I58339: Nathan BRISCOE (ABT 1725

Notes

"Naye'hi-Cherokee form of Nancy. From a letter from Betty Gene McGee to Gean Atkinson dated July 16, 1980:
"...She (Nancy Ward) was quite a woman and because of her assistance during the Revolutionary War, your daughters and mine are eligible to become Daughters of the American Revolution. She was the first slave owner of the tribe. She sold beef to the American soldiers as the first Cherokee to do so. She was one outstanding woman and is known and respected by all Cherokees and is a source of great pride for your family."

Nancy Wards first husband, Kingfisher, of the Deer Clan, was the father of her first two children--Catherine and Five killer. In a battle with the Muskogees, Kingfisher was killed and his wife, who had been laying behind a log chewing bullets so they would lacerate a victim more severely; picked up his rifle and fought as a warrior throughout the rest of the skirmish. The Muskogees were defeated and according to custom the captured spoils were divided among the victors. Kingfisher's widow was given a Negro that had been captured from the vanquished Muskogees and, in this manner, she became the first slave owner among the Cherokees and by common consent she became Ghi-ga-u, or Beloved Woman of the Cherokees. This lifetime distinction was only granted as an extreme honor of valorous merit and carried with it the right to speak, vote, and act in all of peace and war councils of the Cherokees. It also vested her with the supreme pardoning power of the tribe, a prerogative that was not granted to any other, not even the powerful peace or war chiefs.

Ghi-ga-u was described even after she was an old woman as a person of remarkable beauty and poise, "with a queenly and commanding presence." Her second husband was Bryan Ward, a white widower, who had located in the Cherokee country as a trader. Ward had brought with him his son John, whose deceased mother was a white woman.

John subsequently married Catherine McDaniel, a half breed Cherokee woman, and became the ancestor of the numerous Ward family among the Cherokees.

Bryan Ward had one daughter, Elizabeth, by the Ghi-ga-u. Elizabeth's first husband was Brigadier General Joseph Martin and her second husband was ?? Hughes, a trader. Bryan Ward lived only a few years after his marriage to Ghi-ga-u.

In June 1776, Dragging Canoe, Abraham, and Raven, war chiefs of the Cherokees, with about two hundred and fifty warriors each, at the instigation of the British, planned to attack the western settlements. But the effect of these raids was greatly reduced by Ghi-ga-u's timely warning to the settlers. On July 20, 1776, Abraham marching to attack Watauga, in East Tennessee, capture Mrs. Bean, the wife of William Bean, the mother of the first white child born in Tennessee. On the return of the war party to the Cherokee country, Mrs. Bean was condemned by her captors to be burned at the stake. She was led to the top of a mound that stood in the center of Tuskeegee, which was located just above the mouth of Tellico or Little Tennessee River, where she was bound to the stake, the fagots were piled around her, but just as the torch was about to be applied, the Ghi-ga-u appeared, cut the thongs that bound her and took the captive to her home, where the grateful Mrs. Bean taught her how to keep house and to make butter.

As soon as it was safe, The Ghi-ga-u returned Mrs. Bean to her husband and family under the escort of her brother, Tuskeegeeteehee or Longfellow of Chisatoa, and her son Hiskyteehee, or Fivekiller who was also known as Little Fellow.

Tuskeegee is the town name of one of the original eight subdivisions of the Cusetah, the primal peace town of the Coosas, the primordial mother of the Muskogees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles. The suffix "tee-hee" means killer, and, therefore, the Ghi-ga-u's brother's name was Tuskeegee Killer, although he was known to the English by the descriptive name of Longfellow because of his stature. Hisky is the Cherokee rendering of the number five. Tuskeegee, Alabama is located midway between Columbus and Montgomery.

At the beginning of September 1780, the American General Gates had been defeated at Camden, New Jersey. Savannah, Georgia and Charlestown, South Carolina were in the hands of the British; Georgia and South Carolina were conquered; the enemy exultantly moved northwest in anticipation of the conquest of North Carolina and Virginia. This was the critical moment of the Revolution. Alexander Cameron of Lochabar, the British agent among the Cherokees and an intermarried citizen of the Cherokee Nation, had been able to sustain the alliance of the Chickamaugas and many other Cherokees as well as other tribesmen with the British interests. "Brave and resourceful pioneer soldiers, dressed in homespun and buckskin, coon skinned capped with the perpendicular rifle with which they were wont to shoot the head off of a squirrel in the tallest tree or cut the neck of the turkey at an incredible distance," held back the equally dangerous Indians and Tories while others of their kind destroyed Ferguson's crack troops at Kings Mountain, North Carolina on October 7, 1780 and turned the tide in favor of the Americans.

While a portion of the patriots won in the King Mountain campaign, that part that was guarding the rear of the frontier became short of rations. Nancy Ward agreed to furnish beef and had some cattle driven in to sustain them. She and her family had been consistent Americans since she had sent William Falling and Isaac Thomas on a hundred and twenty mile trip to warn the settlers of the proposed attack of Dragging Canoe, Abraham, and Raven with their pro British Cherokee commands in July 1776.

Second source: - When the Revolutionary War came, the British government was determined to employ the Indians against the southern and western frontiers. The organization of the southern tribes was intrusted to Superintendent Stuart. The British general plan, which was only partially successful, was to land an army in west Florida, march it through the country of the Creeks and Chickasaws, who were each to furnish five hundred warriors and thence to Echota, Georgia, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. Being reinforced by the Cherokees, they were to invade the whole of the southern frontier, while attention of the colonies was to be diverted by formidable naval and military demonstrations on the seacoast. Circular letters outlining this plan, intended for the the consumption of the Tories who were expected to repair to the royal standards, were issued May 9, and reached the Watauga settlement May 18, 1776.

Echota is in the northeast corner of Georgia near I75 and about 50 miles to the northwest of Atlanta. The Cherokees, when the plan was first submitted to them, were not prepared to take sides in the contest. A civil war was unknown to their nation, and they could hardly believe that the British government would make war against part of its own people. Moreover, they were at peace with the Americans since the treaty with Governor Bell, had no complaint against them and were living heedless, happy lives in their own towns. The campaign was planned with the utmost secrecy. It was agreed that North Carolina and Virginia, and South Carolina and Georgia should be attacked simultaneously. The Overhill towns were to fall upon the back settlements of North Carolina and Virginia; the Middle towns were to invade the outlying districts of South Carolina; and the Lower towns were to strike the frontiers of Georgia.

The Overhill towns which mustered about seven hundred warriors were to move in three divisions; the first, commanded by Chuconsene or Dragging Canoe, who has been called a savage Napoleon, was to march against the Holston settlements; the second under Ooskiah of Abraham of Chilowie, a half breed chief who had fought under Washington on the frontiers of Virginia, was to attack Watauga; and the third led by Colonah or the Raven of Echota was to scour Carter's Valley. The Holston River is in eastern Tennessee. At this time there lived in Echota a famous Indian woman named Nancy Ward. She held the office of Ghi-ga-u or Beloved Woman, which not only gave her the right to speak in council, but conferred such great power that she might, "by the wave of a swan's wing", deliver a prisoner condemned by the council, though already tied to the stake. She was of queenly and commanding presence and manners and her house was furnished in a style suitable to her high dignity. She was a successful cattle raiser and is said to have been the first to introduce this industry to the Cherokees. When Nancy Ward found that her people had fallen in with the plans of Stuart and Cameron, she communicated this intelligence to a trader named Isaac Thomas and provided him with the means of setting out as an express to warn the back settlers of their danger. Thomas was a man of character and a true American, who has left distinguished descendants in the state of Louisiana. Accompanied by William Fawling, he lost no time in conveying the alarming intelligence to the people on the Watauga and Holston. His services were afterwards recognized and rewarded by the state of Virginia. The information conveyed by Thomas produced great consternation on the border. Couriers were dispatched in every direction. They had not had an Indian war since the settlement was begun, some seven years before. There was not a fort or blockhouse from Wolf Hills westward. But preparations for defense now became nervously active; the people rushed together in every neighborhood and hurriedly constructed forts and stockades.

Dragging Canoe was met at Long Island on the Holston on July 20, 1776 and defeated. Fort Watauga was attacked at sunrise next morning by Abraham who was driven away after having captured Mrs. William Bean and Samuel Moore, a boy. Raven, upon finding the Carter's Valley in forts and prepared and having heard of the repulse of Dragging Canoe and Abraham retired without doing any damage. Upon the whole, the Indian invasion was a failure owing to the timely warning of Nancy Ward, and the concentration of the inhabitants in forts built in consequence of the information she conveyed. If the well guarded secret of the Indian campaign had not been disclosed and had they been permitted to steal upon the defenseless backwoodsmen, who, in fancied security, had remained scattered over the extensive frontiers, every soul of them would probably have been swept from the borders of Tennessee. As it was, only slight injury was inflicted on the whites; a few killed, some wounded, and two taken prisoner. The boy, Samuel Moore, was burned at the stake. He was the only white person burned by the Indians in Tennessee.

Ghi-ga-u for many years operated an inn at Womankiller Ford of the Ocowee River and became quite wealthy, her assets consisting of live stock, slaves, and money. The traveling public called her "Granny Ward" on account of her age and the fact that she was the widow of Bryan Ward. After she got so old that she could not attend the councils, she sent her walking cane and vote on all important questions. In this manner she voted at Amoah, on May 16, 1817, for the renunciation of her delegated rights in favor of the first constitutional enactment of the Cherokees. Nancy Ward, the Ghi-ga-u, died at her home at the Womankiller Ford of the Ocowee River in the spring of 1824."

Father: Fivekiller; Mother: Tame Doe; Nancy Ward's Grave, Benton, Polk, Tennessee.

Chota, Blount, Tennessee, Cherokee Nation East

^[S2706]

[354094]
Blount Co. TN

My Southern Family

Nathan BRISCOE

ABT 1725 - ____

ID Number: I58339

Notes

Sources

Richard BURKS

ABT 1713 - by 1770

ID Number: I45735

Sources

Mary GIBBS

ABT 1709 - AFT 1788

ID Number: I97035

Notes

Sources

Rev. Isaac GIBSON

ABT 1830 - ____

ID Number: I68510

Notes

Sources

James HAMILTON

1 May 1757 - 27 Apr 1831

ID Number: I84431

Notes

Sources

(RESEARCH QUERY) LINDSEY

____ - ____

ID Number: I103701

Notes

Sources

John Guerrant MILLER

ABT 1790 - ____

ID Number: I30197

Sources

Chris STOUT

WALKER

ABT 1810 - ____

ID Number: I49056

Sources

Nanyehi Kingfisher-Nancy WARD

1738 - 1824

ID Number: I70939

Notes

Sources

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