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Archiver > CAPE-FEAR-SCOTS > 2000-07 > 0964983290


From: "J.D.McEachin" <>
Subject: RE:South And West From Carolina
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 11:54:50 -0700


At 09:52 AM 7/30/00 EDT, wrote:

>At that early period the journey from Carolina and other eastern States to
>Alabama....was long,wearisome,and hazardous.

Here's a story from a family history on the hazards of western migration. I can't say how much this tale has been embellished, but I'm sure the core story of death under mysterious circumstances is true.

from "Memoranda of the History and Family of Peter McEachin" ( http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mceachin/paraban.htm ):

"John [McEACHIN], the second son of Para Ban, married Flora GRAHAM. They had two children, Mary and Peter. John accompanied a party of men from Robeson who started out to Alabama, on horseback, to buy land. After reaching Georgia they became uncertain, at the fork of a road, as to the nearest route to a point in the state toward which they were heading, and John McEACHIN proposed to take the route that he believed to be the nearest, by way of testing the distance, while the balance of the party proceeded on their first route. The road chosen by John McEACHIN lead through an Indian settlement, and when the other party reached their destination John had not arrived. A search was instituted along the route he was to have taken, and it was finally discovered that he had been murdered, in the Indian settlement. He was a noted wrestler which was a popular sport with the young men of his day, and upon arriving at the Indian settlement he was challenged by a young Indian, who was fa!
mous among his own people as a wrestler; he easily vanquished the Indian, which so enraged the other Indians that they murdered him, and after robbing the body buried it. When the searching party came to the Indian settlement, by bribing one of the young Indians they heard the story, recovered his horse and clothing, and were shown the place where he was buried, and the bank of the Suwanee River."

JDM

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