Below are some of the articles written on the research of the Redbones, Croatan and Melungeons in the latter part of the 1800s into the 1900s. Written by men working with the Smithsonian, historians, doctors etc., they make it clear these three groups were related. The Lumbee and Redbones can be traced to the Lumber - Pee Dee Rivers to 1754. On Tuesday I listed by deeds and records men living there when the Militia reported to the Governor there were '50 mixt families.' The Gibson, Collins, Ivey, Bolton, Oxendine, Perkins, Sweat, & Chavis families are documented there, some who came there from Chippoakes Creek. The Robesonian - Jul 13, 1933 Identity of Robeson County Indians Traced By Scientist Dr. Swanton started on his quest of the actual origin of a racial group, which now number about 8,000 persons of mixed Indians and white blood at the request of a delegation of the Indians themselves. A colonial census in 1754 was found which told of a lawless people (50 mixt families jp) living at the headwater of the Little Peedee who had possesed themselves of land without patent and without paying any quit rents. "They presumably were recognized as whites at that time, but there is little doubt that they really were the ancestors of the present day Croatans," was the statement of the findings. (Rest of the Story) The Pee Dee River, also known as the Great Pee Dee River, is a river in North Carolina and South Carolina. It originates in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, where its upper course, above the mouth of the Uwharrie River is known as the Yadkin River. The lower part of the river is named Pee Dee (in colonial times written Pedee) after the Native American Pee Dee tribe. The Pee Dee region of South Carolina, composed of the northeastern counties of the state, was named after the tribe and/or river. The first Europeans believed to have navigated part of the river was a party sent by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526. July 17, 1890 Red Springs, North Carolina Hamilton McMillan The Croatan tribe lives principaly in Robeson county, North Carolina, though there is quite a number of them settle in counties adjoining in North and South Carolina. In Sumter county, South Carolina, there is a branch of the tribe, and also in east Tennessee. In Macon county, North Carolina, there is another branch, settled there long ago. those living in east Tennessee are called "Melungeons", a name also retained by them here The tribe (Croatan) once stretched from Cape Fear to Pee Dee and the Redbones of your section are a part of the tribe as are the "Melungeons" of East Tennessee. The French immigrants callled the half breeds Melange or Mixed and the term evidently has been changed to "Melungeons". ........... I am yours truly Hamilton McMillan "A hundred years ago a colony of Croatans settled in eastern Tennessee, on Newman's Ridge, in Hancock county. They can't tell today where they came from, for tradition over 50 years isn't worth anything. These are the people called Melungeons. They are similar in racial characteristics to the Croatans, and Dr. Swan M. Burnett, a distinguished scholar and scientitst (Burnett was working with the doctor in Hawkins County, likely on his research into eye diseases of the races) - the husband, by the way, of Mrs. Francis Hodgson Burnett, the novelist - has traced by family names the connection between the Melungeons and the Croatans. GOINS VS INDIAN TRAINING SCHOOL "Question by the court to McMillan: Do these people here call themselves croatans? Answer: No sir, they call themselves malungeans. Question: Were they ever called Croatans until this Act (1885) was introduced in here? Answer: No sir. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology - Ethnology - 1907 page 365 Croatan Indians. The legal designation in North Carolina for a people evidently of mixed Indian and white blood, found in various e. sections of the state, but chiefly in Robeson co., and numbering approximately 5,000 Across the line in South Carolina are found a people, evidently of similar origin, designated "Red bones." In portions of w. N. C. and E. Temn. are found the so-called "Melungeons" THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE: ITS FATE AND SURVIVAL. (Reprinted from Papers Am. Hist. Asso., Vol. iv., No. 4., 1891.) By Professor Stephen B. Weeks, Ph.D., Trinity College, North Carolina. Page 28-29 " The Croatan applied for recognition by the United States as Cherokee, but it was denied and the Cherokee acknowledge no relationship, having visited the Croatan country on a tour of inspection. There is a queer offshoot of the Croatan known as Malungeons," in South Carolina, who went there from this state ; another the "Redbones," of Tennessee. Mr. Mooney has made a careful study of both of these branches also. At one time the Croatans were known as 'Redbones,' and there is a street in Fayetteville so called because some of them once lived on it. They are known by this name in Sumpter County, S. C., where they are quiet and peaceable, and have a church of their own. They are proud and high-spirited, and caste is very strong among them. There is in Hancock county, Tennessee, a tribe of people known by the local name of Malungeons or Melungeons. Some say they are a branch of the Croatan tribe, others that they are of Portuguese stock. ” In 1897, Mr. Mooney wrote to Charles McDonald Furman that, "He felt that the Croatans, Redbones, Melungeons, Moors, and Portuguese were all local names for mixed Indian races along the Atlantic seaboard, with westward drift into the mountains." And stated, "It would be worth while of local investigators to go into the subject systematically. I think possibly the Indian remnants may have married with the convict apprentice importation of early colony days as well as with the free Negro element." Mr. Furman was considered by Mooney and other officials as the most informed person on the Redbones and Catawba Indians in Privateer Township, Sumter County, South Carolina. The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries Volume XXV Page 258 THE TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY held an interesting meeting on the 9th of December last (1890) , at Nashville, Judge John M. Lea presiding. After the reports of various committees had been read, and other business transacted, Judge Lea addressed the society on the subject of the Melungeons. He outlined the early history of the settlement of North Carolina. A party under the protection of a friendly Indian chief had gone into the interior when the first settlers came to that coast and had been lost. No other settlers came till a century afterward, and they were told of a tribe who claimed a white ancestry, and among whom gray eyes were frequent. This people were traced to Buncomb and Robeson counties, where the same family and personal names were found as in the lost colonies. are now called Croatans, on account of a sign they made on the trees to keep their way. Judge Lewis Shepherd, attorney for descendants of the Melungeon, Solomon Bolton, of Hamilton County, Tennessee whose father was born in 1725 on the Pee Dee River. Judge Shepherd wrote what he learned of the Melungeons from this trial; "About the time of our Revolutionary war, a considerable body of these people crossed the Atlantic and settled on the coast of South Carolina, near the North Carolina line, and they lived among the people of Carolina for a number of years. At length the people of Carolina began to suspect that they were mulattoes or free Negroes and denied them the privileges usually accorded to white people. They refused to associate with them on equal terms and would not allow them to send their children to school with white children, and would only admit them to join their churches on the footing of Negroes.... South Carolina had a law taxing free Negroes so much per capita, and a determined effort was made to collect this of them. But it was shown in evidence on the trial of this case that they always successfully resisted the payment of this tax, as they proved that they were not Negroes. Because of their treatment, they left South Carolina at an early day and wandered across the mountains to Hancock county, East Tennessee; in fact, the majority of the people of that country are “Melungeons,:” or allied to them in some way. A few families of them drifted away from Hancock into the other counties of east Tennessee and now and then into the mountainous section of Middle Tennessee. This 1794 petition lists some of these people mentioned by Judge Shepherd; Spencer Bolton [his mark] [born 1725 on Pee Dee River] William Swett [his mark] Solomon Bolton [his mark] [Called Portuguese/Melungeon 1874 trial]James Shewmake [his mark] DittoSolomon Shewmake [his mark] DittoSampson Shewmake [his mark] DittoThomas Shewmake Jun [his mark] Ditto Thomas Shewmake Sen [his mark] Ditto John Shewmake [his mark] Ditto James Shewmake [his mark] DittoDavid Collins [possibly to Wilkes County, NC]Thomas Collins [Ditto]George Collins [Ditto] Delley Gibson [on Trail of Tears with Oxendine, Shoemake etc.,]Drusilla GibsonIsaac Linager [Linegar on Hawkins County CensusCudworth Oxendine [Charles Oxendine on Hawkins County Census]Archmack Ocendine [Also named Portuguese/Melungeons in the 1874 trial; Perkins, Goins, Manley, Mourning] Petition, Trial, Bolton Family and article found here Still not convinced? Consider the Melungeon DNA Project and the Lumbee DNA Project. You will find these Melungeons on the Lumbee DNA Project; Kit#200939 Goins John Goins 1843 B1007 Roark Lawson, 1815-1880 Unknown Origin 147255 Goin Thomas Goin 11280 Valentine Collins Unknown Origin B2464 SHOEMAKE Blakely Shoemake, b.abt 1791 and d. bef 1860 218793 Perkins Esther Perkins 1710-1748 177132 Elijah Freeman b c 1802-1875, NC,TN,Ala United States (Native American) Q-M3109170 Freeman, Cogdill, Tye, Huddleston United States (Native American) Q-M3 301270 Elijah Goodman Unknown Origin N114697 Bowling Benjamin Bolling b. 1734 62645 Gibson Martin Gibson 1776-1833243201 Gibson Joseph Fisher Gibson, B. 1790-1799 R-DF21-152435 Gibson Champane Gibson 1746 VA-1820 Rockingham NC 65026 William Nichols 1830 FPC Hawkins County TN United States (Native American) Lumbee DNA Project Melungeon DNA Project Part Three The Indian Traders.
The mixed-race Melungeon people from Appalachia can be tough for descendants to trace. Learn some origin theories and tips for starting your research.
A Melungeon is an ethnic group of people who are distinct from African Americans, Native Americans, and White Americans. They have lived in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, South Caroli…
To assert that Melungeons Osburn Melungeons Melungeons The Melungeons The Melungeon � The Validates Melungeon Sample of the Melungeons a M...
(The following article was taken from: Was Elvis Presley a Melungeon? Elvis with Mahalia Jackson and Barbara McNair Elvis and his mother below Later in his life, Elvis had nose surgery, and also st…
Rootsweb is returning a little at a time. Hopefully all the links in this article will come back online soon. In the meantime I was able to ...
You thought that only "white" people lived in Appalachia? So did I! But think again we were both wrong!
COMMON MELUNGEON SURNAMES Adams, Adkins, Allen, Allmond, Ashworth, Barker, Barnes, Bass, Beckler, Bedgood, Bell, Bennett, Berry, Beverly,...
The mixed-race Melungeon people from Appalachia can be tough for descendants to trace. Learn some origin theories and tips for starting your research.
America is a melting pot. So why haven’t we embraced the people who’ve represented that even before this country’s beginning? The post History Of The Melungeons: The Forgotten Tribe Of Appalachia appeared first on NewsOne.
Marion Reid Kee Redmond, WA Some of my ancestors went through a lot so that I could be “white” and not have to know about them as African, Native American, Eastern Mediterranean. Others who were considered white may not have been free. Some of my Celtic ancestors were forcibly resettled by the English. Others were...Continue reading
The Nashville American of June 26, 1910 published a paper of about 10 pages in celebration of its 98th anniversary. One of these pages contained articles and photos of the "Mysterious Melungeons" with articles from Judge Lewis Shepherd and Lucy C.V. King, early authors of the Melungeons. This article by R.O Amer appeared along with Shepherd and Kings and discusses other "Mysterious People of the Ozarks' as well as other groups in Tennessee. This is Part I of the page taken from the Nashville American Part II Tomorrow STRANGE FOLKS OF THE OZARKS Are They Also Part of the Mysterious Early Immigrant Race. By R. O. Amer "It would appear that the Melungeons really arouse more attention among students of ethnology in other parts of the country than among the people immediately surrounding them. It is no unusual experience for a visitor from Tennessee in Boston to have many questions asked concerning this strange, mysterious people. And as a rule, the visitor from Tennessee is force to express a large degree of ignorance. This writing is not the result of personal investigation among the Melungeons themselves -- merely the outcome of reading practically everything obtainable on the subject and many interviews with persons living in the sections of mountain country more or less inhabited by these people. Among the comparatively few instructive articles on the subject, the writings of Miss Will Allen Dromgoole of Nashville, have been given careful study. That well known writer presents a very different picture of the characteristics of the Melungeons from that given by most persons who have come in contact with them and by other writers. She makes them appear, practically, a set of brigands, too cowardly to engage in brigandage. Other investigators represent them as a peaceful, long-suffering, patient people - not disposed in any greater degree than the whites by whom they are surrounded to be lawbreakers. Possibly an explanation of these differences in description may be found in the supposition that the Melungeons may differ widely in different localities. The section of country visited by Miss Dromgoole does not contain, by any means, all the Melungeons. And, while she may have found them the lawless set of rascals she describes, it is a fact that in other places they are represented to be exactly the reverse. A considerable colony of these Melungeons exists in the neighborhood of Graysville. There, as elsewhere, they are more frequently known by some family name than by that given to them as a people. Around Graysville most of them are known as "Noels." there the members of the "Noel" family predominate. For untold years they have married and intermarried, replenishing the earth with new Noels - until, as stated, they have come to be known by their family name better than by that given to their race. In and around Graysville these "Noels" have the reputation of being very peaceable, very ignorant, and very little concerned with the affairs of the outside world. In no case does there appear to be any romance about these people. The most careful and even most imaginative investigators and writers have found themselves unable to associate anything of the hero type with the Melungeon character. Some of the young girls are described as beautiful specimens of physical womanhood. But the men are, are anything but beautiful. And the girls, when older grown, develop late features who would not be prize-winners in beauty contests. It is interesting in this connection, to note that occasional travelers in some sections of the Ozark Mountains have given descriptions of a mysterious people there. These descriptions are by no means specific in detail. The "strange people of the Ozarks" are mentioned merely as a sort of curiosity in the human race. So far as is known they never venture far from their mountain fastness; seldom, if ever, go down among the abiding places of the white man. They are represented as having a sort of language of their own which some have imagined might be a conglomeration of Portuguese or Spanish with some Indian dialect and suggestions of origin in the English language. These Ozark habitues, like the Melungeons, are represented as being uneducated, and having no special manifested fondness for or devotion to any form of religion. They live, or exist, on the fruits of the soil, contented, seemingly, with the bare necessities of life. So far as any information on the subject has been given, they do not call upon physicians from the outside world, are described as seldom ill, and living to an old age. Now, the writer makes no pretense of any scientific investigation in relation to either of these people. Most of his information comes from hearsay and from reading. At the same time, the thought has suggested itself that there may be some relationship, dating from a remote past between these respective tribes of mountain dwellers. One of the most able and interesting contributions to the speculations concerning the Melungeons is a ___ ___ article from the pen of Judge Lewis Shepherd, of Chattanooga, published int he Times of that city several years ago. Judge Shepherd sets up the theory, and to his own satisfaction substantiates it, that the Melungeons are descendants of the Phoenicians. He may be right. It is not the province of the mere observing and speculating mind to take issue with this learned Judge. At the same time, it may be that the Chattanooga writer, or some other equally earnest and learned investigator some time may trace the Ozark Mountain refugees to a similar origin. It does not appear that any origin of the Melungeons or of the Ozark queer folks will be of any special value in calculating the result of earliest immigration upon the present development of the people and institutions of the country. The Melungeons, from all accounts, appear to hold their own in point of numbers. Probably the same is true concerning the Ozark tribe. But nothing of what is seen of their present can have any special influence or bearing on the destiny of the nation or the fortunes of those directly surrounding them. End of Article *********** Note in this map below of the sub regions of the Ozarks is the town of West Plains in Howell County, Missouri. There are a number of families living here that while not 'called Melungeons' are related to, or at least from the same geographical area, as the Melungeons in Tennessee. David Collins whose DNA matches that of the 'Head and Source" of the Melungeons, Vardy Collins, and probably his first cousin, had descendants who settled in West Plains. The Caulders who name appears on this 1794 South Carolina petition with the Melungeon families of Shoemake, Perkins, and Boltons, also settled in West Plains. The Caulders first settled in Arkansas in the Ozark Mountain county, called "Izard" at the time, with the Turner families after leaving South Carolina. Thomas Hall, whose ancestors were Portuguese, obtained from the Maury County court a "Proof of Race" affidavit which was filed in Arkansas as well as Missouri. His descendants also settled in West Plains and used this "Proof of Race" to win their case in several courts. Peter Caulder married into this Hall family in Arkansas and the families then settled in West Plains. David Collins Thomas Hall
Guy Family by S. Pony Hill CHAPTER 1. “A Very Large Nation” The Colonial Period by Steven Pony Hill, Copyright ©2005 all rights reserved. Little is known about the Cheraw Tribe prior to their first encounters with Europeans in 1534. They were known to the Cherokee as “Ani-Suwa’li”, or “the Suwali people.” The Cheraw Tribe was actually a loose confederation of tribes who all spoke a version of the Siouan language. Known by such general names as the Cheroenhaka, Esaw, Isaw, Sara, and Saraw, this confederacy of eastern Siouan peoples included the Manahoac, Hassinunga, Shakori, Eno, Meherrin, Nahyssan, Nottaway, Occaneechi, Saponi, and Tutelo. Encountering them in 1701, explorer John Lawson described them as “the Esaw Indians, a very large Nation, containing many thousands of people.” In the early 1600’s many important historic incidents occurred which would affect the Cheraw descendents for generations. Already suffering from constant raids from the Iroquois on their northern border, the Tuscarora to the south, and the Cherokee west, the Cheraw now faced a new threat, European colonists pushing inland from the east. Cheraw Indians being taken captive by raiding parties of Iroquois and Cherokee were being sold as slaves to the colonists and this did nothing to better the situation. From 1616 to 1630, Opechancanough, successor of Powhatan, and chief over all the Algonquin speaking tidewater tribes, expressed his displeasure with the encroaching white men by waging a bloody war. Indian captives were taken in increasing numbers from the tidewater tribes during this time and forced into slavery. Those Indians not taken as slaves were forced to wander the Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina area. In 1657 the English forced most of the Powhatan remnants onto reservations in Virginia and the Siouan tribes were gathered in four main concentrations: “The Monacan, along the James; the Saponi along the Rivana and James Rivers and Otter Creek; the Tutelo in the Roanoke Valley; and the Occaneechi on islands at the confluence of the Roanoke> and Dan Rivers.” Arguably the most influential event to occur in the 1600’s happened in 1660 when Virginia determined that “…an Indian sold by another Indian or an Indian who speaks English and who desires baptism will now receive his or her freedom.” This allowed many Algonquin and Siouan war captives held in slavery in the colonies to regain their freedom, but it also provided incentive for their masters to downplay the Indian ancestry of those in servitude in order to retain them. These former slaves quickly rejoined their tribesmen bringing with them their acquired skills as carpenters, wheelwrights, and ferry operators. Most importantly, these newly freed Indians brought with them their new English names and Christian religion. Unfortunately they also retained the stigma of being former slaves, a condition which would cause their white neighbors to eye them with suspicion for generations. In 1713, the confederated eastern Siouan Nations signed a Treaty of Peace with the Virginia Colonial government at Williamsburg. Among the different Nations represented were the Occaneechi, the Stuckanok, the Tottero, and the Saponi. At the invitation of Governor Spottswood of Virginia, these Indians settled a four-square-mile reservation encompassing the north and south side of the Meherrin River. On the north banks were the Nansemond and related Algonquin-speaking bands, on the south were the Siouan-speaking Tutelo, Saponi, Cheroenhaka, Eno, and also an Iroquoian-speaking band of Tuscarora who had survived the war with the Carolina settlers just 2 years earlier. Spottswood endorsed the construction of Fort Christanna where the Indian children had mandatory training in academics and Christianity. After the closing of the Fort Christanna school a few of the students followed headmaster Charles Griffin and enrolled at the Brafferton Indian School at William and Mary. Because of the continued hostilities between these Nations and the Iroquois to the north, the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia held a conference at Albany in September of 1722 to hammer out a peaceable agreement between the Tribes on their borders. Governor Spottswood undertook negotiations for the “Christanna Indians” who were composed of “the Saponies, Ochineeches, Stenkenoaks, Meipontskys, and Toteroes.” In addition to their traditional native enemies, it is obvious that the remnant tribes considered the encroaching white settlements as an almost equal threat. It also appears that, on the subject of trespassing whites, even the Algonquin and Siouan peoples could agree and cooperate. On October 24, 1723 the Virginia Government spoke out on behalf of the Meherrin and Nansemond Nations and warned the North Carolinians: “Whereas, the Maherin and Nansemond Indians have this day complained that notwithstanding the repeated orders of this government for security to them the possession of their lands, whereon they have many years past been seated, between the Nottoway and Maherine Rivers, divers persons under pretense of grants form the Government of North Carolina surveyed the lands of the said Indians and begun to make settlements within their cleared grounds.” This report is especially interesting as it implies that portions of the Nansemond had obviously moved west of their ancestral homes around Norfolk, Virginia, and were living with the Meherrin between the Nottoway and Meherrin Rivers. Full Article Here: http://sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/CHAPTER1colonial.htm
Here are a quick few steps for removing photos from Ancestry.com, as well as how to delete your account all together.
Webster defines first as before anything else. They were given the name Melungeon by their white neighbors who lived here among them. Lived...
The Nashville American of June 26, 1910 published a paper of about 10 pages in celebration of its 98th anniversary. One of these pages contained articles and photos of the "Mysterious Melungeons" with articles from Judge Lewis Shepherd and Lucy C.V. King, early authors of the Melungeons. This article by R.O Amer appeared along with Shepherd and Kings and discusses other "Mysterious People of the Ozarks' as well as other groups in Tennessee. This is Part I of the page taken from the Nashville American Part II Tomorrow STRANGE FOLKS OF THE OZARKS Are They Also Part of the Mysterious Early Immigrant Race. By R. O. Amer "It would appear that the Melungeons really arouse more attention among students of ethnology in other parts of the country than among the people immediately surrounding them. It is no unusual experience for a visitor from Tennessee in Boston to have many questions asked concerning this strange, mysterious people. And as a rule, the visitor from Tennessee is force to express a large degree of ignorance. This writing is not the result of personal investigation among the Melungeons themselves -- merely the outcome of reading practically everything obtainable on the subject and many interviews with persons living in the sections of mountain country more or less inhabited by these people. Among the comparatively few instructive articles on the subject, the writings of Miss Will Allen Dromgoole of Nashville, have been given careful study. That well known writer presents a very different picture of the characteristics of the Melungeons from that given by most persons who have come in contact with them and by other writers. She makes them appear, practically, a set of brigands, too cowardly to engage in brigandage. Other investigators represent them as a peaceful, long-suffering, patient people - not disposed in any greater degree than the whites by whom they are surrounded to be lawbreakers. Possibly an explanation of these differences in description may be found in the supposition that the Melungeons may differ widely in different localities. The section of country visited by Miss Dromgoole does not contain, by any means, all the Melungeons. And, while she may have found them the lawless set of rascals she describes, it is a fact that in other places they are represented to be exactly the reverse. A considerable colony of these Melungeons exists in the neighborhood of Graysville. There, as elsewhere, they are more frequently known by some family name than by that given to them as a people. Around Graysville most of them are known as "Noels." there the members of the "Noel" family predominate. For untold years they have married and intermarried, replenishing the earth with new Noels - until, as stated, they have come to be known by their family name better than by that given to their race. In and around Graysville these "Noels" have the reputation of being very peaceable, very ignorant, and very little concerned with the affairs of the outside world. In no case does there appear to be any romance about these people. The most careful and even most imaginative investigators and writers have found themselves unable to associate anything of the hero type with the Melungeon character. Some of the young girls are described as beautiful specimens of physical womanhood. But the men are, are anything but beautiful. And the girls, when older grown, develop late features who would not be prize-winners in beauty contests. It is interesting in this connection, to note that occasional travelers in some sections of the Ozark Mountains have given descriptions of a mysterious people there. These descriptions are by no means specific in detail. The "strange people of the Ozarks" are mentioned merely as a sort of curiosity in the human race. So far as is known they never venture far from their mountain fastness; seldom, if ever, go down among the abiding places of the white man. They are represented as having a sort of language of their own which some have imagined might be a conglomeration of Portuguese or Spanish with some Indian dialect and suggestions of origin in the English language. These Ozark habitues, like the Melungeons, are represented as being uneducated, and having no special manifested fondness for or devotion to any form of religion. They live, or exist, on the fruits of the soil, contented, seemingly, with the bare necessities of life. So far as any information on the subject has been given, they do not call upon physicians from the outside world, are described as seldom ill, and living to an old age. Now, the writer makes no pretense of any scientific investigation in relation to either of these people. Most of his information comes from hearsay and from reading. At the same time, the thought has suggested itself that there may be some relationship, dating from a remote past between these respective tribes of mountain dwellers. One of the most able and interesting contributions to the speculations concerning the Melungeons is a ___ ___ article from the pen of Judge Lewis Shepherd, of Chattanooga, published int he Times of that city several years ago. Judge Shepherd sets up the theory, and to his own satisfaction substantiates it, that the Melungeons are descendants of the Phoenicians. He may be right. It is not the province of the mere observing and speculating mind to take issue with this learned Judge. At the same time, it may be that the Chattanooga writer, or some other equally earnest and learned investigator some time may trace the Ozark Mountain refugees to a similar origin. It does not appear that any origin of the Melungeons or of the Ozark queer folks will be of any special value in calculating the result of earliest immigration upon the present development of the people and institutions of the country. The Melungeons, from all accounts, appear to hold their own in point of numbers. Probably the same is true concerning the Ozark tribe. But nothing of what is seen of their present can have any special influence or bearing on the destiny of the nation or the fortunes of those directly surrounding them. End of Article *********** Note in this map below of the sub regions of the Ozarks is the town of West Plains in Howell County, Missouri. There are a number of families living here that while not 'called Melungeons' are related to, or at least from the same geographical area, as the Melungeons in Tennessee. David Collins whose DNA matches that of the 'Head and Source" of the Melungeons, Vardy Collins, and probably his first cousin, had descendants who settled in West Plains. The Caulders who name appears on this 1794 South Carolina petition with the Melungeon families of Shoemake, Perkins, and Boltons, also settled in West Plains. The Caulders first settled in Arkansas in the Ozark Mountain county, called "Izard" at the time, with the Turner families after leaving South Carolina. Thomas Hall, whose ancestors were Portuguese, obtained from the Maury County court a "Proof of Race" affidavit which was filed in Arkansas as well as Missouri. His descendants also settled in West Plains and used this "Proof of Race" to win their case in several courts. Peter Caulder married into this Hall family in Arkansas and the families then settled in West Plains. David Collins Thomas Hall
Few people today actually claim to be Melungeons, rather perhaps Melungeon descendants. The reasons have more to do with the abortive Melungeon Movement.
The Melungeons, Christian Priber and the Traders I hope you will follow the many links, I think you will find them fascinating. Christian Priber left London in June of 1735 and by December was selling all of his worldly goods besides books, papers, pen and ink. He had a land grant along the Santee River in Amelia Twp., close to John Bunch and Mary Gibson, daughter of Hubbard Gibson. In 1731 when Gideon Gibson was called before Governor Johnson it was reported his intentions were to settle on the Santee River also. The Cherokee Path headed for St. Matthews in Calhoun County. An old map of Amelia Township, later St. Matthews, shows the Cherokee Path running right through the middle of town. More Here The above map shows the Cherokee Path running through Amelia Twp., and Saxe Gotha, where the Bunch, Gibsons, Cherokee Traders and Christian Priber lived. The map at this link shows where Daniel Gibson [yet unidentified] John Gibson, and his son Gilbert lived amongst the early South Carolina Cherokee traders. Christian Priber witnessed the will of Charles Russell, the Indian trader who was in charge of the old garrison on the Cherokee Trading path. Edward Hall was transported by Allenson Clarke and Charles Russell, Henrico Co., 2 May, 1705 - This record shows Gilbert Gibson, was in Henrico County, Va., in 1710 with Allenson Clarke. September 1710 Gilbert Gibson sued in Henrico County by Allenson Clarke for a 4 pound currency debt [Allenson Clarke son of William Clarke and Mary Gibson- William Clarke, a planter and early citizen of Henrico County, was born about 1634 according to a Henrico County deposition--In the June Court 1683, the justices judged Robin, an Indian boy belonging to William Clarke, to be ten years of age. [Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, vol. 30, page 113] 22nd March 1744/5 pages 145-146 Read the Petition of Thomas Wallexelleson humbly shewing That the Petit'r having settled himself and Family in Craven County on Santee River with a design to obtain from the Government a Title to the Rights of his family, according to law, but that contrary to law and the intent of unhospitable neighbour, Gilbert Gibson now residing on the River, above said has fraudulently obtain'd certain Quantity of Rights for land, as appears by a Warrant lately granted to him in hte behalf of himself, his mother and his sister &C who have had their Rights of land taken up and dispos'd of some years past by the s'd Gilbert's Father, John Gibson, deceased, as also some part by himself and notwithstanding the illegal Acquisition of the land, the said Gilbert Gibson now possessor hath depriv'd the Petitioner of the chiefest part of its Timber by running the line of his land, contrary to the intent of a Lawful Division of the same & deceiv'd the Surveyor by a false Information from the Petit'r of his Concession to the same, who otherwise would not have run the line in such form, the Petit'r therefor humbly prays for redress. On considering the above Petition the same was referred to the Surve6or General that h do enquire in to theh allegations fo the same and report to his board. ============== p 147-148 The Surveyor General according to an Order in the minutes of this morning laid before the Board the follow'g Report, upon the Petiton to him referred, viz't that upon perusal of Tho's Wallexelleson's Petiton, to His Excell'cy and Honours complaining of the useage of Gilbert Gibson, &c I find that the said Gibson did obtain a Warrant of Survey from from Your Excellency on the 6th day of October last, on a Copy thereof I gave a Precept of the same dated, if any Survey has been made by virtue thereof, no platt has been returned into this office. With submission I htink that if our Excellency grants the said Wallexelleson a Special warrant fo r the lands by him settle dand improved according to His Family Right, I sahll recomment it to Mr. Haig to remove his Grievance who I doubt not is both capable and willing if he has been imposed on by s'd Gibson &C. Signed George Hunter. The Petitioner appear before His Excellency in Council and declaring that he had not obtained any Warrant or Grant for the s'd land prayed for in his Petition, he was directed to prepr another Petition setting forth His family Right, so as that the said land may be legally assigned him. See this map showing Patrick and Thomas Brown, also Cherokee traders, for location of the Fort/Garrison. This Cherokee path continued along until it met the famous Occaneechi Path. There is much more information on the path and old garrison found HERE Within months Priber would be found in the Cherokee town of Tellico where he would spend the next years building his Utopia. Is it possible the first mixed blood community was born at that Cherokee capital in 1736 at Christian Priber's 'Utopia - Kingdom of Paradise'? It is to my knowledge the earliest documented 'tri racial' community. Established in 1736 by Christian Priber it was a refugee town of not only Cherokee but remnant tribes, fugitive slaves, both African and Indian, 'disaffected' Germans, French and English, this community existed some seven or eight years before Priber was captured. Many histories describe Priber as a French 'Jesuit' but there is no doubt he was from Germany and that he was not a 'Jesuit.' He spoke French fluently and it seems logical that it was Christian Priber that gave the name Melungeons, a French word meaning 'mixture', to the Indian and African slaves, remnant Indians, Germans, etc., that joined his community. It was reported that he had 100 English traders belonging to his society. James Adair the Cherokee - Chickasaw trader and author who wrote "The history of the American Indians" in 1775 was an associate/friend/enemy. This same James Adair was the good friend of Gideon Gibson who's son John Gibson was married to Agnes Adair, daughter of James, in the 1760s. The history of James Adair, Gideon Gibson and John and Agnes Adair Gibson can be found HERE. Vernon W. Crane wrote in "The Lost Utopia on the American Frontier." After a few years of imprisonment, Priber died. The verdict upon his career has followed too closely the opinion of his enemy, Ludovick Grant: "Thus ended the famous Pryber .... a most Notorious Rogue & inniquitous fellow who if he had been permitted to have lived much longer in that Country would undoubtedly have drawn that nation over to the French Interest." More generous in his judgment was Adair, who likewise regarded Priber as a menace to English dominion in southern America, but who nevertheless affirmed that "he deserved a much better fate." In 1743 he was arrested and jailed at Frederica -- it is said he married to a daughter of 'the Emporer' Moytoy and left at least one daughter who married to Doublehead. While this is entirely possible there is no evidence he left any children in America. It was reported in the early records by 'eyewitnesses to history' that he did take a Cherokee wife and we could certainly presume he left children by both his German and Indian wife. Shortly after his arrest in 1743 a treaty was signed at Charleston with Chief Attacullaculla. The Cherokee agreed to trade only with the British, return runaway slaves and expel Non-English whites from their territory, the Cherokee would receive substantial amounts of guns, ammunition, and red paint. It was reported he died shortly after he was captured but some researchers believe he was released and went to live with his beloved Cherokee after Oglethorpe returned to England. Nine years later the militia of North Carolina would report that while there were 'no Indians' in Bladen County there were living on Drowning Creek 'fifty mixt families' -- The Melungens - The legend of their history which they carefully preserve; ".........that they might be freed from the restraints and drawbacks imposed on them by any form of government. These people made themselves friendly with the Indians and freed, as they were from every kind of social government, they uprooted all conventional forms of society and lived in a delightful 'Utopia' of their own creation. Is this merely coincidental this 'mixed race' community in East Tennessee who had came over the mountains, neighbors and possibly kin to James Adair, associated with the many Indian traders in Virginia from it's earliest times, report their legend as living in a 'Utopia' of their own creation? A History of Georgia: From Its First Discovery by Europeans to the Adoption ... - Page 164 by William Bacon Stevens - 1847 While Oglethorpe was thus engaged in Florida, a plot was discovered among the Indians, which threatened serious consequences to all the southern colonies. This was occasioned by the artful intrigues of a German Jesuit named Christian Priber, who was employed by the French to spy out the condition of the English provinces, and to seduce the Cherokees from their allegiance to the English. He went up into the nation in 1736, and conforming at once to all their manners and customs, made himself master of their language, and gradually insinuated into their minds a distrust of their allies, a love for the French, and such notions of independence and importance as made them fit to assert rights never before claimed, and which he knew would not be conceded; and upon this anticipated refusal, he based his scheme of bringing them to an open rupture with the English. Acting upon their vanity, he got up what in the eyes of the savages was a splendid coronation scene, in which he crowned the chief as king of the confederated towns, and bestowed upon the other head-men and warriors such pompous titles as flattered their pride and stimulated their ambition. Priber was appointed royal secretary to the King of the Cherokees, and under this official title corresponded with the English Indian agents and the colonial governments. An attempt was made by South Carolina to secure him, and Colonel Fox was sent up as a commissioner to demand him of the Indian authorities; but he had so ingratiated himself with them that they refused, and with such a spirit and resentment that the commissioner was compelled to return without securing his prey. His ascendency over the nation was great. He used the Indians as the tools of his machinations, and they looked upon him with feelings of profound veneration, and professed subservience to his scheme of linking their interest to that of the French on the Mississippi and- the Gulf of Mexico. His plans, however, were defeated by his capture at the Tallipoose town, when within a day's journey of the French garrison, to which he was hastening. This book was published in 1847, a year before the Knoxville paper reprinted the article on the Melungeons - their legend - their Utopia, from the Louisville paper. It is unknown when the Louisville journalist visited Newmans Ridge or when the Kentucky paper actually printed the story. Could this Louisville journalist been involved in the research of William Bacon Stevens, or is this just another mere coincidence? Read more about Priber NOTES ON PRIBER Newspaper article 1943 Verner F. Crane "The Lost Utopia on the American Frontier." Sewanee Review, XXVII (1919) Boston Evening Post 1763
Melungeon is the name of a Southern U.S. ethnic minority once found in the Appalachian Mountains in parts of the states of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee
The Melungeons (1600s- ) are a mixed-race people in America who live in the Appalachian mountains where Tennessee meets Virginia meets Kentucky. There are about 50,000 of them. They look mainly whi…
Webster defines first as before anything else. They were given the name Melungeon by their white neighbors who lived here among them. Lived...
A Native American's look at Brant Kennedy's Melungeon DNA study by Richard Thornton, part of his series of articles on the early Appalachian colonists.
Virginia may be a lot of things, but boring is not one...