Coweta County GaArchives History - Books .....Chapter III Miscellaneous Paragraphs 1928
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Book Title: Coweta County Chronicles

CHAPTER III.

Miscellaneous Paragraphs: The Indians On their Way to the West. A Portrait of
General McIntosh. Croesy McIntosh. The Coweta Lands.

  From Dr. Joshua H. Foster, for years a professor at the University of Alabama,
in an address before the Alabama Historical Society, is taken the following word
pictures of the Creek Indians on their way to their new ground in the West: "In
their emigration westward, some of them camped where the (Alabama) University
observatory now stands. With other boys I had visited their camp and bought from
them a few trinkets. We had gone again to another camp at Jemison's mill across
the Warrior river, where we saw some boys and girls-fifty or more-between the
ages of two and twenty years-not clad in modern bathing suits, but all 'in their
birthday suits' or undress uniform- paddling like ducks in the water. I had seen
Opothleyohola and his lithe and graceful daughters, and heard a great chief talk
in eloquent pathos of their bitter grief on leaving their hunting grounds and
the graves of their fathers. I had passed the grave of a chieftain's son in the
northwest corner of the observatory old field, and seen its lonely sentinel-the
pet dog of the little boy-as he kept his ceaseless vigils over the tomb of his
master. My heart yearned in youthful sympathy for the poor Indian."

  Judge Bowie's story was of their removal: "Two days after the Indians had left
their homes and started on their weary journey to their western reserve, he and
a friend were passing on horseback through the mountainous region of their
deserted 'Nation.' On reaching a gap in the mountains, his friend told him that
a short distance through the woods would bring them to the summit from which
they would see the finest landscape in the country. On reaching the top, there
spread out before them an enchanting vision of the valley of the Coosa to the
enclosing hills and mountains on either side. Their rapturous emotions had not
found time for utterance before they simultaneously discovered a few yards
before them an old Indian man, and a little farther off, to the left, another,
each bearing the marks of extreme age and great infirmity, each sitting on a
log, his elbows on his knees and his head
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bowed in his hands, his steady gaze fixed on the landscape on which he had so
often looked. Silently the travelers took in the whole situation. Unable to go
with their tribe, the two old Indians had repaired to this point, where they
might sit and view the grounds so long endeared to them, the scenes of the
youthful joys, the prototype of their Elysium, and there might sit and wait and
die."

Some History of a Portrait of General William McIntosh.
  (Summarized from notes by Mrs. B. V. Sanders.)

  "Aunt Joe (Miss Josephine Varner, of Indian Springs, who has lived since 1850,
in the house there, built by General McIntosh about 1821,) had been told by her
mother, who knew General McIntosh, and was a friend of his, that he had lived at
Columbus, Ga., at one time, when it was a great trading post for the Indians,
and that an artist admirer of his painted a portrait of him which was somewhere
in that city, said to be hanging in a saloon. Later, Aunt Joe went there to
teach school and made many inquiries, taking some of her pupils, she would go to
the bar-room doors, and ask if the picture of General McIntosh hung in there.
Finally, she heard that it was in the possession of a Mr. Mayo and she wrote,
asking him if he would sell, lend, or give it to her, but got no reply. In 1921
she heard that it was hanging in the court house at Columbus, and in 1923 a
friend of hers, Mrs. Morgan, going there to spend the holidays, promised to find
out if this were true. She brought back this story:

  'A Mr. Kivlin, of Columbus, was a personal friend of General McIntosh and had
a handsome oil painting made of him. Kivlin had a bar-room, but the portrait
hung in his private office. After the death of Kivlin the picture went to E. C.
Mayo, a wealthy bachelor of the city. About thirty years ago it hung in the
Masonic Temple, but was sold by Mr. Mayo to Mr. Brannon, of Montgomery, Alabama,
and is now hanging in the State Capitol there.'

Owners of the Varner House at Indian Springs.

  1. Chief William McIntosh, who built it.
  2. Chief Mathews.
  3. Chief Dillon.
  4. Edward Varner bought it in 1850.
State of Georgia obtained possession of ten acres in 1828."
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In Memory of Croesy McIntosh.
  How fondly we recall impressions and experiences of joy and sorrow of our
early childhood days.

  The hours spent in the cabin of Croesy McIntosh have never been effaced; a
combined impression of joy as the recipient of the love she had for little
children and the awe inspired by her stately ways.

  So I bring this tribute of fond memory to Croesy of illustrious Indian
descent, our adopted daughter.

  The death of her father, William McIntosh, is well-known history. This
daughter was absent from home the night of his murder. Her father slain, her
brother Chili having made his escape and his whereabouts being unknown, this
fifteen-years-old "slip of a girl," as she was called by the State militiamen,
delegated to move the Indians west of the Mississippi, begged piteously not to
be taken West. The hearts of three of the men of the militia were so touched
that they agreed to let her remain. These men were Dr. Calvin Jones Fall (my
father-in-law), Richmond Bridges, and Solomon T. Bridges. The Bridges brothers
were slave owners, but she was free-free-born and absolutely free she lived in
the cabins-each had one built for her and she came and went as she pleased
supporting herself by spinning. Later she married a slave of Richmond Bridges
and had two children, Chili, and Anise.

  The Confederacy called and Jones Bridges responded, Chili, his companion from
childhood, going as attendant. Jones Bridges contracted small-pox, came home and
died in the pest house here (at Senoia). Chili quarentined there, his mother was
forbidden to enter, but she knew no fear, not even of levelled gun, and was
permitted to go to her son-to die with him. Both were buried on the sight of the
pest house.

  For many years the pines were left to mark the graves but greed has taken away
all signs. Only two-an old slave and I-can locate the burial spot of Croesy and
Chili, descendants of a noble race.
                                    ALICE BAGGERLY FALL.
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    Inscription on the bronze plate of the boulder marking the grave of
General McIntosh on the McIntosh Reserve, in Carroll County, Georgia:
1778              1825
       To the 
MEMORY AND HONOR
       of 
GENERAL WILLIAM McINTOSH
    The distinguished and patriotic son of Georgia whose devotion was heoric,
whose friendship was unselfish, and whose service was valiant, who negotiated
the treaty between the Creek Indians and the State for all lands lying west of
the Flint river, who sacrificed his life for his patriotism.
      Erected
         by
William McIntosh Chapter
Daughters of the American
     Revolution
        of
   Jackson Georgia
      1921

The Land.
1825.
  In June 1825, the legislature passed the Act governing the distribution of the
lands recently acquired from the Indians. This paper is so interesting that it
is given with only slight abridgment.

  From The Journal, Milledgeville, Tuesday, June 14, 1825: "The following
gentlemen were elected commissioners to superintend the Land Lottery: Messrs.
Joseph Ligon, Hezekiah Luckie, Edward B. Brooking, Frederick Cullins and Edward
Carey.
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  "The following were elected sectional surveyors, viz: Messrs, John McBride, W.
D. Conyers, J. F. Forth, James Stewart, Isaac Bailey, Wm. Simpson, A. B. Holt,
W. Castleberry, Samuel Brooks and Dickerson Luckie."  From the same paper, is
copied-

"AN ACT

  "To dispose of and distribute the lands lately acquired by the United States,
for the use of Georgia, of the Creek Nation of Indians, by a Treaty made and
concluded at the Indian Springs on the twelfth day February, eighteen hundred
and twenty-five.

  "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of
Georgia in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of
the same, That the territory acquired . . . . shall form and be divided into
five sections as follows, to-wit: (The specifications are so long they are
omitted, but Section One was what is now eight or ten counties south of a line
from the town of Oglethorpe to the town of Cusseta to another line from just
north of Albany to the same distance north of Fort Gains, more than eight
present counties; the Second Section took in what now composes the counties of
Harris, Talbot, Taylor, part of each of Macon, Marion, Schley, all of
Chattahoochee and Muscogee; Section Three we know as Troup and Meriwether
counties; Section Four was what is now Coweta county, with a corner since given
to Campbell, and another corner given to Heard, and under the legal jurisdiction
of Fayette county.)

  "Sec. 2 That each of the sections . . . . described, shall be divided into
districts of nine miles square as near as practicable- and . . . . said
districts so laid out, shall be again subdivided by lines to be run in like
directions into square tracts containing each two hundred two and one-half acres
and numbered according to the plan heretofore pursued under the instructions of
the Surveyor General.

  "Sec. 3 That the fractional parts of surveys . . . . shall be reserved for
public uses, and be disposed of as a future legislature may direct.

  "Sec. 4 That one hundred district surveyors shall be appointed by joint ballot
of the legislature in one general ticket; the one receiving the highest number
of votes being entitled to first choice of districts; the others in the same
order agreeably to the number of
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votes they receive; in case of a tie, preference in choice of district shall be
decided by lot . . . .

  "Sec. 5 That ten persons shall be appointed by joint ballot of the
legislature, neither of whom shall be a surveyor, to run and plainly mark the
several district reserve and sectional lines . . . . no ticket to be counted
unless it contains the names of ten persons.

  "Sec. 6 That no ticket for district surveyor shall be counted unless it
contains one hundred names. Any person elected a surveyor who shall fail to
perform the duties of his office, as required by the provisions of this act,
shall be considered as forfeiting his bond, and himself and his securities
immediately liable therefor.

"Sec. 7 That the surveyors respectively shall give bond in the sum of ten
thousand dollars to the governor and his successors in office, with such
security as he or a majority of the justices of the inferior court of the county
in which such surveyor may reside shall approve, conditioned for the faithful
performance of the duties required of them by this act.

  "Sec. 8. . . . . That it shall be the duty of the surveyors . . . . to make
the surveys . . . . of the districts to which they may be appointed, in their
own proper person, to mark, or caused to be marked plainly and distinctly upon
trees, if practicable, otherwise on posts, all stations and all lines which they
may be required to run . . . . immediately upon being required so to do by the
surveyor general to cause all such lines to be run with all possible exactness,
with a half chain containing thirty-three feet divided into fifty equal links
which shall be adjusted by the surveyor general according to the standard in his
office; to take as accurately as possible the meanders of the water courses
which shall form natural boundaries to any of the surveys; to note in field
books, to be kept by them respectively, the name of the corner and station
trees, which shall be marked and numbered under the direction of the surveyor
general; also all rivers, creeks and other water courses which may be touched
upon or crossed in running any of the lines aforesaid, transcripts of the field
books after being compared with the originals by the surveyor general, and
certified and signed on every page by the surveyor returning the same, shall be
deposited in the surveyor general's office, as a record; and the district
surveyors shall make a return . . . . within ninety days from the time they are
notified to enter upon . . . . their duties, con-
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taining a map of their districts in which shall be correctly represented and
numbered all lots and fractions . . . . and waters therein deliniated . . . .
and also return at the same time a detached plat of each lot and fraction which
said district may contain, certified and signed by such surveyor which shall be
filed among the records of the Surveyor general's office from which copies shall
be taken to be attached to grants . . . . And the surveyors appointed to lay out
section reserve and district lines shall make return of their work . . . . in
sixty days . . . . of all surveys as shall have been made east of the
Chattahoochee river . . . .

  "Sec. 9 . . . . That the district   surveyors . . . . shall receive three
dollars for every mile that shall actually be run or surveyed as a full
compensation . . . . out of which they shall defray the whole of the expenses
incident to their offices; . . . . the governor is hereby authorized and
required to issue his warrant on the treasury in favor of each of said surveyors
for the sum of three hundred dollars, to enable him to enter with the less delay
upon his duties, and the balance . . . . shall be paid . . . . upon his
producing a certificate from the surveyor general setting forth a performance of
the work and the amount due.

  Sec. 10 . . . . That surveyors who . . . . run section, reserve and district
lines, shall receive three dollars and fifty cents for each mile . . . .

  "Sec. 11. That the territory acquired as aforesaid shall be disposed of and
distributed in the following manner, to-wit: After the surveying is completed
and returns made thereof . . . . the governor shall cause tickets to be made
out, whereby all the members of lots in the different districts intended to be
drawn for shall be represented, which tickets shall be put into a wheel and
constitute prizes . . . . The following . . . . persons shall be entitled to a
draw or draws under this act; every male white person of eighteen years of age
and upwards, being a citizen of the United States, and an inhabitant within the
organized limits of this State for three years immediately preceding this act,
including such as have been absent on lawful business, shall be entitled to one
draw; every male person of like description, having a wife or legitimate male
child or children under eighteen years of age, or unmarried female child or
children, resident as aforesaid, or who were born and have ever since resided in
this state, shall have two draws; all widows with like residence shall be
entitled to one draw; and wives and children in this state of persons who have
been absent
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from this state for three years, shall have one draw (as if said husband were
dead) and the titles to such lots . . . . be vested permanently in them; all
families of orphans resident as aforesaid, or who have resided in this state
from their birth under the age of eighteen years, except such as may be entitled
in their own right to a draw or draws, whose father is dead, shall have one
draw; all families of orphans consisting of more than two, shall have two draws;
all widows of like residence whose husbands were killed or died in the service
of their country, or on the return march, in the late wars with Great Britain or
the Indians, shall be entitled to a draw (besides) that otherwise allowed to
widows; all orphans whose fathers were killed or died in the service of their
country, or on the return march, in the late wars against Great Britain or the
Indians, shall be entitled to a draw exclusive of that otherwise allowed to
orphans; and all men who have been wounded or disabled in the late war with
Great Britain or the Indians, so that they are not able to procure a competency
for support in consequence of their wounds, be allowed one draw in addition,
taking the following oath: "I do solemnly swear that I was wounded in the late
war with Great Britain and the Indians, and am so disabled by the same that it
renders me unable to procure a support by my labor:" Provided, That nothing
herein contained shall be so construed as to entitle any person or persons to a
draw or draws in the present contemplated land lottery, who have been fortunate
drawers in any previous land lottery, except such persons as have drawn land as
one of a family of orphans and who have arrived at the age of eighteen, but such
shall be entitled to one draw; And provided, That all widows of Revolutionary
soldiers shall have one draw in addition to those already contemplated by this
act; and that all Revolutionary soldiers who were not fortunate drawers as
Revolutionary soldiers in the late land lottery shall be entitled to two draws
as Revolutionary soldiers, and those who drew one tract in the former lottery
shall have one draw. Provided, That the citizens of this state who come under
this act as above contemplated, and who volunteered or were drafted in the late
war against Great Britain or the Indians, and refused to serve a tour of duty
either in person or by substitute, or who may have deserted from the service of
this state or of the United States, shall not be entitled to the provisions of
this act, nor any of those who illegally avoided a draft, by removal or
otherwise; and that no person or persons that have removed from the organized
limits of this state for the purpose of avoiding the
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laws of this state, or who have absconded for debt, shall in no wise be
permitted by this act and who have not paid the taxes required of them.

  "Sec. 12 . . . . That any sale or transfer that any person entitled to chance
or chances in this land lottery may make of such chance or chances, or may make
of any lot or lots of land, such may draw, before the grant or grants of the
same are taken out shall be void, and any bond or obligation or letter of
attorney given by said person to make titles, shall not be binding on such
persons: And further, It shall be illegal for any magistrate or person
authorized to administer an oath to any person selling his chance or chances,
lot or lots contrary to the provisions of this section.

  "Sec. 13 . . . . That nothing herein shall be so construed as to allow any
convict . . . . to give in for a draw: Provided nevertheless, That the child or
children, who have resided in this state three years, of any convict, shall be
entitled to a draw or draws in the same manner . . . . as if they were orphans,
and may be given in for by their mother or other person under whose care they
may be.

  "Sec. 14 . . . . That lists of persons entitled to draw . . . . shall be made
out by the Inferior court of each county, or such persons as they may appoint,
not exceeding two to each battalion, within two months from the publication of
this act; and the said Inferior courts . . . . or the persons they appoint shall
attend in each captain's district, at least twice, giving ten days' notice of
such attendance, for the purpose of taking the names of persons entitled to
draws; the names . . . . to be entered by the Receivers in a book to be kept for
that purpose, a transcript of which book, fairly made out, shall be transmitted
to the Executive, and the original deposited with the clerk of the Superior
court of the counties. And said Receivers before they enter upon their duties
shall take the oath (not to take any name except under oath as to that one being
entitled to a draw or draws oaths being outlined for all the classes mentioned
as entitled to draws.)

  "Sec. 15	That immediately after the passage of this act, the Governor shall
cause the same to be published in the public gazettes of this state, and shall
require all persons entitled to draws to give in their names to the persons
authorized to receive them, and (those) taking the names shall receive
twenty-five cents from each applicant for each draw.
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  "Sec. 16. . . . . (Any persons entitled to draws who may have to be absent
provided for by this section.)

"Sec. 17 . . . . That five persons  shall be appointed by joint ballot of the
legislature, to superintend the drawing of the lottery, to be convened at
Milledgeville, by the Governor, when necessary, and that wherever this act
imposes duties on . . . . (all officials from the Governor down), such duties
shall be severally performed with as little delay as possible.

  "Sec. 18 . . . . That as soon as said lists are made out and returned, the
Governor, . . . . shall cause the names of persons entitled to draws, together
with other designating remarks of residence, etc., to be placed on tickets as
nearly similar as possible, which shall be deposited on one wheel, and the
prizes on the tickets of like description, shall be deposited in another wheel,
which prizes shall consist of all square lots in said territory, not herein
reserved. And from each wheel as nearly at the same time as may be, a ticket
shall be drawn and delivered to the Superintendent or managers, and so on until
all are drawn, the names and the prizes having been thorough-mixed in their
respective wheels. And the Governor is required to give three weeks' notice of
the commencement of the drawing.

  "Sections 19 and 20 relate to surveyors and the oaths they must take, etc.

  "Sec. 21 . . . . That the land to be distributed under the provisions of this
act, shall be classed under the following heads, viz: First quality river land,
second quality river land, first quality oak and hickory upland, second quality
oak and hickory upland, first quality pine land and second quality pine land,
and that it shall be the duty of the surveyors . . . . to note upon the separate
plat of each lot, which he is required to file . . . . the quality of each lot,
according to the foregoing classes, and that all persons who may draw lands
under this act shall be entitled to receive grants for the same conveying fee
simple titles, on paying into the treasury of this state the sum of eighteen
dollars; any one drawing, and failing to take out his grant within two years
from the date of the draw, shall forfeit his or her right to receive a grant to
the land so drawn and the same shall revert to the state, orphans, idiots and
lunatics excepted. And all persons who shall draw lands, whether granted or not,
shall pay taxes on them at the same rates as for other lands of the same
quality, until they
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relinquish them to the state by writing to the Secretary of State. (The rest of
this long section is taken up with the penalties for any fraudulent dealings in
connection with the land or drawing of the lots as are the next two sections 22
and 23.)

  "Sec. 24 . . . . That a quantity of land on the Flint river, opposite the old
Agency, and equal in quantity to the reserve on the east side of the same: one
mile square at Marshall's ferry on the Flint river, including the ferry; one
mile square at McIntosh's on the Chattahoochee including the ferry, and a
reserve of five miles square on the Chattahoochee at the Coweta falls and
including the same-the northern boundary to cross the river one mile above the
lower shoals, be and the same is hereby set apart for public purposes.

  "John Abercrombie, Speaker House of Representatives. Allen B. Powell President
of the Senate. Approved June 9, 1825. G. M. Troup, Governor."

  "Acts of the General Assembly: (1) "On the first Monday in May next (1827)
(the voters) may meet together and under the superintendence of three
freeholders, elect five Justices of the Inferior Court, for their respective
counties, a Clerk of the Superior and Inferior Court, a Sheriff, Tax Collector,
Tax Receiver, a Coroner and a County Surveyor . . . .

  "That the place of said election in the county of Cowetaw shall be at the
house of James Caldwell."

  Court to be held "In the county of Coweta on the fourth Monday in June and
December." Inferior Court to be held on first Monday in August and in February."

  "That the place for holding the . . . . courts in county of Coweta be the
place designated in this act for electing officers, till the Justices of the
Inferior Court shall select sites for public buildings in said counties."

(1)-Coweta county was created December 11, 1826.

Additional Comments:
Citation:

COWETA COUNTY CHRONICLES FOR ONE HUNDRED YEARS WITH

An Account of the Indians from Whom the Land was Acquired

AND
Some Historical Papers Relating to its Acquisition by Georgia, with Lineage Pages.

EDITED AND COMPILED BY MARY G. JONES AND LILY REYNOLDS
FOR
SARAH DICKINSON CHAPTER
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 
OF NEWNAN, GEORGIA

THE STEIN PRINTING COMPANY
ATLANTA, GA.
1928


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