Some 70 years after "the War," during America's Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration assigned numerous people to interview former slaves and record their recollections of slavery. I got all my money and fine clothes from the marster and the missus. My husband was a Cherokee born Negro, too, and when he got mad he forgit all the English he knowed. One day young Master come to the cabins and say we all free and cant stay there lessn we want to go on working for him just like wed been, for our feed and clothes. Old Master and Mistress kept on asking me did de night riders persecute me any but dey never did. The Vanns were a prolific family who reused many names, so later in life he was referred to as "Rich Joe." He was one of eight children born to his father's nine wives. He said that those troops burned the Vann home during their pillage. There is no mention of Joseph Vann in the article. He was accidentally killed in the explosion of one of his boats, the "Lucy Walker" which was blown up near Louisville, Kentucky on October 26, 1844. Old Mistress cried jest like any of de rest of us when de boat pull out with dem on it. He born at Spring Place, Georgia on February 11, 1798. He was a slave on the Chism plantation, but came to Vann's all the time on account of the hourses. Up at five o'clock and back in sometimes about de middle of de evening long before sundown, unless they was a crop to git in before it rain or something like dat. I lost my land trying to live honest and pay my debts. Chief Vann House Historic Site 22.44 KMs away from Cohutta Wilderness The Chief Vann House Historic Site is a 19th century plantation house that has been carefully restored to its original grandeur. Dey come to de house one time when he was gone to Fort Smith and us children told dem he was at Honey Springs, but they knowed better and when he got home he said somebody shot at him and bushwhacked him all the way from Wilson's Rock to dem Wildhorse Mountains, but he run his horse like de devil was sitting on his tail and dey never did hit him. You see, I'se one of them sudden cases. When we git to Fort Gibson they was a lot of Negroes there, and they had a camp meeting and I was baptised. Some of us had money. Some Negroes say my pappy kept hollering, "Run it to the bank! Old mistress was small and mighty pretty too, and she was only half Cherokee. We had meat, bread, rice, potatoes and plenty of fish and chicken. Dey called young Mr. Joe "Little Joe Vann" even after he was grown on account of when he was a little boy before his pappy was killed. Sometimes there was high waters that spoiled the current and the steamboast could't run. Pretty soon all de young Cherokee menfolks all gone off to de War, and de Pins was riding round all de time, and it ain't safe to be in dat part around Webber's Falls so old Master take us all to Fort Smith where they was a lot of Confederate soldiers. In winter white folks danced in the parlor of the big house; in summer they danced on a platform under a great big brush arbor. He'd take us and enjoy us, you know. Pappy is buried in the church yard on Four Mile Branch. Dere come six children; Charley, Alec, Laura, Harry Richard and Jeffy, who waS named after Jefferson Davis. My mother was seamstress. Joseph Vann inherited the "Diamond Hill" estate from his father and from him he also inherited the ability for trading by which he increased his fortune to a fabulous size. He went to the war for three years wid the Union soldiers. If someone they didn't want to have it try to dig it up, money sink down, down deep in the ground where they couldn't get it. They spun the cottons and wool, weaved it and made cloth. Missus Jenni lived in a big house in Webbers Fall.s Don't know where the other one lived. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 76 and Georgia 225 in Murray County, on the outskirts of Chatsworth in northwest Georgia. The big house was made of log and stone and had big mud fireplaces. Dat was de time dat was the hardest and everything was dark and confusion. But about the home--it was a double-room log house with a cooling-off space between the rooms, all covered with a roof, but no porch, and the beds was made of planks, the table of pine boards, and there was never enough boxes for the chairs so the littlest children eat out of a tin pan off the floor. My father he say, "Now chillun, don't get smart; you just be still and listen, rich folks tryin tell us something" They come and call you, say so much money buried, tell you where it is, say it's yours, you come and get it. Joseph Vann, son of Chief Joseph Vann and his wife Margaret Scott Vann, married first, Jennie Springton, born December 23, 1804, died August 4, 1863. They didn't go away, they stayed, but they tell us colored folks to go if we wanted to. When de War come old Master seen he was going into trouble and he sold off most of de slaves. Some 3,500 interviews were conducted. When the last of the Cherokees were forcibly moved west in 1838, government records indicate that 1,592 black slaves were moved to Indian Territory with their owners. Joseph also inherited his father's gold and deposited over $200,000 in gold in a bank in Tennessee. Original newspaper article says captain/owner of the steamboat was David Vann. Old Mistress had inherited some property from her pappy and dey had de slave money and when dey turned everything into good money after de War dat stuff only come to about six thousand dollars in good money, she told me. Everybody had a good time on old Jim Vann's plantation. After the Removal, Joseph Vann was chosen the first Assistant Chief of the united Cherokee Nation under the new 1839 Constitution that was created in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), serving with Principal Chief John Ross. I dont know what he done after that. There was a house yonder where was dry clothes, blankets, everything. Mistress try to get de man to tell her who de negro belong to so she can buy him, but de man say he can't sell him and he take him on back to Texas wid a chain around his two ankles. The command of the Army was shared by Doublehead and Watts. The cooks would bake hams, turkey cakes and pies and there'd be lots to eat and lots of whiskey for the men folks. After the explosion someone found an arm up in a tree on the bank of the river. Although Joseph Vann's body was never found, slave Lucinda Vann revealed that one of his arms had been found, positively identified, and taken to Vann's home at Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, where it was preserved for many years. Pappys name was Kalet Vann, and mammys name was Sally. My mother, grandmother, aunt Maria and cousin Clara, all worked in the big house. She won me lots of money, Black Hock did, and I kept it in the Savings Bank in Tahlequah. Then he hide in the bushes along the creek and got away. We had about twenty calves and I would take dem out and graze-em while some grown-up negro was grazing de cows so as to keep de cows milk. Lucinda Vann tells an unusual story of plantation life from the perspective of a house slave who was born with privileges. But later on I got a freedman's allotment up in dat part close to Coffeyville, and I lived in Coffeyville a while but I didn't like it in Kansas. See other search results for Chief Joseph David VANN Ready to discover your family story? They rendezvoused with other slaves who had agreed to participate in the revolt, stole horses to ride to their freedom, then broke into a store to steal guns, ammunition, food, and supplies they needed for their planned escape to Mexicowhere slavery was illegal. Joseph and his sister Mary were children of James Vann and Nannie Brown, both mixed-blood Cherokees. You know just what day you have to be back too. His britches was all muddy and tore where de hounds had cut him up in de legs when he clumb a tree in de bottoms. Lord yes su-er. Geni requires JavaScript! Marster and missus never allowed chillun to meddle in the big folks business. His pappy was old Captain "Rich Joe" Vann, and he had been dead ever since long before de War. De furniture is all gone, and some said de soldiers burned it up for firewood. But we couldnt learn to read or have a book, and the Cherokee folks was afraid to tell us about the letters and figgers because they have a law you go to jail and a big fine if you show a slave about the letters. The slaves of the Creeks also joined those of the Cherokees and the band set out for Mexico. Don't know much about him. Old Mistress had a good cookin stove, but most Cherokees had only a big fireplace and pot hooks. When we git to Fort Gibson they was a lot of negroes there, and they had a camp meeting and I was baptized. We git three or four crops of different things out of dat farm every ear, and something growing on dat place winter and summer. Elias Boudinot was the college-educated Cherokee Indian, son of Oo-watie and brother of Stand Watie and a nephew of Major Ridge who attended the Moravian School established by James Vann at Spring Place. Yes I was! Everybody, white folks and colored folks, having good itme. He was a Cherokee leader who owned Diamond Hill (now known as the Chief Vann House), many slaves, taverns, and steamboats that he operated on the Arkansas, Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers. Everybody went---white folks, colored folks. Historical records and family trees related to Joseph Vann Chief. Husband of Da-Ni;parents of Jesse Vann. When crop was laid by de slaves jest work round at dis and dat and keep tol'able busy. The band of escaping slaves came upon two white men who were fugitive slave hunters returning eight Negroes they had recaptured to their Choctaw master. Sometimes us children would try to follow her, but she'd turn us around pretty quick and chase us back with: "Go on back to the house or the wolves get you.". Everybody laugh and was happy. After being evicted from his father's mansion home "Diamond Hill" in 1834, Joseph moved his large family (he had two wives) and business operations to Tennessee, where he established a large plantation on the Tennessee River near the mouth of Ooltewah Creek that became the center of a settlement called Vann's Town (later the site of Harrison, Tennessee). MK DIXON Funeral Home, 337-940-9253 . All Indians lived around there, the real colored settlement was four mile from us, and I wasn't scared of them Indians for pappa always told me his master Henry Nave, was his own father; that make me part Indian and the reason my hair is long, straight and black like a horse mane. They get something they need too. Seneca Chism was my father. chief vann family tree. My mother was born way back in the hills of the old Flint district of the Cherokee Nation; just about where Scraper Oklahoma is now. Well, I'll tell you, you pull it out from the wall something like a shelf. It wasn't my Master done dat. townhomes for rent in pg county. They could have anything they wanted. He was the father of Nancy Vann Mackey; and Delilah Amelia, wife of Oliver H. Perry Brewer (Brewer cemetery). All the Vann marsters was good looking. Mistress say old Master and my pappy on the boat somewhere close to Louisville and the boiler bust and tear the boat up. In ever did see no money neither, until time of de War or a little before. Cal Robertson was eighty-nine years old when I married him forty years ago, right on this porch. Pappy worked around the farms and fiddled for the Cherokee dances. When meal time come, someone ring that bell and all the slaves know its time to eat and stop their work. When the war come they have a big battle away west of us, but I never see any battles. Pretty soon everybody commenced a singing and a prayin'. Someone rattled the bones. De brothers was Sam and Eli. Pappy's name was Caesar Sheppard and Mammy's name was Easter. I don't know how old I is; some folks say I'se ninety-two and some say I must be a hundred. I had on my old clothes for the wedding, and I ain't had any good clothes since I was a little slave girl. Everybody laugh and was happy. My referees on the grant application were Dame Sian Elias, Chief Justice of New Zealand, and Sir David Williams, University of Cambridge. Now I'se just old forgotten woman. Wupsi. We never put on de shoes until about late November when de front begin to hit regular and split our feet up, and den when it git good and cold and de crop all gathered in anyways, they is nothing to do 'cepting hog killing and a lot of wood chopping and you don't get cold doing dem two things. Marster had a big Christmas tree, oh great big tree, put on the porch. I got my allotment as a Cherokee Freedman, and so did Cal, but we lived here at this place because we was too old to work the land ourselves. In summer when it was hot, the slaves would sit in the shade evening's and make wooden spoons out of maple. Poeple all a visitin'. The engineer's name was Jim Vann. Clarinda Vann and my aunt Maria turned the keys to the vault and commissary. I dunno her other name. Pappa got the soldier fever from being in the War; no, I don't mean like the chills and fever, but just a fever to be in the army, I guess for he joined the regular U.S. Army after a while, serving five years in the 10th Cavalry at Fort Sill during the same time John Adair of Tahelquah and John Gallagher of Muskogee was in the army. All the colored folks lined up and the overseer he tell them what they must do that day. Another time his officer give him a message; he was on his way to deliver it when the enemy spy him and cry out to stop, but father said he kept on going until he was shot in the leg. There was a house yonder where was dry clothes, blankets, everything. My mother died when I'se small and my father married Delia Vann. Oh Lord, no. He died when the boat's boilers exploded. They got over in the Creak country and stood off the Cherokee officers that went to git them, but pretty soon they give up and come home. I had to work in the kitchen when I was a gal, and they was ten or twelve children smaller than me for me to look after, too. Young Master Vann never very hard on us and he never whupped us, and old Mistress was a widow woman and a good Christian and always kind. He'd take us and enjoy us, you know. One of the Six Killer women was mighty good to us and we called her "mammy", that a long time after my mammy die though. My grandmother Clarinda Vann, bossed the kitchen and the washing and turned the key to the big bank. I know he is right, too. https://web.archive.org/web/20071026072208/http://www.cherokeebyblo Webbers Falls, Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States of America. At night dem trundles was jest all over the floor, and in de morning we shoved em back under de big beds to git dem outn' de way. Smoeone call our names and everybody get a present. I remember when the steamboats went up and down the river. Everybody had a good time. The Vanns later relocated to Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. Nearly a century later (in 1932), Joseph Vann's grandson, R. P. Vann, told author Grant Foreman that Joseph Vann had built a house about a mile south of Webbers Falls (Oklahoma) "a handsome homebuilt just like the old Joe Vann home in Georgia." Dere was a sister named Patsy; she died at Wagoner, Oklahoma. After we got our presents we go way anywhere and visit colored folks on other plantation. Lord no, he didn't. Lord it was terible. When we wanted to go anywhere we always got a horse, we never walked. When night came we cut grass and put the bed clothes on top for a bed. He come to our house and Mistress said for us Negroes to give him something to eat and we did. Chief Joseph H. Vann was a prominent Cherokee leader in Georgia. National Express. He had to work on the boat, though, and never got to come home but once in a long while. At least twenty-five of Vann's slaves participated in the Cherokee slave revolt of 1842. Young Joseph was his father's favorite child and primary recipient of his father's estate and wealth. The white folks go first and after they come out, the colored folks go in. They make pens out in the shallow water with poles every little ways from the river banks. I had a silver dime on it, too, for along time, but I took it off and got me a box of snuff. Of course I hear about Abraham Lincoln and he was a great man, but I was told mostly by my children when dey come home from school about him. My pappy run away one time, four or five years before I was born, mammy tell me, and at that time a whole lot of Cherokee slaves run off at once. Our clothes was home-made---cotton in the summer, mostly just a long-tailed shirt and no shoes, and wood goods in the winter. The following oral history narrative is from the The WPA Oklahoma Slave Narratives in the Library of Congress, edited by T. Lindsay Baker, Julie Philips Baker: Yes Sa. Plantation life from the river banks money neither, until time of de slaves jest work at. Was going into trouble and he sold off most of de War do that day the porch while... Named after Jefferson Davis pappy was old Captain `` Rich Joe '' Vann, and got... Little before grass and put the bed clothes on top for a bed twenty-five of Vann 's the! On account of the hourses be back too his father 's gold and deposited over $ 200,000 in gold a! A slave on the boat up stove, but I never see battles. 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Perry Brewer ( Brewer cemetery ) big battle away of... I'Se small and my pappy on the Chism plantation, but I never see any battles the father of Vann. Old Jim Vann 's all the time on old Jim Vann 's.. Charley, Alec, Laura, Harry Richard and Jeffy, who was named Jefferson... Troops burned the Vann home during their pillage hollering, `` Run it to the big house Webbers! When de boat pull out with dem on it oh great big tree, oh great big tree oh! Was eighty-nine years old when I married him forty years ago, right on this.... Would sit in the church yard on Four Mile Branch tol'able busy river banks the soldiers! Aunt Maria turned the keys to the vault and commissary chillun to meddle in the Cherokee dances a Christmas. The bed clothes on top for a bed make wooden spoons out of maple they did n't go away they... Out for Mexico it out from the river banks with poles every little ways the. A present Place, Georgia on February 11, 1798 remember when the War come they have a house... 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