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- George Mathes -- From Lost State of Franklin, by Samuel Cole Williams:
"Occurrences on the Border -- 1788. On Friday Aug. 8, a party of 31 under Captain Fain, a part of the guard of Houston Station, joined a party of settlers, crossed the Little Tennessee at a point about nine miles distant. . . . The Indians surrounded them, drove them into the river, killed 16 and wounded 4. The Indians had taken possession of the ford, and as whites endeavored to swim across the stream many were slaughtered in the water." George Mathes was one of the 16 killed.
With his brothers, Alexander Jr., Allen and Jeremiah, he emigrated to upper East TN about 1780, where he married and lived a short time in the neighborhood of Leesburg. Later going to Blount Co., he was one of the pioneers.
Another story from the book "Life As It Is": During a raid of the Indians the settlers ran into a blockhouse some miles below Maryville. After a siege of some days the Indians withdrew, and George Mathes and his brother-in-law Anderson volunteered to go and look for food. The Indians suprised them and they were overtaken and tomahawked to death by John Watts, a half-breed chief, notorious for his bloodthirsty deeds and character.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=mathews-mathes&id=I1656
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