The Chicken Trilogy: The Chicken Family Trials and Tribulations in the Carolina Frontier

By Michael J. Heitzler Ed. D. and Jennie Haskell Rose

Three books comprise The Chicken Trilogy. The first volume in this collection is George Chicken, Carolina Man of the Ages; the second book is George Chicken Jr., Son of Carolina; and the third is Little Mistress Chicken, A Veritable Happening of Colonial Carolina. These three books examine the challenges, successes, and failures of the principals in each of the three generations of the George Chicken family as they engaged the dynamically evolving eighteenth-century Carolina frontier. The first book examines Colonel George Chicken, Indian Commissioner, backwoods trader, planter, and a bold political leader during the era of the Goose Creek Men. That fierce cadre of frontiersmen in the Goose Creek community near Charleston dominated South Carolina leadership for fifty years and led the first political revolution in Carolina. The Berkeley County South Carolina Chamber of Commerce published a brief edition of the first book of this trilogy in 2011. That exposed the need to expand that work, as well as unravel the mysteries of the two subsequent generations of Chicken personalities during the formative frontier decades.
The second expos divulges the story of Captain George Chicken Jr., son of Colonel George Chicken, and an Indian trader, militia captain, parish commissioner, and formative personality in his own right. He mightily contributed to improved relations with distant Native American tribes that hardened the British hold on colonial Carolina. That research knitted the sagas of Colonel George Chicken with his son, George Chicken Jr., and begged to tell the tale of Catharine Chicken, heroine of the third generation.
The third book divulges a sorrowful episode in the life of Catharine Chicken, daughter and granddaughter of the principal personalities of the earlier epochs. This final work of the trilogy vividly describes a colonial-era community; tells of the exploits, challenges, and transgressions of colorful townspeople of that place; and grimly recalls the trials and narrow survival of a tortured seven-year-old heroine, Catharine Chicken. The Chicken Trilogy vividly and dramatically illuminates bold personalities from each of three generations of the Chicken family and recounts their trials and tribulations as they persistently engaged the challenges of the evolving Carolina frontier.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546215899

Michael J. Heitzler Ed. D.

Michael James Heitzler earned a Doctor of Education Degree from the University of South Carolina. He is a Fulbright Scholar and a retired school administrator of the Berkeley School District, South Carolina. He has served as Mayor of the City of Goose Creek, Berkeley County, South Carolina since 1978. He is the author of Historic Goose Creek, South Carolina, 1670-1980, published in 1983 by Southern Historical Press, Easley, South Carolina. He also wrote Goose Creek, a Definitive History, volume I published in 2005 and volume II published in 2006, by the History Press, Charleston, South Carolina. More recently he penned The Goose Creek Bridge, Gateway to Sacred Places, published by Author House in 2013. The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, the City of Goose Creek and the South Carolina Historical Society published a growing number of his articles and booklets featuring the St. James, Goose Creek Parish and the City of Goose Creek. Jennie Haskell Rose (Mrs. Arthur Gordon Rose), a South Carolina school teacher, penned the eerily charming tale of Little Mistress Chicken, near the dawn of the twentieth century. Alice Barber Stevens provided the detailed illustrations for the intriguing tale when Little Mistress Chicken first appeared in serial form in, The Youth's Companion, a children's magazine. There is no copyright protection for this work. It is reprinted exactly in this trilogy, in devoted deference to the author and illustrator.

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2017 Michael J. Heitzler, Ed. D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/02/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1588-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1587-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1589-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017917039

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ABOUT THE COVER

P amela Smith, with the assistance of Karol Scully and Tony Young created the book cover images. The likenesses of George Chicken Sr., George Chicken Jr. and granddaughter, Catharine are shown walking side by side into the depicted headwaters of Back River. Charles Vignoles and Henry Ravenel drew this section of the Charleston District in the South Carolina Atlas. This detail of that map depicts the Chicken family plantation grounds and vicinity.

FOREWORD

T hree books comprise The Chicken Trilogy. The first volume in this collection is, George Chicken, Carolina Man of the Ages, the second book is, George Chicken Jr., Son of Carolina, and the third is, Little Mistress Chicken, A Veritable Happening of Colonial Carolina. These three books examine the challenges of the principals in each of three generations of the George Chicken family, as they engaged the dynamically evolving eighteenth century Carolina frontier. The first book examines Colonel George Chicken, Indian Commissioner, backwoods trader, planter, and bold political leader during the era of the Goose Creek Men. That fierce cadre of frontiersmen in the Goose Creek community near Charleston dominated South Carolina leadership for fifty years, and led the first political revolution in Carolina. The Berkeley County, South Carolina, Chamber of Commerce published a brief edition of the first book of this trilogy in 2011. That work exposed the need to expand that work as well as unravel the mysteries of the two subsequent generations of Chicken personalities during the formative frontier decades.

The second expose’ divulges the story of Captain George Chicken Jr., son of Colonel George Chicken, and an Indian trader, militia captain, parish commissioner and formative personality in his own right. He mightily contributed to improved relations with distant Native American tribes that hardened the British hold on colonial Carolina. That research knitted the sagas of Colonel George Chicken with his son, George Chicken Jr. and begged to tell the tale of Catharine Chicken, heroine of the third generation.

The third book divulges a sorrowful episode in the life of Catharine Chicken, daughter and grand-daughter of the principal personalities of the earlier epochs. This final work of the trilogy vividly describes a colonial era community, tells about the exploits, challenges, and transgressions of colorful townspeople of that place, and grimly recalls the trials and narrow survival of a tortured seven-year-old heroine, Catharine Chicken. The Chicken Trilogy vividly and dramatically illuminates bold personalities from each of three generations of the Chicken family and recounts their trials and tribulations as they persistently engaged the challenges of the evolving Carolina frontier.

DEDICATION

T his work is dedicated to my mother, Gentry Virginia Heitzler who loved and encouraged me. She gave me an autographed copy of Little Mistress Chicken, A Veritable Happening of Colonial Carolina, many years ago, when I was a novice teacher at Goose Creek High School, and was enthusiastically unraveling the mysteries of historic Goose Creek and Berkeley County, South Carolina.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

M ichael James Heitzler earned a Doctor of Education Degree from University of South Carolina. He is a Fulbright Scholar and a retired school administrator of the Berkeley School District, South Carolina. He has served as Mayor of the City of Goose Creek, Berkeley County, South Carolina since 1978. He is the author of Historic Goose Creek, South Carolina, 1670-1980, published in 1983 by Southern Historical Press, Easley, South Carolina. He also wrote Goose Creek, a Definitive History , volume I published in 2005 and volume II published in 2006, by the History Press, Charleston, South Carolina. More recently he penned The Goose Creek Bridge, Gateway to Sacred Places , published by Author House ® in 2013. The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce published his work, George Chicken, Carolina Man of the Ages in 2011, and the City of Goose Creek and the South Carolina Historical Society published a growing number of his articles and booklets featuring the St. James, Goose Creek Parish and the City of Goose Creek.

Jennie Haskell Rose (Mrs. Arthur Gordon Rose), a South Carolina school teacher, penned the eerily charming tale of Little Mistress Chicken, near the dawn of the twentieth century. She wrote, To the Colonial Dames of South Carolina, lovers of local tradition, guardians of thrilling memories this bit of family history is dedicated. She provided a glimpse into her elementary classroom when she autographed the frontispiece of one of her intriguing copies, and noted, To Marguerite Martindale the little girl who never gives her teacher any trouble.

Alice Barber Stevens provided the detailed illustrations for the intriguing tale when Little Mistress Chicken first appeared in serial form in, The Youth’s Companion, a children’s magazine. ¹ The periodical was later titled, The Companion - For All the Family, when the Perry Mason Company of Boston, Massachusetts published it in 1913 and 1925. Finally, the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America distributed the Little Mistress Chicken book in 1993. There is no copyright protection for this work. It is reprinted exactly in this trilogy, in devoted deference to author, Jennie H[askell] Rose and illustrator, Alice Barber Stevens.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T his trilogy is a collaborative effort of several individuals and groups committed to the enlightened development of Berkeley County, South Carolina. The City Council of the City of Goose Creek is searching, preserving, and sharing the legacy of its municipality, and the Berkeley County, Chamber of Commerce commits its many talents and resources in advancing the story of its diverse people and places. Their tireless work is invaluable to the preservation of this important corner of South Carolina. Also, I thank Lin Sineath, Debra Rawles, Judie Edwards and Carol Cumings for many hours of careful attention to every detail of this effort, and especially to Nancy Paul Kirchner for applying her trained and experienced eyes to appropriate grammar, structure and style. I also appreciate artists, Tony Young for providing insightful and talented renderings of two principal images. Thus, this effort is wrought from many hands, and collectively gifts these tales to all who live, labor and love in Berkeley County, South Carolina.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

T he origin of the Chicken sir-name is uncertain, but all the first and last names of the children of Colonel George Chicken of South Carolina are found with Chicken families in Durham, a town in Northumberland, England, strongly suggesting a familial connection. Thus, the George Chicken family in South Carolina probably descended from an English family near Hadrian’s Wall bordering Scotland, the proximity creating some confusion regarding the national origin of the Chicken clan. A George Chicken was christened on June 25, 1663 at All Saints Church, Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Northumberland, England. ² This George Chicken may have been among nearly 150 Scots arriving October 2, 1684 in Charleston on the commercial ship, the Carolina Merchant. ³ Most travelers on that passage debarked in Charleston, but approximately fifty immigrants stayed aboard to settle Stuart’s Town, an early Scottish community near Port Royal, South of Charleston. ⁴ A George Chicken, among those Scot immigrants, probably fathered George Chicken, the subject of the first book in this trilogy.

The spelling for some place names, indigenous tribes, and families vary across usage, time and locale. The author employs a consistent spelling for each throughout the document. For example, the author uses Yemassee although Yamassee, and Yemasee, are alternative spellings. The author uses Boochawee although variant spellings of the place such as Boochaw appear on some land records. The tribe and place name Wassamassaw is a palindrome with alternate spellings. Similarly, the author consistently uses Schenckingh for the family name with several spelling variants. In addition, the author spells the village Pocotaligo and the person Catharine throughout, although alternate spellings are used in some primary records. Additionally, the author spells the place Charleston, throughout the publication although Charles Towne and Charles Town were appropriate usages during periods before the American Revolution.

Some refer to the St. James, Goose Creek Chapel of Ease erected at the camp, between the twenty-two and twenty-three mile markers on the Road to Moncks Corner, in the St. James, Goose Creek Parish, as the Strawberry Chapel. The little community called Strawberry, near the camp, acquired its common reference when the Northeastern Railroad Company erected a railroad depot with that title in 1854. The railroad company tagged the depot Strawberry Station, because it regularly paused at a loading station near the Road to Strawberry Ferry that is Cypress Garden Road today. Local reference to the Strawberry Chapel of Ease brick cruciform structure is inappropriate, and not to be confused with the Strawberry Chapel of Ease, north of the western branch of the Cooper River in St. Johns Parish. That quaint chapel on the western branch of the Cooper River sits contiguous to Strawberry Plantation and shares its title. St. James, Goose Creek Chapel of Ease is the appropriate moniker for the little chapel on the Road to Moncks Corner, twenty-two miles from Charleston.

Cedar Grove Plantation, where George and Catharine Chicken reared their family on the Road to Moncks Corner, did not bear that title until it conveyed out of the Chicken family. Contemporaries referred to their home place as Chicken’s Plantation during the Chicken family tenure.

RELEVANT HISTORIC MARKERS

The author collaborated with the City of Goose Creek and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History to erect historic markers at locations described in this trilogy. The following list gives the titles of thirteen markers relevant to The Chicken Trilogy, with locations.

• Boochawee Plantation: The marker stands in Greenview Park in the Greenview neighborhood subdivision at 340 East Pandora Drive, in the City of Goose Creek.

• Button Hall Plantation: The marker stands at the entrance to the Headquarter Fire Station at 200 Button Hall Avenue in the City of Goose Creek.

• Crowfield Plantation: The marker stands near the circular drive to the front door of the Crowfield Golf Club at 300 Hamlet Circle in the Hamlets neighborhood in the City of Goose Creek.

• Eighteen-Mile House Tavern: The marker stands near the intersection of St. James Avenue and Farm Road in the City of Goose Creek.

• French Huguenot Plantation: The marker stands near 102 Dasharon Drive in the Hamlets Subdivision in the City of Goose Creek.

• Goose Creek Bridge: The marker stands at the intersection of State Road and The Oaks Avenue in the City of Goose Creek.

• Howe Hall Plantation: The marker stands at Dogwood Park, 680 Liberty Hall Road in the City of Goose Creek.

• Native American Trading Path / Goose Creek Men: The marker stands at the entrance to City of Goose Creek City Hall at the Marguerite H. Brown Municipal Center, 519 North Goose Creek Boulevard, in the City of Goose Creek.

• St. James, Goose Creek Chapel of Ease: The marker stands on Old Highway 52 at Avanti Lane, one mile north of the southern intersection of James Rozier Boulevard (South Carolina Highway 52) and Old South Carolina Highway 52, Berkeley County, South Carolina.

• St. James, Goose Creek Church: The marker stands in the parking circle near the church cemetery at 100 Vestry Lane, Goose Creek. The secluded church setting is contiguous to Goose Creek Primary School at 200 Foster Creek Road in the City of Goose Creek.

• The Oaks Plantation: The marker stands near the front gate of The Oaks Plantation at 130 The Oaks Avenue, the City of Goose Creek.

• Wassamassaw: The marker stands near the Wassamassaw Baptist Church, and Cemetery, on Wassamassaw Road, ½ mile north of the intersection of State Road (U.S. Route 176) and Jedburg/Cooper Store Road (U.S. Route 16).

• Yemassee War, 1715: The marker stands near the entrance road to the Foster Creek Park and Community Center, 300 Foster Creek Road, in the City of Goose Creek.

George Chicken, literate, confident, and steeped in woodcraft, boldly led during the heady frontier era. Always ambitious, he rose to notable public offices and always courageous, he left a gallant saga of numerous forays into the back woods of the Carolina Colony as a trader in pursuit of wealth, a cavalryman in pursuit of contenders, and an emissary in pursuit of peace.

BOOK I

GEORGE CHICKEN:

CAROLINA MAN OF THE AGES

MICHAEL J. HEITZLER, ED.D.

BOOK I - TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I George Chicken: Carolina Man of the Ages

Chapter II The Camp

Chapter III Man of Substance and Influence

Chapter IV George Chicken and Black Beard

Chapter V Beyond the Pale

Chapter VI Captain Chicken Brave and Bold

Chapter VII Chicken’s Coup-de-grace

Chapter VIII An Emissary for Peace

Chapter IX Men of the Ages

Chapter X Pirates Edward Beard and Stede Bonnet

Chapter XI The St. James, Goose Creek Chapel of Ease

Chapter XII Into the Wilderness

Chapter XIII A Man of the Ages

CHAPTER I

George Chicken: Carolina Man of the Ages

G eorge Chicken appeared in Charleston, South Carolina before 1700, the son of one of a wave of immigrants solicited by investors in the proprietary colony, thirty years after the earliest British settlers arrived in Charleston. ⁵ As a young man, Chicken accompanied packhorse traders northwest along the Indian Trail from Charleston in pursuit of lucrative trade and suitable farmland. He acquired small contiguous land grants west of the trail, twenty-two miles from town. There, on the headwaters of Back River, he erected a cabin, planted subsistence crops, and significantly increased his property holdings when he married his neighbor, Catharine Bellamy. She brought her property east of the Road to Moncks Corner to their union, and when consolidated with George Chicken’s two smaller parcels, the large combined estate of 1,150 acres straddled the busiest Native American trading route in Carolina. ⁶

Soon after the first settlers dropped anchor off Charleston in 1670, an important trading relationship commenced with the coastal indigenous tribes, and the interactions expanded to the Cherokee deep in the colony. At first, George Chicken traded via the narrow trail that passed by his front door at Back River. He followed that Indian footpath north to the present day Town of Moncks Corner, then traced the bank of the Santee River west to its source. Soon the novice colonial government established a shorter pack-horse trade route from Charleston to the Cherokee country by way of the present site of Augusta, Georgia. There, in 1718, they built and manned Fort Moore to monitor and control the lucrative transactions.

Colonel George Chicken earned prominence through native trade, led the Goose Creek Militia, served on the Board of Indian Trade, and later stood as the sole commissioner overseeing Native American exchanges. Perhaps his most important public role ensued when Governor Arthur Middleton sent him into the frontier in 1725 to establish a durable business and defense treaty with the Cherokee tribes. The governor sought a reliable agreement to counteract the encroaching influence of French emissaries pushing eastward from Louisiana with similar objectives.

George Chicken emerged as a prominent personality in colonial Carolina during the first decades of the eighteenth century as he and his bride, Catharine reared five children at their sturdy St. James, Goose Creek Parish home. He employed thirty-nine slaves, of whom nine were Native Americans hunters and laborers.⁷ The family later acquired a town house on Tradd Street in Charleston, ⁸ where they enjoyed harbor breezes and George engaged in the challenging political and business exchanges of that era.

An impressive list of accomplishments credit his life, but scant records of his origin and genealogy, and limited documentations of his years among the native Carolinians, obscure many aspects of his story and vex historians pursuing a complete biography. Nonetheless, his vivid journals, kept during the turbulent frontier era, illuminate his colorful personality, and actualize an intriguing epic that sprung from his favorite camp site near the Indian Trail in the St. James, Goose Creek Parish, spanning inland from Charleston, South Carolina. From the camp he embarked upon fascinating ventures, brought many dreams to fruition, and forever changed the ethos of the Carolina wilderness.

BasemapImage_pass.jpg

Figure 1.1: This detail of a contemporary map of the Charleston Metropolitan Area, Charleston, South Carolina, describes peninsular Charleston and its hinterland with labels added by the author for clarity. Manuscript letters indicate locations relevant to George Chicken, Carolina Man of the Ages. A- The possible battle site of Captain George Chicken’s charge. Captain Chicken rode north from his camp at The Ponds to engage the native intruders. B- Chicken’s, Cedar Grove Plantation. C- The Goose Creek Bridge, The Oaks Plantation and the St. James, Goose Creek Parish Church. D-Back River. E- Goose Creek. F-Charleston. The City of Goose Creek prepared the map using the Berkeley County geographic information system (GIS).

CHAPTER II

The Camp

W hite tailed deer sheltered at a favored Back River niche, long before George Chicken reposed there. For hundreds of centuries herds rested on the dry ground above the soggy wetlands, accessed the nearby spring and consumed the nutritious mash beneath the hickory and oak trees. The cautious creatures sought the thick understory that calmed them and hid them from real and imagined peril.

When stirred by the first rays of morning light, the warm-blooded mammals drew upon their collective wisdom to tentatively walk toward the lower ground from whence they had come the dusk before. On the coldest winter mornings freezing rain deposited thin blankets of ice. Those rare weather events in that section of the North American subtropical coastal plain puzzled the herd, because only the oldest denizens vaguely recalled brittle ground breaking beneath their hooves. Their crunching footfalls unnerved them as they instinctively followed the tallest doe in an obedient single file, stepping cautiously from the thickly wooded camp onto the invisible trail and farther to a glade where shoots of nutritious grass crystallized by brittle dew, ranged as far as they could see.

Those small gray white tailed deer moved almost invisibly against the silver forest in search of grasses growing ten months a year on fertile savannahs where alluvial soils remained too wet for trees or shrubs to survive. The herd tracked silently along faint pathways astride low undulating ridges honed by thousands of migrations. The animals efficiently skirted the tiny rivulets where water sheeted from puddles to pools, and from pools to ponds that forever emptied into the tributaries of nearby Back River.

On cold winter mornings, the ice disappeared silently with the morning chill, unlike the wet deluges of summer. Summer storms descended violently with thunderous claps that shook the woodlands awake and boldly announced its passing with lingering rolls and rumblings. Downpours came in torrents sending tea-colored swells that swept the forest litter into heaps, and washed the riparian woodland with thousands of rivulets that cumulatively diluted the Back River flow-way until it emptied into the Cooper River along its twenty mile course to the sea. ⁹

All along the waterway, reliable irrigation produced abundant graze in innumerable sunny patches with copious mash beneath large swathes of wood and pith. The land supported great herds of deer and greater numbers of birds, fowl and small furbearing animals. The wildlife trusted the abundance of the land and it never failed them, but one odd morning the sunrise accompanied dangerous mammals unknown to the woodland creature. The new mammalian creatures stood no taller than the head of the largest of the deer and like the herd, they stealthily followed the animal traces in single file, listening and watching patiently. Remarkably, the new creatures stalked vertically upon their hind legs allowing them to tauntingly peer far ahead like hawks and other dangerous beasts of prey.

Native American families wandered onto the southern coastal plain thousands of years before the first Europeans. The indigenous clans departed their ancestral homes near the center of North America to wander thousands of miles in pursuit of sustenance. By the time the natives entered the southern littoral, they faintly recalled their distant homeland in tribal chants via an ancient tongue. Speaking a Siouan dialect, the natives called themselves Seewee and tagged their newest lands, Oola- Coll, perhaps in reference to the many fresh-water rivulets. ¹⁰

The keen Native American hunters read the bent and broken grasses traced by innumerable hooves, tracked the deer herds, and predictably found the sheltered knoll, with dry ground, fresh water and abundant tinder for cooking fires. Soon native families routinely occupied the ancient camp ground and relegated the skittish deer to refuge deeper in the wetlands where the timid creatures eluded the frightening slings, arrows and snares of the newcomers.

The thin, brown hunters and gatherers also slashed and burned swatches of earth atop faint rises where corn, legumes and squash thrived. They heaped the scorched soil into mounds and planted corn kernels one by one along the mid-line circumference, placing a single bean next to each kernel to climb the vertical corn stalks above low crawling vines heavy with squash and gourds. Their most advanced tools included blunt or chipped stone traded from inland tribes to provide implements such as axes, hoes and tomahawks. They employed sharp sticks to break the ground and drill seed holes. The bulk of their nourishment came from such fertile mounds, but their protein diet depended upon trapped or speared fish and turtles from numerous waterways, as well as snared small mammals such as mice and raccoon, but deer were the hunters’ prize.

The wiry young men incessantly tracked muscular bucks and demure doe to support their resilient culture; sometimes hunting all day with nothing to show. Other times, carefully deployed arrows pierced deeply behind a foreleg into or near the racing heart, causing a hemorrhage, weakness and quick death. More often, tribesmen followed blood trails until night fell, then waited for morning light to retrieve the stiff carcass from an opaque thicket or shallow pond.

The natives employed the entire quadruped, using the lean flesh for nourishment, selected sinews for trap snares and bow strings, and hooves for scrapping soft hides. They used the subtle hides to fashion all of their clothing including durable moccasins. ¹¹ Soft