Knox County TN Archives History - Books .....Initial Movements Towards Setlement -
Chapter II 1900
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Book Title: Standard History Of Knoxville
CHAPTER II.
INITIAL MOVEMENTS TOWARDS SETTLEMENT.
Domain of CherokeesApproach of Hunters, Trappers and Explorers
ImmigrationGradual Withdrawal of IndiansTreatiesFort StanwixHard
LaborLochaberPurchases of Watauga AssociationJacob Brown and Richard
HendersonTreaties of Long Island; of Holston, Dumplin, Coytoy. and
HopewellWestward Movement.
KNOXVILLE at present is the commercial center of an extensive territory, limited
practically by the same boundaries which correspond to those of the Cherokee
nation of Indians about the middle of the eighteenth century. Her commercial
travelers visit southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, northwestern
South Carolina, northern Georgia, northeastern Alabama, and eastern Tennessee.
The domain included the head-waters of the streams in the divisions of the
states named, comprehending- the mountains of the lower Appalachian system. Not
all of this immense tract was occupied by them, nor was it unclaimed by other
nations. While not formidable claimants, the Six Nations, Shawnees, and
Delawares asserted their rights to a portion of it.*
*Charles C. Royce: The Cherokee Nation of Indians, 141. in report of Bureau
of Ethnology. 1883-'84.
Prior to the explorations of the first hunters and trappers and to the
establishment of the first forts in eastern Tennessee, movements and
negotiations had been begun which were to continue until, ultimately, this
nation of intrepid warriors was removed west of the Mississippi river. The
conflicts between neighboring tribes, the ravages of disease, particularly the
smallpox, and other causes led to such diminution of the population of the
Cherokees that at the time of the ingress of the explorer they were ill prepared
to resist the onflowing tide of immigration, soon to set in by reason of his
description of the beneficence and prodigality of nature in the region beyond
the Alleghanies. Whether actuated purely by love of sport and adventure, as Dr.
Thomas Walker, Wallen, and their hunting parties, or by a combined quest for
land and game, as Daniel Boone and Henry Scaggins, or by motives of discovery
and permanent habitation, as James Smith and James Robertson, or by the spirit
of trade and commerce, as James Adair and John Findley, each returning
individual and company or party gave such glowing accounts of the luxuriance of
forests, fertility of the soil, abundance of game, freshness and purity of the
waters, richness of pasturage, and exemption from external interference as to
stimulate an immediate movement into the trans-Alleghany country for fixed
settlement.
The starting point in the settlement of Tennessee is the cabin of William
Bean, built in 1769 near the junction of Watauga river and Boone's creek in
upper East Tennessee. From this point it is interesting to note the tide of
immigration as it surged forward from Virginia and the Carolinas over the
mountains into the valleys beyond. Like the impetuosity of the mountain torrent
it continued its onward course, brooking no opposition and overcoming every
obstacle. The checks it received were momentary, only serving, as it were, to
gather renewed force for the occupancy of wider bounds. It is the beginning of a
thrilling and marvelous history. Therein are crowded within the space of a
quarter of a century deeds of heroism and daring, experiences of hardship and
suffering, records of success and triumph that enkindle ancestral pride and
foster patriotic devotion. What booted it that the Indian claimed it as his
hunting ground, employed his lazy existence in darting over the hills in pursuit
of game and skimming in his light canoe over the sparkling streams, or indulged
his savage nature in banishing or exterminating those of his own blood? The
pioneer regarded it a struggle of intelligence and civilization with ignorance
and barbarism. He was willing, personally or through his governmental agents, to
give the Indian in presents, money or other equivalent the value set by him upon
his claims, though he himself had little or no respect for such claims. Perhaps
his opinion touching these claims was best expressed in the policy of the
mother-state. North Carolina, who "considered in all her provincial and state
acts that the pretended title of the Indians was mere moonshine. It never was
anything more." *
*Opinion of Judge John Haywood in Cornet vs. Winton's Lessee; 2 Yerger's
Tennessee Reports. 156.
In the uneven contest it was not difficult to forecast the trend and outcome
of events. Like the melancholy theme running through the chorus of Greek tragedy
or the sad fate that pursued the fortunes of the house of Atreus, the dark,
ominous clouds of extermination and expatriation lay across the pathway of the
Cherokee. In treaty-making councils, in battles in the open or under cover, or
in hand-to-hand conflicts, he was no match for his pale-face brother. The
prophetic lament of Oconostota at the treaty of the Sycamore Shoals, the sullen
protest of Old Tassel at Coytoy, the splendid generalship o-f Dragging Canoe at
Island Flats, the strategy and cunning of Old Abraham at the Watauga fort, and
the perfidious daring of John Watts in the threatened attack on Knoxvilleall
these availed nothing. The hand-to-hand fight of John Sevier and the "brave" at
Boyd's creek, of Moore and the chief at Island Flats, and of Hubbard and Untooia
near Citico tell the same story.
Trained in the school of self-help, along with self-defence, the step to
self-government was an easy one for the pioneer to take. The Watauga Association
and the state of Franklin were but movements created by imminent perils and
unlooked-for emergencies. With the influx of large bodies of settlers, many of
them representing disorderly elements of society, and with almost impenetrable
forests, impassable mountains, and great distances separating them from the home
government, and that government lukewarm in its interest and indifferent to
appeals for protection, it was natural that in the then western wilds the
settler should seek to throw around himself every safeguard. That he was not a
separatist in spirit is shown by his gallant stand and signal success at the
battle of King's mountain during the Revolutionary war, and later by his lovalty
to Washington and the Federal government, when his appeals for permission to
assume the offensive against the Indian invader and marauder were constantly
refused.
In the chain of events leading up to the dispossession of the Cherokees from
the territory embracing Knoxville treaty negotiations form important links.
These treaties have a chronological sequence in importance and character, and
might be divided into three classes according to> the objects had in view by the
framers, or their agents. The first had to do with alliances, the second with
alliances and the acquisitions of territory, and the third with the acquisitions
of territory. Every treaty had in view the cultivation and maintenance of
peaceful relations. The treaty relations of the Cherokees with the English
colonial governments began as early as 1721, when the province of South
Carolina, to- protect her frontiers against French territorial encroachments,
entered into a treaty of peace and commerce. Nine years later North Carolina
pursued the same course. For years these treaties were observed, and harmonious
relations existed. However, upon the outbreak of the French and Indian war, the
Carolina governors sought to strengthen the alliance, to secure safety to the
frontier. Fort Loudon, the first habitation of the Englishman in Tennessee, was
built accordingly, in 1756. Thus far except the relinquishment of claims to
lands to which the Catawbas had a better title, no portion of their lands had
been given up by the Cherokees.
The acquisition of territory from the Cherokees began with the almost
contemporaneous treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labor in 1768. By these
treaties a small strip of territory within the present limits of Tennessee was
acquired, beginning thirty-six miles east of Long Island on the Holston river.
Even while these treaties were in course of negotiation, white settlers were
invading territory beyond the bounds to be agreed upon in treating. This brought
about an immediate subsequent treaty and the adjustment of a new boundary.*
These encroachments occasioned the treaty of Lochaber two years following in
South Carolina, which brought the confines thirty miles down the Holston, to a
point six miles east of Long Island. The next cessions of territory are in the
nature of leases, out of deference to the inhibitions of George III., in 1763.
and are made to the Watauga Association and to Jacob Brown for stipulated
amounts of goods. Three years afterwards, in 1775, for additional remuneration
these become in fee simple the property of the lessees. These acquisitions
include all the waters of the Watauga river, part of those of the Holston to a
point near the mouth of Cloud's creek, and those of the Nollichucky to the mouth
of Big Limestone creek. The same year Brown adds to his purchase the lands on
both sides of the Nollichucky below the Big Limestone's mouth to the mouth of
Camp creek, a distance of ten miles down the river. Richard Henderson's purchase
by treaty in 1775. by the deed known as the "Path Deed," acquired the lands
north of the Holston beginning near the mouth of Cloud's creek and extending up
that stream to the Virginia line. These purchases taking place in March, 1775.
it will thus be seen that at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, all that now
embraces Sullivan, Johnson and Carter counties, much of Washington, and some of
Greene, Hawkins and Unico-i counties had been wrested from the Cherokees.
* Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee. 77.
The next treaty, in 1777, known as that of the Long Island of the Holston, was
more in the nature of a peace treaty and brought little additional territory. By
its terms some parts of Brown's line were adopted and on the Holston, lands as
far down as the mouth of Cloud's creek were ceded.* This and its companion
treaty of Dewitt's Corners in South Carolina gave great offence to the
Chickamauga contingent of the Cherokees, and led to their removal to the region
where they founded near and below Chattanooga of to-day the five Lower Towns,
which for seventeen years were a constant menace and annoyance to the
settlements. The thorough chastisement administered to the Cherokees by the
Christian, Rutherford and Williamson expeditions from Virginia, North Carolina,
and South Carolina respectively, produced a temporary respite from Indian
assaults, but an arbitrary act of the North Carolina legislature in 1783 brought
a renewal of bitterness and jealousy. Without the concurrence of the Indians or
consultation with them. North Carolina had by this act extended her western
boundaries to the Mississippi river, while reserving to the Indians that portion
of the state in which were their towns, cultivated fields, and the territory
adjacent. It will be seen later how this act was a factor in the settlement of
Knoxville.
* Ramsey. 173.
In 1785 the independent state of Franklin, arrogating to herself all the
rights and dignity of a duly constituted commonwealth, invited the Cherokees to
a treaty, to be held at the mouth of Dumplin creek on the north side of the
French Broad river. In return for large cessions of territory south of the
Holston and French Broad rivers extending to the ridge dividing the waters of
Little and Little Tennessee rivers, the Franklinites made promises of
"compensation in general terms."+ The same year at Coytoy another treaty
between
the same parties took place which conveyed to Franklin all the lands sold by
North Carolina and entered on the west side of the Holston river. Though
protesting that they knew nothing of such sales Old Tassel and Hanging Maw
yielded, after "a straight talk" on the part of the Franklin commissioners
threatening extirpation.* These two treaties involved the cession of most of
Knox county. Those settling, therefore, on lands then ceded did so in good
faith, not only having land warrants purchased from North Carolina by authority
of her legislature, but also the sanction of the state of Franklin. However, the
treaty of Hopewell, the first entered into between the United States and the
Indians and negotiated the latter part of November, 1785, gave an abrupt check
to the lawful possession of the territory by its restoration to the Indians,
though it came too late to stem the tide of immigration that had gone in and
possessed the land. The settlers "had done expanded," as many as three thousand
of them being in the fork of the Holston and French Broad rivers. This treaty
ignored the act of the North Carolina legislature and the treaties of the state
of Franklin, but reaffirmed Henderson's purchase, inasmuch as he was dead, and
the commissioners had in their possession the deeds showing the lands of the
purchase. It left the dividing line practically where it was fixed in 1777 by
the Lone Island treaty. The commissioners reserved to the Holston and French
Broad settlers, who were too numerous to remove, right of occupancy and freedom
from molestation until that tract in dispute should be adjudicated by Congress.
This treaty was not signed without the solemn protest of North Carolina through
its agent. William Blount, who was present with delegated powers. This, the
first appearance of this gentleman in active espousal of the cause of the
frontiersman, was an earnest of the distinguished part he was to take in
upholding and guarding their interests, as will be seen, at a later date. Such
an act, he maintained, was an infringement upon the legislative rights of the
state, which had granted these as bounty-lands to the officers and soldiers in
the Continental line of that state in payment of services rendered in the
Revolutionary war.
+ Ramsey. 299.
* Ramsey, 344-346.
A knowledge of the occurrences and conditions antecedent to the settlement of
Knoxville is necessary to explain many subsequent events in her history, yet
these were but repetitions of the struggle that had been going on from the first
occupancy of American soil. They exhibit the ceaseless westward movement of the
pioneer, the reluctant yielding of his land on the part of the Indian, and the
bitter animosity produced by the clashing of two ideas or forces contending for
supremacy, one little removed above brute instinct, the other dictated by
intelligent foresight.
Additional Comments:
From:
STANDARD HISTORY
OF
KNOXVILLE TENNESSEE
WITH FULL OUTLINE OF THE NATURAL ADVANTAGES, EARLY SETTLEMENT, TERRITORIAL
GOVERNMENT, INDIAN TROUBLES, AND GENERAL AND PARTICULAR HISTORY OF THE CITY DOWN
TO THE PRESENT TIME
EDITED BY
WILLIAM RULE
GEORGE F. MELLEN, PH. D., AND J. WOOLDRIDGE COLLABORATORS
PUBLISHED BY
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO 1900
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