Winchester, 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. 10
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

“Settled in 1810, Winchester was named for General James Winchester, a veteran of the Revolutionary and Indian Wars”; the city was incorporated in 1822.¹ Winchester was on the route taken by the Bell Contingent of Cherokees.

Winchester and Cherokee Removal

On October 11, 1838, the Bell contingent of Treaty Party Cherokees left the Cherokee Agency near Calhoun, Tennessee, with Lieutenant Edward Deas as disbursing officer and with John Bell as conductor.² Assistant conductors were D. S. Walker, D. M. Foreman, Ellis Harlin, and Luther Rankin. Watt Foster, W. M. Boling, and John Sanders were interpreters, and Dr. J. W. Edington was physician.³ Because this party had favored the New Echota Treaty, they chose not travel with other Cherokees who supported Chief John Ross. Early on, Deas had determined that a direct route to Memphis would be better than the northern route through Missouri because of the ongoing drought and his belief that the Mississippi River swamps west of Memphis would be passable.⁴. They traveled from the vicinity of the Agency to Ross’s Landing and from there to Winchester.

The group was in Winchestor on October 27, 1838. They had been on the road since October 11 but had been delayed by “obstructions in the road.” From Winchester, Deas described the members of his group: “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.”⁵

The party undoubtedly created quite a spectacle for the locals of Winchester. In addition to the people and their African-descended slaves, teams pulled a number of wagons used to carry the baggage of the people. The Cherokees had more than 300 horses. Deas’ task was to provide corn and fodder for the animals and rations of corn meal, flour, fresh beef and pork, bacon, coffee, sugar, soap, salt, and beans for the people.⁶ Deas purchased these goods from local farmers and merchants as the group went along. For example, at Winchester, he bought 79 bushels of corn and 950 bundles of fodder from William Estill and 26 bushels of corn meal, 694 pounds of bacon, and 621 pounds of fresh pork from William Estill, Jr.⁷

From Winchester, the party went on to Fayetteville.

Opportunities for Site Interpretation

The Old Jail Museum might be approached as a partner for interpreting the Trail of Tears.

Notes

1. http://www.winchester-tn.copm/home.html

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

3. Wayne Dell Gibson, “Cherokee Treaty Party Moves West: The Bell-Deas Overland Journey, 1838-1839,” Chronicles of Oklahoma 79 (Fall 2001): 328-329.

4. Ibid., 326.

5. Quoted from Ibid., 326; see also Foreman, Indian Removal, 301.

6. Gibson, “Cherokee Treaty Party Moves West,” 326

7. See William Estill and William Estill, Jr., receipts, Treaty Party—Disbursements for Subsistence File, Edward Deas Papers, Sequoyah Research Center.