Meigs (Meiggs) Family History and Genealogy

 

 

Emily Stanfield (Meigs) Walker

Emily Stanfield Meigs (#370) was born on October 25, 1808, the daughter of Timothy (#197) and Elizabeth (Holt) Meigs, and grand-daughter of Return Jonathan Meigs, 1st.

She married John Walker, a chief of the Cherokee Nation, on January 10, 1824. As the story goes, he fell in love and eloped with Emily. Her grandfather and one of her brothers didn't think the idea was to good, and gave chase after the runaways following them all day and night on horseback. At one point they shot at them as the two "were swimming across the Tennessee River - a risky thing to do, as the fair young girl was sitting on the horse behind her Indian lover." 1 But "on all the wide border his steed was the best." 2 They made their escape and were married in Bristol, VA. There was a law against this type of intermarriage, so the minister would not take them in the house, but married them out on the road in a downpour of rain.

Walker was educated at Harvard. He was said to be very handsome and captivating. He supported and signed the treaty of agreement to the ceding of the Cherokee's territory to the U.S. Government and their own removal to the West. After the signing, he was waylaid and killed by the followers of Chief John Ross who opposed the treaty. 3 He was able to ride home after receiving the wound, but died at the end of three weeks. An Indian by the name of Springston was indicted along with James Foreman for his murder. 4

Children5
Birth Death
Timothy Meigs Walker 10-07-1824 09-05-1894
Elizabeth Grace Walker 06-08-1826 05-21-1903
Minerva Jane Walker
John Osborne Walker 02-11-1835

Footnotes

  1. The Herald, Cleveland, TN., July 16, 1926.
  2. J. T. Acklen, "Tennessee Records: Tombstone Inscriptions and Manuscripts," Cullom.
  3. Worth S. Ray, "Tennessee Cousins," Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1968, page 475 & 481.
  4. The Chattanooga Times, September 17, (?), as found in the vertical file under "Meigs" at the Tennessee State Library.
  5. Correspondents from Tse-ni' of the Wolf Clan dated July 31, 2003. Also see Sherrianne Nicol's "The Coleman Family of Mobjack Bay, Virginia," US Court of Claims, Eastern Cherokee Application, National Archives microfilm series M1104, #13, and Drennan Roll, Tahlequah, p. 321.

 

Copyright (c) by Rick Meigs