My Trip to Ocoee Tennessee…

[Denise Morgan (Helping Hand)]

My Trip to Ocoee Tennessee…

From January 15^th 2011 to January 29^th 2011, I spent my time in Ocoee Tennessee, with my Dad who I hadn’t seen for 23 years before that. The last time that I saw him was when I was 13 years old.

 

A little back ground on Ocoee Tennessee…

 

Ocoee is Cherokee for "place where the passion flower is found."

(http://www.campocoee.com/trivia/index.asp?f=9)

 

Ocoee (also Ocoa) is an unincorporated community in Polk County, Tennessee, United States. Its altitude is 797 feet (243 m), and it is located at 35°7′28″N 84°43′6″W / 35.12444°N 84.71833°W / 35.12444; -84.71833 (35.1245194, -84.7181327). Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 37361.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocoee,_Tennessee)

 

The Toccoa River and Ocoee River are actually a single river that flows northwestward through the southern Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. It is called the Toccoa in Georgia, until it reaches the twin cities of McCaysville, Georgia and Copperhill, Tennessee, at the truss bridge which connects Georgia State Route 5 (Blue Ridge Street) with Tennessee State Route 68 and Georgia State Route 60 (Ocoee Street and Toccoa Street). The remainder is called the Ocoee through Tennessee, known for its whitewater rafting, and host to whitewater slalom events during the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics held primarily in Atlanta, about 100 miles (160 km) to the south.

 

The Ocoee River is a tributary of the Hiwassee River, which it joins in Polk County, Tennessee, near the town of Benton. It was an important river for both the Cherokee and Creek tribes.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccoa/Ocoee_River)

[Denise Morgan (Helping Hand)]

Nancy Ward

 

Nanye-hi ("One who goes about"), known in English as Nancy Ward (c. 1738–1822 or 1824) was a ghigau, or beloved woman of the Cherokee Nation, which meant that she was allowed to sit in councils and to make decisions, along with the other Beloved Women, on pardons. She believed in peaceful coexistence with white people.

 

Beloved Woman

 

Nancy Ward was born in the Cherokee town of Chota, a member of the Wolf Clan. Her mother, whose actual name is not known, is often called Tame Doe, and was a sister of Attakullakulla. Her father was probably part Delaware, also known as the Lenape. Her first husband was the Cherokee man Kingfisher. Nanye-hi and Kingfisher fought side by side at the Battle of Taliwa against the Creeks in 1755. When he was killed, she took up his rifle and led the Cherokee to victory. This was the action which, at the age of 18, gave her the title of Ghigau.

 

Nancy Ward and her husband Kingfisher had two children, Catherine and Fivekiller. Nancy then married Bryant Ward, a South Carolina colonist and Indian trader, and their child was Elizabeth Ward, the Cherokee wife of General Joseph Martin.

 

In the revolutionary War, Ward warned the whites of an impending attack by Dragging Canoe, an act that has made her a Patriot for the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

 

Changes to Cherokee society

 

As a Ghigau, Nancy had the power to spare captives. In 1776, following a Cherokee attack on the Fort Watauga settlement on the Watauga River (at present day Elizabethton, Tennessee), she used that power to spare a Mrs. William (Lydia Russell) Bean, whom she took into her house and nursed back to health from injuries suffered in the battle. Mrs. Bean taught Nanye-hi how to weave, revolutionizing the Cherokee garments, which at the time were a combination of hides and cloth bought from traders. But this weaving revolution also changed the roles of women in the Cherokee society, as they took on the weaving and left men to do the planting, which had traditionally been a woman's job.

 

Mrs. Bean also rescued two of her dairy cows from the settlement, and brought them to Nanye-hi. Nanye-hi learned to raise the cattle and to eat dairy products, which would sustain the Cherokee when hunting was bad.

 

The combination of weaving and raising of animals turned the Cherokee from a communal agricultural society into a society very similar to that of their European-American neighbors, with family plots and the need for ever-more labor. Thus the Cherokee began buying and selling slaves. Nanye-hi was among the first Cherokee to own black slaves.

 

Around the same time Sequoyah introduced the first written language for the tribe. A complete Bible was first printed in the 1830's, hence the Cherokee were considered one of the Five Civilized Tribes

 

Later life

 

Nanye-hi objected to the sale of Cherokee lands to whites, but her objections were largely ignored. In 1808 and again in 1817, the Women's Council came out in opposition to the sale of more and more land.

 

Nanye-hi became a sort of ambassador between the Cherokee and the whites, learning the art of diplomacy from her maternal uncle, the influential chief Attakullakulla ("Little Carpenter"). In 1781, when the Cherokee met with an American delegation led by John Sevier to discuss American settlements along the Little Pigeon River, Nanye-hi expressed surprise that there were no women negotiators among the Americans. Sevier was equally appalled that such important work should be given to a woman. Nanye-hi told him, "You know that women are always looked upon as nothing; but we are your mothers; you are our sons. Our cry is all for peace; let it continue. This peace must last forever. Let your women's son's be ours; our sons be yours. Let your women hear our words." An American observer said that her speech was very moving.

 

On July 5, 1807, the Moravian mission school at Spring Place, Georgia, in the Cherokee Nation, was visited by three elderly women, including a very distinguished lady who had been a widow of fifty years and almost hundred years old. She was described as "an unusually sensible person, honored and loved by both brown and white people." "This old woman, named Chiconehla, is supposed to have been in a war against an enemy nation and was wounded numerous times...Her left arm is decorated with some designs, which she said were fashionable during her youth...." Chiconehla stayed for two days, entertained by the students and discussing theology with the missionaries with the aid of translating by her distant relative, Mrs. James Vann (Margaret Scott). The circumstances of this high status woman leave little doubt that this Cherokee named Chiconehla was identical to the person known as Nancy Ward.

 

Death, burial and remembrance

 

According to her son, Fivekiller, Nancy was buried in her home town of Chota. In 1923 the Nancy Ward chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, based in Chattanooga, placed a memorial marker next to Fivekiller's grave in Benton, Tennessee. Polk County, Tennessee, where Benton is located, is trying to raise money to create a Nancy Ward Museum. The Polk County Historical and Genealogical Society currently maintains a Nancy Ward Room in their genealogy library until such a time as the museum is created.

 

Ward was the last woman to receive the title of Beloved Woman until the late 20th century.

A statue of Nancy Ward, carved by James Abraham Walker, stood in a cemetery in Grainger County, Tennessee for about 70 years before it was stolen in the early 1980's.

 

The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, Tennessee holds an annual Nancy Ward Cherokee Heritage Days celebration in her honor.

 

Nancy Ward is not only remembered as an important figure to the Cherokee people but is also considered an early pioneer for women in American politics as she advocated for a woman's voice during a turbulent period in her tribe's history.

 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Ward)

[Denise Morgan (Helping Hand)]

Starr Mountain

 

Starr Mountain is located partly in the southwest corner of Monroe County Tennessee and in Polk County, in the Cherokee National Forest. The flat plateau like mountain is about halfway between Tellico Plains and Etowah. It's elevation ranges from 750 to 2290 feet. Surrounded by valleys and bisected from Oswald Dome to the south by  Hiwassee River, the two mountains look like islands encircled by a sea of green. Hikers, horses, and mountain bikes are allowed on gated (closed) roads unless otherwise posted. US 411 runs along its west face and TN 315
(Reliance Road) along its east face. GPS Coordinates Starr Mtn. Road & Hwy. 39 (Mecca Pike Road): N. 35 Degrees - 20.697'; W. 084 Degrees - 24.046'

 

History Of Starr Mountain

   Starr Mountain in the latter days of the Cherokee Nation, was the domain of one man, Caleb Starr, and therefore bears his name. Like many of the whites in the area, he had come across the mountains from North Carolina and married a Cherokee. His wife was prominent among the Cherokees, being the granddaughter of Nancy Ward. Caleb amassed great wealth; he owned Starr Mountain which is some 20 miles long and had a plantation at the base of it which was worked by over one hundred slaves.
   He and his wife had twelve children, one of whom was James Starr, who was one of the factions of Cherokees who signed the infamous "Treaty of New Echota" in 1835. This resulted in the removal of the Cherokee nation including Caleb Starr and all of his children (except James) to Oklahoma on the "Trail of Tears". Once in Oklahoma the Starr’s were identified with the "Treaty Party" and many (including James) were murdered in the unrest that followed.

 

Later Starr Mountain was home to a famous resort hotel, the White Cliff Springs Hotel, and also gained press attention as the home of the "Hermit of Starr Mountain", Mason Evans. The escapades of the hermit were picked up and reprinted in many newspapers. Mason Evans, rejected in love, fled to the mountain as a young man in his twenties and resided there in a cave until he died of exposure at age 68. His life is chronicled in a book entitled "Torment in the Knobs" by R. Frank McKinney, longtime editor and publisher of the Etowah Enterprise.

 

The famous Bandit Queen of the late 1800’s, Myra Maybelle Shirley, better known as Belle Starr, married Sam Starr, great grandson of Caleb in 1880, where she took on the name of Starr. The newlyweds cleared land and settled into a cabin at Younger's Bend, on the Canadian River about 70 miles southwest of Fort Smith, Ark.
   Sam’s father Tom was a murderous Cherokee, so notorious that he was an embarrassment to the Cherokee. When James Starr was assassinated, son Tom swore vengeance and carried out his oath with 20-plus murders. He was later pardoned because of a unique quirk in a federal peace treaty.
   At there home in Younger’s Bend they were visited by many outlaws seeking refuge. Belle did not encourage these activities. It was her hope, "to live out her time in peace." There is no evidence that Belle was the leader of any outlaw band, or that she ever visited Starr Mountain as some claim.
   She did serve time for horse stealing and was charged with robbery in 1886 but was later acquitted. She was ambushed and killed by two shotgun blasts February 3, 1889 near Younger’s Bend.

(http://www.telliquah.com/Starr.htm)

[Denise Morgan (Helping Hand)]

The view from my Dad's House

[Denise Morgan (Helping Hand)]

[Denise Morgan (Helping Hand)]

From the Plane

[Denise Morgan (Helping Hand)]

My Daddy

[Denise Morgan (Helping Hand)]

Other Items of interest...

The Hazelnut Bush

The Hiding Turtle...

The Cool flower thing...

[PerseH ~Staff Wrangler~]

Wonderful absolutely wonderful, I am so happy for you.