Bartram, who traversed the Cherokee Country between 1773 and 1778 furnishes an enumeration of the village of the Cherokees with their locations. He gives a list of Four towns "On the Tanase east of the Jove Mountains." Five towns "Inland towns on the branches of the Tanase and other waters over the Jove Mountains." Eleven towns "Overhill towns on the Tanase or Cherokee River.” In the last enumeration, the "Tanase or Cherokee River" would seem to imply that the name Tanase applied to the whole Cherokee River at that time. The name first was the name of the river now known to us as the Little Tennessee. If the words "Tanase or Cherokee River" is correct, then the name Tanase became the name of the whole river from the mountains, by way of the Little Tennessee, to the Ohio before the year, 1773. On the "Earliest Map showing the location of the Cherokees, 1597," " the Tennessee River is laid down but not named. The map was made by Coverely Wytfliet from the knowledge of the country obtained by De Soto's Expedition. It is correctly divided into two branches or, perhaps, valleys, the Little Tennessee and Hiwassee, and the Holston. It is now generally believed that De Soto was in East Tennessee, and that the Tennessee River was first explored, or at least seen by Spaniards. Haywood says that the Cherokees have always designated the Tennessee by the name of the "Big River." 8 King's Handbook of the United States says "the name Tennessee is a Cherokee word, meaning 'a Curved Spoon,' or 'A Bend in the River.' It was derived from Tanassee, the chief village of the Cherokee tribe, which stood on the shore of the river. The name was applied (to the State) upon motion of Andrew Jackson." The name could not mean a "curved spoon" unless the Cherokees had among them seers or prophets, who were able to look forward some hundreds of years, perhaps, and see spoons in the possession of the Europeans who were to visit them after the discovery by Columbus. The theory that the word might mean "a bend in the river," or "the river with the great bend" might be plausible if we knew that the name always attached to the whole river. The signification of the word Tanase is probably lost for all time. Its origin is lost also. We only know when it first appeared in the writings of the Europeans and to what it then applied. We know also that it is an Indian word of great beauty, and we can commend the wisdom that selected it as the name for a great state.9 The French bestowed the name Cherokee on the Tennessee River and it was thus known to the earlier settlers and explorers, until that name was replaced by Tennessee. Haywood says "the river to the south of Holston as laid down in the old maps is called the Tanses or Tanasees. The Big Tennessee, below that, is called the Hogoheegee." Ramsey says that it was the Holston which was known as the Hogoheegee.11 5 Bartram's Travels in North America, 371. • Bureau of Ethnology, Fifth Annual Report, 128. 7 Ibid., 135, 136. 8 Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee, 30. " 10 9 Tennessee (Ta-nasi or Tansi). The name of two or more Cherokee settlements at an early period. The principal one was on Little Tennessee River, a short distance above its junction with the main stream, in East Tennessee. Another was on an extreme head branch of Tuckasegee River, above the present Webster, North Carolina. The name has lost its meaning, all the so-called derivations being fanciful.Handbook of American Indians, Vol. 2, p. 729. 10 Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee, 39. 11 Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, 87. The Holston River was known to the English at an early date. It is one of the most noted rivers in the annals of the settlement of the country west of the Alleghanies. A Mr. Vaughan, of Virginia, passed down the Holston in 1740, in company with some Virginians who were trading with the Cherokees. 12 Haywood says that the Holston was known to the Cherokees by the name of Watauga, and that this name was lost by the settlement upon it of one Stephen Holston some years before 1758.13 Haywood also says that "the Indians called the Holston the Coot-cha." But Ramsey points out that it was only that part of the river from the mouth of the Little Tennessee to the mouth of the French Broad that was known as the Cootcha to the Indians. The Holston was believed to be the head or main branch of the Tennessee River by the early explorers, and as such was called the Cherokee River.14 The Holston is sometimes called Holstein by early writers, and on Lewis Evans' Map, 1775, it is marked "Helston R." It is laid down on the Nuremberg Map, 1756, as "Holston's R." On this map the Tennessee River is marked "Hogehege or Cherakees R." On the Little Tennessee, which is not named, a town is marked "Tonase." The date when Stephen Holston's name attached to this river is not known. It seems to have been widely known as Holston River before 1750. At that time it was not known by any other name. Doctor Draper says that prior to 1748, Holston, during a hunt, had discovered this river. The river had been known to the whites for many years before this. Mr. Vaughan had passed down it and described it in 1740. In view of this, it would, in all probability, require more than a mere discovery by Holston to fix his name on the river. He must have settled there and remained for a sufficient time for it to become known to the traders and frontiersmen in order to give his name to the river. And this must have been prior to 1748, as the river was then called Holston. He lived in South Carolina in 1753, and after that date, again settled on the Holston. Doctor Draper's statements are contradictory on this point. In one place he says that the river was known as the Holston, before April, 1748. In another, he says that Holston's name did not become fixed to the noble stream which he had discovered until after his return from Natchez, which was later than 1753." 12 Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee, 40. 13 Ibid., 42. 14 "In the map accompanying Adair's book, the river from the head of Holston to the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio is called Cherake. The Cumberland is called Old Shawvanon, or river of the Shawnees. Near the source of the latter stream, a tributary of the Tennessee takes its rise; it is probably intended for the modern Clinch. The Hiwassee is called Euphasee, of which Chestoe is a confluent. Tennase is the stream now known as Little Tennessee."-Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, 80. 15 "There were settlers on both New and Holston Rivers prior to 1756-Vause, Stalnacker and others on New River; and Stephen Holston, at least, on the river bearing his name, which was known as such anterior to April, 1748, when Dr. Walker, in his Journal of 1750, refers to it by that designation at that date. "A further notice of Stephen Holston, or Holstein, seems fitting in this connection. He was of an adventurous turn, and prior to 1748 had, during a hunt, discovered the river named after him. It was after this discovery that he settled on the Little Saluda, near Saluda Old Town, in South Carolina, where, in the summer of 1753, a party of Cherokees returning from a visit to Gov. Glen, at Charleston, behaved so rudely to Mrs. Holston, in her husband's absence, as to frighten her and her domestics away, fleeing several miles to the nearest settlement, when the house was robbed of utensils and corn, and two valuable horses were also taken. Holston and some of his neighbors settled on Holstons River, in what subsequently became Botetourt county; soon after this, they constructed canoes, and passed down the Holston into the Tennessee River, through the Muscle Shoals, and down the Ohio and Mississippi as far as Natchez. Returning from this notable adventure, his name became fixed to the noble stream which he discovered, and upon which he made the primitive The Clinch River was not explored and named until long after the Holston was well known. Haywood relates that the Clinch River and Clinch Mountain were named from the following circumstance. "An Irishman was one of the company; in crossing the river he fell from the raft into it, and cried out, Clinch me! Clinch me!' meaning lay hold of me. The rest of the company, unused to the phrase, amused themselves at the expense of the poor Írishman, and called the river Clinch.” 16 This can hardly have been the origin of the name Clinch, for the circumstance is described as having occurred after the year 1761. Doctor Walker, in his Journal of 1750, speaks of "a river, which I suppose to be that which the hunters call Clinches River from one Clinch a Hunter, who first found it." 17 Doctor Walker's account of how the river ob tained its name is the correct one. Ambrose Powell was one of Doctor Walker's party in 1750. Hunters and explorers were much in the habit of cutting their names on the smooth bark of the great beeches growing in the wilderness. There are many references to this practice, in Doctor Walker's Journal, and in other works. In 1761, a party of hunters, consisting of nineteen men, went into what is now Lee County, Virginia, and established a hunting station on a creek which they named Walden's or Wallen's Creek from the fact that Elisha Wallen or Walden was one of the principal men of the company. Haywood writes the name Wallen. Withers and Dr. Draper write it Walden, which is probably correct, although the name which the creek and mountain retain is Wallen. This party gave names to many creeks, rivers, and mountains in Virginia, while hunting there in 1761. On a birch tree on Powell's River, near the mouth of Wallen's Creek, they found cut the name "Ambrose Powell." From this circumstance they named the river, Powell's River, and from this came the names of Powell's Valley and Powell's Mountain. For Wallen, they also named Wallen's Ridge, and for other men in the company, they named Scaggs' Ridge, and Newman's Ridge. They named Copper Creek from a yellowish iron ore which they found there.18. The following quotation from Ramsey, on the origin of the name French Broad, may be of interest: "By prior discovery, if not by conquest or occupancy, France claimed the whole valley of the Mississippi. 'Louisiana stretched to the head-springs of the Alleghany and the Monongahela, of the Kenhawa and the Tennessee. Half a mile from the head of the southern branch of the Savannah river is Herbert's Spring, which flows to the Mississippi; strangers who drink of it would say they had tasted of French Waters.' This remark of Adair may probably explain the English name of the principal tributary of the Holston. Traders and hunters from Carolina, in exploring the country and passing from the head waters of Broad River, of Carolina, and falling upon those of the stream with which they inosculate west of the mountain, would hear of the French claim, as Adair did, and call it, most naturally, French Broad." 19 settlement. His location on Holston was at the head spring of the Middle Fork; his log cabin was on the hill side some thirty rods from the spring. In 1774, one Davis occupied the place, and related that Holston had left several years before that date. On the breaking out of the Indian war in 1754, he seems to have returned with his family to Culpeper county, which was then not exempt from Indian forays; and Holston, about 1757, was captured by Indians. But in due time he returned to the Holston country, served in the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, on Christians's campaign against the Cherokees, in 1776, and was reported in service in 1776, or 1777. As we hear no more of him, he probably did not long survive this period."-Wither's Border Warfare, 59. Note by Lyman C. Draper. 16 Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee, 45. 17 Dr. Walker's Journal under date of April 9, 1750. Watauga River signifies in the Cherokee tongue the River of Islands. The name Watauga was once applied by the Indians to the Holston.20 After the Holston was given its present name, its ancient name, in some unaccountable manner, was transferred to the stream we now know as the Watauga. Walker's Creek and Walker's Mountain, both west of the New River, in Virginia, were so called in honor of Dr. Thomas Walker, who explored to the west in the years 1748, and 1750. CUMBERLAND-RIVER-MOUNTAIN-GAP Dr. Thomas Walker and his companions discovered the Cumberland River on the 17th day of March, 1750. They had come through that pass, which is now known as Cumberland Gap, on the 13th, and followed the Great War Road or Warrior's Path leading from the countries of the Northern Indian tribes to those of the Southern tribes. They had camped on the 14th on the stream now known as Yellow Creek. The 15th was Easter Sunday. The company did not usually travel on Sunday, but the site of the camp being bad, they moved seven miles, following the War Road, and camped on what is now Clear Creek, though they named it Clover Creek, finding there an abundance of clover and hop vines-later known as pea-vine, and which furnished pasturage for cattle equal to that of clover. Because of rain, camp was not moved on the 16th. It was still raining on the 17th and the party could not travel. But Doctor Walker went hunting down the creek. A mile below the camp, at the mouth of Clear Creek, he came to a river, which he says in his Journal, "I called Cumberland River." So far as has been found, historians have said that Doctor Walker gave the name Cumberland to the range now known as Cumberland Mountains, and the pass through this range which we know as Cumberland Gap. But Doctor Walker did nothing of the kind. When he and his companions arrived at the gap on the 13th it must already have had a name-Cave Gap-and this name Doctor Walker used for the pass. Later, in his Journal he calls it Cave Gap. He found it Cave Gap and left it Cave Gap.21 The Cumberland Mountains Doctor Walker named the Steep Ridge. There is no mistaking Doctor Walker's language, nor his intentions in bestowing this name of "Steep Ridge." It was the Cumberland Range which he so named. For he put down in his Journal a good description of the Cumberlands, and gave the range. its name from the steep character of it on the north side "The Mountain on the North Side of the Gap is very Steep and Rocky," he said.22 20 Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee, 41, 42. 21 See Dr. Walker's Journal. Also see Chapter V "Explorations of Dr. Thomas Walker" in this work. 22 J. Stoddard Johnston, in his First Explorations of Kentucky, a Filson Club publication, says, at page 48, in speaking of the Gap, that it was "Named later! by Dr. Walker Cumberland Gap." Mr. Johnston would have saved many students much valuable time if he had said when he later named it Cumberland Gap, and where he made any record of having so named it. The when and where have not been found. As a still further and conclusive evidence that Doctor Walker did not bestow the name Cumberland on the mountains and the gap, see An Analysis of a General Map of the Middle British Colonies, by Lewis Evans to accompany his map of that date. He names the Cumberland Mountains the Ouasioto Mountains, and says he obtained his information from Doctor Walker as to names. He says: "As for the Branches of Ohio, which head in the New Virginia (so they call, for Distinctionsake, that Part of Virginia South East of the Ouasioto Mountains, and on the Branches of Green Briar, New River, and Holston River) I am particularly obliged to Dr. Thomas Walker, for the Intelligence of what Names they bear, and what Rivers they fall into Northward and Westward." And this name-Ouasioto-carried with it the proof that the Six Nations, or the Wyandots for them, named the Cumberland range the Ouasioto Mountains. "Oua. The Cumberland Mountains and the Cumberland Gap got the name Cumberland by indirection. Doctor Walker's name Cumberland as applied to the river stuck. There was never any doubt as to its identity, such as gathered about some of the other rivers. It was the Cumberland and nothing else. No other river was the Cumberland. The maps were correct as to both name and river. And from this circumstance the pass and the main mountain range took by usage the name Cumberland. Doctor Walker attached the name to the river. Later the name attached itself to the mountain and the remarkable pass through it. Some additional information has been compiled and is set out here. Haywood in speaking of the hunting party of 1761 which gave names to Powell's River and other physical features of Southwestern Virginia says: "They then went through Cumberland Gap, and, when there, agreed that Wallen should name the mountain. He, having come from Cumberland County, Va., gave it the name of Cumberland Mountain. They proceeded to the river now called Cumberland, and called it North Cumberland." 23 It is somewhat strange that so good a historian as Haywood should fall into such an error as this. And it is still more strange that Collins should follow him without investigation, and make the same mistake.24 It has been said that Doctor Walker bestowed these names in 1748, while on his first exploring expedition. But Hall states that he had examined a manuscript affidavit of Doctor Walker in which it was stated that in the month of April, 1750, he visited the waters of the Cumberland, and gave its present name to that river.25 Ramsey says the Duke of Cumberland was then prime minister of England.26 And Shaler in speaking of him says "the very unsavory George, Duke of Cumberland." 27 On the old maps the Cumberland River is laid down and called the Shawnee River because the Shawnees dwelt in its valley. Speed, in his Wilderness Road makes the mistake of calling this the Cherokee River,28 It was never known as the Cherokee River. "31 The Indian name of the Cumberland Mountain was Ouasioto,29 Waseoto, or Ono-Sciota.30 These are only different forms of the same name. The name is of Iroquois or Huron origin and signified "the mountains where deer are plenty.' It is to be regretted that the beautiful Indian name of this mountain range was supplanted by one sioto" is an Iroquoian word—not a Shawnee word. It is derived from skanoto, the Wyandot or Iroquoian word for deer. The word is nearly the same in all other Iroquoian dialects. This is, too, further evidence of the complete conquest by the Six of all the Ohio Valley south to the Tennessee including the Holston. They imposed their name on these mountains, which they could not have done had the country containing the mountains belonged to any other tribe. 23 Haywood's Civil and Political History of Tennessee, 46. 24 Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. 2, 416, Josh Bell County. 25 Hall's Romance of Western History, 148. 26 Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, 66. 27 Shaler's Kentucky, 60. 28 Wilderness Road, 72. 29 Gist's Journals, 271, 272. 30 Ibid., 118. 31 "Scioto, deer. Where deer are plenty. Deer, Scaenoto, Magua, Zeisberger and other Moravian Missionaries. The language of the Hurons and Wyandots comes near the Magua. John Johnston observes in 'Howe's History of Ohio,' p. 600 that 'the Sci-on-to River was named by the Wyandots, who formerly resided on it; signification unknown.' On p. 588 of the same volume he gives specimens of the Wyandot language; in the list deer is Ough-Sca-noto. In the Onondaga tongue deer is Skano-do. The Wyandots or Hurons, and Iroquois or Five Nations, were of the same original stock. The name Ona-Sciota, mountains in Southeastern Kentucky, on Evans' Map of 1755 and Hutchins of 1778, doubtless meant mountains where deer are plenty."-Gist's Journals, 117, 118. * * * Imlay quotes from "Gordon's Journal," as follows: "By reason of the difficulty of passing the Ouasioto Mountains, I thought them a very natural boundary between Virginia and Ohio in these parts; and for that reason made them the bounds of the |