Photo's of My Family
I can be reached at Vance Hawkins; vhawkins2591@gmail.com . This is me, Vance Hawkins (1952-present). This photo was taken in 2015. I was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. I live in southwestern Oklahoma at present. Dad passed away ten years before mama did. When I went through her belongings, I found dad's old drivers licenses. Wanting to document my family as best as could, I took them home. knowing an official Id. with his name below his picture is better than a picture without his name on it. So I saved it and am placing it here. Next is a photo of mom (1915-2002 and dad (1915-1992). Dad is triracial. Mama is 100% Caucasian.
The next generation would grandma's, Loney (Richey) Hawkins (1886-1963). The large photo contains photo's of two of grandma's brothers. One Otho Richey, died in a great flu epidemic about the time of the end of world war one. The other is of Jeffrey Hoten Richey, Jr. He is seated on the bottom row while Otho is on the top row. On the next line are photo's of grandma, and blow ups of 2 of dad's uncles blown up from from the old 1909-1910 photo. That vine beside grandma is a honey suckle vine. I still remember her taking me to that vine, and showing me how to suck out the sweet nector from it when I was maybe 6 or 8 years old.
This is great-grandma Josephine (Brown) Richey (1854-1932). Dad told me the man next to her was his brother, Andrew Hawkins. I had seen this photo before. The person who gave me this photo, however, was a daughter-in-law of grandma's sister, Great Aunt Ettie. She didn't know who Uncle Andrew was, so she partially cut him out of the photo when she had copies made. But I had seen this photo before, and was told he was dad's older brother. It was probably taken about 1930, during the Dust Bowl. She died in 1932.
Then next, previous generation, contains a few photos, as well. Josephine's husband was Jeffrey H. Richey, Sr. (1851-1926). Jeffrey's parents were Joseph Richey (1819-1854) and Sarah Ann Wayland (1829-1857). Joseph Richey's parents were John Richey and Mary Wood/Woods. Sarah had 2 cousins that served in the Army at Fort Gibson as did her husband, Joseph Richey, my direct ancestors. Both Jarrettt and James Wayland were first cousins of one another. They joined "Bean's Rangers", and that unit was the first to ever show up when Ft. Gibson was founded. Fort Gibson is/was in Indian Territory, on the Creek/Cherokee border; in Oklahoma today. She also had another cousin who became a Methodist Minister. In a book covering the history of the Methodist Church in Arkansas, they have included his photo, since his father had helped found the Methodist Church founded in Arkansas.
With a magnification glass it might be possible to make this out. But I’ll put it here. This is on the image below from the book on the origins of the Methodist church in Arkansas, on p. 67, maybe about two thirds of the way down;
“ . . . At this session the following were received on trial [note: speaking of the fall of 1843], . . . Jonathan Wayland . . . Jonathan Wayland was grandfather to E. T. Wayland, now of the North Arkansas conference. He had in 1815 cooperated with Eli Lindsay to organize the Flat Creek Church, possibly the first Protestant congregation ever organized in Arkansas, and certainly one of the churches of the first circuit organized.” . . .
It was Jonathan's father, not Jonathan, who organized the first church in Arkansas in 1815, and the son Jonathan wasn't even born until 1818. We have him to thank for producing a photo of his generation.
Here is that same photo of Jonathan Wayland (1818-1882) kept by members of his family. His grandmother, we have been told, was Saponi/Catawba Indian. His grandfather, Nevil Wayland Sr., was born in 1745 at St. John's, Cashel, County Tipperrary, Ireland. He came to America and became a veteran of the Revolutionary War in a South Carolina militia unit. Nevil's wife was said to be Saponi Indian. We know her name was Keziah. I have been told she was "almost certainly" Keziah Gibson, daughter of Thomas and Mary Gibson. Jonathan Wayland was first cousin to my ancestor, Sarah Ann Wayland. The Wayland's left Stoney Creek in Scott County, in southwestern Virginia in 1815, shortly after that French Huguenot gentleman mentioned "melungins" in church minutes of Stoney Creek Primitive Baptist Church that my Wayland family attended, when the family moved to Arkansas. The second photo is of Harriet (Guess) Brown (@1818-1886). She was another of my great-great grandmas. DNA testing and genealogical records have confirmed that we descend from Nathaniel Gist Jr., first cousin to another man also named Nathaniel Gist, who is suspected by many of being Sequoyah's father. Nathaniel Jr, lived much of his life in Cumberland County, NC. I think his wife was a Cheraw or Pedee Indian -- we have evidence, but not proof -- we will never be able to prove it. Family story, as my grandma told my aunt, and she told me, is Harriet was "Sequoyah's niece or great niece". I know, it is confusing . . . just read "The Mysteries of Sequoyah" by Dub West to find out just how confusing trying to discover just how frustrating it can be to find Sequoyah's more distant ancestors and relations. There are some true ancestors listed online, but there is also a lot of nonsense that keeps getting copied and pasted, over and over, onto various genealogy sites. Buyer beware.
I just wanted to show how from one generation to the next, we grow Whiter. When I was a child I knew uncles who looked Indian. Today I have seen relatives who are children today, who show very few Native American charasteristics. That's why I have been trying to document us. I want to show who we are, and who we were. To view the individual blog entries, go to the top of this page, then to the right hand corner, and click on "blog". In NONE of these photographs do we look "Portuguese" or "Gypsy". I am so tired of people telling me the "Melungeon" people were "Gypsies" or "Portuguese" rather than Native American! I can not speak for others. But as for mine -- we were Native American-mixed, NOT Portuguese and NOT Gypsy.
In fact, the same historical period where people were trying to say our ancestry was Portuguese (1890s), some of our ancestors were here in Oklahoma trying to claim lands in Oklahoma for the establishing of a "Western Catawba Tribe." The government had invited us here. But once we came, they decided were were a bunch of mixed-bloods who had been living as farmers already, which they wanted Native peoples to do rather than form tribal relations, so our organization was rejected. The popular LIE that we were Portuguese greatly aided those in favor of REJECTING our petition for Federal recognition status in the 1890s during the era of the Allotment and Dawes Acts. I have several blog entries on this topic.
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