Tomochichi and Public Amnesia*

Contemporary painting of Tomochichi and Toonahowie

There is a monument in the middle of Wright Square which is dedicated to one of Savannah’s Mayor and founder of the Railroad Company here in Savannah. Regretfully, it is sits on the grave of the Mico chief who greeted and made General Oglethorpe’s life easier by accepting his plans for a new colony. His name was Tomochichi. Tomochichi was unusual in that he intentionally wanted to build a bridge with the colonists and the Creeks. Oglethorpe asked and received Tomochichi’s tribe, the Yamacraws, land to build the city of Savannah. Tomochichi the good host gave Oglethorpe land and moved his tribe a little further inland to be closer to the ancestral mounds of his forefathers and mothers. He helped Oglethorpe set the boundaries of Georgia, showed him where old Indian paths could be made into the first roads of Georgia (This is celebrated by two cannons in Madison Square). He also along with his wife Senauki and Mary Musgrove provided assistance in creating a treaty for land and peace with the Creeks. He even had his nephew and protege’ Toonahowie  trained in everything British so that Tomochichi an older man would have a replacement who could speak in English and know the English ways upon his death.

The training for Toonhowie would include a trip to England. Oglethorpe was in trouble with the Trustees of Georgia back in England because he was not communicating his activities and under fire for unsuccessful military adventures. He asked Tomochichi  ‘to travel with him to England to show the good relations he had developed with the Creeks’. Tomochichi agreed to go in part to help his friend and in part to cut out the middleman and meet the Trustees himself. He brought Toonahowie and other Creek chiefs with him.

When Tomochichi died he asked not to be buried with his elders at the ancient burial mounds of his Creek ancestors but in Wright Square. His intention one would have to believe was for his burial site in the center of the city of Savannah to be a symbol of the unity of the colonists and the Creeks. Oglethorpe was more than glad to do this. He added to the ceremony a full military parade and honor to the funeral rites. He later directed rocks to be added in a small pyramid style to the grave site. What a powerful union Tomochichi had developed between the Creeks and the colonists.

But as time moved on Oglethorpe left the colony to never return, Toonahowie died young in a fight with a tribe that supported the Spanish, and the second generation of colonists would covet more and more of the land of the Creeks. They even took the land of Tomochichi’s wife Senauki. Tomochichi’s tribe the Yamacraws would eventually have to leave the land under constant pressure and join other Creek tribes further West to survive. The colonists no longer needed the Native Americans for survival for food, protection, and other ways to live in the colony so the Creeks became expendable.

Fast Forward one hundred four years later the Railroad company was at the peak of their prominence, and they wanted the city of Savannah to know this. Aldin Lee a friend suggests they wanted to pave a path way of good will with Savannah stockholders in the coming Richmond railroad company takeover of the company (1895). Whatever the reasons they determined the best place for a monument to honor their founder and themselves was to place a monument on the square by the newly built Chatham County Courthouse (1892). A prestigious building designed by renown architect William Preston. They wanted and did place the monument in the middle of the square (Wright Square 1893). The designers of the monument were Henry Van Brunt and Frank Howe prominent Boston architects. A public amnesia seems to have occurred in Savannah. This amnesia was probably created by the enthusiasm and the power of the railroad company. This amnesia in Savannah made the fact this was the site of Tomochichi’s grave disappeared. The new monument was built on top of Tomochichi’s grave.
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There was almost instant remorse once the fog of the enthusiasm of a major monument to a major Savannah figure and prominent Savannah family scion was gone. The family of William Washington Gordon Sr. was part of those who expressed regret for the site of the monument. William Washington Gordon Jr. stated his family was not contacted about the site of the monument and would have preferred it be somewhere else besides what he knew the be the site of Tomochichi’s grave. His wife, Nellie Kenzie, would work with others to offer some semblance of penance for this major transgression by leading the way to place a boulder monument to Tomochichi in the corner of Wright Square. The Gordon Sr. monument is grand and still stands in the middle of Wright Square. A historical marker stands beside the monument telling of the deeds of William Washington Gordon and the sad fact that it stands upon the grave of the first host of the Hostess City (Aldin Lee).


*To learn more about the history of the Wright and Tomochichi read my book Savannah’s Monuments: The Untold Stories.

To learn more about Tomochichi and other Native Americans of Savannah read my book The Native American History of Savannah.​

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Tomochichi Monument

William Washington Gordon Sr. Monument