Editor’s Note: Each hike of the Spring Hiking Challenge includes a segment documenting its “historical context.” This story provides further insight on Yahoo Falls — this week’s featured hike — and the purported massacre that occurred there in 1810.
Each of the hiking trails in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area have historical significance attached to them — some of the tales grander than others. There are perhaps none as spectacular as the legend of Yahoo Falls, which is this week’s destination for the #SpringHikingChallenge.
Located near where Yahoo Creek empties into the Big South Fork River, west of Whitley City, Yahoo Falls is the tallest waterfall in Kentucky. It drops 113 feet in front of a massive sandstone rock shelter, and it was inside this rock shelter that the great Cherokee Women and Children Massacre of 1810 supposedly occurred.
This story actually starts in the winter of 1777-1778, when a militia member named Jacob Troxell was serving at Valley Forge under the command of General George Washington.
As the story goes:
Troxell — “Big Jake,” they called him, because of his enormous height — was what was referred to in those days as a “half-breed.” His father was a Jewish immigrant from Switzerland, and his mother was a Delaware Indian. Perhaps it was because of this that commanders in the Continental Army recruited Troxel to pose as a trader and visit the old French outpost at Vincennes (in modern-day Indiana) to persuade as many of the Native Americans as possible to support the American patriots in their war against the British.
At Vincennes, Big Jake befriended a young Cherokee warrior from the Cumberland River valley who was about his age: Tuckahoe Doublehead, son of the great Chickamauga Cherokee war chief Doublehead. Tuckahoe invited Troxell to his village, Tsalachi, which was located near present-day Burnside, Ky., where the Big South Fork River emptied into the Cumberland River. There, Troxell fell in love with one of Chief Doublehead’s daughters, Corn Blossom.
During the winter of 1779-1780, as the Revolutionary War continued, Tories under the command of Major Patrick Ferguson killed Cherokee hunters on the Tellico Trail, an old Indian travel route that is today U.S. Highway 27. In retaliation, Troxell accompanied Chief Doublehead in an attack on the Tories’ camp at Little South Fork. As a result, Big Jake was able to convince Doublehead and his warriors to support the colonials in their war against the British.
Following the war, Big Jake married Corn Blossom, and they had a son named Little Jake. Other white settlers began moving into the Cumberlands, which was opened to settlement by a series of treaties collectively known as the Treaties of Tellico, which saw the Cherokee cede ownership of their territory to the federal government. Many of the Cherokee remaining in the area began to assimilate into white culture, sometimes living in cabins just like the white settlers. Doublehead was one of the leading proponents of this assimilation. Prior to that, he was recognized as one of the most vicious fighters in the Cherokee Nation, and he led an assault on White’s Fort in present-day Knoxville in 1788.
Chief Doublehead became quite wealthy and owned a lot of the same material possessions that white settlers were bringing into the region. Some of his fellow Cherokee believed he was making money on under-the-table deals with the federal government. In 1807, his chief rival — James Vann — and other younger leaders of the Cherokee Nation conspired to assassinate Doublehead. He was shot and badly wounded at McIntosh’s Tavern near Calhoun, Tenn., then finished off in the attic of schoolmaster Jonathan Blacke.
As the assimilation of the natives and white settlers continued, Tuckahoe Doublehead married a white woman from present-day Scott County named Margaret Mounce. She lived at Cherry Fork, near present-day Helenwood. (She was likely a sister to Susannah Mabel Mounts, who married Richard Harve Slaven, first settler of the Big South Fork region.)
The assimilation of the Cherokee and the white settlers did not ease tensions between the two races. Tuckahoe was murdered in Wayne County, Ky. in 1807, by men who sought the location of a secret silver mine.
In 1810, things came to a head in the Cumberland River valley. As relations between white settlers and the Chickamauga Cherokee worsened, Corn Blossom realized that her people needed to leave the region and move further south. Several years earlier, Presbyterian pastor Gideon Blackburn had opened a school on Cherokee land near Chattanooga, and he offered to protect and educate Cherokee women and children from the Cumberland River valley.
Corn Blossom sent her son, Little Jake, on horseback to spread the word that anyone seeking protection at the Blackburn school in Chattanooga should meet at the rock shelter behind Yahoo Falls when the moon was full.
It was August 1810.
More than 100 Cherokee Indians remaining in the region, mostly women and children, gathered at Yahoo Falls and waited for Corn Blossom and Little Jake to arrive and lead them to safety. As they waited, gunfire erupted in the darkness. A group of white vigilantes under the direction of Hiram Gregory had surrounded the rock shelter from above. After killing the few men present, they began to slaughter the women and children, who were trapped beneath the waterfall. More than 100 were killed or severely wounded.
Among the casualties was Big Jake Troxell, who was mortally wounded and scalped. He died two months later.
According to legend, the white men raped the women and younger female children, slit open the bellies of pregnant Cherokee women, and scalped many of the victims.
It is said that Corn Blossom arrived as the slaughter was winding down, along with her son, Little Jake, and Chief Red Bird from Cumberland Falls. They killed most of the men, but both Corn Blossom and Little Jake were mortally wounded in the fight.
The murdered Cherokee people were said to be buried in a mass grave beneath the waterfall. Little Jake died immediately and may have been buried with the others. Princess Corn Blossom died two days later and is buried in an unknown location. Big Jake Troxell died sometime later. His grave marker is located along the road to Yahoo Falls. However, many believe he was actually buried in an unmarked grave at the Otter Creek Cemetery, further south.
In the aftermath of the massacre, some of the remaining Cherokee in the region fled southward; others went into hiding.
The story, however horrific and fascinating it may be, is believed by modern historians to be almost entirely fictional. There is no documented evidence of a Cherokee woman named Corn Blossom; the first mention of her appears in Thomas H. Troxel’s 1958 book, “Legion of the Lost Mine.” In his foreword, Troxel notes that some of the characters in the book are fictional, but he does not specify which.
The details of the Yahoo Falls Massacre itself did not appear in writing until Robert Collins’ 1975 book “A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest,” which he said was based on an unpublished manuscript compiled by Dan Troxell and entitled, “The Great Cherokee Children Massacre at Ywahoo Falls.” Most historians agree that Dan Troxell’s information was sourced from oral legend handed down by the family through the years. All published articles that mention the Yahoo Falls Massacre cite Troxell’s manuscript as their source, and there is no documented contemporary evidence to support the events that supposedly took place at Yahoo Falls in August 1810.
Some elements of the story are certainly true. Jacob Troxell very much existed, and fought in the Revolutionary War. However, other aspects of his life are much debated. He did, indeed, move to Wayne County, Ky. (which included present-day McCreary County) around 1801. His daughter was Catherine “Katy” Troxell, who married Jonathan Blevins Jr. — forefather of the Blevins family that later settled the Big South Fork region and remains in Scott County today.
Beyond that, much is unknown. Some family genealogists suggest that Jacob Troxell moved south, living in both Marion County, Tenn., and in Alabama, after 1810, dying in 1843. His first wife and mother of his children, these genealogists say, was not known. He later married a woman named Elizabeth — who may have been Elizabeth Blevins — in 1823.
The alternative story of Jacob “Big Jake” Troxell is the one that emerged later, in the 1958 “Legion of the Lost Mine” book. This version is the one that has Troxell living among the Cherokee and later marrying Corn Blossom, daughter of Chief Doublehead. The 1958 book appears to be the first reference in literature to Corn Blossom.
As for the grave marker that is placed on the road to Yahoo Falls: it identifies Troxell as a private in the Philadelphia militia. There were two Jacob Troxells from Pennsylvania who served in the Revolutionary War, but they appear to have been different individuals. Even genealogists who believe Jacob Troxell died in 1810 admit that he’s likely not buried along the road to Yahoo Falls, but instead believe that he was buried at Otter Creek further south in McCreary County.
Chuqualatague, or Chief Doublehead, also very much existed. The events surrounding his life and death are well documented. His 1807 assassination near Hiwassee, Tenn. was fictionalized in Dee Brown’s novel, “Creek Mary’s Blood.”
However, there’s no documentation to support that he had a daughter whose name translates to “Corn Blossom.” Further, she’s referred to in modern writings as “Princess Corn Blossom,” and Cherokee tribes did not have princesses.
Less fully documented is the purported death of Doublehead’s son, Tuckahoe Doublehead, who supposedly lived in present-day Scott County. His death at the secret silver mine is documented in Collins’ 1975 book, which also introduces an alternative account of Chief Doublehead’s death: that he was killed amid a dispute near present-day Monticello after Tuckahoe eloped with his white wife. (There’s even a purported grave site for Doublehead in Wayne County.) Collins further wrote that Corn Blossom avenged the death of her brother, Tuckahoe, by shooting and killing his attackers.
Rev. Hiram “Big Tooth” Gregory, the man who supposedly led the Yahoo Falls Massacre, also very much existed. He would have been about 36 years old in 1810, living in Wayne County, Ky. Interestingly, genealogists suggest that Hiram Gregory’s second wife, Jane “Jenny” Stephenson, was first married to Peter Troxell — the son of Jacob Troxell who is also known in the legend as “Little Jake.” The legend suggests that Little Jake, aka Peter, married an Indian woman named Standing Fern. Like Corn Blossom, there is no contemporary evidence that Standing Fern existed.
Little Jake supposedly died at the Yahoo Falls Massacre. However, records from Wayne County show that he was named a road overseer in February 1819, and died sometime between then and January 1820, when his wife was named administrator of his estate.
Gideon Blackburn, the Presbyterian minister, also existed. He did, indeed, start a school for Cherokee children — two of them, in fact. One was located on the Hiwassee River and opened in 1804; the other opened in 1806 at Sale Creek. He was a staunch ally of Chief Doublehead. Troxell’s manuscript states that Blackburn closed his school in grief after learning of the Yahoo Falls Massacre, and that he was later caught with a boatload of alcohol and became an alcoholic. However, it was in 1809 — before the purported massacre at Yahoo Falls — that the Creek Indians implicated Blackburn and others in a scheme to illegally ship whiskey through Creek territory to Mobile, Ala. As a result of fallout over that scandal, he closed both schools in 1810 and moved his family to Middle Tennessee.
As for Hiram Gregory, he has been thoroughly vilified since the emergence of the Yahoo Falls Massacre narrative in Collins’ 1975 book. But every mention of Gregory as a murderer of Indians ties back to the single narrative of the Yahoo Falls Massacre.
In short, historians doubt that the Yahoo Falls Massacre ever occurred. There is no contemporary evidence — court documents, newspaper accounts, or military records — to back up the story, and its only documentation is a single 1975 book that references the Troxel manuscript. It’s doubtful that Corn Blossom, Standing Fern, or Chief Red Bird existed.
Nevertheless, the hike to Yahoo Falls is one of the true gems of McCreary County, and the scenery there is spectacular. If those massive sandstone walls behind the waterfall could talk, they could tell us the true story of what did or didn’t happen there in August 1810. Since they’re silent, all we can do is enjoy their beauty, and speculate.