Filled with his own importance, he made his report to Elijah. “The land agent in Augusta said there was a tract of land in the far north portion of the new grant still available, and he seemed eager to see it settled. I went up and rode over it as well as I could, and it looks like the best that’s still available. There’s almost five thousand acres, and some of it’s pretty hilly, but he’ll let us divide it up the way we want, depending on the governor’s rules concerning size of the families. I gave the agent a few nice things for his wife, and he said he would hold the tract for us, particularly seeing as how it’s pretty isolated.”

By early 1774, Elijah had induced sixteen families from North and South Carolina to join in the move to Georgia. He concentrated on men he knew to be staunch and reliable when lives or freedom were at stake.

Some of the more militant Creeks who lived across the Ogeechee River had been angered when the treaty was signed in 1773, claiming that the Cherokees had given away their territory, and when the settlers widened the Indian trail from Augusta to Wrightsborough that same year, they saw it as launching a flood of new settlers who would occupy their homeland. Since almost all available land had already been taken throughout the colonies, white settlers moved quickly into the more attractive new land. Much of it went unclaimed, however, because the British screened out “ruffian” settlers, and troops didn’t provide enough safety for more responsible families. The granting of fewer official land grants than expected meant that less money was available to be applied to the natives’ debts to white traders, and most tribes soon found themselves squeezed on trading values and denied further credit even when pelts were offered at a low value. Increasing animosity between white families and the Creeks was unavoidable, and some young militant warriors began making raids against white settlers.

The Indians knew that Kindred Morris was a strong defender of their interests and that his friend Ethan Pratt also treated them fairly, so the two families had no problems with harassment or threats. But in 1774, over the opposition of the Quakers, some of the other settlers decided to raise £50 to finance a fort just west of Wrightsborough. They decided that all families in the area would contribute a portion of the cost, depending on how far they lived from the fort. The argument was that even the more distant settlers might have to hide there in case of an all-out attack. Kindred refused to contribute either money or labor, but Ethan put in four shillings and spent a week with other men cutting logs and erecting the small barricade.

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