The subject of this sketch, George W. Grayson, was born in 1843, within four miles of Eufaula, Creek Nation. He is a son of the late James Grayson and Jennie Wynn, a half-breed Creek. The original name of Grayson was Grierson, having become corrupted in soem unaccountable manner. The original Grierson was a Scotchman, reputed to have come from the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. He married a Creek woman of the Hillabee Town, who bore him several children, among whom was the grand-parent of the subject of our sketch. [INDIAN TERRITORY: ITS CHIEFS, LEGEISLATORS, AND LEADING MEN
BY H.F. & E. S. O'BEIRNE, p131.]
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Hillabee - Luke G. McIntosh - October 9, 1882
(Discontinued Oct. 21, 1884; mail to Eufaula) [Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 6, No. 1, March, 1928, EARLY POST OFFICES OF OKLAHOMA, Grant Foreman, p23]
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Itinerary of the Indian Brigade.
February 1 [1864].--Battalion of infantry, under Maj. Wright, marched to Rhea's Mills [Arkansas], 65 miles, to run mills and get forage and breadstuff. Commands from the First Indian Regiment, Col. Wattles; Third Indian, Maj. Foreman; battalion Fourteenth Kansas Cavalry, Maj. Willetts; section of Kaufman's howitzers. Capt. Kaufman, with the commanding officer, marched southward across Arkansas River; reached Hillabee after a march of 75 miles. [Official Records, Series I. Vol. 34. Part I, p106]
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Col. Adair, with 40 men, got back to Hillabee fire days ago, his
horses run down, reporting 40 killed and all the rest deserted. It is
possible that some of his command are above. [Official Records, Series I. Vol. 34. Part III, p629] [Gallaher to
M.Phillips]
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I crossed my command over Deep Fork partly on
a raft, partly on driftwood, and partly by swimming, and continuing in
a southwesterly direction, crossed North Fork, which I found quiet low,
and arrived at We-wo-ka, eighty-five miles southwest of Fort Gibson,
on the 24th instant. From We-wo-ka I sent scouts to Little River Town,
twenty-five miles southwest, and to Hillabee, twenty miles east, and to
Canadian River, twenty miles southeast. The scouts returned and
reported no enemy, but the evidence that parties had been into both
Little River and Hillabee about a week previous, and that they had
driven large herds of cattle in a southwesterly direction. [Official Records, Series I. Vol. 48. Part I, p143] [M.Phillips to
Cmdg. OFFICER 3d Brig., 3d DIV., 7TH ARMY CORPS -- Schuarte?]
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On the 19th instant I was ordered by Lieut.-Col. Dole,
commanding Third Brigade, Third Division Seventh Army Corps, to
take six men and report to Capt. Phillips in command of a detachment
of troops that went southwest as far as We-wo-ka. I started with J. H.
Greene, John McDonald, Jos. Pugh, and Jeff, Davis, citizen scouts;
Charles Hicks and Henry Parris, detailed soldiers. On the 20th I
overtook Capt. Phillips' command about twenty-five miles west from
this point. I reported to the captain and he ordered me to proceed to the
Council Ground and drive some beef-cattle to that point for the
command, which I did. We there rested a short time until the command
moved up. The captain then ordered me to take my men and go south
as far as Hillabee, on the South Canadian. [ibid][Davis to Schuarte]
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CAMP NEAR WILLABY [Hillabee?], C. N., April 17, 1864.
Col. STAND WATIE,
Cmdg. Brigade:
COL.: We arrived here day before yesterday. I sent a small scout
to Rabbit Ford [on the Arkansas east of present Muskogee about where the OG&E Plant is on the east side of the river],
near Gibson, which will return to-night or to-morrow
with the news. I found Capt. Gordon here and sent him above Spring
Town, 35 miles, to see if he could make any discoveries in regard to the
Kansian Indians. Capt. Gordon says he ran into a camp of some half
dozen of those Indians when he first came, about 10 miles above here.
...The enemy has not
been here since they made the raid to Colbert's Mill. [Feb 1864] Small scouts came
some two weeks ago to the neighborhood of Camp McIntosh. [Official Records, Series I. Vol. 34. Part III, p776][Adair to Watie]
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The companies having gotten into shape for military duty, a scout of some one or two hundred men, with instructions to go as far north of the Canadian River and ascertain if possible where the enemy was, and see what damage had been done to the country in the last raid, was despatched. With these I went.
We reached and crossed the river a considerable distance above the Creek settlement formerly known as Hillabee [see footnote below]. As our column moved down the river and through the above settlement, evidences of the devastation visited by the enemy in his late raid [Phillips Expedition of Feb 1864] were visible on all sides with here and there a hastily made grave to be seen along the road.
Editor's Footnote: Hillabee was located some 20 miles southwest of Eufaula just north of the Canadian River. It will be remembered that Grayson's paternal ancestors had settled among the Hillabees in the old Creek Nation.
[A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy: The Autobiography of Chief G.W. Grayson, Edited by W.David Baird, p.74] Grayson was a captain in the 2nd Creek Mtd Rifles
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Camp near Hillabee, Willaby on record, (Confederate), Creek Nation, now McIntosh County: twp 9N ran 14E or twp 11N ran 16E. Hillaby Creek is in Okfuskee County. Colonel W. P. Adair to Colonel Stand Watie. per ORsIv34/3[S#63]p777. 1864.
...
Wewoka, an ancient name of a place in Elmore County, Alabama and is a Creek word meaning “roaring water.” After the Civil War, the Union Seminoles abandoned Green Head Prairie (viz) near the Seminole Agency (viz) and set up a new capital, Wewoka, on May 13, 1867 on Freedman leader Gopher John’s land on Wewoka Creek, sec 20 twp 8N ran 8E, now Seminole County. [Bourland in North Texas & Indian Territory During the Civil War: Fort Cobb, Fort Arbuckle & the Wichita Mountains, Patricia Adkins-Rochette]