Pulaski, Tennessee, on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: A Site Report

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by Jamie A. Metrailer

Resources on Indian Removal No. 11
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

The first non-Indian occupants of Pulaski settled the area about 1807. Approximately two years later, Pulaski became a seat of court. By 1820 a large number of households occupied the site, and by the time of Cherokee removal in 1838 it was a thriving community.¹

Pulaski and Cherokee Removal

On October 11, 1838, a group of 650-700 Treaty Party Cherokees, known as the Bell Party, left the vicinity of the Cherokee Agency at Calhoun, Tennessee, traveling with Lieutenant Edward Deas as disbursing agent and John Bell conductor. D. S. Walker, D. M. Foreman, Ellis Harlin, and Luther Rankin were assistant conductors. Interpreters were Watt Foster, W. M. Boling, and John Sanders, and Dr. J. W. Edington was the physician.² Because party had agreed to the New Echota Treaty, they did not want to travel with other large land contingents organized by Chief John Ross. From Ross’s Landing, the party passed through Jasper, Winchester, Fayetteville, and on to Pulaski. “Deas reported [that] up to this time our progress has been necessarily slow, in consequence of the obstructions in the road over which we have passed… ‘The Party under my charge numbers between 650 and 700 person, and is composed for the most part of highly respectable and intelligent families, and there but few who have not made considerable advancement in civilization.’” According to Foreman, “They reached Pulaski in November without incident except that a number of oxen belonging to the Indians died from eating poisonous weeds.”³

The party included African descended slaves as well as Cherokees. A large number of wagons carried their baggage. In addition to the teams, the Cherokees had more than 300 horses. The party spent several days in the Pulaski vicinity. As disbursing agent, Deas procured corn and fodder for the animals and corn meal, flour, beef, pork, bacon, and other goods for the people.⁴ On October 31, near Pulaski, Deas bought bacon from Thomas P. Hayes, and on November 3 he bought a barrel of sugar and a barrel of salt ;from H. C. Lester and Brother. On November 3 and 4, he bought corn and fodder from local residents Thomas A. Steele and Jaby Smith at Pulaski. On November 4, near Pulaski, he bought bacon from Hayes and Lester and Brother, and on the following day he bought fresh pork from William Smith.⁵ Leaving from Pulaski, the group headed towards Memphis.

The Bell Party crossed the path of the Benge contingent, which had passed through Pulaski on its way north and west about two weeks earlier.⁶ Led by John Benge, conductor, the party of 1103 Indians and 144 African slaves had left Fort Payne, Alabama, on October 1 and traveled by way of Huntsville and Ardmore before passing through Pulaski. George Lowrey was Benge’s assistant conductor. Robert Benge was wagon master with John Young and Richarad Guist as assistants. J. H. Rogers was commissary and George W. Lovette his assistant. William P. Rolls was physician and A. P. Lowery interpreter. The contingent had 57 teams and 18 wagoners. There were as well a number of regulators, or light horse policemen, grave diggers, and burial details.⁷

Opportunities for Site Interpretation

Pulaski, Tennessee, has three historic districts that might afford opportunities for interpreting the Trail of Tears.

Notes

1. James McCallum, : “A Brief Sketch of the Settlement and Early History of Giles County Tennessee” (1876), http://tngenweb.org/records/giles/mccallum/4-chapter.htm.

2. Wayne Dell Gibson, “Cherokee Treaty Party Moves West: The Bell-Deas Overland Journey, 1838-1839,” Chronicles of Oklahoma 79 (Fall 2001): 328.

3. Grant Foreman, Indian Removal: Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), 301.

4. Gibson, “Cherokee Treaty Party Moves West,” 329

5. Receipts of Thomas A. Steele, November 3, 1838, Jaby Smith, Norvember 4, 1838, Thomas W. Hayes, October 31, 1838, H. C. Lester and Brother, November 3 and November 4, 1838, and William Smith, November 5, 1838, in Treaty Party, Disbursements for Subsistence; Disbursements for Transportation File, Edward Deas Papers, Sequoyah Research Center.

6. U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Comprehensive Management and Use Plan, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail: Map Supplement (Denver: Denver Service Center, 1992), Maps 155-157.

7. Muster Roll of Detachment No. of Emigrating Cherokees under Charge of Capt. John Benge, John Ross Collection, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.