The Wedding That Saved The Cherokee People Of Wayne County(KY)

[Brenda Collins Dillon]

I enjoyed this and thought I would share with others. It is great to know that the Indians and whites weren't fighting all the time.

Danny Troxell is active in saving and writing the history of Native
Americans. He is a descendent of Joseph Sumpter and Rebecca Jane Wood Owl. (Part 1)

From the November 1996 Issue of the Kentucky Explorer.

In North Carolina, and elsewhere, even in Kentucky, during the early
1800's, from 1800 to 1838, it was a time of dire hatred and prejudice against any Indians, especially the Cherokees. But not all white people hated the Indians, and from these white people would come a bond between the two that would bring a shining star of wisdom and friendship to the land. This is the true story of one of those incidents that would forever effect the shaping of a culture in southeast Kentucky at a place in Wayne County called Monticello.

But the heart of this story begins not in southeast Kentucky at a place
called Monticello, but afar off in the lands of North Carolina.

Joseph Supter was born in North Carolina, April 7, 1805. He was the
Grandson of Thoams Sumpter who was the famous aid to Timberlake in 1763. Thomas Sumpter and Timberlake were sent into Tennessee Cherokee territory in 1763 after the French and Indian War to acquire peace between the British colonies and the Cherokee Nation, and this is recorded in todays's archives of the United States. While their stay lasted many years with the Cherokee, Thomas Sumpter had married an honored Cherokee maiden from Tennessee. This would make Joseph Sumpter 1/4 Cherokee at his birth in 1805. The Sumters of North Carolina are
famous in history, there is Fort Sumpter, the town called Sumpter, and ,of course, the famous Cherokee Peace between the Cherokees and the United States of 1763.

Also in North Carolina, a Cherokee full-blood woman of the Cherokee Nation was born August 11, 1810. She was Rebecca Jane Wood Owl of the Cherokee Bird Clan. She was brought up in a North Carolina Cherokee Peace Village instructed only in the ways of peace in her youth. Her family were traditional medicine people that would collect herbs and plants to heal the sick, and of course, this knowledge was handed down
traditionally to Rebecca to carry on her inheritance as a healer of people as a medicine woman. This knowledge of peace and healing from her Cherokee lineage would later lay an important role in southeast Kentucky at a small settlement town called Monticello.

Later in North Carolina, by the middle 1820's, both Joseph Sumpter and
Rebecca Jane Wood Owl would encounter each other, fall in love, and come together in marriage, but difficulties arose over this bonding of

the two. At this time, it was illegal, by North Carolina written law, for any white man, under severe penalties, to marry any Indian. All the other states had also adopted written laws by this time as well,
including Kentucky, that no white person could marry a savage Indian, with severe penalties that varied from state to state. Another factor also affected the Marriage of Joseph and Rebecca in North Carolina. Their marriage was not carried out by any church as they had married
according to Cherokee custom only. Even though a great sacred Cherokee
ceremonial wedding was performed by the Cherokees, with both whites and Cherokees attending, many church leaders and the settlers of North Carolina used both the written political and non-Indian religious laws to deem this marriage illegal and unsanc-tioned {sic}. From this arose more dire prejudice against Joseph Sumpter, Rebecca, and their relations within the non-Indian communities.

By 1828 prejudice of the Cherokees everywhere had become brutal with many Cherokees becoming either isolated in mountains, forced deeper within the Cherokee Nation, or becoming beggar and alcoholics around most white settlements and towns. Around the white town most everywhere, any Cherokees, mixed blood, or white people who were friends to the Cherokee, became the unwanted and rejects to the white society, even though some had become Christian Indians through many denominational churches.

Joseph and Rebecca, after many discussions, decided to leave the area for a better way of life. They believed that the wilderness areas in Southeast Kentucky would be the best place to go to make a new start. Not having any horses, they carried on their backs what they could and set off for the lands of southeast Kentucky. They walked all the way on foot from North Carolina arriving in southeast Kentucky by 1829. They
had walked so far and so long, over rocks, mountains, rivers, and rugged paths that Rebecca's feet had turned black from broken blood vessels. They would remain black for the rest of her life causing severe pain. She would later become known to everyone as "that blackfoot woman," not from being a Blackfoot tribal Indian but
from the black of her feet. Her knowledge of Cherokee herbal medicine helped Rebecca endure the pain, suffering, an tears her feet gave her. This journey became known as her Tears of the Mountains.

Knowing of the close settlement nearby of Monticello, where they could
trade for supplies and supplements, Joseph and Rebecca built a cabin on top of a mountain of what now joins Morris Hill, Coffey Mountain, and Ray Hill. They walked many times to Monticello over the top paths of Morris Hill down to the early town of Monticello. Also in the area were many other Cherokee who lived in isolation within Wayne County. Joseph and Rebecca made themselves known, traded, and conferred, to both Cherokee and the whites of Monticello.

But at this time, prejudice against the Cherokees also held sway with many whites, but not all, of the people of Monticello and surrounding area. Many of the white people of Wayne County still remembered the exploits of War chief Doublehead and his campaigns against the settlers in the late 1700's to 1805. They remembered the Chickasaw involvement and raids when the sister of Cornblossom married the high Chickasaw Chief George Colbert of Natchez Trace, which brought the mighty

Chickasaws of western Kentucky and Tennessee into the Cumberland River area many times to help the Chickamauga of Cornblossom and her family. They also knew of War Chief Peter Troxell who had attacked
many Wayne Countians in 1807. War Chief Peter Troxel was granted amnesty by the governor of Kentucky later in 1807 for turning his scalping knife with 9 carved notches over to authorities at the Monticello courthouse in a peace treaty between the settlers and
the Cherokees. Many Wayne Countians by this date also remembered their
great victory in 1810 over the Cherokees when the 2 counties of Pulaski and Wayne joined together, attacked, and massacred 100 women and children at Yahoo Falls, breaking the peace treaty between War Chief Peter Troxell and the governor of Kentucky, also killing the Cherokee leaders of the area Beloved Woman Cornblossom, Standing Fern, and War Chief Peter Troxell thus destroying the power of the Cherokees from the
Cumberland River in Kentucky to Knoxville Tennessee. The settlers also
knew of the 1812 coming of the great Ohio Shawnee Chief Tecumseh to Wayne County which stirred the Cherokees up again. From all this, by 1829, the majority of Wayne Countians in southeast Kentucky, but not all, believed the Cherokees a conquered people unworthy of white society or white culture. And this was the way of the land when Joseph and Rebecca came to Monticello.

In order to get along with the white people of Monticello and to avoid
prejudice against themselves as Cherokee, Joseph and Rebecca occasionally attended during 1830 the first log cabin county church where the famous white preacher "Raccoon" John Smith held services at Horse Hollow. They walked all the way, trying to present themselves as friends to the community. Joseph and Rebecca also attended in 1830
many times the other field church meeting place of "Raccoon" John Smith near what was then and now called "Buster Grave Yard" located at Monticello itself. They would always walk the old Indian paths from their mountain top cabin across and through the forest to the other side of Morris Hill that faces Monticello and down to the field
church meeting near Buster Grave Yard. Now becoming fairly accepted by the people of Monticello for who they were, people with Indian blood, and feeling the love for her Cherokee family who she left so far away in North Carolina, Rebecca sent for her North Carolina Cherokee family in 1830, and they journeyed to live in Wayne County also.

By the fall and winter of 1830, Joseph and Rebecca were confronted and
Pressured by the majority of Wayne Countians to be remarried according to the law of Kentucky and church. Many of the people of Monticello (but not all), still held prejudice against the Cherokee and many of their ways. Many white people felt it would be the proper thing to do, believing that an Indian marriage was not only unconstitutional for the state of Kentucky, but also unlawful and immoral in the eyes of the white church and God. To avoid persecution and to bring harmony among the Cherokee and her people of Monticello, Joseph and Rebecca consented to be remarried to bond everything in friendship.

[Brenda Collins Dillon]

On February 19th, 1831, the marriage surety bond was dated through the
Wayne County courthouse. Twelve days later, on the 23rd of February 1831, Joseph Sumpter and Rebecca Jane Wood Owl were married inside the log cabin church of "Raccoon" John Smith at Horse Hollow. Inside and Outside of the log cabin were many friends from Monticello and Wayne County. As her father and relatives stood behind Rebecca, the marriage was performed by Reverend William Summers with John Haven as

surety. also present was the wife of William Summers, Nancy Roberts.

"Raccoon" John Smith was not present at the time due to his preaching
elsewhere. Reverend William Summers was acting preacher while "Raccoon" John Smith was away. William Summers himself had been married to Nancy Robert's by "Raccoon" John Smith march 4, 1813, in Wayne County in the same log cabin ("Raccoon" John Smith had married the preacher who married Joseph and Rebecca). Joseph Sumpter was age 25 and Rebecca Jane Wood Owl was 20 years old on this very cool day of
marriage, 23rd February 1831.

But on this day of marriage there would be more than holy matrimony that would play a role in the rich history of Monticello, Wayne County, the first Christian church, and the people, Cherokee and non-Indians. On this wedding day, Rebecca and Joseph had walked all the way through the mountains to get married. Inside the log cabin,Joseph and Rebecca were married in front of the fireplace while Joseph and Rebecca faced the preacher and the fireplace. In the corner next to Summers was
his wife Nancy, and behind Joseph and Rebecca's father, relatives and friends, Cherokee and white. After the vows were taken, Nancy and the white people sang Christian songs while the Cherokee sang Indian wedding chants, all together, all as one.

Afterwards, this same cool day, much celebration and feasting of food was partaken of inside and outside of the cabin. No one went hungry that day. Two sacred ceremonial feathers were given to Reverend Summers by Rebecca's father which symbolized the bonding of two worlds, two people, two cultures. It had been said that Reverend Summers
always kept one feather in his Bible, and placed the other to be kept on the mantle of "Raccoon" John Smith's cabin above the fireplace. Summers was given a Cherokee name that day and became known to the Cherokees as "Two Feathers>" The one feather Summers placed above the fireplace was believed to have been placed there for "Raccoon" John Smith upon his return. After the return of "Raccoon" John Smith this
feather could not be found anymore. Whether Smith kept it or not is not known. But Summers was said to have always held on and kept the one feather he had in memory of the marriage of Joseph Sumpter and Rebecca Jane Wood Owl.

From that day forward, Rebecca's father would always come twice a year to the first Christian church at Monticello next to the "Buster Grave Yard" and bring the best of hunted deer and turkey to the people of the first Christian church so no one would go hungry. He did this in honor of his daughter getting married to avoid persecution by any whites, to bond the closeness of the friendly people associated with
Reverend Summers, and the friendship between the Cherokee and some white friends of the Cherokee of Monticello. He would bring this feasting of food always on February 23 in honor of the date of the remarriage of his daughter and on the first quarter moon in October to honor the Cherokee festival of Renewal. This time in October of the first quarter moon is when the Cherokee say the Creator created everything in the beginning. It became a time of renewal when old things pass away and all new things begin. Rebecca's father would honor this bringing of wild game food each and every year until his death. Later, in 1838, only 7 years after the marriage of Joseph and

Rebecca, in infamous Trail of Tears took place which forced the removal of all Cherokees that could be found to move across the Mississippi River to Oklahoma Territory. the Cherokee people of Wayne County were spared from the Trail of Tears and not rounded up due to the sole fact of the bond and friendship of a simple wedding that took place in the
cabin of "Raccoon" John Smith between Joseph Sumpter and Rebecca Jane Wood Owl and of the friendship of many people of the first Christian church. This wedding saved the Cherokee people of Wayne County from the Trail of Tears and helped heal the wounds of sorrow between the two cultures.

Rebecca Jane Wood Owl died May 19, 1879, at age 69. Eight years later,
Joseph Sumpter died April 11, 1887, at age 82. Both are buried in the small Sumpter-Lee graveyard next to each other with a sandstone marker to represent their graves. This grave yard is located about 3 mile south of Monticello (take Highway 92 to the Billie Keeton Farm in the Oil Valley area) Today the sandstones are all but gone away, yet their gift of friendship and love that brought two worlds together in a time of prejudice and hatred will not fade away. Nor will the memory that many of the people of the first Christian church help save the Cherokee people for the Trail of Tears. Always will be remembered are the times of much food brought by the aged father of Rebecca to the people of Monticello at the field near the Buster Grave Yard.

Much is all forgotten now of this true incident that brought more people together in 1831. And over time much misunderstanding by non-Indians of the Cherokee people would arise again in lost memories. Maybe someday a memorial or marker will be placed somewhere to remember the two people who walked all the way from North Carolina to rendezvous with history to bring two cultures more closely together in friendship and avoid the Trail of Tears for the Cherokee people of Wayne County. May we not forget them.

Rebecca, using her ancient Cherokee knowledge of healing the wounds of
people, brought about the providence of saving the Cherokees of Wayne County, Kentucky. And to offer back what they had once received, according to the ancient Cherokee way, Rebecca's father gave back in food so that none could go hungry. And of Joseph, what his forefathers diplomatically accomplished in 1763, Joseph helped accomplish peace once again during these times, as according to the Peace People of the Cherokee Nation.

[Reba]

Brenda,
Do you know who Joseph Sumpter's parents were? I have a lot of Sumpter's in my line from Wayne Co., Ky and bet he is connected in some way. Thanks so much, Reba

[Linda]

Sorry, but Brenda passed away this past year. Maybe if you pose this question in the '"Share Genealogy" section someone can help you.

[measter]

General Sumpter was given the medal of honor.
His Heroic guirilla tactics, against overwhelming British Forces.

Easter married into Sumpter, Boone Terre, Mo, after dropping out of ky.

Most mix blood fled to Mo. or Texas, my Cherokee Hawkins did.

Known a Marion, "Swamp Fox"....

Bottomline, find a Easter, be a Hawkins, find a Hawkins, be Johnson,
or Sumpter. I am like a 7th cousin to em.Uncle Don Sumpter married
Estelle Easter, father John Ephraim Easter, Bonne Terre, Mo.

The Cherokee with the gift!