The Station at Brainerd Mission
(From a sketch by Thos. E. Paine, 1821)
Early Chattanooga
In 1780, Lookout
Mountain, then without a name was included in a claim by Spain, whose ruler
declared that all the Indians living within the region were free and under
Spanish protection. Whatever title Spain owned to this vast wilderness on being
transferred, it was simply referred to as "a part of the territory of the
great Southwest." Two years afterwards Lookout Mountain was included in a
tract of 3,500,000 acres granted by the State of Georgia to the Tennessee
Company. The vast wilderness was soon divided, and as a means of inducing
settlers to come in and establish homes a half thousand acres were offered free
to each family, and half that amount was also offered to each unmarried pioneer
who was willing to settle in this region.
This part of the country was considered so remote
from civilization that the President of the United States issued a proclamation
of warning to all settlers that since the territory was not within reach of
government protection the people
who chose to settle in it did so at a risk of life and property.
As
usual, possible dangers held out a challenge to the daring settlers, for the
spirit of adventure is a part of the history of the human race, and pioneers
began to accept the large tracts of lands that were offered them. However, in
1791, when a report was broadcast of a band of Creek Indians holding a powwow on
top of Lookout Mountain the news had a chilling effect, at least for a short
while, on the popularity of the tempting offer of free lands.
For a quarter of a century thereafter the Cherokee
Indians strove to imitate their white neighbors.
The
Brainerd Mission
The Station at Brainerd Mission
(From a sketch by
Thos. E. Paine, 1821)
In 1817 the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions whose headquarters were in Boston, Massachusetts, secured the
assistance of the United States Government and established a mission and a
school at Brainerd for the education and the Christianization of the Cherokee.
The site of this old mission almost touches the eastern boundary
of the city of Chattanooga. It was chosen by Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, representing
the American Board, and an Indian chief representing the Cherokees. At first the
mission was named "Chickamauga," but a year later was changed to
"Brainerd," in honor of David Brainerd, an early missionary who
labored unselfishly among the Indians of New York and New Jersey. However, David
Brainerd died many years before the mission was founded that
bore his name.
There
was a Cherokee Indian, a silversmith, who lived near old Fort Loudon, Tennessee.
His name was Sequoya, but he was known among the whites as George Guess. On a
hunting trip one day he met with a serious accident that made him a cripple for
life. Sequoya was extremely anxious to see his tribe prosper, and when he
observed the white man using books and newspapers, which the Indians referred to
as a "talking leaf" on which the whites could put down a
"talk" and it would stay there, he immediately saw that the Cherokee's
inability to read and write was a most serious handicap. It became Sequoya's
ambition to invent an alphabet by which the Indians might learn to read and
write. After laboring for twelve years Sequoya succeeded, and in the year 1821
he perfected a Cherokee alphabet by which an Indian could learn in a very few
days how to read and write. Sequoya sometimes visited the mission at Brainerd,
but during his life was never able to read, write or to speak the English
language. In honoring him for his remarkable invention, the Big Trees of
California were named the Sequoia. The Cherokee Nation also granted him a
pension for life for his wonderful achievement, thus distinguishing him as the
only literary person in the United States ever to receive a pension.
In January, 1819, there appeared at the Brainerd
Mission an Indian so ragged and dirty looking that at first he was refused
admittance. He carried his only possession, a gun. He had heard of the school
and had walked from the mountains near Knoxville, 150 miles away. He was finally
accepted at the school, and he willingly traded his gun, an Indian's most highly
treasured article, for clean clothes. This Indian was Atsi, or John Arch,
who became such a diligent student that he was soon able to serve the mission as
its chief interpreter. During his stay at the mission he traveled many miles
with the missionaries, interpreting hundreds of sermons and private
conversations. It was he who, in the year 1824, made the first use of Sequoya's
alphabet at Brainerd by translating a portion of the New Testament in the
Cherokee language. In 1825 John Arch died at the age of 28 years and was buried
in the old cemetery at Brainerd.
During the twenty-one years of its existence the mission at
Brainerd drew many prominent people as visitors, including some from Europe.
Among them was James Monroe, President of the United States, who spent the night
of May 27, 1819, at the mission. The President was deeply interested in the
mission's success. On May 25, 1821, the mission enjoyed also the visit of
another distinguished gentleman, the Rev. Samuel Worcester, Secretary of the
American Board that founded the Brainerd institution. When Dr. Worcester left
Boston by boat, coming by way of New Orleans, he was in poor health, and after
traveling much of the distance from that point in a buggy he was very languid
and was so weak that he had to be carried in the arms of the missionaries. He
grew steadily worse and died on June 7. On June 9 he was buried in the Brainerd
Cemetery, and his funeral was attended by Cherokees who had traveled many miles
to the cemetery. Dr. Worcester's monument still stands in the cemetery at
Brainerd. The mission closed its doors in 1838, at the time of the removal of
the Cherokees west of the Mississippi. It gave the name to Missionary Ridge.
Ross' Landing
Chief John Ross
(Sketched
from a painting in 1830)
The
first settlement of traders was made in 1828 on the land that is now known as
St. Elmo. The following year John Ross became chief of the Cherokee Nation. He
was an educated Indian of sterling character, the son of a Scotch trader and a
woman part Cherokee, who before her marriage was Molly McDonald. Chief John Ross
was only one-eighth Indian blood. His old home still stands at Rossville,
Georgia. With his brother Lewis, Chief Ross established a small trading post on
the Tennessee River, little more than a cluster of huts dotting the south bank
from the bluff at the end of Lookout Street to the place now paved as a
municipal wharf. Trading
between the Indians and the white men became so active that a
man named Billy Gentry established and operated a ferry at the point.
Despite the fact that the ancient name for the site
of Chattanooga is Atla 'nuwa, after the ferry was installed the
settlement became known as Ross' Landing. The friendliness of the Cherokee
Indians encouraged the white traders to move in with their families, and by the
year 1836 so many white people had taken up their residence in the Cherokee
country the Government became more active in its effort to remove the Indians
west of the Mississippi, which was effected in 1838.
Home of John Ross, Chief of The Cherokee Nation
Meaning of
"Chattanooga"
Many people have tried to explain
the origin of the word "Chattanooga," but still it’s meaning is a
matter of debate. One reasonable explanation given is that "nooga" was
the Cherokee word for "town" or "place." In the early days
this tribe of Indians lived in the country north of the river, and the Choctaw
Indians on the south bank. The two words "Choctaw-town" or
"Choctaw-nooga" were applied and gradually came to be spelled
simply "Chattanooga."
The likeness of the sounds to other Indian words has
caused other explanations to be offered, giving such meanings as "Eagle's
Nest" and "Crow's Nest." And some people claim that
"Chattanooga" means "difficulty," a word that expressed the
Indian's description of the task the river encounters in flowing around Moccasin
Bend.
Still there were other people who claimed that
Chattanooga is a Choctaw word meaning "end of the Choctaw
possessions." And "Draw-fish-out-of-the-water" found favor with
some students of history. However, Joshua Ross, a nephew of the chief, declared
that the word was taken from the Creek Indian word "Chat-to-to-noog-gee"
which means "rock rising to a point," a fitting description of
Lookout Mountain.
Choosing
A New Name
The
village that was later to be called Chattanooga prospered. In 1837 a post office
was established. The mail was relayed at Rossville, Georgia, and carried on
horseback, the postman completing the trip from Washington, D. C., in ten days.
When the post office was opened many people expressed dissatisfaction with the
old name Ross' Landing for the progressive city they hoped to build. The public
spirited citizens were called to meet in a community house made of logs where
public meetings and church services were held. Among the new names
proposed were "Lookout" and “Albionview." Some of the friends
of Chief John Ross were in favor of retaining the old name. Capt. John P. Long,
the first postmaster, is given credit for proposing the name
"Chattanooga," after the stream of water originally called by the
Cherokees Tsatanugi, which we now know as Chattanooga Creek. The action was
officially recognized by an act of Congress dated November 14, 1839. A. S.
Lenoir made the original survey and plans of Chattanooga, which include 240
acres of land.
The previous year a printing press was brought down
the river on a boat from Knoxville and anchored to a tree at the foot of Market
Street. There the first newspaper in the community was published by A. Parham on
board the boat before the publisher decided to locate permanently in the new
town. The name of this newspaper was the Hamilton Gazette.
On the twentieth of December, 1839, the legislature granted a
charter to the city of Chattanooga, and James Berry became its first mayor. In
1843, when the legislature