The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-06


 many more old acquaintances that left In Alabama--I hope they are sttli living-and could get around light wood fire. could interest. you or at least spin over old times and recall many things that you have forgotten.
 I do not allude to old store accounts. Though you have lost many, you have forgotten none,
 ,. Fopmalng Tuskegee.
 @ I often wish myself bacls-tn Alabama and I often regret lsavings Tuskesse.. was the founder of Tuskegee- selected the place for the county site ort place for the court house in iSsa. I built the first house on that ridge though James Dent built the first house orf the court house square after the lots had been laid off. The day l made the selection there was great ball play with the Tuskegees. the Chunanuggees, Cheehaws and Talles- sees A Colonel Deas South Caro- linian, was with me.
 Ned. those were great days were they not? I can never recall them or many other things that were cheer ing to me then I wonder if my five cedars which I planted at the McGarr place when l. owned 1t are still living Ned, I, in company with my family. old Aunt Betsy Kurpells or Councils, Tuskeneha. and old John Mcqueen. dug up those cedars. from under large cedar that shaded the birthplace of Ussa Yoholo. or Black Drink, who after the murder of General Thompson was known to the world as Osceola. This man was the great grandson or James Mcqueen. You knew his father-the little Englishman Powell His mother was Polly Copinger.
 The railroad from Montgomery to West Point runs within five feet, if not over the. place where Billy Powell, or Ussa Yoholo was born. The old cedar was destroyed by Gen eraI McIver's negroes when grading the road. It was in an old field be- tween Nufaubee, what is now called Ufaubee Creek and little creek that the Indians called Catsa Bogah, which mouths just below swhere the railroad crosses Nufaubee; and on the Mont gomery side of Nufaubee. and on a plantation owned by a. MT. Vaughan. when I left that country. rests the remains of Old James McQueen. a Scotchman. who died in 1911. aged from what Colonel Hawkins and others said he was-12S years
 He informed Colonel Hawkins that he was born in 1883 and that he came to the Creek Nation in 1716. a desert eE AEOul LII AiSH NG6SGt lI btlt AdE 70 bor of St. Augustine, East Florida for striking an English officer.
 When planted those cedars I had a wife and three children. thought then to make at the foot of one of them resting place. But more than twenty years have elapsed and many changes have taken place with me and those that were with me then, and care but little when and how I may be picked T t.a arIo Ar,T Tr,, that the cedars were spared. for. none who knew the hands of those who as- sisted me in planting them there, could think of molesting them-unless there should be one with a marring hand like him, that destroyed the old lettered birch at the old Federal crossing of the Persimmon Creek, and the Old Council Oak that once stood in front of Sukey ConnelIs or Kurnell's house which you knew quite well.
 The Old Council Oak.
 Yes. 1t was under that oak where you and I have heard many a good varn spun both by our white as well as our red friend. many of whom have long since crossed and gone to that world of which we read and talk, and SC much dreaded by many. and which never can be known to living man Yes. friend. 1t was under that oak--held
 
 | have been held as memorable by Ala barians. as the old Charter Oak of New England was among the people of the North where you and aided in placing the brand of Molly Thompson upon many a black bottle.
 | rented out the plantation one veal while owned 1t and forbid the tree be- | ing touched. The man renting 1t com plained so much about the tree shading | his crop that allowed him either thre' | or five dollars for 1t. forget which. and would now pay s10O to have 1t living as it was. when I left the place, we're Y possible to restore it.
 You have often heard our nItunl friend Captain Billy Walker -eil about | him and myself camping there with Colonels Hawkins. Barnett and McDon- | aid of the Army and General John Se- vier. one of the heroes of Kings Noun tsIs Colonel Barnett was she father ei