History of Guilford Co, NC–Saura, Keyauwee, Catawba content

Beeleaf-

You are indeed right to look at this county. There is some good info there, I also find it interesting that in my MIinor line Guilford is a popular name, ( My grgrgranpaw was Guilford MInor) there was at least one in every generation from the mid 1800’s to present day. I think sometimes names are clues to where your family has once resided. 🙂

This ties to my Smith/Jones/Goode ancestors. Here’s a current link for this content.

http://ncgenweb.us/nc/guilford/saura-keyauwee/

Indian Footprints Were Found in Guilford

In the mid-1700s when the Quakers first came to New Garden (now Guilford College), they found great open grass-covered spaces, so that very little clearing was necessary for them to prepare fields for growing their food. Some people thought that this places without trees could have been farmland where the Indians had once planted corn, or were spaces kept cleared of forests so that small wild growth could flourish for birds and small animals.

Although the Quaker minutes of 1764 stated that from the Cheraw, as they called them, the Quakers had bought and paid for the land on which they then lived, there was no mention of an Indian village in that particular place. However, some detached Indian families as country dwellers still lived in the area that became Guilford, for a few of them were seen walking around after the 1740s and 1750s when the White Men came to the region. A small number, perhaps two or three families, lived in the neighborhood of present-day Buffalo Church and were seen by the new white settlers from time to time.

It should be remembered that Indians required the use of large sections of wooded land and smaller places covered with grassy growth in order to assure good hunting. Both the Saura and the Keyauwee must have enjoyed the space which became Guilford County, because of its splendid forests and ground-covering plants which, as in Rockingham, often grew as high as a man on horseback.

The white settlers of Centre Community in southern Guilford have reported that some Indians met and befriended William Hockett, when he came alone as the first white man to establish a home in that part of Guilford County. In fact, Hockett’s friends, who later joined him, said that it was because the Indians were so kind to them that their early settlement grew rapidly, whereas without such attention it might have perished. There was no known Indian village at Centre Community and it is thought that the Red Men of that place were some who had strayed away from the Catawba tribe which had a village farther south. Although the Catawba were not classed as Original Guilford Indians, they knew the land well; and some of their scouts helped American General Nathanael Greene draw up his plans for the very important Battle of Guilford Court House.

The Keyauwee Lived in Randolph

North Carolina’s first Historian, John Lawson Surveyor-General of the Province, together with five traveling companions, visited many Indian tribes of the state during 1701. It is very pleasing to learn that this journey of 1,000 miles took him to one of the Original Guilford tribes, the Keyauwee, which numbered about 500 people. Their village was located on Caraway Creek in the area now known as the Caraway Mountains in Randolph County, about fourteen miles south of High Point, and it gives us a good idea of Indian life at that time. Lawson’s account of the visit is almost as vivid as a motion picture. He wrote that he and his company came to a village with a high wooden wall around it and large cornfields planted up to the doors of the cabins. Nearby was a great bottomland which would have easily kept 100 cows. All this was surrounded by very high mountains, so that no wind ever troubled the Keyauwee. At the top of one of the mountains there was a cave in which 100 men could have sat very comfortably to dine.

At this time, however, they had only six guests. Moreover, despite the fact that the Keyauwee had no idea that six Englishmen would appear at their village unannounced, they served the visitors their food which was already being prepared – two young deer, a country hare, venison, turkeys, and bears!

Lawson and his companions divided themselves into two parts and its was Lawson’s good luck to be placed at the cabin of Keyauwee Jack, who was the Chief Ruler of the tribe. He was a Congaree Indian who had run away when he was a boy, but later became Chief because he had married the Queen of the Keyauwee. Lawson and the Chief had a good time together. When the Englishman began writing in a notebook, Chieftain Jack became very excited and wanted to try his hand at writing. Lawson wrote a word for him to copy and the Englishman reported of the Indian’s first effort: “It was so well [done] that [anyone] who could read mine, might have done the same by his.”

Chieftain Jack then matched his wits with his visitor by making an unusual fishhook of his own invention, and Lawson was most impressed by his host’s ingenuity. Chieftain Jack was so pleased with himself at his success that he sent for several men of his tribe to look at his handiwork. While the men were all in their Chief’s cabin together, Lawson took from his pocket a manual which had a picture of King David in it. Chief Jack was quick to ask who the picture represented. With this opportunity to search for the Indians’ religious feelings, Lawson told him that the picture was of a good King who lived what he believed was right, “doing to all as he would be done by, ordering all his Life to the service of the Creator of all things; and being now above us all in Heaven, with God Almighty, who had rewarded him with all the delightful Pleasures imaginable in the other World, for his Obedience to Him in this.” Lawson concluded with telling those present that we receive nothing here below, such as food and raiment, but what comes from that Omnipotent Being. Lawson seemed pleased that: “They listened to my Discourse with a profound Silence, assuring me that they believed what I said to be true.”

Two features connected with the Keyauwee made a great impression on Lawson: the majesty and hospitality of the one Indian Princess and the whiskers of the men! He wrote: “The Queen had a Daughter by a former husband, who was the beautifulest Indian I ever saw, and had an Air of Majesty with her quite contrary to the general Carriage of the Indians. She was very kind to the English during our Abode, as well as her Father and Mother.” About the fashion among Keyauwee men he added: “Most of these Indians Wear Mustachoes and Whiskers, which is rare; by reason the Indians are a People that commonly pull the Hair of their faces and other Parts, up by the Roots and suffer none to grow.” The Keyauwee were the only American Indians ever known to let hair grow on their faces.

One might well pause for thought at this point, but with the clear understanding that it is pure conjecture. The majestic air of the Princess, the Indians’ agreement with Lawson along religious lines, and the bewhiskered male faces, all of which are English traits, might suggest that the Keyauwee were connected with the Lost Colony of 1587. It had been 114 years since that group of white English settlers had disappeared; and a mixture of the races would have been possible.

After a very enjoyable visit with the Keyauwee (meaning of the name unknown), Lawson and his five companions, with one of the Keyauwee as a guide, departed for visits with neighboring tribes. On a stretch of 100 miles to travel, Lawson wrote that the only food his company had was parched corn, which he mentioned as having had for breakfast with as much ease as we speak of “Post Toasties” today.

During his 1,000-mile journey and the following seven years he was in the state, Lawson observed the habits and customs of the North Carolina Indians very carefully. For that reason his report on these first Americans is considered the most authoritative account of them. He also wrote that although each tribe had its own variations, there were certain basic rules and customs which all Indian groups followed. Because of these general ways of Indian life, through Lawson’s specific descriptions of the Keyauwee and other tribes he visited, we are able to envisage the known characteristics of Indian people – their physical appearances, their homes, their food, their behavior as men, women, and children, their attitudes towards others, their fun games, their marriages, their money, medicine, religion, burials, and the remnants and memorials of those who were the first-known inhabitants of the land that later became Guilford, Randolph, and Rockingham.