Cherokee Corners / Galagi-Na

In researching the family Summerour of North Georgia, I made a surprising series of connections. Henry Harrison Summerour moved to Auraria, Georgia around the time of the Georgia Gold Rush, and later moved to Hightower, (previously known as Frogtown) by the 1840s. Hightower was a major stop and crossroads on what is now known as the Old Federal Road. Henry operated a dry goods store. He was also appointed postmaster of Hightower in 1848. One of his neighbors was Mrs. Scudder of the Scudder's Store family.

The Summerour family kin, later through William Franklin Summerour, moved to Juno, Georgia in Dawson County, and eventually sold land that ended up within the Eastern Band of Cherokee. On their former property, they have a stone written the words "My people Cherokee Corner visited here 1940." This was nearly 100 years after the Trail of Tears exile.

The Cherokee Corner Marker Stone - Juno, Georgia

Front of the marker at Cherokee Corner, Juno, Georgia

Cecil 'Galagi-Na' (Cherokee for male deer) Summerour's name is written on the back side of it. He ran a tubing company called Cherokee Tubing and Kayak and was very proud of his Cherokee heritage. He became the Chief Counsel for the Eastern Band of Cherokee and gave speeches about the Trail of Tears. Also written on the stone are the names of George "Sequyah" Odom and John "Running Cloud" Chattin, an attorney.

It also mentions the law that recognized the Eastern Cherokee and two other tribes as legitimate in the State of Georgia that passed in 1993.

Back side of the stone with names of the Native Americans that visited

The stone still stands just off Highway 53 and Galagi-Na, which is adjacent to a street named after the Summerours.

Henry, when he lived in Hightower, arrived shortly after the Cherokee were exiled in 1838. His store (on the Trail of Tears) was less than a mile from Blackburn's Tavern on the Federal Road (Cherokee Chief James Vann was murdered in Blackburn's Tavern in 1809.)

Chief James Vann owned a separate tavern located near Oscarville, Georgia, that he built in 1805. Oscarville was located immediately next to the Summerour Indian mounds that were discovered in 1951 and flooded with the creation of Lake Lanier in the mid 1950s.