Just west of here in 1819, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions established a mission station to the Cherokee Indians. Moody Hall and Henry Parker were the first missionaries sent to Carmel, originally known as Taloney, on March 12, 1831. Rev. Isaac Proctor, then residing there, was arrested by the Georgia Guard for not complying with a new state law requiring white men residing on Cherokee land claimed by Georgia to apply for licenses to remain and take an oath of allegiance to the state. Many missionaries refused, believing Georgia had no power to enforce its laws over land rightfully belonging to the Cherokees. Rev. Daniel S. Butrick, also a missionary at Carmel, escaped arrest because he was away at the time. Proctor and the other arrested missionaries were soon released on the grounds that they were agents of the U.S. Government in educating the Cherokees. When the issue again became critical, Butrick and Proctor left Georgia rather than take the oath of allegiance. Proctor remained in the part of the Cherokee Nation that is now Tennessee and started a new mission. Carmel continued in existence until 1839.