NANCY WARD
(PRETTY WOMAN, BELOVED WOMAN, PROPHETESS)
OF EARLY TENNNESSEE

By Annie Walker Burns
P.O. Box 6183
Apex Station
Washington 4, D.C.



written about 1955

The following is the introduction to the book Military and Genealogical Records of the Famous Indian Woman of Tennessee: Nancy Ward
by Annie Walker Burns

         I feel it my duty to write about Nancy Ward, especially since my father James Abraham Walker carved a statue of her, which stands about 5 1/2 feet tall.  As you can see from the picture, she holds a lamb in one arm (denoting peace) and an engraved plate in the other hand with the words "Nancy Ward, Watauga 1776."  This statue now stands in the Arnwine Cemetery in Grainger County, which I understand is approximately 5 miles from Liberty Hill, Tenn. - Rutledge is the county seat of Grainger County.  I write to explain how this statue came to be placed in this cemetery instead of being placed at the head of the grave of Nancy Ward: 

          My father was preparing to move to Harlan Kentucky in 1912 as he had become bankrupt in the mercantile business and needed ready cash for this removal.  He always intended to set the statue up at Nancy Ward's grave, who he had always claimed was his ancestor, and according to my brother, Homer A. Walker's statements as he is about five years older than myself, but the quick removal to Kentucky and the statue being so heavy, he did not have the money to pay the express, so his brother Ebb Walker happened to be visiting him and offered some cash for it to be set up at the grave of his daughter in said Arnwine Cemetery where it is now located.  My father promised my uncle Ebb Walker that he would return to the cemetery and remove the lettering on the statue of "Nancy Ward, Watauga 1776" and engrave instead the name of his daughter and her birth and death date, but this he never did so it still has the same lettering on it as my father first engraved.  I wanted to make this explanation as so many historical minded persons have written me regarding this statue, especially those connected with Historical Societies in Tennessee, at Nashville, Chattanooga, Benton Tenn in Polk County, in the latter county where Nancy Ward's Grave has been marked.  Many historical societies have wanted to buy this statue to have it placed at her grave, for whom it was meant but the daughter of my cousin whose name is Mrs. Bertha Farmer Fredenhauser of Ashland, Kentucky does not desire to sell anything so personal, and has stated that she would not sell it at any price.

          I do not have any documentary records to prove that I am descended or related to Nancy Ward, even though there are Walkers related to her as especially her daughter by her first husband, Katherine Kingfisher married a John Waker and one historian mentions that her daughter Betsy (Ward) Martin, her daughter by her second marriage had a cousin "Walker" but did not give his first name.  A history entitled "Travels in Tenn. by Wm Coles Williams mentioned the fact about an early minister from N.C. who stopped to visit with Betsy Martin, (Mrs General Joseph Martin) and that she was away from home on a visit, but her cousin Walker was there and that he was an indian who spoke good English, so this does clarify the fact that Nancy Ward and her daughter Betsy had Walker relatives and Ramsey Annals of Tenn. shows that the John Walker is the one I am descended from is not clearly shown but it is a fact that my family was living in Sullivan Co Tenn on the North Fork of the Holston river, on Horse Creek as can be seen from the Pension record of my Revolutionary war ancestor Edward Walker, Sr. neither of the histories as above named show anything further about said Walker.