Cartoogechaye Township in the western part of Macon County, encompasses around 75 square miles and includes areas that are part of the Nantahala National Forest. The word, “Cartoogechaye” in Cherokee means “cornfield” or “where the white oaks grow,” according to Willard Dills, who can trace his roots in Cartoogechaye to the 18thcentury. Another listed meaning of the word Cartoogechaye is “land beyond the towns.”
Dills has thousands of pieces of Cherokee pottery on display on walls and in jars that he has picked up on his multi-generational family land in Cartoogechaye. His home museum exhibits shards of pipes, game balls made of stone, arrowheads, and his most exciting find – a small unblemished ceremonial effigy in the shape of a man. Alongside these artifacts are utilitarian items such as a water dipper made from creek-bed cane and dogwood, as well as hand-made saws, hammers, guns, and more.
The Dills family began living in the Cartoogechaye area in the 1700s and some married Cherokee. All lived together in what became known as Sand Town. At some point, numerous areas and roads began being referred to as Dills Creek, Claire Cove, Rocky Cove, and Poplar Cove.
“Growing up in Cartoogechaye, my brother Coleman and I learned how to hunt with rocks and sticks,” said Dills. “Our family members became loggers, railroad workers, and justices of the peace. They mined for gems. Back then (I am 61 years old), a little gravel road came into the Cartoogechaye area from Franklin and 64 West. Now it is a paved highway, and I don’t like it because I don’t like change. I want to preserve Cartoogechaye as much as possible.”
“Sand Town in Cartoogechaye was situated on a few hundred acres at the mouth of Muskrat Brook and along Dills Creek,” said Robert Shook, curator at the Macon County Historical Museum on Main Street in Franklin. “That’s where the chief of Sand Town, Chuttahsotee, built his cabin when he came back after being part of the Indian Removal Act [1830] … William Siler deeded land back to the Cherokee. William’s house was in sight of the chief’s house. They were best friends. In fact, when William died, the chief followed the wagon with his casket in the pouring rain for eight miles until it got to the graveyard in Franklin.”
The small, historic St. John Episcopal Church is situated where the Sand Town community was once located, and Chuttahsotee and his wife are buried there.
“People need to understand that families, white and Cherokee, had homes in Sand Town together. There was even a trading post out there,” added Shook.
A hand-drawn map of the community shows homesteads all along the creeks and branches. An 1851 “Census of Cherokee … Cartoogechaye Macon County, N.C” included close to 20 Cherokee families with names such as Chootah-so-tih (or Jim Woodpecker), Eno-leh (or Catamount), and Cos-kel-lo-kih (or Hog Bite). Also, families with the last names Siler, Rush, Addington, Moore, McDowell, etc., occupied homes and land.
“My family learned from the Cherokee,” explained Dills. “My great-great grandmother, Susan Stratton Furr Dills, was full Cherokee. My dad’s mother, Tiny Rogers West, was full Cherokee. My mother’s grandmother, Elda Patterson, was full Cherokee. My grandmother, Elsie Dills, was half Cherokee. She taught me how to make cups out of leaves, cook, sew, milk cows, and identify plants and herbs. I have tried to carry on traditions and live by the old ways.”
Margaret Redding Siler, who married Dr. Fredrick Lawrence Siler in 1900, documented Cartoogechaye history in the 1939-published “Cherokee Indian Lore & Smoky Mountain Stories,” available for sale at the Macon County Historical Museum. She wrote that her father-in-law, Albert Siler, was so familiar with the Cherokee language that he spoke it “as he did his own. He grew up with the Cherokee children for playmates.”
She wrote, “Near the Cartoogechaye Creek, in a cove that was sheltered on the north by high mountain walls, but open to the fertile valley to the south, the homesick Cherokee built their cabins. … It was called Sand Town because of the white sand along the banks of the stream (Muskrat Brook). Albert Siler grew up with the Sand Town Indians. He had six sisters and no brothers, so the Indian boys taught him to trap, and to still hunt without gun or dog. The only weapons they used were the bow and arrow and blowgun. … As Albert Siler recalled them, the Sand Town Indians were always loyal to their friends, and it was evident from the way he talked that he was deeply attached to them.”
Along Dills Creek and next to the far end of the Cartoogechaye Baptist Church parking lot on West Old Murphy Road, are two very old Cherokee trail marker trees. Common around Cartoogechaye as well as other areas of Macon County, including along the Appalachian Trail and the Bartram Trail, are trees that were once saplings bent to grow into living “signposts” for traveling Native Indians. Depending on how the living markers were bent, they pointed the way to a water source, suitable river crossing, main trail, and more.
Even though the Dills family “old homeplace” of the mid-1850s succumbed to decay, Dills still maintains his family’s 51 acres and has a 1980s-built getaway cabin there. He walks the property several times a week to see what he can find. He also maintains a family historic cabin in the Poplar Cove area of Cartoogechaye. He said that the history of his family, the Cartoogechaye Cherokee, and Sand Town, will continue to live on in his and wife Tammy’s children, Christopher and Elizabeth, and their six grandchildren – as well as through other long-time families who reside there.
“Having seen so many places where the original communities were pushed out and forgotten, Cartoogechaye is lucky to still have the folks whose memories still remain,” commented Alec Meier, a historic preservationist, Cartoogechaye resident, and owner of Stono Knife Works. “Something that I was also taught about historic preservation that has stuck with me is these tangible objects and locations are only as important as the human experiences tied to them, and while the tangible may be harder to find here, the metaphorical tapestry that created this community is alive and well.”