Tarripin "Tuxie" HOLT - Trail of Tears Ancestor

 Today's prompt once again comes from Amy Johnson Crow and her #52Ancestors challenge for the year 2021. For the week of March 1-7 the prompt is: Multiples

I'm still working on filling out the Native American branches of my half siblings tree. I last blogged about their line a few weeks ago making it back to their 2nd great grandfather Mose HOLT.

This time I'm going to use the applications of multiple people to piece together more branches in this line. 

The first thing to notice is the cover image for each of the HOLT sisters applications. Information given on these pages is:

Application number
Action
Name
Residence
Reason

Below I will post images of each of the sisters' cover images. These applications can be found on Fold3. 

The HOLT sisters' applications all contain the same information and even appear to have been filled out by the same person. They're almost exact duplicates in certain sections. If you notice on their cover pages, they also all mention being a 1st cousin of applicant # 10278 which belongs to Minerva WOOLEY.

Now, this has the potential to get confusing so try to keep up 😏 (wink-y face).  On page two of Minerva's application file it mentions the following application numbers as "grouped herewith" 

These applications belong to:

William HOLT (10280) - Brother of Minerva WOOLEY

Frances HOLT (12905) - Half sibling of Sarah, Lizzie, Nancy, and Jennie HOLT
Minerva WOOLLY (16787) duplicate file (different spelling) of the above Minerva WOOLEY #10278
Mary E. HOLT (12904) appears to be a grouped application of siblings Mary, Theodora, & Jacob HOLT - nieces and nephew of Minerva WOOLEY
Mary KING (18060) duplicate (10279) sister of Minerva WOOLEY 

From the above applications, I know that William HOLT, Minerva WOOLEY and Mary KING are siblings and 1st cousins of my siblings' ancestor Sarah HOLT SMITH. Therefore they will share grandparents. 

William, Minerva and Mary all list their parents as William HOLT and Nelly FOOL with the exception of Mary who says Nelly was her step-mother and she doesn't know her mother's name. So we know their father William HOLT was the brother of  Sarah HOLT SMITH's father Mose HOLT. 

The "grouped" application (#12904) of Mary, Theodora & Jaccob - nieces and nephew of Minerva WOOLEY, state their father's name was Daniel HOLT. So now we have siblings William, Mose and Daniel HOLT. 

Then we get to the application of Frances HOLT and things get a little tricky -- and maybe tie into the prompt of  multiple  in a different way and it's something I picked up on briefly while researching this line last time. 

Frances says her parents are: Mose HOLT and Annie MOLE. And gives the death date for Mose as 1895. Frances was born about a year after my siblings' ancestor Sarah HOLT SMITH. 

Did Mose divorce Sarah's mother Polly and marry Annie. Did the Cherokee have divorces? Or does their culture allow for multiple partners without official separation? 

I have a couple different census records for Mose with each of these family units so they obviously didn't cohabitate in the same household with multiple spouses.

In 1886 Mose and Polly are found with their two children born at that time, Lizzie (Eliza) and Jennie in Sequoyah District.

But in 1893 in Sequoyah District Mose is with Annie and Francis and two other children, most likely Annie's with a previous spouse, if you see the remarks on the right: "Mose Holt stepfather of Binge children"

 
And in that same census year (1893) Polly is alone with the following children: Lizzie, Jennie, Nancy & Sarah



Later on in Frances HOLT's application she gives the names of her siblings as: Sarah HOLT, Jennie HOLT and Lizzie HOLT, so obviously the Mose HOLT listed is the same and these are her half siblings. Not sure why Nancy was left out.



So going through the information given in all these applications I know that Mose had the following brothers: William (married to Nelly FOOL) and Daniel (married to Sarah YOUNGBLOOD) as well as two sisters Lizzie (not married no children) and Sarah (Dawes #8303 who marries a WOLFE and possibly a GUINEAHEAD)

According to the application of William HOLT (10280) his father's parents were: "Duxie" Holt -- Also given as "Tuxie" Holt -- also given at times as William HOLT and Sarah HOLT. 

In the application of William Holt's sister, Minerva, we find a translated typed letter on behalf of her mother Nelly FOOL HOLT that again gives her husband William HOLT's father as "Tuxie" HOLT and even gives us the maiden name of his mother Sarah as FIVEKILLER as well as a lot of other information so I'm including an image of the letter:

I will also include a page from William and Minerva's older half-sister Mary that gives the same information:

This has been a lot to take in. But it has let me add a few more names to my tree and now I can research these names more in depth. 

As a recap: 

Mose HOLT was the son of "Tuxie" HOLT and Sarah FIVEKILLER

Tuxie HOLT was the son of William HOLT and Jennie LNU (Last name unknown) at this time.

The 1851 Drennen Rolls shows the family of "Tuxie" as entry 548 -- Notice here his name is Tarripin HOLT.

Another picture of the Drennen Rolls of 1852



I'm going to end this right here for now. I hope you've been able to follow along as I use the Eastern Cherokee applications of  multiple HOLT descendants to piece together a few more generations. 

Until next time, 
Becky

P.S. If anyone can translate the last name "Lah-Wah-Nah" for me, that's the only maiden name given for Mose's wife Polly. I would be very grateful. 

P.S.S. One more thing I forgot to mention. In the applications of Minerva and William - they list the birthplace of their father William Holt (born abt 1849) as "Skinbayou, IT". According to AccessGenealogy The name was changed from Skin Bayou District to Sequoyah District by an act of National Council on November 4, 1851. See page 227, Cherokee Laws of 1852.

P.S.S.S A little more research lead me to the application #281 belonging to Josephine BOYNTON, the daughter of Polly FIVEKILLER. In her application she says her mother's father lived on Johns Creek in Georgia in 1835. Which is probably where our Sarah FIVEKILLER HOLT was born.

Cherokee Indian Records And My Siblings' Lineage

 Amy Johnson Crow's prompt for the week of Feb 15-21 is Unusual Source. I'm not sure the sources I'm going to reference are necissarily unusual, but they're definitely unique to a certain subset of the population. I'm going to make sure to show my sources for all the information I provide while I blog about my my half siblings Native American Ancestry. 

Their maternal grandfather was Finis James SMITH, though his name has been shown to be Fine, Fines, Foundation and Finis in various records. 

According to his obiturary which can be found in the Northwest Arkansas Times FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS Monday, December 30, 1974, page two, Finis was born 1 Dec 1925 at Gore, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. He was the son of George Redbird SMITH and Sarah HOLT.  

Acording to census records for the years 1920, 1930  & 1940 this family resided in the Blackgum community.

Below is an image of the first census he shows up in, 1930, notice his name is Foundation. 



The next record is the 1940 census where his name is now Fine. 



His next record is his WW2 draft registration from 1943. Again his name is given as Fine with no middle name or initial.

Finis served in both World War II and the Korean Conflict.  My step-mom even said he had a bullet wound in his leg from the later. Finding a military record that I know for certain is him, has proven a bit difficult. You'd be surprised how many men had his same name. And most of the records I've found only give a name and rank but not much other identifiable information is included. 

Finis served as a city Marshal for the town of Prairie Grove, Washington County, Arkansas. 



And ran for Washington County Sherriff

Now moving up the tree focusing on his parents.... 

George Redbird SMITH and Sarah HOLT

From George's obituary we learn that he was born Feb 1885 in Muskogee County and that Sarah's maiden name was HOLT. We learn the name of several children and siblings.

 Muskogee Daily Phoenix MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA Monday, March 10, 1958, page 2.

From his WWI draft registration we learn a more specific birth date of 26 Feb 1885, that he is an Indian Citizen and his closest living relative is Redbird SMITH.

From the Oklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Indian Censuses and Rolls, 1851-1959, George can be found living with the Redbird family in the year 1886, a year after his birth.

Then again in the Oklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Dawes Census Cards for Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914 it's stated that Redbird is indeed his father. His mother is Lucy and that Redbird's parents were Pig SMITH and Lizzie was his mother's name. AND there's even parentage information for George's mother Lucy giving us her maiden name of FIELDS.

There is no shortage of infromation that can be found on Redbird SMITH online. I'll provide a few links below:

http://www.keetoowahsociety.org/redbird.htm 
https://accessgenealogy.com/native/red-bird-smith.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbird_Smith

Now going back to Finis: it's time to trace his mother's lineage. His obituary gave us her maiden name of HOLT. The above census records give us her estimated birth year as 1889/90.

Using Fold3 I searched the Eastern Cherokee Applications for her using her married name, as these records weren't submitted until after June 1906. There are several applicants with that name. The correct one is application #13544 Notice her residence is Blackgum.




Looking through the pages of her applications reveals more information comfirming this is indeed the correct Sarah HOLT SMITH. Though I will say it's both aggravagting and neat to find scans of her ancestors Indian names laying on top of her application pages blocking a lot of the information, but keep clicking through and eventually you'll find uncovered pages. 

For example: Page 5



 Followed by page 7 which gives us so much information:



Sarah was born 28 Feb 1889 in Sequoyah District. She's married. Her husband's name is George (application #26335). He is 22.  Her father was Mose HOLT and her mother's name was Polly. Her father was also born in Sequoyah District while her mother was born in the Salina District. It even tells us the death dates of her parents, though further investigation reveals the father's death date is off by a year. 

Page 12 gives us the names of Sarah's siblings as well as the Indian names of her grandparents:



You can also look at her siblings applications: Eliza BIRD (#13673), Jennie VANN (#17012) and Nancy HOLT (#13681) George SMITH signs as a witness in Nancy's applciation (below) as well as Eliza's  



Again using the Oklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Dawes Census Cards for Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914 we can find a card for Pollie HOLT



Unfortunately, this card doesn't give us the name of Pollie's parents or the parents of her deceased husband, Mose HOLT, though their Indian names were given in the applications of Sarah and her sisters. 

I did find a couple Indian Census/Rolls of this family unit for the years 1883 & 1886

The 1886 census gives us ages, so after this I decided to look into the death of Mose HOLT, as he would've only been about 36. It appears as though he was accidentally shot during a dispute over the next cheif.

Friday, 26 July 1895, The Monticellonian, page 1

Saturday, 27 July, 1895, The Coffeyville Daily Journal

I've also found information for Pollie HOLT(#9285) in the Dawes Packets of 1898. It's composed of the affidavits of Runabout MINK, Johnson MANNING, John BIRD (her son-in-law) and Jesse VANN (her son-in-law) using the translator S.R. WALKINGSTICK. Not too much new information was gleaned about Sarah or Pollie -- it mainly had questions about Eliza BIRD and her son William BARK.

I've also found records for the lands allotted to Sarah and her family.



Sarah lived long enough to bury her husband and all of her children but two; her daughter Tissie and her son Gawexskey. She died at the age of 87 in Vian, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, Saturday, 19 Nov 1977. She's buried with her husband in Redbird Cemetery

*I do want to  make note that George's headstone seems to have the wrong death year. His obituary was ran in 1958 and the Oklahoma State Vitals Record Index shows a death certificate for him on file with his death date as 7 March 1958. I'm not sure why, but using that index, I cannot find a record for Sarah. I also can't find an obituary for her. 

I hope you've been able to keep up as I piece together the lineage of my half siblings.

Until next time, 
Becky

Yearbook Memories

I wanted to do a quick post with a few snippets from yearbooks past involving my family.

I'll start you off with this page from the 1975 Prairie Grove Yearbook, mentioning my paternal grandfather, Charles Nall, for being on the school board.



This next one is pretty precious to me, because I don't have many pictures of my dad when he was young. Here he is in his 6th grade photo. The first year he was in Prairie Grove.



Here's another one showing my dad and step-dad both being members of the 1975 Letterman's Club

Another one from 1975. Dad was voted 'Best All Around'

1976 Mom was in FTA (Future Teachers of America) and Library Club






1983 my step mom Dawna was in Drama and Basketball

Until next time,
Becky

Let's Begin - Again.

The prompt this week from No Story Too Small is 'commencement'. I've chosen to write about possibly THE biggest brick wall in my tree. My 4th great grandfather, Maize R. Foster. I have spent hours, along with many other cousins trying to find out more about the beginning of Maize's life. His last 15 years are pretty accountable, but it's his first 35 that are impossible to document it would seem.

The only evidence I have to the date and location of his birth, comes from the 1850 Collin County, TX census. Family #264 lists M R Foster, a farmer, (43) born in NC, wife Sarah (39) born in NC, daughter L J (20) born in IL, daughter N P (17) born in MO, son Wm H. (13) born in MO, daughter Mary (11) born in MO, son Jno T (9) born in MO, son M (3) born in TX, and son Jas (4/12) born in TX.  All children of age are attending school.



Don't you love the census records that didn't use names - only initials.

So from here, shall we work backwards or forwards?

Maybe I should start with his estate records, to prove this family is who I claim them to be.

The first page of his estate is from the Nov Term 1856, Collin County, where it states that Maize R. Foster, a citizen of said county died on or about the 10th day of January A.D. 1856 without leaving a legal will. John M. Salmons petitions the court to be the administrator of said estate.

On page 11 of the Estate, Maize's eldest son William is appointed guardian to the three youngest surviving children: Malcolm, James and Mary. Malcolm is my ancestor.



In January of 1857, the property of Maize Foster is appraised and several items are claimed by W H Foster and N P Foster (Wm and his sister - who you will soon find to be named Nancy).



Now as I dig further into the estate records one piece of paper tucked away inside the file has always left me curious. It's a written "receipt" for 3 coffins purchased in Feb 1856. If Maize died "on or around 10th of January" who are the other two coffins for? I suspect them to be for his wife and son, John T Foster. What kind of illness did they die from? Was it yellow fever? Influenza? Or as I later begin to wonder, maybe Maize is already buried and it could be for his oldest daughter as well?

 As I dig a little further I find a receipt dated 1856 to David Ford, Dr. Listed are dates and amounts for "pres med & cupping". According to Wikipedia cupping was used to treat respiratory diseases such as the common cold, pneumonia and bronchitis. He treated Mary on the 25th of January, Nancy on the 31st. On the 5th of February at night "visit to wife pres med & cupping". On the 5th "for self wife Mary and Nancy"

Enclosed in the estate file is also a receipt ledger for Dr. Henry Dye from Plano, TX. I have trouble making out a lot of what it says. But the date given is for the year 1857 and there is mention of cupping and treating blisters. Also for buying 8 loads of wood and 4 poles. From researching cupping therapy, I find that blisters are usually a terrible side-effect of the treatment. Were the 8 loads of wood for the heating process used in "cupping"? What are the 4 poles for?



Keep digging through the estate files and there's yet another receipt from a George H. Peguez, who was elected Justice of the Peace of Collin Co in 1857, where planks for a coffin for son are purchased in 1856 followed by planks for a coffin for self. What a surreal thing to know you and your loved ones are dying. I believe the son to be John T.



Nothing that provides any insight into what caused the death of Maize, his wife and his son, but it is interesting to note, was a receipt from Charles DeMorse for what appears to be newspapers subscriptions to The Standard. Specifically Vol. 10 #13 through Vol 13 #17.

I won't post the actual document, you'll just have to take my word for it, but by the Nov term of 1859 land is divided and distributed among the remaining heirs of Maize as follows - 33 acres to James Foster, 33 acres to Malcolm Foster, to Sanford Hosacks 33 acres, to Mary F. Dasson (Dawson) 33 acres, to Wm H. Foster 36 and 50/160 acres, to Nancy Stigal 31 and 125/160 acres



This leaves me asking, who was Sanford Hosack? Was he the widower of Maize's daughter L J born 1830 in ILL? There is no mention of her or John T or Maize's wife Sarah. After researching Sanford Hosack, I come up empty. I found a William Sanford Hosack, born in TX in 1856 who ends up in Merced CA in 1884 but that's as close as I get. *Follow-up* After going back to research this further, I find in the probate records of Collin County where William Sanford Hosack was the minor heir of Hosack and is entitled to an interest in the Estate of Maize R. Foster. Click here for the file. In this file it calls him the heir of L J Hosack... confirming my theory that Sanford Hosack was the widow of Maize's daughter.

So, here we are with a beginning to Maize's life-- 1807 in NC, and an end, 1856 in Collin County, TX. Now to fill in the gaps.

We know that Maize was in Collin County, TX because of the 1850 census and his estate files. In 1842 there is an M R Foster with 640 acres. In 1843 he is listed as Maise Foster. In 1844 Maze R Foster. In 1845 there is a "Mays Foster" all listed in the Fannin County Tax Rolls. Fannin and Collin are neighboring counties and according to a formation map of the state, Collin County was formed from Fannin County in 1846.

Maize R. Foster is still the name on the original abstracts in Collin County as abstract #332. In the online transcription of his land records it is listed in Fannin district as a 3rd class headright. 3rd class headrights were issued to those who arrived in Texas between October 1, 1837 and January 1, 1840. Heads of families received 640 acres, while single men received 320 acres.

I'm currently trying to verify if Maize was a member of the Peters Colony. There is an 1852 survey map that allegedly shows the EAST boundary of the Peters Colony. You can find that map here. The red line is extremely faded and runs through James Maxwell's plot, directly to the east of the plot surveyed for Maize. I haven't been able to find on the map where it is labeled as the East boundary - only in the description of the map. If you look at the above picture where Maize's land was divided between his heirs you can see Rowlett's Creek. This is a Peters Colony Grant Map circa 1842-44 where Rowlett's Creek is clearly marked. After contacting the Texas Land Grant office - I was told Maize was NOT a member of Peter's colony.

After looking at his birth year and his location during the time of the Mexican-American war I decided to search Fold3 for "Maize", hoping to find a service record. I came up empty. But after seeing his name listed as "Mays" in the tax records I decided to do a search spelling it that way and got a hit for a "May Foster" who was enlisted on 1 Nov 1847 and assigned to Belle's Reg't Texas Mounted Vols. Is this him? It's doubtful as his age is given as 21 in 1864.

About 10 years ago, when I first learned of Maize, thanks to my great aunt Dena, I began searching online and came across Terry Foster who was researching his ancestor, James Foster, in Benton County, MO.  On his page he me mentions Goodspeed's “History of Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Benton, Miller, Maries and Osage Counties, Missouri.” where Maize R. Foster is mentioned as serving on a grand jury in Warsaw, Benton Co., MO in 1835 along side Terry's ancestor James. Are the two connected? We know from the 1850 census that 3 of Maize's children were born in MO between the years 1837-1841 (approx.) This must be him, yet there is no Maize or Maize R or M R Foster to be found in all the state of MO for the census year 1840. Today while going through the images on FamilySearch for the Court Minutes of Benton County, 1838-1846, Vol A; page 13, I found Maize R. Foster. The previous page (12) gives us the date of February 1835 when he was appointed as a commissioner along with Hugh M. Donaghe and Hugh C. Donaghe to "view and mark out" a road going from Rives County to Fristoe's Ferry on the Osage River. Hugh M and Hugh C. were first cousins.

**I recently (2016) discovered a little book on The Portal to Texas History called "Between The Creeks" that mentions "Maise" was a chainman under Daniel Rowlett and Daniel Montague and helped survey the lands of Fannin County, Texas. I wonder if surveying was a skill/trade of his?** To see the entire land record (bottom of page 6) where Maize is shown as a surveyor click here

Terry does make an interesting connection with Maize's son-in-law, George G. Dawson, in Rives, MO that same year, and a Malcolm Foster living next door. (Remember Maize's son and my ancestor was also named Malcolm - not him, but is it a namesake?)
We also know from the 1850 census that Maize's oldest child was born around 1830 in IL. Terry's ancestor James Foster, also hails from IL and in the 1830 STATE census there were 8 Foster families living in Morgan County. Again - No Maize is listed in the entire state of IL. The heads of families listed in the Morgan County census are: John Foster, Elizabeth Foster, James Foster, Mary Foster, Wm Foster, Wm F. Foster, James Foster (different from first) and John Foster (different from first). Is the Wm F. Foster listed the same Wm F Foster who shows up in the Fannin/Collin County Tax records the same year as Maize?

There is no luck searching the 1830 FEDERAL census either. More than likely because according to this website: "The 1820, 1855, and 1865 schedules have survived reasonably intact, but most returns for 1825, 1830, 1835, and 1845 are missing, and almost half of the 1840 state census has been lost."

Before 1830 Maize would be lumped in with his father's family in any census records, so this is where my trail runs cold.

To wrap things up, I don't know Maize's wife Sarah's maiden name or where they were even married. I know it would be sometime prior to 1830 if she were indeed the mother of his eldest child. Possibly in Illinois but I can't be certain.

The following children belonging to Maize I can document:

William H. Foster born about 1837 in MO, marries on 5 April 1866 Lucy Jane Stigall, the daughter of Peter Stigall and Mary "Polly" Edwards.

Nancy P. Foster born 5 Sept 1841 in MO (I'm not certain her birth date is correct - she was older than Mary and wasn't in need of a guardian appointed at the time of her father's death). She was the second wife of Peter Stigall, who again was the father of Lucy Jane Stigall. Nancy and Peter were married 27 Jan 1859 in Collin County.

Mary Foster born about 1839 in MO married first to George G. Dawson, Dec 1858. George died during the civil war. Mary then becomes the wife of David Smith 19 July 1865  she then marries again to James Nicholas Stigall, the son of Peter Stigall and Mary "Polly" Edwards on 2 Apr 1879.

My ancestor, Malcolm "Mack" Foster born in July of 1847 in Collin County, TX. He married Mary Knox 5 April 1866, the same day as his brother, William H. married his wife Lucy.

Then James Foster who was born in 1850, Collin County, TX. I don't have a spouse listed for him and I only know he and his brother Malcolm are buried side by side in Sims, TX, with two headstones splitting the word BRO-THERS.



In closing, if you're reading this and can make a connection this family, please reach out. I would love to connect with you. Also, I would love to find descendants of Malcom's siblings. Myself, and a few cousins of mine (descended from Malcolm) have tested with 23andMe and have uploaded our raw data to GEDMatch. We have compared our genomes with that of Terry Foster (descendant of James Foster) and there are no matches. I'm not sure that definitely means we're not related, possibly just that we didn't inherit the same genome as Terry may have. But then again, I really don't understand DNA well enough to make assumptions.

I hope you have enjoyed this wild goose chase. I hope we can eventually fill in all the missing pieces.

Until Next Week,
Becky



A cousin responded on FB and had this to say about Malcolm and his brother James: "My mother, Evie Foster Alexander, always referred to them as grandpa and uncle Jim. She told me that they were both widowers and lived together when she was little."