Location: SR 1522 (Peachtree Street) in Murphy
County: Cherokee
Original Date Cast: 1939
Just as South Carolina’s Yamasee War of 1715 was coming to a close, the Cherokee and Catawba Indians along the northern frontier began to feel the tolls of the white settlers’ demands. Cherokee in the Lower Towns killed many white traders who were living among them, and a group of Catawba and Cherokee warriors attacked settlements, both guarded and unguarded. George Chicken, a proficient Indian trader and captain in the Goose Creek, South Carolina, militia, led about 120 men against a group of Catawbas in a region known as the Ponds.
In 1715 Chicken led an expedition into the Cherokee villages to assess the threat of the tribes to the colony of South Carolina and to convince the Indians to remain loyal to the British. The Cherokee were satisfied with the British as allies but were unwilling to make peace with the Creeks. They wanted to be assured of a reliable supply of guns and ammunition and told Chicken that “they should have no way in getting of Slaves to buy ammunition and cloathing” without going to war. Chicken agreed to supply the Indians with two hundred guns and some white soldiers in order to continue to fight hostile tribes. The expedition helped ensure that the Cherokee would not align with the Yamasee in fighting the South Carolina colonists.
References:
Steven J. Oatis, A Colonial Complex: South Carolina’s Frontiers in the Era of the Yamasee War 1680-1730 (2004)
James Mooney, History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (1900)
Samuel Cole Williams, Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1540-1800 (1928)