Ingram/Hughey - Cherokee Indian?
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In reply to:
Re: Banister Pulliam - founder of the Cherokee Co. PULLIUMS
7/19/98
Hi, I am a descendant of Jane Ingram who married Emanuel Shuler abt. 1819 in Swain Co, NC. Jane (b. 22 Oct 1803 in NC) was a daughter of Goldman Ingram and Jemima Hughey, and thus a sister to your Nancy Ingram who married Banister Pulliam. I don't know anything about the Pulliams, but I am researching Ingram and Hughey families. I wondered where you got the information that Jemima Hughey was a Cherokee Indian? The information I have says that the Hugheys were a Scotch-Irish family, among earliest settlers of Buncombe Co, NC. I'm still trying to prove who Jemima Hughey's parents were, but I'm pretty sure they were't Cherokee.
I think the confusion over Jemima being Cherokee came from the fact that three of her descendants, Samuel and James Bryson (brothers) and their sister, filed an Indian Claim for benefits in 1908. Their parents were John Bryson Jr. and Margaret (Peggy) Ingram (another sister to Jane Ingram and your Nancy Ingram). Claimants were supposed to be at least one-fourth or one-eighth Cherokee -- thus some researchers apparently assumed from this that the Brysons' MOTHER, Peggy Ingram, was half Cherokee (which would mean that HER mother, whom we later discovered to be named Jemima Hughey, was full-blood Cherokee).
But when called in to testify under oath in Unaka, NC, the Brysons admitted that they were not actually of Cherokee blood themselves, but that their FATHER (John Bryson)'s UNCLE, Andrew Bryson, had married a Cherokee woman, and since Andrew & his Cherokee wife had no descendants, they felt that they were entitled as the nearest living relatives to claim some Cherokee land. Of course, their claim was rejected by the commission. On their original application they had written that Andrew Bryson & his Cherokee wife were their PARENTS, but later admitted under oath that this claim was false. I looked this up myself on microfilm in Salt Lake City several years ago when I was researching whether or not Goldman Ingram's wife was really Cherokee. The basic facts of the case can now be found online, at this website:
http://www.martygrant.com/gen/bryson/bryson-andrew.htm#childrenhttp://www.martygrant.com/gen/bryson/bryson-andrew.htm#children
(when you go there, scroll UP, to the paragraph just ABOVE the section on children of Andrew Bryson).
So it appears that there is no truth whatsoever to the claim that Jemima Hughey (Ingram) was Cherokee or part Cherokee. The Brysons claimed Cherokee blood through their FATHER (John Bryson) not their mother (Peggy Ingram) -- and even that claim turned out to be false.
If they had really been of Cherokee blood through their mother (the Ingram/Hughey line) they would have written this -- but since they didn't, the only conclusion is that there was no Cherokee blood in that family. Also supporting this conclusion is the fact that several Brysons and Ingrams (including Goldman Bryson and other descendants of Goldman Ingram & Jemima Hughey) were among the soldiers who volunteered to help round up the Cherokees in 1838 and "remove" them from the state. The list of NC volunteers can be seen online at either
http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nc/ashe1838.htmhttp://www.ls.net/~newriver/nc/ashe1838.htm (listed by company)
or
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncburke/ncbnc1838.htmhttp://www.rootsweb.com/~ncburke/ncbnc1838.htm (alphabetical list).
This is sad but (unfortunately) true.
More Replies:
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Re: Ingram/Hughey - Cherokee Indian?
Denise Jackson 7/31/10