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| 1832 Surveyer's Field Book Notice the word Stand. |
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Indian Improvements in Cave Spring |
This is the reason I think Cave Spring is Beaver Dam or Beaver Pond Of The Cherokee Nation and the Cabin is Avery Vann's
The article below was research and written by Jeff Bishop
In spite of
all this apocalyptic fervor, the Cherokee leadership ultimately
sided with
the United States and served under General Andrew Jackson in 1814
against their
rebellious “Red Stick” Creek neighbors. Lying unprotected on the
Creek /
Cherokee border, on the south side of the Coosa River, Vann’s
Valley was
an inviting
and vulnerable target for the Red Sticks. By that time a Cherokee
named Avery
Vann -- brother of the infamous James Vann of Spring Place, GA –
had
settled in
the area, which had become generally known as “Beaver Dam” or
“Beaver
Pond.” A
Jan. 24, 1822 entry in the Brainerd missionary journal located
“Beaver
Dam” on
“the south side of the Coosa river, opposite to Turnip town,”(50)
a
Cherokee town
on the northern bank of the Coosa, at the southern base of Turnip
Mountain,
near today’s Plant Hammond. Rev. Daniel Butrick noted in February,
1823 that
“Beaver-dam,” was located 10 or 12 miles from Turnip Mountain,
south
of the Coosa
river.” He also said that “Cedar Creek town,” a town that lay
“near
a settlement
of Creek Indians,” likely at or near today’s Cedartown, was “12
miles south
of Beaver dam.”(51) This would place Beaver Dam in the heart of
Vann’s
Valley, probably very near today’s town of Cave Spring, or between
there
and the
former county seat of Livingston. (As more Cherokees – and
especially
prosperous
Cherokees such as Avery Vann -- began to adopt more of a plantation
lifestyle,
the nature of what constituted a Cherokee “town” changed. During
the
eighteenth
century Cherokee towns tended to be traditional and compact, centered
on a town
council house, but by the early nineteenth century the “towns”
tended
to be spread
out for miles along the river bottoms and associated tributaries.)
Vann, at the
time of the Creek War / Red Stick Rebellion, was living at the
northern end
of the Beaver Dam area, operating a ferry on the Coosa River. In
1826 Richard
A. Blount, who was surveying the Georgia / Alabama state line, said
that Vann,
who he described as an “old man,” lived on the Coosa “in the
late
war, and took
an active part against the hostile Creeks, and while he was down
about the
Horse Shoe, some of them came up and burnt his houses.”(52) Records
from the
Cherokee Agency report that on March, 1814, the Old Broom sent a
“very
urgent
express” through Santooly of Brooms Town to the Cherokees living
near
Avery Vann’s
place, which was located by the agency as “sixteen miles above Fort
Armstrong.”
The Agency was informed that Vann’s place had been “burnt By the
hostile
Creeks” and that his family had only barely escaped the raid “a
day or
two before
this happened.” Old Broom said that Cherokee warriors needed to be
“stationed
at Avery Vann’s” and wanted to know if they would be considered
“as a
part of Genl
Jacksons army.”(53)
Vann’s
wife, Margaret McSwain Vann, gives a considerably more detailed
account
in an 1842
claim to the federal government for the loss of the property:
The
claimant … states (on oath) that at the time of the Creek War she
resided
with her
family on the South side of the Coosa river in the Cherokee Nation
East; where
she was exposed to the inroads of the lawless Creeks owning to the
contiguity
of her abode to that tribe. That her husband was at the time of the
loss of the
above property in the service of the U.S. in the company commanded
by Capt.
David McNair, all under command of Genl. Andrew Jackson. That will in
this
defenceless condition a friend by the name of Broom sent her word
that
she was in
great danger of an attack by the Creeks, and advised her to remove
her little
family across to the north side of the Coosa river, which advice
she took to
save the lives of her family; -- and about the next day after
leaving her
residents, the Creeks set fire to & consumed all that is charged
in this
account except the Negro Boy. The next day … after the burning of
her
property by
the Creeks, the Boy was at play with her own children, where she
had
constructed a camp to shelter in, and at night on inquiry the Boy
could
not be
found, and there was no way to account for his absence, but by
charging
some outlaw
with forcing him off. Suspicion rested … upon some bad white men…
in the
neighborhood to Genl. White’s detachment of East Tennessee Militia
from
the fact
that fresh horse tracks were to be found about the place where the
boy was at
play, which were pursued a short distance in the direction of
Tennessee …
And now as it must be obvious to every candid mind that this loss
was brought
about by the absence of her husband & protector in the ranks of
the
citizens of the U.S. in defence of their rights, against the enemy of
the
U.S., she
thinks it nothing but justice that she should be remunerated for her
loss.(54)
The Indian
Removal Act
Although
Vann, like most able-bodied Cherokee men, chose to serve with the
white
soldiers
under General Jackson, that would not save his home and property. In
fact, it
would be Jackson -- riding his victories all the way to the U.S.
presidency --
who ultimately would push for removal of the Southeastern Indians,
including his
former Cherokee allies, west of the Mississippi River. Vann’s
loyalty to
the United States, even to the point of losing his home to
conflagration,
wouldn’t spare him or his family from removal. “The consequences
of a speedy
removal will be important to the United States, to individual
States, and
to the Indians themselves,” Jackson announced to the U.S. Congress.
He
characterized the Cherokee Nation and their fellow Indian nations, in
spite
of all
aspirations to become thoroughly acculturated, as being “now
occupied by
a few savage
hunters.”(55) In fact, the Cherokees had long since ceded the vast
majority of
their once vast hunting grounds to the United States, and had been
living a
plantation and subsistence farming lifestyle virtually
indistinguishable
from that practiced by their white neighbors. But no matter.
Removal of
the Indians from the Southern states would “enable those States to
advance
rapidly in population, wealth, and power,” Jackson said. “What
good man
would prefer
a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages
to our
extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms
embellished
with all the improvements which art can devise or industry
execute…?”
Jackson concluded:
And is it
supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his
home than
the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting to him to
leave the
graves of his fathers than it is to our brothers and children?
Rightly
considered, the policy of the General Government toward the red man
is
not only
liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the
States and
mingle with their population. To save him from this alternative, or
perhaps
utter annihilation, the General Government kindly offers him a new
home…
(56)
Seeing the
writing clearly on the wall, Vann enrolled for emigration to the West
in 1829,
abandoning all his improvements in Beaver Pond. Just 11 days after
Jackson’s
announcement, the state of Georgia extended its legal jurisdiction
over the
Cherokee Nation, abolishing Cherokee government, courts, and police
powers in its
own territory. Since Cherokees could not testify against whites in
Georgia
courts, this action practically invited whites to invade Cherokee
territory and
take what they wanted. This is exactly what happened, and the
people living
in Vann’s Valley again found themselves on the front lines of
conflict.
