Revolutionary Reader: Reminiscences and Indian Legends

by Sophie Lee Foster

By an agreement, all parties met at Indian Spring to consider a second treaty, early in February, 1825. The Government agents were protected by United States troops, and large forces of the opposing Indian factions were present. The negotiations were conducted in the hotel, and concluded February 7th, 1825. Under this treaty all the Indian possessions in Georgia were ceded to the whites, and an early removal of the tribe arranged for.

The agency of General McIntosh in bringing about this treaty resulted in his death within a few months. When it was announced that the treaty was concluded, Hopoethleyoholo seized the occasion to give vent to his long pent-up wrath. The Indians of both the old factions were present in large numbers. All were excited. At last the orator chief mounted the large rock yet seen at the south end of the Varner House, and gave vent to his feelings and purposes in the following characteristic talk:

"Brothers, the Great Spirit has met here with his painted children of the woods and their paleface brethren. I see his golden locks in the sunbeams; he fans the warrior's brow with his wings and whispers sweet music in the winds; the beetle joins his hymn and the mocking bird his song. You are charmed! Brothers, you have been deceived! A snake has been coiled in the shade and you are running into his open mouth, deceived by the double-tongue of the paleface chief (McIntosh), and drunk with the fire-water of the paleface. Brothers, the hunting grounds of our fathers have been stolen by our chief and sold to the paleface. Whose gold is in his pouch? Brothers, our grounds are gone, and the plow of the paleface will soon turn up the bones of our fathers. Brothers, are you tame? Will you submit? Hopoethleyoholo says no!" Then turning to McIntosh, who was standing with the commissioners at a window a few feet distant, he continued: "As for you, double-tongued snake, whom I see through the window of the paleface, before many moons have waned your own blood shall wash out the memory of this hated treaty. Brothers, I have spoken."

By this treaty the Spring became the property of the State and the ceded land was laid out in lots in 1826, the Commonwealth reserving ten acres around the Spring for the benefit of her citizens then and thereafter. The act establishing Butts County was passed in 1826. The village of Indian Spring was incorporated by legislative enactment in 1837, and in 1866, a second act changed the name to McIntosh and extended the limits of the incorporation.

Death of McIntosh.

General McIntosh and family removed to his plantation on the Chattahoochee, and evidently rested secure. But the avenger was on the war path, and the distinguished chieftain, who had rendered the whites such signal service, was doomed.

In compliance with the advice of Hopoethleyoholo, a secret council was held, at which one hundred braves were selected to secure the vengeance desired, and these, headed by the wily orator, set out westward. When near his residence, McIntosh and his son-in-law, Hawkins, were seen by their hidden foe riding together. "They could then have been easily killed," says White's Statistics, "but their lives were spared for the moment to preserve a consistency so common in all plans of the Indians. They had determined to kill McIntosh in his own yard, in the presence of his family, and to let his blood run upon the soil of that reservation which had been secured to him by the treaty." From the same authority we learn McIntosh rode home unconscious of danger, while the savages prepared for their work. Lightwood was procured to fire the buildings. About three o'clock the premises were surrounded, and it was not until the torch had been applied to the outbuildings that the sleepers were aroused. Chilly McIntosh, the chief's son—who is yet living—escaped through a window of one of the outhouses, and, running the gauntlet, swam the river. General McIntosh, upon discovering his assailants, barricaded the door and stood near it when it was forced. He fired on them, and at that moment one of his steadfast friends, Toma Tustinugse, fell upon the threshold riddled with balls. The chief then retreated to the second story, with four guns in his hand, which he continued to discharge from a window. He fought with great courage, and, aware that his end was near, determined to sell his life as dearly as possible. He was at this time the only occupant of the burning house; for his two wives, Peggy and Susannah, who had been dragged into the yard, were heard imploring the savages not to burn him up, but to get him out of the house, and shoot him, as he was a brave man and an Indian like themselves. McIntosh came down to the first floor, where he fell pierced with many balls. He was then seized and dragged into the yard. While lying there, the blood gushing from his wounds, he raised himself on one arm and surveyed his murderers with looks of defiance, and it was while so doing he was stabbed to the heart by an Ocfuskee Indian. The chief was scalped and the buildings plundered and burned. The party then sought for Hawkins, whom they also killed. His body was thrown into the river.

An Indian Elopement.

The family of General McIntosh spent the summer of 1826, at Indian Spring, where his two youngest daughters, who had been highly educated, spent their time in associating alternately with the dusky maidens of their tribe and their palefaced sisters. During the visit one of the sisters created a decided sensation by eloping with an Indian lover. A gentleman now residing in the vicinity who at that time was a little boy, whose parents were camped at the Spring, was at the McIntosh cabin—then situated on the lot north of the Varner Hotel—when the occurrence took place. There were hundreds of Indians camped on the adjacent hills—the friendly party on the south side of the creek and the adherents of Hypoethleyoholo on the north bank. The lover was a leading chief of the latter party, and the match was bitterly opposed by the McIntosh family and their adherents who keenly remembered the sad events of the previous year; but the young lovers, who had long since determined upon their course, cared not for opposition and well arranged their plans.