Two Cherokee families headed by Elijah Hicks and Alexander McCoy were among the first residents of New Echota and were already living there when it became the capital in 1825. Their farms once included most of what is now the golf course across the highway. Alexander McCoy, his wife Sarah, and their eight children lived in a large two-story dogtrot style log house just across the highway, and McCoy was active in the Cherokee government, operated the New Echota ferry, rented rooms to travelers, and maintained an unusual set of stables sixty feet long near his house for their horses. Elijah Hicks, his wife Margaret, and their seven children lived in a large two-story frame house about 300 yards northwest of there, and Hicks was active in the Cherokee government, served as editor of the CHEROKEE PHOENIX from 1832 - 183, and led one of the detachments on the Trail of Tears. Hicks and McCoy were both prosperous farmers who owned slaves, and their farms once included fifteen buildings and about 95 acres of land.