University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER II

Indians Living in Close Proximity to Southwest Virginia.

The discovery of America by Columbus in 1492 can be attributed
to the pious zeal of the Queen of Spain to extend the benefits
of the religion of Rome to all mankind, and to the search for
gold. It is a matter of history that the Queen of Spain, to enable
Columbus to explore the western seas, sacrificed many of the jewels
pertaining to her queenly estate.

And the Queen of Spain was but one of many emissaries of the
church, who, in their zeal, were ready to brave the unknown seas
and to make any sacrifices to serve their master. With Columbus
came a number of priests, and with every ship that sailed from the
coast of Spain, France, Portugal and Italy, the missionaries of the
cross were to be numbered among the passengers, bound for America,
determined to explore the New World, hunt out the inhabitants
thereof, and convert them to their master. Thus, within a few years
after the discovery of America, priests were to be found in almost
every part of the New World, exploring the country and teaching
the Indians their blessed religion. The priesthood of Rome in
those early days were educated, energetic, observing men, as they
have ever been, and it is to this source that we must look for the
earliest history of our country and of the Indian inhabitants for
many years previous to the coming of the Anglo-Saxon race.

These early visitors to this portion of America preserved a history
of their times, and it is to be found in the archives of the governments
of France, Spain and Portugal, and of the Church of
Rome. This investigation will not permit any inquiry extending
beyond the limits of that portion of Southwest Virginia included
within the bounds of Washington county.

In the year 1539 Hernando De Soto landed at Tampa, Florida,
with orders from the Court of Spain to form a settlement on the
seashore and to explore Florida to its westernmost limits.

The Spanish government at that time contended that Florida
included all that part of America extending from the Gulf of
Mexico on the south to Virginia on the north, and from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

Pursuant to his authority De Soto, at the head of a thousand
men, exploring the country, traveled in a northerly direction to the
home of the Appalaches, a tribe of Indians living on the banks of
a river in Georgia called by the Indians Witchlacooche; thence,
continuing in a northerly direction, they passed near the present site
of Columbia, S. C., where they struck the Santee river, thence passing
up the Saluda branch of the Santee, they came, for the first
time, to a country uninhabited, and found it difficult to obtain food
sufficient to sustain themselves, but sending out companies of men
to search for Indians, after some time a party of men returned
to camp accompanied by a few Indians, who, being questioned,
informed De Soto that to the north of them there lived a powerful
tribe of Indians on the Hogoheegee river (Tennessee river), to
which place they traveled. This tribe of Indians was called, at that
time, Cafitachique and was governed by a queen.

The historian of this expedition, Louis Hernandez De Beidma,
says: "We remained ten or twelve days in the Queen's village, and
then set off to continue our explorations of the country."

De Soto marched thence ten days in a northerly direction through
a mountainous country where but little food was to be found until
he reached a province called Xuala, which was thinly settled. He
then ascended to the source of the Great river,[1] which he supposed
was the St. Esprit. This information was furnished by De Biedma
to the King and council of the West Indies in 1544 and is now
in existence and fully authenticated.

To any one who will take the time and trouble to investigate this
matter it will be evident that De Soto and his followers explored
the country from Florida to the Queen's village, which must have
been on the Tennessee river near the present site of Knoxville,
Tennessee. Thence ascending the same to its sources they were, as
early as 1540, beyond question, visitors to the territory now included
within the boundaries of Washington county.

The course pursued and the time required, it has been aptly said,
confirm this opinion.

But a small part of the account of this trip of exploration has
been herein copied, but space will not permit much to be said. The
reader must not conclude from what has been said that De Soto
and his followers met with no resistance from the inhabitants of

the country through which they passed, for this same account details
the incidents connected with many desperate battles between
the invaders and the invaded, and at no part of the journey did De
Soto meet such magnificent specimens of mankind or find greater
resistance than upon his arrival at the Queen's village on the Tennessee
and in his progress thence to the sources of the Great river.

De Biedma tells us that the inhabitants of Xuala were a hardy
race, living in log houses daubed with clay and very comfortable in
the winter season, but that during the summer months they usually
reposed in the open air, spending much of their time in hunting.

According to this same authority they used sharped-edged stones,
slings, bows, arrows and clubs in war and peace. Many evidences
of the instruments used by the Indians and the places of their
manufacture are to be found in Southwest Virginia at this date.

The inhabitants of Xuala lived, as did all the Indian inhabitants
south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, in towns, but the towns of
the inhabitants of Xuala differed from those of most other tribes
of Indians in this, that their towns generally were so built as to
combine the requisites of a town and a fort.

These forts were circular and varied in size from three hundred
to six hundred and a thousand feet in diameter.

They were sometimes built of stone, and in other instances of
earth. The embankments were from six to ten feet high and in
many cases surrounded by ditches of requisite width and depth.

They were used as towns as well as forts. Many fragments of
carved stone and earthenware are to be found near those old forts.

The remnants of these forts or towns can be found in Southwest
Virginia at this time.

In Castle's Woods, Russell county, as well as on the farm of T. P.
Hendricks and at other places in this county, the evidences of
former Indian towns are clearly perceptible.

A stone fort of great size formerly stood in Abb's Valley, Tazewell
county, and what is spoken of as a remarkable fort is to be
found on the farm formerly owned by a Mr. Crockett near Tazewell
C. H., having evident traces of trenches and something like a drawbridge.

An Indian town stood upon the Byars farm in the upper end of
this county, and the Indian name thereof is preserved: "Kilmackronan."

These forts and other evidences of Indian occupancy must be
attributed to the men occupying Xuala at the time of the visit of De
Soto in 1540, for they cannot be the product of the Cherokees.
since an examination of the age of trees found growing on these
forts is sufficient to show that they were there before the coming
of the Cherokees, and, for this better reason, these forts were not
built after the manner of the Cherokees.

From a perusal of the preceding pages it is evident that the
land of the Xualas of three hundred and sixty years ago was none
other than Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee, and that it was
peopled by a hardy, ingenious, war-like race.

It is proper to state here that many historians repudiate the idea
that De Soto visited Southwest Virginia in 1540, but it is the
opinion of this writer that he did visit this section at that time,
and this opinion is given after a careful perusal of all available
authorities.

We know nothing further of the people who inhabited Xuala, or
Southwest Virginia in 1540. A tradition existed among the Cherokees
that these people were driven from Southwest Virginia by
the Cherokees some time in the ages preceding the coming of the
white man, but no authentic information exists by which their exit
can be noted.

Captain Henry Batte with a company of rangers, by direction of
Governor Berkley, crossed the Blue Ridge mountains at Wood's
Gap now in Floyd county, in 1671 and came near to the habitations
of a tribe of Indians living on a river flowing westward, said by the
Indian guides to be the makers and venders of salt to the other
Indian tribes, and resembling, in many particulars, the inhabitants
of Xuala as described by De Biedma, and it is more than probable
that the early inhabitants of Southwest Virginia were not
driven from their homes until after 1671.

As far as I can ascertain, the Indian inhabitants of Southwest
Virginia have been Xualans, Cherokees and Shawnese.

Some time between the years 1671 and 1685 the Xualans were
driven from Southwest Virginia by the Cherokee tribe of Indians,
and this tribe is closely identified with the settlement of Southwest
Virginia.

Adair, an early writer, says that this tribe of Indians derive their
name from Chee-ra "fire," which is their reputed lower heaven.

The origin of this tribe is not known, but a tradition existed
among them that when they crossed the Alleghanies they found a
part of the Creek Nation inhabitating this country, and it may be
that the Creek Indians were the inhabitants of ancient Xuala.

The Cherokees were the mountaineers of aboriginal America;
they loved their homes, were brave to a fault, and were never happy
except when engaged in war.

This nation and many of their villages will be frequently mentioned
in connection with the early exploration and settlement of
Southwest Virginia, for many times did our ancestors suffer from
their vigor and enterprise.

This tribe of Indians gave names to most of the rivers in Southwest
Virginia, and it may be proper to here detail the aboriginal
names of the rivers of Southwest Virginia.

The Holston river from its source to the junction of the French
Broad, was called the Hogoheegee, and from thence to the mouth
of the Little Tennessee river it was known as the Cootcla.

The early maps of this section of America made by the French
explorers gave to the Holston river the name of the Cherokee river;
to the Clinch they gave the name of Shawanon, and to the same
river the English gave the name of Shawanoa, and the Indian
name for the Clinch river was Pellissippi.

The Cherokees were not long permitted to enjoy the fruits of
their conquest, for as early as 1672 the confederacy of the Six
Nations conquered the Illinois and Shawnese Indians, the latter
tribe being a part of the Six Nations.

In 1685 they added to their conquests the Miamis and carried
their victorious arms to the Mississippi and south as far as Georgia,
a vast territory twelve hundred miles in length and six hundred
miles in breadth, and, in doing so, destroyed whole nations of Indians
of whom no record was found by the English.

The Cherokees were driven south of the Tennessee, and settled
upon the Savannah and in the territory south of the Tennessee, and
there made their homes until moved by the Anglo-Saxon settlers
about one hundred years thereafter.

Thus the vast extent of territory lying south and east of the Ohio
river and including Southwest Virginia was conquered, but not
occupied, by the confederacy of the Six Nations, and its inhabitants
were driven into other countries. It thus became a vast wilderness,

never thereafter to be occupied until the coming of the white man,
except by roving bands of Indians while hunting, or in passing from
their habitations in the south to the Indian towns and villages in
Ohio.

This vast park was filled with the finest game in great quantities,
and, for more than one hundred years previous to its settlement by
the Anglo-Saxon, it was jointly used, as if by common consent, as
a hunting ground by the Cherokees, Shawnese and Six Nations, but
the Cherokees were compelled to admit the superior title of the Six
Nations to the sovereignty of the soil, which they did by frequent
gifts of game killed within the territory.

Some writers, in explanation of the absence of the Indians from
this section of America at the time of the early explorations of
the white man, give the following as a tradition of the Cherokees
and Shawnese: "that in so favored a land, where man's natural
wants are so fully satisfied, there could be no community of peace
and happiness, that with such ease to the body and disquiet to the
soul the councils of man must always overflow with the vanities
of argument and the pride of innate egotism; so the tradition was,
that once of old there was a delegated assemblage of the chiefs of
the Indian tribes for a conference with the Great Spirit, at which
conference the Great Spirit detailed certain great calamities that
had befallen them in the paradise of Hogoheegee, which were traceable
to the causes named above, and thereupon the Great Spirit
ordered all their nations to remove beyond certain boundaries, out
of this Eden, which the Great Spirit informed them was too easy
of life for their content and happiness and their future security."

Thereupon this vast empire was consigned to the peaceful dominion
of nature, and all the lands upon the waters from the Holston to
the headwaters of the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers were without
permanent inhabitants.

The first cause above assigned was the true cause of the uninhabited
condition of Southwest Virginia, the enmity between the Cherokees
and Shawnese. This enmity was such as to deter both tribes
from any considerable aggressions on this territory, the middle
ground between the nations. Many battles were fought between
these two nations, and, even so late as the summer of 1768, a desperate

battle was fought between the Cherokees and Shawnese near
Rich Mountain,[2] in Tazewell county, Virginia.

Early in the summer of 1768 about two hundred Cherokee Indians
camped near a lick in that part of Southwest Virginia to
spend the summer in hunting.

They were soon disturbed by the appearance of several hundred
Shawnese Indians, their deadly enemies.

The Shawnese chief immediately sent orders to the Cherokees to
leave the lick and the hunting grounds, but his messenger was sent
back with a defiant answer by the Cherokees and both parties began
to prepare for battle. The Cherokees retired to the top of Rich
Montain and there threw up, before night, a breastwork consisting
of an embankment running along the top of the mountain about
eighty yards and then turning off down the mountain side, the embankment
being three or four feet high and running east and west.

The battle was opened the evening of the first day, but after
some fighting the Shawnese withdrew and made preparations to
begin the attack the following morning. It is said that long before
day the fiendish yells of the warriors might be heard echoing
over the rugged cliffs and deep valleys of the surrounding country.
Day came, and for the space of half an hour, a deathlike stillness
reigned on the mountain top and side. With the first rays of the
rising sun a shout ascended the skies as if all the wild animals in
the woods had broken forth in all their most terrifying notes.

The sharp crack of rifles and the ringing of tomahawks against
each other, the screams of women and children and the groans of
the dying now filled the air around.

Both parties were well armed and the contest was nearly equal,
the Shawnese having most men, while the Cherokees had the advantage
of their breastworks. Through the entire day the battle raged,
and when night closed in, both parties built fires and camped on
the ground.

During the night the Cherokees sent to two white men then in the
vicinity for powder and lead, which they furnished.

When the sun rose the next morning the battle was renewed with
the same spirit in which it had been fought on the previous day. In
a few hours, however, the Shawnese were compelled to retire. The
loss on both sides was great. A large pit was dug and a common

grave received those who had fallen in this the last battle fought
between the red men in this section of America. The battle-ground,
breastwork and great grave are still to be seen.

At the time of the earlier explorations of Southwest Virginia the
nearest permanent Indian settlements were to be found south of the
Tennessee river.

Many vestiges of an earlier and numerous population were found
in Southwest Virginia and, in many instances, are still to be seen,
indicating a state of civilization far in advance of that found among
the Indians of that day.

The first hunters and explorers in their many expeditions
throughout all this vast territory never found a single wigwam or
Indian village. It was nothing more than the common hunting
ground of the Cherokees and Shawnese.

Along the valley of what is known as Southwest Virginia lay the
usual route of travel between the Southern and Northern Indians,
whether engaged in peaceful intercourse or warlike expeditions, and
by this same path they traveled when on the chase or their migrations.

Several considerations prompted the Indians to adopt this course
in their travelings, viz.: such as the ease with which the mountains
could be crossed, the abundance of game, the absence of swamps and
large streams of impassable water and the absence of hostile inhabitants,
and these same considerations led to the early settlement of
this section and the adoption of this route of travel by the early
Scotch, Irish and English settlers of Kentucky and Tennessee.

One of these routes or Indian trails was nearly on the present
McAdam road passing Roanoke, Va., thence to New River near
Inglis' Ferry, thence, following the same McAdam road, to Seven
Mile Ford, thence to the left of the present main road and following
near to the present location of the same by Abingdon until it strikes
the North Fork of Holston river a few miles above the Long
Island of Holston river, crossing the same at the old ford of the
North Fork and on into Tennessee until it connected with the great
warpath of the Creeks. Near Wolf Hills, now Abingdon, another
route or trail came in from the northwest. This trail from the
northwest pursued nearly the route traveled by the early settlers to
Kentucky, crossing the mountains at Cumberland Gap. A more

minute description of this trail will be given in another and more
appropriate place in this book.

This trail crossed the first above described Indian trail at a point
on West Main street where the Russell road leaves Main street. The
statement has been often made that an Indian trail followed the
northwest bank of the North Fork of Holston river through this
county, but I am not satisfied that such was a fact.

Bickley, in his history of Tazewell county, says the principal
Indian trails through Tazewell county led through the Clinch Valley,
but after the whites began to settle, these Indian trails all led
from the Ohio river. One of these trails led up the Indian Ridge
(now on the boundary between Virginia and West Virginia) till
opposite the Trace Fork of Tug river; it then crossed over to that
branch and, keeping into the lowest gap of the hills, led into Abb's
Valley.

Another trail, afterwards much used by the whites, left the
Indian Ridge and struck Tug river at the mouth of Clear Fork
creek, thence up that creek till it fell over on a branch emptying
into the Dry Fork of Tug river. It then followed that stream to its
head and passed through Roark's Gap, near Maxwell's, in Tazewell
county.

Another trail came up the Louisa Fork of Sandy river, leading
into the settlements on Clinch river, now in Russell and Tazewell
counties. It is worthy of notice that these trails always crossed
the mountains and ridges at the lowest gaps to be found, and
frequently, built in these gaps, are to be found monuments of
rock piled up oftentimes to considerable height. Several of these
monuments may be seen in this county, in Little Moccasin Gap, on
the Byars farm on Middle Fork, on the Mahaffey farm on South
Fork, and another in Roark's Gap, in Tazewell county.

Ramsey, in his Annals of Tennessee, states that the first described
Indian trail after leaving Seven Mile Ford bore to the left and followed
the Middle and South Forks of Holston river until it crossed
the North Fork of Holston river at the Old Ford above Long
Island in Tennessee.

In making this statement the historian may be correct, and some
evidences yet remain that might be given to sustain this statement,
notably a small Indian mound and the vestiges of an old Indian
village (Kilmackronan), on the north and south sides of the Middle

Fork of Holston river, where the same passes through the farm
formerly owned by Captain James Byars near Glade Spring, and a
small Indian mound on the farm formerly owned by J. G. Mahaffey
about six miles southeast of Abingdon.

But we cannot admit this statement to be correct, because the
route as described is inconsistent with the habits of the Indians,
besides, it does not conform to the course pursued by the early settlers
of this section of Virginia.

The Indian in traveling (almost without a single exception, as
far as I can ascertain) followed that course of travel which would,
as far as possible, avoid the crossing of water, and of course he
followed the highlands near the headwaters of the creeks and rivers.
It is evident to every man conversant with the topography of this
county that he would have passed through this county near Glade
Spring, Meadow View and Abingdon.

It is generally accepted as true that the early hunters and explorers
in this, as well as other sections of Virginia and the United
States, followed, almost without a single deviation, the trails made
and used by the Indians. And to this cause may be attributed the
fact that many of the public roads of this section when first established
were located over the steepest hills and ridges to be found in
our country.

In other words, the Indian made his trail over the hills to avoid
the waters; the white man adopted the Indian trail as his road
because it was already open, and possibly, to some extent, for the
same reason as the Indian, to avoid crossing water.

We know that the early hunters and settlers traveling through
and settling in this section, after leaving Seven Mile Ford passed
through the Byars farm near Glade Spring, thence near Meadow
View and through the location of Abingdon of the present day, and
into Tennessee.

Another statement made by Ramsey as to this same Indian trail
is frequently challenged, and for very good reason.

Ramsey states that this Indian trail crossed the North Fork of
Holston river above Long Island as above stated, while from all
present indications this trail crossed the South Fork of Holston
river at Long Island.

At least evidences of an Indian trail and ford are to be seen
near Long Island at this time, and it is not reasonable to believe

that the Indians would cross the North Fork of the Holston river
and then the Holston river proper to reach his towns and home,
when he could cross the South Fork of Holston once and reach his
home.

While Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee were unoccupied
by the Indians at the time of the early settlements, still it may not
be amiss to give briefly a description of the Indian tribes that preceded
our forefathers and afterwards gave them so much trouble in
their first undertakings.

As to the remote Indian inhabitants of this section of the American
Continent, nothing authentic is known beyond the evidences of
their occupancy to be gathered from tumuli scattered throughout
the country and the remains found in close proximity thereto.

These remains indicate the existence, at some distant time, of a
dense population, civilized to a great extent, and it is not improbable
that at a time in the past all this section was the seat of a
civilization that would have compared favorably with that of Greece
and Rome.

The Cherokee Indians knew nothing further of these vestiges
than that their forefathers found them here, and they considered
them the evidences of a numerous population far advanced in civilization.

The modern Indian held in great veneration these evidences of
an extinct tribe, and never used them save for religious purposes.

The piles of stones often found scattered throughout the country,
generally to be found in the gaps of the mountains and ridges, are
believed to be the work of modern Indians. The modern Indian
was of an exceedingly superstitious turn, as all barbarians or
heathen nations have been.

It has been for all time not uncommon to find, in heathen countries,
similar heaps of stone erected by the inhabitants at some
particular spot, as an offering to an evil spirit, who, according to
their superstitions, would afflict or bless the passer-by.

A pile of stone, such as indicated, may be seen near the main
turnpike road as it passes through Little Moccasin Gap.

The Indian tribes that molested the early settlers in this section
were the Cherokees and the Shawnese.

Adair, an early Indian trader, and later historian, in describing
the Indian and his passion for revenge, says:

"I have known them to go a thousand miles for the purpose of
revenge, in pathless woods, over hills and mountains, through large
cane swamps full of grape-vines and briars, over broad lakes, rapid
rivers and deep creeks and all the way endangered by poisonous
snakes, if not by the rambling and lurking enemy, while, at the
same time, they were exposed to the extremities of the heat and
cold, the vicissitudes of the season, to hunger and thirst, both by
chance and their religiously scanty method of living when at war,
to fatigue and other difficulties. Such is their revengeful temper
that all these things they contemn as imaginary trifles, if they are
so happy as to get the scalp of their enemy."

And this record is preserved by a man who spoke from his
experience with the Cherokee Indians, the one tribe that gave the
early settlers of this section more trouble than all the Indian tribes
combined.

CHEROKEES.

The Cherokee tribe of Indians, at the time of the settlement of
Southwest Virginia, inhabited one of the most attractive sections
of the American Continent, occupying the banks of the Catawba,
Savannah, Yadkin and Tennessee rivers on the east and south and
several of the feeders of the Tennessee on the west.

There were no fortresses to be found among them. Their settlements
were rude huts scattered irregularly along some water way
convenient to good pasture land and hunting and fishing grounds.

They usually had small clearings which were cultivated by the
women and children in Indian corn and beans.

But little of the history of the Cherokees can be gathered from
their traditions. The existence of this tribe of Indians was noted by
the historian of the expedition of De Soto when traveling in the
South, and it is said that they came originally from east of the
Alleghany mountains. Their principal town or capital city was
Choto, located about five miles from the ruins of Fort Loudon, in
Tennessee.

They were the mountain people of America and loved their homes
and their liberties.

They frequently aided the early settlers of this portion of America
in their wars with the French and English, a company of Indians
from this tribe having participated in the siege of Fort Du Quesne

under Captain Pearis, but much oftener did they carry death into
the homes of the early settlers of the Carolinas and Virginia.

This tribe, previous to 1769, were numerous and exceedingly
quarrelsome and arrogant.

At this time they quarreled with the Chickasaw Indians and
undertook an invasion of their country, but were overwhelmed by
the Chickasaws after a great battle at the Chickasaw old fields.

This overwhelming defeat occurred at the same time that Arthur
Campbell, William Edmiston, and many other hardy pioneers
first pitched their tents on the waters of the Holston and Clinch,
and there can be no doubt that this occurrence contributed much to
the rapid settlement of this section of Virginia.

For thirty years following the advent of the first settlers into this
country the Cherokees killed and scalped the inhabitants at every
opportunity.

The population of this tribe in 1735 was considerable. Adair
says that they had sixty-four populous towns, and their fighting
men numbered above six thousand.

In the year 1776 the number of warriors pertaining to this tribe
was two thousand four hundred and ninety-one.

This tribe of Indians now occupy a part of the Indian Territory.
It will be remembered that the Cherokees used principally the valleys
of the Holston in their hunting expeditions and seldom visited
the valleys of the Clinch.

SHAWNESE.

But little can be said of this Indian tribe save that it was known
as a wandering nation.

At times in their history they occupied territory in almost all
sections of the country east of the Mississippi river and south of
the Lakes, but at the time when this tribe gave trouble to our
ancestors their homes were on the Wabash and Miami rivers, where
they built many villages. Their principal town, called "Piquo," was
the birthplace of the great Tecumseh.

This tribe had a tradition respecting their origin. They believed
their fathers crossed the ocean from the East under the guidance of
a leader of the Turtle tribe, one of their original subdivisions, and
that they walked into the sea, the waters of which parted, and thus
passed over on the bottom to this land.

This tribe of Indians were responsible for many of the murders
and outrages suffered by the early settlers on the Clinch and many
times on the Holston, the Indians coming by the trails through
Cumberland Gap and the trails coming into Tazewell county previously
described.

The population of this tribe in 1735 did not, according to Adair,
exceed four hundred and fifty souls.

This tribe of Indians assisted the British in the wars of 1776
and 1812, and in the latter struggle did effective service for their
British allies.

In 1817 they ceded their lands in Ohio to the United States and
were soon confined to a small reservation west of the Mississippi
river.