THE CREEK WAR

We now reach the period of bloodshed. Says Pickett:" Everything foreboded the extermination of the Americans in Alabama, who were the most isolated and defenseless people imaginable." But in this little settlement were many brave Anglo-Saxon hearts, men, women and children, inured to the ways of the wilderness.

The Callers, the Austills and the Creaghs, were here. There was need of help and would be need for all the experience and coolness of the elder Austill, all the sagacity and heroism of the younger Austill.

From Fort Madison, J. Austill, a youth of nineteen, son of Captain Evan Austill, was sent alone, on a fleet horse, as bearer of dispatches to General Claiborne at Mount Vernon. The route over which the solitary horseman passed is very lonely even now. In the dark bottoms amid the more open pines, Creek warriors might at any moment appear. The youth proceeded cautiously on his way through the still hours of the night. Reaching the river bottom in the vicinity of Fort Carney, he was uncertain whether the fort was above or below that point. He rode near the river bank and gave one Indian war-whoop. There came to his ears from the fort, distant about half a mile, the loud, defying bark of some fifty or sixty dogs. Uncertainty was at an end. Soon he reached the gateway; was welcomed within by the startled men, women, and children; a warm supper was provided for himself and food for his horse; both were transported across the river; and again the courier was upon the road. In the dawn of the morning he reached the headquarters of the General. Claiborne was amazed that he had come thus alone. But the youthful messenger replied that his ears were quick to catch sounds and his eyes were keen, like the natives of these wilds, and in the event of danger he would have been obliged to trust to his own resources and to his fleet horse. Companions would only have exposed him to more danger.

Some eighty citizens, enrolling themselves under the two captains, Evan Austill and Samuel Dale, chose to remain with their families and protect themselves and their homes.

Jeremiah Austill was nineteen years of age, six feet two and one-fourth inches in height, very sinewy, with no surplus flesh, and weighed one hundred and seventy-five pounds.

The above excerpts from Rev. Ball's book give a glimpse of the character and the lives of Evan and Jeremiah Austill. Many more details are given in the book and it is well worth trying to find a copy and read the entire story.

Not much information is given about the heroic wives of these two men. Evan Austill married in Pendleton District, S. C., in 1794, Sarah or Lethee Files. She lived until 1835. Jeremiah married on 9 Oct., 1834, Margaret Irvin Eades, with whom he had two sons and three daughters. He died in 1879 and his wife lived until 1890. One of the sons, Hurieosco, served in the Civil War and became an attorney, a politician, and an organizer of railroads.