The Cherokee Agency Reserve

(A recycled post from 2 years ago)

I was looking at a Norristown Mountain topographical map online in 2022 and noticed a line labeled “Old Indian Treaty Boundary.”

(Wonderful, another internet rabbit hole to explore.)

It turns out it is the boundary for what became known as The Cherokee Agency Reserve. The boundary is roughly drawn on the accompanying Google Maps image.

The Cherokee Agency was the land and property associated with the Federal Government’s agent assigned to the Cherokees.

In the treaty that removed the Cherokee from Arkansas – the May 6, 1828, Treaty with The Western Cherokee – there is a provision related to the agency land:

It is further agreed, that the property and improvements connected with the agency, shall be sold under the direction of the Agent, and the proceeds of the same applied to aid in the erection, in the country to which the Cherokees are going, of a Grist, and Saw Mill, for their use. The aforesaid property and improvements are thus defined: Commence at the Arkansas River opposite William Stinnetts, and run due North one mile, thence due East to a point from which a due South line to the Arkansas River would include the Chalybeate, or Mineral Spring, attached to or near the present residence of the Agent, and thence up said River (Arkansas) to the place of beginning.

Thence began the shenanigans that resulted in this being the last land in Arkansas disputed by the Cherokee.

The agent, one Major Edward DuVal, claimed to have made an actual survey reporting “2998 acres, 3 rods and 24 poles,” considerably less than the 3343.4 acres established later by a government survey.

DuVal, who resided within the bounds of the property, advertised the sale of the land in the Arkansas Gazette early and held the sale on April 22, 1829, with a Joe Parve the highest bidder at $1050. A former agent, Colonel David Brearley, said the property, with all the structures and improvements, was worth 10 times as much.

Besides the land, the reserve contained the following improvements: a new, frame cotton gin and grist mill, 66 x 34 feet; a “good store house” occupied by Walter Webber; “sundry cabins built for dwellings;” a small peach orchard; a “new, unfinished two-story log house,” 50 x 20 feet; a “never failing spring;” and a mineral spring.

The purchaser, Joe Parve, actually bought the land for DuVal.

DuVal was removed early the following year, 1829, as an Indian agent because of improper and unethical abuses of his position. He died on September 15, 1829. In 1832, accounting officers determined that at the time of his death he was actually indebted to the United States in the sum of eleven thousand five hundred and thirty-eight dollars and fifty-four cents.

The reservation in question was purchased by Mr. Duval himself, and remained, in his possession and that of his representatives, until the 26th of April, 1832, when the sale was canceled by the Secretary of War, on the ground that such a purchase ought not to be made by an Indian agent.

United States v Duval (1833)

This was just the first chapter of what would be an over half-century-long issue of the land’s status and whether the Cherokee were ever fully—or even partially—compensated as required by the 1828 treaty.

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