LEFT PAGE — “Looking Backward” From Chattanooga Times, January, 1915

The Hon. Thomas M. McConnell, who served twenty-four years as judge of the Third Chancery Division of Tennessee, died at his residence on Fifth Street in the afternoon of January 30, 1915. He was 84. He was forced to leave the bench a few weeks before because of a severe attack of the grippe. During his illness the late W. B. Garvin was acting chancellor. Judge McConnell was a native of Grainger County, Tennessee, the son of a farmer. He raised a company in Upper East Tennessee for the Confederacy, although that section was mainly sympathetic for the Union cause. His company, of which he was made captain, became a part of the Twenty-sixth Tennessee Infantry. Later he was made major and served with gallantry at the Battle of Fort Donelson. He was active throughout the war and in one engagement sustained a serious wound. He was one of the original escort, or rather expedition, that accompanied Jefferson Davis in the attempt to reach the trans-Mississippi department after the fall of Richmond and surrender of Lee. At Washington, Georgia, President Davis dismissed his escort and sought with a smaller company to make his escape.

Major McConnell returned to Tennessee and first entered the mercantile business as a drummer for a New York wholesale house. After a few years he and a cousin, T. C. McConnell, opened a general store at Ringgold and yet later he conducted a company with William Dunn in a large flouring mill industry. The mills were on Chickamauga creek and afterwards were known as Chapman’s mills. While living in Ringgold he met Miss Mary Donohue whom he married. Mrs. McConnell was a helpless invalid when her husband died and had been bedridden for more than a year.

After several years of business in Georgia and also in what was then James County, now Hamilton, Major McConnell settled in Chattanooga and entered the practice of law as a partner of Major E. M. Dodson. For a while he was a member of the Hamilton County Court.

In 1876 Chancellor William M. Bradford appointed Major McConnell clerk and master at Chattanooga, which office he held until 1890. Upon the death of Chancellor Summerfield A. Key, Governor Buchanan, on the first of July, 1891, appointed McConnell chancellor and he held that office continually until his death. He was several times elected by the voters after his appointive term had expired.

The judge was a stalwart Democrat and one of the leading party men in the state. He was twice a candidate for the democratic nomination for Governor. In one of these campaigns his successful opponent was “Bob” Taylor. Surviving the judge was the wife and three daughters, Mrs. Sam Erwin, Mrs. Timothy Bunn, then of Los Angeles, and Mrs. Ownsby, then also of California. Mrs. McConnell was a first cousin of Judge Lewis Shepherd, Chattanooga’s well-known attorney. Her mother died when the child was an infant and she was reared in the Shepherd family.

Judge McConnell’s active pallbearers were J. Leo Foust, L. M. Coleman, J. M. Littleton, Nathan L. Bachman, W. B. Miller, J. M. Trimble, George D. Lancaster and W. G. M. Thomas.

Honorary pallbearers were J. B. Sizer, H. A. Chambers, Jesse T. Hill, William D. Spears, W. M. Nixon, D. L. Snodgrass, George T. White and J. J. Lynch.

On that same day that Chancellor McConnell died, Tennessee lost another distinguished lawyer when Chancellor Henry J. Livingston, 81, Confederate veteran, died at his home in Brownsville Tennessee, after twenty years’ service as chancellor of that district.

RIGHT PAGE — “Indian Treaty Brings Inrush of Purchasers” White Settlers Attracted by Rich Resources of Fertile Ocoee Section in 1835. By John Morgan Wooten

The Ocoee Purchase, of which Bradley county is a part, was made sixteen years after the Hiwassee purchase. Therefore, the Hiwassee district, which embraces the lands between the Hiwassee and the Tennessee rivers, had been settled by white people a number of years before the Ocoee purchase was made.

Many white men just across the border looked upon this Indian country as a promised land of wealth and opportunity, and they longed for the time when it would be opened to white settlers. They were quick to see its advantages. No doubt they familiarized themselves with its rich valleys and choice locations, and as soon as the treaty was signed, and in some cases before that was accomplished, they rushed across the line and “squatted” on the best lots.

It cannot be stated with accuracy who was the first white man to make his home in what is now Bradley county. Many white men were living among the Cherokees long before the treaty was signed. Some had married Indian wives, which gave them the right of citizenship. An official census in 1835 showed that there were 202 intermarriages in the nation. So there were many whites and many of mixed blood in the county at an early date. In addition to the whites who had intermarried with the Indians, there were government agents, missionaries and traders.

When the Indians agreed to the treaty at New Echota, Georgia, December 29, 1835, it was apparent that it would be ratified by the United States Senate. This was done and the treaty signed by the president May 23, 1836. The Indians were given two years from this date to vacate the territory. Before the treaty was signed no white people were allowed to reside in the nation without a permit, in many cases, however, the law was violated, and attempts were made by adventurous whites to settle on Indian lands. In such cases, if an Indian made complaint to the agent, he would notify the commanding officer at the nearest garrison, who would send soldiers with wagons and move them across the line. After the treaty was signed, all restrictions were removed, and immigration was rapid.

The first settlers did not in most cases have far to come. They came largely from the Hiwassee purchase, McMinn, Monroe, Jefferson, Green, Rhea and Roan counties, and not a few from the older counties of Georgia. They brought with them their stock and their farming implements, and in a short time they were gladdened by growing crops. Rapid progress was made in community life. In many cases the families found for temporary homes, cabins which had been vacated by the Indians. The Ocoee purchase was a forest, it was not the “forest primeval” to which the immigrants had come, for the Cherokees had made great advance in the customs of civilization. Much had been done that was beneficial to the new setters.

Ocoee District

October 18, 1836, the legislature passed an act to survey the land of the Ocoee district. This was required before it could be sold.

While hundreds of people had located in the new territory, and the county had been organized, no titles were given to land until after the survey was made and the land office