The first settlement area was centered around the north parcel of land which the heirs of Lynn McGhee chose near what is today Huxford. This area was known within the community as "Red Hill". The Indian families grouped themselves into four hamlets, Head of Perdido(Hedapeada), established around 1860; Bell Creek, established by the Gibson family around 1877; Hog Fork, established around 1886; and Poarch Switch in the 1920's.
1850-1983 Map of the Settlements and Land

On the 1880 census schedules, the Huxford (T3N,R6E) area shows a similar composition to that in 1870, less migrants to the Head of Perdido area. Almost all the Indian households are shown with consecutive household numbers. The Red Hill area appears to consists of three Rolin households, Francis, her mother Polly, and her brother John, married to Rody Taylor, a Colbert. Also there are Alex McGhee, one of Jack McGhee's sons, and Mariah Adams McGhee, Jack's widow, plus seven children. Next came Adam Hollinger(married to a Lomax), Matilda Moniac Lomax, and households of her children, one married to a Boon and one to a Keller. William Colbert Jr., and his family are also in this cluster. Indicated within a few houses are Claiborne Horsford, M.M. Taylor, John Hadley and Westly DeWires.

Indicated on the census to be at Head of Perdido was William Adams, married to Alice Gibson (plus several Walkers, cousins of Adam). The next household, with Lallie McGhee Dees, also included her brother Richard McGhee and two of her adult children, but not her husband William Dees(Semoice family). The next household was John Hinson, married to Elizabeth Hinson is believed part of the same Creek Hinson family intermarried elsewhere in the Escambia group (see below). His wife could not be positively identified. Then came John F. McGhee and his wife Polly Louisa Gibson, and Alex Roland and his wife Mary Hathcock. Head of Perdido at this point had increased greatly in size, with an influx from Huxford, and was much more diverse in terms of families, with McGhees, Roland, Hathcock, Hinson, as well as two Gibson's married in. The 1870 census showed that DeWire and part of Richard McGhee's family had already moved to Head of Perdido. Added in 1880 were Alec Roland, who according to later homestead papers, moved there around 1877 and was followed by his brothers Sam and William around 1882 and 1884. Indians were not living solely on the head of Perdido grant, since when Alec Roland settled in 1877 on land just south of the grant, he bought improvements already made by John F. McGhee, who evidently had occupied it without title.

A major move was that of the by now large Gibson family, formerly on land near Red Hill, who settled around 1877 on Bell Creek, in township 2 north, range 5 east, about three miles northeast of Head of Perdido. They  did not actually homestead the land, i.e., start to acquire title, until 1891. The census in 1880 shows three households, William Gibson and his wife Margaret Moniac along with three adult children, Bennety Gibson, Drucilla Gibson, and Gideon Gibson, plus at least one grandchild, son William Henry Gibson and his wife Elizabeth Hinson, and William McGhee and his wife Julia McGhee. Elizabeth Hinson was the the grandniece of Betty Hinson who married Lynn McGhee's son Richard  McGhee and also derived from the Horsford family. William and Julia McGhee were children respectively of Lynn McGhee's sons Richard and Jack. Their presence indicates that the Bell Creek  settlement was as much an expansion of the Indian community as a movement of one family. ( In June of 1880 William D. Gibson filed application for homestead in Township 2, near the Poarch community, at the land office at Wilson, Alabama. He had as witnesses John V. Steadham, William W. Adams, and Robert F. Cruit. He claimed on the application that he had lived on the land since 1877.)

Land records show numerous attempts by the Indians to acquire title to additional lands in this period. The Colbert family purchased a land tract in section 16 of T3N, R6E in 1880, just west of red hill, probably the section they had already been living on. Purchase was not completed until 1889.

No longer shown at Huxford in 1880 is Sam Moniac Jr., who is now shown in a cluster of Indian households in Monroe County, location uncertain. This cluster also includes Sam's son James, James Hathcock, Charles Weatherford, Alec Sizemore, Sam's daughter Liza, married to John Madison, and two households from the Semoice family. Not too far in terms of household numbers were Dolph Reed, two Quarles families and some Freemans.

By 1900, there had been further movement to the south end of the general Poarch area by the core families. The population of the head of Perdido settlement had increased, and an additional hamlet had been established known as Hog Fork. A number of homestead applications were filed between 1890 and 1894, on lands settled by the Indians in the previous two decades. Most of the surrounding lands were by this time owned by timber companies or other large holders. Settlement dates discussed are based on statements in the homestead applications and are approximate.

The 1900 census shows eight households at Head of Perdido, some with multiple families in them, representing over 40 people. Three of the households were children of Richard McGhee, Lynn McGhee's son. These were the Lutrece Walker family, Richard's son Richard McGhee in a household with several nieces and nephews, and William McGhee, married to Julia Adams, granddaughter of Peggy McGhee. Also there were children of Lynn's son Jack, who were formerly resident in the Red Hill area. These were Alexander McGhee and his wife Besty, plus in one household, Alexander's adult siblings Besty, Dick and Mary. A third group were Rolins, originally from Red Hill. These were Alec Rolin, his brother Samuel, and what are probably the children or other descendants of their brother Richard. These households were probably on the lands the Rolins had homesteaded immediately south of the Head of Perdido grant, which the homestead applications indicated were settled in 1877, 1882 and 1884(General land office 1890-94)

Bell Creek in 1900 had expanded, according to the census. It was still centered on the William "Bart" Gibson family, whose now grown children formed an expanded number of separate households, seven of them, with 37 people. Notably, William Adams and his wife had moved over from head of Perdido, where they were in 1880, and another household consisted of their daughter and her husband, a McGhee. Other spouses in the community were Hinson, Horsford and various McGhees. Thus the settlements, though based somewhat on the large Gibson extended family, contained a diversity of families.

A new settlement, know as Hog Fork, was established around 1886, by John F. McGhee. The date is based on his 1893 homestead application. The land was about four miles east of the Head of Perdido community and two or three miles southeast of the Bell Creek community(see map). The 1900 census shows three households, two of them with several adult children of John McGhee, and their families. One household was John and his wife Polly Gibson, who were formerly resident at head of Perdido, plus nine children and four grandchildren. The second household was John's son Lee, his wife, Ida Rolin, and their children. The third household included John's son Charles and his wife, Jerusha Rolin, and John's son Frazier and his wife, Emina.

The 1900 census for the Huxford (T3N, R6E) area shows few of the Indian families and may be somewhat incomplete. The Colbert settlement is evident on the census, consisting of three households, with multiple families in them, totaling 22 people. these households were Will Colbert Jr. with his wife and quite a few adult children, Will's son James and his wife, Florence Walker, and Will Colbert's sister, Verbenia. Also listed were several boarders, all from Indian families. The land for the settlement consisted now of the original Will Colbert tract, purchased in 1880 and a nearby parcel which his son James had settled on about 1889, and subsequently homesteaded (General Land Office 1890-94)

After 1900, the isolation of the Creek families from three Escambia County settlements began to decrease, as members of the group changed from being almost exclusively small farmers and sought work in nearby areas. The hamlets continue up until the present day but the census and other documents(Guion Miller 1906-09) provide evidence, supported by oral history, for the growth of temporary residence away from the hamlets fro work, particularly in lumbering, pulpwood and other forest-related industries. The 1910 Federal census reflects the importance of these new sources of work both in the settlements and outside, with occupations such as log tem driver and the like listed. The oral history indicates that a number of men had their own teams or trucks and organized teams of indians workers, i.e., were labor contractors (Paredes 1972-4, F.D.). Some of these, e.g., Will and Neal McGhee, were able to use this economic base to provide community leadership.

The 1910 census, which is the last one available to the public, enumerated 163 Indians in Escambia County and 291 in Monroe County (Bureau of the Census 1937). In Huxford, Head of Perdido and nearby areas, the census was taken in such a way that the composition of the individual settlements cannot be reliably determined. Two blocks with in total 13 Indian households appear to correspond to head of Perdido, Bell Creek and Hog Fork. The Huxford area shows at least six other Indian households, with some indication a few families had moved back to that area since 1900. 

Census enumeration districts outside, but adjacent to the Poarch area, show a number of Indian families from the core families. This reflects the beginning, as noted,of work outside the immediate area of the hamlets. A couple of families are shown in enumeration districts just to the south, i.e., the town of Atmore (formerly Williams) or areas just east and west of it. In the Jeddo enumeration district of Monroe County, just north of the Escambia County line, were Adams, Colbert, Gibson, Woods, Hinson, McGhee and other Poarch families. The Guion Miller applications in 1906 reflected a similar pattern, with a number listing as their post office Lottie (a few miles west of Head of Perdido), Carney(two miles to the south), Perdido, Nokomis(just west of Atmore)and Jeddo. A number of families are known from oral history to have worked in West Florida, just below the Atmore area, beginning in this period.

The May 25, 1928 entry in the "Minutes of County Board of Education, Escambia," shows, like 1908, a Gibson Indian School and a Poarch Indian School. Each school had one teacher, a seven-month term, and appropriations of $525 and $420, respectively, which were about average for the size and type of school in question.

The segregated Indian schools point to an interesting situation for the Poarch Creeks at that time in their history--they were in a distinct position between the white and black strata of southern society. The Poarch Creeks were allowed, for example, to marry whites, but they were not allowed to attend white schools. they were allowed to sit on Juries, but they were not welcome at all-white churches. What is obvious that they were distinct; that they occupied a separate niche in the local social structure by virtue of the fact of their Indian ancestry.

The "Minutes of the County Board of  Education, Escambia" for 1933 shows two new Indian schools. A list of teachers, along with the schools in which they taught, shows that in that year, only five years after the 1928 list, there were four Indian Schools.Besides the earlier Poarch and Gibson Schools from 1908, there are now the Roland Indian School and the McGhee Indian School.

The consolidation of the four Indian schools into one school meeting at the St. Anna's church. This happened in 1939, and the Minutes of the County Board of Education show that a "Motion was made by Mr. McCurdy and seconded by Mr. Moore to consolidate Rollin, Poarch, McGhee, and Gibson Indians schools..."From 1939 to 1970, the new school was know as the Poarch Indian Consolidated School, and appears in all subsequent educations records as that. The school was finally closed in 1970 as a result of the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court desgregation order requiring Alabama to desegregate its schools.

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