of the moral energies and purposes of the man." "But the chief characteristics of these people were the sterner virtues. They were brave, industrious, patient, generous, and persevering ; and well qualified, both in moral and physical capacities, to endure the hardships and dangers of their insulated position. These capacities were soon called into requisition and tested to their utmost." Colonel Carson, at Fort Glass, was the military commander within the county. More than one thou- sand persons were now at Forts Madison and Glass. About four hundred were at Gullet's Bluff". The oc- cupants of the forts north of Sinquetield crossed the river to St. Stephens. Some of the settlers, witli their families, went some distance west of the Tombigbee, where they considered there would be no necessity for fortifications. The Indians were busily engaged in committing various depredations, burning the unoccu- 160 CLARKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. pied homes of the settlers, driving off their cattle — Clarke county was then a great grazing region — and turning the hogs into the ripened corn-fields, to fatten them for the feasts which they expected soon to hold. lAll the scattered settlers of the eastern part of Missis- Isippi Territory had gone into some kind of defence. IThe two forts at Mount Vernon were "packed." Judge Toulmin and a number of his neighbors had gone to Fort Charlotte at Mobile, where families were daily arriving. Rankin's Fort contained five hundred and thirty persons. At Fort Madison great anxiety prevailed. J. Au- stin, a youth of nineteen, son of Captain Evan Austill, was sent alone, on a fleet horse, as bearer of dispatches to General Claiborne at Mount Yernon. The route over which the solitary horseman passed is very lone- some now. From Hickory Hall to Salt Mountain there is scarcely a house or a fence in sight along the Salt Works Trail. Then, in the dark bottoms and amid the more open pines, the Creek warriors might at any moment ap- pear. Mounted on one of the swift cavalry horses the bold youth proceeded cautiously on his way through the still hours of night. Reaching the river bottom in the vicinity of Fort Carney, he was uncertain whether the fort was above or below that point. He rode near the river bank and gave one Indian war-whoop. List- ening for a moment, there came to his ears from the fort, distant about half a mile, the loud, defying bark of some fifty or sixty dogs. Uncertainty was at an end. Soon he reached the gateway ; was welcomed within by the startled men, women, and children ; a warm supper was provided for hin.self and food for his horse ; both THE CREEK WAR. IHI were transported across the river; and again the courier was upon the road. Passing Old Wakefield and Mcln- tosirs Bluff, in the dawn of the morning lie reached the headquarters of the General. Claiborne was amazed tluit he had corae thus alone, and was disposed to blame Colonel Carson for sending no attendatits. But the youthful messenger replied, that his ears were quick to catch Sounds and his eyes were keen, like the luitives of those wilds, and in the event of danger he would have been obliged to trust to his own resources and to his fleet horse. Companions would only have exposed liim to more danger. So Claiborne became satisfied. An order was sent to Colonel Carson, de- signed, it afterward appeared, to be discretionary, but interpreted at the time as po'emptory, to abandon those forts and retire to St. Stephens. There the de- fences consisted of embankments and earth-works, and that place was to be held at all hazards. Sadness, and consternation even, followed the reception of the order at Fort Madison ; and there were some who blamed General Claiborne for thus, in appearance, abandoning the w^hole body of settlers in Clarke county. Some eighty citizens, enrolling themselves under the two captains Evan Austill and Samuel Dale, chose to remain with their families and protect themselves and their homes. The parting at the forts was a sad one, as families, friends, and neighbors separated there, with little ex- pectation of meeting soon again. About five hundred accompanied Colonel Carson and his horsemen to St. Stephens. After the departure of the troops, those remaining at Fort Madison took additional precautions. They 11 16j} clahke and its surroundings. placed slaiitiiiu- pickets