More History on the Creek Indians of
Sandtown
The Creek Indians
are said to have migrated eastward from the vast lands west of the
Mississippi Valley and to have formed a Confederacy of Nations and
Tribes in what is now Alabama and Georgia many hundreds of years
before the White Man came to America. The five main Nations
which made up the Creek Confederacy were: The Muskhoges, Hitchittes,
Coosadas, Seminoles, Utchees, and Natchez, with many Tribes as
well. Because these Indians concentrated along the creeks in their
natural habitats the colonists began to speak of the "Lower"
and in their natural habitats, the colonists who began pushing
"up" from the coastal lands began speaking of the "
Lower" Creek Indians of Georgia and the "Upper" Creek
Indians " up" in Alabama. It was mainly the Hitchittee
tribes which were concentrated in this area of the Chattahoochee
valley. The word " Utoy" comes from a Creek phrase which
meant "... we are the last people... beyond us there are none
others...." and it was the designation for the Tribe living along
the Utoy Creek in this frontier" buffer zone" between
the Creek lands and those of the Cherokee Indians across the
Chattahoochee River.
The Cherokee Indians were a branch-off from the
Iroqouaian Nation who migrated down the Appalachian valleys into the
lands of Virginia, North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. Under
pressure from the encroachment of the white settlers, the Cherokees
pushed down into the lands of North Georgia and over the mountains
into the central areas of Tennessee. The Boundary line which was
established on January 1, 1822 between the Creek and Cherokee Nations
had as its reference point on the Chattahoochee River the Buzzard
Roast Island which now forms the
boundary between Cobb and Douglass Counties.
To Dry Pond
On January 8, 1821 the Creek Indians
ceded to the State of Georgia these lands which contained this 14th
Land Lot District which is surveyed in the summer and fall of that
year to form a part of Old Fayette County. When old Campbell County
was formed in 1828 this 14th Land Lot District was made a part
of that County and it remained (except for part of the eastern land
lots) until 1931 when it was merged into Fulton County. A
portion of the Sandtown Community
was originally contained in the old 9th Land Lot
District of Coweta, then Carroll, then Campbell, now Fulton Counties.
A was the method of land-distribution often used during this period,
citizens living in the older counties could draw a Land Lot (two
hundred two and one-half acres each) in one of these new frontier
Districts for purchase at a nominal fee for homesteading.
The pioneer families that received the original land grants in the two
Land Lot Districts contained in the
Sandtown Community are listed
by the number of their lot.
To Sandtown
Sandtown is that unincorporated
portion of Fulton County which is bound on the North West by the
Chattahoochee River, On the East by the City Limits of Atlanta, and on
the South by the Camp Creek. It is larger in geographical area than
the land included in the municipalities of East Point, College Park,
Hapeville, Decatur, and Avondale Estates combined. This
area of North Georgia has a significant Heritage of Indian, Pioneer,
Plantation, Civil War, and New South History which should be
preserved. We are living in a Day & Age when
"change" is the watchword and with construction already
underway to build a system of dams and locks to back up the waters of
the Chattahoochee to make water barge transportation form the Gulf to
Atlanta both feasible and practical... in the not-too-far distant
Future the river-front property of our Sandtown Community will be one
great scene of commercial activity.
