29 December 2022 Quotations are still long and contain many peculiar spellings from the originals Copyright Hershel Parker¬¬ § I. "Jefferson, Cocke, Indian Treaties, and the Sims Settlers" In 2007 when I went looking for the site of the Sims Settlement (where my ancestor Parish Sims died) I received almost no little help from the authorities in Limestone County, Alabama, and Giles County, Tennessee. Now, happily, there is a two-sided marker for “Sims Settlement” dated 2012 and another for nearby Fort Hampton. The front side of the Sims marker reads: In the fall of 1806 a group of settlers led by William and James Sims, traveled from east Tennessee on flatboats down the Tennessee River and up the Elk River to this area. They landed near Buck Island and spread out into the surrounding countryside, seeking homesites in what they thought was ‘government’ land that would soon be for sale to settlers. The area they settled, covering several square miles, from Elk River to New Garden became known as ‘Sims Settlement.’ The Federal Government had settled the Cherokee claim to the area north of the Tennessee River in 1805, but the Chickasaw Nation maintained a claim to it until 1816. The settlement by the Sims party and others that continued to come to the area was illegal, and they became squatters of ‘intruders’ on Indian land. The growing number of white settlers entering the area alarmed the Chickasaws who threatened war if the U. S. Federal Government didn’t remove them. To avoid bloodshed and to placate the Chickasaws, the government sent troops into this area to remove the settlers. This first removal was in April and May of 1809. Most of the settlers returned as soon as the soldiers left, and so the problem continued. [The reverse of the Sims Marker reads:] In response, the government sent an ultimatum dated August 4, 1810 to the settlers that if they had not left all land west of the Chickasaw boundary by December 15, they would be removed by force. This boundary was surveyed in the fall of 1807, starting at Hobbs Island in Madison