|
1823 | The Creek Council passes a law providing the death penalty for
anyone ceding land without the authority of the Council. Pressures
for Indian removal continue to increase. Some Creeks, including
William McIntosh, believe removal is inevitable.
The City of Macon is laid out across the river from Fort
Hawkins. The first newspaper in Middle Georgia, the Georgia
Messenger, is published at Fort Hawkins, and a post office
is established there.
|
|
1824 |
A Muscogee (Creek) Council approves a policy stating: "On no
account whatever will we consent to sell one foot of our land, neither
by exchange or otherwise. This talk is not only to last during the life
of our present chiefs, but to their descendants after them." Fourteen
chiefs sign the document.
|
|
1825
| The infamous Treaty of Indian Springs ceding the last Creek lands
in Georgia is signed by Chief William McIntosh. (Argument continues
as to whether he signed the treaty believing it was in the best interests
of his people in mind or whether he was bribed.) Whatever his
motivation, he is consequently assassinated by his own people. The
treaty is declared illegal by the federal government, but Georgia
authorities disagree. They press harder for removal.
|
|
1826
| The second Treaty of Washington officially surrenders the last
Creek lands in Georgia. Some of the Creeks join the Seminole in
Florida, others move into Alabama. About 1,300, mostly members
of the McIntosh faction, resettle to the valley of the Arkansas River
in "Indian Territory," now the state of Oklahoma, on lands given to
them under the government's voluntary removal program
|
|
1828 | The Old Ocmulgee Fields Reserve, including Fort Hawkins and
the mounds, is surveyed and laid off into land lots incorporated into
the city of Macon. Roger and Eliazar McCall purchase a portion of
the Old Fields and establish a successful flatboat manufacturing
enterprise. Of the mound area, the local newspaper reported:
The site is romantic in the extreme; that, with the burial
mounds adjacent, have long been favorite haunts of our
village beaux and belles, and objects of curiosity to strangers.
We should regret to see these monuments of antiquity and of
our history levelled by the sordid plow - - we could wish that
they might always remain as present, sacred to solitude, to
reflection and inspiration.
|
|
1832
| Voluntary removal is too slow for the ever-growing tide of settlers
and cotton plantation owners. The government presses harder.
Creek delegates sign a treaty giving up part of their lands in Alabama.
Each Indian family receives 320 acres and each chief is given 640
acres. They may stay on their allotments or sell them and move west
at government expense to lands where they are promised autonomy.
Deceit and violence follow immediately. Unscrupulous land
agents defraud Indians who cannot testify in Alabama courts. Creek
farms are burned and families physically forced from their land.
Homeless, demoralized bands roam the countryside, foraging to
keep from starving, but refusing to leave the neighborhood of their
former homes. Some of the displaced Indians lash back by destroying
cabins, burning crops, and killing white settlers.
|
|
1836
| The so-called Creek War of 1836 ends when about 2,500 people,
including several hundred warriors in chains, are marched on foot to
Montgomery, AL, and crowded onto barges during the extreme heat
of July. They are pushed by steamboats down the Alabama River,
beginning their forced removal to Indian Territory.
During the summer and winter of 1836-early 1837, over 14,000
Creeks make the three-month journey to Oklahoma, a trip of over
800 land miles and another 400 by water. Most leave with only what
they can carry.
Read more about the removal of the Creeks from Georgia
|
|
1839
| The Cherokee begin their "Trail of Tears." A few escape and remain
in the mountains of East Tennessee and North Carolina where most
of their descendants now live on the Qualla Reserve around
Cherokee, NC.
|
|
1842
| For over six years, the Seminoles fiercely fight an invading army ten
times their size. Driven into almost inaccessible swamps and hunted
like wild animals, their removal is finally completed, except for a few
hundred who manage to escape the soldiers and become the ancestors
of the present Florida Seminole and Miccasuki.
|
|
1843 |
The Central Railroad constructs a railroad line into Macon through
the Ocmulgee Old Fields destroying a portion of the Lesser Temple
Mound and the great prehistoric town. A locomotive "roundhouse"
is located near the Funeral Mound.
|
|
1850 | The huge oak trees on the mounds are cut for timber. Until this
time, the Old Ocmulgee Fields and Brown's Mount (another scenic
prehistoric town about 6 miles down river) had been favorite resorts
for picnics and parties, first by the officers at Fort Hawkins then by
the residents of Macon.
Much of the Macon Plateau site becomes part of the Dunlap
Plantation. Clay for brick manufacturing is mined near the Great
Temple Mound and a fertilizer factor is constructed nearby.
|
|
1852 | Ex-President James K. Polk rides the Central Railroad through
the mound area into Macon.
|
|
1859 | A census taken this year (after some time has elapsed for recovery
following the drastic loss of lives during the removal) lists 13,539
Creeks. Over 23,000 Creeks are accounted for by name and town
in 1832 shortly before the removal, giving some indication of the
extent of decimation suffered during the removal.
|
