Osceola - One of the great chiefs of the Seminole Indians.  He was described as having been tall, slender, and straight, with a pleasing countenance, though of melancholy cast.

Osceola was born about 1803 on the Tallapoosa River in the Creek country.  he was part white, as his grandfather on his father's side was a Scotchman.  After his father's death his mother married a white man named Powell, and Osceola was sometimes called Powell.

He was not a chief by descent, but at the age of thirty two he took his place as the leader of his people and commander of the warriors when the United States tried to round up the Seminole and place them on a reservation in Oklahoma.

Osceola, fighting in the Florida Everglades, outwitted the Government troops.  Finally peace negotiations were started, and when Osceola appeared under a flag of truce he was knocked over the head, bound, and thrown into a dungeon.  This treachery was condemned throughout the country, but the young chief died, brokenhearted, a prisoner at Fort Moultrie.  In January, 1838.

His name has been preserved by towns in Arkansas, ndiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, by counties in Florida, Michigan, and Iowa; and by Osceola Mills, Pennsylvania.
 

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