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The story of John and Betty Welch and the Cherokee Removal is one of resilience, sacrifice, tragedy and eventually success for many Cherokee families who remained in our mountains.
Welch was the child of a French father and a Cherokee mother, but was all Cherokee in ways and deeds. He was said to have killed a Cherokee named Leech in Valleytown. The next of kin, Yonaguska, was sworn to take blood revenge and pursued Welch into South Carolina, where Welch was in love with a dynamic white girl, Betty Bly. The story goes that Bly persuaded Yonaguska to spare Welch, and shortly thereafter Welch and Bly married, returning to what we know today as Cherokee County.
Cherokee society was restructured in the early 19th century, with many local Cherokee unhappy with the changes and choosing, thanks to a stipulation in the 1819 treaty, to live separate from the Cherokee Nation on a 640-acre parcel from the United States. Welch built a home in Haywood County, but in 1822 he sold his property to Benjamin Brittan, moved to Valleytown and prospered.
Many North Carolina Cherokee did not think the removal would be enforced, they had lawsuits before the U.S. Supreme Court and 13,000 names on a petition repudiating the treaty of New Echota. Principal Chief John Ross implied that he did not think the removal would be enforced.
But one month after ratification of New Echota, in June 1836, President Andrew Jackson sent Gen. John Wool to establish forts, and to prevent an uprising like they had faced in Florida with the Seminoles, Wool confiscated the firearms of the Cherokee. Removal began under Gen. Winfield Scott between May and August in 1838.
Welch had built a plantation and large house at the head of the Valley River that served as a logical meeting place for officers and locals. Betty Welch worked as an interpreter, and their son joined the militia serving as an interpreter. Capt. John Powell fell in love with Welch’s daughter Mary, and the two married in 1837.
The Welches felt safe, having acquired exemption passes and Welch was citizenized through the Calhoun Treaty of 1819. That did not stop him and neighbor Gideon Morris from concealing, feeding, and supplying the hideouts.
That was until the commander at Fort Montgomery reported to Scott, “I collected yesterday about 80 Indians. They had all received orders from Welsh [sic] of Valley River to leave home and take to the mountains.”
Gen. Abraham Eustis reported “Mr. Preston Starritt [sic], who signs himself Agent for Emigration has … granted permission to some hundreds of Indians to remain in the country … He has been for several days at Welch’s on Valley River distributing permissions with a liberal hand to Indians coming from Fort Lindsay and Camp Scott …”
Another officer reported, “I have taken post here convenient to two points (one of which is Welch’s) where the Indians are fed and harbored and where the trails from the mountains…concentrate. Welch’s family … should be apprehended and sent in … are doing a great deal of mischief.”
Despite his exemption his land was slated for seizure, so in defense Welsh transferred power of attorney and ownership of all property to his father-in-law and a close neighbor, both white. When Welch went to Fort Cass to settle the issue, all the Cherokee men in the group, Welsh, his son Ned, Junaluska and Wachacha were imprisoned without charge.
As word of the arrests spread, many Cherokee with exemptions saw the writing on the wall and rushed to the mountains, Quallatown or South Carolina. Troops camped at the Welch home, and Betty Welch was ordered to Fort Cass. She was pregnant and able to forestall her transport, but in an effort to put more pressure on Welch his eight slaves were removed to Fort Cass, one with a 10-day-old child. Both mother and child died in route.
The Welch property was looted and pilfered, including a trunk from which $225 in gold and silver were stolen.
John Welch was still imprisoned at Fort Cass when the land of the Cherokee was auctioned. His white son-in-law, Capt. John Power, traveled to Franklin and bought back the family farm with $1,000 down payment. He purchased 1,274 acres, 100 acres along the Valley River, much of the remainder upland wooded tracts that Welch would later use for the settlement of Cherokee refugees.
With removal completed and troops gone home, Welch was released in December, his health destroyed and unable to work.
Slowly Cherokee who had hid emerged from the hills, essentially fugitives from Justice, not citizens of the Cherokee Nation or the United States, their farms, cabins and lands sold to others. Some returned to their homes in Hanging Dog and Cheoah, still too isolated to attract the desires of white settlers.
No longer trusting the whites, Welch transferred all his property rights to his wife, who in turn began hosting Cherokee families, employing some. W.H. Thomas noted in March 1839 there were 27 families totaling 85 people living in Welch’s Town, where they attempted to preserve Cherokee traditions, building a town house and a dance field.
In the first year after the removal thanks in part to an effort led by Betty Welch, the remaining Cherokee were sustained by the surrounding whites. Several white government representatives complained of being bested by her in negotiations for promised compensation due the Cherokee by the clever Mrs. Welch.
By 1845, the Cherokee families who remained began to branch out and purchase land on their own and leave the Welch land. The remaining Cherokee were able to reestablish themselves in Cherokee County thanks to John and Betty Welch. Welch died in 1852, the resistance and support he and his wife provided earning a well-earned segment of Cherokee lore and country history.
The Welch home site has been the subject of archaeological excavations by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill beginning in 2004.
Bruce Voyles’ local history column runs every other week in the Cherokee Scout. Email him at RoadsLessTraveled@cherokeescout.com.