NOVEMBER 1:

November 1, 1837:  On this night the steamboat Monmouth, traveling upstream on the Mississippi River and carrying 611 Creek indians heading for Indian Territory, struck the Trenton, which was being towed downstream.  The Monmouth broke into two pieces and sank within minutes.  311 Creeks drowned. The Monmouth had been condemned because of its age, however this did not stop it from being used to transport the Creeks.  Four of Jim Boy's children were among the dead.
 
 

BACKGROUND:
 

From http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cmamcrk4/crkchfndx.html

(Please note there is a discrepancy between the number of dead reported in the text below, and that reported in the date notice above.)
 

Jim Boy, or Tustenaggee Emathla

A Creek Chief born in the present Macon County. A participant at Fort Mims; served in the war of 1813-14, in the uprising of 1836, and in the Florida War of 1837. He died in 1841 in the Western Creek Nation, was born about 1790 in the Creek Nation, the birthplace not known. Tustenaggee is the Creek term for "warrior"; Emathla is a war title corresponding nearly to "disciplinarian". Nothing is known of Jim Boy's life prior to the outbreak of the Creek War of 1813, where Pickett calls him High Head Jim. He was chief of the Atossees, and commanded the hostile Creeks at the battle of Burnt Corn, fought March 27, 1813. It is not known in what other battles he was engaged during the war. After its close, he settled near Polecat Spring, and there built a little town called Thlopthlcco. He served under General McIntosh against the Seminoles in Florida (and) during the Creek troubles of 1836, he attached himself to the friendly party. At the close of these troubles he was solicited by General Jessup to raise warriors for service against the Seminoles in Florida. He and Paddy Carr accordingly raised nine hundred and fifty warriors and with them reached the seat of war in September. Here the Creeks were organized into a regiment war in September. Here the Creek s were organized into a regiment and placed under the command of Major David Moniac. Jim Boy was with his regiment in two battles and in a number of skirmishes in the Seminole war. The battles were the second battle of Wahoo Swamp, fought in November, 1836, and the battle of Lake Monroe, fought February 8, 1837. The Creeks fought courageously in both these engagements.

On his return from Florida, he found that his family had been removed west in the emigration of the Creeks, and that all his property in the nation had been destroyed. He had joined the army in Florida under a promise of the commending general that his family and property should be cared for, and that he should be remunerated for any loss he might sustain during his absence. This promise was not kept. But all this was a slight trouble compared to the death of four, out of his nine children, who were of the two hundred and thirty-six Creeks that were lost in the sinking of the emigration steamboat, Monmouth.