In the fall of 1806, a group of settlers led by William and James Sims traveled from east Tennessee on flatboats down the Tennessee River and up the Elk River to this area, landing near Buck Island and spreading into the surrounding countryside in search of homesites on what they believed would soon be government land for sale. The several-square-mile area they occupied, from Elk River to New Garden, became known as Sims Settlement. Although the federal government had settled the Cherokee claim to the area north of the Tennessee River in 1805, the Chickasaw Nation maintained a claim to it until 1816, making the Sims party and later arrivals illegal settlers, or "intruders," on Indian land. As more white settlers entered the area, the Chickasaws threatened war unless the U.S. federal government removed them, so troops were sent in during April and May 1809 to avoid bloodshed and placate the Chickasaws. Most settlers returned as soon as the soldiers left, and after an ultimatum dated August 4, 1810 ordered all settlers west of the Chickasaw boundary to leave by December 15 or face forced removal, the settlers responded as they could. On September 5, 1810, about 450 people gathered at Sims Settlement and signed a long petition to President James Madison and Congress, asserting their honest intentions and pleading to remain despite the hardship removal would cause, especially for widows and orphans. Their appeal failed, and soldiers stationed at the newly established Fort Hampton removed settlers and burned cabins and rail fences, a process that continued until 1817, with land in Limestone County finally offered for sale by the government in 1818.