Hyde County, NC Indian Families in 1850

A friend was looking through the Hyde County, NC, 1850 census and noticed something quite interesting.

On page 4 (at Ancestry.com) of the Currituck district, one entire page (except one person) is shown with M, for mulatto, overwritten over something else. That something else looks to be an F or an I.

I’ve put the three pages in sequence below. Only people with an M or B have a designation, so no designation appears to equal white, judging from the rest of the Hyde County census.

Note that the only options for the census takers relative to race are white, black or mulatto. Indian wasn’t added until 1870, so in 1850, there is no Indian designation.  The 1850 census instructions do not tell the enumerator how to determine which of those 3 categories a person falls into, so it was up to the enumerator or their assistant to make that determination.  Given that the enumerators lived in the county, they probably knew these families and “knew” who was mixed and who was not.  In essence, if you weren’t entirely white, and you weren’t entirely black,  you were mulatto.

On the bottom of the first page, below, the beginning of the family entry that continues onto the overstrike page is shown. This family head and his wife, John and Mary Berry are not shown with any designation, and neither is Elizabeth, so presumably white.

The family continues onto the next page, which is the full page shown below. On this page, every single individual except for one child, Henrietta Collins, had something written in the race column which looks to be an I or an F, and was subsequently overstricken.

My first thought was that they accidentally wrote F, for female in the wrong column, except many of the enumerants are males, so that doesn’t fly either.

Furthermore, it looks like Samuel Barber, living in the same house with John Berry, is listed as M, one of those people whose status of possible I, for Indian, an invalid entry, was overwritten or “corrected” to an allowable designation.

Here’s a better look.

The Barrow or Banow family is being enumerated at the end of the page above, and on the following page, the family grouping now continues with child Malsey Berry, age 10, with no race designation.

Frankly, this doesn’t make a lot of sense unless there are pages missing, and working the various original page numbers, while a bit confusing at first, doesn’t show any relevant pages to be missing.  What we can’t know is when the pages were numbered, or if the census was taken in household order.  In other words, the pages could have been numbered later and the census taken could have enumerated in whatever order struck his fancy or was convenient that day.

I checked each page individually, and sure enough, there was a second page in this district with families with their race over stricken to mulatto.  These families were also known to be of Mattamuskeet origin.  The Mackey and Longtom families are both reflected in the Mattamuskeet reservation land sales between 1737 and 1792 as Indians.

In fact, this page begins with Ann Banow which is the same surname ending the previous page with the overstrikes.

If these census pages actually do show Indian people, reclassified as mulattoe, as is suggested by the overwriting and the full word mulatto written out at the top of both pages, then this suggests that all of these families have Native heritage, whether full or partial by intermarriage, in 1850.

What do we know about the various families listed? Previous research has shown the following about the various surnames listed.

• Barber

John Durant, King, John Barber, John Hawkins, Harry Gibbs, George Durant, great men of the Yawpims came before this Board an acknowledged a sale of Land for six hundred and fforty Acres to the Honoble William Reed Esq’ part of a great Tract laid out to them by the Government and that they were Satisfyed for the same and this Boai’d being asked wither they consented to the said sale gave their opinion in the affirmative. [Colonial Records of NC, 1723, p 483]

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In 1712, a peace treaty between the Tuscarora Indians and the State of North Carolina, is signed by Tom Blount, 4 other Indian men who do not have English names, and a 6th Indian transcribed as “Saroonha for Hernt Focker, absent.” It states that Blount’s segment of the Tuscarora who attempted to remain neutral will make war against those who attacked the colonists.  Those groups include the Catatkpncy, Cores, Nuse, Bare River, Pamplico and Matchepungo Indians.  It also states, among things, that they will “endeavor to bring in some of their towns alive,” then provides a list of Native names, some followed by English names as well that they are “called” by.  The English names are John Pagett, Lawson, Barber, Henry Lysle, Square Hooks and Young Tyler.  [Craven County NC, It’s Origin and Beginning by Dr. Charles R. Holloman]

• Garner
• Reed

Reed is found among the PeeDee and the Tuscarora.

https://nativeheritageproject.com/2013/09/11/pee-dee-indian-surnames/

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Served in the Revolutionary War in New York:

This book notes that 50 Tuscarora warriors went to Valley Forge with the Americans, and with them went Augur, Daniel and Jacob Reed. The book does not specifically say these men are Native, but this sentence and the context certainly imply that they are.

Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War

• King

“Jno King an Indian” complained to the governor’s council in 1695 that his people were “denyed their liberty of Hunting to which they pretent title by former agreement.” The Council ruled in his favor, saying “the Indians have liberty to hunt on all wasteland that is not taken up…” Tribal affiliation not listed for King, but was apparently a leader of one of the tributary Algonquian nations of the Albemarle region, including Chowanoke, Yeopim, Hatteras, etc.

Michelle LeMaster, “In the Scolding Houses”,” Indians and the Law in Eastern North Carolina, 1684-1760,” in The North Carolina Historical Review LXXXIII, no. 2, April 2006.

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Request for satisfaction of losses (5 pounds) caused by Tom King of the Wotton Ind. made by Nicholas DAWE. No date. Request directed to Robert DANIELL, landgrave.

Commentary: This appears to be about 1703.

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/nc/ncstate/court/colonial07.txt

Woccon is an early name for Ocracoke Island. On Hatteras Island, at Indian Town, we find Tom King’s Creek mentioned in several deeds, the first in 1716.

Patent Book 8, pat 2692, p 113 John O’neall Oct 9 1716  440 ac at Cape Hatterass joining ye mouth and side of Tom King Creek, the sound, and ye woods.  Wit Charles Eden, N. Chevin, C. Gale, Fra. Foster, T. Knight

In 1756, the Hatteras Indians were involved with a court action regarding their land, where it became evident that while they had always lived there, they didn’t have a patent or land grant, and the Europeans were not recognizing their ownership. They remedied that by requesting a land grant, which was given in 1759 and bordered King’s Creek.

Colony of NC 1735-1764 Abstracts of Land Patents, Volume One – B by Margaret M. Hofmann

Page 382, pat 5398, page 268, book 15, William Elks and the rest of the Hatteras Indians March 6 1759, 200 ac in Currituck including the old Indian Town, joining the sound side, the mouth of King’s Creek and Joseph Mashue.

https://nativeheritageproject.com/2013/01/07/tom-king-woccon-indian/

• Freeman

In 1733, John Freeman, a Chowan Indian, signs a land deed. In 1774 Freeman is found in Bladen, some free persons of color and some white.  In 1802, they are near the Waccamaw.  They are found among the Lumbee.  [Estes, Families of Interest Index]

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John Freeman, a white man, possibly married Chowan chief, Thomas Hoyter’s daughter, Tabitha.

http://chowanoke.webs.com/genealogy.htm

Additional information about the Freeman family is available here:

http://chowanoke.webs.com/hoyterfreeman.htm

This Freeman line has been proven Native through Y DNA testing, haplogroup Q.

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The Colonial Records of North Carolina, Second Series, Volume VII entitled “Records of the Executive Council,” on page 416, has a deposition given by Richard Booth in which he states that in the year 1667 he took a canoe with trade goods to the Meherrin Indian Town down the Blackwater River. On his right the Weyanoake River joined in about 13 miles north of the Meherrin River. Accompanying him on this journey was “a Certain Weyanoake Indian Called Tom Freeman.”

Weyanoke Indian Tom Freeman by Fletcher Freeman

https://nativeheritageproject.com/2012/11/14/weyanoake-indian-tom-freeman/

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Freeman first appears in Bladen Co. NC with Abraham, Samuel and William, all of mixt blood on a tax list in 1774. In 1775, Abraham was a free person of color, possibly black and in 1776 Roger Freeman appeared in a tax list of Bladen with a family of 8.  Benjamin and William Freeman, white, in Barnes district of S Robeson Co. NC in 1776.  Abram and James Freeman of current Bladen signed a petition regarding road work around the Waccamaw in 1802.  1850 Robeson census gives all as white and dates back to before 1790 in the area.  Self identified as Indian in the 1900 Robeson census and on the 1900 Indian census schedule.  Death records show name as Indian in 1919 and 1940 in Alfordsville, Fairmont and Thompson Twp.

Implosion, the Secret History of the Origins of the Lumbee Indians by Morris Britt

• Tyson
• Chance

Found among the Cherokee in WWI draft registrations.

• Collins

Source: Hyde Co., NC Court Minutes 1757-1788; Book III by Weynette Parks Haun

Page 55 (Item #111)  March Court 1765 – On motion Patrick Gordan ordered that William Gibbs be summoned to next court to shew cause if any he has why Cate Collings an Indian woman now in his service should not be set free.

Page 58 (Item 117) June Court 1765 – Ordered that William Gibbs have timely notis [sic] that he shew cause why Cate Collins an Indian woman be not set at liberty.

• Good
• Barrow
• Banow?
• Hill

Tuscarora People as Identified by Land and Other Transactions by Roberta Estes (2012) – Individuals from North Carolina primarily, some from New York.

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Tuscarora People as Identified by Land and Other Transactions by Roberta Estes (2012) – Individuals from North Carolina primarily, some from New York.

Found among the Tuscarora in the Indian census in the 1880s and 1890s.

Indian surnames enumerated in the 1888-1892 New York Indian census from original National Archives documents indexed at http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1059

• Clagton
• Braddock
• Davis
• Mackay/Mackey

In 1715, at the close of the Tuscarora War, defeated, the Mattamuskeet were given permission to settle at Lake Mattamuskeet in current Hyde Co., NC. In 1724 King Squired and King Mackey requested that the land be surveyed, but in 1727, when the reservation land was finally granted, it still had not been done.  In 1715, the Mattamuskeet and the Coree, traditional enemies settled on the reservation.  The Tuscarora were living there as well until 1722 when they received their own reservation. The Coree, traditionally allied with the Tuscarora, likely went with them to Indian Woods in Bertie County.  In 1731, there we only 20 families at Lake Mattamuskeet and in 1755, only 8 to 10.  The Mattamuskeet who appear in deeds and records between 1721 and 1792 are as follows, with the first year they appeared in a record following their name.  King Squires (1721), King Mackey (1721), John Squires (1731), John Mackey (1731), Long Tom (1731), Charles Eden (1739), Charles Squires (1740), son of John Squires per a 1746 deed that says “by order of his father John Squires, George Squires, 1746, son of John Squires  per a 1760 deed, Joseph Russell 1747, Joshua Squires, 1752, Timothy Squires, 1752, James Tom, 1760, Jemina Squires, 1762, Jean Longtom, 1792, Martha Longtom, 1792, John Longtom, 1792, Patience McKey (Mackey), 1792 and Tabitha Timothy, 1792.  The 1792 deed held no names or prior signers.  There had been 30 years between the 1792 deed and the previous deed signed in 1762.  [Estes, Mattamuskeet Unraveled]

• Longtom

See Mackey, above.

• Powers

Hat tip to Justin for finding the Hyde County overstricken census records and thanks for passing the information along.