by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Twenty years ago, a project to recognize the Trail of Tears route passing through Franklin County began, according to Doris Tate Trevino, Jump Off resident and Tennessee Trail of Tears Association (TNTOTA) board member.

Twenty-six signs will commemorate the section of trail passing through the Sewanee area, beginning at the sand plant on Highway 41A and culminating at the Templeton Library where the trail dropped off the Mountain into Cowan. Signage along the trail will continue to the Lincoln County line on Hwy. 64, with 90 signs total.

“People assume the Cherokee were all removed together at gun point,” said Floyd Ayers of Winchester, “but that wasn’t the case.” Ayers and Franklin County Historical Society (FCHS) President David Moore spearheaded the local effort for recognition of the section of trail known as the Bell route.

Cherokee leader John Bell and the 660 Cherokee in his detachment passed through the area in October of 1838. During that period, the federal government removed more than 16,000 Cherokee from the area of north Georgia and neighboring portions of Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina.

“Federal legislation recognized the Trail of Tears historic route in 1987,” Ayers said, “but not enough was known about the Bell route and other lesser routes to include them.”

In 1996, Ayers attended a presentation by researcher Duane King. King cited a letter written from Winchester, Tenn., by Lt. Edward Deas, military escort to the Bell detachment. Ayers, a TNTOTA charter member, traces Cherokee ancestry on his mother’s side. He began researching the Franklin and Marion County sections of the route travelled by Bell’s group.

Deas procured supplies for the detachment drawing on the “poor fund” established by the government, Trevino said. “Deas records show purchases from Benjamin Trussell on top of the mountain and the purchase of blankets and shoes on the square in Winchester and Fayetteville.”

In 2007, federal legislation recognized the Bell route and other lesser routes. Ayers had given several presentations to the FCHS and in Jan. 2016, Moore asked him to speak about the Bell group’s journey.

“David picked up the ball and ran with it,” according to Ayers, who credits Moore with initiating the project. Moore brought together the FCHS, TNTOTA, and the National Park Service (NPS).

“The NPS had $15,000 available for Trail of Tears funding,” Ayers said. “They didn’t have any other applicants for 2017. They awarded us the full amount for signs.”

“The NPS plotted the route based on the information we sent them,” said Moore. “You can find sunken roadbeds segments of the trail on the domain and St. Mary’s.” Moore drew on historical maps to locate the path followed by Bell’s detachment, including a University map made in the 1850s.

On Oct. 11, 1838, the Bell group set out from Fort Cass, in Charleston, Tenn., the largest of three internment camps established by the federal government. “I call it a concentration camp,” Trevino said. “Many people died there of dysentery and other diseases.”

In the summer of 1838, the federal government had rounded up all the Cherokee who had not voluntarily left. Other detachments left previously, signers of the 1936 Treaty of New Echota, which promised $5 million to be distributed among the Cherokee, title in perpetuity to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, education funds, and compensation for property left behind. Following signing by Cherokee leaders, Bell among them, President Andrew Jackson removed the clause allowing Cherokee to remain if they became citizens of the state where they resided.

Of the treaty signers, only Bell’s group remained in the east, along with the more than 16,000 followers of Cherokee Chief John Ross who opposed the treaty and lobbied the federal government for the right to stay and a better cash settlement for those who left.

“We don’t know why Bell stayed behind,” said Ayers. Perhaps there was some truth to General Winfield Scott’s accusation that Bell was inciting other detachments to return home.

What is known is that after an 89-day, 707-mile journey, during which more than 20 people died, the detachment arrived at the Oklahoma Indian Territory border and dispersed in small groups. “It was safer,” Trevino said, “because they were treaty party signers.” Their fears were not unwarranted. Ross followers later assassinated Cherokee leader Major Ridge, his son John, and others who signed the Treaty of New Echota. By Cherokee “blood law” ceding land to whites was punishable by death.

Ayers approached Woodman Life who donated $4,000 to the project, and Moore wrote a matching-fund grant through the Franklin County A.M. Rotary. The contributions will pay for posts and mounting hardware. The Franklin County Highway Department and Tennessee Department of Transportation will erect the signs.

“We plan to work on getting the Marion County section of the trail signed next,” Trevino said. Nearly all the TOT historical markers exist through the efforts of small local groups.