St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1897-09-18
HIS VERSION OF TT.
Arp Corrects Statements Regard
ing Indian Missionaries.


Story of DR.. Butler and Wife-Ninis-
ter was Not Taken to MilIedge-
Vile with Rope Around
His Neck.
That is a pretty and pathetic story
that my young friend Fred Govan wrote
about the missionary. DR. Butler, and
i his wife. Nodoubtbut that it is found
ed on fact, and he probably got his data
from some very old man who
still lives near Coosaville, lit
tie village 12 miles below Rome.
I was interested in the story
because when I was lad that
same Dr.. Butler was imprisoned in the
county Jail in LaWrenceyille, where my
4 father lived. Another missionary, by
the. name of Worcester, was imprisoned
/ with them, and their offense was their
refusal to take the oath of allegiance
to the state of Georgia or otherwise to
leave the Cherokee nation. They were
suspected of using their influence to
| render the Indians dissatisfied with the
treaty that required them to go west.
John Howard Payne, the author of
| ssHome, Sweet Home" was also a sus-
pect, and was arrested and taken to
Milledgeville to obeexamined. Those were
bot times in Georgia, especially north
Georgia, for Gwinnett was a border
county, and we children could almost
see Indians squatted among the chin
quapin bushes or behind the trees on
the road to the mill. We knew they
4 were just over the Chattahoochee river.
and that some white people over there
had been murdered by them. Indians
were as much terror to us as ghosts
and runaway negroes. The new gram
ite Jail had just been completed, and
nine Indians were the first prisoners.
They all escaped within a week. They
took up stone in the floor and bur-
roWed out like moles or rabbits.
I never heard until Govan wrote it
that Butler was dragged to Milledge-
vile with rope around his neck, nor
am I prepared to believe that much of
the story. He and Worcester were ar
rested in New Eehota lin Gordon coun-
ty) and brought mounted to Lawrence
vile and tried before Judge Clayton,
who was Mrs. Henry Grady's grandfa-
ther. A learned, humane and incor-
ruptible judge. They had the best of
local counsel, Elisha Chester, also a
native of Connecticut, and they had the
renowned William Writ ais adviser, and
they had the president, John Quincy
| Adams, on their side. John Marshall,
the chief justice of the supreme court,
issued his mandamus to compel Judge
Clayton to release the prisoners, but he
refused, and collision seemed inevi-
table between the United States and
the state of Georgia. T think that Mr..
| Govan's informant is mistaken. for But
Ter had lots of friends powerful
friends-and John Ross, the chief of
the Cherokees, was backing him Doubt
less he was a good man, but he was
stubborn and fanatical, and declared he
owed no allegiance except to the Amer
lean board of foreign missions and to
God-that it was his duty to teach
Christianity to the Indians, and hA
4
Both these men were convicted and
sentenced to the penitentiary for four
years. When they arrived at Milledge-
vile Gov. Lumpkin kindly advised them
to take the oath or agree to leave the
state, and If they would do either he
would at once pardon them. They re-
fused and wrote to the board, of mis-
sions for advice. That board commend
ed their refusal and again urged Writ
and Sargeant to resort to- the supreme
court. But these eminent lawyers ad-
vised an acceptance of Gov. Lumpkin's S
offer. So they accepted and were par
doned--and my father always said they
returned to Connecticut. He knew
them and had many conversations with
them and gave them good advice, for
he, too, was New England man. And
hence am surprised to learn from Mr..
Govan that Butler returned to his mis-
sionary work and died near Goosaville
and was buried by the side OF his wife.
In fact, / never knew before that he
had a wife; but of course the inscrip-
ton on her tombstone settles that.
Mr.. Govan gives Butler the Christian
name of Elonez, but the records in the
state archives show his name, as he
himself signed it, to be Elizur.
| 1t is, however, an interesting and
pathetic story and very great men fig
ured in it, both state and national. The
conflicts between the state and the
Cherokees and the United States con-
tinued for IL years and ended only
with the exodus of 1888. Several trea-
ties were made-made only to be
broken. Ross and Ridge, the two chiefs,
could never agree upon terms, and they
had their followers. When Georgia
ceded Alabama and Mississippi to the
United States in 1862, the consideration
was that the United States should ex-
/ tinguish the Indians title and remove
them beyond the Mississippi river The
federal government was SO slow in try
ing to do this that after waiting and
urging and entreating for 20 years the
state got impatient and demanded ac-
/ ton. The Ross party declared they
would not go at all, but finally agreed
to cede their lands for $2o,ooo.0oo and
| 100000 acres of land This price was
considered beyond reason, and the
Ridge party finally reduced u to 81, ,ooo.-
COO and 1000, 600 acres and 100000 for
expenses in breaking up and trans
porting their very limited household
goods. 1t is astonishing how many