James S. Brown – Finding Family & Indian Stories

My 3^rd Maternal Great Grandfather James S. Brown was thought to be part Indian by many of the descendants of his children.  Even though these descendants from the various children didn’t know each other, they had the same Indian captivity and birth story.  Nothing was known about his parents and possible siblings—not even their names.

As one can imagine, searching for the parents of someone born in the late 1700s can be challenging.  Throw in a common surname like Brown, a common first name, and a story of Indian birth while in captivity, and it becomes that much harder.  Some even thought that Brown was not really his surname. It was thought that his mother took the surname because a man named Brown had helped her after her release from captivity. Plenty of complications to sort. DNA may be a way to break down the brick wall to his family.

Let’s look at what we knew and where he lived.

What was Known about his Life

We knew James S. Brown was probably born in 1785 in Rockbridge, Virginia although U.S. Federal Census records and family reports do not always agree.   Census records for his daughter Elmira list him as born in Kentucky and her mother in Tennessee. Could Kentucky be because that is where his family had moved after his birth in Virginia?  Did she think he was born there because she knew his family lived there? This may be a clue.

He had two wives, Elizabeth and Anna, and many children by both.  The 1850 U.S. Federal Census is the first census to list the names of everyone living in the same household.  However, it did not note the relationship to the head of the family. So, the people listed could be family, or not. Looking at the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, we easily find the correct James Brown with his family.  On this document, he was 63, born in Virginia, and living in DeKalb, Alabama with his second wife Anna 46, born in Tennessee. The six children listed are Michael S., 18, and William E., 14, born in Tennessee; Olive Ann, 11, and Keziah H., 8, born in Georgia; and Sarah P., 5, and Serena P. 11/12, born in Alabama. Anna was the mother of these children with all of them born after the marriage of James and Anna on January 16, 1829, in Tennessee. These are verified family members per descendants.

He had married his first wife, Elizabeth Carpenter about 1808 in Burkesville, Kentucky, according to his second wife Anna’s statement on her War of 1812 Widow Pension Application.  James and Elizabeth’s first child, Edward Henry, was born in 1809 in Blount County, Tennessee. 

James enlisted in the Army on August 23, 1812, and he appears on the Kentucky Roll of Captain David McNair’s Company, Barbee’s Regiment, Kentucky Militia. There are three Browns listed: Thomas, James, and Samuel with Samuel marked absent-sick.  Enlistment was for 6 months; and, on Anna’s pension application, she states he was discharged on March 23, 1813, in Kentucky.

Elizabeth and James had two more children in Kentucky.  Of these, one’s name is unknown, and thought to be born about 1812.  The other, James Galson, was born about 1815.

They then moved to Tennessee as evidenced by the birth of four more children there, with the last two specifically born in McMinn County, Tennessee. These children were Jane, another whose name is unknown, Stephen Woodruff, and Albina. Sometime after the birth of Elizabeth’s last child, Albina, in 1828, we have no further information on Elizabeth.  It is assumed she passed away either in childbirth or for other reasons. 

James married Anna Kelly, on January 16, 1829, in McMinn County, Tennessee, per Anna’s statement on her 1812 pension application.  She also stated that she knew of no record still in existence because the McMinn County courthouse records were destroyed in the “Late War of Rebellion.” As far as we can tell, Anna Kelly would have been around 25 when they married.  She is also a mystery for our family with no knowledge of her life before this marriage.  She is another story for another time.  Many questions exist.

The first 2 children for James and Anna are born in McMinn, Tennessee. They are Martha Elmira and Michael Servitis. The next child, William Erby (Irby) is born in Murray County, Georgia and is my 2^nd Great Grandfather. Olive Ann was also born there in 1838.

Anna might have misreported living in DeKalb County since 1836 on her pension application since she had children in Murray County, Georgia, beyond that date. James is also on the 1840 census in Murray County and another child Keziah was born in Cass County in 1843.  On her Indian application, Keziah said she was born in Cast County, which was probably Cass County. Cass County was adjacent to and south of Murray County and was originally created in December 1832 from part of Cherokee County.  In December 1861 the name was changed to Bartow County. Murray County was also created by the Georgia General Assembly in December 1832, formerly part of Cherokee County.

Other prior places of residence mentioned on the pension application by Anna were McMinn County, Tennessee; Overton County, Tennessee; and Cass County, Georgia. 

Anna might have been off by a decade on her report of when they moved to DeKalb County, Alabama.  In 1845, she had her daughter Sarah there.  In 1848, her last child, Serena, was born in DeKalb.  The family remained in DeKalb until James Brown’s death there on July 4, 1876, at his son William E Brown’s home in Sulphur Springs, DeKalb, Alabama. The date of his death is misreported on Anna’s pension application as 1877. There is a newspaper account from the Gadsden Times for 1876.

After James death in 1876, Anna applied for her 1812 War Widow Pension in 1878.  On the 1880 U.S. Federal Census, she was living with her daughter Elmira’s family.  Only her birthplace as Tennessee is listed. No listing for either parent’s birthplace is included.  Anna died March 5, 1883, in DeKalb, Alabama. 

The following summarizes where we know James Brown lived during his lifetime.

1785 Rockbridge, VA

1808 Burkesville, Cumberland Co., KY

1809 Blount Co., TN

1812-1815 KY

1822-1824 TN

1826-1832 McMinn Co., TN

1835-1842 Murray Co., GA

1843 Cass Co., GA

1845-1876 DeKalb Co., AL

The Indian Story

Many of the descendants of James Brown had heard the same Indian captivity story, independent of other descendant’s families.  So, it seems that there might be something true about the story or it could be just lore passed down. 

Let’s look at why many believed the story was true.  Many of the children of James were said to know Indian phrases and words.  Anna Keziah was said to have many Indian ways about her.  On February 26, 1926, when she was 84, she applied for Indian Heritage for her father, herself, and her children. The application was for Enrollment with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina, claiming her father was born with ½ Indian blood when her grandmother was captive. Her relationship as stated on the application was: “My Grandmother was taken captive by the Cherokee Indians and kept for several years. While in captivity, my father was born. He being ½ Cherokee Indian, and I am ¼ Cherokee Indian.” On April 14, 1926, when she was unable to travel to appear at the hearing, her application was rejected. Although many of the descendants told the same story, including the knowledge of Indian words, no one had any conclusive evidence that the story was true.

Another interesting connection for the Indian story happened in the War of 1812.  James Brown served under Captain David McNair’s Company, Barbee’s Regiment, Kentucky Militia.  David McNair was married to the Cherokee Delilah Vann, and he commanded a company in the Cherokee Regiment. Since James served with McNair’s regiment, it would seem he identified himself as Cherokee.

Stephen Woodruff Brown, a son of James and Elizabeth, is profiled in The History of Tennessee published in 1886.  It states that he "remained with his parents until his majority, then spent seven years in the Cherokee Nation, after which he moved to Franklin County, Tennessee." Thus, another family member identifying with the Cherokees.

So far, it seems that the family had some reason to believe they were part Cherokee.  Can DNA help resolve the question, or will it bring more confusion about this belief?

One of the male Brown descendants, a great-grandson of James Brown, took a yDNA test, and his DNA is not in the American Indian haplogroup.  His daughter Roxanne, who submitted the test sample, reports:

This type of DNA is passed down unchanged from father to son, so if James Brown's father had been 100% Indian, his yDNA would have been in the American Indian haplogroup.  However, this does not disprove the story.  The yDNA indicates Irish ancestry, but there were quite a few Irish and Scottish men who went into the American backcountry and fathered Indian children.  These male Indian children would have looked and been raised as Indians, but their yDNA would have been Irish, Scottish, or whatever the yDNA of their fathers had been.  If the family lore is true, then James may have been 1/4 Indian, rather than 1/2.

In conclusion, we are still left without a complete answer regarding whether the Indian story is true or false. Our answer comes to us rather unexpectedly thanks to cousin Virginia’s message to me that started a treasure trove of trees and information.

DNA and Research Provide Answers

One evening in January 2019, I received a message from my cousin Virginia, who is a DNA confirmed cousin on the James S. Brown line.  She descends from his daughter Olive Ann and Roxanne and I from his son William Erby.  We often work together on trying to untangle the family mysteries.  She had found a match on Ancestry that she was sure was a Brown descendant.  His surname was Jackson, and he didn’t have a family tree. He did match lots of other Brown descendants.  I was intrigued and thought that maybe Jackson might be a family line.  We are always looking for those elusive ancestors.

When I finally found him on my family DNA tests at Ancestry, I agreed he must be a Brown.  Thought the Jackson might be a lead to part of the family.  I confirmed he matched my uncle David (who only shares my mother’s paternal side of the family) so Thomas Jackson was on the correct side for a Brown connection in my family.  Virginia and I agreed we had no known Jacksons on the Brown line.  Since he didn’t have a tree, I started to look at shared matches that had trees.

Meanwhile, Virginia made a random contact to another Brown cousin, Jeff Forgey.  He shared his DNA with her, and she began finding matches with trees and information!

While Virginia was busy on her search and discoveries, I was on a parallel journey. I found a shared match “onerounddown” whose tree led me to Thomas Smith Brown, born 1788 in Blount, Tennessee.  This Brown’s parents were William Thomas Brown, born in Ireland in 1754, and Margaret Anderson, born in Virginia in 1758 and died in Kentucky. I kept finding trees with about the same information for DNA matches. Some had the father as William Thomas Brown, while others had him as Thomas Smith Brown, Sr. The trees also listed Margaret’s mother as Nancy Anderson and had a brother James listed for Thomas Smith Brown, Sr.

The son, Thomas Smith Brown, Jr., was born in 1788 in Nickajack, Foothills of Lookout Mountain, Blount County, Tennessee.  This was exciting because I knew Lookout Mountain was in the area that my Brown family lived.  In fact, James Brown’s first child was thought to have been born in Blount County, Tennessee. Both the father and son, Thomas Smith Brown, were reported to have died in Tompkinsville, Monroe County, Kentucky.

There was no James Brown listed in the first family trees I saw, so I kept looking.

Then, I found a tree owned by forgey called Jeff Forgey Roots Magic (Virginia’s contact above), and he had a James Brown that was the son of Thomas Smith Brown, Sr. and Margaret Anderson.  His tree’s James Brown was born 1784 in Virginia, and ours was born in 1785 in Virginia.  Dates could be off for one.  However, he had this James as having died by being burned at an Indian Camp in Missouri in 1820.  That was a bit shocking and a letdown.  However, there were no records that would tie Thomas Smith Brown’s family to the son James.  We know ours wasn’t burned in Missouri. But maybe that information was wrong.  If so, Thomas Smith Brown Sr. and Margaret Anderson would be his parents. Margaret was born in Virginia and died in Kentucky, and her husband was from Ireland.  Their children were listed as James, William Nathaniel, Thomas Smith Jr., Elizabeth, and Eleandor. 

This gave us lots of information that now had to be verified to be able to claim this family as ours. Jeff’s tree was full of information but lacked documentation to support his information.  We just had to search to find the support needed.

This is the family listed for Thomas Smith Brown:

Wife’s Mother: Nancy Anderson 1734 -  1821

Brother: James E. Brown 1755 -1784

Wife: Margaret Anderson

Children:         James 1784 - 1820

                        William Nathaniel 1786 – 1851

                        Thomas Smith, Jr. 1789 -1868

                        Elizabeth “Betsy” 1800 –

                        Eleandor “Polly”  1803-

Also of great interest on this tree was the additional information about Thomas Smith Brown, Jr.  He was said to have been born in January 1789 at an Indian City called Nickajack at the foot of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.  The Birth entry stated he was born while in captivity by Cherokee Indians.  Wow!  This is a version of our Brown descendants’ stories and beliefs.  Could it be it was not James, but his brother that was born in captivity?  Perhaps, James was also captive, accounting for his belief that he was Indian and his children’s knowledge of the language. He would have been about 3-4 years old when his brother was born. However, there was no documentation for this story on the tree. We kept researching.

Verification of the Relationship

A good way to verify relationships is through DNA matches.  So, I added all the potential family of James to my tree—his parents and siblings.  Next, I had to wait for Ancestry to have time to run its algorithm for ThruLines.  ThruLines searches through the trees of your DNA matches to see if you have ancestors in common.  You are then shown the possible line for the DNA match.  These are not always correct, so you must do the work of tracing back their lines through documents. This is time consuming but the only way to know. If you can verify the people on the line do trace back to the common ancestor, you can be assured that the connection is correct. 

I went through the process of verification and was delighted to find the lines did go back to the common ancestors of James’ parents as on the trees!  Many of known James S. Brown descendants shared DNA with the various siblings of James. This confirms we are related, and these are probably his parents and siblings.  But there is more that convinces me.

Resolution of the Indian Story

Now, we can be certain that Thomas Smith Brown, Sr. was the father of James. This leads us to the resolution of the Indian story.  In the Revolutionary War Pension application for Thomas, it mentions that he lost his discharge papers at Gillespie’s Station when said station was captured and burnt by the Cherokee Indians and his family was captured. Unfortunately, there is something covering part of the information on the original document.  However, it clearly states his family was captured. 

This was October 17, 1788.  James was born in 1785, his brother William Nathaniel was born in 1786, and his brother Thomas Smith Brown, Jr. was born in January 1789.  James was about three so clearly may have believed he was born there.  Thomas appears to be the child born while captive.  Comparing the date of the attack in October and his birth in January, he is not Indian either.  We don’t know how long they were captive, but it was long enough for James and his siblings to believe they were Indian and to learn some of the language and ways of the Cherokee.  James’ daughter Keziah, had stated in her Indian application that they were there a few years.

This is hard to read but is an excerpt from Thomas Smith Brown’s pension application where it mentions the attack and captivity of his family. The Gillespie Station was considered in North Carolina at the time, but the area is now in Tennessee.  Boundary changes often occurred in the early history of the U.S.

Pension shows the Gillespie Station Connection

Putting it all Together

Now that we know this is the correct family, we can look at other corroborating information.

Rockbridge County, Virginia was created from Augusta and Botetourt Counties on March 1, 1778.  This is of interest since his parents, Thomas Smith Brown and Margaret Anderson were married in Botetourt County, Virginia on Jan 22, 1779.  He was then born in Rockbridge County. This places his birth in the same area.

James’ family was in Unicol County, Tennessee in April 1786 where their second child William Nathaniel was born. So now, they have moved from Virginia to northeastern Tennessee. Next, we know that they were at Gillespie’s Fort in October, 1788 when it was attacked and Margaret was taken into captivity with her two small sons James and William Nathaniel.  The Fort or Station had been established in 1785 near present day Rockford, Blount County, Tennessee. Thomas Smith, Jr. was born in captivity at the foot of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. All we know about the birth of the next two children, Elizabeth and Eleandor, is that they were born in Tennessee.

By 1806, it was believed that Thomas Smith Brown, Sr. and his brother James had moved to Tompkinsville, Monroe County, Kentucky. However, Thomas applied for his pension as a resident of Barren County, Kentucky in June 1818.  Barren and Monroe Counties are adjacent so he may have moved from one county to another.

Per census records, Thomas Smith Brown, Sr. and Thomas Smith Brown, Jr. are living in Monroe County, Kentucky, from 1820, the first census available, until their deaths. One daughter Eleandor Emberton is on the 1850-1860 censuses with her husband.  Nothing is known about Elizabeth’s location.  The other son, William Nathaniel married in Tennessee and then lived in North Carolina.

We have evidence that the Thomas Smith Browns living in Tompkinsville, Monroe, Kentucky were the family we have been tracing because of an action by the younger Thomas.  He had his father declared a lunatic in court after he burned his pension papers and refused to accept the pension.  The court action and the letter the son wrote to the pension office is in the father’s pension record.

James and Elizabeth Carpenter married about 1808 in Burkesville, Kentucky.  Burkesville is about 28 miles from Tompkinsville.  James also enlisted in Kentucky before moving to Tennessee after his discharge.  This places him in the approximate area as other family. 

Stephen Woodruff Brown, a son of James, named a son Erby Smith Brown in 1856. He appears on the 1870 U.S. Federal Census as Smith Brown, 13, a son of Stephen and Mary.  He appears on later census records with variations, such as Smith E, E.S., and Erby S. He also is shown as Erby Smith Brown on the Certificate of Deaths for his children Lonnie Alex Brown, Walter Erskin, and Bessie Canant Brown. There is plenty of documentation that his middle name was Smith.

Death Certificate Showing Father Erby Smith Brown

Additionally, Stephen named another son Joseph Marion Anderson Brown. FInding his entire name on a death certificate was like Christmas morning to a child! So, it appears James and Elizabeth’s son honored both of his grandparents by naming his first 2 sons after them. This was truly a gift to us.

Joseph Marion Anderson Brown Death Certificate

We do not know what the S stands for in James Brown’s name.  We can speculate that it is not Smith since his brother’s middle name is that.  However, his son does carry on the name with James’ grandson.  The S might also stand for Servitis, which James’ son Michael was given as well as others in the family.  We have not found any documents for his middle name.  That may never be resolved.

Thanks to Sparks and Collaboration

This was an amazing journey that would not have happened If Virginia Thompson had not been curious about a DNA match and contacted me.  I often think that big genealogy discoveries arise from moments of intuition or wonder. While the Jackson match was not very informative, it led to his shared matches that were extremely fruitful. After finding this match and contacting me, Virginia was busy discovering and confirming our James S. Brown’s roots and connection in conjunction with me.  Roxanne Brown also contributed with her father’s DNA results and transcribing old, handwritten documents that are difficult to read. Without her father’s DNA, we would not have known there was no Indian DNA from James or that his family was Irish.

Once again, a solid collaboration broke down a seemingly impossible wall to reveal more family. I can say that it was an exciting time with a mad dedication to flipping through trees, records, and DNA matches after realizing we were on the verge of breaking down this huge brick wall in our shared family history! 

Solved by research January 2019