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Hello everyone,
I am going to post some family information in hopes that someone has info, has access to info or can give me advice on how to find the info…:) There is a lot of tricky info here about Teehe/Lee/Bryer families so please be patient and bear with me:)
First let me give a little backgroud info.
My Native American side is from the Lee family. From what I have been told that the Lee surname had been changed from Teehe/Teehee. Altho I do not know which ones changed their name. I have a letter written from my late grandmother in which she believed that our Tehee/Lee ancestor was one of the first to settle Prior, Oklahoma and became sheriff there.
This is the info that I have on my family:
my great grandmother was
Carrie Lee
b. August 24, 1891 in Illinois
d. April 22, 1943 California
m. Charley A. Bryer (on some doc. Charley B. Brier/Bryer, according to my father A. was his middle name for his father Andy.) He was born in Decatur, Illinois on June 4, 1891.
Carrie Lee supposedly has a roll number but I am unsure if she is the correct person. The number is 14375.
Carrie’s parents were
Louise Lee and Sam Lee. This is where it gets tricky.
I do not have anything on Sam Lee so I will give you as much info on his wife.
Louise was adopted/raised by the Boswell family and took that name for a time. I have also seen the name Flannigan ( I dont know where this came from maybe another marriage??). But in my late grandmothers letter she said that Louise’s last name was “Lee” not Boswell. So, I am uncertain if Louise’s maiden name was “Lee” or what. Sam, her husband, was also a Lee. And if this is true I do not know if they came from the same family.
From what I have been told Louise was taken in by Samson and Sophia Boswell and the name “Samson” could be a stage name and it could be Nelson Boswell. He was supposed to be a carnival strongman…hence the “Samson”.
Louise died July 19, 1935 in Fibaux, Fibaux County, Montana per obit. I do not believe that she lived there she was traveling in a carnival as a fortune teller.
I do not have much more info on Louise Lee. From what I am learning with help from you all, she did have three daughters (at least). These daughters are my ggrandmother, Carrie Lee, Bessie Lee, and Sophia (Lee?). Sophia Lee married Joe Goad?
Louise and her family travelled a lot and some of the Lees or Bryers have been found in census’ in Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois and Arkansas. Louise has been found on census with her daughters and her son in laws (Goad and Bryer on different census’). Sam is never shown on any census’ that I can find and Louise is shown as widowed.
I have a feeling that there may be a strong connection of the Lees with the Bryers.
I think if I could find info on Louise and Sam together…such as docs, or census, or something might help me find more info on Sam so I can see where his parents came from or who they are.
Charley Bryer’s Parents were Andy Bryer and Bell Broadway. (The surname Bryer was supposed to have been changed from Bryon.) Andy supposedly naturalized from Canada at some point. Bell was born August 31, 1871 Bell lived around or near Campbell City, (Dunklin?) county, Missouri around the time of her death December 26, 1942. Possible birth place: Virginia per death certificate. Father is listed as William Broadway.
Any help anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated!:)
:confused:
Pryor is in the heart of the Cherokee Nation and is in Mayes County, Ok. Maybe knowin’ a little of the history of the region will give you some ideas to check out. The next parts are direct quotes from the rootswebsite for the County.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~okmayes/history.htm
History of Mayes County
The area that became Mayes County is rich in history, containing the location of the first white settlement in what is now called Oklahoma. In 1796, Major Jean Pierre Chouteau, an Osage Indian trader and agent, established a trading post at the junction of the Grand/Neosho River and Saline Creek, at what is today called Salina. Flat boats plied their trade along the river and as early as 1817 keel boats from Ft. Smith (Arkansas) were known to travel up the river to the Chouteau Trading Post. The trading post flourished through the Osage occupation of the area, which ended with the formation of Indian Territory and this area was assigned to the Cherokee Nation. Christian missions were established here as early as 1820/1823.
But even before 1890 the nonŸIndian population, both legal and illegal, had grown to over 70 percent of the total population of Indian Territory. The first U.S. census of Indian Territory in 1900 shows a further influx of nonŸIndians had occurred between 1890 and 1900; most of the nonŸIndians being former residents of the adjacent states of Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and Kansas. Prior to the land allotment, the lands of the Five Civilized Tribes had been held in tribal ownership. No individual Indian owned any land, but were free to use as much as they needed if it did not infringe upon their neighbor’s needs. However, they did own their improvements; the home, barn, the planted crops, cleared fields and such. While these improvements could be traded or sold, tribal law restricted the transaction to another citizen of the same tribe.
The land was distributed by allotment to citizens of these Nations on the basis of their enrollment on the 1902/1906 Dawes Roll. The average land allotment to each Cherokee “citizen by blood” was 110 acres of average grade land. Freedman (the former slaves of the Cherokees) were allotted 40 acres each of the Nation’s land. But since the Indians had no concept of land ownership, in just a few short years most of the land was in the hands of non-Indians.
Mayes County was formed at statehood (1907) from parts of the Cherokee Nation, plus a small area of the Creek Nation of Indian Territory and was named in honor of Samuel Houston Mayes, who served his people and the Cherokee Nation as Principal Chief from 1895 to 1899.
Little more on the History of Mayes County:
In the beginning…. Indians called the locale around Pryor “Coo-Y-Yah” meaning place of the huckleberries. In commemoration, today, a street bears the name.
Nathaniel Pryor, great grandnephew of Pocahontas, and a scout with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, married an Osage Indian and set up a trading post near what is now the City of Pryor, Oklahoma.
Nathaniel Pryor’s gravesite had been on private property five miles southeast of Pryor for many years but in 1982 the Mayes County Historical Society moved the grave to the Fairview Cemetery, east of Pryor.
— end of quote from website —
Notice the great grandnephew of Pocahantas (who was a scout with Lewis and Clark) was in Pryor before the Cherokee arrived there. One more mixed-blood Indian from East of the Appalachians that became sorta like a mountainman?? cool.
vance
Thanks Vance for the information and link abobt the area. I did not realize that it was full of so much happenings.
Sorry it took me so long to reply. I had my neice visiting and am behind with everything it seems.
Do you know if there would be any old records anywhere that would give info on who was sheriff or police or whatever for the area? I am betting not but it would be neat to be able to see if my ancestor was working there. If there was any records like that do you know where they might be located or found?
Thanks Again,
Cathy:D
Well this is kind of late as this post seems to be a few years old…LOL. But if ur still out there and you still read this and you are still researching this I have a little info for you. The Teehee family is most definatly Cherokee, and there are alot of them espicially in Jay, Kansas, and Oaks Oklahoma. The Teehee’s I know are full-blood Cherokees who still yet to this day speak there language fluently, some of the older ones can barely speak english. I know this because I have some Teehee’s married into my family, because of that I have had the opertunity of attending some Teehee family get-togethers that were held deep in the woods on un paved roads. The Cherokee language was so vibrant there that even the dog undersood Cherokee.
Hi elkriver,
That is soo awesome. Do you know anything about the ties of the Lees to the Tehees or a connection to the Bryers? Is there anyone you might be able to ask about it. My father recalls a Charlie Tehee. My Grandmother, when she was living, wrote to the BIA (decades ago) to prove her claim and mentioned names such as Charlie Tehee and Jim Tehee and a few others. But unfortunately, got nowhere. What has been so hard is not being able to find where Tehee may have been changed to Lee. Supposedly my grandmother said my grandmother Carrie Lee was on the Dawes Roll and we can Find a Carrie Lee but we are not sure if it is the same person because the age looks a little off and she is listed with a child whose name we do not recognize, possibly a child or baby relative. I have been blocked on Carrie Lees dad. We know her mom is Louise Lee and the Husbands name is Sam Lee. Sam died young and on census Louise is listed as a widow while Carrie is still relatively young. We dont know if the name change may have happened with Sam or before him.
I wish I knew something and I feel like I would never find any info. I really want to find the connection.
Any info at all that you can help me with with be appreciated.
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