Vann

Slave Narrative of Harriett Robinson

Person Interviewed: Harriet Robinson Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Place of Birth: Bastrop, Texas Date of Birth: September 1, 1842 Age: 95 I was born close to Webbers Falls, in the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation, in the same year that my pappy was blowed up and killed in the big boat accident that killed my old Master. I never did see my daddy excepting when I was a baby and I only know what my mammy told me about him. He come from across the water when he was a little boy, and was grown when old Master Joseph … Read more

Walter Albert Vann

1st Class Private, Co. C, 83rd Div., 331st Inf.; of Duplin County; son of J. T. and Mrs. K. J. Vann. Entered service May 26, 1918, at Warsaw, N.C. Sent to Camp Jackson, transferred to Camp Wadsworth, then to Newport News, Va. Sailed for France Sept. 23, 1918. Returned to USA March 8, 1919. Mustered out at Camp Jackson March 29, 1919.

Biography of Charles E. Vann

Charles E. Vann, one of the well known residents of Muskogee county, living at Webbers Falls, has long been identified with farming interests in this section of the state. He is a native son of Oklahoma, his birth having occurred near Preston, Texas, in Chickasaw Nation, on the 12th of November, 1863. He is a son of John S. and Elizabeth (Fields) Vann, both of whom were members of the Cherokee Nation. They had a family of five children, but Charles E. is the only one now living. In what is now Muskogee county Charles E. Vann spent the period … Read more

Biographical Sketch of D. W. Vann

(See Downing)-Daniel Webster, son of James and Elizabeth (Heaton) Vann was born October 12, 1845 in Cherokee Nation. Enlisted in Company M First Cherokee Mounted Volunteers, Confederate service July 12, 1862 and on reorganization in 1863 he joined company C the First Cherokee Mounted Rifles in which he served until the end of the war. He married Nancy Jane Riley, born Nov. 27, 1847. She died soon after their marriage and he married October 6, 1870 Clarinda Vann Rowe, born January 16, 1851. She died July 28, 1903. They were the parents of: Joseph Rowe, born June 1, 1871 and … Read more

Junius Richardson Vann, Jr.

Capt., Med. Corps, 160th Inf., 40th Div. Born in Cumberland County Sept. 9, 1889; son of J. R. and Ida L. Vann. Entered the service at Fayetteville, N.C., July, 1917, and sent to Camp Greenleaf, Ga., and transferred to Camp Mills. Sailed for France Aug. 11, 1918. Promoted to the rank of Lt. August, 1917, and to Capt. March 12, 1918. Landed in the USA July 29, 1919, and mustered out of the service at Camp Lee, Va., Aug. 15, 1919.

Slave Narrative of Phyllis Petite

Person Interviewed: Phyllis Petite Location: Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Place of Birth: Rusk County, Texas Age: 83 I was born in Rusk County, Texas, on a plantation about eight miles east of Belleview. There wasn’t no town where I was born, but they had a church. My mammy and pappy belonged to a part Cherokee named W. P. Thompson when I was born. He had kinfolks in the Cherokee Nation, and we all moved up here to a place on Fourteen-Mile Creek close to where Hulbert now is. ‘way before I was big enough to remember anything. Then, so I been … Read more

Slave Narrative of Betty Robertson

Person Interviewed: Betty Robertson Location: Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Age: 93 I was born close to Webbers Falls, in the Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation, in the same year that my pappy was blowed up and killed in the big boat accident that killed my old Master. I never did see my daddy excepting when I was a baby and I only know what my mammy told me about him. He come from across the water when he was a little boy, and was grown when old Master Joseph Vann bought him, so he never did learn to talk much … Read more

List 3, Cherokees

List of Cherokees and Cherokee Freedmen whose names were omitted from final rolls because no application was made or by reason of mistake or oversight. Shows the names of 125 Cherokees by blood and 2 Cherokee freedmen all except 5 being minors, and most of them less than 4 years of age March 4, 1906.

Brantley S. Vann

F. A., Btry. E, 9th Regt. Born in Cumberland County June 17, 1896; son of J. R. and Ida L. Vann. Entered the service at Fayetteville, N.C., July 28, 1918, and sent to Camp Jackson, S. C., transferred to Camp Hill, Va. Mustered out of the service at Camp Jackson, S. C., June 28, 1919.

Slave Narrative of Johnson Thompson

Person Interviewed: Johnson Thompson Place of Birth: Texas Date of Birth: December 1853 Just about two weeks before the coming of Christmas Day in 1853, I was born on a plantation somewheres eight miles east of Bellview, Rusk County, Texas. One year later my sister Phyllis was born on the same place and we been together pretty much of the time ever since, and I reckon there’s only one thing that could separate us slave born children. Mammy and pappy belong to W.P. Thompson, mixed-blood Cherokee Indian, but before that pappy had been owned by three different masters; one was … Read more

Biographies of the Cherokee Indians

1830 Map of Cherokee Territory in Georgia

Whatever may be their origins in antiquity, the Cherokees are generally thought to be a Southeastern tribe, with roots in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, among other states, though many Cherokees are identified today with Oklahoma, to which they had been forcibly removed by treaty in the 1830s, or with the lands of the Eastern Band of Cherokees in western North Carolina. The largest of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, which also included Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, the Cherokees were the first tribe to have a written language, and by 1820 they had even adopted a form of government … Read more

Slave Narrative of Lucinda Vann

Lucinda Vann, born between 92 and 100+ years old, recounts her life on the Vann plantation in Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, where she was born to enslaved parents in the master’s bedroom during an emergency. Raised in the Vann household, Lucinda describes a plantation managed by wealthy Cherokee owners Jim and Jennie Vann, boasting decent conditions for slaves, who were well-fed, finely dressed, and participated in plantation festivities. Lucinda had a favored horse, Black Hock, gifted by Missus Jennie, with earnings saved for her. Post-war, Lucinda, reflecting on the social inequalities, elected to join the Catholic church and later attempted to flee to Mexico during turmoil, only to return to a depleted plantation. The narrative captures a blend of personal triumphs amid the harsh realities of slavery, retaining a deeply ingrained cultural heritage and the complexities of identity and belonging in post-Civil War America.