THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Fort Chastain
and Indian Removal
Last week's column traced the
movements and
family of Benjamin Chastain (1780-1845) who served in Georgia's
state
legislature from Habersham
County before he
moved to
the large Cherokee Lands and settled near the Toccoa River
and Star Creek. He had been appointed an Indian agent. He established
the
Tuckahoe Post Office on March 15, 1837.
An interesting fact I did not
mention in
last week's article was that Benjamin Chastain and his wife, Rebeckah
Denton
Chastain, moved into a hewn-log house vacated by a Cherokee Indian
family with
an English name. According to information furnished by Brett Riggs,
archaeologist, "spoliation claims filed from 1838-1847 indicate that
Benjamin Chastain commandeered the home and farm of George Owens, Sr.,
a
Cherokee, of Tuckahoe Town." The location of the cabin and Fort Chastain
built on Chastain farmlands is now under the waters of Blue Ridge Lake.
This departure point was once a gathering place for those removed
westward on
the Trail of Tears.
When gold was discovered on
Duke's Creek in
Habersham
County (now White)
in 1828, and in other
north Georgia
locations, a virtual gold rush started. Greed was the name of the game.
By
1829, gold rush fever was rampant and prospectors poured in with
get-rich quick
schemes. Unscrupulous in their dealings with the Indians, the white men
confiscated lands.
To Georgia's discredit, the
state was
a moving force in Indian removal. In 1828, a bill passed the Georgia
Legislature which put all Cherokee under state law and declared their
government and customs null and void after 1830. Georgia
guards were sent to patrol
and bring to court Indians who infringed on restrictions set in the
1828 law.
In 1830, the Removal Act passed
the U. S.
Congress.
After that law passed, when
President
Andrew Jackson was in office, many Indian Agents were appointed to deal
with
the Cherokee on terms of removal. Negotiations were made for purchase
of Indian
lands, but at inferior prices. Thirty-seven treaties signed by 1828
between the
Cherokee and government had to do with "a tract of land ceded to…"
with white settlers as recipients. It was thus that Benjamin Chastain,
Indian
Agent, received the farmland and home of George Owens, Sr, Cherokee, of
Tuckahoe (or Taccoa) Town.
President Jackson's successor,
President
Martin Van Buren, continued to push for Indian Removal. In 1836 he
appointed
General Winfield Scott to commandeer the removal. He ordered his army
to be
humane and to appeal to Indians to go voluntarily to collection
points—the
forts that were quickly built in various locations in the Cherokee
lands.
Fort Chastain at Star Creek on the Toccoa River
was one of the collection points. How long the Indians had to wait
there before
being removed over the long Trail of Tears is uncertain. Their life in
the
forts was not easy. Forced to vacate cabins and possessions, the
Indians were
allowed to take only the barest necessities with them. They lived in
very
crowded conditions in the forts. Sanitation was poor and hunger and
sickness
prevailed. Being herbalists in medical applications, they no longer had
available to them the natural herbs and cures for the illness that
beset them.
Many, especially among the elderly and very young, died before they
left on the
Trail of Tears.
One of the soldiers with General
Scott's
army wrote in his memoirs: "I later fought through the Civil War and
have
seen men slaughtered, but the Cherokee Removal was the cruelest work I
ever
knew."
Benjamin Chastain on whose land Fort Chastain
was built was of the fourth generation of Chastains in America
from
Pierre, Sr., Pierre, Jr., John "Ten Shilling Bell" Chastain, the
famous preacher, and then Benjamin himself. Benjamin's great
grandfather had
left Europe because the Huguenots
endured
bitter persecution. The Chastains had followed the paths of freedom,
with
Benjamin's father, John, pledging his support to the American
Revolution.
Circumstances occur in the rush of history that, when we look back upon
them,
fill us with mixed emotions. Such were the times in the 1830s when
Benjamin
Chastain, citizen of Georgia, state legislator, pioneer farmer, and
Indian
agent, due to circumstances in which he lived, had to make some hard
decisions.
c2009 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published June
25, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA.
Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved.
Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator, freelance wirter,
poet, and historian. She may be reached
at email edj0513@windstream.net; phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood
Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411
Updated June 17, 2018
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