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Research from Furman papers, South Carolina University
Research from South Carolina, for my Redbone Cousins, more will be added so check back often.
Union 6 Presentation, Kingsport Tennessee
1824 State of Tennessee, Hawkins County vs John Bunch.
The Grand Jury for the State charged and sworn upon their Oath, Doth
present and say that John Bunch being an evil disposed person, on the
18th day of March 1824 did alter and pass to a certain Morning Winstead
two pieces of base metal being the counterfeit likeness of 2 silver
coins of the value of 2 dollars current money in the United States and
with an intention to defraud the said Mournen Winstead to the great
Damage to the said Mournen Winstead to the evil example of all others in
like cases against the peace and dignity of the State.
Most every researcher who has written about Melungeons has referenced the celebrated Shepherd Court case held in Hamilton County Tennessee. This has been an illusive case, sources researchers used for this case were newspaper articles or Shepherds writings on it. Having the actual court case answers a lot of these questions.
Old Thomas Collins of Flatt River
Thomas Collins Sr. born 1710 & his
descendants According to documented family research old Thomas Collins
Sr. born before 1710 was the father and or grandfather of the historical
Tennessee Melungeon Collins. At least one of Thomas Collins parents
(unknown) was probably full blood Saponi Indian.
Collins family history handed down from father to son was; "The Collins
were living in Virginia as Indians before they migrated to North
Carolina, and they stole the name Collins from white settlers" ( Will
Allen Dromgoole's 1890 interview with Calloway Collins, (Melungeons And
Other Pioneer Families.)
Reuben Mayo born ca. 1773 came to Hawkins County, Tennessee circa 1827, Reuben married Jenet "Jane" McCallister b. 1778 in NC, they were married 4 Jan 1798 in Washington County, Va., the minister was N. Regan. The parents of Reuben Mayo and Janet McCallister are unknown. (Source: Washington County Virginia taxes 1811-1815.) The 1813 tax list of the upper district of Washington County list Reuben Mayo 1 tithe, which means Reuben was over 16 (tithes were male’s 16 or over) also, 1814 same district, Reuben Mayo 1 tithe- 0 slaves- 3 horses.
Hawkins County TN Voting List 1890
List of Voters in an election
held in Hawkins County 1890, some districts are missing.
Presidential Election Hawkins County TN, District 2, 1868
Election for President- Ulysses Grant-vice Schuyler, Colfax (Republican)
Treason Trials Hawkins County TN 1865
List of people who were indicted
Owen
Sizemore
Owen Sizemore Sr. was born ca 1755 in Halifax Co. Va., and died abt. 1837 in Hawkins Co.,Tn. He married Elizabeth Bingham in 1777-8. She was born 1760, and died about 1840.(Hawkins County Circuit Court Minute book 1742-1848 records the following: A Aaron Anderson administrator of Elizabeth Sizemore decd. vs. Stephan Delp, judgement for $14.90. 15 July 1841) Owen was the son of Edward "Ned" Sizemore who was born 1725 died 1779?. Ned was reputed to be a full blooded Indian. Over 2000 of the descendants of Owen, and his brothers George, and Lydia Sizemore Blevin (wife of James Blevin) filed Eastern Cherokee Application beginning in1906.(The Eastern Cherokee Applications are recorded in the national archive Washington. DC)
“Vardy Collins, Shepherd Gibson,
Benjamin Collins, Solomon Collins, Paul Bunch and the Goodmans, chiefs
and the rest of them settled here about the year 1804, possibly about
the year 1795, but al these men above named, who are called Melungeons,
obtained land grants and muniments of title to the land they settled on
and they were the friendly Indians who came with the whites as they
moved west. They came from the Cumberland County and New River, Va.,
stopping at various points west of the Blue Ridge. Some of them stopped
on Stony Creek, Scott County, and Virginia, where Stoney Creek runs into
Clinch River.
Descendants of Lydia, daughter of
Owen and George Sizemore my 6th generation
grandparents.
My grandpa Harrison and Jay W.
Kleeper stayed in the shed and saw all the trouble Neil had getting to
the house, grandpa told that a piece of tin from the barn came near
Neil’s head. My father McKinley Goins, Orbin Klepper and Jesse Goode
crawled in a potato hole near the sheds. This was a large hole Neil dug
to keep sweet Potatoes at harvest time which kept them from rotting and
freezing during the winter months. I can remember our outhouse passing
by the window before I was put in a closet and told to stay there. This
storm blew a large cedar tree into the Magnolia School House, but no one
was seriously injured.
The purpose of this article is to
reveal the factual history of the Melungeons using the same records
early historians used to locate and Identify the Melungeons. These
records establish the beginning of the only settlement of people who
were known and called Melungeons 1800-1900. They were identified in
court, newspapers and census records as free persons of color and it was
common knowledge who some of them were and where they lived. The records
included in this article are the only reason we are discussing
Melungeons today, because if not for these records in Tennessee no one
would have known the Melungeons ever existed. Military, land, tax and
court records established the fact that the Melungeons came with and
were part of the original pioneer settlers as they moved west. No
records have been found calling them Melungeons in all the other places
they lived prior to settling on Newman Ridge and Blackwater areas of
East Tennessee and adjoining Lee County, Virginia. This gives credence
to the old witnesses who said they were given this name by their white
neighbors who lived here among them.
The Melungeons of East Tennessee
(in TENNESSEE ANCESTORS)
The story of the Melungeons, a
sometimes dark-complected people who lived in Tennessee’s Hancock County
and surrounding area, has long piqued the interest of both historians
and the general public. Legends and disputes abound as to their origin.
Over the years they have been variously ascribed backgrounds of Indian,
Phoenician, “Welsh” Indian, African American, Carthaginian, or Turkish
descent. Some writers have gone so far as to describe them as possible
survivors of the Lost Colony of Roanoke or the Lost Tribe of Israel.
1830 Hawkins County TN Census (FPC)
These above names became important
to me in my Goins and Melungeon research, especially after discovering
the original court records were lost and the two documents researchers
used and referenced in their notes had transcribed the name differently.
Both transcribed the records from a copy transcribed from the original
record by Conway Robinson. One as John Graweere and the other as John
Geaween, so with the combined efforts of other concerned researchers we
obtained a copy of the court case of John Graweere from the Virginia
Historical Society, copied by Conway Robinson who wrote the name twice,
once as “John Graweere”, and again as “said Graweere.”
Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, with six vessals carrying five hundred men and women, and eighty to ninety fine horses arrived at present-day North Carolina and Virginia in vicinity of Albemarle Sound and Chesapeake Bay. "Of the five hundred colonists who went on the 1526 expedition, only one hundred fifty returned safely to the Indies. The number who remained in the interior of present-day North Carolina and Virginia is not known, however, that they survived and reproduced is a certainty. Reference to non-Indian peoples residing in the vicinity of the Albemarle /Pamlico/Chesapeake Bay area was made by other Europeans of a later date, i.e. The English of Raleigh's venture and Captain John Smith of the Jamestown Colony." Eloy J. Gallegos "The Melungeons."
We have in some of the counties of
southwestern Virginia a number of so-called Melungeons who came into
that section from Newmans Ridge, Hancock County, Tennessee, and who are
classified by us as of negro origin though they make various claims,
such as Portugese, Indians, etc.
EXAMINING MELUNGEON HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
Having the advantage of living near
the homeland of the Melungeons has helped me considerably in my search
for the true history of the Melungeons and their kinfolks. I first
became interested in the Melungeons when reading some of the early
writings on them; one of the authors listed two of my Great Grandparents
as Melungeon and distant cousins in his book. My Grandfather Harrison
Goins told me, "my grandma Minor was about 3/4 Indian and Grandpa Goins
was about ˝.” This heritage has not been established as a fact, but
Grandpa believed it. His Grandma Susan Minor’s mother was Aggie Sizemore
and most of these families filed Cherokee Indian Application beginning
in 1905.
From my own family research, there is no doubt some Melungeons had an oral tradition of their heritage, assuming Zachariah Minor was a Melungeon. In 1846 Zachariah was charged for illegal voting in an election held in Hawkins County in 1845 along with his brother Lewis and a group of Collins including Vardy. The charge by the state’s attorney general was “they being free persons of color” thus by the constitution of the United State and the State Of Tennessee were not eligible to vote or to testify against a white man in a court of law. Their sworn denial of this accusation and the eventual acquittal by two separate juries also points to the fact the Melungeons race was almost impossible to classify. The oral tradition handed down by Zachariah was that he was Portugese and Indian, this Oral tradition was first noticed on a census by a descendant in Arkansas.
In my opinion the answer to who was a Melungeon lies
with the family researcher working within the scope of the historical
records. Those of us who search old records for the truth know proof of
opinions come from documented research. Hopefully locating and indexing
the Hawkins County records 1795-1850 will answer some of these questions
and I can remove this ‘maybe Melungeon’ label from my Goins family.
Hawkins County consisted of a very large area. Hancock County was formed
from the lands of Hawkins in 1844,but was not fully organized until
1846. Court cases that occurred before Hancock was fully organized are
in the Hawkins County Court house. Like the above illegal voting cases,
these charges stem from a state election held in 1845.
There were several people named
Micajer Bunch. The Micager I follow in this research is also listed on
several records with the nickname “Cage” He is associated with my
seventh generation grandfather William “The Tory” Riddle. I don’t know
if this association was from their neighborhood 1750’s in the community
of the Flat River, Orange County, NC, or a possible relationship by
blood, or marriage.
September the 26, 1813
Church sat in love. Brother Kilgore, Moderator. Then came forward Sister
Kitchen and complained to the church against Susanna Stallard for saying
she
harbored them Melungins (Melungeons). Sister Sook said she was hurt with
her
for believing her child and not believing her, and she won't talk to her
to
get satisfaction, and both is "pigedish", one against the other. Sister
Sook
lays it down and the church forgives her. Then came forward Cox and
relates
to the church that he went to the Association and took the letter and
they
received the letter in fellowship. Dismissed.
2003 issue of Discover Magazine
"Early the next Sunday morning, seven Melungeons piled into a minivan and trundled up Newman's Ridge into the heart of Tennessee's Melungeon country. The sycamores were draped with mistletoe, and many of the houses along the way had small plots of tobacco growing. Sitting at the wheel, Jack Goins joked that the switchbacks were so sharp that "you meet yourself coming back," while others made wisecracks about whose outlaw ancestors killed whose.
Mary Hill Website and Journal of Riddle Research Trip To TN, VA & NC
Copyright © 2005 2006 by JACK GOINS
All Rights Reserved