History of Western North Carolina - Chapters 25-26



CHAPTER XXV.
MINES AND MINING

PREHISTORIC WORKINGS. Evidences of the early working of mines in this
mountain region are so frequent and unmistakable as to leave no doubt that
in several places mining was carried on at least three hundred years ago.
But by whom is the problem.

The Andrews Sun of January 4, 1912, having stated that Tristan de
Velazquez carried on mining in Cherokee county, the matter was submitted
to the Librarian of Congress with the following result:

NOT TRISTAN DE VELAZQUEZ. "We have been unable to find any mention of
Tristan de Velazquez in the histories of early Spanish explorations in the
southeastern states. It seems probable that the article quoted has
confused the names of Don Luis de Velasco and Don Tristan de Luna y
Arellano. Velasco, as viceroy of New Spain, sent out an expedition in 1559
under command of Luna y Arellano to establish a colony in Florida. One of
the latter's lieutenants appears to have led an expedition into
northeastern Alabama in 1560. According to Charles C. Jones, in his
'Hernando de Soto', 1880, Luna's expedition penetrated into the Valley
river valley in Georgia and there mined for gold, but this statement is
questioned by Woodbury Lowery in his 'Spanish settlements within the
present limits of the United States,' New York, 1901, p.367. There appears
to be no authority for the statement that this expedition entered the
present limits of North Carolina. A Spanish account of this expedition
will be found in Garcilasco de Ia Vega's 'La Florida del Inca,' Lisbon,
1605."(1)

A brief history of early gold mining in the Southern states may be found
in George F. Becker's "Gold fields of the Southern Appalachians," in 16th
annual report of the United States Geological Survey, 1894-95. Some
historical notes of interest are given in Nitze and Wilkins' "Gold Mining
in North Carolina," Raleigh, 1897. (North Carolina Geological Survey
Bullelin, No.10.)(2)

"THE SPECIMEN" STATE. There are a great many kinds of minerals in North
Carolina, especially in the mountain region. But, with few exceptions, the
veins or deposits are in small quantities-so small in fact as to have
given the State the title of the "Specimen State." Iron, copper, mica,
talc, kaolin, barytes, corundum, garnet, and lime, however, have been
found in paying quantities.

ANCIENT DIGGINGS. In his "Speeches and Writings" (p.130) Gen. Clingman
gives an account of his work at the Sink Hole mines in Mitchell county in
1867. He thought there was silver ore there and exhibited some of it to
several western miners in New York City, who declared it would assay three
hundred dollars to a ton; but it produced only about three dollars. Gen.
Clingman, however, had caused a shaft to be sunk and two tunnels to be
carried entirely below the old excavations, but found nothing but raica.
In the same chapter he speaks of a tradition among the Indians that long
ago white men came on mules from the South during the summer and carried
off a white metal with them, and thinks the remains of old works in
Cherokee give countenance to the report.

SINK HOLE MINES. These are about seven miles southwest from Bakersville
and two miles from Galax. From present appearances it would seem that a
large number of men had been at work there for years. The mines are on a
ridge in front of D. Pinkney Chandler's home, and are from sixty to eighty
feet in diameter at the top. They extend along ridge for one-third of a
mile. They seem to have been a series of concentric holes, all of which
have long since filled up from the debris which had been removed from
them. But, standing with their roots on some of this waste originally
taken from these holes are several large trees nearly three feet in
diameter. "Timber," says Gen. Clingman, "which I examined, that had grown
on the earth thrown out, had been growing as long as three hundred years."
He speaks also of "a slab of stone near one of these workings that had
evidently been marked by blows of a metalic tool." But Mr. Chandler, who
has lived there and worked in the mines, thinks the miners carried the
waste from these holes on their heads or shoulders, and dug downward only
so long as the inclined, cone-like sides would bear a narrow, spiral track
used to remove the earth. The walls are not perpendicular, but sloping
making a hole in the shape of an inverted cone. The marks of tools are
still visible on these sloping sides when the dirt that has fallen back is
thrown out; for this earth that once had been removed is still loose, and
one can tell the moment he gets outside the original excavation by the
increased hardness of the ground. Stone tools five or six inches in length
flattened, and two or three inches broad are still there, and some have
been found at the bottom of these holes. Mr. Charles D. Stewart of Pinola
dug out one of the highest of these sink holes in 1872 to a depth of 42
feet, removing therefrom a tree that had grown in the hole, with three
hundred rings in its trunk. He also got stone tools out of this hole.
While Gen. Clingman was at work there a tinner named Heap happened in, and
taking a block of the mica, which had been thrown out as worthless, to
Knoxville found that there was a market for it, and returned with a
partner named Clapp and these worked the mine profitably several years.
William Silver, about this time, ran a tunnel under this ridge seventeen
hundred feet to drain the mine on his land, which was about halfway the
length of the ridge. J. K. Irby and D. K. Young also worked there. Others
are working there now, but getting only small returns. At the bottom of
these mines the ground is too hard for stone tools. Gen. Clingman also
mined for silver on Clingman's branch of Beech creek in 1871. (Watauga
County Deed Book No.3, page 595)

THE GAERETT RAY MINES. These are near Bakersville, and when a boy Mr. Ray
observed a line of stone posts about fifteen feet apart on a mountain
slope of his father's farm, and years afterward found that they marked a
valuable mica mine, whose limits did not extend beyond them. They had
never been worked, though there were a series of round basinlike holes in
the soil of the slope.

ANCIENT MINING IN CLAY COUNTY. On a ridge on the left bank of Toonah
creek, in Clay county, are many evidences of early mining, the surface of
the earth having been left in many small but distinct ridges. Gold in
small quantities is found in the creek bed, and the character of the white
rock and pebbles still tempts searchers after gold to pan and wash the
sand and gravel from the nearby hills. It has never paid, however.

MICA MINES IN ASHE. Of the mica mines in Ashe county the Director of the
United States Geological Survey says (1909):

"Hamilton Mine is on the west slope of a mountain two miles northwest of
Beaver creek. It was reopened by the Johnson-Hardin Company in 1907. Two
tunnels were run into the hillside along the vein." The character and
quality of the mica are stated.

The North Hardin mine is on a ridge about one and a half miles west of
Beaver creek and has been worked on a large scale. It was operated by two
open cuts and other pits, etc., which have proved the continuity of the
pigmatite for over 100 yards and shown the thickness to vary from three to
eight feet. "The mica has a beautiful rum color and is of the best grade."

The South Hardin mine is near the top of a small mountain or hill about
one and one-half miles southwest of Beaver creek. "The color of the mica
obtained was a clear rum color and the quality the best." The quartz
streaks along the foot wall of the pigmatite contained beryl crystals from
less than an inch to six to eight inches in diameter.

OTHER NOTED MICA MINES. There are other noted mica mines in what was
formerly Mitchell county, among them being Clarissa, the Seeb Miller mine
near Flat Rock, where Ray and Anderson killed two men in a fight over the
property in 1884, and the Deake mine, near Spruce Pine. There are several
mica mines in Yancey and Macon, from one of the latter, the Jotla Bridge
kaolin and mica mine, a block of mica was taken "in 1907, which measured
about 29 by 36 inches across and was about four feet thick."(3) There are
numerous other mica mines, in Jackson, Madison and Transylvania. In 1910
there were over 150 producers.

USES FOR MICA. Mica is used in sheet and ground form--sheet mica for
stoves and lamps and for glazing, and it is also punched into disks and
washers or cut by shears for use in stoves and electrical apparatus.
Ground mica is used as an insulating material in electrical machinery,
wall paper, etc. The value of the production of mica in North Carolina in
1910 was $230,460,(4) as compared with $148,424 in 1909. The average price
of sheet mica in the United States in l910 was 11.5 cents per pound, as
compared with 12.9 in 1909; but the average price of sheet mica in North
Oarolina per pound, by far the highest price paid.

"Among the many varieties of mica only two are considered of economic
importance because of their physical properties; i.e., muscovite and
phiogopite. Of these two varieties muscovite alone is found in quantities
of commercial importance in North Carolina. Small quantities of biotite
mica (black mica) have been used for commercial purposes within the last
few years, however, and another variety, the lepidolite has been used as a
source of lithium salts. Chemically, muscovite is a silicate of aluminum
and potash with a small amount of water; phlogophite is a silicate of
magnesium, aluminum and potassium; and poitite is a silicate of magnesium,
iron, aluminum, and potassium. The three micas are very similar in
physical properties except color."

CORUNDUM AND EMERY. These minerals are found in Clay, Macon, Swain,
Jackson, Transylvania, Buncombe, Madison, Yancey and Mitchell counties.
The following facts are from Vol.1 of the N. C. Geological Survey, 1905,
on Corundrum and the Periodites. It contains 464 pages and is devoted
entirely to this subject. It can be had by paying the postage. It covers
the ground fully.

Corundum was first discovered in Madison county in 1847, about three miles
below Marshall, at the mouth of Little Pine creek. The late Dr. C. D.
Smith of Franklin, discovered corundum on both sides of Buck creek in Clay
County prior to 1875, and Major Bryson did some prospecting there in that
year, followed two years later by Frank Meminger, who worked six months
and removed about 30 tons. In 1887, a Mr. Ernst did some work at Buck
creek, but from then till about 1891 the mine lay idle. About this time,
however, Mr. Gregory Hart of Detroit, Mich., worked it on a larger scale
for about eighteen months. About 1893 the Hamden Emery and Corundum
Company purchased the mine and worked it to some extent, sending the mined
product to the Corundum Hill works to be cleaned. It is now owned by the
International Emery and Corundum Company of New York. There is every
indication of an almost inexhaustible amount of corundum at this mine. It
is said to be too far from the nearest-railroad point to justify its
operation. The completion of a short logging road from Andrews to Chogah
gap will considerably lessen this distance. Just across the mountain, on
the head of Shooting creek is the Isbel mine and factory, where
considerable work was done about 1897-1898. It is now idle.

CORUNDUM HILL. Corundum Hill mine, seven miles from Franklin on Cullasaja
creek, was worked as early as 1871 by the late Col.C. W. Jenks. From 1878
to 1900 from 200 to 300 tons of corundum were cleaned up there every year,
since which time only a small amount has been mined. It is owned by the
International Emery and Qorundum Company of New York. The late Dr. H. S.
Lucas was active in mining these minerals in Macon county for several
years, and is credited with having made money in the business. The Buck
creek and Corundum Hill mines are the most important as they have been the
most productive mines in the State.

CRANBERRY ORE BANK. "The Cranberry Ore Bank in Mitchell [now Avery] is
pronounced by Professor Kerr 'one of the most remarkable iron deposits in
America.' Its location is on the western slope of Iron mountain, in the
northwest part of county, about three miles from the Tennessee line. It
takes the name Cranberry from the creek which flows near the outcrop at
the foot of the mountain. The surrounding and; associated rocks are
gneisses and gneissoids, hornblende, slate and syenite. The ore is a pure,
massive and coarse granular magnetite. The steep slope of the mountain and
ridges, which the bed occupies, are covered with blocks of ore, some
weighing hundreds of pounds, and at places bare, vertical walls of massive
ore, 10 to 15 feet thick, are exposed, and over several acres the solid
ore is found everywhere near the surface. The length of the outcrop is 1,
500 feet, and the width 200 to 800 feet" (State Geological Report). It was
worked in 1820(5) by the Dugger family. (See Chapter XVI, "Notable Cases
and Decisions," section headed "Carter v. Hoke.")

CRANBERRY'S ANTECEDENTS. Dayton Hunter, Esq., lawyer of Elizabethton,
Tenn., owns the land on which stood the first iron works of Tennessee, a
deed now in Jonesboro, Tenn., calling in 1778 for Landon Carter's Forge
Race. This forge stood about 700 feet east of the present court Carter
county. This Landon Carter was the father S. P. Carter, who was both an
admiral in the navy and a lieutenant general in the army of the United
States. Dayton Hunter married a daughter of Rev. W. B. Carter, a
Presbyterian minister and a noted Greek and Latin scholar. Whether Charles
Asher had anything to do with this forge is not known, but on the 18th of
December, 1795, he and his wife Molly conveyed to Julius Dugger for
seventy pounds, "current money of Virginia," (Deed Book A, p.178), 88 3/4
acres on the south side of Watauga river, being part of a grant from North
Carolina to said Charles Asher; and in May, 1802, John Asher conveyed to
the same Dugger 45 additional acres on the same side of the same river
(Deed Book C, p.421). On the 20th of November, 1822, John Asher (a son of
Charles and Molly) conveyed to William Dugger (Deed Book C, p.577) one-
fourth of all the land on Watauga river, "including the Forge," beginning
on a mulberry tree on the north side of the Forge dam, and containing
three acres and 54 poles, "which bargained land and one-fourth of the
same, including the iron works, with all appurtenances thereunto
belonging, or in anywise appertaining, with free privilege of roads for
the use of said iron works, together with the building or reparing timber
for the use of said Forge, and free course for water to said Iron Works,"
is the first reference on the records of the old Dugger Forge, four miles
above Butler, Tenn., on the north side of Watauga river. This would also
indicate what tradition preserves, that Asher was the original iron
master, and that he took the Duggers in with him. Joshua Perkins, who is
said to have built the Cranberry forge for the Duggers, was a son of Jacob
Perkins to whom on the 18th of September, 1811, Richard White, of
Washington county, Va., conveyed, for $1,500, 250 acres on the north side
of Watauga river opposite the mouth of Elk creek, reserving to himself a
right of way over the land conveyed, "up the hollow," in order to avoid
the jutting rock-cliff which formerly blocked the passage of the road on
the right bank. This is the time that Richard White left for Missouri,
according to the tradition of that locality. So it would seem that Landon
Carter was the forefather of Cranberry Forge, that he was succeeded by
Charles and John Asher, and the Duggers, while Joshua Perkins was the real
builder of Cranberry Forge in 1820.

MAGNETIC CITY. Soon after the Civil War John L. Wilder and associates
started a forge on Big Rock creek, and a town which received the name of
Magnetic City. But it was too far at that time from a railroad, and the
forge was abandoned. The white houses around Magnetic City and the little
valley in which they are situated afford a pleasant surprise to the
traveler when he first catches a glimpse of them.

THE DAVIDSON RIVER IRON WORKS. Charles Moore, grandfather of Judge Charles
A. Moore of Asheville, James W. Patton and Thomas Miller of Henderson
county, many years before the Civil War, made a contract with George
Shuford, a millwright, father of Judge George A. Shuford, to build a forge
or furnace and a mill on Davidson River, some of the iron ore being hauled
from Boylston creek, although some was brought only three or four miles
from a mine on the Boylston road. The hammer used in connection with this
iron forge or furnace was operated by water. These owners afterwards
became incorporated as the Davidson River Iron Works. It was in operation
until after the commencement of the Civil War, when the Confederate
Government took charge of it and operated it till its collapse. After the
war it was reopened and Judge Shuford remembers seeing from fifty to sixty
hands at work there as late as 1866.(6)

THE SUTTON FORGE. There was also another iron forge or furnace on Mills
river, known as the Sutton forge, because it was owned by a man named
Sutton. This, however, was not on so large a scale as that on Davidson
river.

MEREDITH BALLOU, PIONEER MINER. From Mr. V. E. Ballou of Grassy creek we
learn that there are valuable iron mines from eight to twelve miles from
Jefferson and about fifteen miles from Troutdale, Va., the nearest
railroad station.(7) They were first discovered by Meredith Ballou, the
greaat-grandfather of V. E. Ballou who came to Ashe from Virginia among
the first settlers. These iron properties are still owned principally by
natives of Ashe county, among whom are J. U. Ballou, Dr. Thos. J. Jones,
the Gentry heirs, B. Sturgill and J. U. Ballon. Napoleon B. Ballou was son
of Meredith and the father of J. U. Ballou "who built the first bloomery
forge and made the first iron in the State, which industry was carried on
till about the year 1890 or 1891. Since that time there has been expended
in Ashe county some $275,000 or $300,000 in the way of purchase money and
development work. This work has proven that there are large, well defined
veins of ore of a superior quality in this section of the State, but only
one of these properties has been transferred to any large capitalist."
(See J. H. Pratt's "Geological History of Western North Carolina in
Chapter XXIV of this history)

IRON PRODUCTION.(8) The Cranberry Iron mine has produced almost all the
iron that has been produced in North Carolina for years. It produces a pig
iron of exceptional quality, commanding a high price. It is magnetic, and
the crude ore is shipped to Knoxville for reduction. It has been a
constant producer for twenty-five years. Nearly one hundred years ago iron
was made there by the old Bloomery methods, and no better iron has since
been made by any method.

AUTHENTIC INFORMATION. From "The Iron Manufacturer's Guide" (1859, by J.
P. Lesley), quoted by Prof. Hyde Pratt in his "Geological History of
Western North Carolina," in the chapter preceding this in this history, we
get what is otherwise a matter of conjecture and doubt as to the date and
names of the different "bloomeries" and iron works of this region. There
is also a mass of valuable information concerning other mines and mining
by Prof. Pratt in that article, to which reference is particularly invited.

ORE KNOB COPPER MINE OF ASHE COUNTY. (Information by Messrs. John Dent and
H. D. Baker) About nine miles east of Jefferson, is the Ore Knob Copper
mine in Ashe county, which was first opened and worked for iron by
Meredith Ballou, a Frenchman, many years ago. He mined the ore and hauled
it to his forge at the mouth of Helton creek, and made wrought iron of it;
but it was found to contain too much copper and sulphur, coating up the
tools with copper and was not so good as that from the North fork of the
New river. About four years before the Civil War a Virginia corportation,
known as the Buckhannon Company, operated Ore Knob, for copper, and hauled
the richest ore to Wytheville, Va., sixty miles away, by wagons, drawn by
shod oxen. These men had bought it from Jesse Reeves, and after working
the mine a year or more, sold it to George S. Miller and associates, who,
after the Civil War, sold it to the Clayton Co., of Baltimore, Md. This
company, under the management of John Dent now a resident of Jefferson,
developed the mine scientificually, had the best of machinery installed,
and established a smelter at the mine. They began work about 1873 and
continued it till about 1877, when the price of copper declined. They
shipped the manufacturered sheet copper to Baltimore, via Marion, Va., and
worked from 300 to 600 hands. Work seems to have continued in a smaller
way till 1880, when it stopped altogether, Mr. Dent leaving there in
December, 1883. This is the first place in North Carolina where copper was
made from the ore and refined up to the Lake Superior grade. The ore was
piled on burning wood heaps and burned from five to to seven weeks, by
which time most of the sulphur would have been driven off, after which the
roasted ore was smelted with charcoal in shaft furnaces and refined down
to 99 per cent pure copper. The vein's general direction is northeast and
southwest, with nearly a vertical dip. Among the principal stockholders of
the company were James E. and S. S. Clayton and J. S. and Herman
Williams.(9) The land in which the mine lay had belonged to John W.
Martin, who conveyed his interest therein to the Clayton Company, the
mineral rights therein having been sold under execution at the court house
door and bought in by the same company. Work was commenced on the 17th day
of March, 1873. Some suppose that this was a mere pocket; but its distance
from a railroad was probably the true reason of its abandonment. There is
an undeveloped copper mine on Gap creek, near the line between Ashe and
Watauga.

ELK KNOB COPPER COMPANY.(10) In 1899 this company entered into a contract
with J. A. Zinns and Joseph Bock of Minnesota for the operation of a
copper mine on Elk Knob, and bought the engine of Vassas Brothers, who had
failed at making pipes out of laurel roots in Boone, which business they
had started in 1897 in a building in the rear of Blackburn's hotel.(11)
The copper mine was abandoned in a few years, and litigation ensued
between Zinns and Bock.

CULLOWHEE COPPER MINE. This is in Jackson county, where some copper was
produced in 1909 and 1910; but it is almost too far from a railroad to
pay. It has a shaft 177 feet deep and a tunnel 4,000 feet in length.

ADAMS-WESTFELDT COPPER MINE. This is on Hazel creek in Swain county; but
the property has been in litigation since 1900. It is on the lead from
Ducktown, and is said to be rich. (See this case in Chapter XVI)

GRAPHITE. The Connally mine at Graphiteville, between Round Knob and the
Swannanoa tunnel is in McDowell county. It was operated a few years prior
to 1907, but, owing to the difficulty of extracting the ore economically,
it was abandoned. There is said to be an inexhaustible quantity on the
land.

KAOLIN. Is obtained principally from Jackson, Mitchell and Swain counties.
Over $100,000 of this mineral has been produced in this State in a year.

AMETHYST has been found in Macon, especially on Tessentee creek. The
Connally mine on this creek has been worked by the American Gem and Pearl
Company of New York and the Rhodes mine by the Passmore Gem Company of
Boston.

TALC AND PYROPHYLITE DEPOSITS. There are talc deposits in Swain and
Cherokee counties. A. A. Campbell of Cherokee was the pioneer in this
mining, having shipped it by wagons before the days of railroads to
Cleveland, Tennessee. It was then $80 per ton, however. It was used as
early as 1859 to line the copper furnaces at Ducktown, Tenn. The principal
talc mines are the North Carolina Talc and Mining Company at Hewitts,
Swain county; the Alba Mineral Company near Kinsey, Cherokee county; the
American Talc Company, and the Glendon Mining and ManufacturingCompany, at
Glendon, Moore county. Hewitts mine is the largest and best. Water
interfered with the operation some years ago, but that has since been
remedied. There is also a talc mine in Mitchell county, near Spruce Pine.

BARYTES. Crude barytes has been produced in the vicinity of Marshall,
Stackhouse, Sandy Bottom and Hot Springs in Madison county. This substance
has been produced in this county since 1884. The value of the product in
1910 was $145,315. Owing to its weight, it is called "heavy spar." There
was a mill for crushing barytes at Warm Springs (now Hot Springs) in
August, 1884. ("On Horseback," page 139).

THULITE was mined in North Carolina, in the Flat Rock mine, in 1908. It
furnishes attractive gems when cut en cabochon with the enclosing feldspar.

ZIRCON was produced in 1909 from the Jones mine near Zirconia, Henderson
county, when operated by M. C. and C. F. Toms. Two thousand pounds in 1909
was valued at $250.

PRECIOUS STONES. During 1908, 1909 and 1910 there was little systematic
mining for gems in this region.

MARBLE AND LIMESTONE. The main marble outcropping begins on the Nantahala
river below Hewitts and extends southward down to Valley river, a distance
of over 25 miles. A shorter and parallel band extends from the head of
Peachtree creek nearly ten miles southwestward and up Little Brasstown
creek. The North Carolina Mining and Talc Company are developing their
marble deposits at Hewitts. High freight rates prevent the development of
this property.

THE CASPERIS MARBLE COMPANY. The Casperis Marble Company is now operating
marble quarries at Regal, a few miles east of Murphy, and is supplying
stone to several railroads. Mr. S. Casperis of Columbus, Ohio, is one of
the largest stone operators in the United States. An extensive finishing
plant employing about 50 men is operated in connection with the quarry.
The quality of what this company calls the "Regal Blue," now being
quarried, is said to be unexceled in the United States. The possibilities
of marble production near Andrews and Brasstown appear to be almost
limitless.

CHASING PETROLEUM RAINBOWS. Notwithstanding the opinion of scientists that
"there is no petroleum to be found in the area west of the Blue Ridge in
North Carolina, as the rocks were formed long before the period of time at
which those carrying petroleum were formed," in the year of grace 1902, in
the county of Buncombe, and within two miles of Asheville, W. A. Baird and
wife and many others on Beaver-dam creek in Buncombe county, gave W. T.
Sidell and E. E. Stewart of West Virginia, leases to mine oil and gas for
one-eighth part of the oil and $200 a year for the use of all the gas that
might be discovered or produced. (Deed Book, 124, p.73)

OIL EXCITEMENT ON COVE CREEK. Soon after the Big Freshet of May, 1901,
indications of oil appeared near N. L. Mast's store on Cove creek, Watauga
county; and A. J. McBride, a reputable citizen, collected the oily film on
top of a pool of water by absorbing it with blotting paper. This burned
brilliantly; and in July, 1902, W. R. Lovill, Esq., a lawyer of Boone,
obtained options on the lands of J. T. Combs and members of his family, B.
F. Bingham, T. B. Fletcher and others, for one year. Mr. Lovill interested
Gen. J. S. Carr of Durham in the matter, and the latter sent Major Hamlet
of Roanoke to investigate. The fiat formation of the rock strata indicates
unmistakably the presence of oil, but the ancient character of the rocks
contradicted these indications, they being gneiss of the oldest character.
But, during the year 1907, the Carolina Valley Oil and Gas Company,
composed of men from New York and Pennsylvania, put down a hole near N. L.
Mast's store 800 feet deep, and then abandoned the work, claiming that the
drill had begun to take a slanting course. This company had a map prepared
which indicated that there is oil in many places in Watauga and Avery
counties. It is certain that the formation of the rock strata along the
lower part of Cove creek and below its entrance into Watauga river is as
nearly fiat as it is possible to be. Oil leases were also taken on lands
around Sutherland, Ashe county.

AGE OF OUR ROCK FORMATION. From Professor Pratt's Geological History of
Western North Carolina, Chapter XXIV in this work, it is clear that "all
the rocks of Western North Carolina are amongst the oldest geologic
formations," from which we may conclude that we are occupying land that is
more ancient than that of the Euphrates, the Nile, or the Jordan so long
associated in our minds with the Garden of Eden, the Ptolemys and Old
Testament stories.

HIGH HONOR FOR OUR NATIVE GEMS. In the "Carolina Mountains" we learn that
the finest specimens of emerald green crystalized corundum in the world,
measuring 4 x 2 x 1 inches, is now in the Morgan-Bemet collection in New
York. It was taken from Corundum Hill, near Franklin, in 1871. From Cowee
creek comes the new gem Rhodolite. "remarkable for its transparency and
great brilliancy (p. 268)," large sea-blue aquamarines, and beryls, both
sea-green and yellow, tourmalines, purple amethyst, discovered on
Tessentee creek by a landslide, and "smoky and citron-green quartz
crystals in the Black mountains,... from which have been cut many
beautiful objects by the Tiffany lapidaries of New York" (p. 272). Salmon
pink chalcedony, agates, green chrysoprase and red and yellow jasper, also
are mentioned. North Carolina minerals "are treasured in the greatest
collections in the world, in this country very fine ones being on
exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of
Natural History (N.Y.), in the U.S. National Museum at Washington, D.C.,
in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, as well as many smaller museums."

VALUE OP MINERAL PRODUCTION IN FOLLOWING COUNTIES.(12)

County        1909      1910
Alleghany    $ 400     $ 500
Ashe           155       500
Buncombe    82,844    64,505
Cherokee    31,283    22,325
Clay
Graham
Haywood      1,550     7,075
Henderaon   99,480    60,882
Jackson     51,599    53,804
Macon       45,732    50,300
Madison     21,785    20,224
Mitchell   191,777   259,127
Swain       99,564    80,983
Transylvania 7,337     6,771
Watauga and
  Wayne     48,338    59,810
Yancey      32,860    59,284

(1. H. H. B. Meyer, Chief Bibliographer Congressional library, to J. P. A.
January 16, 1912)
(2. Ibid)

(3. Economic Paper No. 23, N. C., Geo. And Econ. Survey, 1911)
(4. Ibid)

(5. From "The Iron Manufacturer's Guide," 1859, by J. P. Lesley)

(6. Not mentioned in "The Iron Manufacturer's Guide," 1859, by J. P.
Lesley)

(7. Harbard's Bloomery Forge at the mouth of Holton creek was built in
1807, and washed away in 1817; "Iron Manufacturer's Guide," 1859)

(8. Economic Paper No, 23, N. C. 9. and 11. Survey, 1911, p .30)

(9. The Ore Knob Mining Co. was incorporated by Ch. 29, Pr. Laws of N. C.,
1881, John S. Williams, Washington Booth, James E. Tyson and others of
Baltimore and James E. Clayton and others of Ashe incorporators.)

(10. Deed Book V, Watauga, p.238)
(11. Ibid, T, p.472)

(12. From 25th Annual Beport of the Department of Labor, 1911)



CHAPTER XXVI.
THE CHEROKEES

THE ORIGIN of THE INDIANS. William Penn saw a striking likeness between
the Jews of London and the American Indians. Some claim that the stories
of the Old Testament are legends in some Indian tribes. In the Jewish
Encyclopedia it is said that the Hebrews, after the captivity, separated
themselves from the heathen in order to observe their peculiar laws; and
Manasseh Ben Israel claims that America and India were once joined, at
Bering strait, by a peninsula, over which these Hebrews came to America.
All Indian legend affirm that they came from the northwest. When first
visited by Europeans, Indians were very religious, worshiping one Great
Spirit, but never bowing down to idols. Their name for the deity was Ale,
the old Hebrew name for God. In their dances they said "Hallelujah"
distinctly. They had annual festivals, performed morning and evening
sacrifices, offered their first fruit to God, practiced circumcision, and
there were "cities of refuge," to which offenders might fly and be safe;
they reckoned time as did the Hebrews, similar superstitions marl: their
burial places "and the same creeds were the rule of their lives, both as
to the present and the future." They had chief-ruled tribes, and forms of
government almost identical with those of the Hebrews. Each tribe had a
totem, usually some animal, as had the Israelites, and this explains why,
in the blessing of Jacob upon his sons, Judah is surnamed a lion, Dan a
serpent, Benjamin a wolf, and Joseph a bough.(1) There are also
resemblances in their language to the Latin and Greek tongues, Chickamauga
meaning the field of death, and Aquone the sound of water.

THE CHEROKEES A SUPERIOR TRIBE.(2) They have been known as one of the
largest and most noteworthy of the aboriginal tribes, and formed an
important factor in both English and Spanish pioneering. Those who dwelt
in the mountains were known as the Otari or Overhill Cherokees, while
those dwelling in the lowlands were called the Erati(3) or Lowland
Cherokees. They had their own national government, and numbered from 20,
000 to 25,000 persons. They are "well advanced along the white man's
road." What is now known as the Eastern band, in the heart of the Carolina
mountains, outnumbers today such well-known Western tribes as the Omaha,
Pawnee, Comanche and Kiowas, and it is among these, "the old conservative
Kituhwa element, that the ancient things have been preserved." In the
forests of Nantahala and Oconaluftee, "the Cherokee priest still treasures
the legends and repeats the mystic rituals" of his ancestors. The original
boundary embraced about 40,000 square miles, from the head streams of the
Kanawha to Atlanta, and from the Blue Ridge to the Cumberland range, with
Itsati, or Echota, on the south bank of the Little Tennessee river, a few
miles above the mouth of Tellico creek, in Tennessee, as its capital. This
was called the "City of Refuge." They call themselves the Yunwiga, or real
people, and on ceremonial occasions speak of themselves as Ani-Kituhwagi,
or people of Kituhwa, an ancient settlement on the Tuckaseegee river, and
apparently the original nucleus of the tribe. The name by which they are
now knownCherokee-has no meaning in their language, and the form among
them is Tsalagi or Tsargi. It first appears as Chalaque in the Portugese
narrative of DeSoto's expedition, while Cheraqui appears in a French
document in 1699. It got its present form in 1708, thus having an
authentic history at this time (1913) of 275 years. They admit that they
built the mounds on Grave creek in Ohio, and the mounds near
Charlottesville, Va. They had also lived at the Peaks of Otter, Va. But
they disclaim all knowledge of the mounds and petroglyphs in North
Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.

TRADITIONS OF WHITE AND LILLIPUTIAN RACES. There is a dim but persistent
tradition of a white race having preceded the Cherokees; and of a tribe of
Lilliputians or very small people, who once lived on the site of the
ancient mound on the northern side of Hiwassee river, at the mouth of
Peachtree creek, and afterwards went west. This was long before the normal
sized whites came. bliss Murphrey has preserved this tradition in her "In
the Stranger Peoples' Country."

INTRODUCTION OF SMALL ARMS AND SMALLPOX. About 1700 the first guns were
introduced among the Cherokees, and in 1738 or 1739 smallpox nearly
exterminated the tribe within a single year. It had been brought to
Charleston, S. C., on a slave ship.

OTHER EARLY INCIDENTS. About 1740 a trading path from Augusta to the
Cherokee towns at the head of the Savannah, and thence to the west was
marked out by this tribe, and in that year the Cherokees took part under
their war chief, "The Raven," in Oglethorpe's expedition against the
Spaniards at St. Augustine. In 1736 Christian Priber, a Jesuit, acting in
French interest, became influential among them. He was a most worthy
member of that illustrious order whose scholarship, devotion and courage
have been exemplified from the days of Jogues and Marquette down to Desmet
and Mengarini. In 1756 Fort Prince George was built at the head of the
Savannah, and Fort London near the junction of Tellico creek and the
Little Tennessee river, beyond the mountains. Disagreements between the
Cherokees and the South Carolina colonists finally resulted in the seizure
of Oconostota, a young war chief, and his retention at Fort Prince George
as a hostage. This led to war, and the Cherokees besieged Fort London. In
June, 1760, Col. Montgomery, with 1,600 men, crossed the Indian frontier
and drove the Cherokees from about Fort Prince George, and then destroyed
every one of the Lower Cherokee towns, killing more than a hundred Indians
and driving the whole population into the mountains. He then crossed the
mountains without opposition till he came near Echoe, a few miles above
the sacred town of Kikwasi, now Franklin, N. C., where he met their full
force, which compelled Montgomery to retire in a battle fought June 27,
1760. He retreated to Fort Prince George after losing 100 men in killed
and wounded.

MASSACRE AT FORT LOUDON. This retreat sealed the fate of the garrison at
Fort London, which had been reduced to the necessity of eating horses and
dogs, though Indian women, who had found sweethearts among the soldiers,
brought them what food they could. On August 8, Capt. Demere surrendered
his garrison of about 200 to Oconostota upon promise that they should be
allowed to retire with sufficient arms and ammunition for the march. The
garrison made a day's march up Tellico creek and camped, while the
Cherokees plundered the fort. It was then that they discovered ten bags of
powder and a large quantity of ball that the garrison had secretly buried
in the fort before surrendering. Cannon and small arms also had been
thrown into the river, which was a breach of the terms of the
capitulation. Enraged at this duplicity the Indians attacked the retiring
garrison at sunrise the next morning, killing Demere and 25 others at the
first fire, and taking the rest prisoners, to be ransomed some time later
on. Capt. Stuart, second in command, was claimed by Ata-kullakulla, a
Cherokee chief, who managed to conduct him, after nine days' march, to his
friends in Virginia. A treaty was concluded at Augusta, November 10, 1763,
by which the Cherokees lost all north of the present Tennessee line and
east of the Blue Ridge and Savannah. A royal proclamation was issued this
year barring the whites from occupying Indian lands west of the Blue
Ridge; while in 1768 a treaty fixed the northern limit as downward along
the New and Kanawha rivers from the North Carolina line. This treaty was
made at Hard Labor, S. C.; while on March 17, 1775, a treaty cut off the
Cherokees from the Ohio and their rich Kentucky hunting grounds.

THREE STATES COMBINE AGAINST THE CHEROKEES. But the constant encroachments
of the whites upon the Indian territory resulted, in 1776, in an agreement
between Virginia, North and South Carolina by which each sent a punitive
expedition into the Cherokee country, and laid it waste for miles, killing
men and even women, and driving many into the mountains for refuge. In
August Gen. Griffith Rutherford, with 2,400 men, crossed Swannanoa gap,
and after following the present line of railroad to the French Broad, out
Hominy creek and following up the Richland, struck the first Indian town
at Stecoee, the present site of Whittier, on the Tuckaseegee. This he
burned, and then destroyed all towns on Oconaluftee, Tuckaseegee and the
upper part of Little Tennessee; also those on the Hiwassee below the
junction of Valley river, making 36 towns in all. He also destroyed all
crops. The chaplain of this expedition was Rev. James Hall, D. D., a
Presbyterian. At Sugartown (Kuletsiyi), east of the present Franklin, a
detachment sent to destroy it was surprised by the Cherokees and escaped
only through the aid of another force sent to its rescue. Rutherford
himself encountered a force in Wayah gap of the Nantallalas, between
Franklin and Aquone, where he lost forty killed and wounded, but finally
repulsing the Indians. An Indian killed in this fight proved to have been
a woman dressed as a man. An account of the route followed by Rutherford,
with many other facts, can be found in the North Carolina Booklet, Vol.
IV, No. 8, for December, 1904; from which it appears that Williamson of
South Carolina was to have joined Rutherford at Cowee, but as he did not
appear, Rutherford, without a proper guide, crossed the Nantahalas at an
unusual place, thus missing the Wayah gap, where 500 braves had assembled
to oppose him and that two days later Williamson, hurrying up
Cartoogachaye creek, crossed at the usual place, and fell into the ambush
which had been prepared for Rutherford; and that Rutherford lost but three
men in the entire expedition. This latter account is probably the true
one. Williamson joined Rutherford on the Hiwassee. It was considered
unnecessary to await the arrival of Col. Christian from Virginia, who was
coming via the Holston river, as all the Cherokee towns had been
destroyed. Col. Andrew Williamson's force of South Carolinians was 1,860
strong, including a number of Catawbas, and came through Rabun gap of the
Blue Ridge.(5) It was near Murphy that Rutherford and Williamson's forces
joined September 26, 1776. Among Christian's men was a regiment from Surry
county, N. C., under Colonels Joseph Williams and Love, and Major Winston.
They had assembled on the Holston and pressed cautiously along the great
warpath to the crossing of the French Broad in Tennessee, and thence
advanced without opposition to the Little Tennessee, where, early in
November, Christian was proceeding to destroy their towns, when the
Indians sought peace. Col. Christian, hoping to draw trade from the South
Carolina Indians, accepted the promise of the Cherokees to "surrender all
their prisoners and to cede all the disputed territory . . in the
Tennessee settlements," suspended hostilities and withdrew, but not till
he had burned the town of Tuckaseegee because its inhabitants had been
concerned in the burning of a white boy, named Moore, who had been
captured with a Mrs. Bean: but he spared the peace town of Echota. But
Col. William of Surry was not pleased with Christian's leniency, and on
the 22d of November, 1776, wrote to the North Carolina Congress from
Surry, enclosing documents which he claimed proved conclusively "that some
of the Virginia gentlemen are desirious of having the Cherokees under
their protection," which Williams did not think right as most of the
territory was within North Carolina and should be under her protection. In
this warfare every Indian was scalped and even women were shot down and
afterwards "helped to their end." Prisoners were "taken and put up at
auction as slaves, when not killed on the spot."

HOLSTON AND HOPEWELL TREATIES. At Long Island of the Holston a treaty was
concluded July 20, 1777, by which the Middle and upper Cherokees ceded
everything east of the Blue Ridge, and all disputed territory on the
Watauga, Nollechucky, upper Holston and New rivers. This ended the
treaties with the separate States. The first treaty made with the United
States was at Hopewell, S. C., November 28, 1785, by which the whole
country east of the Blue Ridge, with the Watauga and Cumberland
settlements, was given to the whites, but leaving the whole of western
North Carolina to the Cherokees.

TREATIES OF WHITE'S FORT AND TELLICO. In the summer of 1791 the Cherokees
made a treaty at White's Fort, now Knoxville, by which they ceded a
"triangular section of Tennessee and North Carolina extending from the
Clinch river almost to the Blue Ridge, and including nearly the whole of
the French Broad and lower Holston and the sites of the present Knoxville,
and Greeneville, Tenn., and Asheville, N. C., most of which territory was
already occupied by the whites. Permission was also given for a road from
the eastern settlements to those of the Cumberland, with free navigation
of the Tennessee river." This treaty was signed by 41 principal chiefs and
was concluded July 2, 1791, and probably gave legal title to the whites to
as far west of the Blue Ridge as the Pigeon river in Haywood county. There
were four treaties of Tellico, the first having been signed October 2,
1798, by 39 chiefs, by which were ceded a tract between the Clinch river
and the Cumberland ridge, another along the northern bank of the Little
Tennessee, extending up to the Chilhowie mountains, and a third in North
Carolina on the head of the French Broad and Pigeon rivers, and including
what are now Waynesville and Hendersonville; thus making the Balsam
mountains the western boundary. In [1780?] and 1800, three additional
treaties were concluded at Tellico by Return J. Meigs, by which the
Cherokees were shorn of 8,000 square miles, not affecting the limits of
North Carolina; but it was then that Meigs originated what he termed a
"silent consideration," by which a smaller amount was named in the public
treaty, to-wit: $2,000-while he had agreed that "one thousand dollars and
some rifles" in addition should be given to some of the chiefs who signed
it. This treaty however was concluded at Washington, D. C., January 7,
1806. In 1813 the Cherokees agreed that a company should lay off and build
a free public road from the Tennessee river to the head of navigation of
the Tuggaloo branch of the Savannah; and this road was completed within
the next three years, and became the great highway from the coast to the
Tennessee settlements. The road began where Toccoa creek enters the
Savannah, and passed through Clarksville and Hiwassee in Georgia, and
Hayesville and Murphy, N. C., though those towns had not been established
by the whites at that time. From Murphy it passed over the Unaka or White
mountains into Tennessee to Echota, the capital town of the Cherokees. It
was officially styled the Unicoi Turnpike, but was commonly known in North
Carolina as the Wachese or Watsisa trail, because it passed near the home
of a noted Indian who lived near the place at which it crossed Beaverdam
creek-his name having been Watsisa-and because this portion of the road
followed the old trail which already bore that name.

NANAKATAHKE AND JUNALUSKA. The former was a sister of Yonaguska, and the
mother-in-law of Gid. F. Morris, a South Carolinian who came to Cherokee
county about the same time that Betty Bly or Blythe, came there, according
to the statement of the late Col. A. T. Davidson, who said that
Nanakatahke told him that she was the mother of Wachesa, or Grasshopper.
Junaluska, spelled Tsunulahunski in Cherokee, is the best remembered of
the Cherokee chief:, of whom a full account will be found in Chapter XII,
pp. 292-293.

THE REMOVAL TREATIES. On the 8th of July, 1817, at the Cherokee agency
(now Calhoun, Tenn.), a treaty was made by which, in return for land in
Georgia and Tennessee, the Cherokees were to receive a tract within the
present limits of Arkansas, and payment for any- substantial improvements
they had made on the ceded lands they would abandon by going to Arkansas.
Each warrior who left no improvements behind was to be given for his
abandoned field and but a rifle, ammunition, a blanket, a kettle or a
beaver trap. Boats and provisions for the journey were also to be
furnished the Indians who might go. It was also provided that those who
chose to remain might do so and become citizens, the amount of land
occupied by such to be deducted from the total cession. But the majority
of the Cherokees opposed removal bitterly, and only 31 of the principal
men of the eastern band and 15 of the western signed for the tribe. A
protest signed by 67 chiefs and headsmen was presented to the
commissioners for the government; but it was ignored and the treaty
ratified. In fact, the authorities for the United States did not even wait
for the ratification, but at once took steps for the removal of all who
desired to go west, and before 1819, six thousand had been removed,
according to the estimate. This, however, did not effect North Carolina
territory; but on February 27, 1819, a treaty was made at Washington by
which the Indians ceded to the United States, among other tracts in
Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, "nearly everything remaining to them" in
North Carolina east of the Nantahala mountains; though individual
reservations one mile square within the ceded area were allowed a number
of families, who preferred to remain and become citizens. In order to
conform to the laws of civilization, those who were to remain adopted a
regular republican form of government modeled after that of the United
States, with New Echota, a few miles above the present Calhoun, Ga., as
the capital. John Ross was the first Cherokee president. They passed laws
for the collection of taxes, and debts, for repairs of roads, for the
support of schools and for the regulation of the liquor traffic; to punish
horse stealing and theft, and to compel all marriages between white men
and Indian women to be celebrated according to regular legal or church
form, and to discourage polygamy. By a special decree the right of Blood
Revenge, or capital punishment, was taken from the seven clans and vested
in the authorities of the Indian nation. Death was the punishment to
individual Indians who might sell lands to the whites without the consent
of the Indian authorities. White men were not allowed to vote or hold
office in the nation.

YONAGUSKA, THE BLOOD AVENGER. The late Col. Allen T. Davidson told the
writer that John Welch, a half-breed Frenchman, killed Leech, a
fullblooded Cherokee, near old Valleytown in Cherokee county, and as
Yonaguska was Leech's next of kin, he was therefore his blood avenger, and
not only entitled to kill Welch, but the custom of the tribe made it his
duty to do so. He, therefore, followed Welch first to the Smoky mountains,
and then to Paint Rock: thence to the New Found range west of Asheville,
and to Pickens, S. C., where Welch stopped and rested. Here it was,
though, that Welch became infatuated with a white girl named Betty Bly,
and told Betty that he feared that Yonaguska, whom he had seen loitering
near, was seeking a chance to kill him. She then sought out Yonaguska and
persuaded him to let Welch off.

THE BAPTISTS ESTABLISH THE FIRST CHEROKEE MISSION. In 1820 the Baptists
founded five principal missions, one of which was in Cherokee county, on
the site of the old Nachez town on the north side of Hiwassee river, just
above the mouth of Peachtree creek. It was established at the instance of
Currahee Dick, a prominent mixed-blood chief, and was placed in charge of
the Rev. Evan Jones, known as the translator of the New Testament into the
Cherokee language, with James D. Wafford, a mixed-blood pupil, who
compiled a spelling book in the same language, as his assistant. The late
Rev. Humphrey Posey afterwards became principal of this mission, and did a
wonderful amount of work for the improvement and education of the
Cherokees. The place is still known as "The Mission Farm," and is one of
the most productive and desirable in the mountains. Worcester and
Boudinot's translation of Matthew, first published at New Echota, Ga., in
1829, was introduced to the Kituwas Cherokees, and in the absence of
missionaries, was read from house to house, after which Rev. Ulrich
Keener, a Methodist, began to preach at irregular intervals, and was soon
followed by Baptists.

SEQUOYA AND HIS SYLLABARY. About this time (1821) Sikwayi (Sequoya) a half
or quarter breed Cherokee, known among the whites as George Gist or Guest
or Guess, invented the Cherokee syllabary or alphabet, which was "soon
recognized as an invaluable invention for the elevation of the tribe, and
within a few months thousands of hitherto illiterate Cherokees were able
to read and write their own language, teaching each other in the cabins
and along the roadside.... It had an immediate and wonderful effect on
Cherokee development, and on account of the remarkable adaptation of the
syllabary to the language, it was only necessary to learn the characters
to be able to read at once....In the fall of 1824 Atsi or John Arch, a
young native convert, made a manuscript translation of a portion of St.
John's gospel, in the syllabary, this being the first Bible translation
ever given to the Cherokee." On the 21st of February, 1828, "the first
number of the newspaper Taslagi Tsulehisanun, the Cherokee Phoenix,
'printed' in English and Cherokee, was published at New Echota from type
cast for that purpose in Boston under the supervision of the noted
missionary, Worcester. Sequoya was born, probably about 1760 at Luck-a-
Seegee town in Tennessee, just outside of old Fort Loudon, near where old
Choto had stood." Here his mind dwelt also on the old tradition of a lost
band of Cherokee living somewhere toward the western mountains. In 1841
and 1842, with a few Cherokee companions and with his provisions and
papers loaded in an ox cart, he made several journeys into the west, and
was received everywherewith kindness by even the wildest tribes.
Disappointed in his philologic results, he started out in 1843 in quest of
the lost Cherokees, who were believed to be some where in northern Mexico,
but, being now an old man and worn out by hardship, he sank under the
effort and died alone and unattended, it is said, near the village of San
Fernando, Mexico, in August of that year. The Cherokees had voted him a
pension of three hundred dollars which was continued to his widow, "the
only literary pension in the United States." The great trees of California
(Sequoia gigantea) were named in his honor and preserve his memory.

OUTRAGES FOLLOW DAHLONEGA GOLD DISCOVERY. The discovery of gold in the
Dahlonega district caused the Georgia legislature on the 20th of December,
1828, to annex that part of the Cherokee country to Georgia and to annul
all Cherokee laws and customs therein. This act was to take effect June 1,
1830, the land was mapped into counties and divided into "land lots" of
160 acres and "gold lots" of 40 acres, which were to be distributed among
the white citizens of Georgia by public lottery. Provision was made for
the settlement of contested lottery claims among the white citizens, but
no Indian could bring a suit or testify in court. "About the same time the
Cherokees were forbidden to hold councils, or to assemble for any public
purpose or to dig for gold upon their own lands." The outrages which
followed are disgraceful to the white men of that section and time.

TREATY OF REMOVAL of 1835. On the 29th of December, 1835, by the treaty of
New Echota, "the Cherokee nation ceded to the United States its whole
remaining territory east of the Mississippi for the sum of $5,000,000 and
a common joint interest in the territory already occupied by the western
Cherokees in what is now the Indian Territory, with an additional smaller
tract on the northeast in what is now Kansas. Improvements were to be paid
for, and the Indians were to be removed at the expense of the United
States, and subsisted for one year after their arrival in the new country.
The removal was to take place within two years . . . ." It was also
distinctly agreed that a limited number of Cherokees might remain behind
and become citizens after they had been adjudged "qualified or calculated
to become useful citizens," together with a few who held individual
reservations under former treaties. But this provision was struck out by
President Jackson, who insisted that the "whole Cherokee people should
remove together." The treaty was ratified by the senate May 23, 1836, the
official census of 1835 having fixed the number of Cherokees in North
Carolina at 3,644.

THE PATHETIC STORY OF THE REMOVAL. This story exceeds in weight of grief
and pathos any in American history-; for notwithstanding that nearly 16,
000 out of a total of 16,542 Indians in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia
and Alabama, had signed a protest against the treaty, Gen. Wool was sent
to carry the treaty into effect; but so fixed was the determination of the
Cherokees to remain that Gen. Winfield Scott was sent to remove them by
force. He took command, his forces amounting to 7,000 men-regulars,
militia and volunteers, with New Echota as his headquarters, May 10, 1838,
only 2,000 Cherokees having gone voluntarily. Old people tell of the
harrowing scenes which accompanied the hunting down and removal of these
brave people who clung to their homes with all the passion of the Swiss.

REMOVAL FORTS. The following forts or stockades were built for the
collection of the unwilling Cherokees: Fort Lindsay, on the south side of
the Little Tennessee at the junction of the Nantahala; Fort Scott, at
Aquone, twenty miles further up the Nantahala; Fort Montgomery, at what is
now Robbinsville; Fort Hembrie, at what is now Hayesville; Fort Delaney,
at Old Valleytown, and Fort Butler, at Murphy.

WHY SOME WERE ALLOWED TO REMAIN. Old man Tsali, or Charley, with his Wife,
his brother and his three sons and their families, was seized and taken to
a stockade near the junction of the Tuckaseegee and the Little Tennessee
rivers, where they spent the night, during which their squaws concealed
knives and tomahawks about their clothing. When this band, escorted by
soldiers, reached the mouth of what is now called Paine's branch, opposite
Tuskeegee creek, in the Little Tennessee, the squaws passed the knives and
hatchets to the men, and they fell upon the soldiers and killed two of
them upon the spot, and so mortally wounded a third, Geddings by name,
that he died at Calhoun, Tenn. Still another soldier was struck on the
back of his head with a tomahawk, and so hurt that, although he retained
his seat upon his horse, he died three miles below at what is now called
Fairfax, on the right bank of the Little Tennessee. Two stones still mark
his grave, while the two who were killed at Paine's branch were buried
there. If the skirts of the coat of the lieutenant in charge had not torn
away when he was seized on each side by an Indian, it is likely that he
would have been dragged from his horse and killed, too. But he escaped,
and the Indians went immediately to the Great Smoky mountains scarcely ten
miles away, and their recapture by the heavy dragoons sent after them
within a short time was impossible. These soldiers camped just below where
Burton Welch used to live, one and a half miles below Bushnel, and a
mountain peak nearby on which they stationed sentinels, is still called
Watch Mountain. In fact, these escaping Indians had spent the night at the
house of Burton Welch's father when their squaws hid the weapons in their
skirts. It is said that the late Col. W. H. Thomas had accompanied this
party as far as the mouth of Noland's creek, Where he left them for the
purpose of getting another small party to join them the next day; and that
if he had continued with Old Charley's party it is probable that no
attempt would have been made to escape, such was his influence over them.
The names of the male Indians who escaped were Charley, Alonzo, Jake,
George and a boy named Washington, but pronounced in the Cherokees
Wasituna. Old Charley's squaw was named Nancy.

TERMS OF COMPROMISE. Mr. James Mooney's account in the Nineteenth
Ethnological report states that after Con. Scott became convinced that his
soldiers could not recapture Charley and his band, he made an agreement
with Col. Thomas to the effect that if he would cause the arrest of Old
Charley and his adult sons he would use his influence at Washington to get
permission that all who had not yet been removed should remain. Also, that
Col. Thomas vent to the leader of those who had not been captured, Utsala
or "Lichen," by name, who had made his headquarters at the head of
Oconaluftee, and told him that if he assisted in bringing in Charley and
his band, Utsali and his followers, 1,000 in number, would be allowed to
remain. Utsali consented and Thomas returned and reported to Gen. Scott,
who offered to furnish an escort for Thomas on a proposed visit to
Charley, who was hiding in a cave of the Great Smoky mountains. But Thomas
declined the escort and went alone to the cave and got Charley to consent
to surrender voluntarily, which he did shortly afterwards, thus making a
vicarious sacrifice for the rest of his people.

AN EYE WITNESSES' ACCOUNT. But Mr. and Mrs. Burton Welch used to tell an
altogether different story. They were living there at the time, and
presumably knew much more than those who got their information at second
hand sixty years later. Their account is that Utsali and his followers ran
Old Charley and his sons down and brought them to Gen. Scott's soldiers;
but insisted on killing them themselves instead of having them shot by the
soldiers. But they had not been captured together, Alonzo, Jake and George
having been caught first at the head of Forney's creek, and shot at a
point on the right bank of the Little Tennessee nearly opposite the mouth
of Panther creek, and just below Burton Welch's home, where Jake gave a
soldier ten cents to give to his squaw, that being all he had on earth to
leave her. The three trees to which they were tied are now dead, but
Burton Welch, who when a boy witnessed the execution, used to declare that
these trees never grew any larger after having been made to serve as
stakes for the shedding of human blood. These three Indians are buried in
one grave near by, but there is now nothing to mark the spot.

OLD CHARLEY IS KILLED AND HIS SQUAW MOURNS. It was some time afterwards
that Old Charley was caught in the Smokier, brought to within a short
distance below what is now Bryson City and shot by Indians. Mrs. Welch,
who was a first cousin of Captain James P. Sawyer of Asheville, saw Old
Charley killed. This was before her marriage to Burton Welch, and she
remembers that Charley had a white cloth tied around his forehead, and
that she saw it stain red before she heard the report of the guns of the
firing squad. The fugitive squaws were never punished. But Charley's squaw
came to Mrs. Welch's father's house, where she was shown Old Charley's
grave. She sat down beside it and piled up the sand with her hands until
she made a mound, and then rocked herself to and fro and cried. Mrs. Welch
went shortly afterwards to Old Charley's former home, one mile from the
mouth of the Nantahala river. She spoke of the deserted look of the place,
the little cabin with its open door, and old Nancy's spinning-wheel, her
loom and warping bars, while outside, in the chimney corner, was Old
Charley's plough-stock and harness, the traces of which had been made of
hickory hark.

DID THE GOVERNMENT WINK AT THIS COMPROMISE? As it seemed exceedingly
improbable that the government would deliberately violate the terms of a
treaty- that had been solemnly made with the Cherokees without the
approval of the Senate, and allow a thousand Cherokees to remain behind,
especially after General Jackson had emphatically refused to allow any of
them to remain on any term, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs was asked
for any official information that might be on file in his office
concerning this matter, with this result: "It is true that by supplemental
articles of agreement pre-emption rights and reservations provided for the
Cherokee, who remained east of the Mississippi were relinquished and
declared void. (See 7 Stat. L, 488) However, many of the Indians did
remain east of the Mississippi and the Act of Jul[missing], (3 Stat. L.,
264) provided for the setting aside of a fund for these Indiana, the
interest of which was to be paid them annually until their removal west of
the Mississippi, when the principal was to be paid them." This letter is
dated January 29, 1913, and was supplemental to another of January 21,
1913, in which this language is used: "You are advised that nothing has
been found in the files of this office regarding the alleged agreement of
General Scott to allow part of the Cherokees to remain in North Carolina
on condition that they surrender Old Charlie and his sons." Again, on
February 27, 1913, he wrote: "I have of course no objection to your
quoting all or any part of office letters to you on this subject. As to
your following these letters with the quotation given in your letter, I
would rather not express an opinion, since I had a search of the records
made and found nothing about the alleged agreement to allow certain of the
Cherokees to remain east of the Mississippi. I would not be warranted in
saying that such an agreement was not made, since there were many things
happening in the Indian country about that period of which this office has
no record."

RECOGNITION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE EASTERN BAND. On August 6, 1846, a treaty
was concluded at Washington by which the rights of the Eastern Cherokees
to a participation in the benefits of the New Echota treaty of 1835 were
distinctly recognized, and provision made for the final adjustment of all
unpaid and pending claims due under that treaty; the government having
insisted before that time that those rights were conditional upon their
removal to the West. Col. W. H. Thomas then took charge of the Eastern
Band.(6)

WILLIAM HOLLAND THOMAS. He was born in 1805 in Haywood county. His father
was of a Welch family, fought at Rings Mountain under Col. Campbell, and
was related to Zachary Taylor. His mother was descended from a Maryland
family of Revolutionary stock. He was an only and posthumous child, his
father having been accidentally drowned a short time before he was born.
When twelve years old he was engaged to tend an Indian trading store on
Soco creek by Felix Walker, son of the congressman who made a national
reputation by "talking for Buncombe." Here he studied law, and was duly
admitted to practice. He was adopted by Yonaguska, the Cherokee chief, and
was called Will-Usdi, or "Little Will." He learned the spoken and written
language, acquiring the Sequoya syllabary shortly after its invention.
Soon after the removal of the Cherokees Thomas bought a fine farm near
Whittier, and built a home which he called Stekoa, after the Indian town
on the same site which had been destroyed by Rutherford in 1776. At the
time of the removal he owned five trading stores, viz: at Quallatown, at
Murphy, at Charleston, Tenn., at Robbinsville and at Webster. As agent for
the Cherokees he bought the five towns for them at Bird-town, Paint-town,
Wolf-town, Yellow-hill, and Big Cove. He drew up a simple form of
government for them, which was executed by Yonaguska till his death and
afterwards by Thomas. In 1848 he entered the State Senate, and inaugurated
a system of road improvement and was the father of the Western North
Carolina railroad. He voted for secession in 1861, and in 1862 organized
the Thomas Legion, composed of Cherokees and white citizens. After the war
his health failed. His conduct of Cherokee affairs was settled by
arbitrators, and it was found that the Indians had lost nothing, and had
gained largely under his leadership. Col. Thomas, with 300 Indians and
Col. James R. Love with 300 white soldiers, confronted Col. Bartlett of
New York in April, 1865, near Waynesville. At sight of the Indians and
after hearing their yells Bartlett agreed to surrender, and Col. Thomas
paroled his men, allowing them to retain their side arms.' Col. Thomas
died May 12, 1893.

THE LATE CAPTAIN JAMES W. TERRELL. "In 1852 (Capt.) James W. Terrell was
engaged by (Col. W. H.) Thomas, then in the State Senate, to take charge
of his store at Qualla, and remained associated with him and in close
contact with the Indians from then until after the close of the war,
assisting, as special United States Agent, in the disbursement of the
interest payments, and afterward as a Confederate officer in the
organization of the Indian companies, holding a commission as captain of
Company A, Sixty-ninth North Carolina Confederate infantry. Being of an
investigating bent, Captain Terrell was led to give attention to the
customs and mythology of the Cherokee, and to accumulate a fund of
information on the subject seldom possessed by a white man."

NORTH CAROLINA GIVES PERMISSION. "In 1855 Congress directed the per capita
payment to the East Cherokees of the removal fund established for them in
1818, provided that North Carolina should first give assurance that they
would be allowed to remain permanently in that State. This assurance,
however, was not given until 1866, and the money was therefore not
distributed, but remained in the treasury until 1875, when it was made
applicable to the purchase of lands and the quieting of titles for the
benefit of the Indians."

LANMAN, DANIEL WEBSTER'S SECRETARY. In the spring of 1818 the author,
Lanman, visited the East Cherokees and has left an interesting account of
their condition at the tune, together with a description of their ball-
plays, dances, and customs generally, having been the guest of Colonel
Thomas, of whom he speaks as the guide, counselor, and friend of the
Indians, ac well as their business agent and chief, so that the connection
was like that existing between a father and his children. He puts the
number of Indians at about 800 Cherokee and 100 Catawba on the
"Quallatown" reservation the name being in use thus early with 200 more
Indians residing in the more westerly portion of the State. Of their
general condition he says:

CONDITION OF INDIANS IN 1848. "About three-fourths of the entire
population can read in their own language, and, though the majority of
them understand English, a very few can speak the language. They practice,
to a considerable extent, the science of agriculture, and have acquired
such a knowledge of the mechanic arts as answers them for all ordinary
purposes, for they manufacture their own clothing, their own ploughs, and
other farming utensils, their own fixes, and even their own guns. Their
women are no longer treated as slaves, but as equals; the men labor in the
fields and their wives are devoted entirely to household employments. They
keep the wine domestic animals that are kept by their white neighbors, and
cultivate all the common grains of the country. They are probably as
temperate as any other class of people on the face of the earth, honest in
their business intercourse, moral in their thought,, words, and deeds, and
distinguished for their faithfulness in performing the duties of religion.
They are chiefly Methodists and Baptists, and have regularly ordained
ministers, who preach to them on every Sabbath, and they have also
abandoned many of their more senseless superstition. They have their own
court and try their criminals by a regular jury. Their judges and lawyers
are chosen from among themselves. They keep in order the public roads
leading through their settlement. By a law of the State they have a right
to vote, but seldom exercise that right, as they do not like the idea of
heing identified with any of the political parties. Excepting on festive
days, they dress after the manner of the white man, but far more
picturesquely. They live in small log houses of their own construction,
and have everything they need or desire in the way of food. They are, in
fact, the happiest community that I have yet met with in this southern
country."

SALALI. Among the other notables Lanman speaks thus of Salili, "Squirrel,"
a born mechanic of the band, who died only a few years since:

"He is quite a young man and has a remarkably thoughtful face He is the
blacksmith of his nation, and with some assistance supplies the whole of
Qualla town with all their axes and plows; but what is more, he has
manufactured a number of very superior rifles and pistols, including
stock, barrel, and lock, and he is also the builder of grist mills, which
grind all the corn which his people eat. A specimen of his workmanship in
the way of a rifle may be seen at the Patent Ofce in Washington, where it
was deposited by Mr. Thomas; and I believe Salali is the first Indian who
ever manufactured an entire gun. But when it is remembered that he never
received a particle of education in any of the mechanic arts, but is
entirely self-taught, his attainments must be considered truly remarkable."

COLONEL THOMAS THWARTS GENERAL KIRBY SMITH. "From 1855 until after the
Civil War we find no official notice of the East Cherokees, and our
information must be obtained from other sources. It was, however, a most.
momentous period in their history. At the outbreak of the war Thomas was
serving his seventh consecutive term in the State Senate. Being an ardent
Confederate sympathizer, he was elected a delegate to the convention which
passed the secession ordinance, and immediately after voting in favor of
that measure resigned from the Senate in order to work for the Southern
cause. As he was already well advanced in years it is doubtful if his
effort would have gone beyond the raising of funds and other supplies but
for the fact that at this juncture an effort was made by the Confederate
General Kirby Smith to enlist the East Cherokees for active service.

KIRBY SMITH'S EMISSARY. "The agent sent for this purpose was Washington
Morgan, known to the Indians as Aganstata, son of that Colonel Gideon
Morgan who had commanded the Cherokee at the Horseshoe Bend. By virtue of
his Indian blood and historic ancestry he was deemed the most fitting
emissary for the purpose. Early in 1862 he arrived among the Cherokee, and
by appealing to old time memories so aroused the war spirit among them
that a large number declared themselves ready to follow wherever he led.
Conceiving the question at issue in the war to be one that did not concern
the Indians, Thomas had discouraged their participation in it and advised
them to remain at home in quiet neutrality. Now, however, knowing Morgan's
reputation for reckless daring, he became alarmed at the possible result
to them of such leadership. Forced either to see them go from his own
protection or to lead them himself, he chose the latter alternative and
proposed to them to enlist in the Confederate legion which he was about to
organize. His object, as he himself has stated, was to keep them out of
danger so far as possible by utilizing them as scouts and home guards
through the mountains, away from the path of the large armies. Nothing of
this was said to the Indains, who might not have been satisfied -,vith
such an arrangement. Morgan went back alone and the Cherokee enrolled
under the command of their white chief.

FORMATION of THOMAS'S LEGION. "The 'Thomas Legion,' recruited in 1862 by
William H. Thomas for the Confederate service and commanded by him as
colonel, consisted originally of one infantry regiment of ten companies
(Sixty-ninth North Carolina Infantry), one infantry battalion of six
companies, one cavalry battalion of eight companies (First North Carolina
Cavalry Battalion), one field battery (Light Battery) of 103 officers and
men, and one company of engineers; in all about 2,800 men. The infantry
battalion was recruited toward the close of the war to a full regiment of
ten companies and two other companies of the infantry regiment recruited
later were composed almost entirely of East Cherokee Indians, most of the
commissioned officers being white men. The whole number of Cherokee thus
enlisted was nearly four hundred, or about every able-bodied man in the
tribe."

ONE SECRET OF COL. THOMAS'S SUCCESS. Many have wondered how Col. Thomas
could so soon have obtained complete control of all the affairs of the
Eastern Band of Cherokees, and how he could have obtained from the
Confederate government its consent for the organization of these Indians
into an independent legion, subject almost entirely to his control, and
required to operate only in the restricted territory immediately
surrounding their reservation at Quallytown. But when it is remembered
that his mother was Temperance Calvert, and that he himself was closely
related to Zachary Taylor, President of the United States, whose daughter
became the wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy,
much that was incomprehensible becomes plain. Indeed, all the so called
Colvards of Ashe, Graham and Haywood counties claim that their real name
was originally Calvert; that they are descendants of the Calverts of
Maryland; and the late Captain James W. Terrell always insisted that
Temperance Calvert was a grand-niece of Lord Baltimore himself. Col.
Thomas was also first cousin to John Strother, whose family was one of
influence and standing in Virginia in former days. (See N. C. University
Magazine for May, 1899, pp. 291 to 295)

CHEROKEE SCOUTS AND HOME GUARDS. "In accordance with Thomas's plan the
Indians were employed chiefly as scouts and home guards in the mountain
region along the Tennessee- Carolina border, where, according to the
testimony of Colonel Stringfield, they did good work and service for the
South. The most important engagement in which they were concerned occurred
at Baptist gap, Tennessee, September 15, 1862, where Lieutenant
Astugataga, a splendid specimen of Indian manhood, was killed in a charge.
The Indians were furious at his death, and before they could be restrained
they scalped one or two of the Federal dead. For this action ample
apologies were afterwards given by their superior officers. The war, in
fact, brought out all the latent Indian in their nature. Before starting
to the front every man consulted an oracle stone to learn whether or not
he might hope to return in safety. The start was celebrated with a grand
old-time war-dance at the townhouse on Soco, . . . the Indians being
painted and feathered in good old style, Thomas himself frequently
assisting as master of ceremonies. The ball-play, too, was not forgotten,
and on one occasion a detachment of Cherokees, left to guard a bridge,
became so engrossed in the excitement of the game as to narrowly escape
capture by a sudden dash of the Federals. Owing to Thomas's care for their
welfare, they suffered but slightly in actual battle, although a number
died of hardship and disease. When the Confederates evacuated eastern
Tennessee, in the winter of 1863-64, some of the white troops of the
legion, with one or two of the Cherokee companies, were shifted to western
Virginia, and by assignment to other regiments a few of the Cherokee were
present at the final siege and surrender of Richmond. The main body of the
Indians, with the rest of the Thomas Legion, crossed over into North
Carolina and did service protecting the western border until the close of
the war, when they surrendered on parole at Waynesville, North Carolina,
in May 1865, all those of the command being allowed to keep their gun,. It
is claimed by their officers that they were the last of the Confederate
forces to surrender. About fifty of the Cherokee veterans still survive
(in 1899), nearly half of whom, under conduct of Colonel Stringfield,
attended the Confederate reunion at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1900, where
they attracted much attention.

CONFEDERATE CONGRESS PROVIDES FUNDS. "In 1863, by resolution of February
12, the Confederate House of Representatives called for information as to
the number and condition of the East Cherokee, and their pending relations
with the Federal government at the beginning of the war, with a view to
continuing these relations under Confederate auspices. In response to this
inquiry a report was submitted by the Confederate Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, S. S. Scott, based on information furnished by Colonel Thomas and
Captain James W. Terrell, their former disbursing agent, showing that
interest upon the 'removal and subsistence fund' established in 1848 had
been paid annually up to and including the year 1859, at the rate of 53.20
per capita, or an aggregate, exclusive of disbursing agent's commission,
of 84,838.40 annually, based upon the original Mullay enumeration of 1,517.

"Upon receipt of this report it was enacted by the Confederate Congress
that the sum of $19,302.36 he paid the East Cherokee to cover the interest
period of four years from May 23, 1860 to May 23, 1864.

CAPTURED CHEROKEES DESERT CONFEDERACY. "In a skirmish near Bryson City
(then Charleston), Swain county, North Carolina, about a year after
enlistment, a small party of Cherokees-perhaps a dozen in number-were
captured by a detachment of Union troops and carried to Knoxville, where,
having become dissatisfied with their experience in the Confederate
service, they were easily persuaded to go over to the Union side. Through
the influence of their principal man, Diganeski, several others mere
induced to desert to the Union army, making about thirty in all. As a part
of the Third North Carolina Mounted Volunteer Infantry, they served with
the Union forces in the same region until the close of the war, when they
returned to their homes to find their tribesmen so bitterly incensed
against them that for some time their lives were in clanger. Eight of
these were still alive in 1900.

AFTER CIVIL WAR. "Shortly after this event Colonel Thomas was compelled by
physical and mental infirmity to retire from further active participation
in the affairs of the East Cherokee, after more than half a century spent
in intimate connection with them, during the greater portion of which time
he had been their most trusted friend and adviser. Their affairs at once
became the prey of confusion and factional strife, which continued until
the United States stepped in as arbiter.

CHEROKEES ADOPT NEW GOVERNMENT, 1870. "On December 9, 1868, a general
council of the East Cherokee assembled at Cheowa, in Graham county, North
Carolina, took preliminary steps toward the adoption of a regular form of
tribal government under a constitution. N. J. Smith, afterward principal
chief, was clerk of the council. The new government was formally
inaugurated on December 1, 1870.

STATUS OF INDIAN LANDS. "The status of the lands held by the Indians had
now become a matter of serious concern. As has been stated, the deeds had
been made out by Thomas in his own name, as the State laws at that time
forbade Indian ownership of real estate. In consequence of his losses
during the war and his subsequent disability, the Thomas properties, of
which the Cherokee lands were technically a part, had become involved, so
that the entire estate had passed into the hands of creditors, the most
important of whom, William Johnston, had obtained sheriff's deeds in 1869
for all of these Indian lands under three several judgments against
Thomas, aggregating $33,887.11. To adjust the matter so as to secure title
and possession to the Indians, Congress in 1870 authorized suit to be
brought in their name for the recovery of their interest. This suit was
begun in May, 1873, in the United States Circuit Court for western North
Carolina. A year later the matters in dispute were submitted by agreement
to a board of arbitrators, whose award was confirmed by the court in
November, 1871.

LAND STATUS SETTLED BY ARBITRATION. "The award finds that Thomas had
purchased with Indian funds a tract estimated to contain 50,000 acres on
Oconaluftee river and Soco creek, and known as the Qualla boundary,
together with a number of individual tracts outside the boundary; that the
Indians were still indebted to Thomas toward the purchase of the Qualla
boundary lands for the sum of $18,250, from which should be deducted 86,
500 paid by them to Johnston to release titles, with interest to date of
award, making an aggregate of 88,486, together with a further sum of 82,
478, which had been intrusted to Terrell, the business clerk and assistant
of Thomas, and by him turned over to Thomas, as creditor of the Indians,
under power of attorney, this latter sum, with interest to date of award,
aggregating 82,697.89; thus leaving a balance due from the Indians to
Thomas or his legal creditor, Johnston, of $7,066.11. The award declares
that Johnston should be allowed to hold the lands bought by him only as
security for the balance due him until paid, and that on the payment of
the said balance of 87,066.11, with interest at six per cent from the date
of the award, the Indians should be entitled to a clear conveyance from
him of the legal title to all the lands embraced within the Qualla
boundary.

PART OF SUBSISTENCE FUND USED TO CLEAR TITLE. "To enable the Indians to
clear off this lien on their lands and for other purposes, Congress in
1875 directed that as much as remained of the 'removal and subsistence
fund' set apart for their benefit in 1848 should be used 'in perfecting
the titles to the lands awarded to them, and to pay the costs, expenses,
and liabilities attending their recent litigations, also to purchase and
extinguish the titles of any white persons to lands within the general
boundaries alotted to them by the court, and for the education,
improvement, and civilization of their people.' In accordance with this
authority- the unpaid balance and interest due Johnston, amounting to $7,
242.76, was paid him in the same year, and shortly afterward there was
purchased on behalf of the Indians some fifteen thousand acres additional,
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs being constituted trustee for the
Indians. For the better protection of the Indians the lands were made
inalienable except by assent of the council and upon approval of the
President of the United States.

DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS ASSUMES CONTROL. "The titles and boundaries
having been adjusted, the Indian Office assumed regular supervision of
East Cherokee affairs, and in June, 1875, the first agent since the
retirement of Thomas was sent out in the person of W. C. McCarthy He found
the Indians, according to his report, destitute and discouraged, almost
without stock or farming tools. There were no schools, and very few full-
bloods could speak English, although to their credit nearly all could read
and write their own language, the parents teaching the children. Under his
authority a distribution was made of stock animals, seed wheat, and
farming tools, and several schools were started. In the next year,
however, the agency was discontinued and the educational interests of the
band turned over to the State School Superintendent.

THE OLD INDIAN FRIENDS, THE QUAKERS. "The neglected condition of the East
Cherokee having been brought to the attention of those old time friends of
the Indian, the Quakers, through an appeal made in their behalf by members
of that society residing in North Carolina, the Western Yearly Meeting, of
Indiana, volunteered to undertake the work of civilization and education.
On May 31, 1881, representatives of the Friends entered into a contract
with the Indians, subject to approval by the Government, to establish and
continue among them for ten years an industrial school and other common
schools, to be supported in part from the annual interest of the trust
fund held by the Government to the credit of the East Cherokee and in part
by funds furnished by the Friends themselves. Through the efforts of
Barnabas C. Hobbs, of the Western Yearly Meeting, a yearly contract to the
same effect was entered into with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs later
in the same year, and was renewed by successive commissioners to cover the
period of ten years ending June 30, 1892, when the contract system was
terminated and the Government assumed direct control. Under the joint
arrangement, with some aid at the outset from the North Carolina Meeting,
work was begun in 1881 by Thomas Brown with several teachers sent out by
the Indiana Friends, who established a small training school at the agency
headquarters at Cherokee, and several day schools in the outlying
settlements. He was succeeded three years later by H. Spray, an
experienced educator, who, with a corps of efficient assistants and
greatly enlarged facilities, continued to do good work for the elevation
of the Indians until the close of the contract system eight years later.
After an interregnum, during which the schools suffered from frequent
changes, he was reappointed as government agent and superintendent in
1898, a position which he still holds in 1901. To the work conducted under
his auspices the East Cherokee owe much of what they have today of
civilization and enlightenment.

EASTERN BAND SUES IN COURT OF CLAIMS. "The East Cherokee had never ceased
to contend for a participation in the rights and privileges accruing to
the western nation under treaties with the government. In 1882 a special
agent had been appointed to investigate their claims and in the following
year, under authority of Congress, the eastern band of Cherokee brought
suit in the Court of Claims against the United States and the Cherokee
Indians. The case was decided adversely to the eastern band, first by the
Court of Claims in 1885, and finally, on appeal, by the Supreme Court on
March 1, 1886, that court holding in its decision that the Cherokee in
North Carolina had dissolved their connection with the Cherokee nation and
ceased to be a part of it when they refused to accompany the main body at
the Removal, and that if Indians in North Carolina or in any state east of
the Mississippi wished to enjoy the benefits of the common property of the
Cherokee Nation in any form whatever they must be readmitted to
citizenship in the Cherokee Nation and comply with its constitution and
laws.

EASTERN BAND INCORPORATED. "In order to acquire a more definite legal
status, the Cherokee residing in North Carolina-being practically all
those of the eastern band having genuine Indian interests-became a
corporate body under the laws of the state in 1889. In 1894 the long-
standing litigation between the East Cherokee and a number of creditors
and claimants to Indian lands within and adjoining the Qualla boundary was
finally settled by a compromise by which the several white tenants and
claimants within the boundary agreed to execute a quitclaim and vacate on
payment to them by the Indians of sums aggregating $24,552, while for
another disputed adjoining tract of 33,000 acres the United States agreed
to pay, for the Indians, at the rate of $1.25 per acre. The necessary
government approval having been obtained, Congress appropriated a
sufficient amount for carrying into effect the agreement, thus at last
completing a perfect and unencumbered title to all the lands claimed by
the Indians, with the exception of a few outlying tracts of comparative
unimportance.

EXACT LEGAL STATUS STILL IN DISPUTE. "The exact legal status of the East
Cherokee is still a matter of dispute, they being at once wards of the
government, citizens of the United States, and (in North Carolina) a
corporate body under state laws. They pay real estate taxes and road
service, exercise the voting privilege and are amenable to local courts,
but do not pay poll tax or receive any pauper assistance from the
counties; neither can they make free contracts or alienate their lands.
Under their tribal constitution they are governed by a principal and an
assistant chief, elected for a term of four years, with an executive
council appointed by the chief, and sixteen councilors elected by the
various settlements for a term of two years. The annual council is held in
October at Cherokee, on the reservation, the proceedings being in the
Cherokee language and recorded by their clerk in the Cherokee alphabet, as
well as in English.

PRESENT MATERIAL CONDITIONS. "The majority are fairly comfortable, far
above the condition of most Indian tribes, and but little, if any, behind
their white neighbors. In literary ability they may even be said to
surpass them, as in addition to the result of nearly twenty years of
school work among the younger people, nearly all the men and some of the
women can read and write their own language. All wear civilized costumes,
though an occasional pair of moccasins is seen, while the women find means
to gratify the racial love of color in the wearing of red bandanna
kerchiefs in place of bonnets. The older people still cling to their
ancient rites and sacred traditions, but the dance and the ballplay wither
and the Indian day is nearly spent."

EASTERN BAND TRY TO SELL TIMBER. Since Mr. Moody's concluding words were
written the courts have managed still more to confuse the legal status of
the Cherokees, for in September, 1893, the Eastern Band of Cherokee
Indians, acting as a corporation of the State of North Carolina, by virtue
of Chapter 211, Private Laws of 1889, sold and conveyed to David L. Boyd
certain timber on the Cathcart tract of the Qualla boundary, containing
about 30,000 acres. In January, 1894, David L. Boyd sold said trees to H.
M. Dickson and William T. Mason, who afterwards conveyed them to the
Dickson-Mason Lumber Company. Before beginning to cut these trees the
Dickson-Mason Company was apprised of the fact that the Department of the
Interior of the United States had not sanctioned the sale of this timber,
and refused to ratify the contract. This company, on the other hand, had
been advised that the band of Indians were citizens of North Carolina and
not tribal Indians, and, therefore, had the right to convey the trees; and
desiring to have the question tested by the courts, put a few men to work
cutting the timber, at the same time notifying the agents of the
Government and the United States District Attorney of the fact. The
government instituted a suit in which it asked a perpetual injunction
against the Dickson-Mason Company; but at the next term of the United
States Court at Asheville, in November, 1894, the government voluntarily
took a nonsuit in the cause, the Attorney General holding that "the legal
status of the Indians in question is that of citizens of 1 orth Carolina;
that they have been in all respects citizens since the date of or soon
after the treaty with the Cherokees of 1885 [1835], and this with the
consent of the United States expressed in that treaty, by the election of
the Indians and the consent of North Carolina. They have voted at all
elections for half a century, and are citizens of the United State. It
seems clear that Congress could not, by the Act of July 27, 1868, or
otherwise (if such was the intention) make of them an Indian tribe or
place them under the control of the United States as Indians, any more
effectually than if they had been white citizens of Massachusetts or
Georgia (Eastern Band Cherokee Indians, the United Males and Cherokee
Nation, 117 U. S. 228). Neither could such citizens of North Carolina make
themselves a tribe of Indians within that State."

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT INTERVENES. Accordingly, the Dickson-Mason Company
began malting large and expensive preparations for cutting the timber on
the Cathcart boundary. But, it turned out later, that the Interior
Department was not satisfied with this disposition of the matter and
commenced another action based on the same facts, but alleging fraud in
obtaining the Boyd contract from the Indians. Judge C. H. Simonton (in U.
S. v. Boyd, 68 Fed. Rep., 587) held that the Eastern Band of Cherokees
were not tribal Indians, but wards of the Government which, like any other
guardian, had the right to see that any contract made by them was for
their benefit and not to their detriment. In an opinion filed by him he
held that "the case of the Cherokee trust fund (117 U. S., 288) does not
conflict with these views. That case decides that this Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians is not a part of the nation of Cherokees with which this
Government treats, and that they have no recognized separate political
existence. But, at the same time, their distinct unity is recognized, and
the fostering care of the Government over them as such distinct unit. This
being so, the United States have the right in their own Courts to bring
such suits as may be necessary to protect these Indians."

GOVERNMENT APPEALS FROM DECISION. The case was then referred to Hon. R. H.
Douglas, Standing Master, who, in November, 1895, found that the price
paid for the timber (815,000) was fair and that there was no fraud in
making the contract. This report was confirmed, but the Government
appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals from so much of the decree as
held that the Court had the power to permit the parties to carry out the
contract without the sanction of the Interior Department, upon the ground
that "these Indians were tribal Indians and embraced within the terms of
congressional enactments for the protection of tribal Indians." This
contention was sustained on appeal (see U. S. v. Boyd and others, 83 Fed.
Rep., 517), though "no reference is made by the Court to the decision of
the United States Supreme Court in case of the Eastern Bowl of the
Cherokee Indians v. United States [and?] Cherokee Nation (117 U. S. Rep.,
288) where the whole subject is discussed, and where, on page 309, the
Court says "...they have never been recognized by the United States; no
treaty has been made with them; they can pass no laws; they are citizens
of that State [North Carolina] and bound by its laws.'"

LUMBER COMPANY APPEALS. From this decision the Dickson-Mason Company
appealed to the United States Supreme Court in May, 1888, but before its
perfection the Interior Department re-investigated the contract of sale of
the timber, and fully ratified the same. The appeal, therefore, was
abandoned; and the anomaly remains that the Cherokees are citizens of
North Carolina, according to the United States Supreme Court, while they
are still tribal Indains whose contracts are void without the approval of
the Department of the Interior, according to the decision of an inferior
tribunal, that of the U. S. Court of Appeals. (For a full report of these
cases see Private Calender No. 725, 61st Congress, 3d Session, House Rep.
Report No. 1926, January 17, 1911) Thus each party to this proceeding
obtained what was sought by it; the Dickson-Mason company the right to cut
and remove the timber, and the Interior Department a decision which gives
it a right to review every contract made by the Eastern Band of Cherokees.
And it is well that this is so, for while there was no fraud in this
particular contract, nevertheless, there may be in contracts yet to be
made.

UNITED STATES VACILLATES, STATE STANDS FIRM. The above is the work of the
United States authorities. So far as North Carolina is concerned, her
courts have finally and forever settled the status of the Cherokee Indians
in her borders as citizens of this State, as will fully appear by
reference to Frazier v. Cherokee Indians, 146 N. C., 477, and State v.
Wolfe, 145 N. C., 440.

FINAL DISTRIBUTION. "In 1910 was distributed to the Eastern Band of
Cherokees about $133 per capita.(8) This is the final payment on their
claims against the Government for a balance due them under the New Echota
treaty of 1835-1836, under which the Government had promised to pay the
Eastern Band of Cherokees (before the removal) $5,000,000 for a release to
all of their lands east of the Mississippi river, part of which was to be
paid in cash and the balance invested in bonds and held for their benefit.
But there is another provision under which each Indian was to be paid for
transportation to the Indian Territory and for one year's subsistence
after arriving there. There was a question as to whether this money was to
be in addition to the $5,000,000 to be paid for the lands or was to be
deducted from that fund. In a subsequent settlement with the Government
(1852) the Indians gave a receipt which was in full of all claims and
demands, although at that time the question of this transportation and
subsistence payment had not been discussed.(9) It was afterwards raised,
however, but the United States claimed that the Cherokees were estopped by
their receipt above referred to. Thus matters stood when Hon. Hoke Smith,
Secretary of the Interior under President Cleveland, sought to purchase of
the Western Band the Cherokee Strip of the Indian Territory (25 Stat.,
1005 of 1889). The Cherokees then refused to consider any proposition to
sell until the Government agreed to allow them to prove any claim they
might still have against the Government under the New Echota treaty. This
the Government agreed to December 19, 1891, and the Cherokee Strip was
sold. The Interior Department investigated their claims and reported that
there was due the Indians $1,111,284.71 which, at five per cent from 12th
June, 1838, amounted to about $4,500,000. But the Department of Justice
decided against the admission of the Department of the Interior, the
Attorney General holding that the receipt of 1852 stopped the Indians from
setting up any further claims, March 2, 1893. Whereupon, Congress passed
an act authorizing the Indians to set up their contentions before the
Court of Claims, which decided in favor of the Indians. But the United
States appealed to the Supreme Court, which sustained the Court of Claims,
with some slight modifications. An effort was made to pay out this money
per stirpes, but that was found to be impracticable and the payment had to
be made per capita, owing to intermarriages between the Indians and the
whites. According to the roll of 1851 the Eastern Band composed about one-
ninth of the Cherokee Nation, but in the final payment they were found to
be only about one-eighteenth of the whole. See Eastern Cherokees v. United
States, No. 23214 Court of Claims, decided March 7, 1910."

WESTERN CHEROKEE NATION DISSOLVED. In 1887 Congress abandoned the
reservation plan, and enacted the Land Allotment Law, by which the land
was divided into individual holdings to be held in trust by the government
till each individual owner was considered competent to hold it in fee.
This has now been done, the task of converting the Cherokees from a tribe
into a body of individual owners of land having been commenced in 1902.
Prior to that date, in 1898, Congress had passed the Curtis act providing
for the valuation and allotment of the lands of the Five Civilized Tribes.
In 1906 the legislative, and judicial departments of the Cherokees ceased;
but the executive branch was kept in existence under Principal Chief IV.[?]
C. Rogers. When Oklahoma became a state in 1907 all members of the tribe
became citizens of the new state. By July 1, 1914, all community property
had been converted into cash, amounting to about $600,000, or about $15
per capita, to 41,798 members, including about 2,000 full-blooded whites
and 3,000 full-blooded negroes, descendants of slaves freed in 1865. The
four other nations, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and Chocktaw, will soon
pass into full citizenship also. The Cherokees were admittedly the most
advanced native American race since the Spanish exterminated the Incas and
Aztecs. Ethnologically the Cherokees are said to have been a branch of the
Iroquois family, though never allied with them politically. It is claimed
that they were driven from their original home in the Appomattox basin,
Virginia, into Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. When the Supreme
Court of the United States sustained the Cherokee treaties, Andrew Jackson
remarked: "Now let John Marshall enforce his decision."

POPULATION. There are at this time in Swain, Jackson, Cherokee and Graham
counties, North Carolina, a considerable number of Cherokee Indian. "The
total population of the Cherokees, as given by the superintendent in
charge for 1911, is 2,015. The enrollment in the different schools is as
follows:

Cherokee Indian School (Boarding) 175
Birdtown Day School 45
Snow Bird Gap (Day School) 34
Little Snow Bird 20

"A considerable number attend public school where the degree of Indian
blood is small. The non-reservation boarding schools provided by the
Federal Government also have a number of pupils from this reservation."

INDIAN WEAPONS. From the Handbook of American Indians (Bulletin 30 of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, 90-94) can be
obtained a full description of the arrowheads, arrows, bows and quivers,
etc., of the American Indians; with pictures of arrowshaft straighteners,
stone arrowshaft rubber, and the various methods of arrow release. It is
generally supposed that the process by which the Indians manufactured the
arrow- and spear-heads out of flint is among the lost arts; but Dr. W. H.
Holmes, head curator of the department of anthropology of the Smithsonian
Institution, wrote me, August 29, 1913, that "the processes referred to
are well known and have been observed in practice among a number of
western tribes, and the art has been acquired by numerous students of the
subject, among others myself. In preparing a work for publication in the
near future, I have described twenty processes practiced by different
primitive peoples. The flint is usually quarried from pits at Flint Ridge,
Ohio, and in many parts of Georgia and the Carolinas. It is broken into
fragments and the thin favorable ones are chosen and the shape is roughed
out by means of small hammerstones. These hammerstones are found in great
numbers in flint bearing regions and are globular in shape or discoidal.
Sometimes they have pits in opposite sides to accommodate the thumb and
fingers while in use. When the shape is roughed out by strokes of the
hammer, and the edges are in approximate shape, a piece of hard bone or
antler is taken and the flakes are struck off on the edges by means of
quick, hard pressure with the bone point. Sometimes the implement being
shaped is held in the hand, the hand being protected by a pad of buckskin.
Again, the implement being shaped is laid upon a solid surface of wood or
stone beneath which is a pad of buckskin and the flakes are broken off by
downward pressure of the instrument."


CHEROKEE MYTHS.
(Condensed from the 13th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology)

ORIGIN OF THE MOUNDS. Were built for town-houses from which to witness
dances and games, and be above freshet.

CHEOWA MAXIMA. A bald mountain at head of Cheowa river, was the place of
hornets, from a monster hornet which nested there.

JOANNA BALD. A bald mountain between Graham and Cherokee, called "lizard
place," from a great lizard with shining throat.

JUDACULLA OLD FIELD. On slope of Tennessee bald, where a giant of that
name had had his residence and field.

JUDACULLA ROCK. On the north bank of Caney fork, a mile above Moses'
creek, being a large soapstone slab covered with rude carvings.

NANTAHALA. A river in Macon, being a corruption of Nundayeli, or middle
sun, because between the river banks the sun can be seen only at noonday.
Others say it means a maiden's bosom.

NUGATSANI. A ridge below Yellow Hill, said to be the resort of fairies.
The word denotes a gradual or gentle slope.

QUALLA. A name given a locality where there was a trading post because a
woman named Polly lived there, the Indians pronouncing it Qually, being
unable to articulate the letter p.

SOCO GAP. At the head of Soco creek, and means an ambush or where they
were ambushed, from which point they watched for enemies approaching from
the north. It, was there they ambushed an invading party of Shawano. Hence
the name.

STANDING INDIAN. A high peak at the head of Nantahala river, meaning
"where the man stood" (Yunwitsulenunyi), from a rock that used to jut out
from the summit, but is now broken off.

STEKOA. The W. H. Thomas farm above Whittier, the true meaning of which is
lost. It does not mean "little fat," as some suppose.

SWANNANOA. It does not mean "beautiful," but is a corruption of Suwali
nunna (hi), Suwali trail, the Cherokee name, not of the stream, but of the
trail crossing the gap to the country of the Ani-Suwali or Cheraw.

TUSQUITTEE BALD. A mountain in Clay, meaning "where the water-dogs
laughed"; because a hunter thought he heard dogs laugh there, but found
that their pond had dried up, and they were on their way to N antahala
river, saying their gills had dried up.

VENGEANCE CREEK. A south branch of Valley river, because of the cross
looks of an Indian woman who lived there.

WAYAH GAP. In Nantahala mountains on road from Aquone to Franklin, and is
Cherokee for wolf. A fight occurred here in 1776. Some call it Warrior gap.

WEBSTER. Used to be called Unadantiyi, or "Where they conjured," though
the name properly belongs to a gap three miles east of Webster on trail up
Scott's creek.

McNAIR'S GRAVE. Just inside the Tennessee line is a stone-walled grave,
with a slab on which is an epitaph telling of the Removal heartbreak,
having this inscription: "Sacred to the memory of David and Delilah A.
McNair, who departed this life, the former on the 15th August, 1836, and
the latter on the 30th November, 1838. Their children being members of the
Cherokee nation and having to go with their people to the West, do leave
this monument, not only to show their regard for their parents, but to
guard their sacred ashes against the unhallowed intrusion of the white
man."

(1. Condensed from Literary Digest, p. 472, September 21, 1912)

(2. Unless otherwise noted all in this chapter is based on the Nineteenth
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1897, Part I)

(3. Roosevelt, Vol. I, p. 74)

(4. In the Lyceum for April, 1891, pp. 22-23, the late Col A. T. Davidson
gives an account of the burial of two brass field pieces by Rutherford's
men in a swamp below the residence of the late Elam Slagle, and near the
mouth of Warrior creek, so called because of the battle there.)

(5. N. C. Booklet, for December, 1904)

(6. In Wheeler, Vol. II (pp. 205-6) is a letter from Col. Thomas to Hon.
James Graham, dated October 15, 1838, in which he gives a brief account of
the Eastern Band and why they were allowed to remain.)

(7. Condensed from 19th An. Rep. Bureau Am. Ethnology, and N. C. Booklet,
Vol. III, No. 2. These notes were from the Nineteenth Report, and I have
already sufficiently stated that everything not otherwise noted (Note 2)
is taken from that authority.)

(8. Statement of Hon. Geo. H. Smathers, attorney for the Eastern Band, to
J. P. A., May 28, 1912)

(9. See 9 Stat. L. 544-556-570-572; 40 Court of Claims, 281-252; 202 U. S.
Rep., 101-130)