The scene of this story as given by Mrs. Pennington
starts far back in the dawn of Cherokee history. It deals with her
forefathers before wrongs were done to these proud Cherokee back in
Tennessee and Georgia; with their weary journey westward over the
Trail of Tears. The Cherokees’ first constitution according to the
Cherokee laws; the Cherokees’ first Principal Chief, John Ross;
stirring events of the Civil War; the coming of the wild bands of
painted Indians from other parts of the United States brought by the
Government into the Indian Territory to occupy a part of the Cherokee
lands that they were compelled by the Government to sell for this
purpose.
Progress is to be noted in Mrs. Pennington’s recital,
for they builded schools and churches, towns and cities, from savagery
among the wild Indians to our present great state we have today.
Every individual has back of him things of which they
are justly proud and Mrs. Pennington is proud to know that she is a
direct descendant of the principal characters of the Cherokees.
After the Ridges made this treaty and those who favored
it moved west. Chief Ross and his band of 12,000 still refused to
move and they met abuse and troubles indescribable and finally the
United States Soldiers were sent to move Chief Ross and his people.
After the soldiers appeared, they began to build
stockades to house the Cherokees until they could get them moving.
All over the Cherokee country they went, bringing in all of them, old
and young, male and female and their babes, the sick, the lame and the
halt. They hunted them down like hunting wild beasts and when they
found them, they drove them under threats and blows like cattle to
these stockades. These stockades were over crowded, disease broke out
among them and many of them died with dysentery. Poor food and poor
water, no doctors and no medicine.
In due time parties were started west, under the charge
of soldiers. These parties were driven through like cattle. The sick
and weak walked until they fell exhausted and then were loaded in
wagons or left behind to die. When streams were to be crossed if not
too deep all were compelled to wade. The water often times was to the
chins of the men and women, and the little children were carried high
over their heads. If the water was over their heads they would build
rafts and cross on them.
Chief Ross and the Council begged the Government to let
them take over the moving after a few parties had been moved by the
soldiers and this was agreed upon. They began to establish camps and
their health got better. It was only a short time until Chief Ross
had worked out the details for the removal and he moved his people in
groups through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and then into
the Indian Territory. This journey was called the “Trail of Tears”.
Unlike the moving by the army, arrangements were made
whereby the old, sick and afflicted and the babies rode on the wagons
hauling provisions and household goods. The others walked or rode
horseback. These wagons hauling provisions were Government property.
Even with these arrangements many died on account of
cold and hunger enroute and were buried in unmarked graves.
One of those who died on the Trail of Tears was Jim
Ross Jr., the son of Jim Ross who was the son of Chief John Ross as
aforementioned.
Jim Ross Jr. was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere
near the present town of Aurora, Missouri.
Those who survived the hardships of the long trek,
finally came to meet the Cherokees west. After they arrived here all
that they possessed were a saw, an axe, a very little bedding and a
big-eyed hoe and a small amount of corn, enough possibly to plant an
acre of ground.
Having located in the Ozarks of the eastern part of the
Indian Territory, many of them dug caves or dugouts in the hillsides
in which to live until with their axe and saw, they built a little log
cabin. They lived on wild fruits and berries. They made themselves
bows and arrows to kill their game.
Some were a little more fortunate for they had a horse
and with a deer tongue of wood and the big-eyed hoe they planted their
corn in little clearings.
Chief John Ross and his family settled and builded
their first home near the west bank of the Illinois.
