THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS
COMPILED BY ESTER MORRIS IN 1834







Defeated Creek, a north branch of the Cumberland River, near the line of
      Smith and Jackson counties, between Carthage and Williamsburg.
This      creek took its name from a defeat of John Peyton and his party,
consisting    of his brothers Ephraim and Thomas Peyton, John Frazier,
and Squire          Grant, in the year 1786. The Indians, about 60 in
number, led on by the      Fool Warrior, a distinguished Cherokee chief
attacked the camp,                      (situated on a small island just above
the mouth of a spring branch, a short distance below where the old Fort
Blount road crosses said creek) in the night, during a deep snow, shot a
ball through and broke the arm and      shoulder of John Peyton.
Thomas Peyton was shot through the thigh,           Frazier through the
leg and Grant through the knee. Ephraim Peyton            escaped without
a wound from the Indians, but sprained his ankle in            running
through the creek. In this naked and mangled condition, this five    
hardy veterans had to grope their way in crusted snow through a
pathless      wilderness of cave clad mountains alone, ( for no two ever
came together)
for four days before they reached habitation of civilized man, bare           
      headed, bare footed, without food, or any garment except a shirt
and             pantaloons. Marking the desert with their blood. Not
withstanding their       situation, they all arrived safely at Bledsoe's Lick,
a distance of about 70      miles by the circuitous route they came,
recovered by their wounds and        fought many Indian battles in
defence of the women and children of the        frontier. John Peyton,
from whom this compiler obtained the above facts,     died at his
residence on Station Camp, in Sumner County in 1833 in the      78th
year of his age.

                                                  By Ester Morris.   1834
THE STORY OF DEFEATED CREEK
DEFEATED CREEK