The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-21
FERTILE COTTON FIELD WAS
 ONCE THE CREEKS CAPITAL
Where in Days of Tore Indians Met in Solemn Conclave the White Mans Flow Now
 Holds Full Sway.

plantation of Captain J. ". Ashurst | and 1t is sufficiently marked out to be known to this day.
 There are no visible mementoes or the Indian occupation with the excep- tion of half a dozen Indian mounds, in the neighborhood some of which were no doubt built by the inhabitants of and which to this good day have been left undistqrbed by the white people.
 Unearthinx of Relics.
 Still. when it has rained heavily and the earth is washed up by the rushing waters. beads, arrow-heads, spear points, pipes and tomahawks nave been washed up The field upon which the old town house of the Indians, sup posed to have been the place iu which the conferences of the chiefs were held in the town of Tallassee Is known and it's former glory is reflected in its To- cal name of the Town House Lot
 This old Indian town was some miles below Tukabatchie. the ancient and historic capital, and 1t was the hrst to be called by the name of Tallassee.
 Some miles away between Tallassee and Wetumpka was situated the com munity known as Little Tallassee, du- ring the Revolutionary War. In Lit tie Tallassee was the home of Colonel Alexander McGillivray, the talented leader of the Indians who has been called the Alabama Talleyrand. rms man was given the rank and pay or a colonel by the British for his services and influence and later for 'he same consideration he was made a origadier general of the American army with salary of $1.200 annually. McGillivray owned another home at Hickory Ground, an Indian settlement in what is now the southern suburbs or we tumpka, and which was one or me most important towns of the Creek Ma ton. Little Tallassee's only claim to distinction was the fact that 1t was the home of McGillivray whose friend ship was sought and paid for at differ ent periods by the American, the Brit ish and the Spanish governments.
 The first white town and the third of the name was built on the east side of the Tallapoosa River, two miles below the present town Of thai name and some distance above the old Indian town. The place was soon abandoned. however, and moved to the high hill above the Tanassee Falls on the west side where it yet stands. The increase of the important mill ing industry there, however, has re- suited in the building of another large town on the opposite side of the river The Ancient Capitol.
 But Tukabatchie was more than two centuries old before the first hut or pole was erected by an Indian at Tal- Iassee Tukabatchie was the princi- nal place of the most thickly settled section of the Indian country when De Soto made his march through the Gulf States to the Mississippi River. The story of the Creeks who built Tuka- batchie is fazy and uncertain as well as that of the other Indian tribes Of | Alabama Upon two things, however | the authorities are agreed. first, that the Creeks came to Alabama from the territory which is now part of Tex as and which lies between the RIG Grande and Red River and. second l that the nation was formed of sev' eral different tribes who merged and became assimilated. for one cause or another They were a brave and war like people, a fact which is to this day cherished by their descendants One of these, a grandson of Weather ford, the war leader. said proudly tc me. s:The Creeks always fought the white man. They fought him to tho last. The Choctaws sought to buy over the white man or win him over bS fighting on his side"
 The Creeks were originally the ex' tensive tribes known as the Musco Igees. The name by which they passed into history was given them by Eng Ilish traders because they lived in { country plentifully watered by beau tiful running streams, a geographica fact which is still pronounced in Mid dle and East Alabama and West Geor gia.
 When De Soto marched througl Alabama ne spent twenty days a Tukabatchie Portugese soldle kept a. diary or journal of all th' incidents or events of the trip, bool which has come to be known as thu Portugese Gentleman's Narrative. II this journal Is described the town O Tukabatchie as De Soto found it il September 1540. The physical aspec of the town Is recognizable from tha description for the Portugese Gentle man said, 'It reposed upon a poin of land almost surrounded by mail river" The town was terraced an' enclosed in a wall made by driving two rows of posts into the ground an' filling the space with poles laid hori zontally, one upon the other Tn whole was stuffed with clay and stray and had port holes cut in 1t for tn convenience of the fighting men.
 A Rest for De Soto.
 There were even then several i'm portant Indian towns in sight b Soto and his calvacade rested here fo twenty days, the feared and honore' guests of the Indians. In after year the same town was visited by anothe distinguished French soldier of for tune, Bienville, who after building
 the old fort at the junction of tn
 Tallapoosa and Coosa Rivers paid 6
 official visit to the most powerful 0
 the Indian chiefs who had assemble
 at Tukabatchie.
 Colonel Hawkins, the famous India
 agent and his less distinguished sue
 cessor, met the Indians at Tukabatchi
 and treated with them on behal
 of the Government of the United State
 even as the agents of the British an
 Spanish Governments had met the In dians for conference.
 Tecumseh, the eloquent chief wh
 was sent out by the British to stir u
 the Indians of the South, with larg
 retinue met the chiefs there and mad his long talk for war against h whites. Jackson, the American victo over the Indians at the Horseshoe Ben camped his Tennessee and Alabam
 volunteers there as he marched thel
 to the South.
 The town was the center of ric
 and prosperous country of Indian ! Bartram, the English botanist. wh visited Tukabatchie and other Indt1 I