Paducah, Kentucky, on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: A Site Report

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by Jamie A. Metrailer

Resources on Indian Removal No. 6
Sequoyah Research Center
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
September 24, 2006

Research for this report was funded in part by a Challenge Cost Share Agreement with the Long Distance Trails Office of the National Park Service, Santa Fe, New Mexico. No part of this text may be duplicated or otherwise used except by permission of the author or as provided for by the "Special Provision" section of the agreement.

Background

The strategic location of Paducah, Kentucky, at the mouth of the Tennessee River should have ensured its rapid development, but Paducah was late developing in the lands west of the Tennessee ceded by the Chickasaws in 1818. The title to the site held by George Rogers Clark and, later, his estate was contested until 1827, when the title finally came into the hands of Clark's brother, William. That year, William Clark platted the town site. The town was incorporated in 1830.¹ By the time of removal, it had failed to meet its founders' expectations as a trading town on the Ohio because the river's channel at that point was on the Illinois side.

Nevertheless, Paducah enjoyed trade from much of the river traffic descending the Tennessee, including Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee removal boats. Between 1835 and the summer of 1839, two contingents of Muscogees (Creeks) and six of Cherokees, five of which were forced removals, passed by Paducah, some of them making the town a port of call.

Paducah and Muscogee (Creek) Removal

The first contingent of Muscogees to go by Paducah was made up of members of Fish Pond, Kealedji, and Hilibi tribal towns. Conducted by William Beattie with Lieutenant Edward Deas as disbursing agent, the party of 511 left Wetumka, Alabama, and traveled overland through Montevallo, Elyton, Moulton, and Tuscumbia. They were then transported by boat to Waterloo, where they were placed aboard the steamboat Alpha and two keel boats for their trip down the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers to the Arkansas. Among the 511 were about 100 slaves.²

This party spent the night of December 28, 1835, on Owens' Island, which divided the waters of the Tennessee and the Ohio. The downstream point of the island was directly opposite the center of town.³ Deas' journal entry for that date is as follows: "The Boats arrived near Paduca at the mouth of the Tennessee River this morning at 9 o'clock and the greater part of the Indians were landed on an Island in the vicinity of the town. During the day the Contractors have been engaged in procuring provisions, & the Captain of the S. Boat in making preparations to proceed. It being nearly dark before these were completed, we have decided not to move the Indians from their camps until tomorrow morning. The Steam Boat has been brought over to the Island, the keels lashed and everything in readiness to make an early start."⁴ The boats left at daylight the next morning.

While the party was at Paducah, the officials in charge performed their ordinary duties. They cleaned out the boats, as they did "every night after stopping," Deas said, to "ensure health & comfort of the Emigrants."⁵

The second and last party of Muscogees to pass Paducah consisted of 543 who had fled the Creek Nation after the treaty of 1832 and had sought refuge among the Cherokees. The militia had rounded them up and placed them in camp near Gunter's Landing, Alabama, for shipment to the West. Leaving there on May 16, 1837, they had gone by flat boat down the Tennessee to Tuscumbia, traveled overland to Waterloo, and there boarded the steamboat Black Hawk.⁶ The party left Waterloo on May 24 and made good time, running day and night, and on May 25, Deas reported that "The boats continued to run thro' last-night, passed Paducah today at one o'clock, and stopped for the night at the mouth of the Ohio, on the Illinois Shore."⁷

Gunter's Landing and Cherokee Removal

The first major Cherokee contingent to go past Paducah was not a forced removal but a voluntary emigration by Treaty Party Cherokees. This group of 466, the first to go west by government assistance under terms of the treaty, included Stand Watie, Major Ridge and his wife, and other members of the Ridge family. The conductor was Dr. John S. Young and the physician was Dr. C. Lillybridge; in addition, there were three assistant conductors and three interpreters, one of whom was Elijah Hicks. Half of the people were children, and five were Creeks. After departing from Ross's Landing, Tennessee, the party boated down the Tennessee River, passed by several Alabama river towns, and continued to Tuscumbia. From there, they began their journey toward the Ohio aboard the steamboat Newark and two keelboats. Along this leg of the journey, it was reported that the keelboats were damp, the weather was cold, and the people suffered from a lack of fire.8 Dr. Lillybridge recorded in his journal on March 15, "Arrived at Paducah at 10 o'clock P.M. Very cold. Boats anchored in the Stream to prevent the Indians from going ashore and getting Whiskey." Two days later, the party reached Memphis.⁸

Although a number of Cherokee removal contingents later moved past Paducah, the town would have played a larger role in Cherokee removal if Nathanial Smith, superintendent of their removal, had had his way. But accident and natural disaster interfered. By early 1838 Smith had laid some elaborate plans for removing all of the Cherokees by water. He had secured a contract with Charles Matlock of Tennessee to carry all Cherokees who agreed to remove by water to the foot of Muscle Shoals. He also had a contract with steamboat owners to take them from that point to the West. He had also sent VerPlank Van Antwerp, one of the disbursing agents for Cherokee removal, to the Ohio to arrange for rations of corn, prime pork, and other goods and have them stored at Paducah, which would become a major supply station. However, in a fire that nearly devastated the town on May 3, 1838, the rations stored by H. Smedly & Company were lost.⁹ Although removals would begin by water, by the summer of 1838 a deep drought had set in throughout the South and Southwest, and the Cherokees raised such objections to further removals by water that the government turned the removal process over to the Cherokee Nation. Meanwhile, in the spring and early summer of 1838, three groups removed by water.

The first group of 250 was conducted by Deas, who left Waterloo, Alabama, with them aboard the steamboat Smelter, towing a keel boat, on April 6, arriving at Paducah the next day, after spending the night on the river. Deas wrote on April 7, "The Boats got under weigh this morning at eight and continued to run without any occurrences of importance until near sun-set, when we reached Paducah at the mouth of the Tennessee River, and anchored a short time near the Town, not willing to land on account of the Indians having access to the Whiskey shops. On attempting to set out again after dark, some water was washed into the Keel, (owing to waves in the Ohio) and the Indians in it were seized with a panic consequence of supposing the Keel to be sinking, and rushed out of it into the Steam Boat. There was no danger, but I found it would be impossible to convince them of that fact, and therefore determined to proceed without the Keel, the S. Boat being large enough to transport the party, by giving them the main cabin and lower and forward decks, and having cooking hearths constructed on the latter. The party having been removed to the S. Boat, we set out from the mouth of Tennessee River about 10 P.M. and are now progressing speedily towards the mouth of the Ohio (12 o'clock P.M.)"¹⁰

Deas conducted another party west in June of 1838. This party consisted of Cherokees who had been recently captured in Georgia and kept under guard. They met the Smelter at Tuscumbia and Waterloo, Alabama, from which they departed, towing two keel boats, on June 11. On June 12, Deas wrote, "The Boats continued to run until this forenoon at 1 o'clock (when a stop was made for wood) and reached Paducah between 4 & 5 P.M. I have enrolled the party as accurately & carefully as possible since leaving Tuscumbia and find the number to be 489. Finding that the S. Boat and one keel are sufficient to transport the party the other was left at Paducah this afternoon, and the rate of traveling is thereby much increased. We left Paducah about sun set and shall continue to run through the night."10 That day near Paducah, Deas issued rations of corn meal, fresh beef, bacon, flour, and salt for five days.¹¹

The next party to pass by Paducah left Ross's Landing and descended the Tennessee on six flatboats. Conducted by Lieut. W. H. K. Whiteley, they boarded the steamboat Smelter at Waterloo, Alabama, on July 30, 1838. The steamboat with a keel boat in tow arrived at Paducah on July 1. Whiteley wrote in his journal, July 1, "Started at 5 A. M. detained by the fog from 1/2 past 5 to 1/2 past 6 A.M., wooded 1 to 2 P.M. and anchored off Paducah Kentucky at 1/4 past 8 P.M. for the purpose of obtaining supplies. One death (a child)" The Smelter departed Paducah at 2 A.M. on July 2.¹²

The Drane Party was the next Cherokee removal group to pass through Paducah. Drane's party had rebelled against removal at Bellefonte, Alabama, after they heard word that the Cherokee Nation had successfully negotiated to conduct its own removal. Many had deserted, and Drane had to use a militia escort from Bellefonte to Waterloo, where they boarded the Smelter on July 14.¹³ The steamboat, with its usual speed, passed Paducah a day or two later.

The last Cherokee removal party to pass by Paducah was the Drew detachment, the last of the thirteen detachments organized by the Cherokee Nation. Included in this group were Chief John Ross and his family. Because the drought had deepened during the summer and early fall, Drew's group did not get away from the Cherokee Agency in Tennessee until early December, 1838, about two months after the first detachments had departed. The party descended the Hiwassee and Tennessee on flatboats to Tuscumbia, Alabama. There, Ross bought the steamboat Victoria, which they used in the remainder of the journey. The Victoria did not arrive at Paducah until January of 1839. There, Ross found a number of letters awaiting him, informing him of delays in the overland detachments first at Nashville and, later, at the Mississippi crossing between Illinois and Missouri. What Ross learned at Paducah caused him to go on to the mouth of the Ohio, where he docked the Victoria and went to Willard's Ferry and Jonesboro, Illinois, to urge the contingents on.¹⁴

Opportunities for Site Interpretation

Paducah has existing public use areas and institutions that might provide opportunities for interpretation of the Trail of Tears. Schultz Park, for instance isn on the river, and the Market House Museum interprets Paducah's history.¹⁵

Notes

1. John E. L. Robertson, Paducah, 1830-1880: A Sesquicentennial History (Paducah: IMAGE Graphics, 1980), 6-8; Fred G. Neuman, The Story of Paducah (Paducah: Young Printing Company, 1927), 45.

2. Amanda L. Paige, Fuller L. Bumpers, and Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., The North Little Rock Site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: Historical Contexts Report (Little Rock: American Native Press Archives, 2004), 25.

3. See maps, Robertson, Paducah, facing 17 and Neuman, Story of Paducah, facing 65.

4. Gaston Litton, ed., "The Journal of a Party of Emigrating Creek Indians, 1835, 1836," Journal of Southern History 7 (May 1941), 234.

5. Ibid.

6. Paige, et al., North Little Rock Site, 32.

7. Journal of Occurrences of Lt. Edward Deas 1837, National Archives Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letters Received, Creek Agency Emigration (National Archives Microfilm Publications, Roll138), D97-37.

8. Grant Foreman, Indian Removal: Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956), 273-276.

9. Grant Foreman, ed., "Journey of a Party of Cherokee Emigrants," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 18 (September 1931): 240.

10. Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., ed. Lieut. Edward Deas" Journal of Occurrences, April-May 1838. Resources on Indian Removal No. 3 (Little Rock: Sequoyah Research Center, UALR, 2006), 1.

11. Journal of Occurrences in the Route of Emigration of a Party of Cherokee Indians, kept by Lieut. Edward Deas, U. S. Army, Conductor of the Party, from Waterloo, Alabama to the New Country west of the Mississippi River, National Archives Microfilm Publications M574, Special Case Files of the Office of Indian Affairs, 1807-1894, Roll 69, Case 249, Document D217.

12. Journal of Occurrences of Lt. Edward Deas 1838, National Archives Record Group 574, National Archives Microfilm Publications M574, Roll 69, Document D235.

13. Ration receipt, June 12, 1838, Edward Deas File, Sequoyah Research Center.

14. R. H. K. Whitley's Journal of Occurrences, http://www.mindspring.com/~wayne.gibson/JP1.gif.

15. Paige, et al., North Little Rock Site, 48.