Little Coonewah Creek Village
by Stephen R. Cook
, February 2, 2021
In the Musing d'Iberville's Villages I indicated that in addition to d'Iberville's nine "missing" or unassociated villages presented there may be other areas that I had little or no knowledge which may hide additional small Chickasaw villages.
My first candidate area generally lies along either side of a reach of Little Coonewah Creek. Little Coonewah Creek courses northwest to southeast and flows east of Coonewah Creek about two miles, see Musings Figure 1. The candidate area surrounds Little Coonewah Creek and is bounded by Chesterville Road to the north, McPherson Road to the west, Old Highway 6 to the south and South Coley Road to the east. To aid the reader I have linked Bissell, MS 2018 and Sherman, MS 2018 7.5-minute "quad" maps which locate Little Coonewah Creek (in blue) and the roads that border the area except McPherson. On the Sherman quad McPherson road is incorrectly located. It is shown at the location of Locust Lane. McPherson road is correctly shown on the Bissell quad. For those having issue with Sherman quad map and finding the candidate area, look west of the Tupelo Regional Airport. Most of the area is on the south and east side of the Sherman quad. The remaining portion of the area is on the north and east side of the Bissell quad.
Why is the candidate area intriguing and prospective? There are a number of 1832 surveyor noted features near and within the boundaries. Let's start with 1832 road features, firstly the Natchez Trace …no, not where the Natchez Trace Parkway is now, rather where it was in 1832; see "Natchez Road" on Musings Figure 1. In the past I had a copy of the 1832 Survey Notes (which my father transcribed in the 1950s and I gave to the Chickasaw Nation) and can say with some certainty that the Natchez Road in 1832 crossed very, very near the McPherson Road/Chesterville Road intersection. The Natchez Road bears southwest/northeast. Note the Natchez Road is intersected by another road "Cotton Gin Road" bearing southeast/northwest a little northeast of the Natchez Road's intersection noted above. The Natchez Road coursed from Natchez to Nashville in 1832, and perhaps its predecessor path(s) followed nearby for hundreds or thousands of years. The Cotton Gin Road in 1832 connected the Chickasaw Old Fields to Cotton Gin Port, a relatively new, small community in Monroe County Ms located east of the Tombigbee River. Before it was called Cotton Gin Port, Bienville in 1736 on his way to destroy the Natchez living among the Chickasaw built a fortification nearby to protect his boats. Why at this location? It was the head of navigation and a natural low water Tombigbee River crossing. West of Cotton Gin the road ran by the Bell Indian Mission and one of Levi Colbert's houses and farms before heading to the Old Fields.
While we are addressing 1832 roads, let's refer again to Musings Figure 1. Note "Road One" an east to west trending road which branches to the south from the Natchez Road east of Mubby creek. Note: this road was not named by the 1832 surveyors; I have taken the liberty to call it Road One. The road heads east and crosses Coonewah Creek about the old Highway 6 bridge. This road terminates to the east into the surveyor noted old town and prairies, Paper 1 Figure 2. (There are several explanations of the purpose of this road… perhaps in a later Musing?) Of note is the intersection of this road with the Cotton Gin road mentioned in the paragraph above. This location was very near Colbert's Tavern; a remnant of the tavern remains in the form of an antebellum house just west of Little Coonewah Creek south of old Highway 6. Articles about the Colberts', Bell Indian Mission and Cotton Gin Port are available in numerous publications but it was not covered by my papers as they were not located within Chickasaw villages prior to their abandonment by 1800/1805.
Other 1832 Surveyor noted features situated within the area include two Indian improvements (houses). In Paper 1 The Decades and the Villages 1790-1800 we noted that the Chickasaw villages began loosing their occupants in 1797 encouraged by the US government to follow agriculture. The family groups and individuals, who left the villages built "improvements" or "houses", and their locations, when located close to the section lines being surveyed, were noted by the 1832 surveyors. These improvements typically occupied a relatively small area, an acre or so. (For the interested reader the Chickasaw improvements/houses were located throughout their territory in north Mississippi and Alabama. Most of them were located near roads. In some cases there were clusters of improvements/houses.)
I should point out that there was another nearby Indian improvement that was not located in the 1832 survey notes which was located just outside the candidate area. It was west of McPherson Road near Westwind Drive very near where the Natchez Road was. It was visited by Banks Livingston and me maybe 40 plus years ago before Westwind subdivision was built. It occupied an area of less than an acre and demonstrated English pearlware and Chickasaw pottery shards.
So we have a candidate area of Little Coonewah Creek with a density of 1832 features. Just to the west 1690-1710 Chickasaw villages occupied both the east and west terraces of Coonewah Creek, see Paper 1 Figure 5. As you can see on the Bissell and Sherman 2018 quad maps, the area has had extensive residential and commercial development. In addition the City of Tupelo recently extended sewer collection and fire protection water piping ensuring further development.
I trust this area will soon be surveyed so that the existing or prospective features/village can be preserved.
Regards,
Steve Cook