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In the following letters, we can judge in what esteem Mr. Barnard was held by Benjamin Hawkins:
Extract of a letter to William Faulkner, Esq., Cusseta, November 25, 1797:
" I have one faithful assistant in Mr. Barnard, one of the interpreters. The white and red men are much indebted to his constant, persevering and honest exertions to do justice to all applicants. It sometimes falls to the lot of one man, though apparently
in the humble walks of life, to render more effectual service to
his fellow creatures, than thousands of his neighbors. This has
been the case with Mr. Barnard. He was a trader in this nation
before the war, and remained in it during the whole progress of it,
constantly opposing the cruel policy which pressed these people
to war with the Americans, and urged their being neutral. He
repeatedly risked his life and fortune in the cause of humanity,
and he remains to witness that the purity of his actions has given
him a standing among the red people, which could not be purchased with money ....."-Benjamin Hawkins.
"Cusseta, the 27th of November, 1797 - To James Burges.
. . . The Indians, I hope, will never forget how much they are
indebted to Mr. Barnard; he is the true and faithful friend of the
red people; the best or worst of times he is the same, and does
good for them solely from the pleasure it gives him to do so. He
is true and faithful to his trust; he knows the purity of the intentions of our government, and it is fortunate for the Indians that
he is the faithful interpreter of them. You must visit me about
the 25th of next month at the store on Oconee, there to explain
your conduct and receive your salary. I wish you health and
happiness." - Benjamin Hawkins.
Excerpt from a letter to Hon. Henry Dearborn, Sec. of War. Page 396:
" You have the character of Mr. Barnard in the sketch
of the Creek country, which I forwarded to you in the course of
the spring, and from his character, his long residence among the
Indians, and his knowledge of their language, there can not be
the least doubt, but that his report to Governor White is strictly
correct."
The Euchee language was so difficult that the Creeks did not
attempt to speak it, although the Uchees spoke the Creek language
as their own. Timothy's wife carefully imparted her own Euchee
dialect to her children while their father, though a practised interpreter of the Creeks, never attempted to master the Uchee.
General David Blackshear in his Memoirs states that Barnard was
a man of "education, wrote correctly and was acquainted with
the languages of several Indian tribes."
Benjamin Hawkins became known to the Indians as "Istechate lize osetat" (chemis-te-chaugo), meaning "Beloved man of the
Four Nations," which nations were Muscogees or Creeks, the
Cherokees, Chocktows and Cickasows. He established his home
at the Old Agency on the Flint about twenty miles up the river
from Barnard's Settlement where he lived in the best style possible,
entertaining the celebrities of the day who happened into this
Indian Nation, among them no less a personage than Napoleon's
celebrated French General Moreau while he was in exile in this
country. Hawkins entertained in such lavish hospitality that
an immense herd of cattle was required. He milked 500 cows and
used the Flint as a barrier to separate his cows and calves. He
owned many negro slaves and kept open house to all his Indian
friends who came to see him with their tribes.
Even before Benj. Hawkins came into the nation, Timothy
Barnard was an acknowledged interpreter and acted as such at
the famous Treaty of Colerain in June 29, 1796, when the boundaries of the Creek Nation were established as follows:
" Beginning at St. Marys the Creek boundary ran across to the
Altamaha; thence it turned up and along the west banks of that
river and of the Oconee to the High Shoals of the Appalachee,
where it intersected the Cherokee line; thence through Georgia
and Alabama to the Choctow line in Mississippi; thence south
down to the Choctow line to the 31st parallel; thence east to the
Chattahoochee and then down that river to its junction with the
Flint; thence to the head of St. Mary's River and thence to the
beginning."
When Governor Telfair ordered the State Militia into the Creek
Nation against the orders of General Washington, we find Timothy
Barnard the trust worthy friend of the Federal Agent Seagrove
and he was used as a means of communication between Seagrove
and the Indians.
He was interpreter at the Treaty of Fort Wilkinson, June 16,
1802, and also as interpreter and witness at the signing of the
Treaty concluded in the City of Washington, November 14, 1805,
between Gen. Dearborn, as Secretary of War and the Chiefs of the
Creek Nation (See the two proclamations of Pres. Jefferson in
Clayton's Digest, pages 701 and 705) the American State papers
giving the following account of one of the treaties which Barnard
interpreted:
June 17th-The commissioners of the United States, agreeably
with their notification of yesterday, met the representatives of the whole Creek Nation, in the square appointed for the place of
negotiations. Present, the three commissioners of Georgia, James
Hendricks, James Jackson and James Simms, twenty-two kings,
seventy-five principal chiefs, and one hundred and fifty-two warriors, the superintendent, Colonel Gaither, and the officers of the
garrison.
The commissioners appointed Captain William Eaton secretary
to the commission, for the purpose of taking down minutes of their
proceedings.
Timothy Barnard, Alexander Cornell, James Burges, and Langley Bryant, were appointed interpreters during the negotiation,
and were sworn faithfully to perform the duties of their appointment, according to their best skill and ability.
The commissioners explained the ceremony of swearing the
interpreters to the Indians.
Timothy Barnard reared a family of eleven children who were
famed for their bravery and beauty of form. Among them were
Pheloga (James), Timpoochee (John), Homanhidge, Mary and
Yuccohpee. His daughters frequently went to Wilmington Island
to visit their cousin, Mary Louisa Barnard, daughter of Timothy's
brother William, who afterwards married Samuel Adams, a planter
of Skidaway Island, the grandmother of Judge Samuel B. Adams
of Savannah, ex-Judge of Supreme Court of Georgia.
Timothy Barnard died in July, 1820, and left a large estate
consisting of his inherited lands in England, most of Macon
County, many cattle and horses and sixty negro slaves, from whom
he had required very little service. In his will he directed that
these slaves be manumitted, but made no provision for their
removal from the State.
He appointed a man named Everett his executor. Instead of
freeing the slaves, Everett moved them to his own plantation.
When Everett failed to free the slaves, a bill in equity was filed
in the superior court against him to have the will carried out and
the slaves freed. Chief Justice Hiram Warner, grandfather of
Judge Warner Hill of the Supreme Court, was a young attorney
fresh from New England, where he was born and reared. Everett
employed him and he demurred to the bill upon the ground that
it was against public policy to free negroes in Georgia unless means
were provided for their removal from the State. This demurrer
was sustained and the bill dismissed. It was before the days of
the Appellate Court and there could be no appeal. Judge Warner
who lived at Knoxville, Crawford County, knew Timothy Barnard
well and some of his sons, particularly Timpoochee, who was the
head man of the Indian town.
There is a deed on record in the clerk's office in Chatham County,
made on January 4, 1825, by Timothy Barnard's two sons, Pheloga
(James) and Timpoochee (John) to William Barnard, their uncle,
conveying their claim to property in Manchester, England, for
the sum of $4,500. William Barnard, the grantee, started to make
efforts to recover the property, but died in New York on his way
to England and the matter was dropped. Attached to this deed
are affidavits from people cognizant of the facts. It is interesting
to note that one of the papers is signed by Abram Mordecai, whom
Barnard mentioned in the letter to Jas. Seagrove in 1795, who testified that he had lived in the Creek Nation more than thirty years
and lived the greater part of his time with Timothy Barnard -
that he was with him when he died and attended his funeral, and
he "further saith that Timothy Barnard married in the Creek
Nation-agreeable to the manner and customs of that Nation."
He also testified as to Barnard's ancestry and his children. One
of these papers was witnessed by David Jones, J. P., who is buried
in Old Travelers Rest Cemetery.
Timpoochee Barnard (named John), son of Timothy Barnard,
a chief of the Uchee Indians and a Ala; or in United States Army,
was married to a Creek girl, daughter of the head man, and continued to live in Macon County. This Indian family was continuously faithful to the white man. The Upper Creek Indians
had remained firm friends of the British through the Revolution
on account of the old treaties between General Oglethorpe and
Tomochichi, and still believing themselves bound to England they
remained loyal to the British in the War of 1812 but the Lower
Creeks, led by Gen. Wm. McIntosh and Maj. Timpoochee Barnard allied themselves with the United States.
In September, 1813, Congress called for a levy of Georgia Troops
and 3,600 men assembled at Camp Hope near Ft. Hawkins on the
Ocmulgee, General John Floyd in command. There had been a
massacre at Ft. Mims on the Chattahoochee on August 30th,
in which 300 men, women and children were killed. It was owing
to this massacre that troops under Gen. Floyd were ordered out.
He first built a line of huts and block houses from the Ocmulgee
to the Alabama River to protect the northern part of the state
from the Creek Invasion and completed his defense by building
Fort Mitchell on the Chattahoochee. Taking 950 men he marched
sixty miles to Autossee, one of the largest towns of the Creek
Nation, on the Tallapoosa River in Alabama. He proceeded by
night marches and rested in the day. General Wm. McIntosh
with four hundred friendly Creeks arrived at Autossee on November 29, 1813, at daybreak and by nine o'clock had defeated the
hostile Creeks and driven them out, burning their homes. Two
hundred Indians were killed, including the Kings of Autossee and
Tallassee. Eleven whites were killed and fifty-four wounded, including General Floyd. The pipe which the old Chief of Tallassee
had smoked at a Treaty forty years before was captured and presented to Gov. David B. Mitchell, who placed it in the Executive
Office of the State Capitol.
On January 27, 1814, General Floyd, recovered from his wounds,
heard that the Upper Creeks had collected at Hathlewaulee.
He took 1,500 men from Ft. Mitchell and started to attack the
town. When about fifteen or twenty miles away while they were
encamped for the night, the weather very cold, just at break a day
a large body of Indians led by the Warrior Weatherford and Col.
Woodbine, an English Officer, surprised Gen. Floyd's command
and sought to cut off a detachment under Gen. Broadnax, which
was encamped near the main body.
This attack on Floyd was made to prevent his joining troops with
General Andrew Jackson, who was fighting Indians in lower Alabama. "Timpojee Barnard," discovering this movement, led his
company of one hundred Euchee Braves, recruited from the banks
of the Flint, in a desperate onset upon the assailants. After a
severe loss, he succeeded in driving back the enemy and in opening
the way for Gen. Broadnax's detachment to join the main body.
Gen. Floyd rallied his seasoned soldiers, formed a square, put
baggage in the center and held the hostile soldiers at bay until
day break when a charge was sounded and the Indians were driven
at the point of the bayonet. In fifteen minutes the battle was won.
Seventeen Georgians were killed, among them Capt. Samuel
Butts, a great uncle of E. B. Lewis and Seymour Byrom, and 132
wounded; among the wounded was Edmond Hays in Capt. Adam
Heath's Co., 1st (Harris) Regt., Georgia Militia, great uncle of
J. E. Hays; another great uncle of his, James Hays, was in this
battle. The loss of the Indians was never known as they carried
off their dead. Floyd's camp was known as Camp Defiance but
the officers' report called it "The Battle of Challibee."
During the war of 1812 Timpoochee Barnard acquired a high
reputation for skill and bravery. He was often honored by being
placed in the post of danger. He did not, in any instance, disappoint the expectations of the Commanding General. He took
part in nearly all the battles in the South, during the war, and was
twice wounded.
General Floyd was a resident of Camden County, coming there
as Virginia Ship Carpenter he acquired a large estate. Besides
being a great soldier, he was an explorer as well. He was the first
man to march through the Okefenokee Swamp. On a map made
in 1882 by A. G. Butts, another uncle of E. B. Lewis, we find
Floyd's Trail through the center of the Okefenokee Swamp and
an island in the center of that vast swamp still bears the name
"Floyds Island." Since this trail connects with Barnard's Trail,
it can be readily believed that Barnard employed this path when
wishing to use direct route to St. Marys.
On August 9, 1814, at Fort Jackson, a treaty was concluded
between Major General Andrew Jackson on behalf of the President
of the United States and the Chiefs, Deputies and Warriors of the
Creek Tribe, and one of the signers of this treaty was "Timpoochee
Barnard, Captain of the Uchees."
By the famous Yazoo Land Fraud of 1795, Georgia ceded to the United States the territory between her present western boundary and the Mississippi River, including nearly all of Alabama and Mississippi, for the ridiculously low price of one and a quarter <
million dollars in money and the promise to Georgia from the
United States of all the aboriginal titles to all the lands still occupied by the Indian Nations in her thus reduced limits. The United
States then proceeded to make one treaty after another with the
Indians, pushing them westward from one river to another in
order to secure the lands and to carry out this agreement with
Georgia. In that same year the United States purchased from the
Muscogee or Creek Nation the fertile and beautiful tract of country west of the Oconee and to the Ocmulgee.
The remaining lands to the Flint was secured from the Indians
by treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814 and another treaty in 1818,
which left only the lands from the Flint to the Chattahoochee
in the possession of the Indians, and this land was eagerly sought
by the United States and claimed by Georgia.
Realizing that they were giving up their lands by one cession
after another, the Indians resolved not to grant any more cessions
of land to the United States. February 12, 1825, Gen. Wm. McIntosh, Indian Chief, in defiance of this agreement, concluded a
treaty with the United States granting a cession of land which included the lands between the Flint and the Chattahoochee, their
last Georgia lands. This treaty was known as the Indian Springs
Treaty and was the most famous Indian Treaty, because it so
infuriated the Upper Creeks, who believed that McIntosh had
betrayed them in ceding their homes, that they surrounded his
home at McIntosh Bend in Carroll County, fired it and murdered
him as he attempted to escape with two of his wives.
This uprising of the Indians against their Chief was strikingly
similar to the feeling aroused among Georgians when their Representatives in Government sold their lands in the Yazoo Land
Fraud. Governor Troup expressed his opinion of the Yazoo Fraud
thus:-"Not merely were the corrupted by the corruptors; the corruptors cheated the corrupted, the corrupted cheated one another and the corruptors cheated the claimants." The Indians felt similarly cheated by corruptors.
This treaty also came near causing trouble between Georgia and
the United States Government. Although the treaty had passed the
Senate and had been ratified, President John Quincy Adams hesitated as to the wisdom of its enforcement, owing to the
dissatisfaction among the Indians. However, George M. Troup, Governor of Georgia, and first cousin of the murdered Chief Wm. McIntosh,
accepted the treaty as final and started the survey of the land so as
to be ready to put the treaty into effect at the end of the twelve
months, during which time the treaty had provided the Indians
should not be molested. Governor Troup felt also that the United
States Government should enforce the treaty in order to carry out
the contract made with Georgia in 1795.
President Adams sent Maj. T. P. Andrews special agent to
Milledgeville to remonstrate with Governor Troup and to demand
that the survey be stopped, threatening him with Federal Troops
under Gen. E. P. Gaines.
Troup demanded the recall of Gen. Gaines and replied, "We have exhausted the argument. We will stand by our arms. From the first decisive act of hostility you will be considered and treated as a public enemy." President Adams ordered the surveyors prosecuted, while Governor Troup ordered the surveyors to proceed, and ordered further that if there were complaints of arrest of surveyors, that all steps should be taken to free them and bring to justice all parties concerned in arrests as violators of peace and personal security of the State. He also ordered the Generals of State Militia to hold various regiments in readiness to repel any invasion of the state. There was no violence, no arrests and the United States allowed the survey to stand. This was one of the first open examples of contention for "States Rights" in the South.
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