One day Missus Jennie say to Marster Jim, she says, "Mr. Vann, you come here. The most Vann families were found in USA in 1880. He wanted people to know he was able to dress his slaves in fine clothes. He got that message to the captain just the same. My mother Betsy Vann, worked in the big house for the missus. Marster and Missus was dead. 4. Because I'se so little, Missus Jennie took me into the Big house and raised me. Ruth Thompson *. My aunt done de carding and spinning and my mammy done de weaving and cutting and sewing , and my pappy could make cowhide shoes wid wooden pegs. She married as her second husband, Thomas Mitchell. Dey kept after me about a year, but I didn't go anyways. He passed away on 04 Apr 1770 in Old Ninety Six, Edgefield, South Carolina, United States. At the time that the interviews were conducted, the Vanns had been gone from Georgia for more than 100 yearsconsequently none of the slaves the Vanns owned in Spring Place were still alive. Mammy say they was lots of excitement on old Master's place and all the negroes mighty scared, but he didn't sell my pappy off. I thought it was mighty big and fine. Johnson Thompson's father had been owned by "Rich Joe" Vann. Chief James Clement Vann family tree Parents John Joseph 'Indian Trader' Cherokee Vann 1735 - 1815 Wahli Wa-wli Aka Polly Otterlifter Mary Christiana Otterlifter Wolf Clan 1751 - 1815 Spouse (s) Dey come to de house one time when he was gone to Fort Smith and us children told dem he was at Honey Springs, but they knowed better and when he got home he said somebody shot at him and bushwhacked him all the way from Wilson's Rock to dem Wildhorse Mountains, but he run his horse like de devil was sitting on his tail and dey never did hit him. Mammy had the wagon and two oxen and we worked a good size patch there until she died, and then I git married to Cal Robertson to have somebody to take care of me. During their pursuit of the escaped Negroes, the Cherokee Militia discovered the bodies of the two slave bounty hunters. Son of Di-Ga-Lo-Hi 'James' "Crazy Chief Vann and Go-sa-du-i-sga Nancy Timberlake Born just after the end of the Cherokee War, he grew up in turbulent times. Master Joe was sure a good provider, and we always had plenty of corn pone, sow belly and greens, sweet potatoes, cowpeas and cane molasses. Sometimes we got to ride on one, cause we belonged to Old Jim Vann. He took us back to Texas right down near where I was born at Bellview. I dunno her other name. Chief James Clement Vann 1765-1809 - Ancestry My pappy run away one time, four or five years before I was born, mammy tell me, and at that time a whole lot of Cherokee slaves run off at once. Joseph H. Vann, (11 February 1798 - 23 October 1844). Brother of Ca-lieu-cah Mary Vann I had on my old clothes for the wedding, and I ain't had any good clothes since I was a little slave girl. Black Hock was awful attached to the kitchen. 29 November 2015. http://www.accessgenealogy.com/black-genealogy/slave-narrative-of-b - Last updated on Aug 24th, 2012, VANN SLAVES REMEMBER 2003 By Herman McDaniel Murray County Museum. Christmas lasted a whole month. Pretty soon everybody commenced a singing and a prayin'. My mother died when I'se small and my father married Delia Vann. He and Master took race horses down the river, away off and they'd come back with sacks of money that them horses won in the races. He never seen them neither. Everybody had plenty to eat and plenty to throw away. We put all the bed clothes on its back. Then one day one of my uncles name Wash Sheppard come and tried to git me to go live wid him. All Indians lived around there, the real colored settlement was four mile from us, and I wasn't scared of them Indians for pappa always told me his master Henry Nave, was his own father; that make me part Indian and the reason my hair is long, straight and black like a horse mane. I had a brother named Harry who belonged to the Vann family at Tahlequah. Then up come de man from Texas with de hounds and wid him was young Mr. Joe Vann and my uncle that belong to young Joe. The grandson reported that the Vann Family lived in that house until "the War," when some 3,000 federal troops descended upon Webbers Falls. In the master's yard was the slave cabin, one room long, dirt floor, no windows. My mother was born way back in the hills of the old Flint district of the Cherokee Nation; just about where Scraper Oklahoma is now. Pappy worked around the farms and fiddled for the Cherokee dances. Sometimes us children would try to follow her, but she'd turn us around pretty quick and chase us back with: "Go on back to the house or the wolves get you.". We lived there a long time, and I was old enough to remember setting in the yard watching the river (Grand River) go by, and the Indians go by. My mammy was a Cherokee slave, and talked it good. There'd be a whole wagon-load of things come and be put on the tree. So many years had passed since slavery ended that most of the former slaves then available for interviews had been born very near the end of the slavery era. They'd sell 'em to folks at picnics and barbecues. Jennie Thompson (Vann) (c.1767 - 1823) - Genealogy We had a good song I remember. Lots of bad things have come to me, but the good Father, high up, He take care of me. I never forget when they sold off some more negroes at de same time, too and put dem all in a pen for de trader to come and look at. Chief Cornstalk - Historical records and family trees - MyHeritage Chief Joseph Vann Family Tree Check All Members List James Madison Sr. Vann 1809-1865. Old Master Joe had a big steam boat he called the Lucy Walker, and he run it up and down the Arkansas and the Mississippi and the Ohio river, old Mistress say. She was weavin when the case came up so quick, missus Jennie put her in her own bed and took care of her. But we couldn't learn to read or have a book, and the Cherokee folks was afraid to tell us about the letters because they have a law you go to jail and a big fine if you show a slave about the letters. He said that those troops burned the Vann home during their pillage. Sometimes I eat my bread this morning none this evening. You know just what day you have to be back too. His pappy was old Captain "Rich Joe" Vann, and he had been dead ever since long before de War. Now I'se just old forgotten woman. We had seven horses and a litle buffalo we'd raised from when its little. We left de furniture and only took grub and tools and bedding and clothes, cause they wasn't very big wagons and was only single-yoke. People all a visitin'. In one month you have to get back. The married folks lived in little houses and there was big long houses for all the single men. Geni requires JavaScript! Maybe old Master Joe Vann was harder, I don't know, but that was before my time. Chief Born (05 Mar 1746/47) - Chowan, North Carolina Deceased 21 February 1809 - Buffington S Tavern, Georgia, United States Parents Edward Sr Vann ca 1693-1752 Mary Barnes ca 1696-1748 Spouses and children With Margaret Scott 1783-1845 Married about 1765, Spring Place, IT., GA., to Mary Wah-Li Christiana, Princess 1750-ca 1835 with She had some land close to Catoosa and some down on Greenleaf Creek. Had sacks and sacks of money. James (Chief of Vann's Old Town) Vannfamily tree Parents Joseph Vann 1740- Unknown In slavery time the Cherokee Negroes do like anybody else when they is a death, jest listen to a chapter in the Bible and all cry. James-R-Hicks-VA - User Trees - Genealogy.com He courted a girl named Sally. Two pounds of hog meat sold for a nickel. We had meat, bread, rice, potatoes and plenty of fish and chicken. Everybody cry, everybody'd pretty nearly die. Wah-li (Cherokee) Vann (abt. 1750 - abt. 1833) - WikiTree Marster had a little race horse called "Black Hock" She was all jet black, excepting three white feet and her stump of a tail. 1710, d. 1752. CHEROKEE Genealogy | WikiTree FREE Family Tree Joseph Vann - Wikipedia Our clothes was home-made---cotton in the summer, mostly just a long-tailed shirt and no shoes, and wood goods in the winter. Marster had a big Christmas tree, oh great big tree, put on the porch. My pappy was a kind of a boss of the Negroes that run the boat, and they all belong to old Master Joe. Chief Crazy James Vann James Clement Vann) Vann, Ii, <<Private>> Vann, Ii. A Scottish trader came to Cherokee Territory in 1755, married Wai-Li and became a licensed trader-interpreter for the Queen of England. Old Master had some kind of business in Fort Smith, I think cause he used to ride into dat town about every day on his horse. The cooks would bring big iron pots, and cook things right there. There was a big dinner bell in the yard. Some niggers say my pappy kept hollering, Rum it to the bank! His grandfather was Clement Vann, a Scottish trader who moved from Charleston, South Carolina, to the Cherokee lands in northwest Georgia and married Wa-wli, a Cherokee Indian. There was lots of preserves. There was a house yonder where was dry clothes, blankets, everything. My names' Lucinda Vann, I've been married twice but that don't make no difference. Hunt, Chief for 1 day: Dec. 27, 1928; *Oliver P. Brewer, Chief for 1 day: May 26, 1931; *William W. Hasting, Chief for 1 day: Jan. 22, 1936; *Jesse B. Milam, Chief for 1 day: Apr. Master Jim and Missus Jennie was good to their slaves. I remember that home after the war brought my pappa back home. There was lots of preserves. Everything was kept covered and every hogshead had a lock. No fusses, no bad words, no nothin like that. Mother Catherine Sarah King. He had one brother and eight sisters. Biography. Indians wouldn't allow their slaves to take their husband's name. Historian Gilbert C. DIN wrote; "James Logan COLBERT, a Scotsman and trader, began residence among the Chickasaw before 1740, when he was about the age of twenty.". The young, single girls lived with the old folks in another big long house. They put white cloths on the shelves and laid the good on it. She dye with copperas and walnut and wild indigo and things like dat and made pretty cloth. He tell us for we start, what we must say and what to do. Uncle Joe tell us all to lay low and work hard and nobody'd bother us and he would look after us. Some had been in a big run-away and had been brung back, and wasn't so good, so he keep them on the boat all the time mostly. We all come back to de old place and find de negro cabins and barns burned down and de fences all gone and de field in crab grass and cockleburs. F Keziah Vann Family Tree Born in 1763 - Yancey Co., NC. John B. 'Trader' Vann : Family tree by jwj424 - Geneanet In winter white folks danced in the parlor of the big house; in summer they danced on a platform under a great big brush arbor. Old Master Joe was a big man in the Cherokees, I hear, and was good to his Negroes before I was born. He was a traveler, didn't stay home much. Dey didn't have much and couldn't make anymore and dem so old. Joseph and Wah-li were the parents of three children James, Jennie, and Nancy. I went to the missionary Baptist church where Marster and Missus went. Charles Thompson Susie Taylor. Dey was for bad winter only. When we git to Fort Gibson they was a lot of Negroes there, and they had a camp meeting and I was baptised. There was big parties and dances. He used to take us to where Hyge Park is and we'd all go fishin'. Two year old when my mamma died so I remember nothing of her, and most of my sisters and brothers dead too. Had to sign up all over again and tell who we was. I eat from a big pan set on the floor---there was no chairs--and I slept in a trundle bed that was pushed under the big bed in the daytime. Interestingly, Mrs. Vann also speaks of some time that her family spent before and during the war in Mexico. Someone rattled the bones. We was at dat place two years and made two little crops. She inherit about half a dozen slaves, and say dey was her own and old master can't sell one unless she give him leave to do it. I've seen em. After it was wove they dyed it all colors, blue, brown, purple, red, yellow. Sometimes Joe bring other wife to visit Missus Jennie. When they gave a party in the big house, everything was fine. Chief had 15 siblings: Joseph Big Vann, Margaret Weber (born Vann) and 13 other siblings. Lord it was terible. I remember when the steamboats went up and down the river. The people were considered one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the American Southeast, because they had adopted some European-American ways, often from traders who intermarried with the Cherokee. Quick access. Different friends would come and they'd show that arm. I was afraid I would get cheated out of it cause I can't figure and read, so I tell old Master about it and he bought it off'n me. They'd bring whole wagon loads of hams, chickens and cake and pie. The only song I remember from the soldiers was" "Hang Jeff Davis to a Sour Apple Tree," and I remember that because they said he used to be at Fort Gibson one time. James Vann (abt.1766-1809) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree Pretty soon everybody commenced a singing and a prayin'. Joseph died about 1780. Soon as you come out of the water you go over there and change clothes. I got my allotment as a Cherokee Freedman, and so did Cal, but we lived here at this place because we was too old to work the land ourselves. She holler, "Easter, you go right now and make dat big buck of a boy some britches!". It was tied up at de dock at Webbers Falls about a week and we went down and talked to my aunt an brothers and sister. Next came the carpenters, yard men, blacksmiths, race-horse men, steamboat men and like that. Joseph Vann (1798-abt.1844) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree There was seats all around for folks to watch them dance. In 1829 Clement Vann told General Coffee that he was 83 years old and had been in the Cherokee nation for fifty years.Therefore it is highly unlikely that he could have been the father of the Cherokee Chief, James Vann b 1766, well before Clement Vann entered the Cherokee nation. Joseph Vann married a Cherokee woman called Wah-li about 1765. I'm goin' give Lucy this black mare. He located at Webbers Falls on the Arkansas River and operated a line of steamboats on the Arkansas, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers. Then I had clean ward clothes and I had to keep them clean, too! This valuable property became a prize for the white man when the laws of Georgia were extended over the Cherokee Nation. When the Indians decided to return home for reinforcements, the slaves started moving again toward Mexico. My Vann ancestors There was big parties and dances. He was a slave on the Chism plantation, but came to Vann's all the time on account of the horses. I go to this house, you come to my house. Up at five o'clock and back in sometimes about de middle of de evening long before sundown, unless they was a crop to git in before it rain or something like dat. We was married at my home in Coffeyville, and she bore me eleven children right. Do you know what I am going to do? Joe had two wives, one was named Missus Jennie. On October 23, 1844, the steamboat Lucy Walker departed Louisville, Kentucky, bound for New Orleans. Do you know what I am going to do? One night a runaway negro come across form Texas and he had de blood hounds after him. Robin Vann and Unknown 14 year old in 1809 Vann less. They wanted everybody to know we was Marster Vann's slaves. Although he was born after slavery had ended, Nave's remembrances of what his father had told him about slavery days include some interesting details. A few years of her life were also quite possibly spent among Seminoles during part of that time, although her memory of the death of Joseph "Rich Joe" Vann is clearly a part of Cherokee history. We had to get up early and comb our hair first thing. When they wanted something put away they say, "Clarinda, come put this in the vault." Then the preacher put you under water three times. We had home-made wooden beds wid rope springs, and de little ones slept on trundle beds dat was home made too. -ga Vann, Delilah Amelia Mcnair (born Vann), Sarah "sallie" Vann Nicholson Or Buzzard Trapper (born Vann), Tacah To Kah Do Key, Oct 26 1844 - Ohio, Indiana, United States, Chief "crazy" James Ti-ka-lo-hi Clement Vann, Nancy Ann Vann (born Timberlake Brown). This was before the war. My mammy was a Crossland Negro before she come to belong to Master Joe and marry my pappy, and I think she come wid old Mistress and belong to her. They got over in the Creek country and stood off the Cherokee officers that went to git them, but pretty soon they give up and come home. John Joseph 'Indian Trader' Cherokee Vann - Ancestry James Vann, Chief 1809 Nancy Ann Timberlake Brown 1780-1850 Spouses and children Married, Georgia., USA, to Elizabeth Catherine Rowe 1798- with Living Vann Clarinda Rebecca Vann ca 1817- Delia Vann 1834- James Vann Mary Frances Vann 1825-1923 Siblings Mary Vann 1795-1864 Joseph Rich Joe Vann 1798-1844 Half-siblings Murray County Museum - Vann Slaves Remember Father John Trader U Wa Ni Vann. Mammy had the wagon and two oxen, and we worked a good size patch there until she died, and then I git married to Cal Robertson to have somebody to take care of me. Family Tree - Cherokee Chiefs & Related Kin & Other Notable Cherokees The most terrible thing that ever happen was when the Lucy Walker busted and Joe got blew up. Mary Ann Vann ca 1815-ca 1859. Someone call our names and everybody get a present. Dey was both raised round Webber's Falls somewhere. My mother Betsy Vann, worked in the big house for the missus. Some 70 years after "the War," during America's Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration assigned numerous people to interview former slaves and record their recollections of slavery. I had to work in the kitchen when I was a gal, and they was ten or twelve children smaller than me for me to look after, too. My missus name was Doublehead before she married Jim Vann. I never did see my daddy excepting when I was a baby and I only know what my mammy told me about him. Oh Lord, no. There wasn't nothing left. A town was laid out on his Hamilton Country farm which was called, Vanntown. After being evicted from his father's mansion home "Diamond Hill" in 1834, Joseph moved his large family (he had two wives) and business operations to Tennessee, where he established a large plantation on the Tennessee River near the mouth of Ooltewah Creek that became the center of a settlement called Vann's Town (later the site of Harrison, Tennessee). The commissary was full of everyting good to eat. Cherokee Vann. Every morning the slaves would run to the commissary and get what they wanted for that day. Young Master never whip his slaves, but if they dont mind good he sell them off sometimes. Deceased 20 December 1849 - Yancey Co., NC., USA, aged 86 years old Parents John Cherokee Vann 1746-1806 Betty Que-Di ca 1748- The cooks would bake hams, turkey cakes and pies and there'd be lots to eat and lots of whiskey for the men folks. People just go and help themselves, till they couldn't eat no mo! After it was wove they dyed it all colors, blue, brown, purple, red, yellow. Joseph Vann took the rebel slaves belonging to him out of the Cherokee Nation and permanently assigned them to work on his steamboats. He done already sold 'em to a man and it was dat man was waiting for de trader. You know just what day you have to be back too. Everybody went---white folks, colored folks. We even had brown sugar and cane molasses most of de time before de War, sometimes coffee, too. The impressive house reportedly stood on a plantation of nearly 600 acres which was tended by some 400 black slaves "Rich Joe" Vann owned. , Nancy Vann, John Shepherd Vann, David Vann, Jane Elizabeth Vann, Sallie Blackburn Vore (born Vann), Joseph W. Vann, William Vann, Miner https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/69753803/person/36207324186/media/f7398599-0630-429e-b3f8-1944ec3951cd?_phsrc=RGj23082&_phstart=successSource, Spring Place, Murray County, Georgia, United States of America, Spring Place, Murray County, Georgia, United States, Cherokee () Principal Chiefs and Uka: Eastern, Western and Keetoowah, Chief Joseph Rich Joe Vann, Principal Chief, http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lpproots/Neeley/cvann.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Walker_steamboat_disaster. Then the preacher put you under water three times. She won me lots of money, Black Hock did, and I kept it in the Savings Bank in Tahlequah. Cal Robertson was eighty-nine years old when I married him forty years ago, right on this porch. When he get home he call my uncle and ask about what we done all day and tell him what we better do de next day. He died when the boat's boilers exploded. He was a Cherokee leader who owned Diamond Hill (now known as the Chief Vann House), many slaves, taverns, and steamboats that he operated on the Arkansas, Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers. They rendezvoused with other slaves who had agreed to participate in the revolt, stole horses to ride to their freedom, then broke into a store to steal guns, ammunition, food, and supplies they needed for their planned escape to Mexicowhere slavery was illegal. Indians wouldn't allow their slaves to take their husband's name. My mother saw it but the colored chillun' couldn't. I had on my old clothes for the wedding, and I aint had any good clothes since I was a little slave girl. Some officers stayed in de house for a while and tore everything up or took it off. Marster and missus never allowed chillun to meddle in the big folks business. He had to work on the boat, though, and never got to come home but once in a long while. Didn't you never see one of them slidin' beds? Cal Robertson was eighty-nine years old when I married him forty years age, right on this porch. All the slaves lived in a log house. When we git to Fort Gibson they was a lot of negroes there, and they had a camp meeting and I was baptized. I spent happy days on the Harnage plantation going squirrel hunting with the master---he was always riding, while I run along and throw rocks in the trees to scare the squirrels so's Marse John could get the aim on them; pick a little cotton and put it in somebody's hamper (basket) and run races with other colored boys to see who would get to saddle the masters horse, while the master would stand laughing by the gate to see which boy won the race. I'm glad the War's over and I am free to meet God like anybody else, and my grandchildren can learn to read and write. Yes Lord, it was, havy mercy on me yes. Mammy got a wagon and we traveled around a few days and go to Fort Gibson. I was born after the War, about 1868, and what I know 'bout slave times is what my pappa told me, and maybe that not be very much. Connect to the World Family Tree to find out, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Vann. Joseph William Vann : Family tree by jwj424 - Geneanet The second time I married a cousin, Rela Brewer. He come to our house and Mistress said for us Negroes to give him something to eat and we did. Marster Jim and Missus Jennie wouoldn't let his house slaves to with no common dress out. 5, Special Issue: American Culture and the American Frontier (Winter, 1981), pp. (Curator dvb Note: VAn Zant County was created in 1848 9 years after the death of John Bowles and the name used today, from the division of the larger Henderson County. Oh the news traveled up and down the river. After everything quiet down and everything was just right, we come back to territory second time. He was called by his contemporaries "Rich Joe" and many legends of his wealth ware still told among the Cherokees. Death 06 May 1815 - Spring Place, Murray, Georgia, USA. (13) In order to determine when COLBERT began living with the Chickasaws, it was necessary to seek corroborating evidence to verify DONNE's statement. James Vann was born in 1766 (or 1768), near Spring Place, Georgia, the son of a white trader, Joseph Vann, and a Cherokee mother named War-li. Numerous others had previously gone to Oklahoma when their masters voluntarily relocated. My husband was a Cherokee born Negro, too, and when he got mad he forgit all the English he knowed. A four mule team was hitched to the wagon and for five weeks we was on the road from Texas finally getting to grandma Brewer's at Fort Gibson. I got all my money and fine clothes from the marster and the missus. Lord have mercy on us, yes. At least twenty-five of Vann's slaves participated in the Cherokee slave revolt of 1842. Young Master Joe let us have singing and be baptized if we want to, but I wasn't baptized till after the War. Sometimes she pull my hair. Sometimes she pull my hair. Women came in satin dresses, all dressd up, big combs in their hair, lots of rings and bracelets. Somehow or other they all took a liking to me, all through the family. In 1730, Sir Alexander Cuming, an emissary of King George II, conferred the title of Emperor on Chief Moytoy at Tellico, Tennessee. Those included in this collection all mention the Vanns. Everything was stripedy cause Mammy like to make it fancy.