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I was fortunate enough to have the chance to visit the Vardy Community of Hancock Co, Tenn., yesterday, on the way back from Oklahoma. It was named for Vardemon (Vardy) Collins, and sits at the base of Newman’s Ridge, home to the folks referred to as Melungeons.
It is still a pretty out of the way place, but it was worth it to see the old dog-trot log cabin that once belonged to Mahala Collins Mullins, the famous (infamous) Melungeon moonshiner who weighed some 600 lbs at the time of her death. We also visited the old Vardy Presbyterian Church/Museum, and the remains of the old Vardy School, now sadly much deteriorated. For folks who research this kind of community, it was a treat. Passing the Goins Chapel, the Gibson Graveyard, and the other small graveyards with the names Goins, Collins, Bunch, and Gibson on the stones made the journey “off the beaten track” well worth while. It really made the things I’d read and heard take on new meaning.
The community has an active historical society, who have kept up the old mission church and renovated it as a museum, and they put out a small, informative monthly newsletter with bits and pieces of Vardy history. I believe a web search for “Vardy” would bring up contact info for anyone who was interested.
Forest, I would love to have been able to visit that place. I understand that ridge is truely beautiful.
Vardy Collins was the son of Samuel Collins son of Old Thomas Collins who sold land in Louisa Co. 1747 and moved to the Flatt River. Thomas and some of his sons appear on the Granville Co. 1750-60 tax list as mullato.
One connection I have found with my Collins is in Wilkes Co. NC I found both Vardy and Meredith living on land adjoining one another. I believe they could have been first cousins but I have never been able to prove it.
One day I’d like to take a trip back east and see the lands near there, but I’d be more interested in Russell/Scott Counties in NE Tn and SW Va.
It’ll probably be a once in a lifetime trip.
vance
vance you had once mentioed White county TN in one of your posts , it’s not far from Newmans Ridge, there’s so much history in Tn it’s hard to beleive.
The Cherokee Chief Path Killer lived in White county and a creek there mis named Calf Killer creek for him!
Anyway he hung around with a Shawnee Chief Blackhoof aka Blackfoot etc, both from White county area during the early 1800’s, when my folks were living there.
I’d like to know more of the relationship between these 2 Chiefs and the interactions of the Shawnee’s with the Eastern Souians, since there areas are all relative.
Tom, I found several surnames in White County that are mine — found Thomas Gist Sr and Jr, with Brown’s, John Chisolm (known business partner — in North Alabama — and friend to Doublehead, also father of Jesse Chisolm, half-Cherokee for whom the Chisolm trail was named) , McNutt (my great great grandparents raised an orphan boy surnamed McNutt) and others. This was about 1800 or 1810. I think White County is about half way between Knoxville and Nashville.
What is the historical reference for Pathkiller and Blackhoof living there? Would love to see it. 🙂
thanks
vance
ps — my Wayland ancestors were near Clinch River.
Hey Vance, you know maybe we had kin somewhere.
The refernce that I found was in the history of White Co. one of the archives from down there had sent it to me. I will see if I still have it and let you know.
I did see those old Cherokee names in the census records there is also Cash and Cater and many others, mine is the Hardin- Carey clan, I did not find an exact location for my folks .
When you look at the Carey Clan they were originally from NC east, guides to the Moravians and interpretors at early treaties where the name gets changed to “CASEY- CAZEY” and many others but it’s Carey!
I thought that it was odd not to give the residence but back then it was pretty open ground.
Also in one of the references was a cave burial that was raided and the “coffins” were made of horse hair, actually spanish moss spun and woven into a large mat.
Forest Hazel,
That sounds fascinating and fun. I’m with Vance, I’d love to go back East again and see some of these places. I haven’t been there since I was 12. It would be a much better trip now that I’ve learned some of this history. It would probably be a once in a life time trip for me too. Even though I do have family back there.
Tom,
The cave sounds cool. The mats of horse hair sound pretty interesting too. Where is this place again? Lynella.
On one census record John Chisolm and Thomas Gist are next door neighbors. Thomas Gist Sr fought against Dragging Canoe in the American Revolutionary War. It appears many Virginia and Carolina (North and South) Indians also fought against the Chickamaugas. However people in those days who were warriors, had a sort of a warriors code, and they respected other warriors in a way people today wouldn’t understand very well.
Many early day Gists came from Wilkes County, NC and the Moravians also were in Wilkes County, NC. In the same “Cherokee Phoenix” at the above link is an article where Sequoyah says his paternal grandfather was a white man, implying his father was half-Cherokee. Sequoyah states his mother was full blood Indian. This is controversial, for if his father was Nathaniel Gist as many suspect, this would contradict what most people think about Nathaniel, which was that his mother was a Howard, and the Howards were White and were a well known family from Maryland/Virginia. But when I looked into Lower Russell County, Va — I saw some Howards living there the same timeframe my Waylands were. So I wonder . . .
The Moravians were first in contact with the Cherokee in the 1750s (Moravians arriving in Wilkes Co., NC in 1752, and Christopher Gist, Nathaniels father, arrived there in 1750 and was called the first white man to settle in the county. The Moravians never established a Cherokee Mission until 1801 when then established Spring Place Mission. An early day teacher there was Jonathan Black. The only “true” record of Doublehead’s death (written in the Moravian School records) says he was killed in the home of a Mr. Black, and he was buried nearby.
You find a lot written about John Chisolm and Doublehead from the late 1790s up until Doublehead’s death in 1807. Doublehead receievd a lot of land near Muscle Shoals in NW Alabama for signing away a lot of Cherokee lands. He and John Chisolm went into business together as land speculators. Doublehead leased land to white farmers.
There is a Cherokee document about Thomas Gist and John Chisolm receiving money from the Cherokee Nation in 1808. It was written Sequoyah (George Gist/Guess/Guest) was Doublehead’s nephew. I do not know Thomas Gist’s relationship to Sequoyah (aka George Gist) or Doublehead, but both knew John Chisolm well. Because of John’s relationship to Doublehead he went to Arkansas early for fear of the same people who killed Doublehead and for the same reason, selling Cherokee lands to whites. John Chisolm was a white man married to a Cherokee woman.
All of this fits together “somehow” but it is difficult to know exactly “how”. 🙂 There might be a Virginia Indian link to Sequoyah through the Gists and Howards, but the Virginia and Maryland descendants of these people say they were white.
vance
hey Vance that’s interesting about the Gist folks, a friend of mine has been working on a bunch of this some where back there there was a woman who’s last name was …… Carey Belle, I believe that she may have been the wife of Nathaniel Gist or co.
There must be some work done already on these families.
way back in the days of Spring Place, the only name of a guide that I could locate was a Carey. I think that many of these families that did locate there were known to each other.
Some of the descendants of the Browns and Redds from near Spring Place may be some how related to me, they have Hardins in thier lines etc.
Very interesting to know just how all these folks fit together.
I have always thought that many of these early Cherokee names are really old Indian names from the Eastern Sea board, after 1820 when the early FPC folks were told to get out the moved just over the hills into the border lands.
I did see a name that looked very much like Hawkins, in the Tutelo language, I can post it if you’d like.
Thanks Tom
PS Lynella the location of the caves with the SPANISH MOSS coffins is WHITE county Tn.
I was searching The forum for Gibson and came across this post, I think I remember someone on the forum looking for this surname?
Shirley
vance hawkins wrote: On one census record John Chisolm and Thomas Gist are next door neighbors. Thomas Gist Sr fought against Dragging Canoe in the American Revolutionary War. It appears many Virginia and Carolina (North and South) Indians also fought against the Chickamaugas. However people in those days who were warriors, had a sort of a warriors code, and they respected other warriors in a way people today wouldn’t understand very well.
Many early day Gists came from Wilkes County, NC and the Moravians also were in Wilkes County, NC. In the same “Cherokee Phoenix” at the above link is an article where Sequoyah says his paternal grandfather was a white man, implying his father was half-Cherokee. Sequoyah states his mother was full blood Indian. This is controversial, for if his father was Nathaniel Gist as many suspect, this would contradict what most people think about Nathaniel, which was that his mother was a Howard, and the Howards were White and were a well known family from Maryland/Virginia. But when I looked into Lower Russell County, Va — I saw some Howards living there the same timeframe my Waylands were. So I wonder . . .
The Moravians were first in contact with the Cherokee in the 1750s (Moravians arriving in Wilkes Co., NC in 1752, and Christopher Gist, Nathaniels father, arrived there in 1750 and was called the first white man to settle in the county. The Moravians never established a Cherokee Mission until 1801 when then established Spring Place Mission. An early day teacher there was Jonathan Black. The only “true” record of Doublehead’s death (written in the Moravian School records) says he was killed in the home of a Mr. Black, and he was buried nearby.
You find a lot written about John Chisolm and Doublehead from the late 1790s up until Doublehead’s death in 1807. Doublehead receievd a lot of land near Muscle Shoals in NW Alabama for signing away a lot of Cherokee lands. He and John Chisolm went into business together as land speculators. Doublehead leased land to white farmers.
There is a Cherokee document about Thomas Gist and John Chisolm receiving money from the Cherokee Nation in 1808. It was written Sequoyah (George Gist/Guess/Guest) was Doublehead’s nephew. I do not know Thomas Gist’s relationship to Sequoyah (aka George Gist) or Doublehead, but both knew John Chisolm well. Because of John’s relationship to Doublehead he went to Arkansas early for fear of the same people who killed Doublehead and for the same reason, selling Cherokee lands to whites. John Chisolm was a white man married to a Cherokee woman.
All of this fits together “somehow” but it is difficult to know exactly “how”. 🙂 There might be a Virginia Indian link to Sequoyah through the Gists and Howards, but the Virginia and Maryland descendants of these people say they were white.
vance
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