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Archiver > ARIZARD > 2000-06 > 0962231384


From: "Linda Stansell" <>
Subject: [ARIZARD-L] Re: JEFFERY
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 17:29:44 CDT


I ran across this family in my file today by accident. Poer is one of my
Republic of TX families. They moved from Madison Co TN to Shelby Co TN for a
time. Then somewhere in AR before finally moving into Red River now Bowie Co
TX. Maybe this will help someone.

Jason B Jeffrey/Jeffery md 27 Jan 1839, Lawrence Co AR to Sarah (Sallie)
Poer b 1817

Known children:
Martha C Jeffery b Lawrence Co AR md James M McAll 14 Mar 1861

Jarret Jeffery

Francis Jeffery md James Gibson

Ellie Jeffery

Berris Jeffery

from Linda McCain Stansell


>From: Jean Mayfield Cuevas <>
>Reply-To:
>To:
>Subject: [ARIZARD-L] Some Familiar Names From "The Trail of Tears"
>Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 10:55:48 -0400
>
>Hi List,
>
>I have just begun to read the book, "The Trail of Tears", and to my great
>surprise, I am running into some very familiar surnames!
>
>If you recall the Journal of JJ Sams mentioned John JEFFERY, "The Indian
>Killer", and a portion about his killing of the BENGE family. To refresh
>your memories:
>
>Chapter 5
>
> Old John Jeffery the Indian Killer
>
> In this connection I will give you a more extended history
>of John Jeffery "the Indian Killer". As before stated, he was a
>volunteer, with his father and two brothers in the War of 1812, under
>General Jessup's regiment. His Captain's name was Warren. At one time the
>orders were that there were to be no furloughs given as the Indians were
>all arund the camps at that time and an attact was imminent. After the
>orders for no furloughs to be given, he heard that the Indians had killed
>and scalped his wife and two children at home and left them weltering in
>blood. When he heard this he said, that the orders were for no man to have
>a furlough and it was death by the law to go without a furlough, but he was
>going to start to home as soon as he could see his Captain. He told him
>that he had just heard from home and that his wife and his only two
>children had been killed and skelped and left lying in his home. "Now",
>says Jeffery, "I want to go and see after them if you please for I want
>revenge and I am going to have it if I live." The Captain said, "Jeffery I
>cannot give you a furlough. It is death for an officer to give a furlough
>at this time by the law, or for a soldier to leave with out one." Jeffery
>said to him, " Capt. I am going home and I am not going to slip off, either
>I am going off before all the Regiment; I know the orders are for no
>soldier to have a furlough at this time; I care not for that now. You know
>I have tried to do my duty as a soldier since I have been here in the
>army". The Capt's reply was, " You have been a good soldier and I would be
>very sorry to see you punished for desertion." Jeffery said, "I am not
>going to desert, Capt., I am going to go away before your eyes." "But I
>will send a field officer after you", the says the Capt. "and if you send
>after I'll be D..........If I don't get as many of you as you get of me,
>Sir, good bye, Capt., I will go to Colonel Jesseps and see what he has got
>to say about it."
>
> He approached the Col. in a very polite manner and told him he
>wished to go home, that his wife and children had been murdered and skelped
>and left lying in his house. The Col. told him that he could not grant a
>furlough to him. Jeffery hooted at him, and said: "I am going home and
>that very soon if the D......Cherokees don't kill me before I get there,
>and I am not going to slip off either; I will go off before your eyes,
>Sir." "Don't you do that Jeffery, I will send a file of soldiers after
>you and bring you back sure."
>
> "Well, says Jeffery, "you are my superior in office, but put me on
>equal footing with you and I would talk different; I respect you as a man
>and an officer, Sir; but I will tell you in plain words I am going and
>that's as.....I can get ready." The Col. said once more, "Don't do that
>Jeffery, the Indians will be sure to kill you for they are all arrund here
>at this time." " It makes no difference to me now, says Jeffery. If I
>thought I would not get to kill any of them D....d Cherochees."
>
> So he went back to his camp, caught his horse, saddled him got his
>gun and other equipments. Then in the presence of his Col., Capt. and
>Regiment, got on his horse and, riding through the command, he waved his
>hat, saying "Good bye old friends; I am on my way home to kill all the
>D.....d Cherichees I can find in the next ten years, big, little old and
>young." So he did.
>
> After he got some distance from the camp some smart Eleck or dead
>head asked the Col. if he was going to send after Jeffery. The Col. reply
>was; we have no men to spare at this time for if we follow him to bring him
>back he will get as many of us as we get of him."
>
> He got home and arranged his affairs then went to still hunting by
>himself. He killed a number of them for he hunted five or six years after
>the treaty of the United States with the Cherochees. They got twice after
>him. The first time that they court marshalled him he got clear very easy,
>but his second time he run a narrow risk of losing his life. He got to be
>a great terror to the Indians. Occasionally there would be an Indian
>missing; finally he was caught and put on trial. The evidence was point
>blank that he had killed a certain Indian at a certain time and
>place. This time he managed to get some of his comrads on the jury, then
>pled his own case. The State got up and argued the case very eloquently
>telling the Jury to pay no attention to any thing but the evidence in the
>case.
>
> Jeffery got up in his own behalf and said; "Gentlemen of the jury
>I am arraigned before this court for killing a D.....d Cherochee Indian. I
>don't consider it any more harm than killing them others I killed before I
>killed this one, as I have killed a good many more besides this one I am
>now being tried for." Then he went on to tell them how the Indians had
>killed his wife and two babies and skelped them, leaving them lying in his
>house. "But gentlemen", says he I will promise one thing I will not kill
>any more Children if they will keep out of my way."
>
> He killed three of the Benges family of Indians. There were
>offspring of this family moved through Izard County in 1838, and they
>camped on White River as the Cherochees were moving west they were camped
>near Old Athens for five or six days resting up. There was said to be
>fifteen hundred of them. There were several of them came to my uncle's one
>day and asked who....."
>
>In The Trail of Tears, p. 44:
>
>"The young Cherokee chiefs responded by calling out their warriors, Bob
>BENGE, John WATTS (anyone recognize that name? :-) , ..."
>
>On page 46:
>
>"Bob Benge rested for a season before taking a small group of warriors to
>the Holston River in Virginia, where he was feared, and resuming his raids
>there. He boasted he would capture every black slave living along the
>Holston, which terrified planters and slaves alike.
>
>Dreams told him to stop the raids and return home, but he rejected the
>warning. One night he captured a white family; he killed the man and kept
>the woman, a Mrs. Livingston. He was walking beside her, explaining that
>he meant to sell her into slavery or to exchange her for Cherokee
>prisoners, when several whites' rifles marked and shot him. Even as he
>bled his life away, a white man, Lieutenant Hobbs, scalped him."
>
>My copy of this book is a loan, but I plan to buy my own copy, and when I
>do, I will mark the surnames and share the remainder, if anyone else has an
>interest.
>
>I found it so fascinating, after having been on the TNRoots-L list for a
>number of years, learning about SEVIER of TN, and about the various
>familiar locations and names in TN, then to learn more about the folks of
>Izard County, and now to find such familiar names popping up in this book.
>
>
>Jean
>
>
>
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>

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