Knox County TN Archives History - Books .....Initial Movements Towards Setlement  - Chapter II 1900
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Book Title: Standard History Of Knoxville

CHAPTER II.

INITIAL MOVEMENTS TOWARDS SETTLEMENT.



Domain of Cherokees—Approach of Hunters, Trappers and Explorers

—Immigration—Gradual Withdrawal of Indians—Treaties—Fort Stanwix—Hard

Labor—Lochaber—Purchases of Watauga Association—Jacob Brown and Richard

Henderson—Treaties of Long Island; of Holston, Dumplin, Coytoy. and

Hopewell—Westward Movement.



KNOXVILLE at present is the commercial center of an extensive territory, limited

practically by the same boundaries which correspond to those of the Cherokee

nation of Indians about the middle of the eighteenth century. Her commercial

travelers visit southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, northwestern

South Carolina, northern Georgia, northeastern Alabama, and eastern Tennessee.

The domain included the head-waters of the streams in the divisions of the

states named, comprehending- the mountains of the lower Appalachian system. Not

all of this immense tract was occupied by them, nor was it unclaimed by other

nations. While not formidable claimants, the Six Nations, Shawnees, and

Delawares asserted their rights to a portion of it.*



   *Charles C. Royce: The Cherokee Nation of Indians, 141. in report of Bureau

of Ethnology. 1883-'84.



  Prior to the explorations of the first hunters and trappers and to the

establishment of the first forts in eastern Tennessee, movements and

negotiations had been begun which were to continue until, ultimately, this

nation of intrepid warriors was removed west of the Mississippi river. The

conflicts between neighboring tribes, the ravages of disease, particularly the

smallpox, and other causes led to such diminution of the population of the

Cherokees that at the time of the ingress of the explorer they were ill prepared

to resist the onflowing tide of immigration, soon to set in by reason of his

description of the beneficence and prodigality of nature in the region beyond

the Alleghanies. Whether actuated purely by love of sport and adventure, as Dr.

Thomas Walker, Wallen, and their hunting parties, or by a combined quest for

land and game, as Daniel Boone and Henry Scaggins, or by motives of discovery

and permanent habitation, as James Smith and James Robertson, or by the spirit

of trade and commerce, as James Adair and John Findley, each returning

individual and company or party gave such glowing accounts of the luxuriance of

forests, fertility of the soil, abundance of game, freshness and purity of the

waters, richness of pasturage, and exemption from external interference as to

stimulate an immediate movement into the trans-Alleghany country for fixed

settlement.



  The starting point in the settlement of Tennessee is the cabin of William

Bean, built in 1769 near the junction of Watauga river and Boone's creek in

upper East Tennessee. From this point it is interesting to note the tide of

immigration as it surged forward from Virginia and the Carolinas over the

mountains into the valleys beyond. Like the impetuosity of the mountain torrent

it continued its onward course, brooking no opposition and overcoming every

obstacle. The checks it received were momentary, only serving, as it were, to

gather renewed force for the occupancy of wider bounds. It is the beginning of a

thrilling and marvelous history. Therein are crowded within the space of a

quarter of a century deeds of heroism and daring, experiences of hardship and

suffering, records of success and triumph that enkindle ancestral pride and

foster patriotic devotion. What booted it that the Indian claimed it as his

hunting ground, employed his lazy existence in darting over the hills in pursuit

of game and skimming in his light canoe over the sparkling streams, or indulged

his savage nature in banishing or exterminating those of his own blood? The

pioneer regarded it a struggle of intelligence and civilization with ignorance

and barbarism. He was willing, personally or through his governmental agents, to

give the Indian in presents, money or other equivalent the value set by him upon

his claims, though he himself had little or no respect for such claims. Perhaps

his opinion touching these claims was best expressed in the policy of the

mother-state. North Carolina, who "considered in all her provincial and state

acts that the pretended title of the Indians was mere moonshine. It never was

anything more." *



  *Opinion of Judge John Haywood in Cornet vs. Winton's Lessee; 2 Yerger's

Tennessee Reports. 156.



  In the uneven contest it was not difficult to forecast the trend and outcome

of events. Like the melancholy theme running through the chorus of Greek tragedy

or the sad fate that pursued the fortunes of the house of Atreus, the dark,

ominous clouds of extermination and expatriation lay across the pathway of the

Cherokee. In treaty-making councils, in battles in the open or under cover, or

in hand-to-hand conflicts, he was no match for his pale-face brother. The

prophetic lament of Oconostota at the treaty of the Sycamore Shoals, the sullen

protest of Old Tassel at Coytoy, the splendid generalship o-f Dragging Canoe at

Island Flats, the strategy and cunning of Old Abraham at the Watauga fort, and

the perfidious daring of John Watts in the threatened attack on Knoxville—all

these availed nothing. The hand-to-hand fight of John Sevier and the "brave" at

Boyd's creek, of Moore and the chief at Island Flats, and of Hubbard and Untooia

near Citico tell the same story.



  Trained in the school of self-help, along with self-defence, the step to

self-government was an easy one for the pioneer to take. The Watauga Association

and the state of Franklin were but movements created by imminent perils and

unlooked-for emergencies. With the influx of large bodies of settlers, many of

them representing disorderly elements of society, and with almost impenetrable

forests, impassable mountains, and great distances separating them from the home

government, and that government lukewarm in its interest and indifferent to

appeals for protection, it was natural that in the then western wilds the

settler should seek to throw around himself every safeguard. That he was not a

separatist in spirit is shown by his gallant stand and signal success at the

battle of King's mountain during the Revolutionary war, and later by his lovalty

to Washington and the Federal government, when his appeals for permission to

assume the offensive against the Indian invader and marauder were constantly

refused.



  In the chain of events leading up to the dispossession of the Cherokees from

the territory embracing Knoxville treaty negotiations form important links.

These treaties have a chronological sequence in importance and character, and

might be divided into three classes according to> the objects had in view by the

framers, or their agents. The first had to do with alliances, the second with

alliances and the acquisitions of territory, and the third with the acquisitions

of territory. Every treaty had in view the cultivation and maintenance of

peaceful relations. The treaty relations of the Cherokees with the English

colonial governments began as early as 1721, when the province of South

Carolina, to- protect her frontiers against French territorial encroachments,

entered into a treaty of peace and commerce. Nine years later North Carolina

pursued the same course. For years these treaties were observed, and harmonious

relations existed. However, upon the outbreak of the French and Indian war, the

Carolina governors sought to strengthen the alliance, to secure safety to the

frontier. Fort Loudon, the first habitation of the Englishman in Tennessee, was

built accordingly, in 1756. Thus far except the relinquishment of claims to

lands to which the Catawbas had a better title, no portion of their lands had

been given up by the Cherokees.



  The acquisition of territory from the Cherokees began with the almost

contemporaneous treaties of Fort Stanwix and Hard Labor in 1768. By these

treaties a small strip of territory within the present limits of Tennessee was

acquired, beginning thirty-six miles east of Long Island on the Holston river.

Even while these treaties were in course of negotiation, white settlers were

invading territory beyond the bounds to be agreed upon in treating. This brought

about an immediate subsequent treaty and the adjustment of a new boundary.*

These encroachments occasioned the treaty of Lochaber two years following in

South Carolina, which brought the confines thirty miles down the Holston, to a

point six miles east of Long Island. The next cessions of territory are in the

nature of leases, out of deference to the inhibitions of George III., in 1763.

and are made to the Watauga Association and to Jacob Brown for stipulated

amounts of goods. Three years afterwards, in 1775, for additional remuneration

these become in fee simple the property of the lessees. These acquisitions

include all the waters of the Watauga river, part of those of the Holston to a

point near the mouth of Cloud's creek, and those of the Nollichucky to the mouth

of Big Limestone creek. The same year Brown adds to his purchase the lands on

both sides of the Nollichucky below the Big Limestone's mouth to the mouth of

Camp creek, a distance of ten miles down the river. Richard Henderson's purchase

by treaty in 1775. by the deed known as the "Path Deed," acquired the lands

north of the Holston beginning near the mouth of Cloud's creek and extending up

that stream to the Virginia line. These purchases taking place in March, 1775.

it will thus be seen that at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, all that now

embraces Sullivan, Johnson and Carter counties, much of Washington, and some of

Greene, Hawkins and Unico-i counties had been wrested from the Cherokees.



*   Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee. 77.



  The next treaty, in 1777, known as that of the Long Island of the Holston, was

more in the nature of a peace treaty and brought little additional territory. By

its terms some parts of Brown's line were adopted and on the Holston, lands as

far down as the mouth of Cloud's creek were ceded.* This and its companion

treaty of Dewitt's Corners in South Carolina gave great offence to the

Chickamauga contingent of the Cherokees, and led to their removal to the region

where they founded near and below Chattanooga of to-day the five Lower Towns,

which for seventeen years were a constant menace and annoyance to the

settlements. The thorough chastisement administered to the Cherokees by the

Christian, Rutherford and Williamson expeditions from Virginia, North Carolina,

and South Carolina respectively, produced a temporary respite from Indian

assaults, but an arbitrary act of the North Carolina legislature in 1783 brought

a renewal of bitterness and jealousy. Without the concurrence of the Indians or

consultation with them. North Carolina had by this act extended her western

boundaries to the Mississippi river, while reserving to the Indians that portion

of the state in which were their towns, cultivated fields, and the territory

adjacent. It will be seen later how this act was a factor in the settlement of

Knoxville.



*   Ramsey.   173. 



  In 1785 the independent state of Franklin, arrogating to herself all the

rights and dignity of a duly constituted commonwealth, invited the Cherokees to

a treaty, to be held at the mouth of Dumplin creek on the north side of the

French Broad river. In return for large cessions of territory south of the

Holston and French Broad rivers extending to the ridge dividing the waters of

Little and Little Tennessee rivers, the Franklinites made promises of

"compensation in general terms."+ The same year at Coytoy another treaty between

the same parties took place which conveyed to Franklin all the lands sold by

North Carolina and entered on the west side of the Holston river. Though

protesting that they knew nothing of such sales Old Tassel and Hanging Maw

yielded, after "a straight talk" on the part of the Franklin commissioners

threatening extirpation.* These two treaties involved the cession of most of

Knox county. Those settling, therefore, on lands then ceded did so in good

faith, not only having land warrants purchased from North Carolina by authority

of her legislature, but also the sanction of the state of Franklin. However, the

treaty of Hopewell, the first entered into between the United States and the

Indians and negotiated the latter part of November, 1785, gave an abrupt check

to the lawful possession of the territory by its restoration to the Indians,

though it came too late to stem the tide of immigration that had gone in and

possessed the land. The settlers "had done expanded," as many as three thousand

of them being in the fork of the Holston and French Broad rivers. This treaty

ignored the act of the North Carolina legislature and the treaties of the state

of Franklin, but reaffirmed Henderson's purchase, inasmuch as he was dead, and

the commissioners had in their possession the deeds showing the lands of the

purchase. It left the dividing line practically where it was fixed in 1777 by

the Lone Island treaty. The commissioners reserved to the Holston and French

Broad settlers, who were too numerous to remove, right of occupancy and freedom

from molestation until that tract in dispute should be adjudicated by Congress.

This treaty was not signed without the solemn protest of North Carolina through

its agent. William Blount, who was present with delegated powers. This, the

first appearance of this gentleman in active espousal of the cause of the

frontiersman, was an earnest of the distinguished part he was to take in

upholding and guarding their interests, as will be seen, at a later date. Such

an act, he maintained, was an infringement upon the legislative rights of the

state, which had granted these as bounty-lands to the officers and soldiers in

the Continental line of that state in payment of services rendered in the

Revolutionary war.





+   Ramsey. 299.



*   Ramsey, 344-346.



  A knowledge of the occurrences and conditions antecedent to the settlement of

Knoxville is necessary to explain many subsequent events in her history, yet

these were but repetitions of the struggle that had been going on from the first

occupancy of American soil. They exhibit the ceaseless westward movement of the

pioneer, the reluctant yielding of his land on the part of the Indian, and the

bitter animosity produced by the clashing of two ideas or forces contending for

supremacy, one little removed above brute instinct, the other dictated by

intelligent foresight.



Additional Comments:
From:



STANDARD HISTORY

OF

KNOXVILLE TENNESSEE



WITH FULL OUTLINE OF THE NATURAL ADVANTAGES, EARLY SETTLEMENT, TERRITORIAL

GOVERNMENT, INDIAN TROUBLES, AND GENERAL AND PARTICULAR HISTORY OF THE CITY DOWN

TO THE PRESENT TIME



EDITED BY

WILLIAM RULE

GEORGE F. MELLEN, PH. D., AND J. WOOLDRIDGE COLLABORATORS



PUBLISHED BY

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY

CHICAGO 1900



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