Princeton, Kentucky, on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: A Site Report

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by Jamie A. Metrailer

Resources on Indian Removal No. 9
Sequoyah Research Center
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
November 17, 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.

Background

Princeton “was first named Eddy Grove, but was renamed Princetown in 1817 for William Prince, a local landowner who settled in the area around 1797; the name was later shortened to Princeton.”¹ Princeton was on the overland route taken by a majority of the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears.

Princeton and Cherokee Removal

The first major group of emigrating Cherokees to pass through Princeton was known as the Cannon contingent, made up of Cherokees who had agreed to remove voluntarily. According to Grant Foreman, an “emigrating party numbering 365, with B.B. Cannon as conductor, was routed overland through Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri.”² Their route took them through Nashville, Tennessee, into Graves and Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and onward into Princeton.

The party reached Princeton on November 3, 1837, and arrived in Salem, Kentucky, two days later.³ Cannon’s journal entry for November 3, 1837, states: that they “marched at 8 o’c. A.M., passed thro’ Princeton, Ken., halted and encamped near Mr. Barnetts, at ½ past 4 o’c P.M. Issued corn & fodder, Flour & bacon, 17 miles to day.”⁴

At Princeton, Cannon paid Charles Reese for furnishing a coffin for a deceased Cherokee and purchased twelve yards of domestic cloth from R. Henry to make a tent for a Cherokee family that had not been furnished one on the outset of the journey.⁵ Thomas Prigmore, the wagon master; Dr. G. S. Townsend, the disbursing officer; and Jacoson Smith, the assistant conductor, boarded themselves and stabled their animals at Mr. Barnett’s house.⁶

Ten of the contingents organized by the Cherokee Nation passed through Princeton in November and December of 1838: George Hicks’, Richard Taylor’s, Peter Hildebrand’s, Colson’s, Situagee’s, Old Field’s, Jesse Bushyhead’s, Moses Daniels’, James Brown’s, and Chuwalookee’s. These contingents were large with some containing over 1,000 people and employed large numbers of wagon drivers, interpreters, and Cherokee light horse police.

The best documentary evidence comes from the Taylor contingent, which passed through Princeton on December 7, 1838. On December 13, the Reverend Danual Butrick, a missionary who traveled with the group, recorded in his diary: “On Friday of last week, we passed through a very beautiful village called Princeton. In the midst of the town we were saluted by a young clergyman, by the name of Payne. He knew us from a former acquaintance at Brainerd. When he was a boy, his pious mother went with him to that mission and spent a number of months. At his request we dined with him. About a mile from this village, in full view, is Cumberland College, an institution belonging to the Cumberland Presbyterians. This is a handsome building.”⁷

A look at the roster of employees in the Taylor contingent gives a fair insight into how the others were organized. Richard Taylor was conductor and W. S. Adair, assistant; W. I. I. Morrow was physician and George D. Morrow assistant; I. J. Fields was commissary and N. Sanders assistant; John McPherson and Archy Fields were interpreters; H. B. Henegar was wagon master and G. W. Parks assistant. There were thirty-six wagoners, including Dr. Morrow’s slave, George, and two managers. The ranks of the contingent were patrolled by twelve regulators, or light horse police.⁸

Directly ahead of the Taylor contingent was Chuwalookee’s, better known as Wafford’s contingent. According to Butrick, Jesse Bushyhead’s contingent had passed through about three weeks earlier.⁹ When the other groups passed is uncertain.

Opportunities for Site Interpretation

The Main Street in Princeton also serves as U.S. Highway 91 and is part of the National Trail of Tears.¹⁰ “Cherokee Indians camped along Varmin Trace Road in 1838”, at which time Major John Gray’s Stage Coach Inn and the Globe Tavern existed.¹¹ Trail of Tear Marker Number 142 in Big Springs Park already marks this road.

Notes

1. http://www.uky.edu/KentuckyAtlas/ky-princeton.html.

2. Grant Foreman, Indian Removal: Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), 280.

3. Ibid., 281.

4. http://anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/eye+witness_accounts/eye-witness1.htm.

5. Receipt to Charles Reese, November 3, 1838, and Receipt to R. Henry, November 3, 1838, National Archives Record Group 217, General Accounting Office, Treasury Department, Second Auditor, Indian Affairs, Settled Accounts and Claims, John C. Reynolds, Box 285, Files 3229C and 3229B respectively.

6. Memoranda of Thomas Prigmore, G. S. Townsend, and Jackson Smith, Ibid., File 3229B.

7. Cherokee Removal: The Journal of Rev. Daniel S. Butrick, May 19, 1838-April 1, 1839 (Park Hill, OK: Trail of Tears Oklahoma Chapter, 1998), 48.

8. Cherokee—Contingents—Richard Taylor—Roll of Employees File, Sequoyah Research Center.

9. Cherokee Removal: The Journal of Rev. Daniel S. Butrick, 48.

10. http://www.preservamerica.gov/Pacommunity-princetonKY.html.

11. http://www.10000trails.com/tears/princeton.html. .