Reuben George

Would it be possible to get that scanned or photographed?

As I would have said 30 years ago — “Wow, That’s heavy, man.” — sometimes I forget I used to talk like that. 🙂

But seriously, that is a pretty good bit of documentation for a very little known term, Tuckahoe. Someone once wrote me that their Richey’s were called “Tuckahoes”. All I ever found was it was a term for poor whites in a certain part of Virginia, and “Cohees” was another term for poor whites in a different part of Virginia. It was said the 2 groups spoke with odd or different accents if I remember it right. But if it is documented somewhere these were Indian-mixed whites, that is different, and something I have never seen documented in writing before.

vance

A friend and “possible” relative sent me a copy of a newspaper article, I think it was from Kentucky, and it was about this old man Ritchey or Ritchie, I recall they didn’t spell it the same way I do — no I remember — it was spelled “Richie”. Anyhow, it called him a “Tuckahoe” originally from Virginia — but it didn’t say “Tuckaho Indian,” just “Tuckahoe.” I remember getting my hopes up only to research the term hoping I might find a record of the “Tuckaho Indians”, but only finding “Tuckahoe” was a deragotary term for poor whites in some region of Virginia in the early days. But maybe this term originated with people who didn’t like them, and that might have been because they were mixed-blood trying to exist as whites.

I sure hope she comes here. :). If that Bible was dated from the 1820s then it is probably in fragile condition. Maybe a photo would be easier than a scan. It would be undisputed documentation in black and white written by someone with nothing to try and prove . . .

vance

Vance:

Here’s another web site with definitions for Tuckahoe and Cohee : http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mgf2j/english.html Now what is interesting about this for me, is that this Robertson who is talked about in this web site was taught by Rev. Richard Sankey, a Presbyterian minister who Deb and I have been trying to figure out. Our Sinkeys are interchangeable with Sankeys, but Rev Richard leads his congregation to Buffalo, VA as one of the groups who leaves in 1755, as per the article. Rev Richard taught this Robertson when he ministered to the church in Monoca, PA. And, he was son-in-law to Rev. John Thomson who preaches in Lancaster, PA (where my Sinkey/Hustons were); Shepherdstown, WVA (where my Greens/Butts were); Buffalo, VA (where Rev Richard went) and then finally, Mecklenberg, VA. Thomson’s descendents are related to Davy Crockett and Patrick Henry. Bill found that they move to an area in Tennessee and are identified as mixed.

Anyway, for what it is worth, I keep running into Waylands and Ritchies as I look at these folks.

Tech

And they are in “Monoca” Pa? Sounds awfully similar to “Monacan”. hmmm . . . Do you know much history of that town, or where its name originated?

I just read the same article, just 5 or 10 minutes ago! 🙂 Robertson was one of the original settlers in Tennessee’s Cumberland region.

Chickasaw’s befriended the Cumberland settlers, but the Cherokee, Creek, and Shawnee were at war with them pretty much constantly from its beginning.

The most powerful family in the Chickasaw Naiton at this time were the Colbert’s, with several brothers being chiefs. I remember reading that the Chickasaw’s were friends with the “Virginians”. I wonder if that had anythig to do with James Logan Colbert’s grandpa, James Logan, having been a “Chickasaw Trader” from Virginia? His home was near the three island river towns in S Va.

vance

Vance,

It is very like Monaccan, isn’t it? When Rev Richard moves to VA, he is not that far from Manakin, VA either. I do have the Blackfoot ID in my family and that grandmother came from near Monoca, PA. She was from Beaver County, PA and that is where that town is.

Tech

I found where it says the town was named after “Chief Monacatootha”. The link below says —

http://monacapa.net/history.htm

Early Settlements

History fails to identify the first European to see the Ohio as it gently hugs the riverbanks that would define the western and northern boundaries of the community. But it is known that Monaca bore some strange names before the borough fathers settled on the namesake for an Indian chief, Monacatootha.

end of quote

http://www.urbana.k12.oh.us/699/jm/hsfncpreparationfortheatta.htm

Above link says a chief by that name helped George Washington during the French and Indian War. Quoting from it —

Although a French attack was possible, the Virginians needed to continue their assignment of road building. On June 16, Washington left the South Carolina Independent Company at Great Meadows and took his men to Gist’s Plantation–the first planned Ohio Company settlement in the region. After establishing a headquarters there, he sent sixty troops northwest under Captain Lewis to begin clearing a path to Redstone Creek. However, Chief Monacatootha arrived at the location during the evening of June 27, bringing reports that the French had received additional reinforcements and fresh supplies and were about to move south. Washington soon called back the road builders to Gist’s Plantation (Alberts 27-28) and had them make the settlement into a “hog pen fort” with the available thin fence rails (Randall 99); he also asked Mackay to bring the Independent Company.

end of quote.

I don’t know if it tells what tribe Chief Monocatootha belonged to or not — right now I am strapped for time.

The Gist it is talking about is Christopher Gist, the man aquainted with by most as being Sequoyah’s (unproven) grandfather. I have always been curious about Sequoyah’s father, Nathaniel Gist, as the only report I have ever seen of him said he was dark complected, brown eyes black hair. His father had a plantation in Wilkes County, North Carolina and he was said to have been the first White settler in that area, about 1750. The next whites to settle there were the Moravian Missionaries to the Indians in 1752 I think it was, and they only went to locations near Indian Settlements. I wonder what tribe/tribes lived nearby?

Above it says George Washing went to Christopher Gists plantation — one near the Ohio River, not the one in NC — after leavind some South Carolina company, while there Chief Monocatootha arrived there with reports on the French troop movements on or near the Ohio River. This was the french and Indian War, 1750s and 1760s. He must have had 2 plantations, one on the Ohio and one in North Carolina. That is a pretty early date for a plantation that far inland.

That is if I have read it right??

vance

Vance,

I looked it up. Monacatootha was listed on a couple of sites as Oneida.

I read a book written by my Blackfoot ancestor’s step grandson who said that Indians living in that region were Cornplanter Seneca, but I have also read that Cornplanter’s reservation was a haven for refugee Indians. I have read of Mohawk and Delaware who lived there too.

Tech

PS: I have read a lot of treaties where some signatures of one tribe were names of another like there might have been a lot of mixing. The Oneida took in other tribal refugees. Logan’s father was speculated to have been Susquehannah. He was selected to be in charge of other refugee tribes because his family was southern refugee.