Timeline story
Tellico cession, 1805, south of the Cumberland
On October 25, 1805, at Tellico, U.S. commissioners Return J. Meigs and Daniel Smith concluded a treaty with Cherokee chiefs and headmen—among the signers were Path Killer, Doublehead, Glass and John Jolly—in which the Cherokee gave up all the land they had claimed north of a line that began at the mouth of the Duck River.
The United States agreed to pay $3,000 in merchandise at once and $11,000 within ninety days of ratification—$14,000 in all—plus a $3,000 annuity. According to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Land Office, citing Thomas D. Clark in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, the cession took in 7,032 square miles in Tennessee and 1,086 square miles south of the Cumberland River in what are now Bell, Whitley and McCreary counties, Kentucky.
In 1810 the Kentucky General Assembly passed an act establishing the Tellico Patent Series to grant that land, and amended the patenting process in 1811; many Tellico patents were authorized under the state’s December 20, 1800, act for settling and improving vacant lands. This story has no map pin: the cession was a broad strip across three counties, and no single site stands for it.
Cite this story
Published . Last revised .
Chicago
Snowden, Shannon. "Tellico cession, 1805, south of the Cumberland." Kentucky History Drive. Published October 5, 2026. Last revised October 5, 2026. https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/tellico-cession-1805-south-of-the-cumberland/.
MLA
Snowden, Shannon. "Tellico cession, 1805, south of the Cumberland." Kentucky History Drive, published 5 Oct. 2026, last revised 5 Oct. 2026, https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/tellico-cession-1805-south-of-the-cumberland/.
Report a correction for Tellico cession, 1805, south of the Cumberland (opens in a new tab)