Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1920-12-30
FORT MILLS OLD INDIAN FORT.
|lStructurc Begun for Catawba Indians
|. by Colonial Governor.
(Written for The Times.)

ltot rort MILL, ABOUT fwnlcn gtnere 1S
ia general lack of information. was
built in 1766-57 by order Of Govern
or Dobbs of the North Carolina col
ony. The erection of the fort was
under the direction OF Lieut.. Hugh
Waddell of the British army. who
was then detailed for duty in the
North Carolina colony.
Thomas d. Spratt stated that he
had heard an old Indian squaw.
Sally New River, say the Red Coats
built the fort several years before
the Revolution, when she was little,
girl.
| On December 81. 1856. commits
sioners appointed for the purpose
| by Governor Dqbbs recommended a
site for the fort near the Catawba
nation. Four thousand pounds ster-
ling was appropriated for the erec-
tion of the Fort
I find in 'The Conquering of the
| Old Continent" by Archibald Hem
derson. that Governor Dobbs stated,
january 90, 1857. I'VE are now
building a fort in the midst of their
| (CatawbasD towns at their own re-
quest"
| In May, 1856. King Haigler,
| chief greatly adored by the Cataw-
| has, with 15 of the leading Cataw-
bas and 13 younger warriors. march
| ed through Salisbury and sought a
| conference with Chief Justice Hen
| ley. pledging their allegiance to
| the English cause in case the set
| tiers were attacked by the French
or by, the Northwestern tribes at the
instigation OF the French emissaries.
They asked that a fort be built near
l their town for the protection of their
| families. The fort was never COM
pleted. After 1000 pounds had been
spent upon its construction, the Ca
| 'awbas changed their minds and
wanted the governor of South Caro-
lira to build the fort.
The line between the two Caroli-
mas was not established farther than
the Pee Dee river, the line from the
| Pee Dee TO the coast having been
| established in 1898 under the ad-
ministration OF Governor Burlington
| , of North Carolina. In 1772-73 Col.>
| Thomas Polk, employed by Govern
| or Martin of North Carolina, eX-
( tended the boundary line westward.
The Catawbas' lands were left at
, their request in the State of South
i.Garolina. lThis-is Is more probably the,
cause of the irregularity in the State
line than that the surveyors follow
ed a whiskey- wagon. In those days
every farmer. condensed his own sur
plus corn-there was jug to be
| found in every cupboard-but today
n whiskey wagon would be apt to
cause n surveyors needle to vary q
| little.
| The Catawbas were always loyal to
South Carolina and the settlers.
They have, expressed with pride that
| the blood of the white man was not
upon the hands of the Catawbas.
They allied themselves with the set
+lers. helping the pioneers to repulse
the frequent attacks of hostile tribes.
The Catawhas often fought the Iro-
Quois on their own grounds in Ohio
and Pennsylvania.
find in Washington's correspond
ence mention made OF the 81 Ca
| tawba warriors arriving at Fort
| Cumberland. Md. when he was in
command preparing an attack on
Fort Duquesne during the French
and Indian war; also several times he
mentions the sCatawbas as being at
Fort Loudoh. Pa. /
| believe the sCatawba chief. New
| River. was given this name in the
paign against the NorthwesterD
Indians during Lord Dunmore's war
| men, summoned by Lord Dunmore,
| governor of the Virginia colony. as
| sembled at the junction of the
| Greenbrier and New rivers, that
form the Kanawha, which they
descended under the command Of
Col Henry 1 Lewis. They followed
this river $50 miles through an
unbrokenN wilderness. drawing their
rations with their flint locks
the venison and turkey as the forest
in abundance issued them. They
had no salt, however. during the
three months that they were in this
back country, neither did they hear
word from their homes on the
other side of this wilderness. They
met the Northwestern Indians at the
mouth of the Kanawha where 1t en-
ters the Ohio. and in one Of the larg-
est, most extensive, stubbornly con-
tested battlSs ever fought between
feated them. -r
During the colonial wars French
intrigue and propaganda among the
Northwestern tribes caused them to
make many attacks upon the Eng
lish settlers and the Indians friendly
to them. Bancroft says, History
knows the Catawbas chiefly as the
hereditary foe OF the Iroquois tribes,
before whose power and numbers
they dwindled away {.
lin 1701 a party from the colony at
Charleston, headed by John Law
son. that travelled into the unex-
plored interior of the Carolinas pass
cd through number of Indian
towns. the largest and most power
full tribes being the Kadaupaw (Ca-
.tawba), and the Esaw. He came
into these towns just after. he had