NATIVE INDIANS LIVE IN EASTERN KENTUCKY
FEW PEOPLE KNOW OF THE PRESENCE OF THE RED MEN
CHIEF TINEY IS THE LEADER
Live as Other Mountaineers
Are Honest and Law-Abiding Citizens.
SALYERSVILLE, Ky. Sept 29 1901
It is not generally known that there are Indians scattered all over the mountains of Kentucky, but in nearly every country of the eastern section may be found one or more families named Cole, a Catawba chief, who came here from North Carolina and settled in Floyd County nearly a century ago.
The greatest number of 'Old Billie's' descendants living in one place it the Cole family on Big Lick Branch in Magoffin county. The correspondent recently visited the "Cole Nation" as it is called up there and had a long interview with "Chief Tiney." The correspondent also got a snap shot of the chief and some of his children.
Their surroundings and belongings are very primitive and crude, but they seem as contented with their lot as many people more comfortably situated. The best house in the settlement is the one shown in the picture, which is the home of "Chief Tiney" and his son's family. It is a log house of two rooms with porch and floors of poplar planks.
When see by the correspondent "Uncle Tiney" as everybody calls him was sitting on the porch giving orders to some boys who were repairing a rail fence near the house. He was bareheaded and his primitive clothes and his long hair made him look like the typical pioneer and Indian. The old man cannot walk without help, but his hearing is good and his eyes are very bright.
In response to questions Chief Tiney gave the following narrative:
"I was bred and born in Kentucky, but I don't know just where. Before I came to the Big Lick I lived at different places in Breathitt, Floyd, Johnson and Lawrence counties. My father, 'Old Billie' Cole came from North Carolina. He was three-quarters Indian and was not allowed to vote until after the war but I have voted ever since I was 21 years old. I have voted for eighteen candidates for president. My first vote was for John Quincy Adams and my last was for McKinley. I always vote republican. I have lived in the Big Lick a long time and I have outlived nearly all my children. Me and my old 'ooman' were might poor and could not provide for a large family, so we only raised 14 children to be grown, and now they are all dead but six. I have 44 grandchildren, 53 great grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
"I did own a thousand acres of land on this branch but I give it all to my children and I have got nothing now. No I never killed a bear nor deer. I thought too much of them all, wedge and ax to do much hunting, but I have caught lots of ground hogs and possums and a few coons. I went hunting with a gun one time but 'daddy' left me to watch by myself and I promised if God would forgive me that time I'd never to do so again.
"I don't know much about my people 'Old Billie' my father, brought my mother from Virginia. He had two wives and nine children. He was 106 years old when he died here on Big Lick. I will be 96 if I lived til the 24th of next February."
When asked to sit for a picture "Uncle Tiney" replied:
"Well I never had a picture taken and will if it don't cost too much."
So the correspondent assisted him to a chair near the house. He then called for his pipe and "the rifle," and putting his pipe in his mouth where he held it with his hand, as he had not teeth, and the gun across his lap, the old fellow leaned back in his chair with a smile of proud satisfaction and looked the very Chiefest of Chiefs. He stood by the porch with two swarthy sons and a daughter for a picture of the group. the old chief seemed very proud of the opportunity to talk about his Indian relationship and to have his picture taken but he seemed prouder still of a big twist of ''home-made" which the correspondent gave him.
Wallace Cole, a son of Chief Tiney is a democratic politician of some local influence. His brother Shepherd Cole who lives at Hager in this county is a well known lawyer and politician and is a democratic candidate for county attorney. these two, Wallace and Shepherd Cole, were a little bit more ambitious than their kinsmen. They attended school and for several years Wallace taught the public school in the "Cole district." Wallace being a teacher and Shepherd a lawyer they became the tribe's mentors, so to speak.
Chief Tiney used to be a famous "witch factor." When the simple folk living near the Cole settlement could not get their bread to rise or their cows to five good milk they would blame the witches and send for 'Old Tiney" who would appear and prescribe remedies, with the result that the superstitious victims would for a time be convinced that the witch had been deprived of her power to inflict further injury.
The Cole nation schoolhouse is near Uncle Tiney's home. There are fifty three pupils in the district and thirty seven of them were in school at the time of our visit. The young lady teacher and others having dealings with the folk of that settlement have a great time with the names. They generally use the same name at several christenings and affix some distinguishing word or phrase. Thus they have Old Valentine and Young Valentine, Big Adam and Little Adam, Preacher John, John Page and John Wesley, Old George, Long George and George Washington. The settlement has sons named for Washington, Jefferson Buchanan, Lincoln, Tilden and Garfield.
Links to Cole Family
Bet Great Granddaughter of Cherokee Chief Billy Cole
1900 Census
Magoffin County, Kentucky
INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILLING THIS SCHEDULE
This modified form of Schedule No 1 is to be used in making the enumeration of Indians, both those on the reservations and those living in family groups outside of reservations.
Detached Indians living either in white or negro families outside of reservations should be enumerated on the general population schedule (Form 7-224) as members of the families in which they are found: but detached whites or negroes living in Indian families should be enumerated on this schedule as members of the Indian families in which they are found. In other words, every family composed mainly of Indians should be reported entirely on this schedule and every family composed mainly of person not Indian should be reported entirely on the general population schedule.
1900-1910 Census - Cole Indians
Although the Coles [and other families] are listed on the 1900 census as Cherokee Indians, living as Indians in Magoffin County, in the Special 1900 Census, a Government Document, their Cherokee Applications in 1907 were rejected. Oddly in 1910 they are still recognized by the US Government as Indians.
Eastern Cherokee Applications
There is a small group west of that main stream that went north down the Big Sandy River in Magoffin County, near Salyersville, Kentucky. These people appear to be primarily from this original Granville County group, but one begins to find other families in Magoffin County - Freeman, Perkins, Cole and Nichols, who did not originate in Granville County, North Carolina but are from southeastern Virginia, in Suffolk County; from a small former Indian community called Skeetertown.
Cherokee Communities in the South - Robert K. Thomas
This article appeared in a number of newspapers and although it mentions a 'picture' of his family and home none of the papers I found carried the pictures.
Although it says 'Old Billie' descended from the Catawba, it could be an error on the part of the journalist or it could be that "Old Billie Cole" was a Catawba and married the woman of the Cherokee Tribe.
