One of the important aspects of the early history of Conecuh County was the hostilities between the settlers and the Creeks. This was a part of the larger Creek War in which some factions of the Creek nation, aided by the British and the Spanish, fought against the US military, state militias and encroaching settlers as well as factions of the Creek nation who wanted a closer alliance with their white neighbors.
“The first clashes between the Red Sticks and United States forces occurred on July 21, 1813. A group of territorial militia intercepted a party of Red Sticks returning from Spanish Florida, where they had acquired arms from the Spanish governor at Pensacola. The Red Sticks escaped and the soldiers looted what they found. Seeing the Americans looting, the Creek regrouped and attacked and defeated the Americans. The Battle of Burnt Corn, as the exchange became known, broadened the Creek Civil War to include American forces. (note: The Battle of Burnt Corn happened before the establishment of Conecuh County, therefore, at the time of the battle the site was in Monroe County. The site is in what is now Escambia County.)
Chiefs Peter McQueen and William Weatherford led an attack on Fort Mims, north of Mobile, on August 30, 1813. The Red Sticks' goal was to strike at mixed-blood Creek of the Tensaw settlement who had taken refuge at the fort. The warriors attacked the fort, and killed a total of 400 to 500 people, including women and children and numerous white settlers. The attack became known as the Fort Mims Massacre and became a rallying cause for American militia.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creek_War
The first chapter of History of Conecuh County, Alabama by Rev. B F Riley gives a similar, though more lengthy and more flowery, account of the Battle of Burnt Corn and the Fort Mims Massacre ending with a poem by Judge A B Meek acknowledging the contributions of the Creeks to Conecuh County, especially in the names of the rivers.
“Yes! Tho' they all have passed away, that noble race and brave, though their light canoes have vanished from off the crested wave; though 'mid the forests where they roved, there rings no hunter's shout, Yet their names are on our waters and we may not wash them out ….” (note: This book was written in 1881, when most people in Alabama believed that all the Creeks had been removed to Indian Territory in land that is now Oklahoma.)
Rev. Riley's book makes clear that many hostilities between the local Creeks and the settlers was personal and did not have a lot to do with the Red Stick War. “Frequently the carcass of a cow would be found flayed of it skin and with the haunches removed. And woe betide the poor Indian found with traces of blood upon his person, or with moccasins of cowhide upon his feet. He was sure to become the recipient of a severe castigation at the hands of the outraged inhabitants. These depredations kept alive the fire of hostility between the white and red races.”
For a time an agreement between the settlers and the local creeks fixed Murder Creek as the boundary between white and Creek land. “But regardless of the agreement, the savages would now and then cross the creek in predatory bands, and commit depredations upon the white settlers, by stealing their cattle and driving them beyond the stream, and to the headquarters of the tribe at Old Town.” (History of Conecuh County, Alabama by Rev. B F Riley) Eventually the white settlers drove out the Creek inhabitants of Old Town and burned it. “The Indians having disappeared from this region, the whites commenced to remove to the eastern side of Murder Creek.”
From my perspective I wonder if the Creeks didn't have at least equal right to the land, but a group of settlers barely making it in what was at that time wilderness believed it their right to run off the “savages” who were taking away what little they had.
