Trails of Tears

We learned this morning that last evening we slept on the Trail of Tears, the ‘Blythe’s Ferry Road’, later the original “TN 60” just a couple of miles west from the first gathering place of the several largest groups of Cherokee forced out of their homes in 1838 by the Indian Removal Act of Congress. These were the last holdouts of the Cherokee Nation who had prayed and hoped against hope that they could convince the American nation that they should not be expelled from their homes and land and sent west to Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma.

We drove the short distance on ‘new TN 60’ to the long two lane bridge that in the 1990’s finally replaced the ferry called ‘Blythes’. This family of Cherokee who had started running the ferry in the middle 1700’s. Just across the bridge we took the left turn onto the continuation of the Blythe’s Ferry Road on the eastern side of the Tennessee River. This brought us to within 100 yards of the eastern ferry site and the new Eastern Cherokee Nation (based in the town of Cherokee, North Carolina) Memorial to those who walked, rode, and died on the Trail of Tears.

If you look at my Facebook postings from January, 2014, you will see some pictures from our visit then to Payne’s Fort, Alabama.  This was the second gathering site from which the 1838 Trail of Tears travelers journeyed from.  Most of them were from Georgia and Alabama.

The memorial here has stone cenotaphs around a modeled standing stick with all the names of the 1835 Cherokee census. This census is believed to have all of the names of those who were forced west three years later. 

There are also a collection of well placed plaques telling the story of the Removal Act and the fight the Cherokee made in law courts right up to Chief justice John Marshall’s Supreme Court, to be allowed to stay.

The museum is the newest addition to the memorial and the docent here was very knowledgeable about her task, though she was not Cherokee herself. She explained that today there are three tribes of Cherokee.  The Western, based in Oklahoma. The Eastern, based in North Carolina.  And the Southern, which are as yet not recognized by the Federal Government to be a recipient of Federal tax and support aid, as the other two are. 

  

This newest group are based in Northeastern Georgia and are very much mixed blood with non-Indian peoples and have little to no documentation for their past. Just one sad lasting consequence of the Removal Act of almost 200 years ago.

We left the memorial and began our drive south along the huge Chickamauga Dam Lake on the Tennessee River.  It was here that we paused at the site of a Cherokee Town emptied of its citizens in 1838 by the Removal.

We arrived at Graysville, UMC, in Graysville, Georgia, just about 3 miles over the Tennessee Border, in mid afternoon and were actually greeted by the church administrator, Carolyn.  She had not planned on seeing us arrive but came out to go home from her work day at the church just as we arrived.  She called Pastor John and I got to personally thank him for his willingness to allow us to park here for several days as we tour 

                                                                        the area south of Chattanooga.

Hey HOPE Church!  Check out the message this Sunday at Graysville, GA, UMC!

There are lots of libraries in the Chattanooga area.  And Civil War Battlefields.  It is here that the same Union General Rosecrans of the battles of Corinth MS and Murfreesboro, TN in 1862 became bottled up and besieged himself in the city of Chattanooga in 1863. 

It was only by the timely intervention of General US Grant himself, now the victor of the Vicksburg, MS, siege and his right hand General, Sherman, that… well, why not wait till I have a couple of pictures to match that blog entry?

Our daughter Jenn called to tell us I have received a 10” long wood mantel clock as a thank you retirement gift from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.  She says it has a dedication plaque to me on it. Jenn asked if she should mail it to us.  No, I said.  Where would we put it?  We just gave our toaster to the last church we stayed at!  J

-Ken