 This group consisted of approximately 700 Cherokee led by John Bell and escorted by U.S. Army Lieutenant Edward Deas.The town of Monteagle was originally known as "Moffat Station" after John Moffat, a Scottish-Canadian temperance activist who purchased over of land in the area in 1870.In 1872, Moffat donated of land to Fairmount College, a women's college that had decided to relocate to the area from Jackson, Mississippi.