Tishomingo
Tishomingo in 1836 lived on the place in Lee
county, known in 1870 as the Larkin Gambrell place, and was the chief of
that district. From map sent me in 1904 by Miss Janie Agnew, Bethany,
Lee county, Miss., and by one or more members of Larkin Gambrell’s family
I learn that Tishomingo’s house was on S. W. 1-4, Sec. 13, Town 7, Range
5, Lee Co., Miss.; Larkin Gambrell’s home in 1849 was on N. W. 1-4
of same section.
From Edwin G. Thomas, May 10, 1880:
“In 1834, before I moved to Pikeville, I made a trip through
the Indian nation. I first made my way to Cotton Gin, on the east side
of the Tombigby, across which was the Indian nation. By night of one of
the days when traveling in the Chicksaw nation, we reached the settlement
of an Indian, Tishomingo. On this day we were guided by an Indian, and
passed several Indian huts. Some Indians run their horses by us during
the day—drunk. The guide talked with the sober Indian, and learned that
they had been at a trading place and gotten spirits. Tishomingo lived on
the south side of a traveled road running a little north of east. He had
a right smart sized farm and a good many negroes. He had a large spring
across the road from his house, and below, a few hundred yards, there was
a natural rock bridge, the branch running under it. The distance from the
T. C. Stuart mission was 35 or 40 miles.”
Tishomingo was then (1836) a hundred years old,
his wife seventy or eighty, and his mother (who lived with him) one hundred
and twenty. He had been living at that place sixty one years. He had come
from the Chickasaw Old Fields.
The Creeks and Chickasaws had had a fight sixty-one
years before. The Creeks came to the Chickasaw Old Fields and killed
the Chickasaws, and the latter scattered out from this place, which had
been up to that time the head-quarters of their tribe.
Tishomingo was a good, clever man, and very
infiuential. The chief seems to have possessed some property in 1834; for
we are told that in that year, Edwin G. Thomas, traveled in the Chickasaw
Nation and that Tishomingo “had a right smart size farm and a good many
negroes.”
In personal appearance the chief was big, tall,
and rawboned,
so described by one who knew him and who had visited his house many
times, Wm. Henry Gates, Prentiss County, Nov 9, 1880:
“I have heard Brother [T. C.] Stuart and the first settlers
speak in high terms of Tishomingo, as a noble-spirited chief, distinguished
for his high sense of honor and virtue.”” In one of the treaties he is
spoken of by the Chickasaws “as their old and beloved chief.”
Narrative of Berry Hodges, Union county, Miss., June 8, 1880:.
“While I was living near Ripley I visited the neighborhood
of Tishomingo. Tennessee wagoners got me to sell their stock to the Indians,
because I understood their language. I found no whites in Tishomingo’s
neighborhood. Tishomingo was a noted Indian, an old man, very old. I saw
him at Ripley several times. The Indians knew me very well. At Indians’
houses men would lie on bear-skins, covered with blankets if they had them.
Their eating was poor stuff. I have eaten tom-fulla (hominy) beat and boiled,
a little lye dropped in it, and turned a little sour) with Tishomingo.
Tom-fulla was a common diet among the Indians.”
Tishoming died at Little Rock, Ark., on his way
to the Territory, and was buried there. It is supposed that he died
about 1841. A county in Mississippi and a town in the Indian Territory
perpetuate the name of this old minco.
Return
to Chiefs Menu
Return
to State Table of Contents
Home
James Brown
James Brown lived in the fork formed by Jim
Brown creek and Jincy Brown creek. Jincy was Jim Brown’s wife.
One creek was named for each of them. Brown’s creek is in the eastern
part of Prentiss county, flows southwardly and empties into Tombigbee river.
Brown was chief, or captain, in his neighborhood,
and had been an officer under Jackson in the war against the Creeks, commanding
a company or a battalion. One of his daughters, Woolky, kept public
house about 1829 on the Cotton Gin road which crossed the Tombigbee at
Cotton Gin and, entered Tennessee at old Berlin. She was more intelligent
than her father, and had a negro man and woman that did the cooking and
a man that did the hostlery. She afterward married Anderson Ellis,
an Indian and moved to Cotton Gin, where John McGee afterward lived.
Return
to Chiefs Menu
Return
to State Table of Contents
Home
To-pul-key
To-pul-key lived on S. E. j, Sec. 2, Town 5, Range 3, Tippah county,
about five miles south of Ripley, on the place now (1904) owned by Mr.
A. Clayton. This gentleman is authority for the following statement:
“I did not know him personally but I now own the place where
his home was situated. I have eaten many apples from the tree they say
he planted. It blew down about five years ago [i. e., blew down about 1899].
The place where his wigwam as situated is very level, but there are no
signs left since the apple trees have blown down, except that there are
two springs, one southeast of his house about 150 yards, and one northwest
of his house about the same distance. Also about 300 yards east of his
house there is a small creek that bears his name. I have in my possession
a great many trinkets which I picked up about the wigwam, among which are
pieces of silver, beads, etc.”
The following statement from the veteran citizen, Mr. W. T. Young, whom
Hon. J. W. Street, Chancery Clerk Tippah county (1904) describes as “one
of the best and most reliable of our citizens” will be found of interest
in this connection. Mr. Young has been in Tippah county for sixty-seven
years:
“Topulkey lived about four miles south of Ripley. He owned
one negro woman, who was about sixty years of age. I used to go down there,
as there were a great many strawberries at that place. There were ten or
fifteen acres of cleared land I suppose. I could not see any trees or stumps.
I asked this old negro: ‘How long has this piece of land been cleared?’
She said: ‘You will have to ask some one older than I am, for there has
been no trees or stumps there since I can remember.’ There were some apple
trees which stood on that piece of ground; in '37 the trees were nearly
as large as my body. I have lived on this place for nearly twenty years.
The trees were full-bearing when I came here, and I never knew them to
miss their crop. It was very good fruit, and those trees remained there
until they were blown down about eight or ten years ago.
“The old negro was very well pleased with her home, and seemed to be
well-treated.
“Topulkey was a quiet, inoffensive Indian, up in years. I think his
habits were temperate. As a general thing, the Indians were a very quietly
disposed people. I was down there in 1836 taking notes of territory, and
at times it would be days before we would see a white man. We were always
treated very kindly by the Indians on these occasions. They would always
take us in their huts and treat us very hospitably. Some Indians were very
great drunkards, and all liked their drains. I never saw but one that would
not touch it. He called himself ‘George Washington.’"
George Washington Johnson states, August 9, 1880:
“Cho-pul-key [probably the same as To-pul-key] lived five miles
south from Ripley on the Tennessee road. He had four negroes and a smart
farm.”
Return
to Chiefs Menu
Return
to State Table of Contents
Home
John Glover
John Glover lived on the Oconitahatchie below Plenitude (in what is
now Union county, southeast of New Albany). He lived
at the Albert Funk place.” Glover was sentenced to be put to death
as soon as he had drunk as much whiskey as he wanted. He never drank any
more.
Chickasaw Bill
Chickasaw Bill lived on Tippah river, five or six miles, to the west
of Ripley, where George Gray settled. He owned Sec. 34, Town 4; Range
3, E. Tippah county, Mississippi. The land was then sold to Levi
B. Mathews and Mack Null in 1842. The third sale was to Ran Palmer
in 1843. Ran Palmer gave a part of this land to J. D. Palmer, his
son. This section passed into other hands and is now (1904) valuable, being
worth several thousand dollars.
The following statement was made by Mr. W. T. Young, age 85 years, before
Hon. J. W. Street:
“My name is W. T. Young; age, 85 years. I have been in Tippah
county 67 years, and have lived in and near the town of Ripley during these
years. I knew the Indian, Chickasaw Bill, personally, was quite intimate
with him, and have sold him goods from my store. He was a rather large
man, weighing about one hundred and ninety or two hundred pounds; was a
good and peaceable Indian, quite jovial, and appeared to be rather militarily
inclined. I have seen him get the boys, and muster frequently He was about
forty years old when I first knew him in 1837. I saw him frenduently as
long as the Indians remained here. I also knew another Indian, named Kapia,
who was a prominent character and who had considerable property. He was
an associate of ‘Chickasaw Bill;’ he would come in and require me to run
footraces and wrestle. They were both very striking characters. They offered
me money to go with them when they left.”
Before the Indians left the country, the citizens
of Ripley got them to have a parade. There were twenty-five or thirty of
them, and Chickasaw Billy commanded them. Instead of guns, they had
sticks, and the commander, who was not an adept at using the English language,
in having a straight line formed would say, “Straight along! Straight along!”
He was a cunning fellow. He killed an Indian,
and the king decreed that he should be put to death when he had raised
his youngest child. He always kept a young wife and had a young child to
raise! He was living during the Civil War, eighty years old.
Return
to Chiefs Menu
Return
to State Table of Contents
Home
Copyright 2001 - All Rights
Reserved
Ellen
Pack
|
