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I’m descended from Hester Black who was born 1769 on the Little Broad River in what was either Lincoln Co. N.C. or Rutherford Co. N.C.
In 1785 Hester Black married Nathan ( Dutch ) Thompson a whiteman born in New Jersey, who came south and became a Methodist Circuit rider, They were married in Lincoln Co. N.C.
Some sources state that the marriage bond lists Hester Black as being a Indian.
Hester and Nathan Thompson had around 10 to 12 children and they settled in what became Haywood Co. N.C.
Nathan Thompson became the first county coroner for Haywood Co. N.C., and for a time the family lived around the Soco Creek/Oconaluftee area of what became Jackson Co. N.C., and part of the Cherokee reservation/Qualla Boundary.
It has been told that during the Removal of the Cherokees that the Federal authorities/soldiers questioned Hester Black Thompson about her heritage because of her dark skin, and the family claimed she was Black Dutch.
When Hester Thompson died in the 1840’s the family was living down below present day Bryson City, N.C. on the Little Tennessee river, and the white people would not allow her to be buried in the cemetery as they thought she was a pagan/heathen.
so Hester Thompson was buried underneath a tree on the McClure family’s property near the cemetery….
Some of Hester’s descendants filed claims with the Eastern Band of Cherokees for the Guion Miller Roll but were rejected, but in the applications they stated that Hester’s Indian name was Gantanaga.
I’m wondering if maybe Hester was possibly a Catawba or other Siouan Indian as the name Gantanaga does not appear to be a Cherokee word or name, unless it was really mangaled and mis-pronounced by her descendants….
Jeff Beard
Wow Jeff….how perhaps NOT coincidenatal that I have been folowing/researching Hester’s line just in the past week….I suspect that my GG grandmother: Nancy Jane (Thompson) Nichols connects to Hester via the Thompson and Gibson lines…I gleened alot of info from online sources but there is MUCH confusion about the Thompson descendancies. The trees are so confusing…but I do feel pretty confident that Nancy (who was born abt 1824 in NC) connects to that same Thompson line. As to you Hester…I have also seen her NDN name alternately shown as Yantanaga. The notes that I saved about her are as follows:
“Source: loc Mar 2008, very poss. source for her ancestors:
Nathan THOMPSON
Esther BLACK
Husband: Nathan THOMPSON
Birth: 28 Aug 1762, NJ
Death: 10 Oct 1854, Soco Creek, Jackson Co., NC
Military Service: Revolutionary War: Pvt., 1st Carolina Rgmt.
Marriage: 19 Aug 1785, Lincoln Co., NC
Wife: Esther / Ester BLACK
Birth: 17 Jan 1769
Father: Thomas BLACK
Children:
— Lincoln Co., NC:
1. Elizabeth THOMPSON, b. 23 Feb 1786; d. aft. 26 Jul 1879; m. 23 Jul 1831, Uriah “Ute” SHERRILL (c1754-1838)
2. Mary D. “Polly” THOMPSON, b. 18 Dec 1787; d. 10 Apr 1832, Haywood Co., NC; m. 11 Aug 1820, Haywood Co., NC, Alexander CRISP
— born in Rutherford Co., NC:
3. Samuel THOMPSON, b. 15 Mar 1790
4. Thomas THOMPSON, b. 6 May 1792; m. 7 Jan 1815, Nancy ENLOE
5. Nathan Byers THOMPSON, b. 26 Feb 1795; d. 1 Aug 1870, Qualla, Jackson Co., NC
6? Jane THOMPSON, b. 24 Apr 1797
— born in Buncombe Co., NC:
7. Esther Eliza THOMPSON, b. 15 Mar 1800; 1863, Judson, Swain Co., NC; m. 20 Nov 1823, Haywood Co., NC, Alexander SAWYER
8. Ruth Richardson THOMPSON, b. 6 Oct 1802; d. 15 Jun 1872, Jackson Co., NC; m. 26 Jan 1832, Joseph BUCHANAN, s/o James BUCHANAN & Martha BLACK
9. Jesse Richardson THOMPSON, b. 1 Jan 1805; m. 25 Feb 1825, Haywood Co., NC, Rachel WELCH, d/o Thomas WELCH **NOTE: his 2nd wife**
10. Lorenzo Dow THOMPSON, b. 20 Feb 1807
11. John Wesley THOMPSON, b. 28 Apr 1809; d. 21 Jun 1873, Tippah Co., MS; m. 24 Jul 1834, Justiania Dikerson WORD/WOOD
12. Mary “Polly” or Sarah “Sally” Wesley THOMPSON, b. 22 Jan 1812
Keywords for search engines: USA, US, United States, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina
URL: http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/FGS/Th/ThompsonNathan-EstherBlack.shtml
======================================================
DO above family located @ rootsweb message board URL:
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/NCLINCOL/2003-01/1042175735
To wit:
“From: “Thomas Kryssbek”
Subject: Re: [NCLINCOLN] Nathan Thompson and Esther Black m Aug 19 1785 Lincoln Co NC
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 22:15:42 -0700
References:
Isaac Joseph Thompson b. 1797 IS NOT the son of Nathan Thompson and Esther
Black. Nathan & Esther’s children were:
1. Elizabeth Thompson, born 23 February 1786
2. Mary Thompson, born 18 December 1787
3. Samuel Thompson, born 15 March 1790
4. Thomas Thompson, born 6 May 1792
5. Nathan Beers Thompson, born 26 February 1795
6. Jane Thompson, born 24 April 1797
7. Esther Eliza Thompson, born 15 March 1800
8. Ruth Richardson Thompson, born 6 October 1802
9. Jesse Richardson Thompson, born 16 January 1805
10. Lorenzo Dow Thompson, born 20 February 1807
11. John Wesley Thompson, born 28 April 1809
12. Sally Wesley Thompson, born 22 January 1812
—– Original Message —–
From:
To:
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 6:34 PM
Subject: [NCLINCOLN] Nathan Thompson and Esther Black m Aug 19 1785 Lincoln
Co NC
> This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
>
> Surnames: Thompson Black
> Classification: Query
>
> Message Board URL:
>
> http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/iVB.2ACI/2211
>
> Message Board Post:
>
> Does anyone have a list of children for this couple Nathan Thompson and
Esther Black married on Aug 17, 1785 Lincoln Co NC? I suspect they might
have ended up in what became Buncombe Co NC by 1800. I am looking for them
as I suspect they may be parents to my ggg grandfather Isaac Joseph Thompson
b 1797 NC. Any help greatly appreciated.
>
>
> ==== NCLINCOL Mailing List ====
> ==== LINCOLN Co., NC Mailing List ====
> Sharing information on Historic Lincoln Co., NC
> For further info, see http://www.rootsweb.com/~nclincol/nclincoln.htm
> Our thanks to RootsWeb for hosting this list and web page
————————————————————————–this thread:
[NCLINCOLN] Nathan Thompson and Esther Black m Aug 19 1785 Lincoln Co NC by tartas@fidalgo.net
Re: [NCLINCOLN] Nathan Thompson and Esther Black m Aug 19 1785 Lincoln Co NC by “Thomas Kryssbek” “
=============================================================================
Source: loc Mar 2008 URL:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=drpooky&id=I1814
Info to wit:
“Wall, Sawyer, Beck, Ammons, Higdon, Rose, Meeks and more
Entries: 3645 Updated: 2006-07-04 19:03:02 UTC (Tue) Contact: Don Wall Jr.
————————————————————————–
This is a work in progress and for now is v1.0. Please assist in correcting any errors. Some of the main databases used are MM Carter, MD Canary, Pendleton Dist. Database, denny-someson and emails from decendants.
—————————————————————-
ID: I1814
Name: Nathaniel Nathan THOMPSON
Given Name: Nathaniel Nathan
Surname: Thompson
Prefix: Rev.
Sex: M
Birth: 28 Aug 1762 in NJ
Death: 10 Oct 1854 in Soco Creek NC, Jackson Co.
_UID: CE7300B9BEFD4091B0AC034CBD81AEF411EB
Change Date: 2 Feb 2006 at 20:54
Note:
MARRIAGE BOND: Original Lincoln Co., N.C., Marriage Bond, NCSA.
On 19 August 1785 Nathan Thompson and Esther Black obtained a marriage license. The bondsmen were Nathan Thompson and William Killian.
The witness was John Moore.
============================================
PART 2 to follow
Blessings~~~~Laurie
PART 2:
1790 Census, Ninth Company, Rutherford Co., N.C., FHL 0568147.
Head of family: NATHAN THOMPSON,
free white males over 16: 1, free white males under 16: 1, free white females: 3, slaves: 0.
Listed next to Nathan Thompson are Robert Black, John Black, and James Buccannon. Another Nathan Thompson with the same information is listed further down the page.
1800 Census, Buncombe Co., N.C., p. 190, FHL 0337905.
Head of family: NATHANEL THOMPSON,
free white males under 10: 3, free white males 26-45: 1, free white females under 10: 2, free white females 10-16: 2, free white females 26-45: 1.
1810 Census, Haywood Co., N.C., p. 201, FHL 0337913.
Head of family: NATHAN THOMPSON, free white males 10-16: 1, free white males 16-26: 2, free white males 45 and over: 1; free white females under 10: 1, free white females 10-16: 2, free white females 16-26: 2, free white females 26-45: 1.
1820 Census, Haywood Co., N.C., p. 222, FHL 0162796.
Head of family: NATHANIEL TOMSON; free white males under 10: 3, free white males 10-16: 3, free white male 45 & over: 1, free white females under 10: 1, free white females 16-26: 1, free white females 26-45: 2, free white females 45 & over: 1, employed in agriculture.
1830 Census, Haywood Co., N.C., p. 378, FHL 0018087.
Head of family: NATHAN THOMPSON, males 20-30: 1, males 60-70: 1, females 15-20: 1, females 20-30: 1, females 40-50: 1, females 60-70: 1.
Jesse Thompson is listed two lines below Nathan Thompson in this census.
1840 Census, Macon Co., N.C., p. 160, FHL 0018095.
Head of family: NATHAN THOMPSON, males 70-80: 1, females 50-60: 0, military service: Nathan Thompson, age 78.
1850 Census, Smokey Mountain, Macon Co., N.C., fol. 348, dwelling 452, family
462, FHL 0444649.
NATHAN THOMPSON, age 88, male, clergyman, Met[hodist], real estate: $300, b. N.J.;
NATHAN B. THOMPSON, age 53, laborer, b. Rutherford Co.;
ELIZABETH SHERRIL, age 64, female, b. Lincoln Co., cannot read or write;
HENRY RADER, age 14, male, b. Burke Co., attended school.
A Nathan[ial] Thompson enlisted on 20 May 1777 for three years in Major John
Baptista Ashe’s Company of the First North Carolina Battalion, commanded by
Colonel Thomas Clark. A Nathan Thompson was a private in the 10th Regiment,
Wilson’s company, and was taken prisoner on 14 April 1779. These references
may or may not refer to our Nathan Thompson.
According to Bertha Ida Capell Lowry of Arimo, Idaho, William Charles Myers
(1872-1961), a second-great-grandson of Nathan Thompson, claimed that Nathan
was of English descent and that he arrived in North Carolina as a young man.
At the age of twenty-two, he migrated to Lincoln County, North Carolina. He
began his preaching as a Methodist minister at the age of twenty-four and was
ninety-seven when he died [he was, however, ninety-two when he died as shown in the family Bible]. Nathan preached for seventy-five years and fought in the
American Revolution.
Lois W. MacKenzie to Thomas W. Johnson, 6 August 1993: “. . . Nathan was b. in
NJ and came south as a Methodist missionary, per info furnished me by Mrs.
Mildred McCain, Spring City, TN. She said he was an “old-joiner” Christian.
Research fails to uncover any Methodist Conference Center, Charlotte, assisted
my search in April, 1990, and we believe he did not continue his circuit riding
duties long after arriving in NC, since no mention is found in those records.
However, he was a Methodist minister.
NOTE: Nathan Thompson was also sealed to Esther Black 3 Dec 1980 SLAKE
Note:
(Research):Most of the people who moved into the Smokies in the 19th century to settle in what would become Swain Co. would be, by today’s standards, very interesting characters. Two such people are Rev. Nathan “Dutch” Thompson and his wife, Ester “Gantanaga” Black.
Rev. Thompson was born Aug. 28, 1762 in New Jersey of either British or Dutch ancestry. He most probably fought in the American Revolution for a Nathan Thompson enlisted in 1777 for 3 years in Maj. John Baptist Ashe’s Company of the First N.C. Battalion, and a Nathan Thompson was a private in the 10th Reg., Wilson’s Company, and was taken prisoner by the British in 1779.
In 1784 he began his career as a Methodist preacher, continuing to preach for the next 68 years until his death at the age of 92 in 1854. He was in Lincoln Co., N.C. by 1785 for on Aug. 19 of that year he married Ester “Gantanaga” Black. She was born in 1769 and was the daughter of Thomas Black who was, reportedly, descended from Chief Junaluska, making her either a full- or half-blood Cherokee. Her Indian name was Gantanaga.
In 1790, they were in Rutherford Co., N.C. but had moved into the Smokies of BuncombeCo., N.C. before 1800, settling somewhere in what would soon become Haywood County.
At its first meeting in March of 1809, Haywood County’s all–powerful Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions appointed Rev. Nathan Thompson as the county’s first Coroner, so he was living within a day’s trip of what would become Waynesville, probably on Soco Creek. There is no mention in the Court’s minutes of a salary for Nathan, probably because there was no money for one. At its next meeting the Court ordered that “Nathan Thompson be allowed Ten Pounds out of the first money collected in the County for the Benefit of the poor for keeping a deranged woman said to be Betsey Goodin.” I can find no record of his having been paid for this humane service, but it shows that from the very first the county was concerned with the care of its less fortuniate souls. It would be interesting to know what eventually happened to poor Betsey Goodin and how she happened to become a ward of the county since, during that period, families took care of their infirm members. Perhaps her family had all died or had moved off and left her, as sometimes happened. Haywood’s first census of 1810 enumerates Nathan Thompson, and poor Betsey might be one of the 13 people listed in his household. In 1810 the Court appointed him as foreman of a jury for cases that would soon be brought to its attention.
Exactly where Rev. Nathan and Ester settled is difficult to say, but in 1831 they were living in the Soco Creek-Oconaluftee River area for in that year their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, who was 45, married a neighbor, Uriah “Ute” Sherrill. Ute’s first wife, F. Dobson, had recently died, leaving him, at 77, with 8 slaves and a lot of land in the Soco Creek area that eventually became part of the Cherokee Indian Reservation. Ute Sherrill had moved into Haywood Co. about 1814 from the Morganton area where, in 1788, he had put up the bond for the trial of his brother-in-law, Col. John Sevier, who would become Tennessee’s first governor, and who was being tried at Morganton by N.C. for having attempted to found a new state, the “Lost State of Franklin,” from land that N.C. considered as its territory. Several of Ute’s family moved into Haywood Co. in the early 19th century, some of whose descendants, through, become related to the Thompson family.
As a Methodist minister, Nathan undoubtedly preached at the large annual camp meeting revivals held for many years at the Shook farm near Canton.
In the Macon Co. Deed Books, Rev. Nathan is found as witness to 3 land transactions between his daughter, Elizabeth Sherrill, and William Sawyer, his son-in-law’s father. Ute Sherrill,Elizabeth’s husband, apparently left her his large holdings, and she began to sell them off after his death. Nathan’s son, Nathan Jr., is also found in the same Deed Books acquiring numerous tracts, so that eventally the family had considerable holdings in present Swain and Jackson Counties.
A family story says that Ester Black Thompson explained her dark skin to the authorities during the Indian Removal of 1838 by saying that she was Black Dutch, an ancestral origin that many early settlers claimed. She eventually lived near Chambers Creek which emptied into the Little Tennessee River below Bryson City, Another story, related to me by LamonChambers, says that when she died the people in the community would not let her be buried in the local graveyard for they felt that she was a ‘heathen’, so she was buried outside the cemetery under an oak tree on John McClure’s place (where she probably would preferred being buried anyway), and the site of the grave, like so many early settlers’ graves, was eventally lost.
Another family story says that one of the Thompson grandchildren, Sarah Sawyer, who married Burton Welch, witnessed the burial of Tsali, the Cherokee martyr, during the Indian Removal of 1838. During this dreadful episode in American history many of the Indians were kept in a stockade on Burton’s place near Bushnell. Sarah said that when Tsali was buried, (on John Hyde’s place), his wife came to his grave and, weeping unconsolably, heaped sand upon it until the soldiers carried her away.
In 1906 Congress set up the Dawes Commission to decide upon legal membership in the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’. Those who could prove that they had sufficient Cherokee blood were elgible to be admitted were granted a ceretain amount of land and money, which made membership attractive. A number of Rev. Nathan and Ester Thompson’s descendants applied for these benefits and were awarded them.
——————————————
Part 3 to follow….Laurie
Part 3:
In researching the Thompson family, to which I’m related by a number of marriages and intermarriages too numerous to recount, I contacted one of Rev. Nathan’s elderly descendants. She wrote that her mother had told her, about 70 years ago, that they were definitiely Indian, but that one of their ancestors (the Burton Welch mentioned earlier who married Sarah Sawyer), had gone to India, married and returned to the Smokies withhis bride, who after she and Burton had had several children, had returned to India. Many years ago it was not ‘socially O.K.’ to have Indian blood, as it is now; so some family stories are best just enjoyed and not too closely examined.
“In addition to my own research, material for this article came from Bryan Aldridge; THE PHILLIP CHAMBERS FAMILY by Lamon Chambers, Haywood Co. N.C. Marriage Bonds; Minutes of the Haywood County Court of Pleas and Quarter Session; Haywood and Macon County census; various materials published in THE BONE RATTLER; Thompson/Buchanan family Bible (belongs to Roy S. Buchanan of the East Fork Community of JacksonCo., N.C.); “Genealogy of the Buchanan Family”, by N. Margaret Frazier in the Spring, 1989, BONE RATTLER; EAST FORK OF SAVANNAH, JACKSON COUNTY, N.C. HISTORY, 1882-1982 (condensed), by Lloyd Wilkes Cowan (loaned to me by Willa Mae Hall Smathers); and from Thomas Kryssbek of Salt Lake City, UT, who also supplied the Cherokee Nation membership material at the end of the article.
Submitted to the BONE RATTLER, Vol 8, No.4, Spring, 1992, by Duane Oliver, Box 394, Hazelwood, N.C. 28738
Marriage 1 Esther Or (Y G)ANTANAGA Black b: 17 Jan 1769 in Lincoln Co., NC
Married: 19 Aug 1785 in Lincoln Co., NC
Change Date: 8 Dec 2005
Children
Esther Eliza THOMPSON b: 15 Mar 1800 in Buncombe Co., NC
Mary D. “Polly” THOMPSON b: 18 Dec 1787 in Lincoln Co., NC
Elizabeth THOMPSON b: 23 Feb 1786 in Lincoln Co., NC
Jesse THOMPSON b: Abt 1792 in Lincoln Co., NC
Nathan B. THOMPSON b: 1797 in Rutherford Co., NC
Ruth R. THOMPSON b: 6 Oct 1802 in Buncombe Co., NC
Samuel THOMPSON
Thomas THOMPSON
Unknown THOMPSON
Lorenzo Dow THOMPSON
John Wesley THOMPSON
William THOMPSON”===============================================================
DO above source:
“Name: Esther Or (Y G)ANTANAGA Black
Given Name: Esther Or (Y/G)Antanaga
Surname: Black
Sex: F
Birth: 17 Jan 1769 in Lincoln Co., NC
Death: 23 May 1835 in Soco Creek NC, Jackson Co.
_UID: 9CB5B5676E9E473EBC18E21606D1F0F88907
Change Date: 2 Feb 2006 at 20:52
Note:
MARRIAGE BOND: Original Lincoln Co., N.C., Marriage Bond, NCSA. On 19 August
1785 Nathan Thompson and Esther Black obtained a marriage license. The bondsmen
were Nathan Thompson and William Killian. The witness was John Moore.
According to Bertha Ida Capell Lowry (1915- ) of Arimo, Idaho, William Charles
Myers (1872-1961), a second-great-grandson of Esther Black, claimed that Esther
was one-quarter Cherokee and three-quarters Dutch.
Marie A. Anthony to Thomas W. Johnson, 30 May 1991: “The tradition as stated by
one of the Chambers was that Esther Black was a full blooded Cherokee. And one
of the Anthonys told us a couple of years ago that when the Cherokees were
rounded up to be sent to Oklahoma that Esther was spared because they convinced
the authorities that she was ‘Black Dutch.’ ” During a telephone conversation
on 8 June 1991, Marie A. Anthony said that she did not know who had said that
Esther was Black Dutch or which of the Chambers said that Ester was a full-blood
Cherokee.
During a telephone conversation between Lamon Chambers and Thomas W. Johnson on
1 November 1991, he said that when Esther Black died, the people in the Metho-
dist congregation would not allow her to be buried in the church cemetery
because she was a heathen. Instead she was buried under an oak tree on John
McClure’s place. The location of the grave has been lost.
Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909, no. 2005
(Thomas Patton Sawyer), FHL 0378336. Thomas gives Hester Black’s Indian name
as (Y/G)antanaga. In an deposition made by Noah J. Howard on 11 Oct 1906, he
states: ” . . .That Esther Thompson Sawyer mother of Thomas Patton Sawyer was
known to be of the Cherokee Indian blood and that she Inherited the blood
through her mother Hester Black who was considered to be a Cherokee Indian and
affiant further states That the Thompson family is considered to be of the
Cherokee Indian blood through all this county . . .” In a deposition made by
by William Harvey Stillwell on 6 Oct 1906, he states: “. . . That he knew Thomas
Patton Sawyer’s mother [Esther Thompson Sawyer] claimed to be of the Cherokee
Indian blood which came through the Blacks on her mother’s side of the
Generation and it was understood by the affiant that this generation of Blacks
was of the Cherokee Indian blood. . . .” In an deposition made by Thomas
Patton Sawyer on 22 July 1908, he states: “. . . I am 67 years of age; was born
in Swain County, N.C. I claim Indian blood through my mother, Esther [Thompson].
She was the daughter of Hester Black, an Indian. My mother was born in Lincoln
County. My grandmother, Hester Black, was born in the Eastern part of North
Carolina. My mother died in Swain County. She lived with the white people.
I never saw my grandmother. She died in Jackson County, N.C. My mother has
often talked to me of my grandmother and always taught me that there is Indian
blood in me. . . . My mother was never paid any Indian money. One of my mother’s
brothers, Nathan B. Thompson lived in Macon County. Another lived in Missis-
sippi. My uncle was a recognized white man and a voter. He was a farmer and
also a school teacher. I have always heard that Hester Black’s father was
nearly a full blood. I have heard of my Indian blood ever since I was a child.
. . . My mother attended the white schools and I always did. I never heard my
mother say if my grandmother went to school. I was never called Indian when I
was small but it was generally understood that we were part Indian. . . . I have
visited the old place where my grandmother lived before she died. She was
buried in a cemetery for the White people, I suppose. . . .”
Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909, no. 2021
(James Lovel Sawyer), FHL 0378336. James Lovel Sawyer listed Hester Thompson’s
Indian name as (Y/G)antanaga.
Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909, no. 5466
(Ruth Melvina Sawyer Chambers), FHL 0378403. In a deposition made by Nancy E.
Sawyer (Nancy E. Medlin, wife of John Love Sawyer) dated 28 Nov 1906, she
states: “. . . that she has known the family of Sawyers for sixty years and
that Hester Black daughter of Thomas Black was of Cherokee Indian descent and
that the Sawyers are descendants of Hester Black. . . .”
Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909, no. 29581
(Vira Crisp Mashburn), FHL 0378511: “. . . My father was not a full blood but
his great grandmother [Hester Black’s mother?] was said to be a full blood
Cherokee. I first heard that I had Indian blood when I was small. My father
told me. He did not live with the Indians nor talk the Indian language. . . .”
Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909, no. 36940
(Joel Harvey Crisp), FHL 0378547. Joel Harvey Crisp’s application contains a
deposition made by Nancy Sawyer (Nancy E. Medlin, wife of John Love Sawyer) on
21 August 1907 in which she claims that she knew Hester Black and that Hester
was a “half Bluded Indian.” Another deposition made by Louis Medlin on the same
date states that it was always reported to him that “Hester Black Had indian
Blud in her.”
NOTE: Nathan Thompson was also sealed to Esther Black 3 Dec 1980 SLAKE.
Part 4 incoming….
Hope some of this helps…Laurie
Part 4….
From Betty Mintz database:
Hester Gantanaga was a Cherokee. None of Hester’s descendants were able to prove their Cherokee blood during the 1907 Dawes Commission applications for membership into the Eastern Bank of Cherokees. Hester’s father, Rev. Thompson, a Methodist preacher, was born in 1762 in New Jersey and moved into Lincoln Co., N.C. where in 1785 he wed Ester Gantanaga Black, d/of Thomas Black. In 1790 Nathan was in Rutherford Co., N.C. but moved into the Carolina Smokies before 1800, settling somewhere in what would soon become Haywood Co., probably in the Soco Creek Section. In 1809 Nathan was appointed Coroner of the new county. A family story says that Hester, Nathan’s wife, explained her dark skin to the Federal authorities by saying she was Black Dutch, an ancestral origin many of the early settlers claimed, and thus escaped being forced to join the sad march to Oklahoma in 1839. When Hester died, according to Lamon Chambers, the people of the community would not allow her to be buried in the local cemetery for they felt she was a ‘pagan’, so she was buried outside the cemetery’s boundary under an oak tree and eventually her grave’s site was lost. Since she adamantly denied to the Federal authorities, that she was Cherokee, her name never appeared on any of the Cherokee rolls, thus making it impossible for her descendants to prove their Indian blood.
Father: Thomas BLACK b: in NC
Marriage 1 Nathaniel Nathan THOMPSON b: 28 Aug 1762 in NJ
Married: 19 Aug 1785 in Lincoln Co., NC
Change Date: 8 Dec 2005″
============================================================================
DO above:
“Name: Thomas BLACK
Given Name: Thomas
Surname: Black
Sex: M
Birth: in NC
Death: Unknown
_UID: F8FAC1A9426348C2B529DD4A511DEE72DE94
Change Date: 8 Dec 2005 at 03:19
Note:
Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906-1909, no. 5466
(Ruth Melvina Sawyer Chambers), FHL 0378403.
In a deposition made by Nancy E. Sawyer (Nancy E. Medlin, wife of John Love Sawyer) dated 28 Nov 1906, she states:
“. . . that she has known the family of Sawyers for sixty years and that Hester Black daughter of Thomas Black was of Cherokee Indian descent and that the Sawyers are descendants of Hester Black. . . .”
1790 Census, Eighth Company, Morgan District, Rutherford Co., NC,
head of family: Rachal Black, free white males over 16: 1, free white males under 16:
1, free white females: 3, slaves: 1.
Marriage 1 Spouse Unknown
Married:
Change Date: 8 Dec 2005
Children
Esther Or (Y G)ANTANAGA Black b: 17 Jan 1769 in Lincoln Co., NC
Martha BLACK b: 8 Sep 1771 in Mecklenburg Co., NC
Robert BLACK
John BLACK”
==================
Tada! finally posted it all…there is plenty more too about Hester….sure hope we both make more connections~~~~Laurie
Laurie,
I’m descended from Hester ( Gantanaga ) Black and Nathan ( Dutch ) Thompson thru their daughter Mary Polly Thompson who married Alexander Crisp.
My Paternal Grandmother was Selma Jane Rogers who was born in Swain Co. N.C. and was descended from Mary Polly Thompson, and my grandmother always told me that we were of Indian descent. So I do believe that Hester Black was Indian, and there is more of the story about Hester Gantanaga Black to be uncovered…
It is great to discover we are kin…..
Laurie and Jeff,
This link shows some of the names mentioned above.
http://www.angelfire.com/nc2/cowee/welch.htm
The Allen’s here are descending from the earlier Person co NC and earlier yet Va ones of mine. They are totally intertwined with the Bryson, Roberts, McDonald, Dockery etc. lines and people who were involved in the Guion Miller applications in the Blythe case. I’ve been trying to sort this out for awhile now. Saj
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