Hi! My name is Ama Tsusga and I was born and raised in Walker County, Georgia. It was about 300 years ago that European settlers started naming my tree species Water Oaks. Those were the days when this was Cherokee territory. I don't remember the Cherokees calling us anything, but I do remember that the Cherokee word for water was Ama, and for oak it was Tsusga. I never had a name but I did like the sound of Ama Tsusga so I took it for my own name. It's sort of musical, don't you think?
When I said that Europeans called us Water Oaks 300 years ago, I didn't mean me. I haven't been around that long. According to an estimate from a Georgia Forestry Officer I sprouted from my acorn between 230 and 250 years ago. I use the midpoint and tell other trees that I am 240 years old. What's that?...you don't believe that trees talk to each other? You just pick up J.R.R. Tolkein's book The Lord of the Rings and you'll see for yourself.
Anyway, that forestry officer based his opinion of my age mostly from my size. I am 75' tall, with a crown 75' wide and a trunk with a 4.5' diameter. If there are trees in the area bigger than me, I haven't seen them.
Being 240 years old means that I first broke through the ground in the year 1785. That's a long time ago. What is now the USA wouldn't have a constitution until two years later and it didn't go into effect until 1779. I saw British soldiers and Colonial militia skirmishing against each other in the war of 1812. I witnessed the Cherokee and Creek Indians being forced off their land in the 1830s. I watched as the Federal soldiers retreated past me on their way to Rossville on September 20, 1863 after being defeated by the Confederate army. There was shooting all around me as the Federals retreated through Mac Farland Gap. The Chickamauga Military Park is only 3,600' from me.
Maybe this would be a good time to tell you where I am. I am near the center of lot# 23, section 4 of district 9, of land lot 81. The lot is 248' long by 95' wide and is shared with me by a tall slash pine, a spruce, a cedar, a bird cherry tree, an old dogwood, an exotic type of magnolia, and a grove of walnut and pecan trees.
A Cherokee County plat map dated July 28th, 1832, certified by Thomas Gordon Mac Farland may be one of the first maps drawn of what would become Walker County, Georgia. Land lots in northwest Georgia were first plotted between 1805 and 1833, when Georgia began a land lottery to open the territory to white settlers. The Cherokee and Creek Indians had recently been forced off the land and resettled in Oklahoma Territory.
In 1832, I, Ama Tsusga was 47 years of age and for the first time was owned by a white man who won a 160 acre parcel of land, with me on it. I know that Tom and Maribel (the present owners) have made several trips to the county court house trying to identify the first owner, and also to fill in some of the dates between 1832 and the present with names and events relative to this property, but it has been slow going.
Contrary to popular belief, Indian tribes and individual Indians did own land, though I don't know under what authority structure. Actually, "owning land" is a misnomer. The people named on a land deed are not really owners - they're caretakers. They pay money to occupy the land for a time, and then eventually turn it over to the next caretakers. They don't own the land but they do own the trees and any natural or man-made features on the surface. I believe that I have been lucky to survive all of these years without being cut down for firewood, incinerated in a wild fire or struck by lightning. While I do not remember how many people have been caretakers of this plot, I haven't forgotten how much their life styles have changed, from dwellings lighted by candles and heated by wood fires, to HVAC units and solar power.
The photo below is of the John Ross house, located in Rossville, Georgia. It has seen all of the technology changes mentioned above. It was built in 1797 and is the oldest structure in North West Georgia. It is only ten minutes by car from where I stand. I was twelve years old when the house was built. My, how time flies. But, since it is not Tom's purpose to write about the Ross house, anyone interested in more information can start with this link.
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Tom and his wife Maribel have been occupying this lot since July of 2017. They treat the land and me pretty good, though I know that Tom doesn't like it when a storm comes through and I drop lots of limbs and branches on the ground, but I think he understands that falling apart is part of the aging process.
Prior to Tom and Maribel, the previous caretakers had the property beginning in August, 2013. They took it over from a family who had moved onto the land in November, 1958. I haven't identified these people by name because either they or their family members are living, and maybe don't want any information about them to be made public. Some of the early names that Tom and Maribel came across in deed books, after 1832 and associated with this piece of land I'm standing on are Schmidt, Lemons, Murdock, Follett, Gentry and a few more. Based on buy and sell dates it appears that many if not most of them were land speculators. Which opens the possibility that the deed to this property could have passed through many hands over many years without anyone actually occupying the property. I don't remember when the first dwelling was erected on this site, and Tom and Maribel didn't locate any records of construction on this site or any other for that matter. I think that both of them are a little discouraged by the limited information discovered versus the time spent in searching.
They do know that land lot 81 was subdivided about 1945 into at least 125 lots and was called Orchard Hills Subdivision. A deed record of restricted covenants was filed on May 15, 1950, detailing the restrictions each lot owner would be held to. The document does say that 23 lots which had already been sold were not bound by the covenants. Interestingly, lot 23; this lot was not listed as sold. In 1953 the restrictive covenants were revised, to last for a period of 50 years. No record was found indicating an update of the record of covenants, which probably means that the 1953 document has expired without a replacement.
Orchard Hills Subdivision has apparently also expired. There are no signs, markers or monuments displaying that name. Several old timers in the neighborhood refer to the area as Peach Orchard Subdivision. There were no records found referring to that name.
I can tell that Tom thinks that this story has run its course, and wants to wrap it up. Maybe someday they will resume their search for information to fill in the gaps after 1832. Or maybe not. I am 240 years old, and Tom is two months away from 85. I think we're both tired.
