Cairo, Illinois, on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: A Site Report

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by Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr.

Resources on Indian Removal No. 7
Sequoyah Research Center
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
October 14, 2006

Research for this report was funded in part by a Challenge Cost Share Agreement with the Long Distance Trails Office of the National Park Service, Santa Fe, New Mexico. No part of this text may be duplicated or otherwise used except by permission of the author or as provided for by the "Special Provision" section of the agreement

Cairo, Illinois, was founded in 1818 by John G. Comegys. By the time of removal, investors such as Darius Holbrook had ambitious plans for the economic development of Cairo and had grand visions of its becoming a metropolis and a major center in the Western economy. By 1840, it had an estimated 1,000 population. But hopes were short lived. When the great English writer Charles Dickens visited Cairo in 1842, it was quickly losing population.¹ It was in the period of anticipated boom that removal took place. Cairo was located on the water route for both the Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee Trail of Tears.

Cairo and Muscogee (Creek) Removal

The first contingent of Muscogees to pass Cairo consisted of 511 members of Fish Pond, Kealedji, and Hilibi tribal towns. Conducted by William Beattie with Lieutenant Edward Deas as disbursing agent, they left Wetumka, Alabama, and traveled overland by way of Montevallo, Elyton, Moulton, and Tuscumbia. They then traveled by boat to Waterloo, where they boarded the steamboat Alpha and two keel boats for their trip down the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers to the Arkansas.² This party spent the night of December 28, 1835, on Owens' Island at Paducah, Kentucky. On December 29, Deas wrote in his journal, "The Boats with the Party on board started this morning shortly after day light and have come to-day about 75 miles and have stopped for the night about 20 miles below the mouth of the Ohio River."³

The second and last party of Muscogees to pass Cairo consisted of 543 Creeks who had fled their nation to escape removal and had sought refuge among the Cherokees. They had started from an imprisonment camp near Gunter's Landing, Alabama, on May 16, 1837, and had gone by flat boat down the Tennessee to Tuscumbia, and traveled overland to Waterloo. At Waterloo, they boarded the steamboat Black Hawk, which departed on May 24.⁴ Deas' journal of May 25 reads: "The boats continued to run thro- last-night, passed Paducah today at one o'clock, and stopped for the night about sun-set, near the mouth of the Ohio on the Illinois Shore. Another child died to-day owing probably to the folly of its mother, in putting it in cold water. Since leaving Gunter's Landing, the weather has been uncommonly cool, for the season. Since yesterday afternoon, there has been an almost constant drizzling rain." On May 26 he wrote, "This morning about day-light the boats started, the weather fine and still cool."⁵

Cairo and Cherokee Removal

            In the spring and early summer of 1838, four groups Cherokee groups removed by water.

            The first group of 250, conducted by Deas, left Waterloo, Alabama, with aboard the steamboat Smelter and a keel boat in tow, on April 6, and spent the first night on the river. Deas wrote on April 7 that they stopped briefly at Paducah, Kentucky, where they left the keel boat, which he found unnecessary. He said, "The party having been removed to the S. Boat, we set out from the mouth of Tennessee River about 10 P.M. and are now progressing speedily towards the mouth of the Ohio (12 o'clock P.M.)"⁶

            Deas conducted another party in June of 1838. This party, made up of Cherokees who had been recently captured in Georgia and kept under guard, met the Smelter at Tuscumbia and Waterloo, Alabama. The steamboat left Waterloo, towing two keel boats, on June 11. According to Deas, they passed the mouth of the Ohio during the night of June 12.⁷

            The next party to pass by Cairo left Ross's Landing and descended the Tennessee on six flatboats. Conducted by R. H. K. Whiteley, they departed on the steamboat Smelter at Waterloo, Alabama, on June 30, 1838, towing a keel boat   They passed Cairo on July 2. According to Whiteley's journal of that date, the party "started from Paducah Kentucky at 2 A.M. wooded from 1/2 past 8 to 1/2 past 9 A. M. detained by a squall of wind from 1 to 2 P.M. obliged to come to and encamp on the bank of the Mississippi River at 1/2 past 7 P.M., the wind having increased to a gale and threatening a storm..⁸

            The Drane Party was the next Cherokee removal group to pass Cairo. His party had rebelled against removal at Bellefonte, Alabama, after they heard word that the Cherokee Nation had successfully negotiated to conduct its own removal. Many had deserted, and Drane had to use a militia escort from Bellfonte to Waterloo, where they boarded the Smelter on July 14.⁹ The steamboat, with its usual speed, passed Cairo probably no more than two days later.

            The only Cherokee removal party to stop at Cairo was the Drew detachment, the last of the thirteen detachments organized by the Cherokee Nation. Included in this group were Chief John Ross and his family.   Because the drought had deepened during the summer and early fall, Drew's group did not get away from the Cherokee Agency in Tennessee until early December, 1838, about two months after the first detachments had departed. The party descended the Hiwassee and Tennessee on flatboats to Tuscumbia, Alabama. There, Ross bought the steamboat Victoria, which they used in the remainder of the journey. The Victoria did not arrive at Paducah, Kentucky, until January of 1839. There, Ross found a number of letters awaiting him, informing him of delays in the overland detachments first at Nashville and, in January, 1838, at the Mississippi crossing between Illinois and Missouri. What Ross learned at Paducah caused him to go on to the mouth of the Ohio, where he docked the Victoria and went to Williard's Ferry and Jonesboro, Illinois, to urge the contingents on.¹⁰ The Victoria remained at Cairo until Ross returned six days later Conductor of this party was John Drew assisted by John G. Ross. John M. Kennedy was physician, Chaarles Thompason was commissary, and George Whitfield was interpreter..¹¹

Opportunities for Interpretation

Cairo has three possible sites for presenting interpretation of the Trail of Tears: Cairo Historic District, Fort Defiance State Park, and Saint Marys Park.¹² When Fort Defiance was first established at the southern end of the business district, it was at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi. The confluence has since shifted about a mile to the south.

Notes

1. Drew E. VandeCreek, "Cairo, Illinois--History, http://dig.lib.niu.edu/twain/culturaltourism/cairo-history.html.

2. Amanda L. Paige, Fuller L. Bumpers, and Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., The North Little Rock Site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: Historical Contexts Report (Little Rock: American Native Press Archives, 2004), 25.

3. Gaston Litton, ed., "The Journal of a Party of Emigrating Creek Indians, 1835, 1836," Journal of Southern History 7 (May 1941), 234.

4. Paige, et al., North Little Rock Site, 32.

5. Journal of Occurrences of Lit. Edward Deas 1837, National Archives Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letters
Received, Creek Agency Emigration (National Archives Microfilm Publications, Roll138), D97-37.

6. Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., ed. Lieut. Edward Deas" Journal of Occurrences, April-May 1838. Resources on Indian Removal No. 3 (Little Rock: Sequoyah Research Center, UALR, 2006), 1; Journal of Occurrences in the Route of Emigration of a Party of Cherokee Indians, kept by Lieut. Edward Deas, U. S. Army, Conductor of the Party, from Waterloo, Alabama to the New Country west of the Mississippi River, National Archives Microfilm Publications M574, Special Case Files of the Office of Indian Affairs, 1807-1894, Roll 69, Case 249, Document D217.

7. Journal of Occurrences of Lt. Edward Deas 1838, National Archives Record Group 574, National Archives Microfilm Publications M574, Roll 69, Document D235.

8. R. H. K. Whitley's Journal of Occurrences, http://www.mindspring.com/~wayne.gibson/JP1.gif.

9. Paige, et al., North Little Rock Site, 48.

10. Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., The John Drew Detachment, Resources on Indian Removal No. 2 (Little Rock: Sequoyah Research Center, UALR, 2006), 1-2.

11. Roster of Employees, John Drew Detachment, in Cherokee—Contingents—John Drew File, Sequoyah Research Center.

12. See http://www.hometownlocator.com/DisplayCountyFeatureType=Parks&SCFIPS= 17003, retrieved October 14, 2006.