Evening star., 1934-02-26
Land Speculation Is Fought by T. V. A..
Aim Development Power Resources Of Valley Not Create New
Metropolis But to Spur Widespread Industrial Development

the tennessee, Valuable prospective
cotton land, in dispute between North
Carolina, Georgia and the Creek In
dians. Tracts were granted as "bo-
muses." to veterans of the Revolution.
who promptly. In many cases, turned
them into ready cash by sale to land
companies. These Immediately began
to initiate values, despite the fact that
there were no settlers and that the
Creek Nation threatened summary
vengeance on intruders.
Complicated by New State.
The situation was complicated by
setting up the State of Franklin, with
the idolized hero of Kings Mountain
as it's Governor, when Carolina ceded
her western lands to the Federal Gov
ernment. There is some reason to
believe that one of the motives for
the new State was to protect the
spectators in their real estate in
vestments, and that this initiated
against the willingness of the Frank
linites to return to their old ale
glance once the cession act had been
repealed.
In 1785 the Franklin Legislature
made plans for occupying the Big
Bend country, in cooperation with
Georgia, which also laid claim to the
territory. In 1856 war was raging be-
tween Georgia and the Creek Nation
and 1t was proposed to cede all claim
to the territory about Muscle Shoals
to Franklin in return for military
assistance. But here the new Fed
eral Congress stepped in. Georgia
now was a member of the Union and
had given up her right to wage pri-
vate wars. The Federal Government
made peace with the Creeks and
Georgia withdrew her offer to cede
the land At about the same time
SEWERS government was 0YtTthr0Wn.
The land spectators we're left
holding the bag" Their one hope
had lain in a war of determination
between Georgia and the Indians,
which would have disposed of the
Greeks and cleared their titles. The
peace-making proclivities of the Fed
eral Government were resented. So
group of Franklinites, inspired by
the spectators, are alleged deliber-
ately to have massacred a Creek set
tlement under a flag of truce in the
hope of SO arousing the red men
against Georgia that the State would
be forced to ignore the Federal set
tlement, wage war for its preserva-
ton, and return to the old agree
ment
Began Bloody Indian War.
They succeeded in laying the foun-
dations for perhaps the bloodiest In
dian war the United States has
known, but Georgia did not carry it
on alone. The great Greek War, how
ever, did effectively open up the land
for settlement.
Hopeless of securing the conniv-
ance of either Georgia or the Fed
eral Government in their specrlla-
tions, it is alleged. the promoters
sought to make the territory of
Franklin a province Of Spain in the
belief that they could do better un-
der Spanish law. This came to
nothing.
There was big land boom around
Muscle Shoals in 1919, when the first
settlers occupied the site of the city
of Florence James Madison, James
Monroe and Andrew jackson were
among the investors in house lots.
In 1924 John C. Calhoun. then Sec
retary of War. urged the develop
ment of the Tennessee River for nav
igation, resulting in another furry
of speculation. The War Department
built a canal around the shoals in
1881, bu. it proved a failure. This
was rebuilt and reopened in 1890 but
was soon abandoned. The next chap
ter was the building of the Wilson
Dam.