Sand Mountain Melungeon Families

A DNA Perspective

From When Scotland Was Jewish and Jews among the Indians

By Dr. Donald Panther Yates

Sand Mountain is a flat-topped extension of the Cumberland Plateau stretching over a hundred miles along the Tennessee River in the states of Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Its twin, Lookout Mountain, lies across the valley, where Interstate 59 runs from Chattanooga, Tenn. to Fort Payne and Boaz, Alabama, near Blountsville. In ancient times, a mixture of Cherokee, Yuchi, Koasati, Creek and other Indian tribes inhabited the area, and the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto visited its towns in 1539/1540 (see map). In the census of 1950, Jackson County (which constituted the first white county formed in Alabama from the Cherokee Cession of 1816) had 70 persons identified as Melungeon, making it a notable location for this ethnic group. This article will survey the genealogies and ancestry of some of these families, based on the author’s own family tree, and incorporating research about to be published in a recent book titled When Scotland Was Jewish. Surnames include Adkins, Beam(er), Black, Blevins, Brown, Bunch, Bundren, Burke, Burns, Cooper, Davis, Fields,  Gist, Gunter, Justice,  Keys, Lackey,  Lowrey, Redwine, Riley, Shankles, and Sizemore.

Sand Mountain extends from South Pittsburg in Tennessee to Boaz, Alabama.

            Wait a minute, you’re going to say. I didn’t know Scotland was ever Jewish. Scottish history can’t boast of having too many prominent Jews, right? Well, not until now. When Scotland Was Jewish was begun by Professor Elizabeth C. Hirschman of Rutgers University and joined by me as a co-investigator in 2001. Both of us are of Melungeon ancestry. Using the tools of modern DNA testing and clues ranging from medieval burgess lists to synagogue records, we researched a large community of Jewish and Moorish merchants and court officials who were active in the nation-building phase of early Scottish history, 1000-1300. Our book discusses, among other subjects, the Judaic origins of the Royal House of Stewart, the identity of Aberdeen’s St. Machar, and the possible role of secret Jewish religious practices in the formation of Presbyterianism. Over 150 illustrations and 15 detailed genealogies document not only the Judaic character of Scotland’s political, economic and religious history, but also an important tie-in to the Melungeons of the southern Appalachians, including those on Sand Mountain. Chapters on DNA analysis, clan genealogies, the Knights Templar, the Cabala, and the religions of Scotland conclude with an essay on Sir Walter Scott’s heroine Rebecca in Ivanhoe, bringing the story of a previously unsuspected Judaic presence in the British Isles down to the present day. In many ways, this study is the sequel to Hirschman’s Melungeons:  The Last Lost Tribe in America (Mercer University Press, 2005). Jews among the Indians, a work in progress, is also co-authored by Yates and Hirschman.

            My own interest in the Melungeons of Sand Mountain began in 1997, when in the course of pursuing some genealogy work on my mother’s Coopers, I encountered a very strange court record on USGenWeb. It named one of our ancestors, Isaac Cooper, rumored to have been a mixed blood Choctaw-Cherokee who married a daughter of Cherokee principal chief Black Fox (Enola, Inali, died 1811). The record presented Isaac Cooper giving a deposition in the home of James Cooper in newly-formed Jackson County, Alabama. It concerned the Great Salt Works of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in Wayne County, Kentucky. What in the world was going on?

From a legal expert investigating the history of this case, I learned:

The Big South Fork of the Cumberland River empties into the Cumberland

River in Pulaski Co. East of Burnside. Today, the River is mostly in

McCreary Co. KY, and then crosses the border into Scott and Fentress Co's.

TN. Years ago, before McCreary Co. was formed, the West/North bank of the

River was Wayne Co. KY, and Fentress Co. TN. The East/South bank (the River

runs mostly North to South, with a large bend near Bear Creek that turns

the flow East to west for a few miles, then it turns South once more), was

Pulaski and Whitley Co. KY, and Campbell and then later on Scott Co. TN. In

the 1900's, this was a coal mining area, and today, it is a National Park.

It is stunningly beautiful place, with large bluffs along the River canyon.

            In 1807, John Francis first reported the discovery of saltwater along the

Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. This initial discovery was

reported to be "near the mouth of Bear Creek, where Richard Slavey now lives".

(I believe that Richard Slavey and John Francis where in laws, as both

married a woman named Mounts.) Francis and Slavey petitioned the State

Legislature, and in 1811, received a Grant for 1000 acres, conditional upon

their production of a 1000 bushels of salt. The time limit for this production

was later increased, due to the War of 1812. By the time the 1000 bushels

were produced (around 1818), several other items of interest occurred:

John Francis received another Grant just South of the 1000 acres for the same

purpose; Marcus Huling, working with Col. James Stone, sank another

saltwater well, on the sight of Francis's other Grant; Stephen F. Conn,

Martin Beaty, and a host of other people became involved in these

enterprises in several different ways. This activity started a series of

Law Suits, lasting up into the 1830's, as well as the accidental sinking

of the world's first oil well (Post:  HISTORY: Salt Works of the Big South Fork (BSF), Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 22:16:14 –0400, Submitter: Lanny R. Slavey).

            This chance “hit” sent me on a long odyssey of exploration and self-discovery, one accompanied by not a little soul searching. I investigated the origins of the Cooper surname, the settlement of Daniel Boone’s Kentucky, and the seemingly interminable treaties and intrigues that followed the Cherokee’s defeat by the British in 1761. Both for me and for my (equally Melungeon and American Indian) wife, Teresa, a Ramey, it has led to cherished new friendships – with Brent Kennedy, with Nancy Morrison of the Melungeon Health Network, and with Dr. Arnold Mark Belzer of Congregation Mickve Israel in Savannah. But I don’t mind saying that it has also brought some less-than-friendly challenges from others. Unaccountably, opponents emerged. We learned there were people who were either so hardened in academic orthodoxy or sunk in prejudice that they were unwilling to acknowledge what seemed an ever-growing mountain of evidence about the historical roots and composition of the Melungeons.

            After nearly 10 years of grappling with these issues, I am satisfied with the emerging consensus. I have only one remaining question. Where did all the money go? Seriously, I think this is a valid concern. How did our ancestors come to be dispossessed of such a splendid legacy? From a genealogical perspective, the following notes detail some of the land sales, mineral prospecting, manufacturing, trade activities, lobbying, and legal moves of these Melungeon families in an ever-shifting and increasingly complex social environment. The period ends about 1840, a time when the U.S. government (supposedly, on the strength of a one-vote margin in the Senate) removed the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi. But its background can be glimpsed in a centuries-old fight for religious freedom, self-reliance and democratic values. I am proud of this story, and I know the ancestors are proud of us to discover it at last.

Adkins

The Adkins (also spelled Atkin, Atkinson, Aiken, etc.) were multiply intermarried with my pioneer Cooper, Blevins and Burke families from Wayne County, Kentucky. Before settling as one of the leading families in Watauga, they came from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, suspected to be an important staging area for the movement of Melungeon families onto the northern and eastern boundaries of the Cherokee. 

OLD SURVEY BOOK NO. 1 page 7  PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY

William Atkinson 200 A on both sides Pig River Survd Mar.  31  1747 at a gum on the Lower side of Pig River and thence N10E 90p. to a red Oak  N65 W137p  to a Beech on a branch S10 W204p. crossing a branch to a red oak S10E110p. to a red oak on Pig Riverand thence down the same & across it to the beging.

William Atkinson  150A on both sides Pig River Survd 31Mar. 1747 beginning at a red oak on the upper side  driver thence N81W48p.  crossing sd River to a maple on Harping Creek S89W184p. crossing sd Harping Creek & the River to a white Oak  N8W96p. crossing a Branch to a pine N60E70p. to a  red oak E98p to a red oak  S64E70p. to a pine S10E103p to the begin.

Transcribed by James Burnett

From notes of Mrs. Anderson, Dec'd

These Adkins are traced to a James Atkinson, a Quaker who came to Philadelphia in the 1600s, probably from a Welsh port. His great-grandson William Adkins left a will dated Jan. 22, 1784, probated March 15, 1784 (D&W Bk. Vol. 11 p.136), and was buried near Cooper's Old Store, Pittsylvania Co., Va. William’s son Owen was born about 1750 in Lunenberg County, Virginia (the parent county of Pittsylvania) and died in Watauga, Hawkins County, Tennessee about 1790. He married Agnes Good/Goad, from the same family that provided the spouse of Valentine Sevier (1701/02-1803). They were the parents of John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, and one of his sons, Valentine, married Sarah Cooper. The Seviers go back to Don Juan de Xavier of a Sephardic family that took refuge in Narvarre during the Spanish Inquisition.

In 1836, Benjamin Adkins built a log mill on the Little South Fork of the Cumberland near Parmleysville, Kentucky, made of huge squared logs. This mill, with rifle slits on two levels, is still standing. He left a will in 1839 showing $10,000 in debts owed him and an estate of great value. Numerous family members moved first to Sequatchee (Marion County, Tenn.) and subsequently to Sand Mountain and to a hidden cove at the foot of Fox Mountain  called Anawaika, or Deerhead, on the Georgia state line, about 1835, when the Trail of Tears began. Some proceeded west to Arkansas. William E. Adkins (about 1828-1862) married Susan E. (Sukie) Cooper (about 1831-1901), the daughter of Isaac and Mahala Jane Cooper, April 20, 1847, in Henry County, Tenn. Descendents filed unsuccessful applications to be enrolled as Cherokee in Indian Territory.

William Adkins enlisted in the 1st Arkansas Union Cavalry (Company M) on September

17th, 1862 in Marion County, Arkansas. His muster-in roll is dated October 1st, 1862 in Springfield, Missouri. He served under Brigadier General J. M. Schofield in the Army of the Frontier and was killed during a battle at Crane Creek, Stone County, Missouri on November 20th, 1862. His "Inventory of effect of a Deceased Soldier" signed by William S. Johnson, 1^st Lieutenant, Company M, 1^st Arkansas Union Cavalry stated: William was 5 feet 7 inches tall with blue eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. He was

buried in his clothes where he died. Susan Adkins applied for and was granted a military pension on June 2nd, 1863.

“When I was little my Great Grandma Adkins (Virgie Stanley) use to tell me stories about my Great Grandfather's (Arthur ‘Aud’ Adkins) Grandmother. She said her name was Sukie and she was a Cherokee Indian. I later found out that ‘Sukie’ was a nickname for Susan. She also mentioned the name Mahala Blevins. --Steve Adkins, Arkansas.

Atkins (R1b DNA) is thought to be derived from “one of Aix/Aachen,” the capital of the Frankish empire under Charlemagne and an important Jewish mercantile center (WSWJ).

Beam(er)

This name goes back to one of the first French Huguenot traders among the Cherokee, John Beamer (originally Beamour), who came to the Overhill towns in 1699 from the Caribbean and Carolina coast. He was called a Mustee (mixed breed).  (Brent Cox, Heart of the Eagle, 1699). John Beamer is claimed by Narcissa Owen as the father of Oconostota, who was one of the young warriors to go to England in 1730 (The Memoirs of Narcissa Owen, 1831-1907, 1907). If this is true, it points to early admixture of the Overhill hierarchies with European traders, as well as continuing cousin marriage in the mixed breed lines, generation after generation. The origin of the name is “from Bohemia.” Grandson Thomas Beamer, born about 1756, half breed son of James Beamer of Estatoe, was an English/Cherokee interpreter for the Lower Towns.

Seven Cherokee men in St. James Gardens, London, wearing the clothes given to them by King George II, 1730. Oconostota is third from left, and Attakullakulla is far right. European admixture is evident in their features; see Donald N. Yates, “A Portrait of Cherokee Chief Attakullakulla from the 1730s? A Discussion of William Verelst’s ‘Trustees of Georgia’ Painting’,” Journal of Cherokee Studies 22 (2001) 4-20.

[ Next ]