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Mary Musgrove |
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Tomochichi Mary
Musgrove James Oglethorpe
Mary Musgrove, was a Creek Indian interpreter. She helped Tomochichi
and Oglethorpe talk to each other |
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Coosapankeesa,
also known as Mary Musgrove, was a Creek Indian interpreter, trader, and
political leader during the founding and growth of the Colony of Georgia. She was an important
person because she helped James Oglethorpe and Chief Tomochichi to talk to
each other because she could speak both English and the Creek language. She
was born in Alabama in Creek territory about 1700. She lived on the
Chattahoochee River until the age of seven. Then her white father took her to
South Carolina to go to school. During her stay there she was baptized into
the Church of England and given the name Mary. She returned to Alabama about
1716 and soon met and married a young white trader named John Musgrove. The
couple moved to Georgia in 1732 and opened a trading post at Yamacraw Bluff
on the Savannah River. Mary Musgrove was a very important person in the early
history of the colonies. Besides being an interpreter for General Oglethorpe,
she also helped make treaties in wars between the colonists and Spaniards who
were in Florida. |
