Occaneechee Island, Mecklenburg County, VA - William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 2

Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project

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                                   OCCANEECHEE ISLAND.

     This island still retains the ancient name, and is the property of Rev.
Alexander Overby.  It is celebrated as the place in Bacon's Rebellion where
Nathaniel Bacon defeated the Indians.  It lies in the Roanoke River near
Clarksville, Mechlenburg county, and is the middle of three islands originally
known as the Sapponi, Occaneechee and Totero Islands.  The immediate
occasion of hte rebellion was an Indian war begun by the Susquehanna
Indians, who resided in Maryland.  War parties crossed the Potomack, and
circling around the settlements, which then extended to the falls of the rivers,
committed many murders.  Directing their march southward, one party of
these savages encamped on an island above the island inhabited by the
Occaneechees, who were great traders, and were resorted to by all the
neighboring Indians for supplies of powder, which they obtained in exchange
for skins.  The Occaneechees sold these skins to Sir William Berkeley, and
received powder in part payment.  Bacon arriving here in May, 1676, 
compelled the Occaneechees to attack and destroy the Susquehannas, but
in a short time became embroiled with the Occaneechees, and fought a
fierce battle with them on their island.  The fight continued nearly a night and a
day without intermission, at the end of which time the Indian forts, three in
number, were taken, and most of the Indians, men, women and children,
were destroyed.  Rossechy, their king, was killed.  The king's daughter was
taken prisoner.  Mrs. Bacon wrote enthusiastically, "Never was such a victory
known in Virginia before."

     In 1716, Spotswood gathered the remnants of the Occaneechees, the
Sapponies and Toteroes in a town near Fort Christanna, on the Meherrin
River, in Bruswick county.

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122                     WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY.

     In 1733, William Byrd visited this section of the country, and wrote as
follows:  "My land there, in all, extends ten miles upon the river; and three
charming islands, namely, Sapponi, Occaneechee, and Totero, run along
the whole length of it.  The longest of these islands is three miles long, the

next four, and the upermost three, divided from each other by only a narrow
strait.  The soil is rich in all of them, the timber large, and a kind of pea, very
grateful to cattle and horses, holds green all the winter.  Roanoke River is
divided by these islands.  That part which runs on the north side is about
eighty yards, and that on the south more than one hundred.  A large fresh
will overflow the lower part of these islands, but never covers all, so that the
cattle may always recover a place of security.  The middlemost island, called
Occaneechee Island, has several fields in it, where the Occaneechee
Indians formerly lived, and there are still some of the peach trees they 
planted.  Here grew likewise excellent wild hops without any cultivation."
Col. Byrd landed on Totero Island, and could hardly force his away for the
brambles, vines and poke bushes.  However, this difficulty held only about
twenty-five yards at each end of the island, all the rest being very level and
free form underwood.  He met with old fields, where the Indians had formerly
lived, and the grass grew as high as a horse and his rider.  In one of these
fields were large duck ponds, very firm at the bottom, to which wild fowl
resorted in the winter.  In the woody part of this island grew a vetch that was
green all the winter, and a great support for horses and cattle, "though it is to
be beared the hogs will root it all up."  There is a cave on this island, in which the
lost Totero king, with only two of his men, defended himself against a great
host of northern Indians, and compelled them to retire.  After this Col. Byrd and
his party forded the strait into Occaneechee Island, which he described as
full of large trees and rich land, and "the south part of it too high for any flood
less than Noah's to drown."  (Byrd's Journey to the Land of Eden.)