[Clydene]

My Cherokee ggmo was Eliza Jane Gore b. Okalona, TN who married John Hiram Williams in 1865. Her father was William Carroll “Tipton” Gore who married Cherokee “Jane” unknown surname or NA name. Tipton’s father was Henry Gore who is buried in the Carmack Cemetery at Okalona, TN. While visiting there I met the farmer who owns the property next to the Cemetery. He showed me where the Cherokee Village was just across the road so I am pretty sure this is where Jane Unknown lived with her family.

Through research, I followed William Carroll “Tipton” and Jane Gore to the old Massac Fort on the Ohio River in Illinois on their way to the Mississippi going to parts unknown. Apparently, Jane died there or near there and William Carroll returned to Okalona and married Jane’s sister, Nancy “Granny” Gore. Next, I find them in Carroll County, Arkansas and Nancy is raising her sister’s children including Eliza Jane. Then they move to near the Swan Trading Post at the confluence of the White and James River in Missouri – just about 100 miles north of where they were in AR. This was a Deleware Trading Post run by a Scotsman named Gillis from St. Louis. The Delewares were removed but my Gore Family remained there.

Eliza Jane Gore married John H. Williams in Ladonia, TX in 1865. My aunt told me a very colorful story that her grandma had told her of how she rode her pony with a packhorse from MO to TX to get married and then returned to MO until the Civil War was over. On her return trip Bushwhakers waylayed her and took her good riding pony leaving her to ride the rest of the way home on the old nag. She then returned to TX and the family moved to near Boswell, OK of today – earlier the Choctaw Nation. I have pictures of John and Eliza Jane and she is definitely Cherokee as she told her grandchildren, “I’m a Cherokee from Tennessee”.

Somehow she avoided any government or reservation restrictions but lived among the Choctaws – probably to her advantage.

In Okalona, TN the Chief of that area, at one time, was Chief Nettle Carrier.

Does anyone have any knowledge of the Cherokees of Okalona, TN??

Again, I am very appreciative to have the opportunity to be a part of Saponitown.

Clydene

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