During a recent holiday to South Carolina we were able to find more facts about the Robertson family. Of note, William and his brother John who left Ireland and arrived in South Caroline in 1767. After their arrival, they went to Edgefield, SC where each were given land and each, in time, became very wealthy. Their Wills detail land holdings, respective wives and children. William and his wife, Nancy, had several children one of whom was William who married Elizabeth Boggs. William and Elizabeth had at least 8 children among whom were Thomas J. and John. I mention on these because they are the only two we are directly related.
John is our direct ancestor. He married twice; first to Nancy Collins in 1808, Putnam Co., GA. Second, John married Selah Pike. John and Nancy had 6 children and one was Eunice Robertson born about 1810-1812. Thomas J. married Rebecca Cleakler also in 1808, Putnam Co., GA and they had 11 children. One son was Mordecai who was born about 1809, Telladega Co., Alabama. Mordecai and Eunice were first cousins and they married in 1826. They raised a family of 12 children. When Eunice died, Mordecai married second to Caroline Bullock. Mordecai was appointed the first and only Probate Judge of Baker Co., Alabama by Governor William H. Smith early in 1869. Mordecai served for six years.
John and Selah raised a family of 13 children. One of their sons, Martin Van Buren Robertson, was my great grandfather. Van married Mary Jane Smith and their children were: Louisa S., b-1859, Minerva E., b-1860, Susan S., b-1863, Martha J., b-1867, Mary E., b-1868, George W., b-1870, Prior N., b-1872, Allen J., b-1873, William S., b-1876, Sarah P., b-1877, and Ezekiel P., b-1879. Most of these children go by the surname Robinson.
Mary Jane Smith was half Cherokee. Her mother was Laripa, b-1806 and was full blood Cherokee from GA. Laripa married Anderson Smith, b-1804 in GA. They were married about 1828. We know little about Laripa and continue to search for her family.
During some research we have done on the Cherokee Indian has proven to be of great interest. The Cherokee had historically occupied lands in eight southeastern states. Calling themselves "Ani Yunwiya," which means "The Principal People," they had developed a system of social order and participatory democracy based on sacred law long before the white man arrived. Cherokee society was organized through seven mother-descent clans. It was through the mother that children gained clan identify, which afforded them citizenship. Meeting in a seven-sided structure, both men and women participated in general council. Principal Chiefs were elected, and the Beloved Woman was speaker for the Women's Council. As a member of European settlers increased, many Cherokee inter-married with them, adopting and adapting to European customs, including the disenfranchisement of women. Gradually, the people as a whole turned to an agricutural economy while being pressured to give up traditional homelands.
During the time of French and Spanish occupation of the Louisiana Territory, some Cherokee had already begun to migrate to what is now northern Arkansas and southeast Missouri and to other areas west of the Mississippi. Their kinsmen who remained in the east referred to them as the Lost Cherokees." In a letter to President Monroe, drafted on November 19, 1819, Chief Jose Ross referred to the Cherokee west of the Mississippi River as: "...the Cherokees on the St. Francis River who had moved there great many years before."
Anderson and Laripa were married before the Trail of Tears which started in 1838 so Laripa escaped the round-up and forced migration of Cherokee Indians to the Oklahoma territory.
Children of Anderson and Laripa Smith were: Powell, b-1829, John, b-1831, Newton, b-1833, James, b-1836, Mary Jane, b-1837, Sarah, b-1844, Anderson, b-1847 and Lee, b-1850.
Allen James and Margaret Elizabeth Robertson are noted separately in the first section of The Robertson Family.
Prior Nabors Robinson was born in April 1872, Coosa Co., Ala. Prior married Mary Maggilene Loveallin January 1895 and by 1910 moved to Faulkner Co., Arkansas. In the spring of 1918 a deatly strain of flu hit the United States as well as other parts of the globe. Sometime in April both Prior and Maggie caught the flu and despite the efforts of family, friends and doctors they grew worse. One night in April, Maggie died and a few hours later, Prior died. Children of Porter and Maggie were Cecil, b-1899, Clara E., b-1900, Mary Pearl, b-1902, Mamie Mae, b-1907, Floy, b-1910 and Opal P., b-1916.
George W., son of Van and Mary, left Arkansas soon after Van died in 1915 moving to Commerce, Texas. He took Mamie Mae with him. Mamie went to Arkansas for a visit in the early 1920s and received word while there that Uncle George had died of stomach cancer.
Clara Elizabeth, daughter of Prior and Maggie, married Victor Brewer, grandson of Minerva Robinson who was the daughter of Van and Mary. Clara and her husband came down with TB at the same time and died in about 1948. Their daughter, Hazel who had recently married, took all her 6 siblings raising them until they went off on their own.
Soon after the death of her parents Prior and Maggie, Mary Pearl married Bob Beene so that she could raise her baby sister, Opal. Opal had stayed with Pearl but moved to Texas when she was 21 and lived there with her sister Mamie until she married in 1941 to James Herman Sulliven. |
