The muster roll details the arrival of Lt. Deas and a large group of Cherokees to the West on May 1, 1838. While most were in the Northern Georgia area, some like William Davis and Robert Brown were from Alabama, and others like the Timberlake’s were from Tennessee.
These 355 people were identified as Indians (I) in column 4 (color) of the 1880 census for Mason County Michigan. In order to have been enumerated they are believed to either have renounced tribal rule, and under state law, exercised their rights as citizens; or because they “mingled” with the white population of these Michigan towns were enumerated under the expanded definitions.