Edmond A. Deweese's Deposition

Court of Claims, Eastern Cherokee Indians

Cherokee County Courthouse, Murphy, NC, July 15, 1908

Witness re: App. No. 222

Edmond A. Deweese, being first duly sworn, deposes and says:

That I am 87 years old. I was born in Buncombe County, NC. I moved to Macon County, NC when I was a child. I know Annie Blythe. I knew her husband Jonathan Blythe. I first knew Annie Blythe in Macon County, NC, in 1836 or 1837. She was living somewhere near Franklin on the Tennessee River. Annie Blythe afterwards moved to Cherokee County and died here but I don't know just when that was. She was about twenty or thirty years of age when I knew her, but she might have been older. She had no children with her at that time. I knew Mrs. Welch. I did not know any of Annie Blythe's children until I came over here and knew them on the Valley River. I knew Betsey Welch here, and I understood that she was a daughter of Annie Blythe. I do not know when I first knew Betsey Welch, but it was before the war -- I do not know how long before the war. I did not know James Blythe in Macon County. I never heard Annie Blythe say where she came from. I think I have heard Annie Blythe say she had Indian blood -- she said that she was a Cherokee. I don't recollect that she said how much Cherokee she was.

I never saw Annie Blythe with any one of her children with her. I have often heard Jonathan Blythe speak of his wife being a Cherokee Indian. I do not know what year Jonathan Blythe left Macon County. I never saw Annie Blythe after she left Macon County but I saw Jonathan Blythe a heap of times.

I do not know who Annie Blythe's mother was. I do not know who Annie Blythe's father was. I do not know when Annie Blythe moved to North Carolina. I don't know whether she lived any place else but Macon County, NC. I do not know whether she ever lived as an Indian with a tribe of Indians. I do not know whether she ever received any money as an Indian. They lived among the white people and were known as white people with Indian blood. I do not know whether there were any Indians living around where they did or not.

I think I have heard Annie Blythe say that she had Indian blood, but I am not right sure. I was not very well acquainted with her. She has visited at my house. I don't recollect that she was there but one time -- she stayed about two weeks. I never visited at her house. I cannot state when it was she stayed two weeks at our house, it was before the Indians were taken away that she stayed two weeks at our house. It was not a great while before that time, but probably some three or four years. That is the only time I ever recollect having seen her. I was about twelve years old at that time, I think. I don't know why it was that she happpened to be at my house for two weeks at that time. Annie Blythe was a kind of a doctor.

I am not a claimant, and am not related by marriage or blood to any of the claimants that I know of.

E. A. Deweese (signature)

Subscribed and sworn to before me this fifteenth day of July, 1908.
Special Commissioner

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