Quitman County GaArchives History .....The Indians from "The Quitman Echo" ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Donna Eldridge DonnaEldrid@aol.com July 15, 2004, 7:25 pm THE INDIANS When Quitman County was laid out in 1858, the Indians had been gone for only about two decades. Evidence that the area of Quitman County was once the home of the Indians lies in the Indian names which still designate five streams in the county; namely the Chattahoochee River and Hodchodkee, Holanna, Pataula and Tobanana Creeks. Pataula, the name of the county's largest creek, also designates the circuit of the Superior Court in which Quitman County is located. Tobanana, the name of a creek which constitutes one of the town boundaries for Georgetown, was the original name for Georgetown from 1833 to 1836. In the lowlands which border Tobanana and the other streams, arrowheads and bits of pottery are occasionally unearthed. These items along with a few burial and ceremonial mounds are silent witnesses to the fact that Quitman County was once the red man's territory. The territory now included in Quitman County remained in the legal possession of the Creek Indians until 1825. On February 12 of that year William McIntosh, a halfbreed chieftain of the Creek Nation, signed a treaty at Indian Springs which ceded to the state of Georgia all the remaining Creek lands west of the Flint River. The area of Quitman County was a part of this cession made at Indian Springs. Indians, however, remained in the area until after the time of the Creek Indian War of 1836 and 1837. Indeed, a few might be said to remain still in the persons of a few citizens who have a degree of Indian ancestry. The Indians who lived in Quitman were known as Lower Creeks, one of the nations which belonged to the Muskhogean group. Most of the Quitman Indians lived in the flats along the Chattahoochee River. One of the Lower Creek tribes living in this area was known as the Eufaulas, who, in keeping with Indian custom, took their name from their principal town. The town of Eufaula was located in the general vicinity of Georgetown. Like most Indian towns Eufaula changed its location at various times. It is also very likely that branch villages with the same name were scattered for several miles on both sides of the river. One such branch village was located on the bluff where the present city of Eufaula now stands. The main site of the Indian town of Eufaula, appears to have been on the Georgia side of the Chattahoochee River. Since the site of the town was moved at various times, it is impossible to pinpoint any exact location for the original Eufaula. It is certain, however, that the mound on the property of Frank Bledsoe just south of Tobanana Creek was either a burial or ceremonial mound identified with Eufaula Town. For some reason the pioneer white settlers who first came into the vicinity of Georgetown preferred the name of Tobanana for their settlement, the name of which was changed to Georgetown in 1836. From 1840 to 1842, the name Ufaula, however, was the name of a post office on the Georgia side of the Chattahoochee River in what is now the southern part of Quitman County. The Eufaula of today was known as Irwinton from its settlement in 1833 to 1844 when the name of Eufaula, the old Indian town across the Chattahoochee in Georgia, was adopted. Eufaula was spelled in a variety of ways; Ufallah, Yuala, Eufalau, Uala and Ufaula are some of the forms encountered in the old records and on the old maps. Although Eufaula is not a Creek word, the Indians of Eufaula were considered Creeks. Thus, the word Eufaula probably represents an older Indian tribe which antedated the arrival of the Creeks in this section. Record of Eufaula Town's existence goes back well into the eighteenth century. The general location of the town is indicated on a 1733 map; the town was visited by an Englishman in 1752; and an official British trade for the town was listed in 1761. In 1799 the town was visited by Benjamin Hawkins, the agent appointed to superintend Indian affairs in Western Georgia. The description of the Eufaula Indians which is found in Sketch of the Creek Country written by Hawkins is probably the oldest surviving account of any matter relating to the history of the area now included in Quitman County. According to Hawkins the Indians at Eufaula were very poor "but generally well behaved and very friendly to white people." Hawkins also observed that they were not given to horsestealing, had some stock and were attentive to it. Moreover, the Eufaula Indians as described by Hawkins had some land fenced and were preparing to fence more at the time of his visit. After the visit of Hawkins in 1799, the Eufaula Indians remained in the general locality at least until 1832 when the town was listed in the Federal Indian Census that year. As the first white settlers trickled into Southwest Georgia and East Alabama during the late 1820's and early 1830's, the Indians were generally friendly to the whites who traded them valueless beads and trinkets in return for valuable skins and furs. In some instances the Indians even worked for the whites as farm laborers. By this time the Indians of Southwest Georgia and Southeast Alabama were considered wards of the Federal Government and were under the supervision of John Crowell, an Indian agent who maintained his agency at Fort Mitchell in Russell County, Alabama. But, gradually the Indians began to resent the intrusion of the land hungry whites, for they realized that the day of their removal to the far west was rapidly approaching. Moreover, the Indians were made restless by missionaries, land agents, and peddlers of cheap whiskey as well as by the quarrels between the State and Federal Governments over the administration of Indian affairs. The final clash between the white pioneers and the Indians for the possession of the red man's hunting ground came in the Creek Indian War of 1836 and 1837. By that time most of the Indians had removed west of the Chattahoochee River, but they still regretted the loss of their Georgia lands. Serious attacks against the whites in this section began in the spring of 1836 and lasted until the fall of 1837. It appears that no fighting took place in the area now included in Quitman County, although the burning of Roanoke in Stewart County in May 1836 and the Battle of Shepherd's Plantation which also took place in Stewart County in June 1836 greatly alarmed the citizens. Many of them abandoned their homes and fled to Eastern Georgia. (among them the family of William C. Hill) Some of the whites went to Lumpkin and Irwinton where stockades were built for protection against the Indians. Others (including the late James Nobles) enlisted in the militia and joined the Federal troops that were sent in to quell the last Indian uprising. At the time of the Creek War the chief of the Eufaula was Tustunnuggee- Hogo, better known as Billy-Bowlegs. After the war this intrepid Indian Chief was removed to the Indian territory in Oklahoma with his people who founded a new Eufaula Town which still exists in that state. On the journey westward the Eufaula Chieftain passed through Tuscalossa, then the capital of Alabama and addressed the legislature of that state with these words, "I say farewell to the wise men and to wish them peace and happiness in the country which my forefathers owned." Such was the plaintive valedictory of the last Indian Chief who had any connection with the area of Quitman County. By Mrs. Emmie Bledsoe Lester for the Quitman County Centennial Edition of the Cuthbert Times in 1958. The Creek Indian Census of 1832 listed the names of the heads of household only, showing 106 Creek Indian families enumerated in Eufaula Town. The families consisted of three to four people in a household with a few living quarters having as many as six. There were several households with the last name of Harjo. A mound site on Cool branch in Quitman County was explored by River Basin Surveys, Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, 79 Ann. Rept. A mound site was also explored on the land of Mr. Frank Bledsoe (not far from what is known as Rabbit Island.) About two years was spent in the county searching these areas. Twenty-seven game stones were found in the area in about thirty minutes a few years ago. The Cool Branch site was found to consist of a fort with walls of post set in a trench and tower bastions, regularly spaced at intervals of 110 to 115 feet. The walls recorded indicate an enclosure of an area ten to twelve acres, with a clay platform mound close to the center of this compound. Several rebuildings of the wall were indicated and no one was sure all of the sections were from the same, possibly there was two periods of building or perhaps there was a double fortification. The north wall was almost perfectly straight and ran east-northeast. No tower bastions were found on the east and south sides, the west wall had a deliberately planned slight deflection. No work was scheduled for the mound on Mr. Bledsoe's land, only a stratigraphic to obtain samples of the pre-mound period. An exploratory trench was dug and revealed a series of postholes, indicating some kind of structure. The structure appeared to be about 30 x 60 feet in dimensions, small wall posts rather closely set, corners closed. In the center a large pile of red iron ore was probably the result of a ceremonial or symbolic fire. Back when farming required someone to follow a mule many Indian artifacts were plowed up in the fields, some of the men and the older boys would pick up the good ones, place them in their pockets and give them to the younger children when they returned home at night. There are several good collections in the county and a few were started in just this way. Artifacts are still found in the county although they are not as plentiful as they once were. Mr. Fred Hinson has perhaps the largest and best collection. "The Quitman Echo - Quitman County, Georgia" - Jacquelyn Shepard (pages 1-4) Additional Comments: Transcribed and submitted by Donna Eldridge with permission from Jacquelyn Shepard File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/quitman/history/other/gms54theindia.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 10.8 Kb