Chattooga County GaArchives History .....Chatooga County History 1854
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CHATTOOGA COUNTY.

  This county was laid out from Walker and Floyd, in 1838, and derived its name
from its principal river, Chattooga.

  The most prominent streams are Chattooga River; Snake, Eukelanaquaw, Johns,
and Arnuchee Creeks.

   SUMMERVILLE is the county town, situated in Chattooga Valley, one hundred and
ninety-five miles from Milledgeville.

   The climate is considered healthy. Among the instances of longevity are,
JOSEPH POLLARD and HENRY LAURENCE, 80; MRS. MARGARET MIDDLETON, 90.

   The face of the country is uneven, traversed by mountains and ridges running
N. E. and S. W. Although a small county, it contains much good land. It is
interspered with rich and delightful valleys and mountains, unfolding
picturesque and highly interesting scenery. The names of the principal valleys
are Broomtown, Chattooga, and Amuchee. The mountains are Taylor's Ridge and
John's Mountain; there is also a very high peak which stands by itself, called
Dirtseller Mountain; the Indians called it Karte Kunteesky.

   Tryon Factory, on Chattooga River, is five miles N. of Summerville,-864
spindles, 10 looms, averaging 45 yards per loom; 45 operatives. Factory 114 feet
by 44; 2 stories high. Water power good.

   Among the first settlers of this county were, ROBERT CAMERON, CHARLES PRICE,
FRANCIS KIRBY, JOHN LAMAR, WM. MCCONNELL, ISAAC CHANDLER, JAMES HERNDON, JAMES
WELLS, JOHN JOHNSON, PHILIP BURNS, SANDERS DICKSON, WM. PRICE, HUGH MONTGOMERY,
ALBERT MITCHELL, EDWARD ADAMS, REUBEN SLATON, N. ALLMAN, ELIJAII MOSLEY, THOMAS
TREDAWAY, ALBERT QUINN, JOSEPH CROOK, CHARLES A. HEARD, JOHN F. BEAVERS, HUGH
MCMULLIN, JAMES PRICE.

   Extract from the Census of 1850.-869 dwellings; 869 families; 2,628 white
males; 2,503 white females; 1 free coloured male; 3 free coloured females. Total
free population, 5,135; slaves, 1,680. Deaths, 79. Farms, 419; manufacturing
establishments, 10. Value of real estate, $861,066; value of personal estate,
$1,018,308.

Miscellaneous

   In the vicinity of Summerville there was a very large Indian town called.
Island Town, the principal chief of which in 17__ was Cabin Smith, one of the
signers of the treaty concluded at the Cherokee Agency, July 8, 1817, and also
of the treaty at Washington, February 27, 1819. About the end of the American
Revolution, the small-pox made great ravages among the inhabitants of this town.

   Broomtown was situated west of Island Town, and took its name from its chief,
The Broom, whose name is affixed to the treaty concluded at Tellico, October 24,
1804.

   Sequoia, or George Guess, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, formerly
resided in this county.

   CHEROKEE ALPHABET.-We find the following interesting article in the
miscellaneous department of a Northern paper, but without any acknowledgment of
the source whence it was derived. The material facts here stated are, however,
well established, but we do not recollect to have before seen so particular an
account of this singular aboriginal invention .-Sparta Republican.

   The invention of the new Cherokee alphabet is one of the most remarkable
circumstances which has ever occurred in the history of the Indian tribes of
America. We lately conversed with a reverend gentleman, who has for some time
laboured as a missionary in the territories of that tribe, and who, from the
station he lately held, was able to give us some information respecting this
interesting piece of aboriginal improvement. The American Cadmus, it seems, is
an illiterate Cherokee, unacquainted both with the English language and the
powers and system of the English alphabet. The language of the tribe, though
perhaps the most copious of any Indian dialect on the continent, is wholly
composed of the various combinations of about sixty monosyllables. The ingenious
savage, after a persevering labour of two years, having ascertained the certain
number of those radical particles of his native tongue, invented for each a
re-presentative character, and thus formed a complete, and perhaps the only
syllabic alphabet in the world. The accomplishment of this among a people so
little addicted to inventive study as the savages of our country, is truly
astonishing, and proclaims the author of it to be a person of no ordinary mind.
During the course of his labours, it is said, his fellow-savages often remarked
the singularity of his behaviour in generally sitting apart from his companions,
apparently deep in thought, and employed in making marks on the ground. He,
however, with true Indian taciturnity, declined speaking to any one of the
object: of his study till his work was finished. He then took one of his
brethren aside, and explained to him his new invention, and ended with saying,
"We can now have speaking papers as well as white men."

   The newly discovered art was seized with avidity by the people of the tribe;
and, from the extreme simplicity of the plan, the use of it soon became general.
Any one, on fixing in his memory the names and forms of the letters, immediately
possessed the art of reading and writing; and the whole could be acquired in one
day. It is now but two or three years since this discovery was made, and reading
and writing have already become so general among the Cherokees, that they not
only carry on a correspondence by letter between the different parts of their
territory, but are also in the habit of taking receipts and giving promissory
notes in affairs of trade. The gentleman from whom we received this information
told us, that it is now common, in travelling the lands of the tribes, to see
directions for the different paths inscribed on the trees. The inventor of the
alphabet adopted a few of our manuscript letters. Those were probably the only
ones he knew of; and it is certain that he was unacquainted with their power,
for he gives proof of it, by applying them to sounds wholly different from those
they stood for in English. Nearly all his characters, however, are of his own
invention.

   The following interesting particulars are taken from the Missionary Herald
for October, 1828: 

   Mr. Guess is, in appearance and habits, a full Cherokee, though his
grand-father on his father's side was a white man. He has no knowledge of any
language but the Cherokee, consequently, in his invention of the alphabet, he
had to depend entirely on his own native resources. He was led to think on the
subject of writing the Cherokee language, by a conversation which took place one
evening at SAUTA. Some young men were making remarks on the superior talents of
the white people; one said that white men could put a talk on paper and send it
to any distance, and it would be understood by those who received it. They all
agreed that this was very strange, and they could not see how it could be done.
Mr. Guess, after silently listening to their conversation for a while, raised
himself, and putting on an air of importance, said: `You are all fools; why, the
thing is very easy; I can do it myself; and picking up a fiat stone, he
commenced scratching on it with a pin, and after a few minutes read to them a
sentence which he had written, by making a mark for each word. This produced a
laugh, and the conversation on that subject ended. But the inventive powers of
Guess's mind were now roused to action, and nothing short of being able to write
the Cherokee language would satisfy him. He went home, purchased materials, and
sat down to paint the Cherokee language on paper. He at first thought of no way
but to make a character for each word. Re pursued this plan for about a year, in
which time he had made several thousand characters. He was then convinced that
the object was not attainable in that way; but he was not discouraged. He firmly
believed that there was some way in which the Cherokee language could be
expressed on paper, as well as the English; and after trying several other
methods, he at length conceived the idea of dividing the words into parts. He
had not proceeded far on this plan, before he found, to his great satisfaction,
that the same characters would apply in different words, and the number of
characters would be comparatively few. After putting down and learning all the
syllables that he could think of, he would listen to speeches, and the
conversation of strangers, and whenever a word occurred which had a part or
syllable in it which he had not before thought of, he would bear it on his mind
until he had made a character for it. In this way he soon discovered all the
syllables in the language. In forming his characters, he made some use of the
English letters, as he found them in a spelling-book which he had in his
possession. After commencing upon the last-mentioned plan, I believe he
completed his system in about a month. During the time he was occupied in
inventing the alphabet, he was strenuously opposed by all his friends and
neighbours. He was frequently told that he was throwing away his time and
labour, and that none but a delirious person, or an idiot, would do as he did.
But this did not discourage him. He would listen to the expostulations of his
friends, and then deliberately light his pipe, pull his spectacles over his
eyes, and sit down to his work, without attempting to vindicate his conduct.
After completing his system, he found much difficulty in persuading the people
to learn it; nor could he succeed, until he went to the Arkansas and taught a
few persons there, one of whom wrote a letter to some friends in this nation,
and sent it by Mr. Guess, who read it to the people. This letter excited much
curiosity. Here was a talk in the Cherokee language, which had come all the way
from the Arkansas sealed up in a paper, yet it was very plain. This convinced
many that Mr. Guess's mode of writing would be of some use. Several persons
immediately determined to try to learn. They succeeded in a few days, and from
this it quickly spread all over the nation, and the Cherokees (who, as a people,
had always been illiterate) were, in the course of a few months, without school
or expense of time or money, able to read and write in their own language.


Additional Comments:
From: "Sketches of Counties" in



HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

OF

GEORGIA

CONTAINING THE MOST INTERESTING

FACTS, TRADITIONS, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, ANECDOTES, ETC.

RELATING TO ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES, FROM ITS FIRST 

COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL RECORDS AND OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS.



BY THE

REV. GEORGE WHITE, M.A.



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