All of that part of Jackson County south and
east of the Tennessee River was occupied by the Cherokee Indians,
until a treaty of transfer was signed at New Echota (near Rome,
Georgia), on December 29, 1835. Congress had passed a law in 1834,
providing for the removal of the Cherokees in Alabama, Tennessee,
and Georgia, to the Indian Territory. One faction of the Indians,
led by Chief John Ross, opposed the removal West and refused to sign
the treaty. Their removal from their native home in 1837-38
furnished one of the touching and most pathetic stories in American
history. The government thought it best to move these Indians from
their homes because they resisted the civilization of the white man
who had settled on their territory. These two people differed
greatly in race, language and customs; and in their struggle for
existence the white man would survive to the injury of the Indian.
As it was impossible for whites and the Indians to live together,
the government moved the Indians to the Territory west of the
Mississippi. Who can not apprehend the bitter grief of the Indians
on leaving their happy hunting grounds and the graves of their
fathers as theyturned and took
one long farewell look and marched under guard to their homes in the
Indian Territory.
General Winfield Scott was commander of the
military forces that collected the Indians into concentration camps.
His troops entered the territory of the Cherokees and divided into
small parties for the purpose of searching every home. The soldiers,with their rifles in hand, pursued the Indians as though they
were wild beasts. They would surround their homes, force them out,
place them in line and march them to the nearest camp. The Indians
were compelled to leave all their property behind and follow the
soldiers. A majority submitted to their fate without trouble, but
some rebelled and were brought to camp by force. These camps, or
palisades, were enclosed by stakes set in ground and pointed at the
top as a fence. Many Indians died in these camps where as many as
5,000 were assembled at a time. One out of every seven died before
reaching his new home in the West. There were three ports of
embarkations of those who went by water:
Charleston on the Hiwassee River,
Ross' Landing (now Chattanooga), and Gunter's Landing on the
Tennessee. By the spring of 1837, detachments were being forwarded.
The journal of Dr. C. Sillybright tells the story of one such
detachment which left Ross' Landing, March 3, 1837, in eleven
flatboats. This fleet of flatboats was met at Gunter's Landing by
the steamer Knoxville, which took charge of the boats and guided
them to Decatur, Alabama. From Decatur a
portage was made around Muscle Shoals to Tuscumbia in railroad cars.
There the emigrants were met by the steamer Revenue with a flotilla
of keels. On March 27 these emigrants were unloaded at a point just
beyond Fort Smith, Arkansas.
John Ross, who had opposed all along the
removal of the Indians, got an agreement with Gen. Scott to move his
people. He marched more than 10,000 overland in separate bands and
in different routes in order to be assured of finding a supply of
water and game for food on the way. The season had been so dry the
marchers suffered untold privations, and sixteen hundred perished en
route. Ross' wife, who had gone on the boat, Victoria, died on the
way andwas buried at Little Rock, Arkansas. There
were a few old decrepit Indians not able to make the journey left
behind to perish amid scenes most familiar to them.
Alexander
Reid and Jonathan Beeson of Paint Rock Valley; William Sims, Samuel
Hill, Nathan Kennamer and other citizens of the county served in the
army which removed these
Indians.
