Adjoining Cameron Cowpens

Source

Land grants and surveys, v. A-C 1784-1788 (Greenville, South Carolina)

...being above the Indian boundary on the grove adjoining Cameron Cowpens....

Also see survey/grant/deed on the same page here.

Cross-posted at In Deeds

Edict Regarding Purchasing Lands From The Indians

To add to their discomfiture King George III had, in October 1763, issued an edict forbidding private persons from purchasing lands from the Indians. Soon after the line had been established, the British Indian agent, Alexander Cameron, visited the settlement, informed the whites that they were trespassers on the Cherokees and that they must vacate or they would be removed by British troops. In the meantime the little colony had been joined by John Sevier and the Shelbys, Evan and Isaac, father and son. Robertson had come to be by common consent the leader of the colony, but upon the arrival of Sevier the honors were divided between them. Cameron took Sevier and Robertson to one side and intimated in rather broad terms that on payment of a certain sum to him they would be allowed to remain unmolested, Both scorned the idea of a bribe, and the agent departed. Then the settlers decided to evade the king's order by leasing the lands from the Indians. A council was accordingly called and an agreement made by which the whites were to have undisputed possession of the Watauga Old Fields for a term of eight years, in consideration of goods amounting to about $5,000.  [Source -  Notable Men of Tennessee]

Camerons In The Indian Department

The Quebec Almanac And British American Calendar (1814):

Cross-posted at War Of 1812 Chronicles

Alexander Cameron And The Greenville Tracts

Ca 1773 "Parker" Map - South Carolina And Cherokee Lands (LOC)

"...a series of individuals attempted to secure tracts of Greenville land while it was still beyond the [Native American] boundary.  The first of these individuals was none other than Alexander Cameron, the deputy Indian superintendent...".

Fort Prince George On A 1794 South Carolina Map (LOC)

"A Scot...[with] a commission as an ensign with the British Army, stationed at Fort Prince George (1762-1763). He settled on a land grant at Long Canes Creek in 1763...".

"He fathered a child by a Cherokee woman...chiefs offered him a tract of Greenville land in February 1768...". In 1770 the Cameron land was identified by surveyor Patrick Calhoun as 'Land reserved for an Indian Boy begotten by a White Man Alexander Cameron.'"[Source of all of the above text]

Cross-posted at Detour Through History

Cameron's Cowpens In South Carolina

Source  

*Land designated for Alexander Cameron, Indian Agent....

From Greenville: The History...By Archie Vernon Huff:

*"...Indian boundary to the east to the Saluda River and included all but the upper reaches of Golden Grove Creek."

"When Judge Henry Pendleton purchased a tract on Golden Grove Creek in 1784, the land was designated 'Camerons Cowpens.'"

Source
Land grants and surveys, v. A-C 1784-1788 (Greenville, South Carolina)

Source

Land grants and surveys, v. A-C 1784-1788 (Greenville, South Carolina)

21 May 1784

Note: Cross-posted at In Deeds

Alexander Cameron, British Agent Among The Cherokee

 From an 1811 "History of Georgia..."

Coastal Area

Marching To Meet Cameron

Searching Documenting the American South:

Description by J. G. M. Ramsey of an attack by the North Carolina Militia on the Cherokee Nation 

[Reprinted from Ramsay's History of Tennessee. P. 162.]  Excerpt:

"To inflict suitable chastisement upon the Cherokees several expeditions were at once made into their territory. Colonel McBury and Major Jack from Georgia entered the Indian settlements on Tugaloo and defeating the enemy, destroyed all their towns on that River. General Williamson of South Carolina early in July began to embody the militia of that State and before the end of that month was at the head of an army of eleven hundred and fifty men marching to meet Cameron who was with a large body of Esseneca Indians and disaffected white men encamped at Oconoree. Encountering and defeating this body of the enemy he destroyed their town and a large amount of provisions. He burned Sugaw Town, Soconee, Keowee, Ostatory, Tugaloo and Brass Town. He proceeded against Tomassee, Chehokee and Eustustie where observing a recent trail of the enemy he made pursuit and soon met and vanquished three hundred of their warriors. These towns he afterwards destroyed."

Alexander Cameron's Protege

*"Colonel Innes was a Scotchman.  He was probably a protege of his countryman, Alexander Cameron, the British Indian Agent among the Cherokees; and was, it would appear, an assistant commissary at the Long Island of Holston, at one time; and in the fall of 1777, returned to the Cherokee nation, taking up his  quarters with Cameron.  He was commissioned Colonel of the South Carolina Royalists, January 20, 1780; in 1782, he was Inspector General of the Loyalist forces.  Colonel Hanger, in his Reply to Mackenzie's Strictures states that Innes was living retired in 1789, probably on half-pay."

Nancy Ward's Warning

Nancy Ward warned settlers against Indian Agents Stuart and Cameron:

Source

Source

Patrick Calhoun Sent To Capture Alexander Cameron

Colonial Families of the United States...

Patrick Calhoun's Memorial at FindAGrave.

Alexander Cameron At Fort Prince George

A Map of the lands ceded by the Cherokee Indians to the State of South-Carolina... (LOC)

"Stuart, who likely had observed [Alexander] Cameron serving at Fort Prince George during the Cherokee War of 1759-1761...". [Source]

Alexander Cameron, Agent

Portrait Of Native American 

The History of Georgia...


"Influenced by Stuart and Cameron the Creek and Cherokee Indians exhibited a threatening attitude. For the patriots the present was dark indeed and the future fraught with apprehension."

Cameron, The Commissary For The Cherokees

"...Hillsborough, who was then President of the Board of Trade, and was appointed the first Colonial Secretary in January, 1768, outlined an elaborate plan for the use of the Indian Agents.  The British territory was divided into two districts, north and south, by the Ohio River."

"The superintendent of the Southern District was the first to attempt to inaugurate the new scheme.  He received a copy of the plan in 1764 and proceeded to select commissaries." ¹⁰

Source

Cameron In The History Of Georgia

From The History of Georgia:

"Taking advantage of the unsettled condition of affairs and hearkening to the advice and the bribes of royal agents the Cherokees in violation of established treaties began depredating upon the frontiers of Georgia and the Carolinas. To these lawless and bloody acts were they largely incited by Captain Stuart his majesty's superintendent of Indian affairs in the Southern Department and by Mr. Cameron, his assistant."

Cameron Disclosed His Plans

Map Of Cherokee Nation

A civil war was brewing, British Agent Alexander Cameron explained to the incredulous Cherokee.

Source

Cameron's Indian Wife

The Works Of Theodore Roosevelt...

"A small party of Georgians had just previously made a sudden march into the Cherokee country. They were trying to capture the British agent Cameron,who being married to an Indian wife, dwelt in her town...". 

Documentary History of the American Revolution... published a letter that referred to Molly:

Influenced By Stuart And Cameron

From "The History of Georgia..."

Influenced by Stuart and [Alexander] Cameron the Creek and Cherokee Indians exhibited a threatening attitude.  For the patriots the present was dark indeed and the future fraught with apprehension...

Taking advantage of the unsettled condition of affairs and harkening to the advice and the bribes of royal agents the Cherokees in violation of established treaties began depredating upon the frontiers of Georgia and the Carolinas. To these lawless and bloody acts were they largely incited by Captain Stuart his majesty's superintendent of Indian affairs in the Southern Department and by Mr Cameron his assistant.

Excerpt From Exhibit At Horseshoe Bend National Park

See Obituary post.

Alexander Cameron's Letter To Price

From The manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth:


, March 16 and 27. Toquo — -With note by G. P[rice].
" Mr. Tinkler will certainly run a great risk if ever he comes to this quarter, and particularly if Rum should be in the way."

Endorsed . — Extracts from Mr. Cameron's letters to Mr. Price, sent March 16th, 1765, to Captain Cochran at Charlestown (about a design to kill all the white people in the Cherokee country, and about the French prisoners.)

Note. — Mr. Cameron was commissary for Indian affairs. Ensign Price, 60th Regiment, was commanding officer at Fort Prince George, South Carolina. 

Conference At Toqueh

British Public Record Office files indexed here:

0738 John Stuart and Alexander Cameron on relations with the Cherokees, esp. regarding abuses of the Indian trade and land purchases (incl. talks to and from Cherokees and the conference at Toqueh). 70pp.

Murdock Cameron

American State Papers:...:

No. 336.  Murdock Cameron...as grantee of George Hoffman...lot of ground at Michillimackinack.....

Page 375

Source

"In 1811 Cameron died, and the place of his burial on the banks of the Minnesota was called for years Cameron's grave." [Ibid]