Creek Nation, OK - Washington Irving stops at Berryhill's 1832

Submitted by David Morgan dmorgan@efn.org

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In 1832, Washington Irving traveled through the Western Creek Lands with a 
Ranger expedition. They were joined by Henry Ellsworth, a special commissioner 
sent by the United States. Below is a passage from Irving's journal:


--- towards dusk we arrived at a frontier farm-house, owned by a settler of the 
name BERRYHILL. It was situated on a hill-- The master of the house received us 
civilly, but could offer us no accomodations, for sickness prevailed in his 
family. He appeared himself to be in no thriving condition, for though bulky in 
frame, he had a sallow, unhealthy complexion and a wiffling double voice, 
shifting abruptly from a treble to base-- finding his log house was a mere 
hospital crowded with invalids, we ordered our tent to be pitched in the farm-
yard.


Irving called this Berryhill man a "white man." Ellsworth called him a half-
breed. I believe this was our John Berryhill and that he died in 1832, instead 
of 1831, as George W. Berryhill said in his letter to Monroe Jasper Berryhill. 
Elizabeth (Derrisaw) Berryhill, John's wife, died the next year, in 1833.

There was a big flood in the Western Creek Nation which swept away the Creek 
Agency and the crops and homes of many of the Creek settlers. After this 
disaster, the children of John and Elizabeth Berryhill moved across the Arkansas 
River and settled near where the town of Muskogee, Oklahoma, now is located.

[Thelma Nolen Cornfeld]