The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1934-03-30
Fifty F a m Gus
FrOntiersm en-
BY
ELMO SCOTT WATSON
The Founder of Nashville

UEACH one should DO what seems
IL to him his duty. AS for myself,
| my station is here. and here ! shall
| stay If every man of you deserts me"
| So spoke James Robertson, leader OF
the pioneer colony that had settled on
the Cumberland river In Tennessee on
Christmas day, 1873. There had been
256 men In the colony at first. but with
In 60 days 80 had fallen under the
tomahawks of the Cherokees. Within
few more months 81 others had per-
ished. Crops had failed and starvation
doomed. Some of the settlers began
to leave, and finally only 134 of the
256 were left. They tried to get Rob
ertson to abandon his post, and the
! above was his answer.
1t was characteristic of this Scotch
Irishman from Virginia who had set
tied in North Carolina In 1850. That
spirit had carried him across the
mountains with Daniel Boone In 1853
and had brought him back, after ter
rible hardships, to North Carolina to
lead party of settlers into the ricn
Watauga region and later still farther
west.
The emigration of Robertson's SET
tiers from the Watauga to the banks
of the Cumberland in central Tennes-
see is one of the epics of the frontier.
After all he had endured to plant that
settlement there, he was not going to
give up so easily. So, with his eldest
SON and two other companions Rob-
ertson made his way to Boonesborough
where Daniel Boone lent him powder
and lead. He soon had need for it,
for 1000 hostile Cherokees swept down
upon the fort at Nashville.
Then ii was that Charlotte Reeves
Robertson proved herself a worthy
mate of the stout-hearted pioneer. In
their attempt to capture the horses of
the whites, the Cherokees left gap in
their ranks. Mrs. Robertson, rifle In
hand and crouched in lookout tower
Of the fort, seeing the stampede of the
horses and the break in the Indian
line shouted to the sentry: "Open the
gates and set the dogs on 'em" AS
the savages drew their tomahawks to
fight off the dogs, the settlers fled to
safety, whereupon Charlotte Reeves
Robertson uttered her thanks to God
who gave to the Indians dread of
dogs and love of horses"
There were few more years of In
dian fighting and then peace came to
Tennessee. With it came honors to
James Washington made
him brigadier general and he was In
dian commissioner until his death. He
died in 1914 but he had lived to see the
colony which he had founded grow in
to a great commonwealth and enter
the sisterhood of states.
"The Emperor of the West"
TO THE Indians he was white
Eagle"-six feet, two inches tall,
with a constitution of iron and hair
of pure white, man of inflexible
courage and unfailing honesty. To
the white men of his time he was the
Emperor of the West" a wilderness
king who ruled over 100000 square
miles, an empire which extended from
California to Alaska and from the
Great Salt Lake to British Columbia.
To history he is the "Father of Ore
gon," more truly than is any other
man who may be given that title. To
the shame of two nations who owed
him much he became in his declining
years "Man Without Country"
All these was DIR. John Mclaughlin.
Like that other monarch of the empire
of fur, Kenneth Mackenzie, who ruled
at Fort Union in Montana, McLough-
lin was a Scotchman who first served
the Hudson's Bay company. In 1924
he was appointed chief factor for the
81. B. G. in the Columbia river district
of the Pacific Northwest. Abandoning
Astoria. which had come into posses
sion of the 81. B. C. via the Northwest
company. Mclaughlin built Fort Van
couver farther up the river.
Here began his rule over his vast
empire. He not only developed the
fur trade, but he also encouraged
the agricultural development of the
Pacific Northwest. He ruled his sub
jects, both white and red, with firm
ness and justice and they in turn loved
and respected Emperor John" or
white Eagle"
Then American settlers began to
drift into the Oregon country. More
than one forlorn American fur trader
and more than one hollow-eyed settler,
gaunt from privation, found a gener
GUS host In the Scotch doctor and q
reliable source of supply while they
were carving home from the wilder
ness. AS an employee of the I'll. B. T..
he should, of course. have expelled
from the country this advance guard
Of American settlement. But he didn't
So when the Hudson's Bay company
learned what he was doing, .he EN-
peror of the West" was Quickly de
throned. He was not even recognized
as British subject by the majority or
his fellow-countrymen More than that
ne was impoverished by his loans to
the settlers who failed to repay him.
In 1S49 he tried to become an Amer
lean citizen. But petty souls who could
not forget that he had once ruled this
country for British company blocked
him. Congress failed to confirm his
title to lands near Oregon City, Ore.
where he wished to retire in his old
age and claim jumpers took them away
from him. Five years after his death
in 1857, the legislature restored those
lands to his heirs. But it was too late
to save the beloved Scotch doctor from
dying, a broken-hearted old man, a
man without a country.
g, 1898, Western Newspaper Union.