Nelson Harlan’s tombstone in Piney Cemetery
By the will of Almity God, our Heavenly Father I yet survive. Hopeing that He is watching over my Beloved Children with the care of a Heavenly Father who I hope will preserve our lives and let us meet once more on earth, if not God be praised, we will try and meet in Heaven, where parting is no more.
I want to see you all very much, to go now I am not quite ready. I would like to dispose of my land, one hundred and sixty acres, and my mines, of which I have bonded off seven hundred and fifty feet for seven hundred and fifty dollars to be paid in June next.
I am going to see you all the first opertunity; if I have to leave my business unsettled, for I have business to transact with the U. S. Government for the value of my improvements under the treaty of ’35, of which I have never got. I am also going to Alabama to develop a mine I know of, pure native virgin silver, if I can accomplish what I wish to, my dearest children, you can live free from want and the cares of this life, certain.
I could go with two or three hundred dollars. That would not be enough. My health has been very poorly for some time, tho I feel first rate at present. I am living with a young friend of mine and his wife and one little babe. We live in a nice brick building, well furnished. Hired help is here, also on two or three other ranchos of six or seven thousand acres, all of which belong to the father of this friend of mine, with stock in proportion. Now my dearest children it don’t cost me a cent to live here, I have the best the country can afford those men of wealth are my friends. They say I shall not want for any thing. I wear good clothes ride a fine horse of my own, which is kept or fed free. I do not have to work unless I see fit.
We live 2 miles from Visalia, it is a pretty inland citty. I have many friends here, and could get money to go home on any time I would like. I don’t wish to go that way, I will have of my own after awhile.
Tell Mr. Twist to send me the Cherokee Advocate I will send him a Visalia paper. Write me soon. God Bless you all.
From your affectionate Father,
Nelson Harlan
What might have been the effect of this letter? It was discovered in a junk store in Tahlequah by Mary Adair a few years ago, tucked into a book.
My mother’s older sister Fannie said that the Harlans weren’t really Cherokees, but redfaced Irish, who took up with the Cherokees to see what they could get. Fannie was probably talking about her great-grandfather, Nelson Harlan, who was born in Wills Valley (also called Willstown, now Fort Payne), Alabama in 1813.
When he wrote the letter above to his children in 1879, he probably had not seen them since they were small, nearly 30 years earlier, when he joined the California Gold Rush. He left his family in Indian Territory, where Nelson and Jennie settled in the Piney community just across the state line from Dutch Mills, Arkansas, about 35 miles north of Fort Smith. Their daughters Sarah and Mary were born in Alabama before the Trail of Tears. Their family continued to grow in Indian Territory, with another daughter, Alice in 1841, followed by John in 1845, Nancy in 1849 and Nelson, Jr., in 1851.
Nelson joined a group of about 130 men from the area around Van Buren, Evansville and Dutch Mills, Arkansas, and nearby areas of Indian Territory, who assembled a wagon train and headed out from Fort Smith, which had become a major departure point for ’49ers, angling across Kansas and Colorado, eventually reaching the area on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where John Sutter had found gold in 1848.
The 1850 census of El Dorado County, California (between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe) lists Nelson Harlan as having $50,000 worth of real estate.
The decades of the 1850s and 1860s must have been incredibly difficult for Nelson’s family in the Cherokee Nation. The infighting among the Cherokees intensified as it reflected the conflicts raging in the border states between unionists and seccesionists over slavery and states’ rights.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the Cherokee Nation initially declared for the Confederacy, but split a few months later. Principal Chief John Ross (a slaveholder), with the backing of the non-slaveholding Cherokees, remained loyal to the Union. Stand Watie emerged as the leader of the Confederate Cherokees, along with many of the families of other Treaty Party signers.
Tensions among the Cherokees drove the families of Confederate Cherokees from their homes. The more prosperous members of the Bell, Adair, Rogers, Starr and Watie families set up housekeeping in towns in north Texas, while the remainder lived in camps along the Red River, near Hugo. Jennie Nicholson Harlan was among these. Her daughter Mary died in 1862 at 24, leaving a newborn Thomas Devine, and Jennie died in 1865. His daughter Alice Crittenden lost two of her three infant children during this time of exile, grandchildren that Nelson never knew.
When Nelson finally returned to the Cherokee Nation around 1890, without gold and silver, it’s hard to imagine that he was well-received. But his children and grandchildren may have been curious about this dreamer, whose stories may have given them hope during difficult times.
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Ozarks Law & Economy 
Harry, you are such a great historian and researcher of family matters! I found this to be very interesting. You will be expected to lead a workshop on this at the Crittenden this summer!
Harry this goes back further than I can remember ever hearing about, Allice Callison did say something about our Grandfather going to the California Gold Rush one time.We need to talk.
Harry, very interesting letter and lots of information I’ve never heard. I find it amazing to discover that my great-great-great grandfather lived so close to where I now live. Please share more of what you know, I’m very curious.
Hello,
I have been researching the Harlan family for almost 30 years trying to find out who Nelson’s Father was. Does anyone know? I am related to this line and tied in very tightly with the
Twist’s also.
Thanks for any info.
Monti
Monti,
I’ve sent you an email in response.
Hello, my notes say John Harlin/Harlan and Alsey/Alsie/Elsie McCoy were Nelson’s parents. His daughter, Mary Louise “Lou” Harlan married James Devine, they are my GGGGrandparents. I’m might have more information but in the middle of moving and my research is in the back of a 10’x30′ storage unit.
Nelson is listed as 1/4 Cherokee. He didn’t just marry to see what he could get. His family appeared to be of equal standing to that of his wife, Jane…who I believe had less Cherokee than he did. In fact, it appears the wealth of the family came from the estate of Jane’s white father. There was little to be gained by marrying a Cherokee in this time period. They built their wealth just as did any other southern family.
Lily,
I’m not sure what your point is about the relative wealth, social standing and ethnicity of Nelson Harlan and Jane (aka Jennie) Nicholson Harlan and the reason why Nelson may have married Jane.
Do you know something about Nelson Harlan’s parents, other than their names?
Jane’s father Evan Nicholson died in 1835, about the time that Nelson and Jane moved west. I haven’t seen any evidence that he brought many assets to the marriage. I don’t know whether Jane received her inheritance from him.
Jane’s mother Sarah (Sally) Vann was the daughter of James Clement Vann, who died in 1809; his vast estate was tied up in litigation in the Cherokee court system for about 20 years, because his will left the bulk of his estate to his son Joe, contrary to Cherokee tradition of most property passing to women only; the controversy over his estate is described in Theda Purdue’s book Cherokee Women. Sally Vann’s mother, Jennie Doublehead Foster, was the first of many wives of James Clement Vann.
A wonderful fictionalized account of these families of Scots and English traders who married Cherokee women, and their descendants, is found in Creek Mary’s Blood by Dee Brown, which was a best-selling novel published in the 1970s.
Wow! I am impressed! Evan Nicholson is my Great-grandfather x4 but I am related through Evan’s first son, Green. I am always interested in further information about the entire Nicholson/Vann family. Is there any new information out there on Green’s mothers? Thank you so much!
Sandra,
I am not aware of this Evan Nicholson having a son named Green. Here’s a summary of Evan Nicholson’s will: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lpproots/Nicholson/evan2nicholson.htm
It does not mention Green.
Evan had a son, Green, by a first marriage or relationship. Green, 1808-1855, was already living in South Carolina by around the time of his father’s death. I am aware that he is not mentioned in his father’s will. I had wondered if Evan gave Green his inheritance at the time he left. Ultimately, Green will settle along Shoal Creek near Joplin, Missouri. One of Green’s children, Malachi, will seek a Dawes Roll number through their “grandmother.” It is rejected.
Little Green had been raised and mothered by their father’s wife, but she is not their biological mother. (By this time, the name had evolved to Nichols.”
Application for Enrollment
To: The Honorable Henry L. Dawes, Frank C. Armstrong, Archibald S. McKennon, Thomas B. Cabaniss and Alexander B. Montgomery, United States Commissioners, authorized by an act of Congress of June 4, 1896, to hear and determine claims for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.
Gentlemen:–
The undersigned, your petitioner, Malakiah Nichols, for and on behalf of himself and heirs, this day make their application to you for the purpose of being placed on the revised roll of Cherokee Indians and of those entitled to share in the distribution of the funds and allotments of lands in the Cherokee Nation by virtue of their Cherokee blood, and Petitioner states that he is Cherokee Indian by blood, deriving the same from Tacah who lived in Cherokee County, Georgia on Etowah River and that the said Tacah was the grandmother of the applicant herein named whose name will be found on the authenticated rolls of the Cherokees by blood taken in the years 1835 the same to be submitted to your Honorable Comission for a full and complete investigation, and if found correct as stated, to be granted all the rights, privileges and immunities of other Cherokee citizens, and petitioner herewith files his proof in support of said claim, and respectfully awaits the time when his application shall be heard and tried.
Respectfully submitted,
Malakiah X Nichols Attest J.S. Davenport
(his mark)
Enrollment of family with relationship attached, as follows:
James H. Nichols, 32
Elvira E. Wallace (nee Nichols), 30
Nevada J. Chase (nee Nichols), 26
Richard P. Nichols, 20
In wittness Whereof I hereunto set my hand this 3rd day of Aug. 1896
Malakiah X Nichols attest J.S. Davenport
(his mark)
United States of America Indian Territory Northern District
Green’s mother was supposedly Sarah Do Key (or To-cah/To-Kah) who lived in the Cherokee Nation in Georgia on the Etowah River. She was supposedly on the original rolls taken in 1835.
When Malichi filed the application August 1896 he was at Chelsea post office, Indian Territory. As were James, Elvira, and Nevada.
Sarah Vann was born in 1797, so I didn’t think she was Green’s biological mother, since he was born in 1808 when she was in the Moravian mission school at Spring Place.
I knew several different families named Nichols in Newton and McDonald counties when I was growing up.
Correct! Sarah was NOT Green’s mother! Thus my original post and my last response. “Supposedly!” I have no mother for Green. Sarah is too yound. My understanding is that at the time of the marriage between Sarah and Evan, that Evan would have been “taken into ” her Clan as her husband. (On another roll Evan is listed on the fool in behalf of his wife.). Green would have been raised with the other children. He would have been accepted as “family.” So much so that Green’s children as adults seen Sarah as their grandmother. In further papers I have from Tahlequah Sarah is mentioned as their grandmother.
Green goes on to marry an Isley girl and have a large family with lots for family in around the four state area.
Wow, interesting that his GreatGreatGrandchildren, the Grandchildren of his Daughter Mary Lou, would end up settling in the late 1930s just approximately 23 miles from Visalia, CA in Armona, CA). One, my Grandfather Harvey Russell “Buck” Devine actually lived in Visalia, CA for a few years. I reside in Hanford, CA (currently serving as a city councilman) which is just East of Armona and West of Visalia.
Great to hear from a Devine cousin! I didn’t know if there were any.