Cherokee
History of Gordon County, Georgia
Chapter I
Source: "History of Gordon County, Georgia"
Calhoun, Ga.: Press of the Calhoun Times, 1934
Submitted to Genealogy Trails by K. Torp
Chapter I
CHEROKEE INDIANS
The present Gordon County lies within the ancestral acres of the Cherokee Indians, a part of their game preserve
through unrecorded centuries. The tribe belonged to the Iroquoian stock of the north, and, according to the theory
of historians, its migration southward was caused by domestic discords which impelled the more docile branch of
the family to change its domicile as a means of escape from its turbulent kinsmen. Drifting along the lines of
the Alleghany and Blue Ridge mountains, the Cherokees finally made a settlement in the upland country of the South,
where they were destined to exercise an influence of rare potency, and, after many struggles and vicissitudes,
to become foremost among Indian tribes in intelligence and civilization.
The name "Cherokee" has an authentic history of 375 years, having appeared first as "Chalaque"
in a Portuguese account of De Soto's expedition published in 1557; the tribe's own designation was "Tsa lagi,"
or "Tsa ragi;" the French rendering to "Cheraqui." There is a possibility that the word is
derived from the Choctaw "choluk" meaning cave. The Iroquois called the Cherokees "cave dwellers."
Another definition applied to Cherokee is "upland field" in allusion to the topography of the tribe's
adopted country.
The area claimed by the Cherokees embraced about 40,000 square miles, including the present states of Virginia,
Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia, all of which territory came into possession of
the whites by means of thirty-eight treaties negotiated between 1721 and 1836.
Long before white men came into northwest Georgia, the rich valley lying along Oothcaloga creek in the present
Gordon County attracted the attention and became the home of a large number of prosperous Cherokees. They had advanced
beyond mere devotees of war and the chase to the pursuits of agriculturists and herdsmen. When white people invaded
their game preserves, they turned to the employments of civilization - the plow and the hoe, the loom and the spinning
wheel, and divers handicrafts. A commissioner of the United States government, who toured the country in 1829,
reported astonishing progress in farming methods, morality, religion, and general information. The people patronized
regular church services, there were strict regulations governing the use of intoxicants, and affairs were carried
on, for the most part, like those of the best class of white people, a condition that must be attributed to the
civilizing influence and teachings of Moravian missionaries, who had been laboring zealously among the Cherokees
since 1801; to the Indian Mission school maintained at Cornwall, Conn., where some of the Cherokee youths had been
educated; and to the enlightening power of the printing press brought about by Sequoyah's invention of an Indian
alphabet.
Some time in the remote past the Creek Indians owned all the lands as far north as the Cohutta range, but they
used it only as a hunting ground. Even at that early date a well worn trail went through Oothcaloga valley leading
from the Creek towns in the lower Chattahoochee to the Cherokee towns in Tennessee and Virginia and the Indian
communities in New England and Canada. These old Indian paths, the great highways of today, traversing for miles
the primeval wilderness, were deeply worn by the feet of trading caravans and war parties, and skirted many towns
and villages.
NEW ECHOTA
The junction of the Coosawattee and Conasauga rivers at what was called Fork Ferry in later years, and the abundant
supply of pure spring water at that place made it a favorite camping site, and, when the Cherokees were crowded
out of their old seat of government by advancing white men, Echota (Indian for "Town"), on the Little
Tennessee river, thirty miles south of the present Knoxville, they chose naturally this spot for New Echota, established
in 1819, their last capital before removal to the West. It is two and a half miles northeast of the present Calhoun,
Ga., and a short distance east of the Dixie Highway going north. Doubtless, many towns and villages had grown up
and died there in the past. One of the several Cherokee settlements known as Gansagi was located here, and the
historic value of the site is further enhanced by Chas. C. Jones, Jr., the historian, who identifies it as the
former Indian town of Conasauga where, on May 22, 1540, De Soto tarried a short time with his six hundred Spanish
cavaliers adventuring on their Argonautic expedition through the New World, and, so far as authentic records go,
the first Europeans to set foot on Georgia soil.
In 1802, Georgia had ceded to the United States that portion of her lands now comprising the states of Alabama
and Mississippi, and received, in return, the promise of the national government to remove the Cherokees from her
remaining territory, a pledge, as subsequently proved, more easily made than fulfilled, and the difficulties of
effecting a removal became more complex as the years went by, and the people, under civilizing influences, attained
domesticity; however, in 1819, the Federal government succeeded in securing a considerable acreage of the Cherokee
lands of North Georgia by persuading the owners to accept in exchange western lands of equal extent, and a number
of Cherokee families established voluntarily new homes on the property thus acquired.
For several years thereafter, no more efforts toward expatriation were made by the United States, and the Indians,
free from the fear of further annoyance, progressed rapidly in the arts of civilization. A census taken in 1825
gave the number of eastern Cherokees as 13,563; 147 white men with Indian wives, 73 white women with Indian husbands,
1,277 Negro slaves.
Churches and schools were flourishing. The six-year-old capital of New Echota, or
New Town, was a beehive of industry. Here convened the Cherokee Congress, organized in 1820 when a republican form
of government, modeled after that of the United States, was adopted.
CHIEF JOHN ROSS
John Ross, a Cherokee half-breed (born in Georgia, Oct. 3, 1790; died in Washington, D.C, Aug. 1, 1866), was made
first president of the National Council. On July 26, 1827, at a convention held at New Echota, a Constitution was
ordained and the Cherokee Nation declared "sovereign and independent, having complete jurisdiction over its
territory to the exclusion of the authority of any other state." Chas. R. Hicks, a Moravian convert of mixed
blood and the most influential man of his tribe, was elected principal chief and his assistant was John Ross, who
succeeded Hicks as chief during the next year and held the position throughout life, leading the national party
opposed to removal.
Seven years had passed since the memorable date of 1821 when Sequoyah (George Gist, of reputed Cherokee and German
parentage), had given to his people an Indian alphabet of eighty-five characters. This invention had acted like
leaven on the mentality of the Cherokees, bringing about a wonderful development. Accordingly, the Cherokee Council
resolved to establish a national newspaper, using the Sequoyan syllabary, as well as English, types for the purpose
being cast in Boston, conveyed by water to Augusta, and thence transported two hundred miles to the log printing
house at New Echota. The first paper appeared 'on February 21, 1828, the progenitor of newspapers not only in Indian
history, but in all of North Georgia, and the only one distributed by a nation at public expense, this having been
done by the Cherokee government.
Courts were organized, schools were built, arts and manufactures were given encouragement, just laws were enacted,
the people became Christianized, the population was increasing, and prosperity beckoned from every side.
But this golden age was not to last. It was the calm before the storm. The antagonism of the whites and their determination
to compel the government to fulfill its promise of removal were unabated. In 1830, Georgia extended her jurisdiction
over the Cherokee territory causing much litigation and appeals to higher authority. Finally, the Supreme Court
of the United States held that "the Cherokee Nation is a distinct community, occupying its own territory,
within boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force." But the president
of the United States at that time was Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory," a one time frontiers-man who regarded
Indians only as savages and had his own unchangeable opinion of what constituted their rights. As he refused to
enforce the judicial fiat, it was rendered invalid. White trespassers were a constant source of annoyance.
At length, some of the Cherokees foresaw that removal was inevitable, and the Nation became divided into two factions.
John Ross headed the national party opposed to removal; Major Ridge with his son, John Ridge, and his nephew, Elias
Boudinot, educated, Christian young men, led the opposite party which favored removal as a necessary expedient.
Both sides contended vigorously, delegations were sent to Washington to plead with the authorities, letters were
dispatched, impassioned oratory flowed, and an appeal to the country's sense of justice was made.
Although the United States government had agreed to remove the Indians, under the decision of the Supreme Court
given above, the removal could not be effected without their consent, therefore, on Dec. 29, 1835, a treaty was
made with the Cherokees at New Echota, under which the whole remaining Cherokee territory east of the Mississippi
was ceded to the United States for the sum of $5,000,000 and a common joint interest in the lands already occupied
by the western Cherokees in what is now Oklahoma with an additional smaller tract in what is now Kansas. The removal
of the Indians was to be made at the expense of the government, which agreed also to furnish a year's sustenance
for them in their new home. The treaty occasioned much dissatisfaction among the Indians, who insisted that the
great majority of them did not agree to it and those who did were bribed, but the vehement protestations of Chief
John Ross and his adherents were unavailing. Gen. Winfield Scott was appointed to enforce the expulsion. He established
headquarters at New Echota, and, with a force of 7,000 soldiers, succeeded in accomplishing the removal in 1838
amid scenes that rival in pathos the story of the Acadians and furnish material for the darkest chapter in the
annals of Georgia and the national government.
After their arrival in the West, Major Ridge, his son, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot, leaders of the treaty party,
were murdered brutally by adherents of the national party on June 22, 1839.
MARKER ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IN HONOR OF THE CHEROKEES
Monument
In 1929, Hon. M. C. Tarver, representative from the seventh Congressional district of Georgia, introduced a bill
asking the United States government for an appropriation to be used for erecting a marker commemorative of the
Cherokee Indians.
Following is the text of the Act:
"Be it enacted by the senate and the house of representatives of the United States of America in congress
assembled,
"That the secretary of war is authorized to erect upon some portion of the site of New Echota, last capital
of the Cherokee Indians prior to their removal in 1838 west of the Mississippi River, a suitable marker commemorating
said location, with adequate inscriptions relative to the principal facts in its history.
"Sec. 2. The site for said marker shall consist of not more than one acre of land, which shall be selected
under direction of the secretary of war, and shall be furnished free of cost for this purpose.
"Sec. 3. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any funds in the treasury not otherwise appropriated,
the sum of $2,500, or so much thereof as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this act."
Pursuant to the conditions, the site chosen for the memorial was originally that of New Echota (now New Town),
last capital of the Cherokees before their enforced removal to the West, two and a half miles northeast of Calhoun,
Gordon County, Georgia.
James W. Gillespie, of Gordon County, owner of the land, donated an acre for memorial use, a gentle eminence commanding
a widespread view of the rolling Cherokee country, and here, on September 17, 1931, a handsome monument of enduring
granite was unveiled with impressive ceremonies. Two sides of the marker are adorned with bronze panels bearing
the following inscriptions :
SOUTH SIDE
"CHEROKEE INDIAN MEMORIAL"
"Erected in honor of the Cherokee Nation by the United States Government in 1931 on the site of New Echota,
last capital site of the Cherokee Indians east of the Mississippi River.
"The Cherokee Nation, composed of twenty thousand people, occupied territory in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina,
and Tennessee. It was recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States as an independent community, and was
the only group of American Indians to adopt a republican form of government based on a written constitution.
"John Ross was elected principal chief. Under the influence of Moravian missionaries, the Cherokees became
Christianized, and attained a high degree of civilization."
NORTH SIDE
"In 1821, Sequoyah, a native Cherokee, invented an alphabet. The first newspaper in the Indian language, the
Cherokee Phoenix, was published in New Echota by Elias Boudinot, an educated Cherokee, whose wife, formerly Harriet
Gold, of Cornwall, Connecticut, is buried in the tribal cemetery here.
"In 1802, the United States agreed to extinguish the Indian title to the lands adjacent to Georgia in return
for the cession of Georgia territory now comprising the states of Alabama and Mississippi. A treaty was negotiated
December 29, 1835, at New Echota, whereby the entire Cherokee territory was ceded to the United States for five
million dollars and a joint interest in the lands in Oklahoma and Kansas occupied by the Western Cherokees. The
removal was completed in 1838."
PROGRAM FOR THE DEDICATORY EXERCISES OF THE CHEROKEE INDIAN MEMORIAL ERECTED
BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AT NEW ECHOTA, NEAR CALHOUN, GORDON COUNTY, GEORGIA, SEPTEMBER 17, 1931.
Judge T. W. Harbin, Master of Ceremonies.
Song, "America"-Led by C. E. Moody.
Address-Miss Lulie Pitts, of .Calhoun, Ga.
Devotional-Bishop J. Kenneth Pfohl, Winston-Salem, N. C.
Poem, "The Indian's Heart"-Ernest Neal, Poet-Laureate of Georgia.
"Elias Boudinot, Editor and Publisher" - Judge Charles W. Lusk, Chattanooga, Tenn.
Presentation-Capt. R. T. Edwards, Fort McPherson" Ga.
Unveiling-Boy Scouts, Troop No. 10, Calhoun, Ga.
Acceptance-Miss Bai Hall, in behalf of Calhoun Woman's Club.
Address-Hon. M. C. Tarver, Congressman Seventh Georgia District.
ADDRESS OF MISS LULIE PITTS AT THE UNVEILING OF THE CHEROKEE INDIAN MEMORIAL
MARKER AT NEW ECHOTA ON SEPTEMBER 17, 1931.
We are standing today upon historic ground, the one time ancestral acres of the foremost tribal family of America's
pioneer citizens - the land of the Cherokees. Forty centuries looked down from pyramid heights upon the British
armies in the valley of the Nile; eons of unrecorded time peer mysteriously at us from these wide stretches of
hill and dale and flowing stream that composed the Cherokees' most valued possession, and formed a magnificent
setting for the last bold stroke in defense of their heritage.
Equipped with the power of speech, what a gripping front-page story this landscape might enfold-a tale of brave
warriors and beautiful Indian maidens; of boisterous powwows and exciting games; of weird music and riotous festivities;
of the forest primeval teeming with the huntsman's prey; of campfires and the chase and dugout canoes gliding silently
over the placid waters of the Conasauga and the Coosawattee on many a moonlit night; of the countless other scenes
and incidents absorbingly interesting that make up the colorful pageantry of Indian life.
It was during the time when this place flourished as the capital of the Cherokee nation that Sequoyah, the Cherokee
Cadmus, obscure and untutored, gave his people the key to civilization by his invention of an Indian alphabet,
a syllabary of eighty-five characters so simple, so easily mastered, and so appealing to the intellect that the
entire Cherokee nation was transformed into a student body almost over-night and Sequoyah had performed, unwittingly,
the most marvelous linguistic feat of any age, and carved his name among the immortals.
The giant redwood trees of California are named appropriately for this Red man of the giant mind, and Oklahoma,
Sequoyah's adopted state, in gratitude and admiration, has placed his bust in the Hall of Fame to com-memorate
her most illustrious son.
The introduction of the alphabet made possible the establishment of a newspaper, first in Indian history and a
pioneer journal of northwest Georgia. It was published here at the capital and became widely known both in the
United States and in Europe, as many as a hundred exchanges coming into the office from different parts of the
world.
There were no delinquent subscribers, the paper having been distributed among its readers at government expense.
It was called "The Cherokee Phoenix," a title aptly chosen, for, to quote from Dr. W. R. L. Smith's delightful
book, ''The Story of the Cherokees," "The fabled bird rising from its ashes is really the fittest symbol
of that power of retrieval resident in Cherokee nature."
Elias Boudinot, the editor, was an educated Cherokee of mixed blood, and a devout Christian. In Cornwall, Connecticut,
he met Miss Harriet Ruggles Gold, the beautiful, cultured young white woman who became his bride. She labored here
among his people until death called her two years before the Cherokees began their westward march.
The house in which tradition says this interesting couple lived and where "their six lovely children first
saw the light is the last Indian home left standing in this deserted village that only the magic pen of an Oliver
Goldsmith could re-create, and, just across the way, on a windswept knoll, in the tribal cemetery, is the last
resting place of this devoted wife, mother, missionary.
Grave of Harriet Gold Boudinot
Nearby is the reputed tomb of Pathkiller, noted chief of the Cherokees.
Grave of Pathkiller
"In the peaceful cemetery at New Echota, where lies one of the
foremost Indians of the Cherokee Nation.
Paramount among the uplifting forces of those days was the work of missionaries in the Cherokee nation. The noble
men and women who came here to teach these half civilized families and point the way to a higher life accepted
hardships without complaint, were most unselfish, diligent, and wrought gloriously.
In passing, it is interesting to note that one of the most active of these men of God, the Reverend S. A. Worcester,
became the grandfather of the late Miss Alice Robertson, former congresswoman from the state of Oklahoma.
The mission assembling us here today is unique, un-paralleled, perhaps, in history. Ninety-three years ago, about
13,000 members of the great Cherokee Indian tribe, aborigines of this continent, hence, by all the laws of priority,
not to mention justice and humanity, entitled to hold their estates in perpetuity, if desired, at the behest of
the state of Georgia, within whose confines they had chosen to make their home, were expatriated by the federal
government to an unknown, wilderness region.
Here, homesick and heavy-hearted, they had to take up anew the, burdens of life, conquer the virgin soil with the
rude tools of that age, build again churches and schools for spiritual and mental needs, subduing, the while, if
possible, the sense of injustice that must have rankled continually in their breasts.
The word, "Cherokee" means "upland field," and had reference, possibly, to the topography of
the home land, which comprised, originally, the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, the western half of Virginia
and of North and South Carolina, and the northern part of Alabama and of Georgia.
So much land had been ceded to the whites that, at the time of the deportation, the Cherokee country included only
the northern half of Georgia and of Alabama, and a small portion of North Carolina; and Tennessee.
As has been shown, the people had discarded long since the practices and superstitions of savagery. War whoops
and barbarisms had been superseded by industry and hospitality. Missionary truths found ready lodgment in the hearts
of these children of the forest, in fact, it is said that never did a pagan group accept Christianity with fewer
demonstrations of hostility to the new faith, and the resultant civilization challenged universal admiration.
We know that the Cherokees had a written language, a weekly newspaper, a constitution modeled after that of the
United States, were patrons of schools and churches, prosperous, responsive to high ideals, faithful to pledges,
lovers of family and home and freedom; according to historians, unsurpassed among Indian tribes in intelligence
and prowess.
Such was the status of the people whom our forefathers disclaimed.
Today, we, the descendants of those stern sires, looking through the perspective glass of the years, and so, seeing
things as they really were, undistorted by passion and prejudice, have gathered here at the last capital site of
the eastern Cherokees-their beloved New Echota-to memorialize them in story and eulogy; to dedicate to their memory
this monument, presented by the United States government; to anoint it with precious ointment from the alabaster
box of our esteem; to lay upon it a belated wreath of immortelles; and consign it for guardianship through the
ages to these everlasting hills the Cherokee nation loved so well.
To Representative M. C. Tarver must be given the praise for fathering this memorial, for it was he who introduced
the bill for an appropriation, and pushed it to a successful issue.
I am wondering if it took three generations of seventh district Georgians to develop a congressman who considered
"give honor to whom honor is due" as something more than a hackneyed slogan, or were the others merely
thoughtless and indifferent!
I am wondering, too, if the disembodied spirits of John Ross and Chief Pathkiller and Little Carpenter and the
thousands of other Cherokee patriots, having winged their way from the happy hunting grounds of eternity to hover
over this scene, are voicing an approval or crying out in spirit language, unheard by mortal ears, "We asked
for the bread of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and they have given us a stone!"
Long since, the banishment of conquered peoples has been an abomination to humanitarians. We find these unhappy
exiles all along the pathway of history- Assyrians, Babylonians, Acadians, Belgians, Cherokees -hanging their harps
on the willows and refusing to sing the songs of Zion in a strange land.
But are not these tragedies incidental to the birth of nations, the offenses that must needs come, Nature's frenzied
appeals for a survival of the fittest?
The Cherokees were maintaining an independent government within this state, which, according to John C. Calhoun,
at that time secretary of war, is "incompatible with our system." God never intended this mighty empire
of the west to be divided into petty, brawling principalities. Only as a united country has she been enabled to
occupy the seat of the mightiest in the family of nations. I suppose the most ardent secessionist of the sixties,
in the light of subsequent events, would sanction readily this statement. "
It may be argued that, as the Cherokees, under the influence of the whites, had risen from barbarism to civilization
more rapidly than any of the advanced races, in a comparatively short time, they would have amalgamated with their
neighbors, and the infusion of new blood might have resulted in a finer, hardier breed.
This has not proved true with the descendants of the thousand Cherokees who eluded their deporters in 1838 and
concealed themselves in the mountain fastnesses of North Carolina. It is reported that, as a rule, they have resisted
improvement in food, dress, and manner of living; reside, for the most part, in rude, windowless log huts, and
seem content to remain mere wards of the government.
They are far below the rank of their brothers in the West, who, in 1907, when Oklahoma was admitted into statehood,
became citizens of the commonwealth, and today are holding important positions of public trust and rate high in
social and business life.
I have tried to present, in a measure, both sides of this question without committing myself to an endorsement
of either.
Social cankers, like those of the body, yield to two methods of treatment: eradication and absorption. The one
is entirely too heroic; the other is a tedious, long-drawn process.
The mills of the gods grind so slowly that they have compelled generation after generation to pass out into the
shadows with ills unrequited.
With all my heart I deplore war, but it must be admitted that no other agency rights our wrongs so speedily. War
gave us our country untrammeled by foreign domination-this land of the free and home of the brave the United States
of America.
The War Between the States rid us of the ignominy of human slavery, and granted to the women of the South industrial
freedom, for both of which blessings we should be devoutly and eternally grateful.
The World War, besides putting a check on the tyranny of European monarchs, hastened our nation-wide prohibition
and the enfranchisement of women.
But are heartaches and bloodshed and expulsions the only swift panaceas for national ills?
May the Ruler of all the earth, who raised up Moses, the law-giver; Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles; Martin Luther,
the reformer; George Washington, the supreme patriot; Abraham Lincoln, the humanitarian; Woodrow Wilson, the statesman;
each, in the fullness of time, to perform his particular mission, create some master sociologist capable of evolving
and carrying out a plan for adjusting our difficulties humanely and reasonably!
GRAVE OF PATHKILLER
In the peaceful cemetery at New Echota, where lies one of the foremost Indians of the Cherokee Nation.
In the meantime, it behooves all mankind to "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God."
"The air for the wing of the sparrow,
The bush for the robin and wren; But always the path that is narrow And straight for the children of men."
ROMANCE OF ELIAS BOUDINOT AND HARRIET GOLD
BY LULIE PITTS
Elias Boudinot and Harriet Gold, whose names appear in the inscription on the Cherokee Indian monument at New Echota,
were central figures in one of the most thrilling romances of that period.
Elias Boudinot who, according to report, numbered among his forbears one of DeSoto's men and the daughter of an
Indian chief, was born in 1803, near Rome, Ga., eldest of eight children, four boys and four girls. His family
name was Oowatie, shortened later to Watie. Elias's Cherokee name was Killekeenah, or Galignia, meaning 'The Buck."
He was educated at a famous mission school established at Cornwall, Connecticut, in 1817, by the American Board
of Foreign Missions. Elias Boudinot, a trusted friend of Washington's during the Revolutionary War and president
of the Continental Congress, while on a visit to the school, became so interested in the young Indian student that
he took him under his special care and gave him his own name, as was customary in those days.
While attending the mission school, Killekeenah, or Elias, as he was now called, met Miss Harriet Gold, a lovely
girl, youngest of the fourteen children of Colonel Benjamin and Eleanor Gold, leading citizens of Cornwall, and
the brave scion of Indian royalty immediately succumbed, a victim of Cupid's darts. His affection was reciprocated.
The Gold family bitterly opposed the match, considering the alliance of a white girl with an Indian an everlasting
disgrace.
The reputation of the school had been damaged already by the marriage of John Ridge, a cousin of Boudinot's, to
Sarah Northrop, daughter of the steward of the mission, and it was thought that a second marriage of a white girl
to an Indian would destroy the institution. On this ground, Harriet's two ministerial brothers-in-law, knowing
her deep religious feeling, made fervent appeals for her renunciation of this misalliance, but without avail. Her
love for the young man and desire to be a missionary to his people outweighed all other considerations.
When the banns were published the whole community was aroused, excitement was at fever heat, the couple was burned
in effigy while the church bell tolled a requiem, but, through it all, the daring 20-year-old girl never permitted
her decision to waver.
In a letter to her brother-in-law, dated June 25, 1825, giving an account of the trying scenes through which she
had passed, Harriet wrote, "I have seen the time when I could close my eyes upon every earthly object, and
look up to God as my only supporter, my only hope; when I could say to my Heavenly Father with emotion I never
felt before, 'Other refuge have I none, So I, helpless, hang on thee, I still have the consciousness of feeling
that I have not acted contrary to duty, and that what I have done is not adverse to divine approbation. I attended
meeting today as usual. As I had been requested to leave the singers' seat that I should not disgrace the other
girls, I took our pew. Mrs. Stone advised the singers to dress in white today and wear a piece of black crape on
the left arm, but they did not. Church communion is put off on account of some difficulty occasioned by the report
of the marriage."
One afternoon, Harriet called all her friends (not every one had deserted her) to a pine grove near her home and
read to them her reasons for taking the step she
had decided upon. But the filial daughter, true to her Christian principles, was unwilling to act without her parents'
consent, which was granted, finally, during a desperate illness brought on by the strain to which she had been
subjected.
Although a letter expressing their opposition to the marriage had been sent to Boudinot at the New Echota home
where he had been since leaving school, the Golds hastened to send another communication announcing their changed
decision, and, fortunately, it reached him before the message of refusal.
Gradually, all of the family became mollified, and plans for the wedding were consummated. Harriet's brother Stephen,
who was devoted to her, was heartbroken at the thought of his best loved sister's marrying an Indian, and even
threatened Elias with bodily injury, but some months before the nuptials, one of the Gold sisters wrote, "Stephen
feels strenuously opposed to the. Indian connection, but he has given up the struggle of trying to prevent it,
and sings, rides, and walks with Harriet, as usual, and seems as chirk as ever."
An aunt of Miss Gold's, when told of the engagement, exclaimed, "Well, I do not believe that any Indian ever
got such a lump of gold before!"
Since threatening letters had been sent to Elias in Georgia, one inclosing the picture of a gallows, when the time
came for him to go north for his bride, it was thought best for him to assume a disguise on reaching the vicinity
of Cornwall lest young men of the place do him physical injury. On the return journey, the young couple spent the
first night in an inn at Washington, Connecticut, protected by an armed guard.
They reached Georgia without mishap, and Harriet wrote back home glowing letters of the trip, telling of the polite
attention shown them along the way and the hearty welcome received from the home folks.
"Family prayers," she said, "never appeared so interesting to me as here. Mr. Boudinot reads a portioh
of the scriptures in English, then interprets it to Father and Mother, and, if we sing, he explains the hymn."
Harriet never regretted her marriage. She wrote, "My mother will remember what my opinion was with regard
to my dear husband before I left Cornwall. Indeed, he is all that I could wish him to be, and my sisters need not
think it is a reflection on their husbands to say that I have excelled them all. I know that their husbands are
good positively, but mine is good superlatively."
Harriet was fond of her Indian name, "Kalahdee." Elias busied himself with a mission school, translating
the Bible into the Cherokee language, writing hymns, organizing Sunday-schools, conducting prayer meetings, and
editing The Cherokee Phoenix, a weekly newspaper founded in 1828 and published in both Cherokee and English.
A few years later, Mr. and Mrs. Gold visited their daughter at her home at New Echota, using their own horses and
carriage for the thousand-mile journey and covering the distance leisurely in forty-seven days. They were charmed
with the place and the people, and wrote home interestingly of the elegant residences, hospitality, prosperity,
and progressiveness of the Cherokee Nation.
In a letter to his brother, Mr. Gold said: "Harriet has a large and convenient framed house, two stories,
thirty feet by forty feet on the ground, well done off and well furnished with the comforts of life. They get their
supplies of clothes and groceries from Boston, and their sugars, molasses, etc., come from Augusta. They have a
year's store of teas, clothes, paper, ink, etc. This neighborhood is truly an interesting, pleasant place; the
ground, level and smooth as a house floor, laid out in city form-one hundred lots of one acre each-a spring called
the public spring near the center, with other springs on the plat; six new framed houses in sight, besides a council
house, courthouse, printing office, and stores, the merchandise being brought from Augusta in caravans of six-horse
wagons."
Of his two grandchildren, Eleanor and Mary, who had come to bless the Boudinot household-her "little papooses,"
Harriet called them-Mr. Gold said they would pass easily for full blooded Yankees, but were handsomer, their grandmother
thought, than any children to be found in the north. Three boys and another girl were added to this interesting
family, which was based on the sure foundation of love-love for each other and love for God. The days were full
of service, and no other people in the whole Cherokee Nation were striving more cheerfully and diligently to fulfill
nobly the destiny that had been assigned them than Elias and Harriet Boudinot.
But dark clouds were lowering. The whites had been ceded already a very large part of the Indian lands, but they
desired to get full possession and send the owners to the West. The story of how they succeeded is too long for
this article, and makes a rather repulsive chapter in Georgia history.
The persecutions of the whites became so unbearable many of the Indians began to realize that removal was inevitable.
The Nation was divided into two parties; one favoring a treaty, the other opposed to it. Elias Boudinot, as editor
of The Cherokee Phoenix and trusted citizen, exerted his influence to avert disaster, but, finally, became convinced
that it was advisable to relinquish the lands on the best terms that could be obtained. Both parties conferred
with Washington authorities many times. In the end, a treaty of removal was arranged by the leaders-Major and John
Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and his brother, Stand Watie-and the United States government undertook to carry out its
provisions.
Harriet was filled with terrible forebodings and anxiety during these trying times, and she wrote home bitterly
of existing conditions, but she was never to know the horrors of exile. Two years before the march westward was
begun, this dauntless Connecticut girl, having finished the work allotted to her as wife, mother, and missionary,
was called into eternal rest. She was buried in the tribal cemetery at New Echota.
Guarding the grave is a marble shaft, which, after the lapse of almost a hundred years, stands firm as the affections
of the one it memorializes. It bears this inscription:
To the memory of
HARRIET RUGGLES,
wife of Mr. Elias Boudinot. She was the daughter of Colonel Benjamin and Eleanor Gold, of Cornwall, Conn., where
she was born
June, 1805
And died at New Echota,
Cherokee Nation,
Aug. 15, 1836.
Aged 31.
"We seek a rest beyond the skies."
The reputed grave of Chief Pathkiller, stone incased, is in an adjoining lot. All other graves have been obliterated.
The little cemetery is cared for by the Calhoun Woman's Club.
Shortly after reaching their western home, Elias Boudinot and his cousins, the Ridges, were brutally assassinated
by members of the party opposing the New Echota treaty. This atrocity had been called the most horrible deed in
Cherokee history.
The six children, doubly orphaned, were sent north to be cared for by their mother's family. All of them developed
musical talent and played and sang delightfully. One of the boys, Frank, enlisted in the United States army during
the War Between the States. Cornelius, who had become a lawyer and editor, joined the Confederate forces. He was
made lieutenant colonel of the regiment whose colonel was his uncle, Stand Watie. He became very prominent after
the war, and numbered among his Mends the most noted men of the country. He was an accomplished raconteur and sang
divinely. It was said of him in a memorial service held in his honor at Muscogee, Okla., "Taken in all phases
of character, he was, perhaps, the best representative of the Indian race that ever existed."
Sarah, the youngest daughter, died in childhood; Mary married Lyman Case, and died in 1853; Eleanor married Henry
J. Church. Miss Mary Brinsmade Church, a daughter of this union, has written a delightful biography of her grandfather,
Elias Boudinot, which was the source of many of the facts contained in this article.
MISSION SCHOOLS AMONG THE INDIANS
J. A. HALL, IN THE CALHOUN TIMES
Among the well known Indian families who made their homes in the Oothcaloga valley of Gordon County, Georgia, at
the beginning of the nineteenth century were a number of mixed bloods, descendants of white traders who had married
Indian women and made their homes among the Indians.
Prominent among these mixed blood families were the Adairs, for whom Adairsville was named; Collins McDaniel, who
was a man of large means, but was not related to the well known families of that name who, later, settled in the
county, and William Hicks, who operated a large farm, subsequently known as the Josey Campbell place.
They lived in good houses, owned farms, mills, stores, and slaves and were interested greatly in education. The
old Hicks home, so far as I am able to identify it, was the house occupied for many years by Armstead Abbott and
is still standing (1933).
In 1820, a committee composed of William Hicks, John Ridge, and David Watie addressed a communication to the directors
of the Moravian Society at Salem, N. C, requesting that a mission school be established in the Oothcaloga community.
The Moravians had opened a mission at Spring Place, Murray County, Ga. in 1801, and its influence had been felt
far and wide, many of the Oothcaloga valley people going all the way to Spring Place to attend school and religious
services. Among these was an Indian named Oowatie, who, with his wife, joined the church. When he was baptized,
he was given the name, "Christian David" Oowatie. This man had two sons who became famous in Cherokee
history. The elder was called in boyhood Galagina (Buck) Oowatie, but later in life he became known by an adopted
name, Elias Boudinot. The other son was Stand Oowatie, who became a Confederate general during the War Between
the States. Stand Oowatie could not speak English until he was twelve years old. He was sent to the Presbyterian
Mission School at Brainerd, located on the line between Tennessee and Georgia. Finding that it was too much trouble
to write all three syllables of his name, be dropped the "Oo," leaving "Watie," and this name
his family retained.
Christian David Oowatie, father of Boudinot and Stand Watie, was a full-blooded Indian and never learned to speak
the English language. His wife, reputed to be of mixed blood, spoke the language very brokenly.
David had an older brother who was a man of remarkable ability. In childhood he was named after the Cherokee fashion,
"The Man Who Walks on the Mountain Tops." This was entirely too much name for the missionaries and traders,
so they called him "The Mountain" and later, "The Ridge." Finally, after he had rendered valuable
service as a soldier with General Jackson in the war against the Creeks, and had been appointed a major at the
battle of Horse Shoe Bend, he became familiarly known as Major Ridge. His son, John Ridge, who was a student at
Spring Place and finished his education at Cornwall, Conn., was a first cousin of Elias Boudinot's and Stand Watie's.
It is a highly interesting fact that an Indian family, emerging, as it did, from the obscurity of a savage past,
produced more characters of outstanding ability than any other family which has lived in that region. These people
were helped greatly by the superior education they had received.
The original home of this remarkable Indian family seems to have been somewhere between Calhoun and Rome on the
Oostanaula river. Later, Oowatie seems to have lived in Oothcaloga valley near the mission, and when his sons,
Buck and Stand, came home from college, they resided at or near New Echota.
A short distance south of Calhoun on the road to Adairsville, there stood at one time a quaint-looking, two-story
house known as the Decatur Stephens place. It was built of excellent materials and was situated near a large spring.
This was the famous Oothcaloga, or Ougillogy, mission house where, for thirteen years (1821-34) faithful and devoted
Moravian instructors taught and prayed for the young daughters of Cherokee families.
It was used exclusively as a girls' school and was attended by the daughters of many families now famous in Cherokee
history.
The first mission house, two log cabins with a wide entry between, the prevailing style of architecture at that
time, was built in 1821, just across the road from the old Stephens house. John Gambold, who had come from Spring
Place to establish the mission, lived there. Later, he bought a two-story house for $547.00, using the upper story
for a dwelling; the lower, for school and church services. John George Proske, a young man, was sent from the mission
at Salem, N. C, to be a teacher and helper. The Oothcaloga mission was located on what was called The Great Tennessee
road,, and was about four miles south of the council house at the Cherokee capital of New Echota.
George Proske left the mission in 1825, and Miss Polly Gambold, niece of John Gambold, was delegated by the Salem
mission to take his place. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clayton were sent from Salem to assist in the farm and household
labors of the mission, and a bell was donated.
As usual in mission work, during the first years there was much sowing and little reaping. There was no numerical
growth from 1821 to 1826, but those who were connected with the mission experienced a remarkable strengthening
of morals and religion.
Extract from White's Statistics, Vol. II.
"At New Echota, Scherrnerhorn's treaty was made. In 1832, the village had 300 inhabitants. Among the most
distinguished were Elijah Hix, Elias Boudinot, Alexander McCoy. At Oothcaloga was the residence of the Adairs.
Indians here lived better than in any other part of the country. Oostanaula was a large town in 1791. The Indians
were exceedingly hostile."
SEQUOYAH, THE CHEROKEE CADMUS
Any history of the Cherokees would be incomplete without laudable mention of Sequoyah, their tribesman and benefactor,
whose invention of a Cherokee alphabet placed his people in
the forefront of Indian tribes as the only group of American Red men possessing a written language and a literature.
Sequoyah, or Sikwayi, was born in Tennessee, near old Echota, about 1760. His mother was a mixed-blooded Cherokee
woman, of good family, sister to a chief in Echota; his father was a white man, supposed to be a German trader
named Gist, or, less correctly, Guest or Guess, who deserted the girl before the birth of their son.
Sequoyah, or George Gist, as he was known to the whites, spent his boyhood in much the same manner as did the other
Cherokee youths, playing games, hunting, and fishing, later becoming an expert silversmith, a blacksmith, a philosopher,
and active in political affairs. Although noteworthy for distinguished educational and civic service, this remarkable
genius, having attained middle age before the advent of missionary teachers among the Cherokees, never learned
the English language, neither did he abandon his native religion.
In 1809, when he was almost fifty years old, a chance conversation led him to realize the tremendous handicap of
his people because of inability to communicate thought by means of writing, as did the white people, and, at once,
he set himself the task of devising an Indian alphabet. He had become lamed permanently in a hunting accident,
and the enforced leisure was devoted to study. With nothing to build upon, he was pursuing a stupendous task, but,
after twelve years of patient, tireless effort in the face of ridicule, discouragement, and repeated failure, he
succeeded in evolving a syllabary of 85 characters, representing the sounds of the Cherokee language and, according
to the opinion of philologists, one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect in any age.
It was submitted to the Nation for a public test in 1821, and received enthusiastic tribute as invaluable to the
elevation of the tribe. As there were no silent letters to cope with and it was necessary only to learn the characters
in order to be able to read and write, thousands of illiterate Cherokees availed themselves of this opportunity.
The new alphabet was used in Bible translations, hymns, texts of school books, laws, newspapers, etc.
"The Cherokee Phoenix," first Indian newspaper, was printed at New Echota in the present Gordon County,
Georgia.
Sequoyah went west in 1822 to teach the new system to his countrymen who had settled beyond the Mississippi river.
Chief John Ross, in behalf of the Cherokee national council, presented the inventor a silver medal suitably inscribed
in both the Cherokee and English languages. The Washington treaty in 1828 contained a provision for the payment
to him of $500 "for the beneficial results to his tribe of the alphabet invented by him" Sequoyah died
in Mexico, August, 1843.
The giant redwood trees of California were named the Sequoias in honor of this Red man of the giant intellect.
Oklahoma, Sequoyah's adopted home state, has placed his bust in the Hall of Fame at Washington to commemorate her
most illustrious citizen, and many other honors have been bestowed upon this great contributor to the uplift of
his people.
