An Attempt on Ross’ Life

The year 1831 ended with a plot to kill Chief Ross hatched by the Pony Club. Two men, one directly related to Richard Philpot planned to catch Ross crossing the local ferry and then gun him down from a nearby hill. The escalation of violence and the hatred of the Cherokee by Pony Club members led to a confrontation in Indian Territory on November 30, 1831. Writing about it in the Cherokee Phoenix, January 21, 1832, John Ross outlined a plot by the Club to kill Ross, the chief of the Cherokee nation. It begins when John and Andrew Ross, brother of the chief are visiting Major ridge at his house in Georgia. Suddenly a gaunt looking white man appears at the door , interrupting the conversation of the 3 Indians: “is John Ross here?”

…he inquired if I knew of anyone crossing my ferry in the course of the past night; I answered him in the negative. He then stated that a horse was stolen from him that night, which he had tracked within a few hundred yards of my ferry landing and there lost the sign…

He introduced himself as a Mr. Harris and said he was from North Carolina. He then went to Lavender’s store nearby to hire an Indian to guide him through the country and later reappeared on horseback as Ross and his brother started home. Accompanied by Oonehutty, a local Indian, Harris again asked if he were John Ross. Chief Ross assented and they all boarded the ferry and headed across the river. The ferryman indicated to Harris he had seen a lone horseman on a hill above the ferry as if waiting for someone.

After watching Mr. Harris and his guide gallop to the top of the hill the chief’s curiosity got the best of him and he and his brother rode to the far side of the hill. Here they saw that Harris and Oonehutty had captured the other man.

…the other man proved to be the one who was discovered on top of the hill—he was a chubbed, grim looking fellow, with a pair of large reddish moustaches which curled at the corner of his mouth and several of his foreteeth out, his eyes , mouth and the general features of his countenance uninteresting…

The Indian guide took the man’s gun and Harris indicated to Ross that this was the horse he was looking for. Ross asked who the man was and though Harris wasn’t willing to say, Ross got out of the man that his name was Looney and he was from Rhea County, Tennessee. They all began the trek back to the ferry landing when Looney said:

…“Harris I am now gonna tell the truth about this whole business”. Said I the truth alone was what I desired to know—said he, “I have not stolen this horse”. How came you to be riding this horse when Harris claims him? Whose horse is he? “my own”—do you know Harris? “No”. At this moment my brother then told me to take care that Harris was going to shoot me. I looked around and saw Harris dismounted, at the same time I heard him say, “I have been for a long time wanting to kill you and I’ll be damned if I don’t now do it”. As he presented the gun I wheeled my horse and galloped off; looking back I saw my brother setting on his horse at the same place. Harris then got behind a tree to shoot him—he then rode off and we returned home, late in the evening…

Concern now turned to Oonehutty, left behind with the Pony Club outlaws. Ross the next day made his way to the store and at once saw Oonehutty’s horse tied up outside. Ross discovered him sitting inside, his right cheek severely bruised. The Indian related to Ross his life and death struggle with Harris over the gun after the chief and his brother had escaped. Oonehutty received a bruised cheek but he had stabbed Harris with his own knife.

Having defied the assassin, Ross later learned who the assasin was:

…Looney is the brother in law of James Philpot and that he had accompanied Harris from Philpot’s house to the place where he was stationed on the hill—that the poney on which Harris rode, belonged to said Philpot. Upon Reuben Philpot representing the rifle gun for the property of Saul Ratley and that it had been left in his care, taken without his knowledge and in his absence from home and that he would be held responsible for it. Oonehutty surrendered it up to him, saying that he had no claim to It further than wrestling it from the hands of an assassin who had attempted to rob him and take his life with It (col. 3-5).

Ross complained bitterly that Governor Gilmer had let things get to these extremes, citing the statements that no intruders lived in the Indian territory while it was evident to all Indians the Pony Club covered the land and the woods “were alive with them” Of the 300 white men in Cherokee lands, who had taken the oath to Georgia as required by law, Ross noted,few if any were actually part of the tribe by marriage or any other affinity (page 3 col 1).

(from History of the Pony Club…not yet published)

April 3, 1828 New Echota, Cherokee Phoenix, page2 col. 5, page 3 col. 1.

May 28, 1828 Three Whipped, Cherokee Phoenix, page 2 col. 5.

May 21, 1828 A Trial in Hightower, Cherokee Phoenix,, page 2 col. 5.

November 5, 1828 John Lird, Cherokee Phoenix, page 1 col. 5.

December 3, 1829 Charleston Observer, The Cherokee Phoenix , page 2 col.4.

December 10, 1829 Letter to the Editor, Cherokee Phoenix,**Page 2 col. 2.

December 16, 1829 Savage Hostilities, Cherokee Phoenix, page 3 col. 2.

May 8, 1830, John Ross letter, Cherokee Phoenix,** page 2 col. 5.

May 22, 1830, New Echota, Cherokee Phoenix, page 2 col. 1.

May 29, 1830, New Echota, Cherokee Phoenix, page 3 col. 1.

June 12, 1830, Creek Path, Cherokee Phoenix, page 3 Col. 2.

June 26, 1830, Cherokee Phoenix, page 3, Col. 2.

July 30, 1830, Gold Mines, Cherokee Phoenix, page 2, col. 5.

October 16, 1830 New Dynasty, Macon Telegraph, page 3 col. 2.

January 1, 1831 Walter Adair, Cherokee Phoenix.** Page 1 col. 3,4.

January 21, 1832 John Ross, Cherokee Phoenix, Page 2 col. 3-5, page 3 col. 1.

1907 Lumpkin, Wilson, The removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia‎

Dodd meade and co.: NY

1986 McLoughlin, William Gerald, Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic, Princeton univ press:

1998 Sargent, Gordon D., PolkCounty, Georgia‎, Arcadia publishing: Mt. Pleasant, SC

1993 Shadburn, Don L., Unhallowed Intrusion: A History of Cherokee Families in Forsythe County, Georgia, W.H. Wolfe associates: Alpharetta.

1995 Williams, David, The Georgia Gold Rush: Twenty-Niners, Cherokees, and Gold Fever, Univ. of South Carolina Press: Columbia.

Attempt by the Pony Club to kill John Ross, chief of the Cherokee