The First Use of the Word Melungeon .....

READER BEWARE

Early in my research when I just accepted what someone transcribed, I found the 'transcription' of a marriage permit for my x great grandfather Oliver Staton.  It said his father was John Staton but I could not find one John Staton who could be his father.  After a couple of years of brick walls I finally ordered the original document.  John was actually Solm [Solomon] Staton. It wasn't long before I had added several generations to the tree.

Another bad transcription was another permission to marry for the daughter of Hannah McCarty.  The permission slip was transcribed as Thos and Hannah McCarty. Well.... I found a couple of records for Augustine and Hannah but not a one for a Thomas McCarty. Ordered the original record and what it actually said was; This day [not Thos and] Hannah McCarty, Augustine was deceased.

Moral of this story is; if it is a transcription look for the original. 

The First Use of the Word Melungeon 

The earliest reference to the word Melungeon being found in the Stony Creek Church records in 1813 is in the 2000 copy of MELUNGEONS AND OTHER PIONEER FAMILIES - by Jack Goins.  Page 9 states;

"The word Melungin first appeared on a written record in the minutes of Stony Creek Church in 1813."

This has been copied over and over again and is found in numerous books, articles, blogs, etc. I think most researchers would agree it is a very important part of the history of these Melungeon families to know when the word was first used. But what if it was transcribed wrong?  What if the first use of this word in print was not at the Stony Creek Chuch in 1813? We do not have the original, but merely a transcription of the original record by Emory L. Hamilton which was then transcribed by Bobbie M. Baldwin and then transcribed by Jack Goins. 

Jack Goins posted this to the Melungeon List at Rootsweb;

Emory L. Hamilton Copied the Stony Creek Church minutes from theoriginals, the copy in the Palmer Room, kingsport, TN. Library was copied by Bobbie M. Baldwin from Emory L. Hamilton's copy.  Jack Goins [Source]

And then it was printed in;

Walking Toward The Sunset: The Melungeons Of Appalachia Wayne Winkler page 57
"The minutes for September 26, 1813, long after many of the Melungeon-surname families had moved away, provide one last reference to these families- and the first written record of the word "Melungeon," or at least a variant spelling."

Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
The earliest documented use of the term "Melungeon" found to date is in the Stoney Creek Baptist Church (Scott County, Virginia) minutes for September 26, 1813

Wikipedia

The earliest known written use of the word Melungeon is in an 1813 Scott County, Virginia Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church record:

Melungeon Historical Society

The earliest known written use of the word "Melungeon" is in an 1813 Scott County, Virginia Stony Creek Primitive Baptist Church record:

It has been copied and printed so many times it has become  a 'matter of record' so to speak. It appears in the controversial paper published last year and copied around the world and it would appear they have used this undocumented transcription to determine which families were first called Melungeons. 

Melungeons, A Multiethnic Population Roberta J. Estes, Jack H. Goins, Penny Ferguson, Janet Lewis Crain

"The next written record of Melungeons is found in Russell County, Virginia in the Stony Creek church minutes in 1813 when a reference was made to “harboring them Melungins.” From that point forward in time, we access historical documents to determine which families were originally considered to be Melungeon. "

Note they write this is the "second" use, the "first" they suggest was in Arkansas.

First Records of Melungeon The first recorded instance of any word resembling Melungeon is found surrounding an 1810 event in Arkansas.  In 1972, Baxter County, Arkansas published a Centennial edition of its history. In it they describe a Tennessean, Jacob Mooney, along with Jacob Wolf, reportedly of Hawkins County, Tn., who made numerous incursions into Arkansas for the purpose of trading livestock, etc.  The following passage describes Mooney's first trek to Baxter County in 1810.   

"The four men who had come with Mooney were men of Mystery, referred to by oldtimers who knew of them as "Lungeons." They were neither Negro or Indian and in later years Jacob Mooney was ostracized for living with these "foreigners"...by the time he moved to Arkansas for good, his former slaves and the "lungeon" men had died and most of their families had moved west with the Indians."

This quote was written by Mary Ann Messick, great great granddaughter of Jacob Mooney,  in 1973. No where is it recorded before 1973. 

Both of these supposed 'first time it was used' instances sound good, they are not evidence, they have not been documented, and both instances are very questionable, in my opinion.

It is possible there were Melungeons at the Stony Creek Church and it is possible the word was found in the records.  It is also possible they were 'harboring them Mcclungs. Hugh and Charles McClung were surveyors and large landowners in the area around the Stony Creek Church, neither lived in the area, one lived in Pennsylvania, the other in Tennessee. This seems more likely as a transcription of Melungin, these dark skinned families were members of this church as early as 1800 and not once were they ever referred to as 'Melungins' from that time til 1813 or after. There were also Millikens there, and a James Melungin from Halifax Co., NC had moved to Tennessee around this time also.

In January 2004 Nancy Morrison posted to the Melungeon list at Rotsweb; 

I think there IS proof of the word Melungeon found in the Stony Creek Minutes!! That is as close to primary source as you can get. It was written WHILE it was happening from a person who had been listening to it as it was SAID.

Frank [Collins?]  Responded;

Howdy; Nancy if this IS your source we may be in a world of HURT. Has anyone seen this original book , or page of the Stony Creek Church minutes? This is book two and here is what Emory L. Hamiliton wrote about book two;  "Book 1, ends with July 1811. Book Number 2, is a few faded pages with no covers. Book 2 starts with what seems to be part of the Minutes of the November meeting 1811. These minutes between July 1811 and November 1811 have apparently been torn off and lost. Book 2, is in a very faded condition and very difficult to read.

Sept 26, 1813 skip to "for saying she harbored them Melungins (Melungeons)."

I think it is very odd that no one has come forward with a copy from this original page, I am not sure someone who had never heard about the Melungeons would have come up with Melungins, Maybe housing those "mulattoes". or Mullikins. How about it folks. Have any of you seen this original Stony Creek book, or page. I will lay odds you haven't and will never see it. Frank 

That was nine years ago Frank wrote that and to this day I still have not heard of anyone who has seen this record.  It has been used to trace "Melungeon families" from Louisa Co., Va., to Orange Co., and Wilkes Co., North Carolina to Newman's Ridge.  It has now been used to perpetuate a surname list which they have based a DNA project on and written a history of the Melungeons. But what if this transcription was wrong and the word was not used in 1813 at the Stony Creek Church?


POLITICS

The first use of the word was found in the WHIG October of 1840. This impudent Malungeon was from Washington DC - not Newmans Ridge.

Oct., 7, 1840
NEGRO SPEAKING! (Click Here for original scan - this is another instance of bad transcription - for years this article posted to the internet indicated this Melungeon was from Washington COUNTY rather than Washington CITY)
We have just learned, upon undoubtedle authority, that Gen. Combs, in his attempt to address the citizens of Sullivan County, on yesterday, was insulted, contradicted repeatedly, limited to one hour and a half, and most shamefully treated, and withall an effort was made, to get an impudent Malungeon from Washington City, a scoundrel who is half Negro and half Indian, and who has actually been speaking in Sullivan, in reply to Combs!  Gen. Combs, however, declined the honor of contending with Negroes and Indians - said he had fought against the latter, but never met them in debate! 

Brownlow's Whig October 28 Reprinted from the Tennessee Mirror
With astonishment we have understood that a half Negro, and half Indian has been speaking to the citizens of Sullivan on the subject of politics! This surely is  a great insult, and ought not to be tolerated, by any honest man in the Union.  Surely this is exaggeration, and cannot be!  What!  A NEGRO lecture on enlightened community!  It cannot be!

Brownlow's Whig
We can assure the editor of the "Mirror," that an infamous Negro has been speaking in Sullivan County -- no mistake, for we have seen and conversed with several gentlemen who seen and heard the vile scamp.  And he was put up by the DEMOCRATIC party, and by that party sustained, and now apologized for, on the ground of his having some Indian blood in him, and having been raised by JACKSON!

So was the first use actually used in POLITICS? 

The first man tried in the illegal voting trials was Wyatt Collins which took place in January of 1848 in Rogersville, Tennessee. Is it merely coincidental that a journalist from Kentucky found his way up the the remote section of Vardy Valley to spend the night at Vardy's Spa, owned by Vardy Collins who was also charged in the illegal voting trials in 1848. It was then this journalist wrote his famous 'Legends of the Melungeons.'

Here we have  documented the first  use of Melungeon in 1840 as a political term and very likely the second in 1848. From 1856 into the early 1900s we find numerous uses of the word used politically.  Here are a few excerpts;

- The platform of Feb 1856 which expunged and ignored the 12th section and in a letter which goes expressly for restoring the Missouri Compromise. The Mulungeons of Richmond endorsed the 'late convention' at Philadelphia too; but will any southern man-- a Stuart or an Imobdin even -- endorse this letter for the restoration of the Missouri Compromise.''

SOURCE

From the Richmond Whig. Letter from Hon. John M. Botts
Date: March 26, 1859
Location: Maryland
Paper: Easton Gazette
Article type: Letters

......when the Sheriff came to count up the votes at the close of the polls, they counted but five -- and if I had received the vote of one ''Molungeon,'' and he had been authorized by the Constitution to vote, and had 'had' a majority of only one--- it would have been difficult to tell, whether I was most indebted for my election to the "Molungeon" or to the Chief Justice of the U.S.; and if my competitor had received six "Molungeon" votes, or the votes of six worthless and degraded locofocos (supposing they could be any such) they would have more than balanced these five of the first men of the State could boast...........

THE ORATORICAL OGRES AT WORK
GOGGIN SWALLOWED WHOLE

Date: March 28, 1859 
Location: Alabama Paper: Daily Confederation

Thirteen congressional electors, fifty senatorial electors, and three hundred and sixty county electors have been notified to hold themselves in readiness to repel the Dragoon of Rockbridge. Botts too, will dash to the rescue at the head of a noble band of"Molungeons and Eboshins" as soon as the weather becomes sufficiently warm to render his odoriferous forces efficient.
The Slave Power; its Character, Career, and Probable Designs. By JE...

Continental monthly: devoted to... - Cornell University - Jan 1, 1863

"Whether their own children were sold may be imagined from an anecdote long current in Virginia, relative to ex-Governor Wise, who, in a certain law case where he was opposed by a Northern trader, decided of a certain slave, that the chattel, being a mulatto, was of more value than 'a molungeon.' And what, in the name of God, is a molungeon?' inquired the astonished 'Northern man." 'A mulatto' replied Wise, ' is the child of a female house-servant by 'young master' --a molungeon is the offspring of a field hand by a Yankee peddler."

Mr. Cairnes has, no doubt, not often heard of mulattoes--they constitute the great majority of Virginia slaves. But did he ever hear of a 'molungeons'?

 From Our Own Correspondent Fredericksburg, January 10, 1864"the "Government organ," however, announces that the observed of all observers were four negroes, "of genteel exteriour, and with the manners "of gentlemen, who joined in the throng that 'crowded the Executive Mansion, and were coridaly received by the President of the Untied State,'' The Molungeon Chronicle adds; -- We are not aware that anybody was hurt on the occasion, and we rejoice that we have a President who is a democrat in fact, as well as by nature."

Staunton SpectatorMay 25, 1869
The Duties of Election Day(Column 01)

Summary: Declared that all eligible voters have the duty to vote on election day to ensure the defeat of certain sections of the Underwood constitution and to elect Walker as Governor. Wanted to ensure at least some form of control for white Virginians in the state.
Full Text of Article:The election which will take place on the 6th day of July next, by appointment of the President, will decide whether the people of this State are to be cursed with the Underwood abomination, called a Constitution, as it came from the hands of the Molungeon Convention, or whether it will be modified by having the test-oath and disfranchising clauses stricken out -- whether Walker or Wells will be our Governor, and whether proper men will be elected to represent the State in the Legislature.

February 17th 1868

UNCONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONSTATE MILITIA
By Lewis Lindsey"knee deep" -- To make all whites, moulungeons, mulattoes and negroes, between eighteen and forty five, militia men, the officers to be appointed by the Governor, with the approval of the Legislature. They are to do desperate duty in time of insurrection or invasion, and rally round the flag, provided, they do nothing which conflicts with the laws of the United States. It was referred to the committee on Military Affairs.

Staunton Spectator., March 23, 1869
The Carpet Bag Scalawag N***** Ticket!  The labors of the Molungeon mob in Petersburg, were brought to a happy termination Wednesday night, by the nomination of Wells, carpet bagger, for Governor; Harris, N*****, for Lieutenant Governor; Bowden, scalawag, for Attorney General and Crane, Carpet bagger for Congressman at Large -- a sweet set truly! .... Lynchburg News

Staunton spectator., June 01, 1880, Image 1
FALLING INTO LINE
But when it comes to a formal alliance with Radicals and negroes, asociation in meetings -- a new basis with promises of mixed jurien-- aboliton of poll tax and all the promises of the Radical party, the visions of the days of the carpet bagger and the scalawag, and the Molungeon convention revive, and the hard working honest non political farmer snd mechanics call a halt.

The Daily Dispatch., May 15, 1883, Image 2 [Richmond]....."From every part of the country we hear the endorsation of the farmers and planters that we can no longer be burdened and crippled by this Molungeon constitution." 

Staunton sSpectator., June 05, 1883, 

WHAT THEY WERE AFTER -- THE LYNCHBURG ADVANCE
"The people are rising.  They see that the old Molungeon party has come back under the new name of coalition that the locusts of Radicalism, like their predeccessors - the carpetbaggers and scalawags - are on the make again to plunder the State -- they were this spring diligently searching for aplaces to plunder the people and pay their followers. They tried to get the Supervisor's places to tax counties, create places and increase salaries. They tried to get all the treasurers to control the oney of the counties and State. ......

Staunton spectator., May 20, 1884WHAT A FARCE
The Molungeon Convention, recently convened in Richmond for the purpose of letting the country know what a set of hypocrites and political dead-beats they have been for four years, set forth in great swelling words, their devotion to the material interests in the State, and their great desire to develop its resources, build up its manufactories and protect the labor and industries of the country.  Now it is not remarkable that not one of these loud mouthed leaders ever invested a dollar in these industries, nor did they represent in the  whole State five hundred men who ever did.
They did not even represent the better class of labor; not a tithe of the skilled labor, the mechanics of the State, nor did they represent its trade, nor its property. And yet, representing it ignorance and its poverty they undertake to tell the country that they are to protect and preserve the great industrial and materila interests of the State -- What is this party - that proclaims that it is the Republican party of Virginia? A number of provessional politicians - Arthur's officers and office seekers lenading the ignorant negroes of the State, and a few white men in each county........

Staunton spectator and vindicator., October 06, 1905,

REPUBLICAN CRIMES IN VIRGINIA

Did Judge Lewis rejoice over the efforts of the Molungeon convention, and counsel its members as to their actions and expressed desires with reference to the ballot, the honesty of their proposed government, and their enslavery of the white people who had been Southern sympathizers? Certainly no man can accuse him now of having been a Union man, a Northern sympathazier, and original Republican, and in the same breath say he was insincere in anything which was then regarded as an evidence of loyalty. 

Cherokee Melungeons Part II

The map below shows the Cherokee boundary line 

of 1785 as it appears to run smack dab 

down the middle of Sneedville.

On November 6, 1837, the Hawkins County Land Platt Book records the survey for James Livesay of 500 acres of land on an "Indian village on the waters of Painter/Panther Creek on the north side of Clinch River."  It would appear if there was an Indian village near Sneedville it would have been the Cherokee tribe.

The Gibsons, Sizemores, Collins, Bunch, etc., had came from Wilkes County, North Carolina before settling near the Cherokee boundary. Mulberry Fields in Wilkes County was identified as a Cherokee town as early as 1752 by the Moravians.

Christopher and Nathaniel Gist (Indian trader with a Cherokee wife] are on this 1751 tax list on the Dan River with Edward Nicks (son in law of Thomas Gibson) and  two John Gibsons.  One of these John Gibsons is no doubt the son of Thomas Gibson of St Martin's Parish ( and brother in law of Edward Nicks) who died 1734.

This Jefferson Frye map of 1749 below shows Gist/Gyst with land at Mulberry Fields. Benjamin Cleveland was at Mulberry Fields in 1774 and in his list of tithables is John Gibson, son of Gideon Gibson of Marrs Bluff, South Carolina and his wife Agnes,  daughter of the Cherokee Indian trader, James Adair.

Capt. L. M. Jarvis, an old citizen of Sneedville wrote in his 82nd year:

"I have lived here at the base of Newman's Ridge, Blackwater, being on the opposite side, for the last 71 years and well know the history of these people on Newman's Ridge and Blackwater enquired about as Melungeons. These people were friendly to the Cherokees who came west with the white immigration from New River and Cumberland, Virginia, about the year 1790...The name Melungeon was given them on account of their color. I have seen the oldest and first settlers of this tribe who first occupied Newman's Ridge and Blackwater and I have owned much of the lands on which they settled.. They obtained their land grants from North Carolina. I personally knew Vardy Collins, Solomon D. Collins, Shepard Gibson, Paul Bunch and Benjamin Bunch and many of the Goodmans, Moores, Williams and Sullivans, all of the very first settlers and noted men of these friendly Indians. They took their names from white people of that name with whom they came here. They were reliable, truthful and faithful to anything they promised. In the Civil War most of the Melungeons went into the Union army and made good soldiers. Their Indian blood has about run out. They are growing white... They have been misrepresented by many writers. In former writings I have given their stations  and stops on their way as they emigrated to this country with white people, one of which places was at the mouth of Stony Creek on Clinch river in Scott County, Virginia, where they built fort and called it Ft. Blackamore after Col. Blackamore who was with them... When Daniel Boone was here hunting 1763-1767, these Melungeons were not here."

......  Office Of .........

M. R. Buttery

Sheriff of Hancock County

Sneedville, Tenn
May 10, 1897
Mr. Mc Donald Furman
Ramsey, S. C.

Dear Sir:  I would have written you sooner but got your letter mislaid.  The man Hatfield you inquire about is no relation to the notorious Hatfield of Kentucky. As to the Melungeons I know of no book containing any history of them. They are a peculiar set of people, most of them are very dark, straight hair and high cheek bones resemble a Cherokee Indian.  Since the war they have become civilized and a great many of them are good citizens and good livers.  I knew old Sol Collins when I was a little boy and was well acquainted with two of his boys and one his girls.  I guess she is the largest woman in the State.  She ways about five hundred pounds.  If you will write Capt L. M. Jarvis of Sneedville he will write you a good history of the Melungeons.

Yours Respectfully,
M.R. Buttery

Watson's Jeffersonian Magazine -

Page 522   1911

I have traveled horse-back before, during and since the Civil War, in the counties where these people live, and have seen them in their cabin homes.... In my boyhood days they were called Portuguese. The word Mulangeon is comparatively modern as to its general use. As a rule they did not go into either army; did not wish to. They preferred agriculture; happy in their mountain cabins. The extract from McKinney's speech is garbled. He truly said the language of the disfranchising clause included these people because it embraced "all free persons of color" but notwithstanding that the majority of them always voted because their neighbors did not regard them as negroes or as having negro blood in their veins. I believe there was some mixture of these Portuguese with the Cherokee Indians, but not with negroes.

John Bell Brownlow

 American Notes and Queries - 

Edited by William Shepard Walsh, Henry Collins Walsh, 

William H. Garrison, Samuel R. Harris 

1891

March 21, 1891 -- In The Arena for March 1891, there is an entertaining and valuable account, written by W. A. Dromgoole, about the Malungeons, an outcast race of people living in the mountains of East Tennessee.  In 1834, by the Act of the Constitutional Convention, the right of suffrage was denied them, but it has since been restored.  The Malungeons claim to have been originally Portuguese (in the Portuguese language, malandrim means an outcast, a vagabond). Their principal stronghold at present is on Newman's Ridge in Hancock county.  They are not negroes, for their hair is straight, their complexion is reddish brown. The pure Malungeons are sometimes called Ridgemanites; those who have white or negro blood are called Blackwaters.  Many persons believe, with some show of reason, that the Malungeons have an admixture of Cherokee blood.

ODD THINGS ABOUT INDIANS

Atlanta Constitution

July 21, 1901

Excerpt;

North Carolina's Croatans, who claim to be descendants pf Raleigh's lost colony are not the only peculiar people among the red inhabitants of these United States. The claim is not new it has been more or less exploited these thirty years, along with that of the still more curious Melungeons of East Tennessee.  Their name, said to come from the French melange, a mixture, must be pre-eminently fit, since they show racial characteristics of the Cherokees, the negroes, the Portugese, and the plain, ordinary poor whites.

FORT WORTH REGISTER

NOVEMBER 24, 1900

The Malungeons number about 150.  They are the last of a once numerous and powerful race older than Tennessee itself.  A tradition among them is that they are descendants of a colony of Portuguese who amalgamated with the Cherokee Indians hundreds of years ago.  Another legend is that they are descendants of the lost colony of Roanoke and the redskins.  The lost colony of Roanoke was composed of English settlers, who made their home on the eastern shore of Virginia.  The Malungeons are thrifty farmers and honest and upright as a rule.  They are brown-skinned and black-haired and have regular features.

Paper: Dallas Morning News

Peculiar Peoples In America

By Frederic J. Haskins

Date: June 23, 1907
On Newman's ridge in Hancock County, Tennessee, overlooking the beautiful Clinch River Valley, lives one of the most mysterious people in America.  Through their Anglo-Saxon neighbors or through writers of romance the name "Malungeon" has been given them, a name that the better element resents.  They resemble in feature the Cherokee Indians, and yet have a strong, Caucasian cast of countenance that makes their claim to Portuguese descent seem probable.  They came, so a legend runs, of a bard of Portuguese pirates, who long yeas ago were wrecked on an unknown coast, became adopted into an Indian tribe and were part of the Cherokees who two or three centuries later refused to go West and live on the reservation that a kindly Government offered when it needed their Eastern lands.

Report on Indians Taxed and Indians 

Not Taxed in the United States

(except. Alaska) at the Eleventh Census: 1890. 

Washington, DC: 

US Census Printing Office

Page 594
TENNESSEE
the civilized [self-supporting] Indians of Tennessee, counted in the general census, number 146 [71 males and 75 female] and are distributed as follows. Hawkins county, 31; Monroe county, 12' Polk county 10; other counties [8 or less n each]. 93

In a number of states small groups of people, preferring the freedom of the woods or the seashore to the confinement of regular labor in civilization, have become in some degree distinct from their neighbors, perpetuating their qualities and absorbing into their number those of like disposition, without preserving very clear racial lines. Such are the remnants called Indians in some states where a pure-blooded Indian can hardly longer be found. In Tennessee such a group, popularly known as Melungeans, in addition to those still known as Cherokee.

The names seems to have been given them by early French settlers, who recognized their mixed origin and applied to them the name Melangeans or Melungeans, a corruption of the French word "melange" which means mixed. [See letter of Hamilton McMillan, under North Carolina.]

The Melungeans or Malungeans, in Hawkins county, claim to be Cherokees of mixed blood {white, Indian, and negro], their white blood being derived, as they assert, from English and Portuguese stock. They trace their descent primarily to 2 Indians [Cherokees] known, one of them as COLLINS, the other as GIBSON, who settled in the mountains of Tennessee, where their descendants are now to be found, about the time of the admission of that state into the Union [1796]. One of the sources of their white blood is said to have been an Indian trader names Mullins [Jim Mullins], the other was a Portuguese named Denham, who is supposed to have been put ashore o the coast of North Carolina from a pirate vessel for being troublesome to his captain, or insubordinate. Their negro blood they trace to a negro named Goins, perhaps a runaway slave, who joined Collins and Gibson soon after they accomplished their purpose of settlement. The descent of the Melungeans from such ancestors is readily observable, even those of supposed Portuguese mixture being distinguishable from those of negro mixture, thought it is not impossible that Denham was himself of mixed blood, as the Portuguese pirates sometimes recruited their crews from the ‘maroons’, or negroes, who had taken to the mountains of the West India island as slave n rebellion against their masters. Some of these were mixed Carib, or white blood [English, Spanish or Portuguese], the former being the natives [Indians] of these islands.

__In the general census these Melungeans were enumerated as of the races which they most resembled._

Cherokee Melungeons Part I

THE CHEROKEE MELUNGEONS 

Will Allen Dromgoole

"He was very tall and straight, with hawk-like eye, and long, coarse hair that fell about his well-shapen shoulders with that careless abandon which characterizes the free child of the forest. He wore neither shoes nor stockings, and his trousers were rolled back above the strong, well formed knee, showing the dusky skin which marked him of a race other than white or black.  Indian: the grandson of a chief, and the son of a full-blooded Cherokee. Such he claimed, and the most dubious would have yielded the point."  

"Calloway Collins is an Indian if ever one set foot on Tennessee soil.  He is very fond of his red skin, high cheek-bones and Indian like appearance." (5) 

  ~Will Allen Dromgoole  1890

This photo is from the article "Mysterious Tribe Known as the Malungeons" (5) appearing in newspapers in 1890, the same time Will Allen Dromgoole's articles were published. It appears on the Melungeon Wikipedia page although the caption simply reads  "A Typical Melungeon."

The subject is Calloway Collins a descendant of Benjamin Collins through his son Jordan Collins and if he is a typical Melungeon as depicted at Wikipedia then the "typical Melungeons were Cherokee, at least on Newmans Ridge in Tennessee. 

In 1890 Will Allen Dromgoole went to Hancock County, Tennessee to learn the origins of the Melungeons.  The English had come down through Jim Mullins, the Indian trader and the African branch had came down through the Goins. She had a hard time learning of the Portuguese branch as it was 'stoutly denied' but apparently traced it to the Denhams. Buck Gibson's wife was Matilda Denham. The Gibson and Collins were Indians, Cherokee Indians. 

Dromgoole wrote;

"The Malungeons believe themselves to be of Cherokee and Portuguese extraction. They cannot account for the Portuguese extraction. They cannot account for the Portuguese blood, but are very bold in declaring themselves a remnant of those tribes, still inhabiting the mountains of North Carolina, which refused to follow the tribes to the Reservation set aside for them. (3)

"These two, Vardy Collins and Buck Gibson, were the head and source of the Melungeons in Tennessee. With the cunning of their Cherokee Ancestor, they planned and executed a scheme by which they were enabled to "set up for themselves" in the almost unbroken Territory of North Carolina." (4)

"The owner was a full-blooded Indian, with keen, black eyes, straight black hair, high cheeks, and a hook nose. He played upon his violin with his fingers instead of a bow, and entertained us with a history of his grandfather, who was a Cherokee chief, and by singing some of the songs of his tribe." (2)

"Many of the Malungeons claim to be Cherokee and Portuguese. Where they could have gotten their Portuguese blood is a mystery. The Cherokee is easily enough accounted for, as they claim to have come from North Carolina, and to be a remnant of the tribe that refused to go when the Indians were ordered to the reservation. They are certainly very Indian-like in appearance." (1)

"Still, it was good to be a healer; his grandfather, old Jordan Collins, had been a healer too, -- a healer and a chief; a full-blooded Cherokee chief. No doubt about that: it was on  the records" (6)

"He half rose from his seat, and waved his large, strong hand toward the upper heights, dark with the purplish forests in whose mysterious depths the old Cherokee — Jordan — had been sleeping for fifty years. A Cherokee! Such he claimed, and none have yet successfully denied the claim;" (6)

"The musician ceased playing: the fiddle lay across his knee. Now and then his hand strayed among the mellow old strings, but only to , caress them. His thoughts were far away among the days when old Jordan Collins had fiddled for the young people on Newman's Ridge and Black Water Swamp. Old Jordan was an Indian, "Soft Soul" they called him, and he had been respected by the whites. No man had ever dared call old Jordan a negro: he was a Cherokee, feared and respected as a Cherokee."(6)

(1) Land of the Malungeons   

(2) A Strange People 

(3) The Malungeons  

(4) The Malungeon Tree and It's Four Branches

(5) Mysterious Tribe Known as the Malungeons    

(6)  THE LAST OF THE MALUNGEONS

About the Author

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Malungeons - Illegal Voting Trial & Cherokee Indians

• The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)
• 26 September 1897
• Page 15

THE MALUNGEONS

The Malungeons who inhabit the mountainous districts of Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas, have long been an interesting study of ethnologists. Theory after theory has been advanced as to their origin, and some of the most scholarly men of the country have given thought and investigation to the subject.

J. H. Newman, who has lived  among the Malungeons in Hancock county, Tennessee, for sixty-seven years and who has given long and intelligent study to the question of the origin of these strange people gave your correspondent the following interview of the result of his research; 

"The origin of these people goes back to the aborigines of North America who came here from Virginia, and they are the descendants of friendly Indians ad half breeds left in Virginia when the Indians all went West from there under treaties made with the white people, and as is their habit, they would all go together, and settle together and as the whites advanced their frontiers west these people [Malungeons] were with the front and came here to Newman's Ridge and Blackwater about the year 1800, or possibly a few years later.  Some of them were in the war of 1812 and the nearest that can be reckoned from a traditional point would be about the close of the war of 1812. they began to settle Newman's ridge and Blackwater [Hancock county, then Hawkins county, Tennessee]. At this time these people had lost their Indian vernacular and spoke English, and they speak it yet.

"What is the traditional idea of these people themselves, from their parents and grandparents and older ones?  It is that they are of Cherokee blood; that their ancestors were Indians, and many of them have gone to the Cherokee nation and have sued in the Cherokee Council for land and annuities, and they have obtained them  They made their proof here among our people and old citizens, that, according to the best traditional evidence, they are of Cherokee blood, and those here now boast of their Cherokee blood.

They were indicted for illegal voting when this country was Hawkins county, and had their trial in Rogersville, and this was over forty years ago, probably fifty years ago, and in the trial Hon. Thomas A R Nelson, the Attorney General, who prosecuted them for illegal voting put the one on trial whose skin indicated he could easily convict, as being of African descent.  He was old Wyatt Collins.  The charge against them all was that they were of African descent and had not passed the third generation and were not entitled to vote.  Col. John Netherland defended the Malungeons, and when old Wyatt Collins was put to the jury, Netherland admitted that his client voted as charged, but the only evidence that the Attorney General had was the color and features of old Wyatt, who stood erect six feet high, high cheek bones, hair straight as a horse's tail. Attorney General Nelson told the jury to look at him and judge whether or not he was a negro of African descent and had not passed the third generation. Now Mr Netherland, for the defense stated: I make protest of this old man as to whether he is a negro or not, and I want to show his hair, hands, and feet.  'Now, Wyatt,' said Netherland, ' I will show your features against Mr. Nelson's who is prosecuting you, and I want you to show your naked foot beside Mr. Nelson's.  So Wyatt sat down and pulled his moccasin off and showed his naked feet [but Mr. Nelson would not show with him], and his feet and general features were as delicate and nice as a lady's and presented to the jury the very opposite of the African features.  Then it was that the Portuguese race was brought in -- the jury found a verdict of not guilty, and all the other cases took the same course. Mr. Nelson asked Mr. Netherland what race of people he called his clients. Mr. Netherland answered Portuguese; then it was, and not until then, the name of Portuguese was given these people. The North Carolina branch of these people are African and whites, and they came here long after the settlements were made and within the knowledge of the oldest of the present generation. These people, their blood and nationality are known, and the mystery of the Virginia emigrants above described is the subject now under discussion.

"The origin of the North Carolina branch of the race is well known here among the oldest of the present generation, and to those who have fully investigated the Virginia branch of this peculiar people their origin is just as well known.  They have all the features of the Indians, their habits, are those of the Indian, and they are of Indian blood.   They are found in the mountain fastnesses, in the gorges and on the tops of the high ridges, in their rude huts and places of abode, and many of them are found now in valleys and level lands, in good and comfortable domiciles, and with an abundance of everything the earth brings forth.  They all love music and dancing and have their regular frolics like the tribes had of the green corn dance, the buffalo dance and the war dance.  However, many of them are refined and belong to the Christian churches, and they have among them ministers of the gospel who preach well and seem to feel the fervor of religious work as much as those of any people.  They have their churches and school- houses, and are keeping step with the progress of the age.  There are many incidents that could be related of their early settlement here, much as wife swapping and other habits, now abandoned.  These people as a whole are true and reliable and among the kindest and most hospitable people that can be found.

Smiling Indians of Sumter County

After dealing with a virus for the past couple of months, each time thinking I had rid my computer of it - alas my computer crashed two weeks ago. The nice young man at Office Depot informed me he really tried to recover my files, but, well he was really sorry.

So after handing him over a Ben Franklin and some change I took my computer home and that is when I realized what a nightmare really was.  I have been installing, reinstalling and uninstalling for the past three days and still not half way through back up CDs, etc., and it looks like I may never find some of my research.  In the meantime I will share one of the older articles from the website, hope you don't mind the 'rerun' -- be back soon.





Smiling Indians of Sumter County

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"1910 the federal census listed 126 American Indians in Privateer Township, ...
between Maxton and Rowland, where they became known as the Smiling Indians."

Indians of the Southeastern United States in the Late 20th Century - Page 76
by James Anthony Paredes

GOINS v. INDIAN TRAINING SCHOOL

"I, LI Parrott, clerk of the court for Sumter County, said state, do hereby
certify that the families of Smilings and Goins of this county have been
known as "Red Bones" ever since I have been acquainted with the peopole. Mr.
McDonald Furman, now deceased, took a great deal of trouble several years ago
to establish the fact that they were...of the Indian race...they are looked
upon as a separate race, neither white nor negro."


"I know William Goins, father of these parties. I visited them in South Carolina once about 6 years ago. The general reputation I got down there was that they were indian people. They were supposed to be indians. I have lived in robeson county all my life and i am perfectly familiar with the indian people up here. from my association, being in the home of old man goins and
his family and from the investigation i have made of the people there, my opinion is that on the mother's side plaintiffs are indians and on the father's side malungeans. the rev william goins is not a typical indian by feature, he is a mixture between white and indian."


"I am a sister of the plaintiffs. been living at pates in robeson county for five years. i was raised in sumter county sc. my boy goes to the public indian school at pates. he has also gone to the normal school. we are
indians in the North, but they gave us the name of "red bones" down here."

Hamilton McMillan, witness for the defendants:

"I am a resident of Robeson County; I am now 78 years of age. I represented Robeson County in the state legislature in 1885 and 1887. I am familiar with the Act of 1885 designating certain indians of Robeson as Croatan Indians; I introduced the bill myself. I was acquainted with the Indians of Robeson County at the time the Act of 1885 was passsed designating them as croatan indians. I had been investigating their history for several years before that. I have them the designation of croatan indians in the Act. I wanted to give them some designation. There was a tribe known as croatan tribe on croatan island, it was an honorable name and it was a complete designation...The indians designated as croatan indians were living in Robeson County...none of them lived in sumter sc as far as i know. I had the Act of 1887 passed to establish a normal school for the croatan indians of Robeson County...

"Question by the court to McMillan: Do these people here call themselves
Croatans?
Answer: No sir, they call themselves malungeans.
Question: Were they never called croatans until this Act was introduced in
here?
Answer: No sir.
Question: Where were they from anyway?
Answer: The traditions all point to the resident west of Pamlico Sound,
beyond Cape Hatteras.

The testimony given in this case, like almost all of the cases dealing with the people called 'free people of color' was both pro and con. However there were at least three 'men of the cloth' who testified these people had always been known as Indians. They won this case - and it was upheld on appeal.

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The News and Courier

 

May 25, 1897
The "Redbones of Sumter

 

A Sketch of James Edward Smiling,

his Career and his Family Connections.

Privateer, Sumter County

 

Special: Living in the southeastern part of this township is an aged man of nearly four-score, with silvery hair and yellow complexion. A man not unlike the celebrated Frederick Douglas. This venerable man is James Edward Smiling, "the patriarch of the Privateer Redbones." A man whose personal history and family connections make him a person of rather unique interest to the local historian.

Jim Smiling is now about 77 years old. In 1838 he became a carpenter, which trade he followed until a few years ago. He has also followed the profession of a Baptist minister. Fifty-six years ago he was married to a cousin of his- a member of the Goins family. His wife is now an old woman of about 71 years, and in considerably mixed with Indian: her face is not unlike one of that race. Including children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, this venerable couple have over fifty living descendants; these have intermarried with the Chavises, Goinses, Sweats, and other families belonging to the interesting "old issue," or, properly speaking, "Redbone" people.

Smiling is the owner of considerably over two hundred acres of land. For fifty-two years he has been living in the house he now occupies. This settlement is in a clearing, which is in a swampy, very out of the way and rather wild part of the township. Not far from the front of the house is one of those swamps which are known throughout this section of country as "bays," and which covers several hundred acres.

This venerable man has considerable intelligence for one in his station, and is an interesting person to talk with. During reconstruction times he was a person of some prominence in the political affairs of Sumter County: in 1868 he was elected a member of the Legislature. He was magistrate under governor Scott, and has also been trial justice.

Like people of his peculiar racial condition Smiling had guardians before the war. At the commencement of the war he gave a horse, bride. saddle and spur to one of the military companies of this county.

The Redbone people, with whom Smiling is identified, while they are colored, are nearly a distinct people from the "old time free negroes" proper. I have often talked with this old man about his people, concerning whom he has given me a good deal of information .

McDonald Furman

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The Name of Goins

A Family Name Found

Scattered About in the United States

and Borne by a mixed Race of People

To the Editor of The News and Courier.

Among that isolated and mixed breed people of Privateer Township who are classed as colored but who should properly be known as "Redbone" is found the name of Goins. the founder of this family so I have been told was a "yellow man" whose wife was a mixed breed Indian. Vicey Goins the daughter in law of this couple lived to a great age, and died in 1887. Her son, Wade Goins, is one of the old people among the privateer Redbones and his features and copper-colored skin show the presence of Indian blood in his veins. Another descendant of the first Goins couple is Tom Gibbes, pastor of the little church in Southeastern Privateer, which is attended by the Redbone people, and which I may remark is a member of the Colored Wateree Baptist Association, lower division. I think Gibbes shows his Indian blood. He and Uncle Wade are both honest worthy men. While it would greatly puzzle an ethnologist to determine what percent of white, negro and Indian blood flows in their veins I think they are at least a sixth part Indian if not more.

It is interesting to see over what a large area the name of Goins is found. This name is (or was) found among that peculiar people, the Croatans, of North Carolina, which unique race is believe by historical investigators to be descendants of Sir Walter Raleigh's famous "lost colony." Henry Berry Lowrie so celebrated in the post bellum annals of North Carolina as a bold and daring outlaw, was of the Croatan race. It is evident that the "old issues," or properly speaking, "Redbones," who are found scattered about in South Carolina, are in part a branch of the Croatans.

"Redbones are found in Louisiana. In the spring of 1893 I wrote to one of the parish officials inquiring about them and I received an interesting letter in reply. Among the Redbone family names mentioned in it was that of Goins.

In a short magazine article last summer Mr. James Mooney, one of the leading ethnological writers in the United States gave an account of the two Goins brothers he formerly knew in Indians "who although associating by necessity with negroes, always insisted that they were not of that race or of slave ancestry. they had a physical appearance of half-blood Indians.

There are Goinses in Georgia who aer a branch of the Privateer stock.

McDonald Furman

Ramsey, Privateer Township

April 20, 1897

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Memories of the Past

To the Editor of The State

In the southeastern part of the township there there is an old muster group and it is suggestive of memories of long ago. This place covers about 10 or 12 acres. The Wilson and Sumter railroad runs through the grounds a third of which is cleared: the rest is now covered with old-field pines and the grove is quite a pretty one for there is not a great deal of undergrowth and what there is adds to the picturesqueness of the grove.

This old muster ground is situated in a section locally known as "Timmonstown," in about a mile from the Clarendon county line and on the Georgetown public road. Not far below the gfround the road forks and one branch leads to the old city of Charleston. The old muster ground is owned by Caleb Neal a worthy "late freedman," and a full blooded negro. This section is not uninteresting to the student of local history; In d the surrounding country will be found families of that isolated people the "old issues," or properly speaking the "Redbones" - the Chavises and the Goinses, the Smilings and the Gibbeses, the Sweats and the Griffins. The little church attended by these people is at the forks of the road below the old muster ground and the pastor of this church, the Rev. Tom Gibbes, now an elderly man of somewhat Indian like appearance lives near the ground. I have been by this ground several times, and on a delightful afternoon last month I paid a special visit here. At my request I was accompanied by "Uncle Smiling" the Redbone patriarch of the township whose years are not far from fourscore, and who, with two other Redbones, used to play in a band at the muster. I asked the old man about those almost forgotten times, and as he talked I took down his remarks, which I give below and I try to do so in his own language as much as possible. The account is interesting as the story of an old man who took part in the old musters:

"They used to muster about two or three times a year - have these musters here. My people were called pioneers, and used to clean off the grounds. I was the fifer, Wade beat the kittle drum, and West beat the bass drum. We played all during the muster time, on the big muster day our people would clean off the grounds one day and the big muster would take place the next. All the men part of -- people used to clean off the ground. I couldn't tell how many men used to muster here. Many times carts would come here with cakes or watermelons and we would have a lovely time. these old fields would be illuminated with people, men and women- the people would just be out here in quantities. another muster ground was below Tindal's mill, in Clarendon, and my crowd used to clean the grounds there too and our band played down there. When the soldiers were performing on these grounds the souls of their horses hoofs could be heard far off."

McDonald Furman

Ramsey, Privateer Township

May 1, 1899

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May 9, 1898

"Old Issue"

Information Sought About
a Unique Name and Race

James E. Smiling the patriarch of a branch of these people found in Privateer Township and a Republican ex member of the Legislature, told me this two years ago:

"I can't tell where the name "Old Issue" started from - never heard it until since the warr, we don't accept the name. The first way in which I heard the name "Old Issue' is through the late freedman, and we take it as a slur."

Nelson Chavis another member of this race in the township told me this last March:

"I can't remember hearing anything about the name 'Old Issue' until since the war. I don't think the name is becoming. We used to be called pioneers at the time we used to cleaned muster grounds. I thought the name 'Old Issue' was only here with us. I thought the name was some kind of a slang and I thought maybe we were called so as the late freedmen might be "new issues."

The Hampton correspondent of the News and Courier in June 1894 writing about one of these people in that county named Candey Mims spoke of him as "one of a rather peculiar race of people who live in the river section of this county, locally known as 'Old Issue." They are a mixed race and have never been slaves. They are supposed to be descendants of Indians and negores, but nothing is definitely known of their origin."

Some year ago a gentleman of Aiken county, writing to me about people of this sort found in that county, stated that they were "classed as 'Old Issue freedmen."

I don't mean to say that all people of this kind are called "Old Issue" but as will be seen, the name is found over a considerable area. These people in Privateer Township are mixed with the white, the negro and the Indian races and are classed as colored.

McDonald Furman

Ramsey, Privateer Township

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excerpt of an interview: “Beccie Jacobs [a White woman] told me – August 26, 1893 – that Edie Goins said she came from the Cawtaba tribe.”


Smiling Indians - Hazel Forest

Goins, Going, Gone

In December 2002 Jack Goins wrote;

"I believe Y Chrom. DNA will prove these people stole those names Gibson and Collins from the White settlers while living in Virginia before they migrated to NC etc. Take Goins for example this Y test is showing some with a common ancestor as European, AA, NA , This is also proven by history and  genealogy and the fact you can find Goins as Cherokee, Melungeon, Lumbee and almost every clan."  Archives

In May 2003 Jack Goins wrote;

"Y-Chrom. DNA slaps this right in the face, For example there are Goins  who's Y DNA is European, AA and NA," Archives

Below is a screen shot from the Core Melungeon Project posted prior to 2008 when they changed E3a to E1b1a.  It can be found here, and as you can see there are no Native American Goins listed in the project. It is possible, and in fact likely, the Goins who tested matched the Sizemore NA DNA, meaning there was an NPE (Non Paternal Event).  

That would not explain why they are not listed though, apparently Valentine Collins was an NPE and he is listed. In the *peer reviewed* paper Samuel Bunch ( European Haplogroup) is a "Suspected NPE" as is Freelin Gibson noted as "Suspected NPE" match to Goodmans and Benjamin Collins son also "Suspected NPE" match to Gibsons. Curiously missing is the mysterious Native American Goins?

Also mysteriously missing and not mentioned is Mr. Goins with the European "R" Haplogroup, Kit#44320 above in their paper.  Another NPE, perhaps, but same question, why did these researchers leave out the European DNA from their paper? 

Missing also is Kit# 6005, David Going with an "L Haplogroup" said to be from India, Pakistan, Turkey, etc., (Wikipedia).

David Going/Goins was born 1783 in Montgomery County, Virginia in the part that would become Giles County and was neighbor of many of the Collins'  who were called Melungeons, some moving to Newmans Ridge. 

On page 71 of Melungeons: and other pioneer families by Jack Goins we find these families from Giles County mentioned; 

"This relatively small Melungeon settlement that migrated to the Flat River, which was then Granville County, North Carolna about 1750 had grown to a large colony by the 1780's. Most of them later migrated to Fort Blackmore, Virginia in Lee County.  Some moved on west to Granger and Davidson couties in Tennessee, while others migrated to Giles County, Virginia into Kentucky." 

I see no legitimate reason for removing David Going/ Goins from the Melungeon DNA Project, nor not mentioning this unique Haplogroup L in their paper, nor the omission of the Goins Haplogroup R, and especially leaving  Kit#109170 - FREEMAN -  Haplogroup Q out of the paper and writing they found no Native American Haplogroups in the project.

So, as posted in the last blog, we seen Thomas Bushrod's "Gawin the Indian" who was freed in 1676 shown as the same man as John Gowen who was freed in 1640?  Could Bushrod's Gawin actually have been from India (Haplogroup L) and the ancestor of David Going?  Who is the Native American Goins first tested in Brent Kennedy and Kevin Jones project and the European Goins tested in the same project? Seems we have a lot of Gawin, Goins, Going,  --- GONE.