People
Chief Oolooteka & The Cherokees
Chief Oolooteka was the leader of the Cherokee people who lived on Hiwasee Island, located about 50 miles southwest of Maryville, Tennessee. Considered one of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Cherokee culture emphasized openness and flexibility. Their society was egalitarian; a class system did not exist and women were treated as equals. In an attempt to coexist with the white frontiersmen who settled on their boundaries, the Cherokees adopted the ways of the whites more readily than any other tribe in North America. In fact, the Cherokees fought beside the white Americans during the Creek War (1813-14), and by 1821, due to the efforts of Sequoyah, the Cherokees had their own written language.
By the beginning of the 19th Century, most Cherokees lived a settled existence as farmers and hunters in some sixty or seventy loosely formed bands, each with its own chief. When Sam Houston came to live with Chief Oolooteka and his tribe, the town was populated by 82 men, 98 women, 66 horses, 170 head cattle, 242 hogs, and 32 spinning wheels. The Cherokees lived in "wigwams," although tribal leaders like Chief Oolooteka usually had a two-story frame house. Slaveholding was common among the wealthy Cherokees.
Many Cherokees intermarried with whites and it was common to have two names—a Cherokee name and an English name. The Chief's English name was John Jolly and his Cherokee name, Oo-loo-te-ka, means "He who puts away the drum," a testament to a leader who sought reconciliation and peace rather than war. The Chief usually dressed in buckskin with a hunting shirt, leggings and moccasins and he did not speak English.
Chief Oolooteka and his people eventually immigrated west to Arkansas Territory in 1818, after being forced to leave their homeland by a treaty that was suspiciously obtained. The Chief died in 1838.
Sources:
Randolph B. Campbell, Sam Houston and the American Southwest, ed. Oscar Handlin (New York: Harper Collins, 1993).
The Cherokee Nation, accessed June, 2003.
About North Georgia, accessed June, 2003.
Andrew Jackson
(1767 – 1845)
Andrew Jackson became the seventh President of the United States, serving two terms from 1829 – 1837. Regarded as the first President to represent the common man, Jackson reshaped the character of the Presidency and helped to construct the foundation for the modern Democratic Party.
Born in the Carolinas in 1767, Jackson had little formal education, but during his teen years, studied law and eventually moved to the Tennessee frontier to seek his fortune. In Tennessee, Jackson became a successful attorney and prospered enough as a "self-made man" to build a plantation home outside of Nashville, called the Hermitage. Jackson lived at the Hermitage with his wife, Rachel Donelson.
Jackson was the first man from Tennessee to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, and he briefly served in the United States Senate. He rose to national prominence during his tour of duty in the War of 1812 where he served as a Major General, defeating the British at New Orleans.
After becoming a national war hero, Jackson ran for President in 1824. Jackson won the popular and electoral vote, but because none of the four candidates—Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford—had a majority, the election was decided by the House of Representatives. The House voted and John Quincy Adams was chosen. Jackson ran for the Presidency again in 1828 and won. Heralded the champion of the common man, Jackson vowed to clean up the corruption that he believed had led to his denial of the Presidency in 1824. Jacksonian democracy was born.
As President, Jackson actively wielded the power of the office, vetoing more pieces of legislation than the first six Presidents combined. He was also a strong supporter of the Union and of federal authority, a stance that eventually clashed with that of his Vice President John C. Calhoun, who resigned over the issue.
Other significant events during Jackson's tenure included his dismantling of the national bank system, which he did by vetoing the extension of the bank's charter, claiming that the bank benefited the upper classes at the expense of the working people. Jackson was also responsible for the Trail of Tears—the removal of Native Americans from their east coast homelands.
Jackson returned to Heritage in 1837 after serving his second term. He remained active in the Democratic Party and supported the annexation of Texas by the United States. Jackson died on June 8, 1845, having lived to see the passage of the joint annexation resolution by both Houses of Congress (although Texas did not officially become a state until the end of 1845). Jackson was buried at the Hermitage, beside his beloved wife, Rachel, who died shortly after Jackson won the presidency.
Sources:
Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, accessed June, 2003.
The White House biography of President Andrew Jackson, accessed June, 2003.
The Texas State Library, accessed June, 2003.
John C. Calhoun
(1782 – 1850)
John C. Calhoun, a political rival of Houston, served in the United States government as a Congressman, Senator, Secretary of War, Vice President, and Secretary of State. Originally from South Carolina, Calhoun graduated from Yale, attended law school in Connecticut and passed the South Carolina bar in 1807. After practicing in his native district for two years, Calhoun ran for the state legislature and won, launching a political career that would take him to the second-highest political office in the country.
Elected to Congress in 1811, Calhoun introduced the war report, advocating the War of 1812. Calhoun and Henry Clay, two famous "War Hawks," urged war with England to vindicate American national honor. Calhoun served as Secretary of War under President James Monroe from 1817-1825. During that time, Calhoun met Houston when Houston, serving as Indian Subagent, escorted a group of Cherokees Chiefs to the White House. The meeting between the two men was not an amicable one and a lifelong rivalry ensued.
In 1824, Calhoun sought to succeed Monroe as President, but withdrew his candidacy to run as Vice President. He served as Vice President under John Quincy Adams and began a term under Andrew Jackson, but resigned in 1832 over policy disputes, including tariff and states' rights issues.
Focused on protecting southern interests, Calhoun ran for a Senate seat in South Carolina. He served as a Senator from 1832-1843, and after serving as Secretary of State in 1844, the last year of President John Tyler's administration, he returned to the Senate and served from 1846 until his death. Calhoun was a spokesman for slavery and states' rights, the precipitating issues of the Civil War. He died in Washington in March of 1850.
Source:
Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, accessed June, 2003.
Eliza Allen
Eliza Allen, Sam Houston's first wife, was born to Laetitia and Colonel John Allen, a wealthy Sumner county couple who believed that Houston was an acceptable match for their daughter. After Houston and Eliza's eleven-week marriage soured in 1829, Eliza went into seclusion and Houston left Nashville to live with the Cherokees in Arkansas. The couple never saw each other again.
Four years later, Eliza's mother died while giving birth to her tenth child, and the following year, her father died after being kicked in the abdomen by a horse. Eliza was left to care for her younger siblings.
Houston and Eliza were officially divorced in 1837, a year after Houston became the president of the Republic of Texas. In 1840, Eliza married Dr. Elmore Douglass of Gallatin, a widower with ten children. She and Dr. Douglass added four more children to their family; only two of the four survived to adulthood, but died before age 35, having no families of their own.
On March 3, 1861, Eliza died of stomach cancer at age 51. She had no descendants and tradition holds that before her death she requested that all images of her be destroyed and her that personal papers and letters be burned. She was buried in an unmarked grave in the Gallatin cemetery, although a marker was placed on the grave a century later.
Source:
Elizabeth Crook, The Raven's Bride (New York: Doubleday, 1991).