CHAPTER V 



The Treaty Tree of Indian Springs — The Geneva Century Tree — The 

 Pueblo Cottonwood — The Vaulting-Pole Cottonwood — The Rhode 

 Island Sycamore — The Charlemont Buttonwood — The Pringle 

 Sycamore — Lafayette Sycamore — Princeton Sycamores — Syca- 

 mores of Camp Frelinghuysen — John Goodway Sycamore — A 

 Sycamore That Owns Itself. 



The Treaty Tree of Indian Springs 



Near Indian Springs, Ga., stands a poplar said to be the largest 

 tree of its kind in the State, its trunk measuring twelve feet in circum- 

 ference nearly one hundred feet upward from the ground level. It is 

 known as the Treaty Tree of Indian Springs, and is a fitting monu- 

 ment to two famous treaties made in its immediate neighborhood be- 

 tween the United States and the red men. 



Troubles between the whites and the Indians had marred the 

 closing years of the 18th century, perhaps due to the increasing 

 demands for lands owned by the latter. In 1802, Georgia ceded to 

 the Federal Government all of her territory west of the Chattahoo- 

 chee, for the sum of $1,250,000.00, with the agreement that all Indian 

 titles within her borders were to be peaceably obliterated. 



This promise was not kept, however, and in 1823, two prominent 

 men, Campbell and Meriwether, for both of whom counties were after- 

 ward named, were sent to treat with the Creek Nation, which held a 

 large tract between the Flint and Chattahoochee. The Upper Creeks, 

 as they were called, lived in Alabama; the Lower Creeks in Georgia, 

 headed by General William Mcintosh, whose father was a Scotchman, 

 and his mother an Indian woman. 



The conference was not a peaceful one ; the Upper Creeks refused 

 any cession of land to the whites, but the lower Creeks, consenting, 

 met them at Indian Springs, on February 12, 1825, and signed a 

 treaty, promising to move west, not later than September 1, 1826. 

 They were to be paid $4,000.00, and acres of land equal to what they 

 relinquished. 



Angry at the loss of their lands, however, the hostile Creeks 

 planned and executed one of the most tragic reprisals in the history 

 of our country. 



General Mcintosh was the victim, on account of his having 

 played such a prominent part in the transaction. One hundred and 

 seventy Indians concealed themselves in the woods close by his house 

 on the bank of the Chattahooche River, near the modem town of 

 CarroUton. 



Just before daybreak, on May 1, 1825, they set fire to the build- 

 ing. Mcintosh and the friend who was with him, treated the savages 



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