Waterloo, Alabama , the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: A Site Report
Return to Trail of Tears Research
homepage
Return to ANPA Site Reports
homepage
by Jamie A. Metrailer
Resources on Indian Removal No. 13
Sequoyah Research Center
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
November 27, 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
White American settlers, particularly from the Carolinas and Tennessee, established the town of Waterloo around the year of 1819. During the steamboat days of the Tennessee River, Waterloo’s location below the Muscle Shoals allowed the town to serve as a deep-water port and gateway for traffic traveling to New Orleans and St. Louis.1 Waterloo was a port highly visited by Indian removal parties in the 1830’s.
Waterloo and Muscogee (Creek) Removal
Muscogee (Creek) removal parties passed or stopped at Waterloo before the treaty of 1832. In December of 1827, a party of approximately 700 split at Tuscumbia, about 300 going by land and the remainder traveling past Waterloo by boat.2
In the treaty of March 24, 1832, the Creeks ceded their lands in Alabama. During that year, some 2,500 were moved west. Although the treaty allowed Creeks who chose to remain in Alabama to take allotments, they found they could not live alongside the whites.3 Many of those remaining fought the United States government and local whites in what was later known as the Creek War. Meanwhile, mass removal of the Creeks began under the direction of the Alabama Emigrating Company, and a number of them passed by Waterloo.
In December of 1835, William Beattie conducted a party of 511. They were organized at Wetumka town on December 6 and traveled through Monetvallo, Elyton, and Moulton, and arrived at Tuscumbia on December 21.4 Lieutenant Edward Deas was the disbursing agent, who kept a journal regarding the party of emigrating Creek. This journal indicates that the party included “Indian Ponies & Horses… [and] small wagons on board the Boats, a Steam Boat and two Keels.” The journal entry for December 23 shows the plans of the contingent upon arriving to Waterloo: “[At] Waterloo…at the foot of the shoals…an exchange of boats is to take place.” The party arrived at Waterloo by noon on the December 24. On the following day, “the Agents of the Company made arrangements with the Steam Boat Alpha to convey the Party from Waterloo to Fort Gibson…The party accordingly came on board in the afternoon and about 12 o’clock we proceeded on our way.” The two large keel boats accompanying the Alpha were “put in good order for the comfort and the health of the Indians.”5
When the Creeks rebelled against removal in 1836, Brigadier General Winfield Scott mustered several thousand troops in Alabama to gather the Creeks into camps. Of those remaining in Alabama, 2,500 were considered hostile and were captured and sent to Indian Territory in the last half of 1836 and the summer of 1837.6
A group of 543 captured Creeks “collected” at Gunter’s Landing with Lieut. Edward Deas as disbursing agent arrived near Tuscumbia via flat boats on the Tennessee River in late May of 1837. While six miles below Tuscumbia, Deas noted in his journal: “ An arrangement was made today, for the steam boat at Waterloo, 30 miles below, at the foot of the rapid water…the Indians continue healthy [and] not further desertions have taken place.” The party marched overland from Tuscumbia. In his entry for May 23, Deas noted : “Early this morning the party started, and reached Waterloo at 10 o’clock AM…The Steam Boat Black Hawk was then got into readiness for the reception of the Indians…One large keel and two of the large flats were taken in tow, and at 4 o’clock P.M., the whole party re-embarked.”7 The Creeks were headed toward Arkansas via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Waterloo and Cherokee Removal
Removing Cherokees came through Waterloo before the removal treaty of 1835. In April of 1832,“One group of 380 Cherokees and their slaves…[consisting] of a few full-blooded [but mostly mixed] Cherokees, 40 whites, 108 slaves…from Tennessee and Georgia…[and] under the charge of removal agent Curry…descended the Tennessee River in nine flatboats to Waterloo, Alabama where they transferred to the steamer Thomas Yeatman.”8
Another Cherokee contingent under the command of Lieut. Joseph W. Harris arrived at Waterloo by water on March 19, 1834. The Cherokees had cases of both whiskey and the measles. After delay in Waterloo, Harris’s party combined with other Indian emigrants; an enlarged party totaling 457 “transferred to the steamboat Thomas Yeatmen” and began “the descent of the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers with three keel-boats loaded with Indians in tow….”9
Late the following year, President Andrew Jackson's agents and the Ridge Party Cherokees signed the Treaty of New Echota. The treaty ceded their lands in exchange for lands in Indian Territory and set a deadline for removal.
In spring of 1837, a party of 466 Treaty Party Cherokees was the first to go west voluntarily under government assistance provided by the Treaty of New Echota. This party “included Stand Watie, [and] Major Ridge and his wife” and “was under the charge of Dr. John S. Young, and the physician Dr. C. Lillybridge, plus three assistants and three interpreters, one of whom was Elijah Hicks.”10 The party traveled by eleven flatboats divided into three sections from Ross’s Landing, Tennessee, to Gunter’s Landing, Alabama, where they boarded the steamboat Knoxville, to which they lashed the flatboats, and traveled to Decatur. From there, they took the Decatur and Tuscumbia Railroad to Tuscumbia, where they boarded the Steamer Newark.11
Dr. Lillybridge's journal provides insights into their stay at Tuscumbia from March 11 to 14: cases of “whiskey frolic…measles…pain & fullness in [the] abdomen…high fever and obstinacy of the bowels…influenza…headache…[and] a number of children complaining of common colds.” In addition, the Cherokees “were badly exposed for the present weather…the rain during the night poured down most copiously.”12
Lillybridge also complained about the purchasing agent and his arrangements for transportation that the Cherokee were required to take out of Tuscumbia. The Newark had two-keelboats in tow. “The Boats prepared for the transportation of the Emigrants, are entirely too limited in room and conveniences for the party…The Keel Boats are without Stoves or fires in them, water in the hold, & present to those accustomed as many of the Emigrants are, to many of the comforts of civilized life, rather a revolting spectacle.”13 The Cherokees' journey in the Newark took them past Waterloo.
The first Cherokee party to be forcibly removed by the War Department reached Waterloo by water in early April 1838. The superintendent of removal, General Nathaniel Smith “planned to start another party and about 300 gathered near the Agency; but the number dwindled to 250 and in spite of warnings and threats, by March 25, 1838, only these few Indians could be induced voluntarily to leave for Waterloo; there they were embarked aboard the Smelter and a keel-boat in tow, leaving on April 5 in charge of Lieut. Edward Deas.”14 “The desertions stopped when the party was put aboard the Smelter there.”15 The entry from Deas’ journal dated April 6, 1838, notes the arrival of these 250 Cherokees near Waterloo, “together with some other emigrants of the same tribe who are removing on their own resources.”16 This second group of Cherokees “consisted of those who had received $20 per family member and slave to remove themselves…[including] the 16 slaves in the family of Richard, Jr.” Other members in the government conducting party included interpreters William Reese and James Bigbey, Jr. along with the collecting and issuing agent O.G. Parry.17
Deas noted that the contracted steamboat Smelter and a double-decked keelboat were waiting for the arrival of these Indians. The Smelter was to be mastered by Williamson Smith.18 Deas commented on these boats: “The Smelter…appears well adapted to the business of the removal of Indians [and] the Keel in tow in commodious and appears convenient for the Indians [because] temporary cooking-hearths are constructed on top of it, and there is also a cooking-stove in the after part of the Steam Boat.”19 Once the responsibility was given to Deas, the party departed for Paducah the same day at 8 A.M. According to financial accounts, this party received 610 rations of pork, 390 rations of fresh beef, 525 rations of corn meal, and 475 rations of flour at Waterloo.20
In early June of 1838, another party of Cherokees divided by railroad travel between Decatur and Tuscumbia and under the command of Lieut. Edward Deas united in Waterloo, “at the foot of the rapids.”21 In his journal, Deas’ states: “The present party of Cherokees consists mostly of Indians that were collected by the Troops and inhabited that portion of the Cherokee embraced within the limits of Georgia.”22 On June 11 around 2 o’clock, the party departed “aboard the steamboat Smelter and two large double decked keel boats”23 and headed for Paducah, Kentucky. Deas commented “there is room enough on board to accommodate the party with sleeping room.”24
Another Cherokee contingent under the command of Lieut. R.H.K. Whiteley traveled down the Tennessee River from Tuscumbia and arrived at Waterloo in late June of 1838. Part of the contingent consisted of militiamen.. On June 28, the party “reached Waterloo Alabama at 2 P.M. and encamped on the opposite bank of the Tennessee River.”25 Two children died on this day. The June 29 entry of Whiteley’s journal states: “The detachment remained stationary this day. . . .The S. B. Smelter arrived last night, and required a day to clean up & repair.”26 While awaiting the arrival of the Smelter, “three children died, there was one birth, and 118 Indians escaped.”27 The party then departed for Paducah, Kentucky “at ¼ before 10 A.M. with the party on board of one Keel and the Steamboat Smelter.”28
Whiteley’s contingent was joined by another led by Nathaniel Smith, Superintendent of Cherokee removal. Smith’s group had been part of Captain G.S. Drane’s party in which many Indians rebelled at Bellefonte, Alabama. Smith decided to take part of the group by water from Bellefonte, leaving the remainder with Drane to go overland to Waterloo. Superintendent Smith wrote: “At Dicatur…I learned Lieut. Whiteley’s party were yet at Tuscumbia. I followed on and overtook him and party at Waterloo…”29 Smith’s party continued to be rebellious and a number had escaped. This escape was accompanied by “a touching petition to halt the movement of the party and either return them to their former encampment or establish them in a new one where they could share in the respite until a more healthful season and join in the movement in the autumn under the permission of General Scott.”30
Meanwhile, Drane's party was making its way toward Waterloo. The party had gone by way of Ross's Landing and Jasper, Tennessee, to Bellefonte. Drane was reluctant to take the water route. “He thought the water route approved by the government was ‘unhealthy’, preferring instead the overland route approved by the Cherokees at Ross’s Landing.”31 From Bellefonte they traveled by way of Woodville, Huntsville, Athens, and Florence and reached Waterloo on July 10, 1838.32 With word out of General Winfield Scott’s plans to delay further removal until the fall, Captain “Drane mustered out the militia at Waterloo, from where he intended to take his party overland to Indian Territory.”33
At Waterloo, Drane's party continued their resistance to removal. “Drane was still having problems with the Cherokees, even unable to fill out a muster roll for the party because they refused to give their names.”34 Upon his return from the West, having accompanied the Whiteley party as far as Little Rock, Nathaniel Smith met Drane's group at Waterloo. Despite Drane’s reluctance to travel by water, Smith ordered the contingent to take the water route and board the Steamboat Smelter on July 14.35
After the removal of the combined contingent of Whiteley and Smith and the Drane party in the summer of 1838, the United States government was no longer responsible for the removal of Cherokees. When removal resumed in October of that year, the Cherokees assumed responsibility for their own removal.
The only Cherokee organized contingent to pass Waterloo was the Drew detachment in January 1839. This party had descended the Tennessee River by flatboat from the Cherokee Agency at Calhoun, Tennessee, passed through the Muscle Shoals canal, and stopped at Tuscumbia, where John Ross, who was on board with his family, purchased the steamboat Victoria. The Party passed Waterloo on the way to the party's final destination at the mouth of the Illinois River in the Cherokee Nation West.36 The Drew contingent was the last major Cherokee removal party to pass by Waterloo.
Opportunities for Site Interpretation
Waterloo is the last designation of the Alabama Trail of Tears since “it was the final point in Alabama along the Water Route on the infamous Trail of Tears.”37 The Alabama Waterfowl Association installed a historic marker in Waterloo on October 14, 1995.38 The Trail of Tears Commemoration and Motorcycle Ride is held each September in Waterloo.
Notes
1. The Heritage of Lauderdale County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, Inc., 1999), 5-6.
2. Lance Hall, Creek Nation, Indian Territory, creek Emigration Letters, http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ok/nations/creek/history/letters/emigletter.txt.
3. The Creeks, http://www.arkansaspreservation..org/preservation-services/trail-of-tears/pdfs/creeks.pdf.
4. Grant Foreman, Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians. Second printing of new edition. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956), 142.
5. Gaston Litton, ed., "The Journal of a Party of Emigrating Creek Indians, 1835, 1836," Journal of Southern History 7 (May 1941), 234; Grant Foreman, Indian Removal, 143.
6. The Creeks, http://www.arkansaspreservation..org/preservation-services/trail-of-tears/pdfs/creeks.pdf.
7. Edward Deas' Journal of Occurrences, May 1837, http://anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/eye-witness-accounts/eye-witness4.htm. +14-15T
8. The Cherokees, http://www.arkansasprservation.org/preservation-services/trail-of-tears/pdfs/cherokees.pdf.
9. Foreman, Indian Removal, 255.
10. The Cherokees, http://www.arkansasprservation.org/preservation-services/trail-of-tears/pdfs/cherokees.pdf.
11. Foreman, Indian Removal, 275.
12. Grant Foreman, "Journey of a Party of Cherokee Emigrants," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 18 (September 1931), 238-239.
13. Ibid.
14. Foreman, Indian Removal, 284.
15. Amanda L. Paige, Fuller L. Bumpers, and Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., North Little Rock Site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: Historic Contexts Report (Little Rock: American Native Press Archives, UALR, 2004), 47.
16. Ibid.
17. Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. Lieut. Edward Deas' Journal of Occurrences, April-May, 1838, Resources on Indian Removal No. 3 (Little Rock: Sequoyah Research Center, UALR, 2006), 4-5.
18. Ibid., 5.
19. Ibid., 5-6.
20. National Archives Record Group 217, General Accounting Office, Treasury Department, Second Auditor, Indian Affairs, Settled Accounts and Claims, Edward Deas File, Miscellaneous Financial Accounts--Creek and Cherokee (Treaty Party), copy in Sequoyah Research Center.
21. Edward Deas' Journal of Occurrences June 1838, http://anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/eye-witness-accounts/eye-witness6.htm.
22. Ibid.
23. Foreman, Indian Removal, 292.
24. Edward Deas' Journal of Occurrences June 1838, http://anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/eye-witness-accounts/eye-witness6.htm.
25. R. H. K. Whitley's Journal of Occurrences, http://www.mindspring.com/~wayne.gibson/JP1.gif.
26. Ibid.
27. Foreman, Indian Removal, 295.
28. R. H. K. Whitley's Journal of Occurrences, http://www.mindspring.com/~wayne.gibson/JP1.gif.
29. Foreman, Indian Removal, 298.
30. Ibid. 297.
31. Paige, et al., North Little Rock Site, 48.
32. Duane H. King, "The Cherokee Removal of 1838-1839," Trail of Tears Symposium, North Little Rock, April 17, 1996.
33. Paige, et al., North Little Rock Site, 48.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., The Drew Detachment, Resources on Indian Removal No. 2 (Little Rock: Sequoyah Research Center, UALR, 2006), 1, 4.
37. Waterloo, http://www.touralabama.org/alabama-attractions/details.cfm?id+4419.
38. Trail of Tears Designation, http://www.alabamawaterfowl.org/tot/tot.htm.
Bibliography
Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel. Waterloo. http://www.touralabama.org/alabama-attractions/details.cfm?id=4419
Alabama Waterfowl Association. Trail of Tears Designation. http://www.alabamawaterfowl.org/tot/.tot.htm
Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. The Cherokees. http://www.arkansaspreservation.org/preservation-services/trail-of- tears/pdfs/cherokees.pdf.
The Cherokees, http://www.arkansaspreservation.org/preservation-services/trail-of-tears/pdfs/creeks.pdf
Edward Deas Journal of Occurrences May 1837. http://anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/eye_witness_accounts/eye-witness4.htm
Edward Deas’ Journal of Occurrences April-May 1838.
http:// anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/eye_witness_accounts/eye-witness5.htm
Edward Deas’ Journal of Occurrences June 1838.
http://anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/eye_witness_accounts/eye-witness6.htm
Foreman, Grant. Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians. Second Printing of New Edition. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956.
Hall, Lance. Creek Nation, Indian Territory, creek Emigration Letters, http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ok/nations/creek/history/letters/emigletter.txt.
The Heritage of Lauderdale County, Alabama. Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, Inc., 1999.
King, Duane H. "The Cherokee Removal of 1838-1839," Trail of Tears Symposium, North Little Rock, April 17, 1996.
Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr., The Drew Detachment, Resources on Indian Removal No. 2 Little Rock: Sequoyah Research Center, UALR, 2006.
Litton, Gaston, ed., "The Journal of a Party of Emigrating Creek Indians, 1835, 1836," Journal of Southern History 7 (May 1941), 234.
Official Site of the Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride. Trail History. http://www.al-tn-trailoftears.org/trailhistory.html.
Paige, Amanda L., Fuller L. Bumpers, and Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. The North Little Rock Site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: Historical Context Report. Revised April 20, 2004.
R. H. K. Whitley's Journal of Occurrences, http://www.mindspring.com/~wayne.gibson/JP1.gif.
Sequoyah Research Center. National Archives Record Group 217, General Accounting Office, Treasury Department, Second Auditor, Indian Affairs, Settled Accounts and Claim, 1817-1922, Box 220, Folder 1180B, Edward Deas File.
[Home] | [Bibliography] |
[Digital Library]
[Indexes] | [News] |
[Trail of Tears]
[Symposia] |
[Other Resources] | [About] |
[Links]
© UALR American Native Press Archives 2002-2007
|
