11-1780 Gower party; tending Middle Tennessee's first cotton and corn crop; were killed or captured.
In 1780, the Gower party, tending Middle Tennessee’s first cotton and corn crop, were killed or captured by Indians.
Haywood, John, The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee from its Earliest Settlement up to the Year 1796, including the Boundaries of the State . Nashville, Tenn., Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1891. P. 128.
In the same year (1780) the Indians killed negro Jim, left by Col. Henderson in a boat at the Clover Bottom; also a young man in the same boat. At the same time they took George, a negro man of Absalom Tatom's; also they wounded and took Jack Civil, a mulatto; killed Abel Gower and Abel Gower, Jr., and John Robertson, the son of Capt. James Robertson: Col. John Donaldson had gone up the river to the Clover Bottom with two boats for the purpose of bringing away the corn that himself and others had raised the summer before. They had laden the boats with the corn and had proceeded a sinall distance down the river when Col. Donaldson recollected that he had neglected to gather some cotton which he had planted at the lower end of the field, and accordingly asked of his companions to put to, for the purpose of picking a part of it. They urged that it was growing late, and that they ought to go on; he waived using any authority, and had scarcely landed before the people in the other boat were attacked by a party of Indians who lay in ambush to intercept the boats on their return. The fire of the Indians was fatal. All were killed except a free negro and one white man, who swam to shore and wandered many days in the woods before he reached the bluff. A little dog about the time of cock-crowing in the morning after the defeat, warned the inhabitants of the station by barking. A boat put out and brought to the floating boat. On examining it a negro who had gone up with the party was found dead. His chin had been eaten by the dog. From these appearances the conclusion was that the rest of the party were killed. Col. Donaldson, however, had escaped to Mansco's Station. A free negro, son of Jack Civil, who was in the boat, was taken prisoner by the Indians.