One line on my mother's side is the name Brown. Isaac H. Brown and wife Mary Ann Mooney Brown were residents of Warren Co., Tennessee. All of their children had unique and historical/classical names, my great-grandfather, Isaac's son, was name Ptolemy Philadelphus Brown (P.P. Brown for short).
Our brick wall was Isaac - who did he belong with? I remember writing one line that appeared to have similar names coming out of NC into TN and they quickly dismissed any possible connections.
You see - we had this story....
The name had not been originally BROWN....the family had lived in Scotland....there had been an apprenticeship....there had been a running away from the apprenticeship...impressment into military service to fight "Indians"....attack which left the ancestor wounded and tended by a local, friendly tribe...a marriage with a woman with a name like "Wastella" or "Washtella." A marriage? "
This was the story in the Isaac H Brown and Mary Ann Mooney family line. The first thing I learned about my mother's Browns included the statement "we are part Cherokee."
For decades, it was thought the story was Isaac's but then as I contemplated the events and sought for historical events that would account for the elements I noted they were lacking in his time line. Those things most likely occurred in the time line of a father or a grandfather. I began to look at the early Brown lines in Tennessee. The constant for Issaac was telling census takers he had been born in 1806 in Tennessee.
Then - after taking a DNA test - and taking a guess as to a likely candidate for father of Issaac, there was a hit! My Isaac H Brown (1806-1892) was a likely son of Absolem B. Brown and grandson of Thomas Archibald Brown.
In finding the revolutionary pension for Thomas Archibald Brown - I found the elements of the family legend.
Heritage to Scotland, apprenticed to a hatter, a leaving (escape) from that situation, 7 tours in the military across NC and SC. Around 1800 he had transplanted a large and extended family into Sullivan and Hawkins Co., Tennessee and then into Grundy and Warren Co.
There were wives of Native American partial (at least) descendent. There were avadavat's by numerous children and grandchildren that people considered the family "Cherokee" and that members of that tribe often came through and stayed on their lands.
One such document is from a son of the half-brother of Isaac H. Brown, Rev. William Sanford Brown:
In the matter of Claim of Dial Brown to Cherokee Indian Citizenship Affidavit of John A. Green,
State of Tennessee
On this the ?? day of November 1887 personally appeared before me the undersigned Clerk of the Circuit Court in and for said County John A. Green of Coffee County and State of Tennessee to me well known and who I certify to be credible and respectable, who being by me first duly sworn according to law, depo--- and said that he is a person of Cherokee Indian descent and was born in Warren County and State of Tennessee, that his age is 65 years and his Post Office Address is Noah, Coffee County, State of Tennessee;
that he is well acquainted with Dial Brown, the claimant named in the above entitled claim to Cherokee Indian citizenship and have been from the date of his birth and knows that said Dial Brown is a person of Cherokee Indian descent and that the said Dial Brown is a son of one Thomas Brown a (1/8) one eight breed Cherokee Indian who was born on the Cherokee Indian Reservation East of the Mississippi River in the year 1803 and died in Warren County and State of Tennessee in the year AD 1875, that he was well acquainted with the said Thomas Brown in his lifetime from the affiant early recollection until the date of the death of the said Thomas Brown as aforesaid;
that the said Thomas Brown was a son of one Absalom Brown a (1/4) Quarter Breed Cherokee Indian who was born on the Cherokee Indian Reservation east of the Mississippi River and died in Warren County and State of Tennessee in the year AD 1861; that the said Absalom Brown was his affiant's grandfather, that from his affiant's early recollection until the year A.D. 1838 he was well acquainted with Cherokee Indians who resided on the Cherokee Indian reservation.
This in the year AD 1837 or 1838 a band of Cherokee Indians [unreadable] go to the west and came near his affiant's father's house in Warren County and State of Tennessee, that said Cherokee Indians claimed him affiant and his affiant's mother to be their people and requested him, affiant and his affiant's mother to immigrate with them to the Indian Territory, that said Cherokee Indians did at same time and date call [next line unreadable] said Absalom Brown as aforesaid that said Cherokee Indians did in the presents [sic] of him Affiant, claim and say that the said Absalom Brown as aforesaid was one of their People and kin, that in the year A.D. 1835 near Ross's Landing on Tennessee River on the Cherokee Indian reservation in the State of Tennessee Cherokee Indian claimed him affiant to be a Cherokee Indian and one of their people by reason of affiant's being grandson of the said Absalom Brown as of [unreadable]
Witness: Sworn to and subscribed before me this day by the above named affiant and I certify that I carefully read and explained the contents of above affidavit to affiant before he executed [unreadable] knowledge of the facts stated therein and I am satisfied that hi fully understood the same and that he is [unreadable] to full [unreadable] and credit.
In testimony whereof I have herewith subscribed my name and
official seal of said court this ____ day of November, A.D. 1887----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------According to family tradition, these Cherokees, on the infamous "trail of tears" came by the home of Absalom Brown, acknowledged him as one of their own, seeking supplies for their journey, and asking Absalom Brown with his family to join them on their journey.
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| Isaac H Brown, P.P. Brown, Archimedes Brown. two other sons, bottom Mary Ann Mooney, daughter Elsinora and another son. |
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