(Significant revision 17 May 2019)
The report of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) issued in 1942 included Hawkinsville as part of Tyner; listed Silverdale separately; grouped East Brainerd, Morris Hill, Ryall Springs, and Westview together as Ryall Springs; and listed Chickamauga under the name of its post office, Shepherd.
East Brainerd Road, the main road through Concord/Walnut Grove/East Brainerd, has been known by many names throughout its existence. Remember that at one time, there was no Robert E. Lee Highway; what are now Brainerd and East Brainerd Roads were one long continuous path. During Cherokee times, at least after the mission was founded, it was known as Brainerd’s Road from Ross’ Landing to the Federal Road south of Opelika (the later Graysville). Later it was called Chattanooga-Graysville Pike and Bird’s Mill Road. Later, it carried the last name until a T-junction with Jenkins Road, from which the latter continued as Graysville Pike, which turned south after its junction with Parker’s Gap (later Ryall Springs) Road. It became East Brainerd Road from its Y-intersection with Brainerd Road and Lee Highway in 1926.
Another road with many names is Gunbarrel Road. I always loved that one when I was a kid. Its earliest name may have been Graysville-Harrison Pike, a name noted on deeds in the 19th century. By the later part of that century, it had become known as Silverdale Road.
For more than a century, the large area of Hamilton
County which goes by the name of East Brainerd (as opposed to the smaller area
formerly called Concord) went by the name of Chickamauga. Even after this
part of the county began dividing into smaller communities, as a whole it was
called Chickamauga well into the 20th century. The name Chickamauga
dates from the Cherokee occupation of the area, though the word itself is not
Cherokee.
Though many others have speculated that the word
“Chickamauga” (along with “Chattanooga”) is derived from one of the Muscogean
languages, James Mooney stated in one of his reports to the Bureau of Ethnology
that it is Shawnee. After all, it was a delegation of Shawnee to
the Cherokee who recommended the location to the militant Cherokee during the
American Revolution in the first place. That location is in the Whorley-Wrinkletown-Shepherd
area from South Chickamauga Creek to the airport.
The former community of Chicamacomico in North
Carolina and Chicamacomico Creek in Maryland were in areas inhabited by Indians
speaking languages from the Algonquian family, to which Shawnee belongs.
There is another Chickamauga Creek on the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River
in northeast Georgia. In nearby Polk County, Tennessee, is a ford over
the Hiwassee River called Savannah Ford, one of the names of the Shawnee.
Prehistoric
period
Even though most people are more familiar with
Cherokee occupation of the Hamilton County region because it continued well
into written historical times, their residence was comparatively short and
arrival very late. For centuries, even millennia, the area was occupied
by speakers of what became Muscogean (Creek) languages.
The first humans in East Brainerd proper of which
there were any remains lived during the Woodland period (1000 BCE to 1000
CE). Unlike the later Mississippian period, mound complexes during the
Woodland period served strictly ceremonial purposes and were almost never
inhabited. Instead they were central to groups of hamlets and
villages. Hunting, gathering, and small-scale horticulture fed
inhabitants.
In the East Brainerd-Graysville area, there was a
ceremonial complex in the area where Council Fire was built with at least four
sizable burial mounds, each at least twelve feet high, three on the former
Blackwell farm and one on the adjacent former Julian farm. The mounds
were destroyed long before the subdivision and golf course were built.
Downstream, near the mouth of South Chickamauga
Creek, was another Woodland period ceremonial complex, of which one remains,
the Roxbury Mound. A larger and much more significant Woodland mound
complex lies on West Chickamauga Creek near the Crystal Springs in Chickamauga,
Georgia.
When archaeologist C.B. Moore published his study of
Southeast archaeology in 1913, he counted over 300 such mounds in Hamilton
County. Only a handful remain. Of the Woodland mound complex at the
foot of Moccasin Bend, only the base of Pine Breeze Mound remains.
The Late Woodland period (500-1000) in Hamilton
County was the most important phase of the Woodland period not only because
that was its most populous phase, but because it developed its own cultural
complex which spread to other regions in the Southeast.
A handful of sites in the eastern U.S. document the
in-situ transition between the Woodland period and Mississippian periods.
The land where Heritage Landing now lies was one such site before construction
of the townhouses there now. Its former inhabitants most likely crossed
the river and became the founders of the substantial site at Citico.
During the Mississippian period (900-1600 CE), the
population grew exponentially largely due to advances in agriculture and
introduction of maize. Social structures became more complex and
stratified. Villages became towns which were palisaded.
Burial mounds still existed but were less important,
and were included inside towns. The newer, larger platform mounds
replaced them in importance and dominated each of the towns. These were
used for religious ceremonies with burials inside them only occasionally.
They within the palisade at the head of the town plaza. Generally, there
was one large platform mound per town, but some few had more than one, as was
the case in the Chattanooga region at Hiwassee, Citico, and Long Island.
These towns with platform mounds were the dominant
political entities of the Mississippian world. Usually smaller villages
and hamlets were subordinate to them, and they were governed by a
highly-stratified upper class. Chiefdoms were hereditary. Groups of
chiefdoms were in turn dominated by paramount chiefdoms, of which there were
only a handful. The middle phase in particular also saw the rise of the
priestly class, with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex spreading across the region
from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico.
These features were true for the Early (900-1200)
and Middle (1200-1400) phases of the Mississippian period.
Important area towns in the Early and Middle
Mississippian periods were at the Hiwassee Island, Sale Creek, Davis (half mile
upstream from Harrison), Hixson (Chester Frost Park), Yarnell (later town of
Harrison), Citico, Talimico (Williams Island), Sequatchie, and Long Island
sites. There may have also been a Middle Mississippian town at the David
Davis site where the Vulcan Recreational Center and FedEx shipping center are
now, which also contained evidence of extensive Woodland period occupation.
Of these, the Citico on the Tennessee-American Water
Company property was by far the most important and longest lasting, physical
and historical evidence demonstrating continued occupation at least thru the
contact period. There is no question among archaeologists that is was the
dominant town politically and culturally in the region, maybe in all of East
Tennessee and North Georgia, during its heyday.
The Hiwassee Island, Yarnell, and Talimico
sites also show some evidence of continuing Late Mississippian habitation.
The Davis, Hixon, and Yarnell (or Dallas) sites
demonstrate consecutive occupation, meaning the same group established Davis,
moved across river to Hixon (coinciding with the rise of the paramount chiefdom
at Etowah), then returned to the south side of the river to the Yarnell, or
Dallas, site.
Hiwassee Island shows continuous occupation from the
earliest Woodland years to historic times. Talimico on Williams Island
was occupied during the Early and Middle Mississippian periods, the population
then shifted largely to Hampton Place on Moccasin Bend, though a small
contingent remained.
During the Middle Mississippian phase, the towns of
North Georgia, Southeast and East Tennessee, and Northeast Alabama were
dominated by the paramount chiefdom at the Etowah Mounds site. De Soto’s
chroniclers called the abandoned town of Talimachusi, its inhabitants, the
Itawa, being much reduced and relocated several miles downriver.
With the collapse of Itawa, the town of Coosa rose
up in its place to dominate the towns it formerly dominated. Coosa was
located at the Little Egypt site which the Cherokee had called Coosawattee, or
Old Coosa Place. It is now under Carter’s Lake. In historical
times, the Coosa, relocated to North Alabama, merged with the Abhika town of
the Muscogee Confederacy.
In the Late Mississippian period (1400-1600), towns
grew smaller, there was less to differentiate social classes, and platform
mounds vanished entirely unless their original sites were still in use.
During this final phase of the Mississippian period,
a sizable town occupied the west bank area of what is now Elise Chapin Wildlife
Sanctuary at Audobon Acres. Other town-sites in the area known to have been occupied at
the time of contact were the then much-reduced town at Citico (a reoccupation
rather than a continuation), the Hampton Place site on Moccasin Point, and the
Talimico site of Williams Island. In
addition, another town lay at the David Davis site in the vicinity of the FedEx
Freight complex on Shallowford Road, which archaeology demonstrates traded with
Coosa but with none of its neighbors in the area.
From the chroniclers of the journeys into the
interior of Tristan de Luna from what they called Ochuse (Pensacola) in 1559
and of Juan Pardo from Santa Elena (Parris Island) in 1567, we know which towns
they were. In De Luna’s expedition, the
Spanish journeyed into the Hamilton County area as allies of the town of Coosa,
the paramount chiefdom of Northwest Georgia-Southeast Tennessee-Northeast
Alabama. They and their Coosa allies came to put down a rebellion by the
Napochi, who had stopped paying tribute.
When they came upon the town at the Audobon
site, it had just been abandoned, so they burned it. The two groups
chased the refugees to the town at Citico, where they and the inhabitants fled
across the “big water” (Tennessee River) above Maclellan Island. Once
across, those in flight joined confederates from the Hampton Place town on the
north bank. In the end, the rebellious “Napochis” agreed to resume paying
tribute and the conflict ended.
The Late Mississippian site at Hampton Place has
produced more 16th century Spanish artifacts than the entire rest of the
United States east of the Mississippi combined.
In Juan Pardo’s second expedition, while stopping on
his way to Coosa from Satapo (on the Little Tennessee River), he is told that
two days away is the town of Tasqui and beyond that Tasquiqui, and a town
called Olitifar that had been burned.
“Olitifar” can only be the Audobon site, and the
name in the Spanish chronicles is almost certainly a corruption of the Muscogee
Creek name Opelika, which was the post office in the vicinity of the later
Graysville, Georgia, after the Cherokee Removal until 1849. As in the
case of Running Water, Tennessee (now Whiteside), Opelika had been the Cherokee
name for their dispersed settlement in the East Brainerd-Graysville area.
De Luna’s expedition with the Coosa ended Late
Mississippian occupation of Audobon and the later Chickamauga. When
Pardo’s expedition passed thru East Tennessee on its way to Coosa, Opelika
clearly had not been reinhabited. Large scale habitation in the did not
reoccur in the Chickamauga-East Brainerd area until the American Revolution.
As for the Napochi, the French trader Charles
Levasseur lists a town by that name among the Upper Creek in 1700, and there
was also an Upper Creek town of Opelika.
Early historical
period
At the beginning of the 1700s, the immediate region
around Chattanooga-Hamilton County was largely deserted, except for its
periphery.
To the northeast, the Cherokee who had previously
inhabited only the towns of Great Tellico and Chatuga in the late 17th century
had moved into the Little Tennessee Valley and along the middle Hiwassee
River. Nearly all the towns of the Late Mississippian period such as
Coosa at Carter’s Lake in Murray County, Georgia, had been abandoned for a
century as those peoples moved west and became the founder of the Muscogee
Confederacy.
The Cisca (formerly of the Cumberland River and
before that on the Choctawhatchee River), a band of Yuchi, occupied the town of
Chestowee on the south bank of the lower Hiwassee River. Smaller settlements sat at Euchee Old Fields
in Rhea County and on Hiwassee Island at the confluence of the Hiwassee and
Tennessee Rivers. Contemporary maps call
them Tongoria.
Those Tuskegee (Tasquiqui) who had not migrated
northeast to join the Cherokee of the Overhill Towns on the Little Tennessee
River lived on the island which later bore their name before it became Browns
then Williams Island. The Tali lived on
Burns Island.
At some time between the journeys of Pardo and the 18th century,
the Coushatta lived along the Tennessee River at Nickajack, which derives the
Cherokee Ani-Kusati-yi, or Old Coushatta Place. Several witnesses from
the early 1700s place them at the head of Long Island, at the site of the
former large town of the Middle phase of the Mississippian period.
When first encountered by Europeans (De Soto’s
expedition), the Casqui dwelt in the lower Missouri Valley and were in constant
warfare with the Pacaha. By the French explorations of the Mississippi
Valley in the late 1600s, the Casqui had crossed the bigger river to live at
the mouth of the Tennessee River. In the early 1700s, known then by
the name Kaskinampo, they lived at the foot of Long Island and later merged
with the Coushatta.
Driven south by the chaos of the Beaver Wars, the
Chillicothe and Kispoko bands of Shawnee lived in the Cumberland Basin from the
mid-1600’s. However, a new influx of Shawnee from the Hathawekela band
formerly on the Savannah River into the region in the late 17th-early 18th centuries
threatened the balance of power. The Chickasaw and Cherokee therefore
joined forces to drive them out and had done so by 1729.
By agreement with the Cherokee, a group of Shawnee
from the Pekowi band moved to the Cumberland Basin in 1746, but the Chickasaw
drove them out by 1756. This helped precipitate the Cherokee-Chickasaw
War (1758-1769), which began during the French and Indian War (1754-1763),
which in turn included the Anglo-Cherokee War ( 1758-1761). The
Cherokee-Muscogee War (1753-1755) took place around the same time.
As a result of all these wars, the peoples living
along the Tennessee River below Chattanooga fled to other parts. The
Tuskegee and the Tali joined the Muscogee Creek Confederacy and became part of
the Upper Towns. The Coushatta, who had by then absorbed their Kaskinampo
neighbors, split, one part joining the Creek, another living in an independent
town called Coosada at the later Larkin’s Landing south of Scottsboro, Alabama.
During the French and Indian War, a party of Upper
Creek under Big Mortar had reoccupied the old town-site at Coosawattee in
support of the pro-French among the Cherokee, but after the latter’s defeat in
the Anglo-Cherokee War had abandoned it again.
Regarding the Yuchi in the lower Hiwassee Valley,
they deserted their towns in 1714 after a war party of Cherokee from Great
Hiwassee destroyed Chestowee. The Cherokee did so at the instigation of
two English traders named Long and Wiggan. After intervention by South
Carolina authorities, peace was almost immediately restored, but the survivng Yuchi
moved south to live along the upper Chickamauga, Conasauga, and Pinelog Creeks.
In the meantime, the French were intent on pressing
their claims to La Louisane against those of the Spanish to the northern
regions of La Florida and the English to Carolana (as opposed to Carolina), the
territory between the Carolinas and New Spain. At the Great Salt Lick on
the Cumberland River, they founded Fort Charleville in 1715, with a forward
post on Long Island between the Coushatta and Kaskinampo. These were
abandoned at the end of the French and Indian War.
The Cherokee-American
Wars, 1775-1795
The first engagements between Cherokee warriors and American
rebels against the crown took place in December 1775. Learning of an encampment of Loyalist militia
deep within the territory of the Lower Towns of the Cherokee, Col. Richard
Richardson of South Carolina sent 1300 Whig militia supported by Catawba scouts
to root them out. During this campaign,
only the Catawba scouts engaged with Cherokee warriors.
In 1776, a delegation of northern Indians led by
Cornstalk of the Shawnee (who by now had all gathered in the Ohio country)
visited with the Cherokee in the Overhill Towns on the Little Tennessee River,
convincing at least a part of them, mostly the younger warriors, to join the
fight against the colonials. The headman of Great Island Town, Dragging
Canoe, led the warriors who answered their call.
Dragging Canoe and his warriors fought as allies of
Great Britain as well as members of what later came to be the Western
Confederacy. The British war effort was aimed at keeping control of their
colonies. The nations of the Western Confederacy fought against encroachment
by settlers extending or leaving the colonies. The Cherokee’s foremost
Indian allies were the Upper Muscogee and the Shawnee.
In their plan of attack, warriors from the Middle,
Valley, and Out Towns of western North Carolina targeted the Carolinas and warriors
from the Lower Towns in northwest South Carolina-northeast Georgia targeted
those two colonies. The chief targets of the warriors from the Overhill
Towns were the settlements in the Districts of Washington (on the Watauga and
Nolichucky Rivers) and Pendelton (North-of-Holston and Carter’s
Valley). Because their plans were betrayed to the settlers by Nancy Ward,
the attacks proved disastrous for the Cherokee.
In the aftermath of the debacle, the militant
warriors and their families, not only from the Overhills but also from the
Middle, Valley, Out, and Lower Towns made the decision to relocate. The
Lower Towns were evacuated entirely, their former inhabitants shifting west to
North Georgia, where they founded new towns such as Conasauga, Ustanali, and
Etowah.
The Chickamauga
Towns
The region to which Dragging Canoe’s band relocated
was chosen at the suggestion of their Shawnee allies. In all there
were eleven “Chickamauga Towns” established in 1777. John McDonald,
assistant to Alexander Cameron, Britain’s Deputy Superintendent for Indian
Affairs (Superintendent at the time was John Stuart), had already transferred
to the area, where he ran a trading post and supply depot on the grounds that
later became Brainerd Mission. The post served as a relay station between
the British West Florida capital at Pensacola and the interior. Cameron
came with the Cherokee.
Four of the new towns lay along Chickamauga River (South
Chickamauga Creek), including the town of Chickamauga in the area of Brainerd
Heights-Wrinkletown across the stream from McDonald’s commissary where a branch
of the Great Indian Warpath crossed it. Upriver were Opelika in the East
Brainerd-Graysville area and Buffalo Town in the vicinity of Ringgold,
Georgia. Dowriver lay Toqua at its mouth
on the Tennessee River.
The Great Indian Warpath was the chief north-south
route travelled by Eastern Indians for centuries, from Mobile to
Newfoundland. Not a single trail but rather a network of trails, it
entered the Chattanooga region from the west over the lap of Lookout
Mountain. Once in Chattanooga Valley, it continued to the Mississippian
period (900-1600) site at the mouth of Citico Creek, where it split, the
northern branch along what became Chattanooga-Cleveland Pike (later Bonny Oaks
Drive) heading toward Dead Man’s (Julian) Gap past Ooltewah.
The southern branch headed across the valley,
ascending the west side of Missionary Ridge, where it forked again.
One fork went to the Shallow Ford (at Lakewood Memorial Gardens East), rejoining
the first northern route about where Jersey Pike intersects with Bonny Oaks
Drive. The other fork followed the later Bird’s Mill/Brainerd Road until
fording South Chickamauga Creek where Bird had his Mill. Once across the
Chickamauga, it kept to the route now followed by Chickamauga and Airport Roads
until intersecting with the trail from the Shallow Ford.
The Cherokee also occupied the prehistoric
sites at the mouth of Citico Creek and on Tuskegee (Williams) Island, Black Fox
(in Bradley County), Ooltewah, Sawtee (on North Chickamauga, or Laurel, Creek),
Chatanuga (St. Elmo), and Cayuga (on Hiwassee Island).
Along with Great Tellico and Chatuga, the towns
along the Hiwassee unanimously supported the dissidents. Some of the
Hiwassee people occupied the Coosawattee town-site as a base along with other
Cherokee.
Later referred to as Old Chickamauga Town, the chief
town’s headman was Big Fool, though Dragging Canoe made his headquarters
there. Because of this, the entire surrounding region became known as
Chickamauga, and the militant Cherokee often referred to as Chickamaugas,
though they were never at any time a separate tribe. The Chickamauga
Towns were nothing more than another group of Cherokee towns like the
Overhills, Middle, and Valley Towns.
In 1779, while Dragging Canoe and McDonald were
leading the Cherokee and 50 Loyalist Rangers in attacks on South Carolina and
Georgia, militia from the Upper East Tennessee settlements led by Evan Shelby
and John Montgomery attacked the area. They burned all eleven towns and
McDonald’s depot, destroyed much of their food stores, and confiscated what
they could carry.
After they were finished, they crossed the Tennessee
River and marched north until the trail crossed a large creek. Here, they
camped to divide the goods, putting the most prized up for auction. And
that’s how Sale Creek got its name.
The returning warriors and their families quickly
rebuilt their towns and they exchanged with their Shawnee allies contingents of
100 warriors each as a sign of faith.
In 1782, an expedition of frontiersmen under John
Sevier destroyed all the Chickamauga towns east of South Chickamauga Creek
south to Ustanali. However, all the towns were completely deserted
because the militant Cherokee had already transferred to new homes. The
area remained devoid of permanent habitation until the end of the wars.
It’s important to note that the expedition never
crossed South Chickamauga Creek and that there was no “Last Battle of the
Revolution” on the slopes of Lookout Mountain. That idea was ridiculed at
the time it first surfaced by no less than President Theodore Roosevelt and
came out of a real estate development scheme. Such a skirmish did, in
fact, take place, but later in 1788 rather than 1782, and it was the
frontiersmen who were routed rather than the Cherokee.
The Five Lower
Towns
The area to which the Cherokee relocated soon became
known as the Five Lower Towns, because initially there were five, though later
there were many more. The initial five included Running Water (at the
modern Whiteside), Nickajack, Stecoyee (at Trenton, Georgia), Long Island, and
Crow Town at the mouth of Crow Creek on the Tennessee.
Some of the later Lower Towns were Willstown (near
Ft. Payne, Alabama), Turkeytown (near Centre, Alabama), Creek Path (near
Guntersville, Alabama), Turnip Town (7 miles from Rome, Georgia), and Chatuga
(at the site of Rome).
As his headquarters, Dragging Canoe chose Running
Water. Its headman was Bloody Fellow, who was later succeeded by
Turtle-at-Home, Dragging Canoe’s brother. Cameron and McDonald, now
Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent, also made Running Water their base of
operations. Not long after their move, their frontier antagonists began
referring to them as the Lower Cherokee rather than as Chickamaugas.
After the Treaty of Paris in 1783, McDonald, by then
Superintendent, relocated his own base of operations to Turkeytown to be closer
to his newly-acquired Spanish supply lines to Pensacola. Spain still had
ambitions on inland La Florida.
Dragging Canoe died in 1792, and John Watts
succeeded him as leader of the Lower Cherokee, moving his base to
Willstown. The Nickajack Expedition in September 1794, led by James
Robertson and composed of U.S. Army regulars, Mero District (Middle Tennessee)
militia, and Kentucky volunteers, became a massacre which forced an end to the
Chickamauga Wars with the Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse in November.
Cherokee Nation
East
In the years after the wars, the Cherokee were once
again divided into five groups of towns: the Lower Towns, with their seat at
Willstown; the Upper Towns, with their seat at Ustanali; the Overhills, with
their seat at Chota; the Hill Towns, with their seat at Qualla; and the Valley
Towns, with their seat at Tuskquitee. True, there was a National Council
that met regularly at Ustanali, but the real power was in the regional councils
until 1809.
The former Chickamauga towns were quickly
reinhabited after the wars, including Toqua, Opelika, and, of course,
Chickamauga, which was the most important. These reoccupied settlements
were grouped among the Lower Towns of the Cherokee. Tuskegee moved from
the island into what is now Wauhatchie, Tiftonia, or Lookout Valley.
A Cherokee named John Jolly was headman of Cayuga
town on Hiwassee Island, which was called Jolly’s Island for decades after the
Cherokee Removal. His adopted son Sam Houston lived there for a time.
Several notable Cherokee made their homes in the
East Brainerd-Graysville area, among them one of the Fields brothers and
Alexander McCoy, secretary of the National Committee. The farms were
strung out mostly along Mackey Branch, which they called Tsula Creek.
The Cherokee who lived there called their strung-out
settlement Opelika, after the town which stood at the Elise Chapin Wildlife
Sanctuary at Audobon Acres site until burned by Juan Pardo’s Spanish troops and
their Coosa allies in 1560. The settlement included a stick-ball court
where Heritage Park is now.
Besides Chickamauga and Opelika, there was another
settlement along Hurricane Creek in the Parker’s Gap and Rabbit Valley
neighborhood.
In 1805, the federal government built a road from
Athens, Georgia, to Nashville, Tennessee that passed through Ross Gap north
into Chattanooga Valley. John McDonald, who had returned to his former
trading post to operate a farm, built a house and trading post in the gap and
made his residence there. His house still exists, mistakenly called the
Chief John Ross House. In fact, John Ross never lived there.
Coming south from Old Washington in Rhea County, the
post road from Knoxville crossed at Vann’s Ferry, between the later Dallas and
what would become Harrison. From Harrison, it followed Hickory Valley
Road south until reaching the later point where Altamede later was built, then
crossed from the west side of the valley to the east. From there, it
followed Concord Road to the South Chickamauga, crossing at Lomenick’s
Ferry. On the other side, it followed the route of Frawley and Scruggs
Roads until connecting to the Federal Road.
The regional councils were abolished in 1809 and the
National Council given real authority as the national government of the
Cherokee. The office of Principal Chief likewise gained more authority
and recognition.
In 1817, the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions had established a mission on McDonald’s farm on the South
Chickamauga. The mission included a school for both male and female
students, a grist mill somewhat upstream, and a church officially called the
Church of Christ at Chickamauga, while the facility as a whole was called
Brainerd Mission.
The road from Ross’ Landing on the Tennessee to the
new mission became known as Brainerd’s Road, and from there following what is
now East Brainerd Road and Graysville Pike down to what was then the Federal
Road (now US 41).
Hamilton County was formed out of Rhea County in
1819, comprised of the modern county north of the Tennessee. Its seat was
the town of Dallas, which lay where Chester Frost Park is now, at the point
where the post road from Old Washington in Rhea crossed at Vann’s Ferry.
Real governmental reform came to the Cherokee Nation
in 1820, with the establishment of a bicameral legislature, with a National
Committee as the upper house and the National Council as the lower house.
In addition, the Cherokee Nation was divided up into eight judicial and
legislative districts. Most importantly, government was centered at a new
capital named New Echota, freshly built upon the former town of Conasauga in
the Calhoun, Georgia area.
Everything in the counties of Hamilton and Marion Counties
south of the Tennessee River and Ooltewah Creek, most of Northwest Georgia, and
a tip of Northeast Alabama east of the Tennessee fell into the Chickamauga
District, including the last capital of the Cherokee Nation East at Red
Clay. Its seat was not, as one might think, at the town of Chickamauga,
but at Crawfish Springs, where the Georgia town of Chickamauga has been since
1891. Each district had its own judge and court and its own legislative
delegation.
The judge for the Chickamauga District was John
Brown, owner of Brown’s Tavern, Brown’s Ferry, and Brown’s Landing (some
distance upriver from the ferry). Judge Brown owned most of Moccasin Point
as well as Tuskegee Island, which came to be called Brown’s Island. After
the treaty of 1819 which ceded the land north of the Tennessee River upon which
Hamilton County was founded, Brown maintained a 640-acre reserve on Moccasin Point
which he later sold to Ephraim Hixon.
Judge Brown became one of the Old Settlers in the
1820s, those Cherokee who voluntarily removed westward long before forced
removal became a question. In 1839, he served for a few months as
Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West.
The first post office in the region, even before
Hamilton County (created in 1819 out of Rhea County and at the time comprised
only the territory north of the river) had one, was called Rossville in
1927. It ran out of John McDonald’s trading post along the Federal Road,
with Joseph Coody as postmaster, then Nicholas Scales, before it transferred to
the mission and became Brainerd. That post office ceased existence in
1838 when the U.S. Army began rounding up Cherokee for removal and the mission
closed.
Without getting into the politics of it, there
were two concentration camps in Hamilton County for Cherokee awaiting
Removal. The largest was near Ross’ Landing and was called Camp Cherokee;
it was located where the current Scrappy Moore Field and Manker-Patten Tennis
Courts are now. The other was Camp Clanewaugh at Indian Springs (at
Parkwood Nursing Home). The soldiers were housed at Fort Wood, located
where the school building now housing Chattanooga School for the Arts and
Sciences is.
Between the
Cherokee Removal and the War
After the Removal was complete, people hungry for
land poured across the Tennessee River to lay claim to plots in what surveyors
called the Ocoee District. This included everything in Bradley and Polk
Counties, and Hamilton and Marion Counties south of the river.
The seat of Hamilton County moved from Dallas north
of the river to Vannsville south of it in 1839, which became Harrison in 1840.
Soon after frontierspeople or less adventurous
settlers moved into a new area, they often continued referring to it by the
names its previous inhabitants had used, such as Opelika for the later Graysville,
Georgia, and Running Water for the later Whiteside. Chattanooga derived
from the name of a Cherokee settlement in the Saint Elmo area.
The name Chickamauga disappeared from Georgia when
citizens of that state began pouring lands distributed by the Georgia
Lottery. However, when the citizens of Walker County first met they did
so in the former courthouse of the Chickamauga District, before the county seat
was moved to the city of Lafayette.
Though it disappeared entirely from Georgia, the new
incomers in Tennessee applied the name Chickamauga to churches, post offices,
and communities due to the prestige of those who carried out the Cherokee
resistance. This began even before the Removal when Ephraim Hixon
supervised a post office north of the Tennessee called North Chickamauga in the
early 1830’s.
When people began to settle in what had been Old
Chickamauga Town, the community there came to be known as Vinegar Hill.
Downstream, at the mouth of Chickamauga River/South
Chickamauga Creek on the Tennessee River, the land east and south the
confluence of the two rivers for an undefined distance took on the name
Toqua. It was so named after the
Cherokee settlement there before the Removal, which itself occupied the site of
the Dragging Canoe era town of the same name.
John D. King, brother-in-law to Thomas Crutchfield, owner of Amnicola on
the left side of Chickamauga River, also called his home and farm by the
name. The name stuck until 1884, when it
was taken over by King’s Point.
Unquestionably, the greatest landowner in Hamilton
County east of South Chickamauga Creek was Col. Lewis Shepherd, who built a
mansion he named Altamede on the west side of Hickory Valley and owned 6400
adjacent acres plus numerous detached plots. Altamede stood inside the
circle formed by Dupree Road and Mary Dupree Drive until 1977. Col.
Shepherd chose the point at which the post road, later stage road, turned to
cross the valley, establishing a post office called Hickory Valley there in
1840.
The first Baptist Church in Hamilton County was
founded in April 1838 called Good Springs Baptist after the Silverdale
Springs. It was established on land donated by Col. Shepherd across the
main road from what later became the village of Tyner.
Some five months later, a second Baptist Church was
founded, next to Taliaferro Spring near what became Kings Point, and named
Chickamauga Baptist.
At the afore-mentioned Silverdale Springs was a
campground shared by both Cumberland Presbyterians and Methodists was called Cumberland
Camp Ground at least through the Civil War. In 1839, the first group
organized Chickamauga Cumberland Presbyterian. Five years later, the
Methodists built House’s Chapel at the campgrounds.
Though his main residence was in McLemore’s Cove in
Walker County, Georgia, Philemon Bird bought the old mission and all its
“improvements”, including the Missionary Mill, which was on West Chickamauga
Creek. The grounds of the mission became a farm, while Bird constructed a
larger mill on South Chickamauga Creek closer to the main road, which now
became known as Bird’s Mill Road. In addition to being renamed, the road
extended further eastward well into the heart of Concord community.
The richest man in the Concord community after Col.
Shepherd was Anderson S. Wilkins, whose mansion stood where the I-75/East
Brainerd Road cloverleaf is now.
According church records, unorganized Baptists began
meeting in a small log cabin in 1838 which doubled as a school house. In
1848, they formally organized as the Baptist Church of Christ at Concord and
moved into their new building on land donated by Mr. Wilkins. The church and Concord School continued until
1863.
Before the War, there was another establishment in
Concord of the type euphemistically called a meeting house, at approximately
the spot where East Brainerd Church of Christ now stands. In reality, it
was a tavern, but more like a community pub than a dive.
In the Opelika community, which straddled the
state-line, Methodists had been meeting periodically since William Blackwell
made his home in 1832 at what is now Council Fire subdivision and golf
course. In 1849, his son Lyndsey, whose house stood at what is now the
corner of Julian and Davidson Roads, donated a parcel of land upon which to
build a church, which became Blackwell’s Chapel Methodist.
The same year, Opelika became the home of one of the
most important industrialists in its history, as well as that of city of
Chattanooga, the state of Georgia, and the railroad industry in the
South. By 1849, John D. Gray’s company had built or been involved in
nearly all of the railroads built in Georgia. He moved his family to
Opelika while he was building the section of the Western & Atlantic
Railroad between Dalton and Chattanooga, even before his company had started
the tunnel through Cheetoogeta Mountain.
Naturally, the stop at Opelika was named Graysville,
which became the name of its post office as well as of the company town which
Gray proceeded to build. Gray Mining and Manufacturing eventually
operated a lime mine and kiln, a furniture factory, a barrel factory, and a
gristmill. In 1850, the tunnel through Cheetoogeta Mountain was completed,
as well as the rail line to the city of Chattanooga.
The first station in Hamilton County on the line coming
from Graysville, Georgia, was built in an area known to residents as Pull
Tight. At first, the depot and its post office were named Finley, after the
former owner of the land on which it was built.
In honor of local history, however, the stop soon adopted the name
Chickamauga.
In the meantime, the community of Poe’s Crossroads (now
Daisy) on the right/north side of Tennessee River voted to adopt the name
Chickamauga that same year.
A village quickly grew up around Chickamauga Depot, and
by the Civil War it contained the Finley General Store, Ellis Bros. General
Store, a grocery, and a saloon. The post office contributed to use of the
name Chickamauga for the local area well into the 20th century.
The W&A line into Chattanooga crossed the South
Chickamauga beyond Chickamauga Station, and the point on the west bank at which
it crossed the Harrison Turnpike became home to Boyce Station. A
thriving village whose industries relied on water power soon sprang up.
The point at which Bird’s Mill Road crossed the
tracks of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in Vinegar Hill came to be known
as Ellis’ Crossing, a name locals used interchangeably with the former for the
local community into the late 19th century,
One of the early leaders of Hamilton County after
its organization in 1819 was Samuel T. Igou, who among other enterprises owned
a ferry across the Tennessee. After the Removal, he made his home in
Rabbit Valley at the foot of Whiteoak Ridge near Igou Gap, the next gap north
of Parker’s Gap. In 1851, local
inhabitants founded West View Cumberland Presbyterian upon land that Igou
donated, naming their church after his large farm. They had previously
been holding meetings at Chickamauga Campground, which later became Ryall
Springs.
Henry Massengale donated a plot of land in the village
of Boyce on the west bank of the South Chickamauga to Chickamauga Baptist
Church in 1856. The church was across the turnpike from the station,
between the railroad and the creek.
John D. Gray finished construction of the
Chattanooga-Cleveland link (officially called the Chattanooga Extension
Railroad) to the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad in 1858. The
station in the community of Good Spring took the name Tyner after the railroad
engineer who built it. At the time the war broke out, Tyner was also home
to Varnell General Store, Rawlings General Store, Springfield Bros. Grocery,
and a saloon.
Gray’s plans for the Harrison-Lafayette Railroad
were interrupted, permanently it turned out, by the advent of the Civil War,
robbing Concord community of the Johnson whistle-stop which had been planned
for it (though it did serve the U.S. Military Railroad during the war).
Gray was also instrumental, by the way, in construction of the Nashville &
Chattanooga, Memphis & Charleston, and Wills Valley Railroads into
Chattanooga.
The War of the
Rebellion
In this section, keep in mind that the Army of
Tennessee named for the state is Confederate, while the Army of the Tennessee
named for the river is Union.
Men of the Fifth District of Hamilton County, which
then covered Chickamauga, Tyner, and Concord, made up significant parts of five
Confederate units and one Union unit.
PACS = Provisional Army of the Confederate States
ACSA = Army of the Confederate States of America
PAT = Provisional Army of Tennessee
Confederate
Bird
Rangers, Tennessee Cavalry organized under
Capt. John F. White at Knoxville on 24 August 1861, with men from the Fifteenth
Civil District of Hamilton County (southeast corner, east of Ooltewah Creek),
Tennessee, North Georgia, and North Alabama.
On 7 January 1862, it became Co. F, (Roger’s) 1st
Tennessee Cavalry, PACS. On 12 August 1862, it became Co. A, 13th
Tennessee Cavalry Battalion, PACS. On 16 December 1862, it became Co. A,
(McKenzie’s) 5th Tennessee Cavalry, PACS.
On 9 April 1865, the regiment was with Hampton’s
Cavalry Command, but surrendered with the Army of Tennessee as part of
Wheeler’s Cavalry Corps at Durham Station, North Carolina, on 26 April 1865.
Co.
H, 1st East Tennessee Rifles, PAT,
organized under Capt. Isaac B. Nichols in Hamilton Co. Tennessee, in August or
September 1861 with men from the Fifth and Fifteenth Civil Districts (southeast
corner, Concord, Chickamauga, Tyner, Zion Hill) and from North Georgia.
On 26 October 1861, it was redesignated Co. H, 7th
Tennessee Infantry as part of a temporary brigade under Brig. Gen. William H.
Carroll, the regiment’s former commanding officer. In December 1861, the unit’s designation was
changed to Co. H, 37th Tennessee Infantry, PACS. On 9 June 1863, the 37th
Tennessee Infantry consolidated with the 15th Tennessee Infantry as the
15th/37th Tennessee Infantry. On 28 September 1864, the 15th/37th
Tennessee Infantry was consolidated with other regiments as the 2nd/10th/15th/20th/30th/37th
Tennessee Infantry.
At the end of the war, the unit was part of the 4th
Consolidated Tennessee Infantry (2nd, 3rd, 10th, 15th, 18th, 20th, 26th,
30th, 32nd, 37th, 45th regiments), which surrendered under Lt. Alexander P.
Stewart at Durham Station, North Carolina, 26 April 1865.
Tyner’s
Company, Tennessee Cavalry organized at Tyner
under Capt. John S. Tyner with men from Tyner, Harrison, and Ooltewah in
Hamilton County, Tennessee.
On 1 April 1862, the company joined with three other
Tennessee companies, two Alabama companies, and Major Henry Clay King’s
Kentucky Cavalry Battalion as the (2nd) Co. K, 1st Confederate Cavalry, ACSA
(also known as 12th Confederate Cavalry) organized at Spring Creek, Madison
County, Tennessee. Ultimately it became part of Wheeler’s Cavalry Corps,
then was detached from the regiment as Tyner’s Company of Sappers and
Miners.
The company later transferred to Forrest’s Cavalry
Corps, PACS, and surrendered under Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest at
Gainesville, Alabama, 9 May 1865.
Lookout
Battery, Tennessee Light Artillery, also known
as Barry’s Company, organized under Capt. Robert L. Barry at Chattanooga on 15
May 1862 with men from Hamilton Co., Tennessee. Attached to several
brigades and sometimes operating independently, on 12 June 1864, it became part
of Myrick’s Artillery Battalion.
It surrendered under Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor as part
of his Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana on 4 May 1865.
Osborne’s
Scouts organized under Capt. Thomas Osborne in what
was then the Fifth Civil District, Hamilton Co., Tennessee (Spring Creek,
Concord, Vinegar Hill, Chickamauga, Tyner), in 1863. The unit operated in
the Appalachian Mountains under the Department of East Tennessee, Southwest
Virginia, and Western North Carolina.
Their staunchest foe was the 3rd North Carolina
Mounted Infantry, USA, commanded by Col. George Kirk made up of western North
Carolinians, East Tennesseans, and 25-30 Cherokee Indians from the Eastern
Band, probably from Cheoah Town.
When Osborne was killed in June 1864 during a raid
by Kirk’s 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, the unit became known as Jenkins’
Scouts after its new leader, Capt. Lafayette Jenkins, operating into the
spring of 1865. Jenkins’ Scouts surrendered under Gen. Joe Johnston as
part of the Division of the West.
Union
Co.
C, 5th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, USA,
organized under Capt. Charles McCaleb at Harrison, Hamilton Co., Tennessee on
25 February 1862 with Unionists from all over the county but mostly from its
southeast regions, Harrison, Tyner, Chickamauga, Concord, Zion Hill, and
Ooltewah. It mustered into service 28 March 1862 and mustered out 4 April
1865.
The Chattanooga
Campaign
This series of actions began with the shelling of
Chattanooga on 21 August 1863 and ended with the Battle of Ringgold Gap on 27
November 1863, and included the two biggest and bloodiest engagements of the
Western Theater, the Battle of the Chickamauga (Battle of Mud Flats to the
Confedrates) and the Battle of Chattanooga.
The War effected the Chickamauga, Tennessee
community only indirectly before 1863, at least in terms of destruction from
combat. Both railroad bridges over the South Chickamauga (of the Western
& Atlantic and the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroads) were burned in
November 1861, and a Confederate guerrilla group first known as Osborne’s
Scouts and later as Jenkins’ Scouts operated in the general area through at
least part of the war.
The first two redoubts guarded Tyner Station, the
second two Chickamauga Station, which was also protected by another redoubt on
the hill to the north of it. In addition, one of the brigades of
Cleburne’s Division built the redoubt guarding the county seat of Harrison.
Silverdale Confederate Cemetery contains the graves
of around 155 soldiers who died in field hospitals in the area while the
(Confederate) Army of the Mississippi stayed in the area 23 July-28 August
1862.
In the summer of 1863, the Army of Tennessee
(redesignated from the Army of the Mississippi) stayed in the area from 4 July
to 9 September. During this time, Maj. Gen. Pat Cleburne’s Division
built a number of redoubts in the area, one of which still stands in the former
village of Tyner. Three others formerly stood on Tyner Hill where the
middle school is now, on Stein Hill exactly where the water tower stands, and
on Dupree Hill where Grace Works Church is now.
Meanwhile, Forrest’s Cavalry Corps was headquartered
at Bird’s Mill.
It was during this time that Cleburne and several
others met at Gray’s Mill to form the fraternal Comrades of the Southern
Cross. This order became the forerunner of the United Confederate
Veterans, parent of the later Sons of Confederate Veterans.
When Union general Wilder’s forces began shelling
Chattanooga 21 August 1863 and attacking isolated landings and hamlets from
Dallas to Old Washington in Rhea County, Bragg sent Cleburne’s Division to
cover all the fords and ferries on the Tennessee River from the mouth of South
Chickamauga to the Hiwassee River.
To help the beleaguered Army of Tennessee, Joe
Johnston, general commanding of the Department of the West, sent two divisions
to supplement its forces. Walker’s
Division arrived 27 August and was sent to Chickamauga Station. Breckenridge’s Division arrived 2 September
and was sent to Tyner’s Station.
In the retreat of the Army of Tennessee from the
area on 7 September, Bragg sent the army’s newly created Reserve Corps, William
Walker commanding, and Buckner’s Corps down the road to Ringgold via
Graysville, right through the heart of the modern East Brainerd.
Highlighting the extent to which the name
Chickamauga had disappeared from Georgia, the Confederates called the
engagement which took place near Crawfish Springs in 1863 the Battle of Mud
Flats, following their habit of naming battles by the nearest community.
The Union, on the other hand, tended to name battles after nearby streams and
called it the Battle of the Chickamauga, referring to West Chickamauga Creek.
During the siege of the Army of the Cumberland by
the Army of Tennessee between the Battles of Mud Flats (of the Chickamauga) and
of Chattanooga, the single-most important supply station for the Confederates
was at Chickamauga Station. Tyner Station served primarily as a departure
point for troops joining the siege of the Army of the Ohio at Knoxville.
What most people don’t know about the action on 25
November 1863 is that the charge by the Army of the Cumberland which drove the
Army of Tennessee from Missionary Ridge was supposed to be a feint. It
was intended to relieve Sherman’s augmented 15th Corps of the Army of the
Tennessee, which had been repeatedly driven back by Cleburne’s Division at the
north end of the ridge called Tunnel Hill. To the end of the war,
Cleburne’s “Blue Flag Division” carried a banner with “Tunnel Hill, Tn.” as one
of its victories.
The first post-Missionary Ridge engagement occurred
that evening, between forward elements of
Philip Sheridan’s 2nd Division of the 4th Corps of
the Army of the Cumberland and unknown elements of the Army of Tennessee,
including artillery.
After leaving the ridge, Sheridan’s division
followed the trail over the ridge well past nightfall. In that time, Bird’s Mill Road followed
Talley Road until it veered north, then ran down what is now Old Mission Road
(referring to the former Brainerd Mission).
At the point where the road ran over Gillespie Hill in the Sunnyside
area of Brainerd, Confederates from the rearguard had set up a number of cannon
and a line of infantry, which slowed Sheridan’s pursuit enough that he and his
division had to stop for the night at Bird’s Mill and the old mission.
* * * * *
The next day, 26 November 1863, was by coincidence
the first national Thanksgiving Day of those institutionalized to be celebrated
annually on the last Thursday (fourth Thursday of November since FDR) of
November. Its institution as a national
holiday superceded Evacuation Day on 25 November, the commemoration of the day
in 1783 when the British army pulled out of New York City and Washington led
the Continental Army into it.
The vanguard of the Union pursuit was Brig. Gen.
Jefferson C. Davis’ 2nd Division of the 12th Corps of the Army of the
Cumberland. Behind him came the 11th
Corps of the Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. Oliver Howard (for whom
Howard High School and Howard Elementary are named). When he learned from scouts the troops of the
Confederate reaguard were the Kentuckians of Lewis’ Brigade, Davis made his 1st
Brigade under James D. Morgan, also Kentuckians, the forward element of his
division.
The first encounter between the two opposing units
of Kentuckians took place at a hill north of Chickamauga Station, the same
which Polk’s Brigade of Cleburne’s Division had held the day before guarding
the rear. After a brief skirmish, the
Confederate Kentuckians withdrew to Chickamauga Station, where soldiers of
Maney’s and Gist’s Brigade were vainly attempting to burn everything while
stuffing as much food as they could wherever they could.
When Morgan’s Brigade reached the outskirts of
Chickamauga around high noon, the Orphan Brigade covered the withdrawal of
their comrades in the second encounter of the day. Once Maney’s and Gist’s Brigades were gone,
the Orphans withdrew to Milliken Ridge.
On two knobs on Milliken Ridge, Dupree Hill to the
north and Stein Hill on the south, soldiers of Cleburne’s Division had built
two redoubts overlooking the station that summer . Here, the Orphans made their third stand
against their fellow Kentuckians, then withdrew.
The fourth and final stand of the Orphan Brigade
that day took place in Hickory Valley, which at that point ran between Milliken
Ridge on the west and Concord Ridge to the east. In this, the Orphans held postions on the
ridgeside while Morgan’s troops dug in along Hickory Creek, which the Union commanders
dubbed Shepherd’s Run. Margaret
Shepherd, widow of Col. Lewis Shepherd and mother of late Judge Lewish
Shepherd, came out from Altamede (the Shepherd mansion patterned after James
Vann’s Diamond Hill) to scold the Union soldiers for ruining her
flowerbeds. When the Orphans withdrew
again, probably along Igou Road, Davis gave the soldiers of Morgan’s Brigade a
break.
* * * * *
While this was going on, Howard moved his corps to
the left of Davis’ division to sweep wide and prevent straggling Confederates
from escaping. To cover his own left
flank, Howard used the 55th Ohio Volunteers (2nd Brigade, 2nd Division) under
Capt. Charles B. Gambee. Gambee and his
troops encountered the Orphan Brigade’s 4th Kentucky Infantry under Col. Thomas
Thompson at Tyner’s Station. After a
brief encounter from which their opponents swiftly withdrew, the 55th Ohio
captured a 1st lieutenant, four privates, and two teamsters. Howard then moved the corps south down the
valley roughly along what’s now known as Silverdale and Gunbarrel Roads.
* * * * *
The largest engagement of the day, and one which
could definitely be called a proper battle, due to the number of soldiers
involved, took place in Concord, or East Brainerd proper. From the descriptions in various letters and
reports of the commanders, this battle can only have taken place east of
Concord Ridge, near Mackey Branch. Sam
Watkins of “Co. Aytch” in Maney’s Brigade refers to the stream as Cat Creek
while the Union officers called it Shepherd’s Run under the mistaken impression
it was the same as Hickory Creek.
Several references to the encounter’s proximity to
Graysville, Georgia (“about a mile”) leave no other option. The
Union Army Cyclopedia of Battles, in fact, gives its location as
Graysville, but it was clearly a bit north of there.
Facing their opponents across the creek and fields
from a stretch of woods in hastily built rifle pits and breastworks, Maney’s
Brigade lined up in what they thought was going to be a suicidal last stand
facing Davis’ division. At the last
moment before the battle, units of Grigsby’s Brigade (its three Kentucky
regiments) appeared, and settled down to fight alongside Maney’s troops
dismounted. They were supported by one
of the Mississippi field artillery units, most likely (by process of
elimination) Stanford’s Mississippi Battery.
Seeing the opposition, Davis sent forward his 2nd
and 3rd Brigades under Brig. Gen. John Beatty and Col. Daniel McCook
respectively. Supporting them from
Concord Ridge were guns from Battery I of the 2nd Illinois Light
Artillery. Davis kept Morgan’s
Kentuckians in reserve. After the
engagement had begun, Howard’s 11th Corps arrived from the north. Howard sent his 2nd Division under Brig. Gen.
Adolph Steinwehr to Davis’ right and put his 3rd Division under Maj. Gen. Carl
Schurz in reserve.
The fight lasted but an hour as darkness was
falling, and at dusk the Confederates gratefully withdrew. Brig. Gen. Maney was severely wounded in this
encounter and remained out of action until returning to command a division
under Hardee during the Atlanta Campaign.
The next day, of course, Bragg’s army retreated to
Dalton through Taylor’s Gap, with Cleburne’s Division successfully holding the
narrow passage against those of Hooker’s Corps.
* * * * *
That winter, the Army of the Cumberland wintered in
and around Chattanooga, including the eastern Chickamauga Valley. Several
churches found themselves appropriated as hospitals, including Concord Baptist
and Cumberland Baptist, both subsequently burned. In Concord, many of the
Union dead were buried in what was then Wells Gray’s front yard, right about
the spot where the Kimsey house now stands.
The forward base camp of the Department of the
Cumberland remained in Chattanooga through 1866, first as the Post of
Chattanooga, then as the District of the Etowah, and finally as the District of
East Tennessee.
As part of its improvements and upgrades, the
Pioneer Brigade, the Cumberland’s combat engineers, constructed a junction of
the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad with the Western & Atlantic
Railroad just west of where the two crossed the South Chickamauga Creek. From thence, when heading west, trains went
through the Missionary Ridge Tunnel going into the town of Chattanooga. Its builders named it Chickamauga Junction.
As part of the defenses of the railroads,
particularly the bridges, several blockhouses were contructed on the
Chattanooga to Nashville line and the Chattanooga to Cleveland line.
Post-war
developments
Like everywhere that the war had touched, the
Hamilton County area needed time to recover, and Chickamauga, Tennessee was no
exception.
Since the post office of the southern Chickamauga
had been discontinued with Union occupation, the residents of the Chickamauga
community in the north (the former Poe’s Crossroads) had adopted the name
Chickamauga for their new post office in 1866.
In 1867, a new church had been built in the village (as opposed to the wider
community) of Chickamauga called Chickamauga Chapel Baptist. Since the name Chickamauga was already taken,
the post office at this location, revived this same year, became Chickamauga
Station.
Concord and Chickamauga Baptist Churches were
rebuilt in 1869, the first in its former location and the second back on the
east side of the South Chickamauga at Thrower Springs, in the neighborhood then
called Flint Hill. Concord School resumed sessions the same year.
The formerly thriving community of Boyce had been
entirely destroyed by the war. Its
station was rebuilt five miles closer to Chattanooga, and the community that
grew up around it at first incorporated as Boyce, later becoming the town of
East Chattanooga. At the site of Old
Boyce, the Western & Atlantic built a depot named Kings Bridge in the later
19th century, around which a tin community grew.
In 1871, greater Chickamauga, Tennessee became the
easternmost section of Hamilton County when everything to the east seceded
(legally) as James County. The new county line fell just west of Summit
and at the state-line came to Blackwell’s Ford just west of Graysville,
Georgia, which gave it a sliver of Concord.
The previous year the county seat had been moved
from Harrison to Chattanooga, and the former seat went with the new county
hoping to retain its status. Unfortunately for that town, the citizens of
James County chose the town of Ooltewah as its seat.
Also in 1871, Afro-American children in the greater
Chickamauga community gained a venue for their education when Chickamauga
School was established on Chickamauga Road half a mile south of the depot and
village on land now occupied by Whispering Pines Mobile Homes.
After the war, John D. Gray had returned to
Graysville and rebuilt many of his industries, including Gray’s Mill.
Soon, the community and the neighboring Concord thrived. To be closer to
its congregation, the members of Blackwell’s Chapel moved their church to the
town and became Graysville Methodist in 1873.
In 1876, Chickamauga Cumberland Presbyterian changed
its name to Pleasant Grove in order to match that of the school which had been
meeting there for the previous two years.
In 1878, Hamilton County established a school on the
property of Dr. Joseph Mackey where Heritage Park is now, which became known as
Mackie School.
Also in 1878, the community of Chickamauga north of
the Tennessee River changed its name and that of its post office to Melville,
so the name of the Chickamauga Station post office reverted to just plain
Chickamauga.
House’s Chapel moved to its present location and
became Tyner Methodist in 1880.
The East Tennessee, Virginia, & Georgia Railway
established Jersey Station couple of miles west of Tyner at about the place
where Jersey Pike crosses the tracks. The land was purchased from the
estate of Capt. C.S. Peak named Bonny Oaks. Sometime later the same
railroad built McCarty Station on the west bank of the South Chickamauga at the
end of its bridge near Lightfoot’s Mill.
West of the South Chickamauga along Bird’s Mill
Road, communities grew up around the Sunnyside farm of Judge James B. Cooke, the
Belvoir farm of Col. W.R. Crabtree, and the Dutchtown dairy of Jacob
Kellerhals. Towards the end of the 19th century, a village grew up
just north of these called Hornville.
The Flint Hill School which Chickamauga Baptist was
sharing quarters with burned down in 1888, and the church began meeting in
Kings Point School. The Kings Point village had just recently been built
by John King, owner of the Toqua plantation on the east bank of the South
Chickamauga across from the Amnicola plantation of the Crutchfield
family. Chickamauga Baptist now served both communities of Kings Point
and Jersey.
Walnut Grove School, direct antecedent of the modern
East Brainerd School, began classes at its original location on what’s now
South Gunbarrel Road in 1889. Walnut Grove superceded Concord as the name for the community shortly thereafter.
In the same year, Pleasant Grove Cumberland
Presbyterian got a close neighbor with the founding of Silverdale Baptist.
Also, Chickamauga Quarry and Construction began
operations; Vulcan Materials of Louisiana bought it in 1956.
The year 1890 was pivotal for the Chattanooga region
and for the wider Chickamauga community of Hamilton County. In that year,
a bilateral group of Union and Confederate veterans obtained a charter for a
national military park at the battlefield in Walker County upon which so many
from both sides died 19-20 September 1863. Since Union veterans from the
Society of the Army of the Cumberland had taken the lead, it became Chickamauga
Battlefield, which has a better ring than Mud Flats.
In 1891, the Chattanooga, Rome, & Columbus
Railroad built a station near the small village of Crawfish Springs which it
named Chickamauga, despite the much older like-named station still operating on
what was by then the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railroad. At
the same time, the village of Crawfish Springs incorporated itself as
Chickamauga, Georgia.
A railroad engineer named W.T. Worley, who lived in
Concord community in a house he named Worleyanna where the old tavern had
stood, laid out the streets for a new village near Ellis’ Crossing in 1897 as
well as a post office and whistle-stop on the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St.
Louis Railway. Both took his name, in the form of Whorley, as did the
local Masonic lodge organized at Concord Baptist. Whorley Lodge survived
much longer.
Though the original Chickamauga Station continued
operating under that name well into the 20th century, its post office
changed its name to Shepherd P.O. in 1898.
In that year, the residents of Lizard Lope east of
Concord frustrated with the distance to Walnut Grove School, which had replaced
the more centrally-located Mackie School, started Morris Hill School, so named
for the family which donated the land.
The following year, 1899, Chickamauga Baptist moved
out of Kings Point School to a new home at the corner of Harrison Turnpike and
Shot Hollow Road. At the other end of the latter road, close to its
intersection with the road between Tyner and Harrison, an Afro-American farming
community had grown up under the name Shot Hollow.
On Hickory Valley Road north of
Chattanooga-Cleveland Pike (now Bonny Oaks Drive), lay another Afro-American
community called Hawkinsville. On the Tyner-Harrison Road was an
Afro-American community called Black Belt.
Directly north of Shot Hollow, along the Tennessee
River, was the incorporated Afro-American town of Turkey Foot, which had its
own churches, businesses, town hall, and public school. The land was
previously owned by the Shepherds of Altamede.
The 20th century
At the dawn of the 20th century, Jim Crow was
in full force across the South and school segregation was the law in
Tennessee. Turkey Foot School was
for Afro-American children, as were the long-established Chickamauga School
(Colored), Magby Pond School, Tyner School (Colored), and Harrison School (Colored).
For white children, there were Walnut Grove School,
Tyner School, Silverdale School, Kings Point School, Jersey School, and
Harrison School, most of them one-room.
In 1902, Chickamauga Chapel Baptist became
Chickamauga Station Baptist.
Chickamauga School (for white children) opened in 1904,
built on land donated by James B. Boyd on Middleton Road, the main road of
Boyd’s Addition to Chickamauga.
Also in 1904, Rural Free Delivery (RFD) service out of Whorley P.O began.
Also in 1904, Rural Free Delivery (RFD) service out of Whorley P.O began.
The region’s first secondary school was Tyner High
School, built on top of one of Cleburne’s redoubts in 1906. It added 7th and
8th grades in 1932.
In 1907, the Afro-American community of Hawkinsville along Hickory Valley Road north of Tyner and Chattanooga-Cleveland Pike got its own place of worship with the founding of Hawkinsville Missionary Baptist Church.
In 1907, the Afro-American community of Hawkinsville along Hickory Valley Road north of Tyner and Chattanooga-Cleveland Pike got its own place of worship with the founding of Hawkinsville Missionary Baptist Church.
In 1908, Chickamauga Station Baptist became Shepherd
Baptist.
That same year, Whorley P.O. closed and service transferred to Shepherd P.O., including the rural free delivery.
That same year, Whorley P.O. closed and service transferred to Shepherd P.O., including the rural free delivery.
A Baptist congregation began meeting in Morris Hill
School in 1909. That same year, the residents of Hornville adopted the
name Eastdale.
The Afro-American community of Hawkinsville
organized a congregation of the Missionary Baptist Church in 1910.
Hawkinsville’s children attended Tyner School (Colored).
In 1911, William T. Walker donated a plot of land
across Bird’s Mill Road from his home (where Heritage Funeral home is now) for
a new building for Walnut Grove School, which was dedicated in October 1912.
Morris Hill Baptist moved into its own building in
1914. The school moved east down Parker’s Gap Road to become West View
School, across from the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
Around the same time, Thomas Ryall, son of Lizard
Lope/Morris Hill resident Liam Ryall, established a resort community called
Ryall Springs at the old Chickamauga Camp Ground.
Dixie Highway, the most significant development in
land transportation to arrive since the railroads, opened up in 1915. A
community quickly grew up along the stretch of the road between Missionary
Ridge and the state-line along its route, formerly a stage road now known as
Ringgold Road.
Two years previously, in 1919, James County went
bankrupt and folded back into Hamilton County. Its last courthouse, built
in 1913, still stands in Ooltewah.
In 1921, residents of Smoky Row, Nickel Street, and
Penny Row incorporated as East Ridge.
In 1922, another major automobile route came through
the area as Robert E. Lee Highway.
Shot Hollow community, whose children had been
attending Turkey Foot School, finally received its own educational facility in
1924, when Booker T. Washington School was built. Washington School was,
in fact, a consolidation of the separate schools at Turkey Foot, Magby Pond,
and Tyner.
Olde Towne, Sunnyside, Dutchtown, Belvoir, and
Mission communities organized themselves into a single unit in 1926, which
they named Brainerd. It boundaries were defined as Missionary Ridge,
South Chickamauga Creek, Eastdale, and East Ridge. Bird’s Mill Road
adopted the name of the new community, adding the prefix East on the other side
of the creek, though some had already been using the name Brainerd Road for
several years.
Walnut Grove School immediately adopted the new name
of the road running through its community and became East Brainerd
School. The side road next to it retained the name Walnut Grove Road
until 1968, when it became North Joiner Road. At the same time, the community adopted the same name.
Upon its 1926-1927 school year, the students of
Chickamauga School (Colored) moved into a brand new facility provided by the
Rosenwald Foundation. It remained on Chickamauga Road (now Airport Road) until
1953.
In 1927, Chickamauga Baptist became Oakwood Baptist
and Shot Hollow Road became Oakwood Drive.
Across the tracks from Chickamauga Station, Lovell
Field airport opened in 1930 to replace the much smaller Marr Field in East
Chattanooga. It was built on the farm of
Dr. J. B. Haskins, and its southern boundary met the northern edge of Boyd’s
Addition to Chickamauga and the yard of Chickamauga School for white children.
The same year Pleasant Grove church became
Silverdale Cumberland Presbyterian.
Also in 1930, Booker T. Washington added a high
school, which also took in rising pupils from Chickamauga School (Colored) and
Harrison School (Colored). Chickamauga School (Colored), until then
serving students in grades 1 thru 8, switched to 1-6. Four years later in
1934, a single building housed both the elementary and high schools of
Washington School.
It was in the 1930s that the Brainerd Heights
development was built atop Whorley village as well as Wrinkletown across Lee
Highway.
Standifer Gap Seventh Day Adventist Church began meeting in 1933.
Standifer Gap Seventh Day Adventist Church began meeting in 1933.
In 1935, Lovell Field expanded south and took out
the Chickamauga School for white students who were then distributed to Tyner
and East Brainerd, along with Boyd’s Addition.
Tyner and Silverdale Schools were consolidated in
1937 as Bess T. Shepherd School, as were Kings Point and Jersey Schools as
Kings Point-Jersey School (now Hillcrest Elementary).
In 1938, Harrison School (Colored) merged into
Washington School.
The town of Turkey Foot was lost when the Chickamauga
Dam constructed by the Tennessee Valley Authority closed its gates in 1940,
along with the community of Bartlebaugh.
Also in 1940, the U.S. Army removed the community of
Hawkinsville and the main part of the village of Tyner (north of the railroad)
to make room for its TNT plant. Hawkinsville relocated to Pinewood Drive
and Kelley Road. Tyner residents moved either slightly to the south or
eastward to Silverdale. Other
communities erased from the map included Magby Pond, Black Belt, and most of Shot Hollow.
The report of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) issued in 1942 included Hawkinsville as part of Tyner; listed Silverdale separately; grouped East Brainerd, Morris Hill, Ryall Springs, and Westview together as Ryall Springs; and listed Chickamauga under the name of its post office, Shepherd.
In 1948, Kings Point-Jersey moved into a new
building as Hillcrest Elementary.
In 1953, the surviving Chickamauga Elementary School
moved to Shepherd Road.
Louisville & Nashville Railroad, which had a
controlling interest in Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis since 1880,
closed several of its local stations in the mid-20th century. In 1955, it
shut down Chickamauga Station.
Shepherd P.O. likewise closed and its operations
transferred to Chattanooga. Chattanooga P.O. opened a branch in the newly
built Brainerd Hills Shopping Center and named it Chickamauga Station on the
advice of later postmaster Frank Moore.
Also in 1955, Oakwood Baptist moved to its current
location on Bonny Oaks Drive.
Booker T. Washington School, whose community had by then
taken on the name Washington Heights, moved into a brand new building in
1958. In that same building, Washington
Alternative School now operates.
Due to growth in the nearby area and construction of
Lake Hills and Murray Hills subdivisions, Lakewood Elementary for white
students was opened in 1959, the last segregated school put into operation in
Hamilton County.
In late 1961, Southern Railway shut down its tiny
whistle-stop depot Tyner Station.
Desegregation of the schools in both Chattanooga
City and Hamilton County (then separate systems) began in 1962 and was,
theoretically, complete by 1966. In the process, the high school at Booker
T. Washington was closed and its students transferred to Tyner and, later,
to Central. Its primary school was integrated, as was the other
remaining Afro-American primary school in the area, Chickamauga Elementary.
In 1972, the U.S. Postal Service closed its station
at Tyner. Postal service from Tyner
moved to Chattanooga, which routed its mail through its branch at Chickamauga
Station in Brainerd Hills Shopping Center. That Chickamauga Station moved
to its current location on East Brainerd Road in 1984.
Chickamauga Elementary School closed its doors in
1987, the same year that Hamilton Place Mall opened its doors. At the time, it had been the one of the
oldest continuing schools in the county, second only to Howard School.
The branch of Chattanooga Post Office called
Chickamauga Station still operates, though its delivery service has been
transferred to the Eastgate Postal Center.
East Brainerd Road, the main road through Concord/Walnut Grove/East Brainerd, has been known by many names throughout its existence. Remember that at one time, there was no Robert E. Lee Highway; what are now Brainerd and East Brainerd Roads were one long continuous path. During Cherokee times, at least after the mission was founded, it was known as Brainerd’s Road from Ross’ Landing to the Federal Road south of Opelika (the later Graysville). Later it was called Chattanooga-Graysville Pike and Bird’s Mill Road. Later, it carried the last name until a T-junction with Jenkins Road, from which the latter continued as Graysville Pike, which turned south after its junction with Parker’s Gap (later Ryall Springs) Road. It became East Brainerd Road from its Y-intersection with Brainerd Road and Lee Highway in 1926.
Another road with many names is Gunbarrel Road. I always loved that one when I was a kid. Its earliest name may have been Graysville-Harrison Pike, a name noted on deeds in the 19th century. By the later part of that century, it had become known as Silverdale Road.
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