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From: Don Ott <>
Subject: [ARIZARD] Trail of Tears
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:03:00 -0500


I thought Dr. Juliet E. Morrow made an outstanding presentation
yesterday on Native Americans and Other Pioneers of Izard County.
This presentation was strictly an archeological survey, as
advertised, and not a lot of details about the Trail of Tears through
Izard County. Ozarka College provided excellent facilities.
There were about 16,000 Indians that were remaining to be rounded up
and forcefully removed from east of the Mississippi River in 1838,
these were divided into groups of about 1000 each. The group that
came through Izard county was led by Indian Captain John Benge. His
was the first group let by Native American leadership and he had the
least deaths of any of the groups and no desertions were reported.
As some of you know Bill Woodiel,of Baxter County, is probably the
most knowledgeable person on the Benge Trail of Tears, he has worked
for years trying to get proper recognition for this route. The trail
through Izard is reasonably well known. The Benge group was in Poke
Bayou (Batesville) on 15 Dec 1838, for wagon repairs, and there they
intersected with the Jacksonport Road. This road had been built
1831/32 from Jacksonport to Van Buren for the purpose of Indian
removal. They exited Izard County just west of Pineville along what
is now Hwy 177.
The Benge group left Fort Payne, Alabama on 28 Sep 1838 and 106 days
later on 11 Jan 1839 they arrived in Tahlequah, Indian Territory
(Oklahoma). The government had provided them 60 wagons and teams and
had provided 480 riding horses. The number of people on this trail
vary, Capt Page counted 1079 when they left Fort Payne Alabama and
Captain Stephenson counted 1132 when they arrived in Tahlequah.
Captain Benge reported 3 birth and 33 deaths on the route, no
desertions. Many of the Indian families brought their Negro slaves
along with them,there was reported 144 Negro arrivals in Tahlequah
with this party and 959 Indians.
All of these Indians and their slaves had been rounded up in and
around DeKalb County Alabama, so if your ancestors lived in that area
in 1838, some might have been with this group.
Much information is available on the web about this group. Google
search "Benge, Trail of Tears", and you can find maps and lots of data.
I have studied the genealogy of many of the Indians on the Trail of
Tears and will be glad to provide some limited help if I can.

Don


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