PERSON COUNTY INDIANS

In the April Newsletter I wrote about our need to research some areas where our
ancestors lived prior to migrating to the Clinch River Valley beginning in 1795.
When a large group of our Melungeon Progenitors left The Pamunkey River area
of Louisa and Hanover County, Virginia they migrated to the Flat River which at
that time was Granville County, North Carolina. This research is about the Flat
River area and the people who lived here and the ones who stayed. Person
County, North Carolina is bounded on the north by Virginia, on the south by
Durham and Orange counties, on the west by Caswell, and on the east by
Granville.

My wife and I visited the Flat River area in Person County, North
Carolina in 1997 and took the pictures that are in my books of the Flat River and
the Flat River Primitive Baptist Church established in 1750. This area in Person
County was then Granville County, became Orange in 1752. This was the
location of the Melungeon Progenitors after selling their land in Louisa County,
Virginia they migrated to this area and lived here for at least 17 years (1749-
1767), they were sometimes enumerated as mulatto on land records and also on
a 1755 tax list.

In this area there is a tribe of Indians and I wrote about them in the first chapter
of my book, Melungeons Footprints From the Past. In the Person County Indian
Group, a school census taken in November 1936, listed 346 persons in the
community representing 76 families and the families averaged 6 to 8 children.
(2-May 1937 Louise V. Nunn-A comparison of the social situation of two Isolated Indian
Groups in Northern North Carolina. Submitted in partial requirements for a degree of
Master of Arts, Columbia University, New York, New York-.80 pages.)

Who were the 76 families of Person County Indians and who are they today ?
Newspaper Article - 1948 THE INDIANS OF PERSON COUNTY NORTH
CAROLINA, HISTORY OF A PROUD AND HANDSOME TRIBE OF INDIANS
NEAR ROXBORO MAY BE CONNECTED WITH LOST COLONY MYSTERY;
ABOUT 70 FAMILIES LIVE IN EXTENDED FARMING COMMUNITY
By Tom MacCaughelty
Durham Morning Herald, March 21, 1948

“As Indians, they never have been positively identified. Can they be, as their tradition
holds, the long sought descendants of the friendly Indians who received the colonists of
John White? Strangely enough, among the approximately 350 people in the scattered
farming community, only six family names are represented: Johnson, Martin, Coleman,
Epps, Stewart (also spelled Stuart), and Shepherd. Stranger still, three of these names
correspond closely with those among the list of Lost Colonists: Johnson, Coleman, and
Martyn. But theirs are common English names long familiar in North Carolina, and
intermarriage with the proximity to whites would be expected to extend such names
among them. (A seventh prominent name among this group is Tally.) As far back as
anyone knows, these people have displayed the manners and customs of white settlers,
but in this they don't differ from identified Indians.”

29 March 2003 – Courier-Times
State House OKs request from
Indians of Person County to change official name to ‘Sappony’
The Indians of Person County has been recognized under North Carolina law as
the "Sappony" tribe. after the House passed a bill effecting a formal name
change for the Indians of Person County, who have been officially known by that
name for the past 90 years.

Caswell County was formed from the Northern part of Orange County, North
Carolina in 1777 it included part of the Flat River, it was bounded on the North
by Pittsylvania & Halifax Counties, Virginia. From looking at land and tax records
John Collins whose land was on the Rocky Branch of the Flat River was not part
of the Collins who later became known as Melungeons. He remained in the new
counties.
1777 list
Paul Collins 1
Martin Collins 1
Middleston Collins 1,
Obadiah Collins 1,
John Collins 1
Most of the Flat River Collins began migrated to the New River area in 1767,
both John Collins Sr. & Jr. were on the 1771 tax list of Fincastle County, Virginia.
Person County was formed from Caswell County in 1791 and the Flat River was
in the new county. I didn’t find any Collins on the 1800 census of Person County
but did find an old Thomas Gibson, Edward Goin a family of 4 free colored,
Enoch? Goin 7 free colored, Allen Goan 7 free colored. Johnson is the most
popular surname on the census and is also a name among the Person County
Indians.

A Startling Discovery
I received some valuable information from Sappony tribesman Stuart who told
me there was a Rolen Collins who hung out with the Person County Indians at
Woodsdale, late 1800s. Stuart also told me several from their group migrated to
Hawkins County, Tennessee, including his great grandfather Thomas Stewart
who married Eliza Epps daughter of Peter Epps, others in this group with the
Stewarts were Johnson,Shepherds, Epps and Martin. He also told me many from
this group are buried in the Jaynes/Shepherd Cemetery near Rogersville. I found
it listed in our cemetery books at the archive. It is located off Hwy 66 on the
Webb Road in the Choptack Community near Rogersville, Tennessee. I found
the cemetery Tuesday September 7, 2010.
Thirty nine people are buried there, five in unmarked graves. 5 Shephard, 7 Stuart, 3
Martin. They migrated to Hawkins County area in 1800s, their headstones are their
witness that they died in Hawkins County: John H. Stuart b 7 April 1865, died 11 June
1898; Eliza R. Stuart born 16 March 1826, died 21 May 1893.

In my conversation with the caretaker of this cemetery, a Martin, was not aware of the
Indian connection, but he did tell me years ago when the cemetery began, the land was
owned by a Shephard family. I need to find someone in this area who knows about their
ancient Person County Indian Ancestors.
http://www.ncperson.org/high_plains.htm#web_site

Like their website reads the Person County Indians now Sappony have never
been positively identified. And their school was equally financed by Virginia and
North Carolina. The first school was built on Green Martins land in 1888 and the
cemetery in Hawkins County is run by a Martin 122 years later. I don’t find a
connection or association between this mysterious group and the Melungeons
except for the fact they lived on the same land around the Flat River in 1750.
Maybe the answer to some of this will come from the Hawkins County
descendants as this research continues.
Jack Goins