The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-03-15
>BY.WAYs OF STATE HIsToRY1
The End of the Trail.
By j. W. Daniel, D. D.
In S. G.. Advocate

@ In >. T.. Advocate q
@ o o . o o o Q o o o 8 . . o o
1t has been enormously said that
there is no allusion in any reputable
history to Cateechee, the captive
slzve girl of Keeowee, who saved the
weak settlement of Ninety-Six from
destruction by the Cherokee Indians.
There is, however, one reference
Z from very worthy source that
should challenge our attention. I re-
fer to Logan's history Of Upper South
Carolina, page 2s5. Mr.. Logan,
speaking of the decline of the peace
able disposition of the Cherokees
through the corrupting influence of
unprincipled white traders among
them, says:
tsIn the latter periods, however,
when both Indians and white men had
sadly degenerated from their former
hardy virtue, the endangered trader
was much oftener indebted for his
safety to the devotion and cunning
Of his corrupt Indian mistress. Many
romantic instances of this kind could
be related. There is one connected
By tradition, with the history of old
Nnety-Six which we will relate in
its proper place."
Unfortunately, Mr.. Logan never
completed his charming story Of Up
PER South Carolina and, doubtless,
for that reason, he did not write into
his first volume the legend of the
heroic Indian maid who gave Ninety
Six its name and saved the weak set
tlsment from massacre. by the Cher
oAees.
This is the story. At the earliest
period Of the first settlement of
Nhety-Six, probably between 1740
and 1750, the son of an Indian trader
accompanying his father into the
country of the Cherokees, came to
love a beautiful Indian girl, who was
enslayed to Caruga, an Indian chief
at Keeowee. The girl was choc-
staw, and had been captured by the
old chief IN one Of his forrays against
the Choctaw warriors. She became
warmly attached to her young lover
who resided with his father at Ninety
SIX. At some time Just prier, most
pFobably, to 1850. the Cherokees ee-
termined to sack the settlement and
Massacre the settlers. The captive
slave girl heard Of the plot and de-
termined to save her young lover
fpom murder. Therefore, one night
she stole away from Keeowee, mount
ed an Indian pony, and rode from
Kseowee to the settlement where her
lever resided, and betrayed to hin, the
secret plot to destroy the few settlers
and rob them Of their goods. It IS said
that she made the heroic ride in about
twelve hours and put the settlers on
guard, thwarted the design of the
Cherokee warriors, and remained with
her lover until both were subsequently,
captured and carried back to Keeo-
wee. After several years of captivity
they made their escape and returned
to the settlement of Ninety-Six.
One mile creek, Six-mile mountain,
Twelye-mile river, the Eighteen-mile
creek, Three and Twenty creek, and
Six and Twenty creek and Ninety
Six were all respectively those dis
tances from Keeowee. They are all
said to have been named in commem-
oration of the captive Choctaw maids
heroic ride to save her lover.
ia. nay investigation Of the legend
became convinced that it was more
Than d traditiop-that it was a real
historic fact. / shall, therefore, pro-
duce the evidence of it's validity and
leave the reader te draw his own con-
-elusisns as to whether or not it is
worthy of our credence.
Having been reared within twenty
miles of old Ninety-six, the writer
knew of the tradition from earliest
childhood, it having been related to
him by his father and mother, who
we're both residents from childhood
in the vicinity of the old town. His
father was born in 1911. His life,
therefore, extended back to within
sixty-one years of the middle of the
eighteenth century, 1850, just about
the time the heroic ride of the Indian
maid is said to have taken place. He
had hoard tho tradition rolofod hv old