The Heart of the Alleghanies; or, Western North CarolinaZeigler, Wilbur Gleason
History
The Heart of the Alleghanies; or, Western North Carolina
Zeigler, Wilbur Gleason
Allegheny Mountains; North Carolina -- Description and travel
An incident illustrative of the times is associated with the naming of
Fine’s creek in Haywood county. The Indians were in the habit of making
sallies down the Pigeon into the Tennessee settlements, then returning
to their mountain fastnesses. On one of these expeditions they were
routed and followed by Peter Fine and a company of plucky militia. The
Indians were overtaken in camp beyond the mountains, one killed and the
property recovered. The whites were in turn followed by the Indians,
and, while sustaining a night attack, Vinet Fine, the major’s brother,
was killed. A hole was cut in the ice, and, to conceal the body from the
savages, it was dropped into the creek. It is appropriate, therefore,
that the stream should be called Fine’s creek.
Soon after the Revolution the Cherokees made a session of all their
lands between the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. More than 12,000
Indians were present at the council. Monnette’s History gives the
prophetic speech of an old chief--Oconnastotee. He began by describing
the flourishing condition of his nation in the past, and the
encroachments of the whites upon the retiring and expiring tribes of
Indians, who left their homes and the seats of their ancestors to
gratify the insatiable thirst of the white people for more land. Whole
nations had melted away, and had left their names only as recorded by
their enemies and destroyers. It was once hoped that they would not be
willing to travel beyond the mountains so far from the ocean on which
their commerce was carried on. That fallacious hope had vanished, for
the whites had already settled on the Cherokee lands, and now wished to
have their usurpations sanctioned by treaty. When that shall have been
done new sessions will be applied for, and finally the country which the
Cherokees and their forefathers occupied will be applied for. The small
remnant which may then exist of this once great and powerful nation will
be compelled to seek a new home in some far distant wilderness.
But a few years elapsed before the beginning of the fulfillment of this
prophesy. Emigration after the Revolution became a mania. The Watauga
passes were filled with teams _en route_ for the Holston valley, and
roads were constructed up the Blue Ridge to the garden valley of the
upper French Broad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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