Introduction, Dedication, Contents, Bibliography and Suggested References, Historical Timeline
"Jesus Wept" An American Story of struggle, sacrifice, faith and hope
An Historical Novel
By
Just Another Savage
Introduction
Growing up in a 1950's The Lone Ranger and Tonto T.V. world, I didn't understand so much of the history my father told me about the Civil War, or the "Indian problem' with our Cherokee ancestors. Nor did I understand my mother's remembrances of being raised poor Irish in the Ozarks of Arkansas and her love of her family left behind while struggling for a better life for her children and the "American Dream'. I was born when Mama and Daddy were old, long after they came to the West Coast. They talked about 'back home' a lot. I wish I had listened more. We could all be better at that.
My memories of the stories were of entertaining musings, most of which I considered 'embellished'. Way too much of it didn't fit what the recently anointed gods of television and 'progressive' education were showing me. Besides, I didn't know any of those dead people anyway. I became the typical product of the sixties; smarter, freer, better educated than any generation before us. In other words what could any of those 'primitives' teach a baby boomer? Dude, get real! So, I basically put away the 'stories' with other memories, never thinking a great deal about them until both my parents were gone. The more people died off, the more curious I got. In my research, I realized that my father was 23 years old when his Cherokee great grandfther died, and well able to have learned the stories first hand.
Decades later, while searching historical records and meeting new found and distant family, caused the bits and pieces of those many years of tales told and faded photos, to 'fit'. The 'embellishments' weren't difficult to imagine. I hope you will enjoy meeting these citizens of our history, all imperfect human beings, in their time and homes, mostly in their words, as much as I did. My arrogance and 'superiority' were certainly put in their well deserved place. As Daddy said, "You're not learning anything while you're talking."
And through the suffering and triumph of generations to find they left us with the priceless gift that is The United States of America is humbling. Are we, their progeny, up to the task of keeping it?
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my mother and father, who told me the stories.
....And to my cousins Raby, Christine, Beanie, Kathy and the others like them who first gathered the family history that started my journey to find those childhood stories were true. We have quite a 'tribe'! We have certainly earned the right to be conflicted.
....And to our ancestors who left us hopefully wiser for their struggle. Thank you for writing so much of it down and keeping it for us to find! I have tried to capture the spirit and soul of your moments in history, even as I have envied your faith and courage.
....And to our children and grandchildren who are richer and freer for their heritage. Thank you to those who encouraged the process.
....And to all the children who didn't get to experience long walks with their Grampa down country roads.
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Contents
Chapter 1 "Jesus Wept" John 11:35
Chapter 2 Law, Law understood, and Law Executed
Chapter 3 The Trail Where They Cried
Chapter 4 Retribution -The Cherokee Civil War
Chapter 5 Mount Tabor
Chapter 6 The Knights of the Golden Circle
Chapter 7 The Battle of Wilson's Creek
Chapter 8 War, War, and more War
Chapter 9 Camp Watie
Chapter 10 Tell All the Negroes Howdy
Chapter 11 Second Battle of Cabin Creek
Chapter 12 Union Conscription
Chapter 13 Brave Women
Chapter 14 Peace
Chapter 15 The Inevitable
Chapter 16 Beginning, Again
Chapter 17 One Tin Soldier
"If there must be trouble
let it be in my day,
that my child
may have peace."
Thomas Paine
_________________________________________
Bibliography and Suggested References
"The Book", Family of "Ma", by Raby, Christine & Louvena Wallen
Kathy's Family by Kathy Gregory (www.myfamily.com)
Dr. Emmet Starr's History of the Cherokee Indians, The Warden Company, (1921)
Genealogy of "Old and New Cherokee Indian Families" George Morrison Bell Sr.(Watie Bell 2006)
Testimonies of Cherokee Freedmen Slaves, A 1937 WPA project. Records prepared by the Federal Writers' Project 1936-1938 assembled by Library of Congress Work Projects, Admin. Dist. Of Columbia http://www.gutenberg.org/
"Indian Warriors", the History Channel
"Civil War in Pictures", by Fletcher Pratt, Garden City Books.( Fletcher Pratt, 1955)
Cherokee Rolls of the Dawes Commission, U.S. Government
Angie Debo, A History of Indians of the United States. (Norman:University of Oklahoma,1970.)
Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Cherokees, Yeoman's Gazette, 1838. The Cherokee Situation, 1838.
Harold E. Driver, Indians of North America. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1961)
Richard B. Harwell, The Confederate Reader: How the South Saw the Way.(New York: N\Metro Book, 2002).
Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Civil War in the American West. (New York: Alfred E. Knopf, 1991).
Leon B. Richardson, "The Dartmouth Indians,"( Dartmouth Al- MagcraiK, Xxn June, 1930)
James Adair, The History of the American Indians (London, 1775)
http://www.paulridenour.com
Cunningham, Frank, General Stand Watie's Confederate Indians,(San Antonio, Naylor Co.1959)
Cherokee Cavaliers: Forty Years of Cherokee History as Told in the Correspondence of the Ridge Watie-Boudinot Family by Edward Everett (Dale, Gaston Litton)
The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson –( V. XI - Miscellanies 1884) .
http://www.oklahomagenealogy.
Cherokee Nation, The Confederacy http://
Knight, Wilfred Red Fox: Stand Watie and the Confederate Indian nations during the Civil War years in Indian territory (Glendale CA)
With special thanks to Western History Collection, "Chronicles of Oklahoma", University of Oklahoma researchers. They are responsible for the archiving of the Bell/Watie Family Letters which were salvaged through the years of war by James Madison Bell and then by Deliah Palmer Bell Jordan, the youngest daughter of James and Caroline Bell. Her son, Madison Jordan left them with the University in the 1920s.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kathy's Family by Kathy Gregory (www.myfamily.com)
Dr. Emmet Starr's History of the Cherokee Indians, The Warden Company, (1921)
Genealogy of "Old and New Cherokee Indian Families" George Morrison Bell Sr.(Watie Bell 2006)
Testimonies of Cherokee Freedmen Slaves, A 1937 WPA project. Records prepared by the Federal Writers' Project 1936-1938 assembled by Library of Congress Work Projects, Admin. Dist. Of Columbia http://www.gutenberg.org/
"Indian Warriors", the History Channel
"Civil War in Pictures", by Fletcher Pratt, Garden City Books.( Fletcher Pratt, 1955)
Cherokee Rolls of the Dawes Commission, U.S. Government
Angie Debo, A History of Indians of the United States. (Norman:University of Oklahoma,1970.)
Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Cherokees, Yeoman's Gazette, 1838. The Cherokee Situation, 1838.
Harold E. Driver, Indians of North America. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1961)
Richard B. Harwell, The Confederate Reader: How the South Saw the Way.(New York: N\Metro Book, 2002).
Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Civil War in the American West. (New York: Alfred E. Knopf, 1991).
Leon B. Richardson, "The Dartmouth Indians,"( Dartmouth Al- MagcraiK, Xxn June, 1930)
James Adair, The History of the American Indians (London, 1775)
http://www.paulridenour.com
Cunningham, Frank, General Stand Watie's Confederate Indians,(San Antonio, Naylor Co.1959)
Cherokee Cavaliers: Forty Years of Cherokee History as Told in the Correspondence of the Ridge Watie-Boudinot Family by Edward Everett (Dale, Gaston Litton)
The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson –( V. XI - Miscellanies 1884) .
http://www.oklahomagenealogy.
Cherokee Nation, The Confederacy http://
Knight, Wilfred Red Fox: Stand Watie and the Confederate Indian nations during the Civil War years in Indian territory (Glendale CA)
With special thanks to Western History Collection, "Chronicles of Oklahoma", University of Oklahoma researchers. They are responsible for the archiving of the Bell/Watie Family Letters which were salvaged through the years of war by James Madison Bell and then by Deliah Palmer Bell Jordan, the youngest daughter of James and Caroline Bell. Her son, Madison Jordan left them with the University in the 1920s.
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HISTORICAL TIMELINE - THE BELL FAMILY OF THE RIDGE PARTY
OF THE DEER CLAN OF THE CHEROKEE NATION
1771 "The Ridge" Full Blood Cherokee born Tennessee
1780 John Bell marries Cherokee woman 'Hughes' of the Deer Clan.
1781 John Adair marries Nancy "Gahoga" Lightfoot, Deer Clan.
1782 May, John Bell Jr. born Greenville Dist. South Carolina
1785 Charlotte Adair born Bartow Cty. Georgia
1790 Chief John Ross born Tennessee. 1/8 th Cherokee
1805 Bartow Cty. Georgia - John Bell Jr. marries Charlotte Adair
1806 John Adair "Jack" Bell born, oldest of 12 children, New Echota on the
Coo-sa-wa-tee River in community of other Ridge Party Families.
1807 Elizabeth Hughes Bell born, New Echota, married George Candy
1809 David Bell born, New Echota, I.T. married Nancy Martin
1812 Samuel W. Bell born, New Echota, I.T. married Rachel Martin
1814 Creek War, Major Ridge, 800 Cherokee volunteers fight for Andrew
Jackson's Army
1814 Nancy "Nannie" Bell born, married George Harlan Starr. Died Sept.1864,
Mt Tabor, Tx.
1817 Devereaux Jarrett Bell "Chicken Trotter" born, New Echota. Married
Juliette Lewis Vann. Died in 1875 Mt. Tabor, Texas
1820 Mar. 11, Sarah Caroline "Sally" Bell born, New Echota. Married to
Stand Watie.
1825 Charlotte Hughes Bell born, married Dr. William Dupree, 1851 in Texas.
Died 1912 Okla.
1826 James Madison Bell "Colo-Gotte-Yon" born near New Echota. Spent 4 years
at seminary in Ohio with Missionary Dr. Palmer
1828 Martha Jane Bell born married Rev. Walter Adair Duncan. She died in
1857 in Texas.
1828 Cherokee National Newspaper 'The Cherokee Phoenix', printed in English
and Cherokee
1834 Aug. 1, Elias "Cornielius" Boudinot born, New Echota, son of "Buck
Watie."
1835 December 29 Treaty of New Echota for Cherokee removal west signed with
US government by members of Ridge Party.
1838 October, Ridge Party families of Bell, Adair, Lynch, and others
removed from their homes, entered at Ft.Cass, Tenn. for holding to
await removal to Indian Territory West.
1838 Nov.22, Bell Detachment arrives Memphis, TN. Buried 17 in Monroe County
1838 Dec.25, Bell Detachment ferries Point Remove Creek, N.E.of Little Rock.
1839 January 7, Bell Detachment arrives at Evansville, Ark. Completed 707
miles in 89 days
1839 June 22, Honey Creek, I.T, Major Ridge, son John Ridge and Elias
Boudinot assassinated
1839 Charlotte Adair Bell dies, in Flint Dist, Indian Territory West.
1842 Sept.18 Stand Watie and Sarah Bell married. Live at Beatties Priarie,
Benton Cty, Ark.
1848 David Bell assassinated at Honey Creek, by Ross factions in
retaliation for brother John Adair Bell signing New Echota Treaty.
1848 Bell and other families leave I.T. to settlement of Mt.Tabor, Tx.
1849 Samuel Bell dies in route to California on Cherokee wagon train
1852 James Madison Bell and Caroline Lynch are married, Rusk County, Tx.
1852 July 12, John Bell Jr. dies at Mt. Tabor, Rusk County, Tx.
1854 Grass Valley, Ca. "The life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta"
first novel published in California written by John Rollin Ridge,
'Yellow Bird', grandson of Major Ridge.
1856 circa, Bell and other families leave Texas, settle in the Webbers Falls
area Of Indian Territory.
1861 On May 6, Arkansas seceded from the Union.
1861 August, The Cherokee Mounted Rifles formed by members of the Ridge
Party and headed by Stand Watie allying with the Confederacy.
1864 October 21, William Watie Bell born to James Madison and Caroline
"Carrie" Lynch Bell, Webbers Falls, C.N.
1865 June 23, Brig.Gen.Stand Watie and Cherokee Troups cease hostilites in
the Civil War at Doaksville near Ft. Towson, I.T.
1866 Caroline Lynch Bell, wife of James Madison Bell dies Webbers Falls,
Canadian Dist. C.N.
1871 Sept. 9, Stand Watie dies at his home near Grove on Honey Creek, C.N.
1872 Feb. The Town of Vinita, Ok. platted and headed by Ridge party families.
1876 Nov. Ft.Smith, Ar. James Madison Bell arrested, tried for treason
against the United States. Acts as his own attorney, aquitted .
1879 May, James Madison Bell fails to settle Cherokee Outlet
1882 Feb. 3, Sarah Caroline Bell Watie dies near Bernice, C.N.
1896 August 20, Elias "Cornelius" Boudinot dies Tahlequah, I. T.
1907 Oklahoma becomes the 46th State. The Cherokee Tribe is dissolved,
recognized again 1943
1915 March, Col. James Madison Bell dies at Vinita, Oklahoma at age 88
1937 Daisy Bell is a fictitious composite character. Her narrative of life
as a Cherokee slave, the Civil War, life after emancipation consists
largely of quotes and phrases from a project of the WPA of interviews
of Cherokee Freedmen Slaves from Oklahoma and Texas.
1995 June 29 U.S. Polstal Service issues commemorative stamp showing Stand
Watie on horseback after a raid on a Union river boat that can be seen
burning in the background.
2007 March Cherokee Tribe voted to no longer recognize descendants of
Cherokee freedmen slaves as part of tribal membership, proving the more
things change, the more they stay the same.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O'Neal-Kimbrell Family Timeline
OF THE DEER CLAN OF THE CHEROKEE NATION
1771 "The Ridge" Full Blood Cherokee born Tennessee
1780 John Bell marries Cherokee woman 'Hughes' of the Deer Clan.
1781 John Adair marries Nancy "Gahoga" Lightfoot, Deer Clan.
1782 May, John Bell Jr. born Greenville Dist. South Carolina
1785 Charlotte Adair born Bartow Cty. Georgia
1790 Chief John Ross born Tennessee. 1/8 th Cherokee
1805 Bartow Cty. Georgia - John Bell Jr. marries Charlotte Adair
1806 John Adair "Jack" Bell born, oldest of 12 children, New Echota on the
Coo-sa-wa-tee River in community of other Ridge Party Families.
1807 Elizabeth Hughes Bell born, New Echota, married George Candy
1809 David Bell born, New Echota, I.T. married Nancy Martin
1812 Samuel W. Bell born, New Echota, I.T. married Rachel Martin
1814 Creek War, Major Ridge, 800 Cherokee volunteers fight for Andrew
Jackson's Army
1814 Nancy "Nannie" Bell born, married George Harlan Starr. Died Sept.1864,
Mt Tabor, Tx.
1817 Devereaux Jarrett Bell "Chicken Trotter" born, New Echota. Married
Juliette Lewis Vann. Died in 1875 Mt. Tabor, Texas
1820 Mar. 11, Sarah Caroline "Sally" Bell born, New Echota. Married to
Stand Watie.
1825 Charlotte Hughes Bell born, married Dr. William Dupree, 1851 in Texas.
Died 1912 Okla.
1826 James Madison Bell "Colo-Gotte-Yon" born near New Echota. Spent 4 years
at seminary in Ohio with Missionary Dr. Palmer
1828 Martha Jane Bell born married Rev. Walter Adair Duncan. She died in
1857 in Texas.
1828 Cherokee National Newspaper 'The Cherokee Phoenix', printed in English
and Cherokee
1834 Aug. 1, Elias "Cornielius" Boudinot born, New Echota, son of "Buck
Watie."
1835 December 29 Treaty of New Echota for Cherokee removal west signed with
US government by members of Ridge Party.
1838 October, Ridge Party families of Bell, Adair, Lynch, and others
removed from their homes, entered at Ft.Cass, Tenn. for holding to
await removal to Indian Territory West.
1838 Nov.22, Bell Detachment arrives Memphis, TN. Buried 17 in Monroe County
1838 Dec.25, Bell Detachment ferries Point Remove Creek, N.E.of Little Rock.
1839 January 7, Bell Detachment arrives at Evansville, Ark. Completed 707
miles in 89 days
1839 June 22, Honey Creek, I.T, Major Ridge, son John Ridge and Elias
Boudinot assassinated
1839 Charlotte Adair Bell dies, in Flint Dist, Indian Territory West.
1842 Sept.18 Stand Watie and Sarah Bell married. Live at Beatties Priarie,
Benton Cty, Ark.
1848 David Bell assassinated at Honey Creek, by Ross factions in
retaliation for brother John Adair Bell signing New Echota Treaty.
1848 Bell and other families leave I.T. to settlement of Mt.Tabor, Tx.
1849 Samuel Bell dies in route to California on Cherokee wagon train
1852 James Madison Bell and Caroline Lynch are married, Rusk County, Tx.
1852 July 12, John Bell Jr. dies at Mt. Tabor, Rusk County, Tx.
1854 Grass Valley, Ca. "The life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta"
first novel published in California written by John Rollin Ridge,
'Yellow Bird', grandson of Major Ridge.
1856 circa, Bell and other families leave Texas, settle in the Webbers Falls
area Of Indian Territory.
1861 On May 6, Arkansas seceded from the Union.
1861 August, The Cherokee Mounted Rifles formed by members of the Ridge
Party and headed by Stand Watie allying with the Confederacy.
1864 October 21, William Watie Bell born to James Madison and Caroline
"Carrie" Lynch Bell, Webbers Falls, C.N.
1865 June 23, Brig.Gen.Stand Watie and Cherokee Troups cease hostilites in
the Civil War at Doaksville near Ft. Towson, I.T.
1866 Caroline Lynch Bell, wife of James Madison Bell dies Webbers Falls,
Canadian Dist. C.N.
1871 Sept. 9, Stand Watie dies at his home near Grove on Honey Creek, C.N.
1872 Feb. The Town of Vinita, Ok. platted and headed by Ridge party families.
1876 Nov. Ft.Smith, Ar. James Madison Bell arrested, tried for treason
against the United States. Acts as his own attorney, aquitted .
1879 May, James Madison Bell fails to settle Cherokee Outlet
1882 Feb. 3, Sarah Caroline Bell Watie dies near Bernice, C.N.
1896 August 20, Elias "Cornelius" Boudinot dies Tahlequah, I. T.
1907 Oklahoma becomes the 46th State. The Cherokee Tribe is dissolved,
recognized again 1943
1915 March, Col. James Madison Bell dies at Vinita, Oklahoma at age 88
1937 Daisy Bell is a fictitious composite character. Her narrative of life
as a Cherokee slave, the Civil War, life after emancipation consists
largely of quotes and phrases from a project of the WPA of interviews
of Cherokee Freedmen Slaves from Oklahoma and Texas.
1995 June 29 U.S. Polstal Service issues commemorative stamp showing Stand
Watie on horseback after a raid on a Union river boat that can be seen
burning in the background.
2007 March Cherokee Tribe voted to no longer recognize descendants of
Cherokee freedmen slaves as part of tribal membership, proving the more
things change, the more they stay the same.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O'Neal-Kimbrell Family Timeline
1809 Elias Harris Kimbrell born, Boone Co. Ky. Died 1888, Searcy Co., Ar.
1849 June 11, James Kornelius O'Neal born Bradley Co., Ar. married Tima Ann
Kimbrell 1/28/1869 Leslie, Searcy Co., Ar.Died 6/30/1918 Searcy Co., Ar.
1865 Feb. Blackburn O'Neal (Union) killed in action at Ft. Lewisburg, Ar.
1909 Lena Kimbrell, the author's mother, born Marshall, Searcy Co., Ar.
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Copyright Billie S. Nix
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