preliminary note: "Jesse1e" simply designates that this
is the first "Jesse" in my Womack database and he is a 4th or "e"
generation descendant of William1a through Richard1b, Richard2c and
Richard 3d. The Jesses, Davids, Richards, Williams, Johns and Abners
were driving me nuts until I started using this system to separate
them.
Hi Beth...
Don't know just what cousin you might be, but your interest in
Jesse is "right up my alley".
Thus spake Beth:
"If you agree
that Jesse's wife's name is a moot point right
now, lets look at the
records that have been found on Jesse and get a
clear understanding of
his life from VA to GA to Alabama. I
have a lot of questions about
what his motives were when his family
obtained passports from the
governor of GA to travel through Native
American lands to Alabama.
It's clear to me that Jacob was always
a soldier, and lived among the
Cherokees, but was Jesse? Or was
he an adverturer seeking new
horizons?"
Jesse and his descendants are my people.{:-) I don't
have all the appropriate documentation at hand so I don't dare post to
the "Group", but I can give you some historical perspective off the top
of my head and a few references up with which to follow (I hate
prepositions at the end of a sentence). {:-) Don't take any of the
following as gospel until you verify it independently. {:-)
Back in those days, post-Rev War, Spanish Florida ran
all the way over to the Mississippi River and so did the Mississippi
Territory (MST). The eastern part from the Chattahooche (sp) to the
Tombigbee was Creek Nation. West of the Tombigbee to the
Mississippi was Choctaw Territory. The Spanish Fort of San Esteban de
Tombecbe on the West bank of the river above Mobile became Fort St.
Stephens and was the western terminus of the Federal Road from
Milledgeville, GA through the Creek Nation, hence the requirement for
passports. The British delighted in keeping the Creeks all stirred up
and on the warpath against any Americans who ventured through their
territory, so it was quite courageous to make the trek to the safety of
Fort St. Stephens on the Choctaw (friendly) side of the river. William
Bowling, my 4th GGF, signed the passports in 1802 for my 4GGF, Jesse1e
Womack and son, John N. "Jack" Womack, to take the family to Fort St.
Stephens. The Old Choctaw Trading Post at Fort St. Stephens was the
eastern terminus of the Choctaw Trading Path which ran through present
day Washington Co AL, Choctaw Co AL, Jasper Co MS, Smith Co MS, Simpson
Co MS and Copiah Co MS to the Pearl River where it met the Natchez
Trace.
One of the villages along the path in Smith Co MS is
Sylvarena where my Grandfather Hill was born. His mother was Mary
Cordenia Womack who was named for her grandmother, Cordenia Bowling,
daughter of William Bowling. So that brings us back to Milledgeville GA
about 1802 where Jesse1e Womack is packing up his family to go to Fort
St. Stephens. I suspect that he was at least partially motivated by a
desire for land to build a plantation and possibly by his wife,
Phoebe's, desire to settle near the Choctaw.
The group would have included Jesse and Phoebe,
Jack and Frances (Coleman), and Phoebe's sons, William, Richard Mansel,
Jesse Jr, and Francis M "Frank". Jesse and the boys built the plantation
at Womack Hill up the river from Fort St Stephens and appear on
petitions, real estate tax rolls, poll tax rolls, and census rolls at
various times and combinations from 1804-1808. These clues are in the
Carter Territorial Papers vol V (I think), in the Mississippi Archives
at Jackson, and Washington Co MST census records.
Jesse appears in all these records until 1810
when his executor paid his poll tax. I believe that Jesse died in 1810
in Washington Co MST rather than Madison Co GA in 1815. Jack, William,
Richard, Jesse Jr and Frank all paid poll tax in 1811 but Frank did not
pay in 1808. Some researchers put Frank ahead of Jesse Jr in birth order
(1787 vs 1791), but that would mean Jesse Jr signed a petition to
Congress at age 14 in 1805. Not likely. Further, the tradition of naming
the third son (after both grandfathers are acknowledged) Junior could
only have applied if Jack was the son of Jesse's first wife and Jesse Jr
was the third son of his second wife. That is my
hypothesis!
Now we get to the Native American heritage part. This
is both geographical and genealogical. In 1800 the Choctaw owned the
western and southern halves of MS. The TRS system of survey (township,
range, section) in MS is based on a latitude line called the Choctaw
Baseline which runs under Jasper, Smith, Simpson and Copiah Co. From
there down to the top of Jackson, Harrison, and Hancock Co is a band of
land across the state which was ceded to the U.S. by the Choctaw in
1805. White settlers were allowed into this section. In 1812 the three
coastal counties were ceded by the Pascagoula and Biloxi tribes for
settlement and seaport access. White settlers wanted to expand northward
above the Choctaw Baseline along the Pearl River and the Natchez Trace
up toward Nashville, so the Second Choctaw Cession was negotiated in the
Treaty of Doak's Stand in 1820. This opened up settlement of Hinds,
Copiah and Simpson Co above the baseline. In 1830, the Third Choctaw
Cession along the eastern part of the baseline opened up Smith and
Jasper Cos. So that is where the Choctaw were until they were pushed
onto reservations in MS and OK. Between 1820 and 1822, Frank moved his
family from AL, first to Simpson Co MS when it was opened for
settlement and then to Smith Co where he and his sons, John Abner and
Jesse, patented land adjacent to the Boykins and Thorntons. This area
was the heart of Choctaw Territory until it was ceded to the U.S.
Now, genealogically, it seems that Phoebe must have
been Choctaw because Jesse wasn't and our family has a lot of N/A
features even down to my first cousins.
Phoebe's son, Frank (my 3rd GGF) married Malinda
Kennedy. I have successfully traced her mitochondrial DNA to a woman in
Idaho and shown that she was of European origin. Therefore the N/A
features were passed down from Frank. Further, Phoebe's son, Richard
Mansel, had a son, Abraham James, by his first wife. He was
nicknamed "Indian Abe". I have located a descendant of Abraham James who
confirms that he was distinctly N/A.
Frank's son, John Abner, married a Boykin from
old VA stock supposedly going back to Charlemagne. No N/A there. John
Abner's daughter married a Hill from GA, NC, VA lineage, so all these
tall (even some of the girls are 6' 2"), squinty eyed, dark-haired,
high cheek-boned folks in my family must have gotten it from
Phoebe.
Aahhh, but you say the Choctaw are short, round folks!
How did we get so tall? Well, I have been told that there is a genetic
spin-off of the usual Choctaw that are
known as the Okla Falala, the long people.
John Abner eventually moved his family to north Texas
near Oklahoma Indian Territory in 1879. My one y.o. grandfather made the
trip, but returned to MS in 1881 with his parents and settled in Smith
Co MS.
Now, what ever happened to Jack? He had about
twenty-eleven kids, but they all seemed to take off for Texas when Jack
died in 1848 and Mama Frances went with her daughter to Texas. Phoebe's
boys on the other hand (at least William, Richard and Frank) followed
the Choctaw Cessions of 1820 and 1830 into central Mississippi and
seemed to have "no truck" with the other side of the family. Don't know
why.
Oh, by the way, I have visited the archeological dig
now under way to resurrect the Old Choctaw Trading Post at Fort St.
Stephens. When I was there, the main street was just a path through the
piney woods of South Alabama carpeted with pine needles. The hum of the
cicadas transported me back two hundred years to a place I knew I had
been before.
More later if you find this useful.
Tom Hill
Silver Spring, MD
