- This topic has 11 voices and 39 replies.
-
Posts
-
this is a very complicated web site address for a page entitled —
A HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 1400 – 1800
By: Danny Dixon
things that wewre of interest to me were the following below —
1772 – “The Clinch Scouts” (Indian Spies) are organized to keep track of Indian
activity in the region.
1773 – Jonathan Wood & James Davidson (his brother in law) move to the site of the 1st settlement in Scott Co. (Big Moccasin Valley)
1775- Alexander Ritchie (12 yrs. old) goes to Ft.Blackmore to serve as a Clinch Scout/ Indian Spy.
why would a 12 year old boy be an “Indian scout” unless he himself were Indian? Would they send a white boy to scout on Indian movements? I doubt it. I have always known some of my ancestors were “Indian” and also that some were “Indian fighters”.
maybe some of the other names listed are helpful to others. Also noticed the author of the page was a Dixon, maybe related to our Dickson’s, who also settled in that same area with our Wood’s and if this 12 yar old Ritchey boy is one of ours, maybe they were there to.
hope this helps others
Is this the article? The link you have didn’t work for me, but when I searched on Google for the title, this came up.
http://www.scott.k12.va.us/history/priorto.html
I read through this timeline to that date. As far as I know, an Indian scout has always been an Indian who was a scout. You couldn’t exactly send a white boy out to spy on the Indians. And why would you put a white boy into such a dangerous position?An Indian boy, on the other hand, people might not feel that kind of responsibility towards.
A scenario does suggest itself. Some boy who’s been indentured or apprenticed is brought from the east to help inform on Indian movements during that time of warfare with the Cherokee.
Does there seem to be any way to contact the author and get the references for the orginal source material? Personally, I would think that unless somebody has some specific information about the Clinch scouts to the contrary, that you’ve found some documentation of Indians by the name of Ritchie.
Howdy Vance;
I may have referred to this before but you should check out “Examining Melungeon History and Geneology” by Jack Goins. He mentions the Ramps, mixed Indian families, around Fort Blackmore in Scott County Va.
Please let me pick through some of his article. “In my research journey I backtracked the Melungeons from the Clinch River, to the New River, to the Flat River and the Pawmunkey…. they migrated with the other pioneer settlers and they owned land in all these places. They lived next door to white settlers and had adjoining farms. They went to the same churches and schools, intermarried with all their neighbors, fought in the same wars,…”
This is exactly what my Green family did.
Again in another part; “This part of Saponia (Monasukapanough) Indians left that country and some of these may have been the same group that formed the settlement near Hillsborough, North Carolina in 1750.”
And again; “According to my research of known Mellungeon families, the Ramps of Fort Blackmore were related to the families that became known as Mellungeons. Oddly the term Mellungeon may have began in Fort Blackmore and later the term Ramps were placed on their kinfolks who remained in Fort Blackmore. Ramptown, known by the locals is located between Fort Blackmore and Dungannon, in Scott County, Va.”
The address is http://www.melungeons.com/articles/melungeon_history_and_geneology.htm
Dan Akin.
to Linda & others —
Here is the whole link.
I think thre are slight variations in the link you found and this one. I didn’t realize when I cut & pasted it from e-mail it wasn’t all there. This time I went to the web site and cut & pasted the whole thing. Maybe they are identical & I just miscopied it the tirst time.
Interesting to me is I had already traced my “Wood” ancestors to this area near Clinch River, to Holston. Also we are descended from the Guest’s (various spellings) and Looney’s and Brown’s, our Cherokee ancestors. ALL these ancestors wer ALSO near this place, as Holston and Clinch are side by side. Since a Dickson married a Wood, the descendant of a Dickson was here. Now we have found a Richey here! And both our Richey’s and Wood ancestors went to Indiana where they married in 1817 and are listed in early Indiana marriages book.
Now the Brown/Guess/Looney ancestors went to Winston/Walker/Lawrence Counties (eventually) in Alabama and we just came back from a visit there. Every one there KNOWS the first settlers there were mixed bloods and the state recognized “Echota Cherokees” are descended from them!
Well, these people later went to Arkansas and married our Woods/Richey line there. These families who appear to have been together just south and East of present day Knoxville in 1780’s or so later pop up in Lawrence County, Arkansas (near towns named Powhatan and Pocahantas, sp?) and the 2 branches marry there in the 1870s.
Now I have to show a link between this 12 year old Clinch River Scout and our Richey’s, but since other families in that area went to Indiana, I thought it possible that some members of this group of Richey’s might have gone there too.
I would very much like to get in contact with the author of this article. 🙂 I also want to find out more about these “Clinch Indian Scouts” hired to watch the Chickamaugas and their Shawnee allies under Logan & their movements.
It is interesting to think that a descendant of the Scouts married a descendant of the Chickamaugans 100 years after these events . . . but again I have to find a better connection between this scout and my Richey’s.
I hope some names listed here can help others, too.
vance
i’ll trty this again
for some reason it keeps cutting out the middle
bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=be0113ab7111d3d2c6cf8bc55befec5e&lat=1053626704&hm___action=http%3
hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fscott%2ek12%2eva%2eus%2fhistory%2fpriorto%2ehtml
if this doesn’t work i’m givin up
just copy and paste this all together with no spaces
and it might be identical to the one Linda found in the end
vance
thanks Dan —
now I am more interested in this Fort, and those “Indian” Scouts. I’ll check out that website here in a minute.
A cousin (daughter of a cousin) of mine found the website, not me, & I’m proud of her.
vance
Wado Dan for that reference. I went to the site and followed it to a church link —
http://searches.rootsweb.com/usgenweb/archives/va/scott/church/stonycrk.txt
it said right at the very beginning —
A CHURCH BOOK FOR STONY CREEK CHURCH
NEVEL WAYLAND, CLERK FOR THE CHURCH
Dan, I am a direct descendant of Nevil Wayland! I had thought it was a “White” name so I never brought it up here. That Melungian site gave this as a Melungian Church, I think.
Nevil went to Lawrence County, Arkansas in 1815 a generation or so before the Richey’s got there. We have proof of it. Joseph E. Richey (1819-1852, son of John Richey 1797-1861) married Sarah Ann Wayland in 1848 and their son, Jeffrey H. Richey married Josephine Brown (Cherokee) in 1872.
Apparently I had a LOOOT of ancestors in this area of Fort Blackmore!, and I never knew it until recently. Now I really want to research Richey (various spellings) who settled in this part of Virgiinia. Maybe we can find John’s parents after all. All we have to go on was census records that say John Richey was born in 1797 in “Virginia”. Maybe records in Scott County are where we need to be lookin’. Thank you.
vance
Did you look at that link I found? I’m sure it’s the same. The one you’re using looks like a dynamic link that will change everytime you visit.
http://www.scott.k12.va.us/history/priorto.html
Vance;
By 1783 my gggggrandfather Zachariah Fugate lived about 20 miles east of Fort Blackmore and about 15 miles from Ramptown at the base of Clinch mountain on Moccasin Creek. This is just west of present day Hansonville in Russell County Va. I don’t know if it is my part, but a part of our family became “Indian” as pointed out in the Fugate Family Newsletter. They claim it as Cherokee.
My real point is about the James Ritchie family of 1790 in Buncombe County North Carolina. On family tree maker Major James R. Rithchie Jr. writes “An example of an official human error was with my greatgrandmother’s death certificate which said she was white. But I know she was 100% Native American from the SAPONI tribe. Because she told me she was Indian. I know from Kentucky census reports her parents, my gggrandparents were Indian.”
In his geneology record he has Alexander Crockett Ritchie, born 1778 in Buncombe County N.C., the son of James Ritchie and Mary “Polly” Keith. Alexander Crockett Ritchie had a son James Ritchie, born 1806, who married Hannah FUGATE the daughter of Martin and Mary Ritchie Fugate.
That Crockett middle name is quite interesting, for you see, Davey Crockett’s mom was a Hawkins.
Dan.
I don’t know how any of this might tie into either of our families but I think it is worth checking out.
http://familytreemaker.geneology.com/users/r/i/t/Major-james-R-Ritchie-jr-us-army-/ODT1-0001.html
yes linda, the 2 links appear to be identical, or at least very close to it.
Dan, I didn’t know you were a “Richey”, too! Maybe we are 10th or 15th cousins!
I couldn’t open that article mentioning a Richey was a “Saponi” Indian. I’ll keep trying, tho, using different keywords that you mention. A big WADO to ya, Dan.
If I can link mine to those, that would link “Saponi” and “Blackfoot” together, as my ancestors were living near where that “Blackfoot” Church was in Indiana as well, a generation later. Maybe this is what I am looking for. Can’t say for sure, but maybe . . . 🙂
vance
About the “Crocket” name. Dad always said we had some French blood, but always said he didn’t know where it came from. I heard “Crockett” was an Anglicized version of a French Heugonot (sp?) name. Also I did some more researching and found French Heugonot’s (sp?) settled in many places in Colonial days, so maybe that’s where we get our French. I found a Parque later anglicized to Park who married a Richey and Park is the middle name of the brother of an ancestor. Those people often used the middle name as the maiden name of ancestors, so maybe that is our “French Connection”, too. Right now I just don’t know, tho.
Oh, also I did a search for the author of that article, Danny Dixon, and he said (direct quote) —
“The Clinch Scouts or Indian Spies were, as far as I have information, white-men who volunteered for the extremely dangerous mission of hiding out near river crossings, gaps, and popular trails used by Indian raiding parties in hopes of finding sign or observing Indian activity before raids could be carried out. They would then, slip away to warn outlying settlers to flee to forts for protection. Often they worked alone or in small groups. They dared not have fires for warmth and had to endure some pretty lonely and uncomfortable times in the wilderness.”
— so it isn’t ceertain. I am gonna show him the “Goins” article about mixed-bloods living in the area and see try to dig more information out of him. I’d like to show him that other reference where the officer said his Richey ancestor was Saponi, and when I find it I will. I also questioned why a 12 year old boy would be chosen. We’ll see . . . he might be right, I don’t know.
vance
Dan, I finally got that website open. He said they were called “Indian” on a Kentucky census record. I want to find that census record, now . . . I am thinking Alexander Crockett Richey might be an Uncle to my John Richey (1797-1861) and am gonna check this hypothesis out.
vance
Dan, I opened up that James Ritchey page and was thinnkin about it. He says his great-grandma was full blood Saponi.
REALITY CHECK
1. Since it was a “great-grandMA”, her maiden name was not Richey then, as the surname descends from the Father. And this man receieved his Ritchey surname from male descended from male et cetera.
2. My greatgrandma (Josephine Brown Richey) was born in the 1850s, in Arkansas, a descendant of marriage between a Brown and a Guess and was Cherokee. We “suspect Saponi from her husband, Jeffrey H. Richey. If his greatgrandma was born in the 1850s too, it is a separate line and I would not be directly related to that “Saponi” great-grandma of his, even tho she might have married someone distantly related to me.
So at first glance this appears a “connection”, it might be instead a “coincidence”.
Also I said my Guesses and Richeys might have lived side by side. Well I relooked at that map, and altho the Clinch River is near the Holston River in E. Tn, the Clinch River goes op up to SW. Va. and is not as close to the area where my Cherokee ancestors were in E. Tn as I originally thought.
vance
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
