William M Fulkerson

The Creek Indian War

In the southern US, the Creek Indian War (1813-1814) was a war within the War of 1812. The Creeks
(also known as the Red Sticks), led by Chief Menawa, were supported by the British and Spain. In early 1814, about 1,000 Creeks established camp on the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River in what would become east-central Alabama. On 10 January 1814, in Jacksboro, the seat of Campbell County, Tennessee, Captain John Inglish enlisted volunteers into the 2nd Regiment of East Tennessee Militia, under the command of Colonel Samuel Bunch. Among the men that joined that day were 1st Lieutenant James English, Corporal William Fulkerson, Martin Gouge, and Private James McKinney. Captain English marched his men to Knoxville, Tennessee, where they remained about two weeks as other units joined them. From Knoxville, they marched to Camp Ross on Lookout Mountain, near the present-day site of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Perhaps on cold nights during the war, Captain John English and his comrades from Campbell County sat about the fire talking about what they would do after the war. Perhaps one of their dreams was to pack up and move 600 miles to the western frontier of the United States, to a spot near the mouth of Lewis and Clark's Little Moniteau Creek -- because that's precisely what they did.

Cole county, Missouri

Goodspeed's History of Cole County, Missouri states: "The earliest settlement made within Cole County
as now constituted was that by the Tennessee colony in 1815-16, at the mouth of the Moniteau. The war waged with England to maintain the rights of the young Republic was won by the soldiers of Tennessee and Kentucky. Lewis and Clarke [sic] had made known throughout the country the beauty of the Missouri region, and the United States had completed treaties with the original red owners, built forts for their protection from other warriors, and opened the highway for immigration.

Among the members of the Moniteau party were John Inglish [Captain English] and his four sons
{including 1st Lieutenant James], Henry McKenney and three sons [including James William], James
Miller and five sons, James Fulkerson and three sons [including Corporal William], David Young and three sons, William Gooch and four sons, Martin Gooch [Gouge] and two sons, John Harmon and one
son, and Joshua Chambers and two sons."

John Inglish built the first brick house in the county, located just west of the mouth of the Moniteau, and Henry McKenney, on the opposite side. English's brick house would become the first "home" of the Circuit Court of Cole County in 1821, in what had become the community of Marion.
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Sources:
McKinney family history, Ancestry family tree