8514 Rockmoor, San Antonio, Texas 78230
© 1997 Charles W. Johnson, M.D.
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EDITORIAL
Perhaps one of the fascinations of genealogy, to me, is the comparison of the "old days" with today. Today usually comes out better by comparison if we are considering the material things of life, like indoor plumbing, electricity, air conditioning, radio, TV and computers. But the "old days" of the last few centuries often seems superior as far as arts, music and ethical behaviour towards others, I am thinking of, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", courtesy and good manners.
We recently had a very unpleasant experience with a flooring company and a plumbing company we hired for some remodeling of our house. The flooring company we have known and used extensively for about forty five years not only for our hones but also for a medical office building we owned. The plumbing company has had an excellent reputation and was recommended to us by our plumber and A/C company of forty years when the owner retired and closed his business a number of years ago. We have been very pleased with them - until now. The actual, on the job men who performed the work were talented and experienced craftsmen and a pleasure to deal with.
The problem was George. George the floor salesman/decorator and George the plumbing supervisor. Not their real names, but so much alike that I am calling them one.
George awakes each morning dreading going to work to face his enemy, the customer. He lies a lot but not serious lying - fibs and covering his and his co-worker's goofs. He is uncomfortable telling his fibs and does an unconvincing job of it. George makes promises which do not happen. His intentions are good but he does not act. To George, good intentions is as good as actually performing. His hostility prevents him from performance and his high self esteem overcomes his otherwise feeling of guilt.
George cannot return a phone call to a customer. He just cannot do it. Phone calls represent a threat; a goof he can and does deny but with understandable discomfort. He prefers to avoid and forget. Maybe the customer will go away. He did not get the message. The female receptionist is to blame. He was too busy, or sick or something came up. He promises to return phone calls at a specific time, but it never happens. George is unaware of how discourteous he is and how much distress he causes the waiting and waiting and waiting customer - his constant enemy.
Since my pet peeve is people who do not return phone calls, George and I are incompatible. Finally, totally exasperated, we called the floor company owner, the one with whom we have done business for 45 years if we include his daddy before him. He was not in. He would return the call at 1:30 P.M. when he returned from lunch. We are still waiting.
George could not exist in the "old days", at least not for long. Perhaps George did exist in a different form. George breaks no laws then or now. He is perhaps a good father and husband, but oblivious to interacting socially with others in good faith. He would not be tolerated in a small town where people knew him, then or now. He, without a phone, would have to face his customers in person. He could not tolerate himself. He would have been persuaded to face his problems and correct them or leave town or go into politics where fibs, broken promises and unreliability is better tolerated; then and now.
I is not my purpose to reveal "George" or the companies who employ him because these are only my impressions as to cause of behavior. George may have sane serious problems of his own which may last only the few months we have known each other. Moreover, these defects are forgivable and will automatically correct at some point. That point may only be after disaster to George or his unfortunate company. However, to those of you who live in and around San Antonio who would like to know these identities, I would be glad to discuss the details personally.
I have another "Pet Peeve" of this age in which we live. It is the cult of "Self Esteem". Self esteem is a good thing but it is now a cult which mangles the concept. Instead of being a reward for accomplishing something, it has became an attitude to be gained at all costs. People with problems can be cured by artificial feelings of self esteem. Ignore any solution to problems. Give a person, especially a child, self esteem and he/she becomes a social fit, as the cult figures it. They become happy in their ignorance and pleased with themselves. I see no difference between that and giving them alcohol and happy pills. They are like happy drunks. Self esteem gurus have thrived in public schools. Their victims with damaged intellect and damaged feelings become the Georges of our culture. Hire the ethically handicapped... Not a viable theory of the good old days!
THOMAS HARRISON, CHEROKEE. Was he a Cherokee or was his wife? Was he a full blood Cherokee? If so, how did he get the Harrison name? Were there several such Thomas Harrisons? Is he our Thomas Harrison of 1800 Buncombe NC?
I have received a great deal of information in regards to the above questions from a number of researchers such as Betty Jo Hulse, Helen Niewendorp, and Tressie Nealy and it also appears that Becky Bonner and her mother Josephine Bass of THE HARRISON REPOSITORY are also tied into the same questions or at least the same time and geography with their Michael Harrison along the Tennessee River.
First, let me refer you to my Harrison Notes of August 1996 which broached this subject especially in the first 24 pages. My Harrison Notes of July 1996 details Becky Bonner's genealogy about Michael Harrison beginning on p 21, but this issue also has material in other places relevant to the Indian issue.
FROM HELEN NIEWENDORP.
THE CHEROKEE GHOST DANCE by William G. McLoughlin et al. This is a list beginning p 181; a Register of persons who wish Reservations under the treaty of July 8, 1817. Sane are prominent Cherokee well known to history such as Mr. McDonald in right of his wife (an official to the Cherokee and a Scotsman, along with a number of the Ross family including Chief John Ross at Lookout Mountain; Walter and other Adairs; Vanns; Starr; Bean; John Martin (treasurer of the Cherokee Nation; Bryant Ward (husband of Nancy Wand, the Beloved woman of the Cherokee); Nancy Ward, a native who lived 1 mile below John McIntosh on Mouse Creek; Other Wards; Betsey and Charles and James McIntosh (I do not know just how the Cherokee McIntoshes were related to the Creek McIntoshes but the Creek ones descended from Lachlan McIntosh, a Highlander Scot and probably the Cherokee McIntoshes too are so descended); Robert Parris, a native; Sally Lowery (Lowery a prominent educated chief); Peter Johnson for wife with the note "Johnson is a slave for life" (which I do not understand unless he is black and his wife Cherokee and thereby he owns property as a slave (?)
Of special note: Polly Brown, a native, two in family, #105, May 25,
1818 on Creek Path town on the road leading from'S Landing. (Gunter
a prominent chief who lived two miles from Thomas Harrison on the TN River.
ABRAHAM DAVIS, Aug 6, 1818 for wife, #134, five in family about 1½ miles south of E. GUNTER'S (so also a neighbor of Thomas Harrison) See p 2 August Harrison Notes for Abraham and other Davises on Sandy Mush of Buncombe and from Iredell NC. Abraham's deeds Buncombe from 1802 to 1818 when he appears in the GUNTER'S landing area near Thomas Harrison.
Sept 6, 1818 Edmund Fawlin (a native), six in family #146, on the path from Crow Town to GUN= landing.
July 2, 1819 Sutton Stevens #181 number in family not noted, Waters of PAINT ROOK, Yellow Branch... I mention because there are others on Paint Rock who ring no bells to me. I do not know if there is more than one Paint Rock, but the best known one is a couple of miles from Hot Springs, NC on the French Broad River at the border of NC and TN. Paint Rock Creek named for the Rock decorated with Indian drawings originally and some claim that they can still see them. Bishop Asbury found the route from Greene County TN to Hot (then Warm) Springs was easier traveling through Paint Rock Creek which enters the French Broad at Paint Rock. Paint Rock Creek comes down from Paint Mountain.
August 19, 1819, # 252 THOMAS HARRISON for children (number not mentioned) on the TN River. Comment: On page 438 TENNESSEE COUSINS by Worth Ray he gives the will of William Harrison who died in Monroe County, TN. Date of will not given. He named his children: THOMAS, James, Winnifred, Mary, John, Calvin, William, Nancy, Alfred, MICHAEL, AND Matilda. Thomas and James were named Execs. This William Harrison was probably the ancestor of the Harrisons buried in an old mountain cemetery at Chilhowee up the Little TN River close to NC. (Chilhowee is also the site of HARRISON - ELLIS SEMINARY, A Baptist Theological College. They do not know how they got the name HARRISON- ELLIS though they are old and have a history written about them). On p 443, Ray is discussing Loudon County and he says that Loudon County was north of the TN River and south of the TN was to become Monroe County when it was later opened to whites 1818-1819 prior to which it was Indian lands. Monroe County was the birthplace of Worth Ray and his Harrisons, Rays and Morrows were here. John and James HARRISON, brothers, settled about a mile below the Blair Ferry in the bend of the river. p 446: Robert Cannon was related to these Harrisons. Cannon also spelled Kennon.
These Kennans/Cannons came from Caswell Co. NC to Sevier County, TN, then to Grassy Valley in Knox Co. TN. John Kennon was the son of WILLIAM KENNON and wife ELIZABETH HARRISON, the daughter of ANDREW HARRISON who died in Orange Co. VA, who had a son Battaille HARRISON who was father of JAMES HARRISON who m Jane Todd, dau of Low Todd who left will in Jefferson County, TN in 1796. The children of James Harrison and his wife Jane or Jennie Todd were: Mary Dillard Harrison m Daniel Jones; Benjamin Harrison father of William and MICHAEL; John Harrison 1784-1856 m Susanna Jackson; James Harrison m Hannah Elizabeth Lanston. These last two; John and James are the ones who settled in Loudon County. James Harrison, the father of these two was the son of Battaille Harrison who was a son of ANDREW HARRISON and his wife Elizabeth who were born in Essex Co. VA. This Andrew Harrison had the following children: Reuben HARRISON: John HARRISON m Sarah ELLIS and left a will in Jefferson Co. TN 1810; Richard Harrison; James Harrison m Jane Todd; William Harrison (who settled in Monroe Co, TN and was the uncle of the Loudon County Harrisons); Elizabeth Harrison m Townsley, Amhearst Co. VA. (They all came from Amhearst County)...
Further comment: These Harrisons who are those of Worth Ray, are awfully
close to Buncombe, especially when they lived in Jefferson County, TN - a stone's throw from Buncombe/Madison County, NC. When they went to Monroe/ Loudon TN they were very close to a Thomas Harrison on the Tennessee River who could have gone down stream a while into Alabama, Madison County near Gunter's Landing where Michael Harrison (of Becky Bonner's and son of Captain Daniel Harrison of LGT) was in 1810 in Limestone County, nearby. Michael moved to Madison County, AL by 1809. We do not yet know when Thomas Harrison was in Madison County. Also Daniel and Joseph Harrison were there in 1809 as were Jesse and James. In 1819 were also Robert, Charles S., and Gideon Harrison.. but you should really re-read these July Harrison Notes. They too were involved with Cherokee Indians, especially Chief Glass, one of those obnoxious Chickamauga Chiefs near Lookout Mountain.
Note that William Harrison of Monroe County had a number one son THOMAS about whom we have no information except that he was an exec of his father's will. This Thomas Harrison IS NOT a LGT Harrison but from Andrew Harrison and therefore one of THE VENTURER HARRISONS (though not covered in the book).
I have had correspondence with the Editor of the Cocke County, TN Heritage book. She has Benjamin Harrison ancestry of Cocke which was earlier part of Jefferson County. She could be from Benjamin mentioned above but she has not been able to convince herself of this being the same Benjamin and did not write it up in the Cocke County book.
I have been doing quite a bit of research on my Johns(t)ons of Culpeper/ orange/Rappahannock Counties, VA in the past year and some of my Johns(t)ons were neighbors of Battaille Harrison who owned Battle/Battaille Mountain and left many records.
But back to the lists of THE CHEROKEE GHOST DANCE.
October 19, 1819 #301, JOHN GUNTER SR. on the north side of Tennessee River, number in family not given. Note the Sr. designation, so no doubt a Jr. There is more to come about Gunters as important Cherokee Chief (s?).
CRY OF THE EAGLE... History and Legends of the Cherokee Nation and Their Buried Treasures by Forest C. Wade.
Hightower and Itawa of Forsyth Co. GA were two separate places about a mile apart. Hightower was a crossroads township and Itawa an Indian Village. Hightower was also known as Frog Town. George Welch '-L blood Cherokee and minor chief was the first merchant of Hightower ca 1830 with the exception of Jacob Scudder about a mile east. Welch was displaced in the Georgia Land Lottery and his store after 1835 was operated by HARRISON SUMMEROUR and T.J. Hightower.
The Cherokees of the area had been pushed out of SC and NE GA. Hightower Indians lived in the Coosawattee District and their District Chief was Rising Fawn. These Indians were sometimes rather prosperous Gold Miners. Hightower became a ghost town by 1969 with only an abandoned store and schoolhouse. (I am familiar with a pretty town named Rising Fawn almost in the very tip of NW GA on a major highway which is only briefly in Georgia. This is not the site of the Hightower Indians however. An accompanying map shows Hightowers Southeast in Forsythe County in North Central GA, near the Etowah River.
MARION COUNTY TN Deed Book A 1819-1826. (Marion County is adjacent to Chattanooga, TN, just to the west. On the GA border and at least part of Lookout Mountain. This was Chickamauga territory; the more violent and segregationalist upper Cherokee renegades with Chief Glass one of their leaders. It contains the Tennessee River as it leaves the state of TN and
heads toward Alabama. It contains Sequatchie River and Valley which becomes quite close to the sites in Alabama where Thomas Harrison was and Gunter's landing.
p 1 . Crow Creek sometimes called Sequatchie... I wonder if this is connected to Crow Town which is close to Gunter's Landing.
p 10. Elizabeth Pack to P of A June 13 1820. She appoints John McGown of County of Franklin, her lawful attorney.. to lease certain land and receive rent held by her in Marion County. Comment: Franklin is adjacent to Marion on the west. The reason for bringing up Packs (and there is more to come) is Thomas Harrison who m Nancy Pack and moved around a lot. This Thomas we have considered as a possibility of being ours of Buncombe but we have also rejected that idea, but Packs are involved with Indians and should be considered again in that light.
p 90. 16 Dec 1821. Land on waters of Battle Creek beginning on E boundary of Susan LOWERIES reservation (Lowery a Cherokee chief mentioned earlier)
p 111. John McGowan of Franklin appoints Hopkins L. Turney of Marion Co. his legal attorney to settle and adjust all accounts between Elizabeth Pack and reach a final settlement with her 19 July 1822.
p 121. Betsy Pack reservation mentioned .. waters of Town Creek on the line of Betsy Pack.
p 127. Lot 60 in town of Jasper.. John McGowan to Elizabeth Pack for $241 ¼ acre. Elizabeth Pack of the Cherokee Nation 22 July 1822
4
p 134. Elizabeth Pack of Marion sells for $1.00 40 acres SW cornea' of Town of Jasper to Commissioners in Trust for the County of Marion and Town of Jasper 1 July 1821. (a gift! she must have been wealthy. 40 acres in town sounds like a contribution for a college or such. p 213. James LOWERY of the Cherokee Nation to JACOB WOODLEY for 640 acres Marion County for $3000.00 tract of land north side of Tennessee River and on Battle Creek it being Lowery's reservation agreeable to the terms of the Cherokee Treaty concluded at the City of Washington 27 Feb. 1819, adj Susan Lowery line and Crow Mockers old place at the foot of Cumberland Mountain 5 Jan 1824. (Aha! Woodley relatives of the LGT Harrisons from way back!)
I have looked up the Woodleys in LGT. This would not be Jacob Woodley the elder who was dead by this time but his grandson Jacob. Jacob the elder has many references in the index as an early settler of Smith's Creek Augusta Co. VA (LGT p 374-79). He probably came from eastern VA but in Augusta VA area while it was still Orange Co. in 1741. His wife was Grace Looker. He had a son Jacob b 1753 but not named in Sr's will of 1802 so probably dead by then. Jacob had a son John b 1767 and John m Lydia Harrison as her second husband. Lydia was (p 312) the daughter of Capt. Reuben Harrison and Lydia Harrison. Lydia, the younger m 1st John Neely and 2nd John Woodley and they moved to Warren Co. TN after 1804 after Jacob Woodley sr. died (McMinnville where both died (This is a short distance north of Marion Co. TN)
The younger Lydia Harrison then married to John Woodley had a brother Nathaniel who m Mary Woodley 1784; another brother John m Grace Woodley. John and Lydia (Harrison) Woodley had children: Jacob Woodley b 1789. THIS SHOULD BE THE JACOB WOODLEY who bought Chief James Lowery's 640 acre reservation in Marion County TN., Other children were (p 377 LGT) Mary, John, Betsy, Daniel, Harrison, Greer (interesting), Jefferson, Abner and James. Worm Ray in SEE COUSINS also has something to say about the Woodleys. On p 546 under Warren Co. TN he writes "The Harrisons, Woodleys, Hills, Barnes and Dearings, all prominent and related to each other in WARREN COUNTY, came originally from ISLE OF WIGHT CO. VA". Some of this is no doubt
in error in that he believes that Isaiah Harrison and Joseph Harrison were from Benjamin Harrison of Isle of Wight, VA, which we know now as wrong but probably related. Probably true of the other families however. In general Worth Ray tends to ignore the LGT Harrisons, probably leaving them to his contemporary J. Houston Harrison of LGT. I will not go into his theory about this but he does make a number of references with charts in this book.
On p 528-530 of TENNESSEE COUSINS he goes into detail on the Warren Co. TN Woodleys especially as connected to the Hills and a few stray Harrisons of Warren County.
Worth Ray has little to say about Marion County, TN - about half a page on p 518. He says that the County was established in 1817 from lands ceded from Indians. These were Cherokee lands and the site of the head Chief John Ross. Liberty was the county seat for the first two years and then moved to Jasper (where Elizabeth Pack moved and sold the 40 acres for $1.00 to the Trustees). Marion County is noted for its numerous mineral springs. (now back to the book)
p 216. John Harrison witness to a deed 1822, land west side of Crow Creek, George Alexander and Ludwell Stone from George Briggs.. (I know not John Harrison). Eight Killer and Peggy Shorey both had life estates. In 1819 white persons drove Indians off and Captain Call of the US Army drove the intruders off. Peggy Shorey regained her land but shortly thereafter the intruders returned and took possession again. Later she had it restored but she lost it again when a white man named McGowen had her sign papers (no doubt John McGowen who had P of A for Elizabeth Pack. McGowen took over her reservation for himself. (This comes from Roll 208 24 Oct 1825 Records of the Cherokee Agency in TN 1801-1835 . ... By 1829 Congress had appropriated $20,000 to buy out Cherokee Reservations in that State (GA?, TN?, AL?). Rev. Humphrey Posey (Baptist Missionary) was appointed to go round the state for that purpose. (M-21 Roll 5 #2010 5th June 1829 Eaton to Posey)
References: "Cherokee Phoenix" 9-10-1828 (The official Cherokee newspaper made possible by George Gist (Sequoia) the inventor of the Cherokee written language and alphabet and edited by Boudinet. Sally Lowery had 640 acres 4 to 7 miles S of Sail Creek in Jackson Co. AL-Eight Killer (a native) on side of Gizzard Battle Creek... Elizabeth Pack Jackson Co. AL... George Lowery, Wills Valley, AL.
Comment: Rev. Humphrey Posey from Buncombe and when he lived in Macon County he was a neighbor to Rev. Jeremiah Harrison and to Rev. John William Grantham. Rev. John Grantham named a son Posey.
BACK TO LONG GREY TRAIL. Beginning on p 420 is "John Harrison's Journal" of 1822. He tells about his trip by horseback to Missouri and back. He returned by way of McMinnville, TN where he arrived the last day of the year of 1822 and he stayed at the Woodley's home on Town Creek. Along with him was his cousin Jehu Warren, also a relative of the Woodleys. John stayed there for several months and taught school before returning home to Harrisonburg. This John Harrison was the son of David Harrison who was son of Captain Reuben Harrison. John did not comment on any visits with the Illinois or Missouri Harrisons. He does tell about passing through Hopkinsville, Christian County, KY on his return trip and called it a neat little village but he did not comment on the fact that it was full of his Harrison and other relatives. He does say that during his stay in McMinnville, teaching school, that he visited settlements on Collins River and Battle Creek, the Widow's Creek etc. He also told of passing Stone's River, Marion County and Cumberland Mountain.
The next year his brother Nathaniel made a trip west, a different route but not as far as John did. He also wrote a journal (p 433) but I find nothing of genealogical significance in it.
Back to Elizabeth Pack, the Indian lady. I mentioned that the interest is the possibility of connection to Thomas Harrison who m Nancy Pack. I refer you to my THOMAS HARRISON OF BUNCOMBE COUNTY CENSUS 1800 dated Jan 21, 1993 in which I discuss several Thomas Harrisons, trying them on for size, for being ours. Most of this comes from Betty Jo Hulse. On p 3 I go into Thomas Harrison who m Nancy Pack. He was b c 1760 in MD, m 1784 in NC to Nancy Pack and died 1830 Coffee Co. TN. Nancy Pack was b 1764 in VA and died 1854 Grundy Co. TN. Their children were born in Lincoln and Rutherford Counties NC (same place, name change of county) from 1786 to 1794 and others born after that in Christian Co. KY (which was full of LGT Harrisons). One of their children was Aaron Burr Harrison, which suggests that this was the Burr Harrison line but that would be more convincing if it was not coupled with Aaron. Thomas Harrison lived a number of different places. He was a private in the Revolution, married after the war, lived Warren Co. KY (not TN), Franklin Co., TN, then to Indiana, then back to KY and then to MO, then to KY again then TN where he filed such information for his Rev. War Pension in 1833. He was b in England, had a brother Richard and they came to America as orphans. But the Pension application says born in MD. (This does not sound like a Burr Harrison line whether MD or England as place of birth).
None of the above gives much in the way of information about Nancy Pack and no ties indicated to an Indian maiden named Elizabeth Pack.
THE STORY OF THE CHEROKEES by Dr. W.R.L. Smith 1928
p 64 1756 Gov. Glenn of SC proceeded to erect two forts: Fort Prince George near town of Keowee in SC among the Lower Cherokees (not far from Augusta GA and Newberry SC) and Ft. Loudon on the Little Tennessee about 30 miles south of Knoxville among the upper Cherokees, near their capital town of Echota. This same year NC built Ft. Dobbs by consent of the Cherokee on the Yadkin River, 20 miles west of Salisbury
p 119. 1817 Congregationalists established their first mission at Brainerd in E. TN, 2 miles from the GA line. Missionary Ridge took its name from this many sided mission. Others were established at Willstown Alabama and at Hightower, the present Canton in Cherokee GA (but earlier I said in Forsyth County and a ghost town ..???).
p 122. New Echota set up south side Cusawattee River opposite the mouth of the Conasauga River. (In southern Murray County GA or close to there. This represents moving New Echota 75 miles southwest of the original Echota. Their first legislature met there in 1819.
p 124. 1817. Number of Cherokees in Arkansas estimated to be two to three thousand, but they had no definite place to settle because there had been no cession by the tribe of their vacated lands in the east. Osages were hostile. Some returned to their old homes in the east which disturbed the government and they sought a new deal with the tribe. A treaty was made at Calhoun in E. TN and the Arkansas tract was secured. In less than a year after the large cession of Alabama territory in 1816, all of the land east of the Chattahoochee and a considerable tract across the Tennessee River from Chattanooga was ceded to the US... Feb 27, 1819 the Cherokee was bereft of their land down to the Hiawassee along with eight other scattered small tracts.. about 6000 square miles. The usual annuities were assured and individual reservations of one square mile within the ceded area, were allowed to a number of families who decided to remain and become citizens
of the US rather than abandon their homes.
p 132. 1825 census by the Cherokees showed 13,563 natives in the east. 147 white men WITH INDIAN WIVES. 73 white women WITH INDIAN HUSBANDS. 1227 negro slaves. In 1827 the government proposed removal of Arkansas Cherokees to adjacent reservation in NE Oklahoma Territory.
p 157. 1835 census showed 8,946 Cherokees in GA; 3,644 in NC; 2528 in TN and 1424 in Alabama.. a total of 16,562 exclusive of 201 intermarried whites and 1592 negro slaves.
p 166. 1838 Movement to the West ordered by General Winfield Scott. Troops were stationed and 13 stockades built to hold the Cherokee. Six in NC, five in GA. Fort Case in McMinn Co. TN and Fort Turkeytown in Cherokee, AL. 1045 escaped creating the eastern band of the Cherokee in NC. Embarkation began. First from Calhoun, TN on the Hiawassee; second from Ross's Landing, Chattanooga and third at GUNTER'S LANDING near present Guntersville, Alabama. In June there was migration by steamboat but there was sickness due to overcrowding in the hot summer and so the move was postponed (presumably withthe Cherokee fenced in overcrowded conditions in the stockade/prisons. The large mass of them went by walking and riding on the trail, not arriving until winter, with severe loss of life and misery and known as the "Trail of Tears" which took six months.
THOMAS HARRISON'S RESERVATION. This is a copy of an original document and therefore somewhat difficult to read. This and other information about this was sent to Helen by the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Incidentally, these very helpful people are of necessity young, fit and healthy. Where they work is on top of a large and steep hill in Nashville adjacent to the state capital. There are about 4 or 5 parking places up there and the Governor has one of those places. Virtually everyone else parks and climbs. State officials, State Senators and Legislators and Federal officials park according to rank with the highest ranks closer to the top of the hill/mountain. Employees are way down the hill. Genealogists must park at the bottom where they have 10 hour parking meters. The wiser ones take a taxi to the top. All employees are young, attractive and in great shape out of necessity.
STATE OF TENNESSEE, The undersigned commissioner and surveyor duly authorized agreeable to the terns of a treaty concluded at the Cherokee Agency ... (I cannot read but perhaps a standard phrase)... concluded at the City of Washington 27 February 1817... surveyed and laid off to THOMAS HARRISON 640 acres corresponding with the registration of his claim filed in the office of the Cherokee Agency 19 August 1819 (gives survey corners and lines all based on certain trees and stakes, including his dwelling house and improvements at or near the center. Surveyed the 10th(?) day of Dec. 1820. Signed R. Houston (sp?) and Robert Armstrong Surveyor. Chain Carriers (?), THOMAS DAVIS and WILLIAM HODGES (sane other initials or other I cannot make out). On this paper is the survey but it shows no distinguishing streams or neighbors and is a square box of 640 acres.
Helen included some correspondence she had with TN Archivists. I will excerpt some - mostly in the form of questions without answers:
Is this in Marion County?...Where is that 640 acres? On the COPY of "Cherokee Cost Dance" that you sent p 189 is given "Thomas Harrison for children" #252 and location is on the Tennessee River. I had assumed the location to be Marion County but several of the Cessions descriptions could qualify. Does the Little Sequatchie empty into the Sequatchie at Jasper or below, nearer to the Alabama line? When did this reservation to Thomas Harrison revert to the State? (It was for life and then to the state). The
answer she received was that they have been unable to determine when it reverted to the state. Helen writes that according to the treaty of 1817 with the Cherokee there were two options in regard to reservations: Either the Cherokee could enroll to remove to northwestern Arkansas or they could file for a reservation of 640 acres which would revert to the state upon death or abandonment... There is a Harrison (no given name) from Tennessee on the Roll of the Cherokee removing in 1835... and in regards to a Thomas Harrison selling land in Sullivan County, TN 1788 via a Jonathan Mulkey.. there is a Jonathan Mulkey from Tennessee on that 1835 Roll mentioned above (called the Henderson Roll).
Accompanying the above is a map in considerable detail of Marion County and parts of adjoining counties and the corner of GA and AL. I can locate much of the area we have been discussing. However, I cannot find anything labeled Lookout Mountain, the area's most distinguished spot! I do find Lookout Creek but it does not run from Lookout Mountain but the opposite direction. Not on this map but on others there is Harrison's Landing at Harrison State Park. This is on the Tennessee River, east of Chattanooga and on the Interstate between Knoxville and Chattanooga. I have never known for wham this is named but this is not in the vicinity of Marion County.
From OLD FRONTIERS, appendix B, p 551. LAND CESSIONS OF THE CHEROKEES.
May 31, 1788. Georgia, Tract in GA between Oconee and Tugaloo Rivers.. This recalls to mind a Thomas Harrison on the Tugaloo in GA, but this was later decided to be in SC. Not ours. This Thomas lived and died there and a descendant genealogist still lives on the original property.
July 8, 1817 Tennessee along Sequatchie River. North of Little Sequatchie. ('this is Marion County and probably where Thomas Harrison lived and got his 640 acre Reservation.
27 Feb. 1819. Tract in TN and AL south of Little Sequatchie to GUNTERSVILLE (Gunter's Landing) on TN River (where a Thomas Harrison was about two miles away). Comment: This is a precise location whereas the location in Marion County is not. Is this two Thomas Harrisons? Related? One white but with Indian wife and children? The two areas are about 75 miles or so apart.
27 Feb. 1819 (same date as above). All North of Tennessee River from Hiawassee to Sequatchie Rivers.
THE NEW AMERICAN STATE PAPERS ...INDIAN AFFAIRS..GENERAL INDIAN LAND CESSION. Though the US had been in operation for many years and there was much activity in regards to Indian affairs, no plans were made for publication of such information until 1817.
Most early trade with the Cherokees in the area that was to became Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia was conducted by south Carolinians out of Charleston. Traders were licensed, bonded and supervised. They were considered ambassadors to the Indians in competition with the Spanish and French.
The act of 1802 made some more regulations as far as Indian trade. When the act was passed there were few or no agencies established and the power to grant licenses was vested in the Superintendent of the Indian Department, or such person as the President might authorize. Helen comments: "If Trader Thomas is same as Buncombe Thomas... Perhaps with all the treaties/etc 17961799-1802... Perhaps traders not in demand as Indian Trading Houses established... This Trader Thomas became the Buncombe Thomas of 1800 ?... Ca 1806 Buncombe Thomas "off" somewhere in Tennessee ?... my comment: Thomas could have been a trader "assistant" not necessarily licensed but an employee
of someone else who was; working for a larger establishment and that could have been true in the various places of NC/GA/SC/NC (NC twice) where he lived before Buncombe. Recall that in 1797 he was reported by Silas Dinsmore to Gov. John Sevier as a white living among the Cherokees as a trader and blacksmith. Of course there could be several different Thomas Harrisons about.
DOCUMENT #117. No title as far as I know but a printed government document in old print and because of references in it, apparently before there was a Texas. These references are to the border of Indian Territory with Mexico of which Tejas was a part. This is a report in a table form of various Indian tribes of the United States with general descriptions of locations and where they came from, their language stock etc. In reference to the Cherokees they estimate 12,000 of them in Georgia. Tennessee and Alabama. About 3000 in North Carolina making a total of 15,000. It tells about the land they have allocated to them by treaty of 1828 in Indian Territory but they have not moved there yet.
DOCUMENT # ? . This from an unnamed book, p 99. A statement showing the number of Indian Schools, where established, by whom, number of teachers etc.
Spring Place, Cherokee Nation, Alabama by United Brethren, 7 teachers, 11 pupils. Amount annually paid by government $200. Comment: Not in AL but in GA not far from AL. This is where Chief Vann had his mansion and Rev. Nathan Harrison lived and preached after about 1835. This was a Moravian mission and taught mostly sons of chiefs, but no doubt more than 11 pupils a good part of the time.
Captain HARRISON'S, Choctaw Nation, established by American Board of Foreign Missions, 1 teacher, 20 pupils. Amount paid by government annually $1000. Comment: This brings to mind the highly educated Choctaw Indian Zadoc Harrison about whom I have reported.
Brainerd, Creek Path, High Tower are named as schools in East Mississippi. Perhaps at some point this was East Miss Territory but not now. These would be in the area we have been discussing in AL along the TN River near Thomas Harrison and Gunter's Landing and further east. This document dated 1828.
TENNESSEE TIDBITS Vol. I
HARRISON
Thomas Harrison appointed Adm for Thomas Davy decd. Davidson Co 1797.
Edmund Harrison gave bond for maintenance of bastard child of Ann Walker, Aug 1795, Greene Co. (He was deputy Sheriff to Michael Harrison, High Sheriff and both founders of first Masonic Chapter in TN, as I recall and in Greenville, TN)
Elisha Harrison died before Mar. 1818 Rutherford Co. TN
Jeremiah Harrison died before April term 1798 when Will entered. Isaiah Harrison his exec. Greene Go. (Also filed in Washington Co. This is the very old Jeremiah, son of old Isaiah. His exec Isaiah was his son and founder of Harrison Methodist Church in Greene) This info not in LGT which has him dying earlier and knew only part of his family.
John Harrison died before July 1793 Davidson Co. (Old Man Harrison, grey headed and a boy Harrison were on the boat trip to found Nashville and settled on Bledsoe's Creek Sumner Co. TN with grants)
MICHAEL Harrison, icw (?) Isaac Thomas was resident of Washington Co. TN 24 Dec 1791. Sold a slave Greene Co. (Probably same as the one above and ancestor of Becky Bonner)
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