HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOUNDED 1849 OFFICERS President, JOHN H. DEWITT. Vice-Presidents, E. T. SANFORD, J. P. YOUNG. Recording Secretary, IRBY R. HUDSON. Assistant Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, W. A. PROVINE Treasurer and Financial Agent, COL. GEORGE C. PORTER FORM OF LEGACY "I give and bequeath to The Tennessee Historical Society the sum of - __dollars." —1— INDIAN WARS AND WARRIORS OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST, (Continued) 161 Neither the Society nor the Editor assumes responsibility for the statements or the opinions of contributors. In the March number of THE TENNESSEE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, at pages 33 and 34, I gave a short sketch of the Cherokee chief, Judge Friend. Since then I have been able to secure a portrait of him. He is remarkable as being the only Cherokee chief of his age of whom an authentic likeness exists. In offering this portrait for reproduction in THE TENNESSEE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, I desire to tell how it came to be taken and preserved. Judge Friend is known by three or four names. Ostenaco, or Austenaco, was the name his parents gave him. He acquired the name of Judd's Friend, corrupted into Judge Friend, from his humanity in saving a man of that name from the fury of his countrymen. On the other hand, he received his name of Outacite, meaning "man-killer," from his martial exploits. He was ambitious for distinction and power, and Henry Timberlake, who accompanied him to England, and whose coveted commission as lieutenant depended largely upon the impression he should make, was interested in magnifying his greatness and importance. Timberlake says he was the rival of the celebrated chief, Attakullakulla, between whom the Overhill towns were divided into two factions; and declares he was superior in influence to the warlike Oconostota. Attakullakulla, he says, had done little in war to commend him, but had often distinguished himself by his policy and negotiations at home, which, he considered, the greatest steps to power. Oconostota, though surnamed the "Great Warrior" was not his equal. Judge Friend reached his great power by uniting in his character both war and policy. But there was one point on which Judge Friend felt himself inferior to Attakullakulla and Oconostota-they had both been to England and met the great Father face to face. Timberlake does not point this out, but a writer in the Royal Magazine, July, 1762, does. He says: "Outacite (Judge Friend), who is now in England, is not the King of the Cherokees, but only one of their principal warriors. There is at this time no King of the Cherokees; and for sometime their affairs have been principally under the direction of Attakullakulla, commonly called the Little Carpenter, who was over here in 1730, and has been ever since treated with particular respect by the court, and considered as the principal and most sagacious person of the Cherokees. A jealousy of this particular honor paid to Attakullakulla has prompted Outacite to come to England, imagining that the Little Carpenter owes all his power and influence to his having visited King George. Outacite, in order to conceal his project of coming to England from the Little Carpenter, did not come through Carolina, which was his nearest way, but traveled through Virginia, and there embarked." The presence of Judge Friend and his two warriors in London produced the greatest excitement. Thousands of people thronged to see them; and the impecunious Timberlake could hardly resist the temptation to exhibit them for profit. Their visit was recorded in grave histories; Goldsmith utilized it in his Animated Nature; and an unknown artist drew him from life for the Royal Magazine, in which it appeared, with "Some account of the Indians now in England," July, 1762. Judge Friend and his companions are described as: "Men of a middling stature, seem to have no hair on their heads, and wear a kind of skullcap adorned with feathers; their faces and necks are besmeared with a coarse sort of paint, of a brick-dust color, which renders it impossible to know their complexion, they have a loose mantle of scarlet cloth thrown over their bodies, and wear a kind of loose coat. Their necks are streaked with blue paint, something resembling veins in a fine skin. There seems to be a mixture of majesty and moroseness in their countenances. The chief, whose portrait we have given, is called Outacite, or man-killer; and notwithstanding the ignorance in which he and the rest of that and other Indian nations are involved, shows a sense of ture honor, and great generosity of mind." They were introduced to his Majesty and ordered to be provided for at his expense. Afterwards they were conducted to the most eminent places in and about the city. They visited the court, Tower, St. Paul, the Mansion House, the Temple, Vauxhall Gardens, and other places of entertainment, the dock at Deptford, the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, and the dock and magazine at Woolwich. They were carried to Woolwich in the Admiralty barge, and the only expression of astonishment drawn from them was at the number of ships and vesvels which they saw on their passage down the river. They reached London June 18, and departed on their return voyage August 9, 1762. A. V. GOODPASTURE. GEORGE WILSON. Who was George Wilson? Almost any one can tell you about George Wilson. But the various accounts will not agree. There are and have been George Wilsons of so many kinds, and living at so many different places, that it is well in the beginning to establish the identity of the subject of this sketch. This is the George Wilson that gave the name to George Wilson's Spring and George Wilson's Spring Branch, of Nashville, Tennessee. In the early days of Nashville the small village on the bluff was bounded on the north and west by the Sulphur Spring Branch, and on the south by George Wilson's Spring Branch. The latter now enters the Cumberland River through a large sewer near the Tennessee Central Station. Its source is a large spring now concealed under a house at the northeast corner of Seventh Avenue and Peabody streets, on the fifth block south of Broadway. George Wilson's place contained about five acres, bounded on the west by Spruce Street (now Eighth Avenue), on the south by South Union (now Lea Avenue), on the east by High Street (now Sixth Avenue), and on the north by the Academy line. His residence was probably on Spruce Street where the African S. S. Union building now stands. Originally, the valley of George Wilson's Spring Branch was heavily wooded and thick with cane. From the Battle of the Bluff the Indians fled through this valley, chased from the front by the pioneers and their dogs. In George Wilson's time the large spring supplied water for Wilson's tannery, the tannery of Peter Bass lower down on the Branch, and other factories. Then, and for many years afterwards, it furnished cool, wholesome drinking water for the residents of that vicinity. At the present time even the course of the Branch is concealed beneath the streets, the buildings, and the accumulated rubbish of Black Bottom; and the George Wilson place and adjoining grounds are coursed by streets and alleys lined with numerous houses and densely populated. But the ever flowing waters of George Wilson's Spring are quaffed by a greater This branch up to about 1830 was universally designated "Tan-Yard Branch," receiving its name from the fact that a number of tan-yards were located on it. At a very early date Willie Barrow had a tanyard very near the spring. He became involved in debt, mortgaged the spring property to James Condon, who transferred same to George Wilson, and after Barrow's death his widow made fee simple title to Wilson, viz: Jan. 23, 1826. (Davidson County Deed Book, "R," p. 99.) |